Coding, Cooking and Colors

The Sisterhood of the Travelling Shoes decided their March word of the month would be “Why Not?” In keeping with the guidelines for the Word of the Month Challenge, each sister is free to interpret and incorporate the word(s) in whatever way they choose, which as you will see led to some interesting activities….

Cracking the Code

Middle Sis has been fascinated with the idea of learning to code for a while now and so she figured “Why Not?” learn it in March. With encouragement from her grandkids and some head scratching from her kids as to why she was doing it, the project began. This effort would have stalled before it started if Middle Sis had realized that what we really are talking about here is computer programming. However, in the interest of meeting the challenge she forged ahead thinking that if nothing else it would be good for her senior brain to learn something new and challenging.

Her first foray was into coding for seniors, which was pretty much learning to code so you could get a job, which was not something on her radar. Enter coding for kids…. right at her level!

The first try at coding had Middle Sis attempting to dance a ballerina across a stage. Try as she might the best she could do was get her to shuffle to the middle of the stage and stop. Not to be deterred, she then tried to animate a cow telling a bird a knock knock joke, which I am happy to report was successful.

After this success, Middle Sis moved on to more of the nuts and bolts of coding which was introduced to her in a unique way. Each part of the coding involved in making a webpage was likened to the parts of a hamburger. This appealed to Middle Sis as she found it so much easier to remember bun, cheese and mayo instead of head tags, body tags and span tags, although she did find herself getting hungry a lot while she was working on this.

Middle Sis has decided that she will continue to work on her coding skills in the hopes that she can one day get the ballerina to dance all the way across the stage and perhaps build a webpage that her grandkids would be proud of!

Color My World

Big Sis, being the eldest child in the family is a teensy bit on the conservative side, so when she announced to Middle and Little Sis that for her March Word of the Month activity she was going to pursue the idea of getting colored eyeglasses, we were somewhat (actually a lot) surprised.

Big Sis has thought about getting colored eyeglasses for a while and lately, after seeing women on Instagram looking fabulous wearing all different colors of eyeglasses, she decided “Why Not?” She liked the look of red glasses in particular and felt that she wanted to make a statement and add a bit of drama to her look as she entered her 70s. She was determined not to be an invisible older woman!

Fortunately, with new virtual try on technology available, she would be able to try on glasses in the comfort of her own home. Being ever the detail oriented person that she is, this soon became a project, with Big Sis wanting to make sure that all the conditions were exactly right for her virtual try on. We’re talking hair, makeup, wardrobe, background, lighting, etc.

Once she got started with her virtual adventure, she couldn’t help herself. She just kept going, trying on every possible color, then on to floral patterns, rainbows, and even polka dots. Middle and LIttle Sis were getting concerned that they may have to do an intervention.

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In the end, nothing really suited and after reflecting on her virtual experience, she has decided to stick with her current brown frames until such time as she can try the colored ones on in person to get the full effect. She remains determined, however, to be a “very visible older woman.”

Batter, Batter, Batter

We knew when Little Sis failed Home Economics in high school that cooking was just not in her wheelhouse. If there was any doubt about this, it was confirmed the day she invited her friends over for lunch and served Chef Boyardee canned lasagna, blueberry poptarts and a can of Coke ( chilled of course, she does have her standards). Testament to the strength of their friendship, the lunch guests are still her friends.

So Big and Middle Sis were quite surprised when Little Sis chose to get in the kitchen and bake a cake as her “Why Not?” activity for March. Past forays into the kitchen had resulted in her being banned by her husband, who is the chef of the house, due to a long ago “nearly burning the house down disaster.”

Fortunately, Biscuit, Little Sis’ almost human canine companion, agreed to be an interested observer and backup, in case of emergency. On Biscuit’s advice, they decided that making a homemade cake might be a bridge too far so they enlisted the help of Duncan Hines in pursuit of this masterpiece.

After a couple of false starts, they began their cake adventure. Things almost stopped before they started, however, when the directions talked about l’huile, un oeuf, and lait. Fortunately Biscuit had just completed a conversational French class and realized that they were reading the french directions.

Once back on track, things moved along quite quickly. It did get a bit messy along the way, but finally they were ready to pour the batter into the pan and bake their masterpiece. After a prolonged discussion about round vs square pans, Biscuit was confident that it really did not matter what shape or size the pan was, and they proceeded to pour the batter into their square pan.

The final step was to preheat the oven. After pushing button after button and setting off buzzers and flashing lights, alas the oven control panel froze and that was the end of their cooking challenge….that is at least until the oven could be repaired. After considerable discussion they called a repair man and quietly slipped out the back door on a mission to the nearest bakery. As a result, hubby is once again in control of the kitchen while Little Sis is relegated to her former person non grata status. Biscuit remains an interested observer.

“Why Not ?”

And so our “Why Not?” challenge comes to a happy ending….. well, that is for the most part. The Sisterhood is in unanimous agreement, however, that it was worthwhile, personally fulfilling and very educational. We are now eagerly anticipating April’s Word of the Month Challenge, ready to face it with our usual tenacity and determination and secure in the knowledge that if Mom were here, she would be an enthusiastic participant….. Yes, Betty Would Love That!

We plan on publishing a new post every Monday so stay tuned for our next one entitled “Never Did I Ever…”