We had an exciting week. Elizabeth, Suzanne, and Addie came for a week of cooking challenges. Elizabeth took an early flight Monday morning, up from North Carolina. The excitement started before we left the airport. Her suitcase didn’t show up. The plane she arrived on was going on to San Juan, so we know her clothes traveled to some exotic locals. Southwest was pretty good about it. The offered a $200 voucher. The suitcase arrived Tuesday morning, and Liz got some new clothes. Suzanne and Addie joined Monday afternoon.

Danita wrote cooking challenges, and the ladies were up to it. Each day had a different theme. The ladies had to prepare balanced meals. (Although one day onions were billed as a vegetable.) Each day they selected recipes, went to the store to purchase ingredients, and turn the ingredients into delicious food. And delicious it was. One day the theme was a cuisine from a country. The ladies picked France. We had French bread with goat cheese, mixed berries, quiche, and for desert, salted butter caramel chocolate mousse with whipped cream and caramel bits topping. The pictures of the mousse did not come out, which is a real bummer because it was a really great desert. Here’s one pic. There are more on the web site.

Addie and Suzanne went home Thursday afternoon. Friday Kathryn made a luncheon, which we shared with Mom. Unfortunately, Mom’s doctor called and asked us to arrive early, so I didn’t get pics. But Elizabeth, working solo, made a wonderful lunch.

All good things must come to an end. Early tomorrow morning Elizabeth will fly home. The cooking challenges have been met. But closing one door allows us to open another. Stay tuned …

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

It’s been a rainy week. Unfortunately, it was mostly drizzle, with little accumulation. Our area is in a severe drought. We have more rain in the forecast. Here’s hoping…

It was a pleasantly relaxed week for me, not quite so much for Danita. The play at Essex was very entertaining. We had a great time. Monday we had a Greek food truck. We ate a Greek dinner with the Joneses. Today we had neighborhood ice cream bars. That was a nice half hour.

Danita agreed to be the chair person for the pool for three years. This is her first year, and things aren’t going well. Lifeguards are doing things they shouldn’t do, and not doing things they should do. The pool heater isn’t working, and the water is down to 77 degrees. The guy that used to be the pool chair is running around saying “What are we doing?” I can’t blame the previous pool chair too much. He wanted to be on the neighborhood board. To do that, he had to give up the pool. It helps prevent a conflict of interest when voting on expenditures for the pool. He’s having a hard time letting go.

Next week promises to be considerably more exciting. Stay tuned …

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We had no parties this week. But we are going to see a “Who Done It?” play at Essex College this afternoon. They usually do a good job on their productions.

We’ve had a deposit on a trip to Turkiye (as they spell it these days) for a while. Now it’s beginning to feel real. We have our visas We’ll be paying the balance and getting airline tickets this week. The trip is Sept 13 – Oct 2. We’re taking a Road Scholar tour. We had a great experience with them when we toured China. The flight is 9 hours. I was hoping to get an Economy + seat to have a little more leg room. Unfortunately, that isn’t available. Turkish Air is the only airline that has a nonstop from Dulles airport to Constantinople. They have economy or business class. Business class is $7,000 more than economy. It’s going to be a very long flight. But the rest of the trip looks great.

That’s it for this week. I hope all are doing well.

It was a busy week. We started off with a Jazz concert. We heard “small band” music from the 30s to 50s. The jazz group was quite good.

The highlight of the week was an “adults only” dinner. Ed & Lynne hosted Rick and Suzy and us. The food was great and the conversation even better.

We had a couple of indoor days due to the code red air quality. A gelato truck came Wednesday. We bumped into the Jonses and enjoyed our desert at their house. We had a very nice “Grill & Chill” neighborhood event Saturday. We wrapped things up with our last BSO concert for the season Sunday. The Brahms 4th Symphony was very well done, but overshadowed by the Prokofiev Piano Concerto. I didn’t keep my program, but the young lady who was the piano soloist was more than up to the very difficult piece. She was so energetic that she kept on getting off her bench while playing. It was an exceptional concert.

Today we are promised the first rain in a couple of weeks. We certainly need it. It’s a good day to stay home and write. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Bikes have two types of inner tube valves, Schrader (like a car tire) and Presta (not like a car tire). A bike set up for one cannot use the other.

My new bike had a slow leak in one tire. It went flat after 3 days. Then after 2 days. I used every trick in the book, but I couldn’t find the leak. No trouble. I had a spare inner tube in my emergency kit and a second in the cupboard. No doubt you see where this is going. For some reason, it took Amazon 4 days to send me new tubes. Trikes often have small 20″ wheels. They don’t sell many 20″ inner tubes. But really, 4 days??? Anyway, it looks like all three tires are good, and I now have the correct spare inner tube in my emergency kit. I am very happy I didn’t discover this when I was 20 miles away from home.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.