There are no pics this week.

I’ve been on the receiving side of holiday grumpiness this year. We live near several large shopping centers. Normally, its an convenience. But the last week, it’s been a bit of a hassle. It can take 3 cycles to get through a traffic light. When traffic gets this congested, I get impatient. But some drivers do worse. The result of a driver pushing him/her-self into an intersection is gridlock, which makes things worse for all of us. From a cyclist perspective, our neighborhood is “land locked” by major streets. Threading my way around and through this mess can be challenging. But a week before Christmas, I felt that motorists started carrying their attitudes out beyond the congested areas and exhibiting their frustration in aggressive driving. In a mix of two major religious seasons (Advent and Lent) I gave up biking for a week in Advent. Yesterday we were blessed with wonderful weather and empty roads. It was good to get out. I only wish I had remembered my Lactaid pill so I could have enjoyed an ice cream at my lunch stop.

We went to Ed and Lynne’s for dinner yesterday. It was a small gathering. Bud and Mark joined us to put 6 at the table. It was a good time. I must have been very good this last year. We are now stocked with 6 snow emergency kits. It’s double our normal maximum inventory, but I’m confident that they’ll be used up. The great secret is that we don’t necessarily require snow to have a snow emergency. We had an example just this last Monday. A couple of months ago, we spent over an hour with the the TIAA-CREF financial advisor. He kept on saying “What other questions do you have?” He promised a package that would answer all our questions in two weeks. After two months, we had our meeting. What we found was he had done a slipshod job of entering our information into their computer program. As a result, the report had numerous errors. In spite of his promises, the report answered only a fraction of our questions. In spite of our initial disappointment, the report turned out to be quite valuable. After our Financial Emergency Evening, we were able to quickly build a solid retirement plan. Now we’re focused on implementing the plan. With Danita on holiday 12/24 – 1/4, we have the luxury of time to do what we want to do without feeling rushed and pressured.

I’m an official money counter. Our parish put out the word for volunteers. It was amazingly easy to get involved and trained. The existing volunteers were very open about showing me everything in the process. I expected an easy camaraderie which they certainly have, but was was amazed at the professionalism. Volunteers are assigned to teams — one team for each of the 4 sundays of the month, plus one team for 5th sundays and vacation fill-ins. I don’t have my assignment yet. If you expect me to find a humorous side, you won’t be disappointed. When we count, we lock ourselves in the office. We start the count during the last Sunday morning mass. I was sent out to pick up the last collection. They presented me with a plastic-enclosed sign to verify I was an official pickup person. I don’t think I needed it to be readmitted to the office, but I held it up for the peephole just in case. I think locking ourselves in a room is to guard against Jesus’ second coming — so He won’t be tempted to “kick us out of the temple”. I suppose there’s other reasons also, but they aren’t as interesting to my slightly warped mind.

We decided not to fill our time off with lots of activities. We’ll be spending most of next week at home, enjoying a feeling of space and relief from some of life’s normal demands. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

There are several pics this week.

The Reeds came. They saw. They conquered. Now they’ve gone. But we had a good time while they were here.

Listening to the aquarium bubble tubes

We had an adventure every day. Monday, we went to the aquarium. Everybody went, so we needed two cars. It was a great time to visit. There were a few school groups, but not too many. They were on a schedule, so if we happened to be in an area the same time they were, they moved through pretty quickly and we had the place to ourselves again. We were able to have good access to every exhibit. And … because they accidently left a “closed” sign up and because Danita asked, we were the first people of the day in the Australia exhibit. We had to push through the shark tank exhibit because the wee folks were getting hungry and cranky. We had lunch in the cafeteria, which had good food and reasonable prices. Then we went to the other building to see the dolphins and jelly fish. Our dinner was a most excellent beef burgundy, served with Mom’s famous buttons.

Aquarium Cafeteria Magic Wall (it changes colors!)

Elizabeth, Pat, and Bryon at the shark teeth

Guess Not

Mark was going back Tuesday, so he and the Reeds exchanged gifts after dinner. Mark got balloons, stuffed with cash. Can Mark make the present even more fun by inhaling the helium and talking funny? Guess not. Mark gave the kids rubix cubes, and he taught Brian how to solve them. He tried to teach Elizabeth, but she was far too overwhelmed to focus.

Protecting Meat Eater Eggs

Tuesday, Pat took Mark home and the rest of us went to the Science Center. We spent most of the morning in the dinosaur exhibit. We all learned something. For example, did you know that vegetarian dino eggs are round, while carnivore eggs are oblong? The science center cafeteria was not nearly as nice as the aquarium’s, but it was a lot nicer than running out in the rain. At least it was quiet and not crowded. After lunch, we had time for a planetarium show. It provided me with my requisite nap, but other than that it was pretty bad. We certainly hope the other shows are better.  Our dinner was a holiday tradition – seafood newburg in pastry shells.

More Presents

Wednesday we split up. The Reeds went to DC had had a great time. They visited the Air and Space Museum in the morning, then went to the Natural History Museum. They enjoyed both, but the Natural History Museum was the favorite. UMBC was having graduation, and two of Danita’s grad students were being hooded, so she went to work. I spent most of the day adding features to our neighborhood’s database. After a most excellent spaghetti dinner, we exchanged presents with the Reeds.

Chocolate Souffe

Thursday was the last day of the visit. We had been having some excellent breakfasts, but this day we had Danita’s famous chocolate souffle. We went to an early showing of the movie “Heroes 6”. For our main meal, Danita offered a comfort food favorite. Everybody doesn’t like something, but nobody doesn’t like Mom’s Chili. The Reeds left mid-afternoon with the goal of spending the evening chillin’ in Richmond; then completing their return drive on Friday. All in all, it was a most satisfying visit. Below are a few more pics from the visit.

Surprise Balloons

Dinosaur Footprints

At the Science Center

Marbulous

Today, it’s all about the pics.

Scrabble Game (Danita, Jul, Mark)

Jul & family arrived about 3:30 yesterday. Mark was with us. The main activity was letting the kids decompress from the trip. That evening, there was time for a scrabble game. Jul won by one point. Today (Sunday) we had a family holiday brunch. Danita went all out and prepared an amazing meal, complemented by Ed & Lynne’s home made cookies. This afternoon, Jul & family went to visit Meribeth Chaprnka. She’s working on a holiday children’s play at the Kennedy center. They went down to see the play and visit with Maribeth afterwards.

At the Brunch: 3 Youngins

Over 50 Table (Rick, Bud, Lynne, Ed, Danita)

Kid’s Table (Elizabeth, Bryon, Addi, Suzanne)

At the Buffet (Suzanne, Addi, Rebecca)

Under 50 Table (Jul, Pat, Mark, Pete, Tonie, Pete, Rebecca)

Bud & Pat

Holiday craft – making snowmen for the tree
(Rebecca, Danita, Tonie, Ed)

Christmas tree with snowmen

No pics today, but there just might be some next week.

Lots of people are up early this morning. Jul & family are driving up to see us. They’ll return Thursday (12/18). Jul said the kids got up at 3:30 this morning. One of the kids said the trip should have been kept a secret. They’re too excited. ‘Wouldn’t want to be in that car. ‘Been there, done that. Danita wanted to start her day by going to the grocery store. She got up a 5; had to wait an hour for the store to open.

We spent the last week getting the Christmas decorations up. Mostly, Danita does the decorating. This year I contributed by buying a new star tree-topper. Danita’s been cooking ahead. I hear there will be some more cooking going on today. The house has been smelling delightful. All I have to do is keep up with the dishes.

Last week was nice. The Army Field Band gave a good concert . They mixed it up so there was something for every musical taste. We had  great dinner at Ikaros Restaurant. Our Marriage Encounter circle doesn’t meet very often these days.

We went to an interesting presentation at Church Wednesday night. It was titled “The Bible in an Hour”. The speaker presented the history of God’s covenant with us, from Genesis to the Gospels. The topic was interesting. The presenter knows his Bible. And he is an excellent presenter. He had several simple stick figures that illustrated his points and had us draw along as he made his presentation.

I went to my second SOCA board meeting last week. We have a database containing information on our residents including name, Email, phone, emergency contact, etc. It’s a good idea and it’s more-or-less working. One of our residents died not long ago. The family has been clearing out the house. One Saturday morning, a neighbor noticed water coming out of the garage door. Emergency contact information was locked up in the office, unavailable to the condo officers. This lead to a discussion of how the information can be made available to elected officers without compromising the privacy of residents. At the same time, some officers want to add license plate numbers (to help address traffic violators), and confirmation that at least one resident is over 55. Another issue is how we keep the information up to date. It’s an interesting topic. I’ve modified a couple of reports and made some suggestions. We’ll see how this all shakes out.

Well, I’m home alone, but not for long.  Danita should be back soon with lots of food, including some Wegman muffins for breakfast. Maybe I’ll spend a little time jumping up and down … “The Grandkids are coming!”

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

There are no pics.

I’m going back to school. Danita noticed the class “Cultures of China” at HCC (Howard Community College) and brought it to my attention. She thought I might be interested as part of preparing for our trip to China. This is a 3-credit class where the lectures are offered electronically. I decided it might be fun. It took over a week to sign up, partly because I had to first apply to be admitted as a student to HCC. I had several problems with their web site. Then I encountered the academic bureaucracy. The class has an English prerequisite. I went through a full circle in the phone system without ever finding a way to reach the correct people. Finally I found I could register as “Custom Class”. This allows me to sign up for any class at HCC irrespective of prerequisites, but I won’t receive academic credit. If I do the homework and take the tests, the instructor will grade them. But I won’t receive a class grade. It’s perfect for what I want, especially as our trip to China will occur during the semester. The class and the trip should complement each other nicely. As a senior citizen, I don’t pay tuition. This makes the class incredibly cheap. The class costs $70 in fees and $10 for the textbook. (I got the Kindle version.) I don’t know whether there will be any on-campus activities or meetings, but HCC is a less than an hour away by bike.

Most of our hotels in China offer an early morning (before breakfast) Tai Chi session. We decided that knowing a little bit about Tai Chi might save us some embarrassment. Danita found a Tai Chi class offered through Howard County Recreation and Parks. This will be one day a week in the evening. Both classes start next year.

I’ve been reading the 3rd book in Ken Follet’s Century series. It covers the post WW II era, mostly from a US perspective. It’s interesting to see what he didn’t cover, including just about everything that happened in the US before 1962. This includes President Eisenhower, above-ground nuclear testing, and Senator Joseph McCarthy. I’m up through Martin Luther King’s assassination. I wasn’t aware of the early civil rights movement and learned a lot about that. One of the more interesting things I read is that in 1962, if you wanted aspirin or Kotex, you had to go to a drug store and ask the pharmacist. Neither product was out on the store shelves. I wasn’t too surprised by the feminine products, but I was surprised about the aspirin.

After so much time at home last week, Danita managed to get another day at home this week. She was called up for jury duty last week. They had her report at 11:30 Thursday. When she signed in, they gave her $15 and told her the accused had pleaded guilty at the last minute. She was free to go home.

Yesterday was the clubhouse decorating and pizza party. Danita does this every year, but I’m not that interested in milling around the artificial trees. I was happy to go to BGR and get a burger. Afterwards, I joined Danita at the clubhouse to see the movie “Expendables 3”. It is an action guy-flick with an all-star cast. It had every cliche in the book. I’m not sure what other people thought about it, but I nearly fell out of the chair laughing (as quietly as possible).

Tomorrow afternoon the Army field band is offering a free Christmas concert at the Meyerhoff in Baltimore (the BSO’s main concert hall). We’ll meet the Bertches and Suchoreks. Afterwards, we’ll go to Ikaros for dinner.

Some of you may not know that my brother Rick is back in the hospital. I’m not sure what all the issues are. I talked with him on the phone. He said his potassium levels are high and it will take them several days to bring them down.

I hope this finds everybody else doing well.