Our big day this week was today (Sunday). After church, we went to breakfast at the Golden West Cafe in downtown Baltimore. Danita had the Elvis Presley pancakes, topped with peanut butter and bananas. I had the Hopi pancakes with blueberries and pine nuts. You can look as hard as you want, you won’t find another restaurant with these specialties. And they are huge. We each got two pancakes big enough to cover an entire dinner plate. Only a teenager could eat the entire breakfast at one go.

After breakfast, we headed over to the Baltimore Museum of Art. They have a special exhibit of photos of Baltimore, going back to when photography was invented. There were tons of photos. Some were standard portraits. Some were of political movements or sporting events. Some were artistic. I must say the artistic photos were phenomenal. You will never see photos like these taken with a smart phone camera, with it’s software ensuring the pictures are “perfect snapshots“, with everything in perfect focus and lighting modified to show the most detail possible. Here’s a stark pic of a pick (highly illegal, but the guard had moved to another room).

While the pics were amazing, the explanation panels were not. BMA staff were so anxious to explain what the pic meant, they sometimes went overboard, essentially making stuff up. I wonder what some photographers would think about BMA’s explanation of their work.

After we got home, it was a perfect day to throw the bike on the stand, clean and oil the chain, and make sure there were no loose bolts.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Mark and rhe girls came down for a 2-day visit. Jiajia stayed behind to catch up on some work. We had a great time. Here are 4,000 words worth of pics.

Here’s hoping everyone is doing well.

– Making ghosts

– Coloring at the Goddard Space Visitor’s Center

– Grandparents can color too

– Good times means high entropy

It looks great. Now can somebody explain how to turn it on??? ;-)

Our oven stopped working. It still pretends to work, but it ‘s not holding the desired temperature. We never considered repairing it. I can’t see pouring money into a 20 year old stove. We visited a store, read on the internet, and visited another store. The price of a new stove is much higher than what we had in mind. But hey! These are our future cookies we’re talking about. The new stove looks sharp and has lots of features. We should have it installed on Tuesday.

Charlestown offered an Oktoberfest party today. The weather was perfect – dry and a little cool. They had Coke, wine, beer (both domestic and German), and apple cider for drinks; and German pretzels. Mustard was optional. While munching on goodies, we listened to a 6-piece brass ensemble play oom-pa music. Great fun was had by all. There’s a pic below. Sorry, the most important member, the tuba, is hidden behind a pilar. He is missing from the pic but was in fine form for the music. You can see Danita and Mom in blue jackets in the background.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

There’s’ no particular news this week.

We got a surprise check for $37. Actually Danita got it, for some kind of class action suit. We have no idea what this is about. So we stopped at he ATM and put the money in our checking account.

The Maryland comptroller sent me an email telling me the double withdrawal is being fixed, I should see it corrected within 3 weeks. Then they called and said the double withdrawal will be fixed within 3 weeks. Then they sent a letter letting me know …. I’m thinking this was not their finest hour.

Speaking of phone calls, ours are out of control. Somebody got hold of Danita’s phone number. We get several calls a day. One day we got three calls within an hour. Now we don’t answer her phone unless we recognize the number. If you call us and we don’t answer, please call back immediately, or leave a voice mail, or call me.

I hope this finds all are well.