Well It's December...

I cannot believe it is already December! And I'm in Boston -- well Waltham actually.

Last weekend was fun. I didn't think it would be, as we were not doing the traditional Thanksgiving thing, but the weekend turned out very nicely. Poppa and Kelly, with approval from Davo, decided instead of a Thanksgiving turkey, we should have Thanksgiving ribs, and we did! It made sense because we didn't have guests, we all like ribs while not all like turkey and, probably foremost, there was no threat of me slamming around the kitchen all day cursing to myself as I messed up the bread or pie or turkey or potatoes! Is this the kind of coup I have convinced myself I will take gracefully when it arrives? Needless to say, I didn't.

I made a pie -- BECAUSE IT WAS THANKSGIVING -- and also because it was an excuse for me and Davo to split a lemon merangue pie. Then Friday or Saturday, I forget which, I made a turkey. Just for turkey soup and sandwiches. Well that was productive. I must admit, however, that I have been enjoying the soup every day for lunch and have grabbed turkey or a sandwich instead of sweets on several occasions, so on reflection, it was a good idea.

Thursday was fairly uneventful. Friday was also. Friday night, however, started our weekend. Davo and I went to Donald's eagle ceremony. Most of the tigers were there -- so after the reception (can you call it that if it's at Isaac Walton?) Laura and Kyle and Patty and Stephen came over. Katie was already there for a sleepover with Kelly! We had a great visit. Kyle handed me dues when he came in, so I gave him one of those funky "dues" beads we used to use at meetings when he left! Kyle is taking an extra year in high school, but he's got a job lined up as a waterman on the bay after graduation. He's spent the past two summers working on a crab boat and really loves the life. He seems very happy.

Saturday (abrupt jump, sorry, but I'm in the Holiday Inn lobby as I can't get internet with my firewall upstairs), Davo had friends over to hang out and Wii (is that a verb? "Play Wii" sounded so jeuvenile -- hey wait...) Anyway, eight of them hung out and had a ball. It was great to have a house full. Most of them drive, so I just took Stephen home and swapped to get Kelly back, who had been hanging with Katie and company.

Sunday, I can't remember. Oh yes I can; I blocked it. Joe and Kathy came over (which was nice) to watch the 'Skins (which was not so nice). Davo left the party soon after the game and the rest of us enjoyed Poppa's seafood gumbo! I drove Davo to the airport around 7 (his flight was delayed until 11 so he didn't get back to Vermont until after midnight), then stopped at Joe and Kathy's on my way home to say hi to Kaity before she left Monday morning.

By the time Monday came around, I was ready to get back to work! But that will have to be another blog entry, as will the story of my soujourn to the Bay State. All is well up here in case you're worried ladies. The first "measurable" snow is expected Saturday night. I'll let you know!

Take care, and enjoy your last days in Grenoble! SYLYB, M

So Where Was I?

Well to start today's entry, since you are reading my blog, you must have time to kill, so I will forward a link to a major time killer that I have no doubt you will enjoy. Especially if you have work to avoid. (Perhaps this is not a good idea.) Anyway, here it is:

http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/whatnottowear/superpuzzles/superpuzzles.html

So I am hoping you have finished with Stacey, Clinton, Carmindy and Nick and are ready to read some blog. I feel some pressure to provide an interesting, informative entry to keep up with the European entries, but so little happens here, I'm at a loss.

Well, of course, our biggest event was the arrival of snow flurries. Not real, sticking snow, but light and fluffy flakes swirling around us in the air. We had sporadic flurries yesterday and more are promised for tomorrow morning. Even if it's not a snowstorm it is pretty neat to have snow before Thanksgiving. Central New York, Deep Creek and parts of Western Pennsylvania got a foot of snow, so David is ticked that the school he picked -- IN VERMONT SKI COUNTRY -- did not get any more than the flurries we also got in G'burg! Poor boy. No doubt the snow will hit Burlington when he's trying to fly out next week!

As usual, I am nowhere near ready for Thanksgiving. Well that's not true, I have My-T-Fine lemon and Jiffy pie crust mix, so barring anything else we will have lemon meringue pie! As it is just four of us (boo hoo) and Kelly doesn't eat most Thanksgiving fare, we are in talks to determine if we should have ribs for Turkey day instead of turkey. Perhaps tofurkey ribs? Ugh. Chicken Stew is also in the running as an alternate dish. Uncle Steve will be spending the day with M&J&Co. I'm guessing they'll serve Turkey.

School has been good this week. I covered several classes over the past few days and have been pulling students to work one-on-one in the other classes and have had some nice little success stories. Today was fun because in the class I covered we were discussing To Kill a Mockingbird and all but four students in the class contributed to the discussion. It started a bit slow, but I told them the discussion would be much more interesting if they talked about the book than if I droned on about it, and they actually responded. I guess I got lucky, but it was a nice change -- and the class was more interesting. We covered almost all the text I was supposed to review, but we hit on all the major points for the syllabus, so I felt pretty good about it. We'll see how the progress looks tomorrow!


Well, not so informative, but if I go on too much more I'll be even more boring! I hope to have a nice snow report to enter tomorrow! (But so you don't feel too sad, I am including a non-snow picture for you to enjoy.)

A bientot,
M

I don't know what day this is...

Ok, so I figured I'd better update a bit before I forget what's been happening in my life. Here are some lovely turkeys to look at before they become someone's dinner next week!

Last Friday I went to Margaret's funeral, and even though it was sad, spending most of the day with her family and friends was nice. I'm getting better at recognizing and matching up brothers and sisters with their spouses and home cities. Now I just have to master who the nieces and nephews belong to!

Anyway, after the day's activities, I returned home, packed, visited with Kelly and then picked up Sheila and drove to West Virginny. In spite of rain and rush hour we made good time and arrived about 6:30 or so. The house is still beautiful -- probably even more beautiful than I remembered. There are many new houses up there now, but the house still feels fairly isolated. Linda and Beth arrived 7:30 or so. Eileen, Sheila and I drank until they arrived. Then we ate and drank. Needless to say, it was a fun evening.

Saturday we sat in the kitchen over breakfast for hours. We watched the rain and talked about all kinds of things. Linda is crazy funny. It was nice to get to know her better. Beth was our grounding force. Everybody meshed really well.

In the afternoon, we went in to Shepardstown. The rain had pretty much stopped. It was cool and overcast, but not nasty so we visited shops for about four hours! I got a blown glass tree frog for daddy's birthday and a ladybug for Patty's! There's a great little shop with all sorts of lovely French gift items. I didn't buy anything, but I did try to imagine you using all this cute provincial stuff over in Grenoble. We had dessert in a small bakery in town, then headed back to the house for dinner. (As in, "Life is short, eat dessert first.")

After dinner we played Upwords and Boggle and talked for a bit more, but finally crashed about 12:30. I don't know if that was because we were relaxed or just old.

Sunday morning we watched birds in the birdfeeder on the porch while we had a leisurely breakfast. (Ok, so I guess we went to bed early because we were old.) Sheila and I left after breakfast. Linda, Beth and Eileen went for a long walk, Eileen told me today; then after Beth and Linda left, Eileen planted some iris bulbs and puttered around before heading home.

All in all it was a wonderful weekend. Oh, and trivial factoids...in the lunchroom scene of "When Harry Met Sally" the ladies at the next table are apparently Billy Crystal's and Rob Reiner's mothers. Killing deer with a crossbow is more humane than killing then with a shotgun, (Yeah, that one won't be on Jeopardy!) Geese are not migrating back North after the summer and they are overwhelming the ecosystems of Maryland and Virginia. And there was another one that was really good, but I forgot it. I forgot a lot of stuff this weekend. Like the name of John Steinbeck, as well as any of the books he had written. Actually, I was forgetting books and authors left and right.

I got home early enough to help Kelly finish off daddy's b-day cake and wrap the gifts we had for him. He got a slow cooker cookbook, an italian cookbook, cocktail napkins that quote Ben Franklin's adage "Beer is God's way of saying he loves us and wants us to be happy," and the aforementioned tree frog. We had Famous Daves (salads for all of us!?!) for dinner and watched the 'skins disappoint him on his birthday by losing to Dallas 14/10. (I can still hear Davo's sobs from Vermont.)

So now I will look for a random photo and post this blog so you will have something to do when you are attempting to avoid other responsibilities. Pretty thoughtful of me, don't you think?

Here are some turkeys not in danger of being served on Thanksgiving! L, M.

Wednesday

OK, so there were these two hot guys standing on the beach, and one guy says to the other guy,

Hey wait, wrong joke...that's daddy and Steve.

Well, Steve and MK are at the beach this week and will be closing it up next week. Tant pis. The weather is nice, but could get colder at any time. We've already had a few frosts in the northern reaches of Gaithersburg. Can winter be far behind?

This weekend I'm going to the West Virginia house with Eileen and few friends; Sheila, Vicki, Beth and Linda. It should be fun once we get there, but in the meantime there's much to do. I need to come up with a dessert or appetizer. I had a really good one in mind, but I forgot what it was and it's not coming back! Ugh. I also have to get stuff for Kelly to make a b-day cake for daddy, and I need to think of something for Patty's b-day. Such challenges! Not to mention that November 16 starts the one-month celebration of Annette's b-day! The holiday season will be officially begun!

I have more to write, but am too tired. (Je suis tres fatigue.) I think I will arise and go now, and go to Inisfree, or bed; probably bed.

Sorry for the brevity of the entry. Talk to you soon.

Tuesday

Oh, Snap, where did this picture come from? A flash from the not too distant past? I'm liking this add a random picture to your blog thing...


Anyway, today is Tuesday. As it was Veteran's Day (or Armistice Day as it was called before WWII), we had school and a loud, unrelated to Veteran's Day announcement over the PA system about 11:05 and no mention of the holiday. Ah, that's what I like about MCPS.

I, of course, self-righteously had my own little moment of silence at 11.

No mention was made, either, I might add, of the passing of Miriam Makeba. I remember liking her not just for her music -- "Pata Pata" -- but also for her husband Hugh Masekela. Together, they had the coolest names I had ever heard.

What else? One of my students coined a new word "prejudicism." It might catch on if it wasn't so difficult to pronounce. One of my teachers, Jerry, brought in Lindt chocolates wrapped to look like little pumpkins. (Ah, so now you are jealous, non?) And, totally unrelated, but fabulous nonetheless, I love the name of Christine's niece, Manon! Comme Manon de Source! C'est un film fantastique. Have you seen any Yves Montand films yet? He is wonderful. (Diane is also a lovely name, but I guess she knows that.)

So, that's my rambling for today. I have the feeling I've forgotten something major, but no matter, perhaps I will think of it by tomorrow.

Until then, au revoir,

M

Somethin' about Nuthin'

Well, I haven't been updating my blog because my life is, how you say, BORING! However, sometimes it's fun just to read signs of life, so I am going to try to report tidbits on a more consistent basis. (i.e., not wait for momentous crane sightings and such -- even though I saw four on one worksite on 355 this weekend!)

So, Friday the Patriots beat Churchill, so they will face QO this coming Friday under the lights at the Cougardome! Should be fraught with excitement.

And so, Friday I went to Balmer with "the ladies" (wwog) and saw Celtic Thunder. Even though Marta thought he was too young for me, I decided I was going to start dating the Irish surfer dude. What? He's not the youngest! For that matter, they are all younger than I am! We sat behind three guys who were state police trainees. They were enjoying the show a great deal. Almost as much as they were enjoying their beverages. I hope they weren't driving.

And finally so, Saturday I set up a little excel file with contact information for Patty's church volunteers. They're having a thank-you brunch, and all the lists were discombobulated, so I put all the data into excel and now the church can be sure they didn't miss anybody to thank. Just the kind of crazy typing project I love to do. From disorder; order. (Insert smiley here.)

So. That's it for today. Just a bit to read and move on. I will try to find stuff to take pictures of...oh, no, I think I will just grab a random picture and post it. Hold on. Well, there it is, up top. Everyone needs a picture of a llama once in a while. I believe that is Kelly, feeding the llama. So like I said, boring life here!

CRANES!!

Well. I haven't updated lately, but then I haven't had much to blog about. That is until today.

Today, on my way to work, I counted, no lie, five, count 'em, five, cranes. It is true. They are everywhere. Now, there are some disclaimers, the first being that I went to the post office this morning and so took a substantially longer route to work than I generally do. The second; two of the cranes were bucket cranes changing the lightbulbs on the behemoth streetlight-type things on 270. The other three, however, real cranes. One was in the closed position on a truck on Shady Grove heading to some undetermined construction site. The second was sort of a weird little mini-crane (redundant, I know) off 270 near Rio. The final crane was at Montrose on 270 and it was a crazy giant crane (like the one at the monastery).

I was certainly impressed by my fortuitous crane sightings! Without a camera, I was unable to capture this whelming (not quite overwhelming) show of cranes; however I have drawn one for you. C'est ici:

Sadly my sketching is comparable to my photograpy. This was the big crane near Montrose. It is not to scale, I didn't notice what it was mounted on and the sky was neither that blue nor that omnipresent. The crane, however, was yellow. (Also, the crane was not broken. I just ran out of room when I was drawing it.)

That is certainly enough posting for me today. I have laundry to do, and I want to sweep the neighborhood for cranes.

M

Lazy Saturday

So yesterday, Daddy was saying he wanted to call Joe to see if they could go golf nine holes and then maybe grab a bite to eat. I thought he should go, but as he and I and Kelly all had lots of work to do, we decided to be responsible, stay home and focus on our work so that we could have a relaxing day Sunday. We wrote up our lists of things to do, had a quick lunch, and then moped around because we really didn't want to work on our to do lists.

Luckily, just then, the phone rang. Lo and behold it was Joe and Kathy inviting us to join them at a new restaurant in Columbia where they were dining al fresco and enjoying the ten-page beer list and 100 vintage wines. Needless to say, we dumped our responsibilities and headed out the door. Well not Kelly. She decided to be responsible and work on her homework while Daddy and I shirked our duties. (As it turns out, she watched a movie or imed with friends and did not do so well on completing her activity list, either!)

Sooooo, we got to Columbia in rapid fashion and did our best to catch up with Joe & Kathy. It was lovely out, so we sat there -- Kathy with her tea, me with my pinot grigio and Daddy & Joe with about seven of the zillion brews offered -- for seven hours. The owner came to talk with us, his daughter (who is their director or marketing -- she filled us in on all their upcoming events), his wife (who said they were going to charge us rent) and an auxillary back-up waiter (our regular waiter was named Joe. He had to go home to change his shirt as someone had spilled a coke on it.) named Marat, all came to talk with us. Marat had recently been on television with Emeril as he (Marat) had won some kind of contest. We're going to look it up on youtube at some point so we can feel famous. Marat said Emeril was very nice, easygoing and genuinely a nice guy. Who'd a thunk it?

After we got home, we watched Ironman with Kelly. I liked RD Jr., but I was not such a fan of all the shooting and exploding people and things. I have Les Choristes that I hope to watch tonight.

Right now the work I am avoiding (besides cleaning the bathrooms, which is top on my list of things to be avoided) is cleaning out my old desk so I can move all my files and assorted junk into the new file cabinet I bought today on sale for under $100! W00t! Model home clearance center was having a sale, and although I went to find comfy chairs for the moose lodge, I ended up with a file cabinet to match the obelisk in the basement. Oh well. Such is life.

So that is my day...actually my weekend. There is still much to do, so I suppose I must go to do it. Responsibility is overrated.

No pictures today, sorry. I guess I'll get back to work. M

Beach Cottage!

OK...we're back from Bethany. We had a lovely weekend with Uncle Steve --even with all the rain. Daddy got some work done on the privacy fence, so he was happy, and the rest of us mostly relaxed, so we were happy. Uncle Steve brought down one of Granpa's decoys to keep Mr. Adams' decoys company over the winter. Here he is in front of the newly-painted privacy fence. (The decoy, not Steve.)



We got down to the beach every day, but we didn't get in to the water past our feet -- well except Kelly who cannot be kept out. At least she only got in to about her knees.



Monday Kelly and I went in to town, shopped around and then shared a funnel cake on the boardwalk. Several of the paths to the beach from the main boardwalk in town were closed as the sand had eroded from the dunes over the past few weeks. The beach in Middlesex did not seem too badly eroded, but it was unusually flat. Maybe because the rain had pounded it down for several days. It looked odd, though.




We had a nice time, did a relaxed clean up as we did not want to leave too early and hit DC rush hour, and hit the road. We were home by 8. TTFN, M

Sleepy Sunday

Today has been a lovely day. We didn't sleep in as the bed in the master bedroom is one of the least comfortable on the planet. We did, however, sloth around longer than usual as it was grey and cool. The morning was overcast and not many people were out, so there was a nice stillness and we just hung out on the porch reading papers and chatting. (First, however, I had to walk to Shore Mart to get half'n'half for my coffee!)

While at Shore Mart I bought a little packet to make chocolate chip muffins. I popped them in the oven hoping to have them ready when everybody got up, but -- surprise, surprise -- I burned them. The centers were edible, but oh the disappointment. Daddy saved the day by making a big breakfast so we got our fat and calories in spite of my travesty.

Uncle Steve brought out his guitar and played a bit. It was a nice acoustic set that perfectly suited the pacific morning.

Later we headed to Food Lion to stock up on sweets. Well we bought meat, fruit and vegetables, too, but we were really there for the brownie mix. When we got home, Kelly and Steve, who had been practicing bar chords learning a new song, treated us to their cover of Hard Sun from Into the Wild -- complete with harmony.

In the afternoon, Steve, Kelly and I walked to the beach. It was cool, because it was pouring rain. We were all soaked to the skin. It was great, though, as the day was warm (and there was no lightning). Kelly went into the surf up to her hips. I was not so intrepid, wading only to my knees. Uncle Steve was our lightning rod on the beach.

After we came back, I took an outside shower, which was quite an odd experience. The hardest part, however, was keeping my towel dry!

Finally we set up AIM ids so we could im with Sami and Davo (although we never quite got him online with us) for our anniversary. We all ate barbeque something to commemorate O'Brien's since we couldn't all go there for dinner this year.

We're now watching the 'Skins game -- hoping Washington will hold their lead for the remaining two minutes. Then we'll enjoy Daddy's ribs and a new recipe for sesame chicken wings. There will be side dishes, but we all know it's about Daddy's ribs.

All in all a nice day, and it's not over yet! w00t!

M

Weekend in Bethany

It's Saturday night and I'm sitting at the dining table in the beach cottage listening to the rain fall in the courtyard. Earlier, we could hear the ocean, and it's humming behind the slap of the rain on the stones, but the rain has picked up and the crackle in the yard is drowning the sound of the ocean.

It rained on and off today. We didn't leave home until after 4, so by the time we reached the Severn River and the sun came out it was softened enough to lend a warm glow to the scenery. The bay looked bright and clear, and Kent narrows was beautiful. We lost the sun again as we split off towards 404 and have been dealing with sporadic rain ever since. It's calming, though; the air is cool and calm, and the usual beach traffic is missing.

We had an easy supper of pizza and wings, then set off to find dessert, which was difficult with off-season store hours. Thank goodness for Wawa. With piles of junk food in hand, we came back to the cottage and hung out with Uncle Steve. Tomorrow I'll head out and see how the beach looks with the storm offshore -- eight foot waves are predicted -- and see what's still open in Bethany.

Maybe I'll try my hand with Kelly's camera again. TTFN, M

Artistic Cheer Photos

Hey. I think this is an italic day. I forget. Oh well, time for another exciting post from suburbia.

Last night Wootton won another football game...w00t! But more importantly than that, I talked Kelly into letting me use her camera so I can share some of the fabulous shots I took.


This is the squad doing something fabulous and dangerous. I don't know what it is. Kelly is holding up one of the girls in a Liberty (the passe pose). After they hoist everyone up there, they toss them in the air and catch them.


This is generally what that would look like. Here is where my lack of photographic ability comes in to play. With a bit of imagination, you can see how adeptly the bases and backspot cradle the intrepid flyer. Consider this impressionistic photography. (The black, metalic arm in the background is for a TV camera. Apparently this matchup is the "Game of the Week" so clearer pictures will be available there. I'm sure it will be broadcast worldwide now that the Olympics are over. It was cool, though, the camera guy kept turning the camera around to get shots of the cheer squad doing stunts.)


Here you can see one of the cheerleaders flipping upside down in the air. Well, again, you need to imagine, as the head of the guy in front of me is pretty much blocking the ground, the stunt and the cheerleader's head. It is a nice shot of the TV camera guy and his robotic camera extender though, don't you think? Here is a picture of the ground I took if it helps you visualize the stunt a bit better. Actually, I think there may be someone flipping over in this picture as well -- just no guy's head.

So here then is a team picture I took. Kelly is the third from the right in the back row. I think.
And here's what the team looks like as seen through a chain-link fence (another artistic experiment of mine.)

I hope you have enjoyed this post. Not only is it a clear demonstration why I should not have a camera, it is a pretty good argument for taking away my blog. Please, BU world travelers, update your blogs so I may be entertained and occupied by them and will refrain from more of this type of nonsense!

Daddy and Kelly are on their way to a National's Game tonight. They may take pictures, but they'll probably all be in focus, not artistic like mine.

Bon Nuit!
M

Back to Business

OK, so I have Kelly here now to help me find some pictures and update them to the blog. If we get on a roll, we'll try to add a video. First the picture. Here goes.















W00t! Clearly, this is David's graduation (no, he doesn't always dress like that).

That was fairly painless, so while I have Kelly here I'll try to add a video. Wish me luck.




So now you have seen how cute! my daughter was when she was about...7...almost ten years ago! She's even cuter now (as you can see by the graduation picture above.)

More later....

M

Moms Who Like Pink

Well, hello again. It's Saturday; and I was going to mess around with photos and videos, but I just read an article (an internet article, but an article nonetheless) about Pink's view of Sarah Palin and I decided to blog (is that like "to blave"?) instead. So here goes...

The article title reflected that Sarah Palin "terrifies" Pink. Certainly you can see the draw of the article -- something that terrifies Pink -- but she (Pink) is on point. Attempting to attract women who supported Clinton by substituting a generic female, Palin, is ludicrous -- and insulting. (That's not Pink's point, that's mine. Here's the link so you can read what Pink has to say. http://www.comcast.net/articles/entertainment-eonline/20080912/b28783/ ) I want to join facebook so I can start a facebook group "Mom's who like Pink."

This election cycle is making me crazy. Sniping and marketing; the same old same old, but no less irritating for what it says about us as an electorate.

Anyway, I've ranted enough. Maybe I'll try the picture uploads later.

M

Tuesday's Task -- photos!

OK. Let's see if I can figure out how to add a photo to my blog.

Well, the image was added, but not where I thought it would be. Let's see if I can move it. OK, no. Next, I'll actually try to find a photo one of us took, rather than this lovely picture from the sample file that comes with the computer.

Here I go. (Beware, I bet the picture appears above, near the water lilies.) Oh, there he is, Guy de Maupassant (sp?) up in the corner.

Ooh! I copied him! OK. Next time (as I am soooo very tired now after all this difficult computing) I shall try to take a picture, put it on the computer and add it to my blog. Then, on to video.

Be afraid, be very afraid. M

Mom's Blog...

It's Sunday, 20h35, and I'm about to start a blog. (So Karl, some of us over forty do new things once in a while.) Once I figure out how this works, I'll try to add pictures and videos of life at home in suburbia for my world traveling, mountain climbing offspring to view when they're bored!

That's all for now.
SYLYB,
M

Learning Curve

OK, so the learning curve on this may be longer than I planned. My previous post, posted tonight at 20h45 or so, displayed as 5h45 or so. Hmmm. Also, my first post -- gone. There's a button I didn't push or a screen I missed. I guess I'll have to figure out the basics of blogging before I can add pictures and videos.
Oh,well, such is life...

OK, second try. First one didn't work, I think because the blog clock doesn't match the kitchen clock. Once this is entered, I'll wait and see. Thanks for your patience -- if you have it. M