Tulips & Murder

This afternoon, Steve and I were lying in bed talking. Outside, the neighbors were working in their yards, mowing their lawns, and letting their kids play outdoors. A lawn mower down the street hit a couple of bumps, and the whirring was interrupted with thumps and a sick motor sound. Coincidentally, the kid playing next door started screaming. For a moment, a nice, sunny 70 degree day in Seattle sounded like Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Happy Sunday!

The past two weeks have been a blast! The murder mystery night was a big success. We all had a good time dressing up, acting our parts, and oohing and aahing as the mysteries of the game unfolded themselves. The setting was a family-owned Italian restaurant in New York, City. Pepi Roni was murdered there, shot in the back, and his family got together for a dinner in his honor.





I played Pepi's drop-dead gorgeous daughter, Angel Roni, a twenty-one year old college student working on a business degree and gaining work experience by starting my own neighborhood extortion ring for the local youth. A life of crime suited me, and I wanted to take over the family wine businesness. I unfortunately didn't get any picutres of the full costumes, but I am wearing a short black dress with six-inch heeled black leather boots. When I came downstairs in my costume, they all clapped, whistled and oohed.

I decorated my house to look like an Italian restaurant. Those talented enough, spoke with an Italian accent and Italian gestures. The murderer was my friend Scott, sitting to my right in the picture above. His character's name was Bo Jalais, and he was my French fiance...until the end of the night when I dumped him in my "I am innocent speech." He mistook my dad for his twin brother Rocco (Tony, sitting on Scott's right). He wanted to murder Rocco so he could run the wine business. Sabrina, next to Tony, played Tara Misu, Rocco's pregnant finace (who we found out was pregnant with my dad's baby instead of Rocco's). Al, across from her, played Clair Voyant, long time family friend and psychic. Next to Al is Amy, who played my mother Mama Rosa, who had a secret affair with Rocco and wanted to leave my dad and move into her secret villa in Italy. Ben played Marco Roni, my brother and aspiring World Cup soccer player. Actually, we found out he was Rocco's son, so technically he was my half brother. Steve played another long time family friend and priest, Father Alfredo.

Yesterday, Steve, me, Amy, and her daughter Marley drove up to Mount Vernon to see the yearly tulip festival. Traffic was horrendous. A drive that normally took 1 hour took almost 3 hours coming in and 2 hours leaving. BUT it was gorgeous, and I can't wait to go back next year (on a weekday when everyone is at work).  





We got so many beautiful pictures, it's hard to pick which ones to display. There we fields and fields of rows and rows of tulips of hundreds of different colors. We spent most of our time in the display gardens.

Well, that's all I have to say. The weather is warming up, the days are getting longer, and sun is making more appearances. Finally! I am excited for the summer and all the fun things I have planned this year. I am so happy to be married to Steve, to be living in a comfortable house walking distance of a forest and lake, to having a great job, and to having fantastic friends to share it all with.

Later,

Carolyn