amelia's plum

Another Sunday and another test that I'm spending a little time avoiding studying for in order to post a birthday shout out for my Mom, who is officially a senior citizen today. I took her out for brunch this morning and it's only now, that I finally no longer feel stuffed, I think the long workout I just returned from helped stomach fullness matters along too. If you live in Pittsburgh or ever visit the area I highly recommend the brunch at Casbah, although for the prices they're charging they need to reupholster the banquette in the dining room because it is in sorry shape. Anyhow, let me rhapsodize about the food for a moment now that I no longer feel in imminent threat of bursting. It's actually not too expensive a brunch for the amount of food you get (beverage, appetizer and entree for $24). I got orange juice that was so good I was close to weeping. I don't order OJ that much because it rarely measures up to my finicky standards but this one did and more. My Mom and I both got the fruit and cheese plate as an appetizer. The midnight moon, which was exceptionally soft and stinky, was my favorite, and we also both got the casbah benedict (aka eggs benedict). I got mine with prosciutto, it was very yummy. Plus I had about four cups of coffee and they brought over a basket filled with mini muffins, scones and biscuits, of which I inhaled all of them (they were mini but the amount I ate this morning was sort of disgusting). And then the waitress asked us if we wanted dessert. I don't know who would have room for dessert after the size of that brunch. It is one of the handful of times I've passed on dessert.

So here's a photo of my Mom from when she was six or seven, she's the tall one in the back. I think this was taken one New Year's Eve many years ago, and I'm sure my grandparents and their friends, family tied one on even with young ones present because they never missed their cocktails. My Mom was so pretty as a child and was incredibly pretty as an adult, she still is. I remember looking at her yearbook when I was young and being captivated by the pictures of her as a cheerleader and with my Father as part of fall court (which I'm assuming were the runner's up to homecoming queen & king). I look absolutely nothing like her, unfortunately, physically I'm just like my Dad and his mother's side of the family (I look like my great grandfather and it was a face that worked better on a man). Oh well, you can't choose how the gametes fuse at fertilization. Just humor me for a minute and let me scratch that itch that is the science geek in me. Do you know that with the same parents there are 70,368,744,000,000 chromosomally different zygotes (aka babies) possible and that's without crossover, if cross over occurs there are 4,951,760,200,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible combinations from the same two parents. Genetics astounds me and I would not know how to verbalize that last number. But back to the birthday girl. Here's to my Mom for moving here last February to help me out with school, and my Father's death and all the other personal things that I don't write about here (it might surprise you but some things are off limits here) that have made the past year and a half especially difficult. There's no way I could have gotten this far in school without her help. I don't think I would have made it past my first term. She's a very good Mom and I learn more about her and love and appreciate her more with each passing year.