All buffed up

We had polish lessons around the kitchen table this morning -- lowercase, with a short 'O', not things like "djiekujie" and "prosze, Pani."

Becky came in from the gardens, Joey from the fields and Robert from the bridge game on the computer, and in 90 tarnish-killing minutes we went through just about everything, from the big stuff (the lazy susan, the double chafer, the punchbowl, the tea set) to the last little compote.

We're getting ready for Robert's Monday bridge group here in a couple weeks -- and remembering things like silver that Shirley tended to as a matter of course, but now fall to mere human hands.

She got to know our silver well -- which means that, like us, she had a love-hate thing going with it: High-maintenance, but oh, the glow when it's all fresh and shiny.