The Christmas shopping is done. We used to go to Bob Evans and do most of our Christmas shopping online. Unfortunately, Bob Evans no longer offers WiFi. So this year we went to Panera. Everything is purchased or ordered. We only have to wait for stuff to arrive.

I had quite a time with my computer last week. It was getting very slow from an accumulation of 6 years of junk. I decided it was time to wipe everything clean and install a fresh copy of Windows. I tried installing Windows from the internet. That failed. Then I tried reinstalling Windows from the recovery section of the disk drive. That not only failed, it also corrupted my user account. I had to make a boot drive, but I couldn’t find my thumb drives. I gave up and ordered another thumb drive, only to find my other drives. The boot drive did the job. Then more good news, Amazon lost the thumb drive I ordered. They issued me a refund. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, one of our access points stopped working. Then one of the network cables also failed. For a little while, I was beginning to think it would never end. But everything is up and running well. So far, we’ve had two days in a row with no computer problems. Woo-hoo!

So now I had a failed access point and also Mom’s old computer. (With all data securely wiped.) I didn’t want to put these in the trash. The local landfill has a special area for electronics recycling. I can’t listen to Car Talk when I go to the dump, so I did the next best thing. I put the stuff on my bike and rode my bike to the dump. Riding my bike to the dump in the summer is a lot of fun because I go right be the best snowball stand in the county. Alas, the snowball stand was closed. There will never again be a Car Talk episode. But it is still a fun ride.

We’re looking forward to a visit from Kathryn later on today. She and a couple of her friends will stop off for lunch this afternoon. Danita has split pea soup ready to go.

Our big news this week comes from JaMM. Mira continues to bite other children. She finally got herself suspended from day care. Danita is going up to Pennsylvania for a week. She will take care of Mira Monday and Tuesday. She’ll stay up for the rest of the week in case Mira does not do well when she goes back to day care.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. We had a great one this year. Mark, Jiajia, and Mira came for the weekend; as did Jul, Brian, and Elizabeth. (Pat wasn’t able to get time off from his job). Shirley, Ed, and Lynne joined us for dinner in Thanksgiving day. Danita made all our favorite foods.

Unfortunately, I missed the adventures this year. Danita, the Reeds, and JaMM went to the aquarium Friday. I had an appointment with the motor vehicle folks because I can’t seem to get my drivers license updated. I keep getting conflicting information and advise. For the moment, all I can do is wait until next Friday and see if it shows up.

It was quite an exciting visit to the aquarium. It was mobbed with people. Danita was trying to ham it up for a picture, but she tripped on a safety cable and hurt her hand. It’s nothing serious, but it sure is ironic to hurt yourself on a safety wire.

The other adventure was Saturday. Danita and the Reeds went to downtown Ellicott City to visit the B & O Railroad museum. This is a small but nice place to visit. It’s also free, which doesn’t hurt. The report was that everybody had a good time.

Mark ran a half marathon that was near Ed & Lynne’s house. I gave him a ride up. When he finished, he tried to call me to pick him up. He had Danita’s and my phone numbers mixed up. In addition, Danita was driving so Jul answered his phone. Mark’s phone signal was weak so Jul called me to let me know. It took me a while to figure out what happened. But I picked up Mark successfully. I drove him to Ed’s where we linked up with Jiajia and Mira. We had a very nice lunch. JaMM and I went our separate ways to go home.

I hope everybody enjoyed their holiday.

I don’t know how old our TV is, but I have the receipt with a delivery address in Kingsville. We decided to update our TV. We got a good price on a Samsung at Amazon. Plus they threw in free setup in the room of our choice. The TV picture looked great. Until one of the installers said I have a dead pixel. I would have been perfectly happy in my ignorance, if they had just kept their fat mouths shut. I didn’t want to send the TV back. Partly it was on the theory that the next one might have two dead pixels, but mostly it seemed to be a colossal waste. I called Amazon, and they gave me a 20% discount. I wonder what you get for two dead pixels. The new remote control is designed to help you get content from your streaming services (Netflix and such). That makes sense, because that’s the only way to get 4K video to display on your brand new 4K TV. But the remote doesn’t have any numbers. This is a serious inconvenience for us. We still watch TV on our TV. Without a number pad, we would spend a lot of time scrolling up and down to get the channel we want. I bought an old style Samsung remote with numbers for $10. The next thing was that our DVD player doesn’t have an HDMI output. It was strictly RCA cables. Our lofty TV is way too advanced to accept RCA cables, so I got a new DVD player. Now we’re down to one problem. The old TV is still in the basement, and we want it on the second floor. Are you feeling strong, Mark? (Hint.)

We also had several smoke detectors go offline. This isn’t an urgent problem. If there’s smoke, they will beep. But it would be nice if they would alert me while we are traveling. I traced the problem down to a many-years old WiFi access point. A new one is on the way.

We had a lot of activities at the clubhouse this last week. We only attended half of them. The best was a band called “Sons of Pirates”. They play Jimmy Buffet and similar music. They did a nice job. They kept the volume down to a comfortable level. It was a well attended event.

But wait … there’s more. The BMA had a members evening for an exhibition of John Waters’ collection of contemporary American art. There was free food, followed by a slide show tour of the exhibit, and then an interview with the man himself. Like many artists, Waters lives in a different universe than do I. But it’s a very funny, upbeat universe. Everybody had a great time. After the interview, we were invited upstairs to see the exhibit, along with a very large crowd of others. We decided we might come back another time when it’s not so crowded.

That’s a lot of activity for one week. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Danita volunteers at the Howard County food bank. Sometimes somebody will donate candy. They aren’t allowed to give the candy to clients, and they never say no to a donation. So they offer candy to volunteers. Danita will often come home with something like a few mini-Kit Kat bars. This time somebody donated entire boxes of Ferrero chocolates. Danita was invited to take an entire box of 24. I don’t claim to know which chocolates are the best. But Danita and I both think Ferrero chocolates are better than Godiva. Of course, at $1.25 per chocolate, they should be pretty good. We enjoyed ourselves tremendously.

We had a lot of activities this week. We started off with a concert from the most excellent Peabody Ragtime Ensemble. We ate OK food truck pizza with our neighbors. We had a neighborhood “Cultural Conversations” presentation from a Native American Artist. The woman was quite interesting. We wouldn’t have missed it for the world. But she obviously lives in a parallel that barely touches ours. Of course, hearing from somebody with a perspective that much different from ours is a good part of what makes it interesting. We had many days of warm sunny weather, allowing me to put plenty of miles on the bike.

The church counting session did not go well today. We had a lot of extra busy work this time. We couldn’t get the checks to reconcile. We were closing in on the answer when the computer suddenly stopped displaying our spreadsheet. When I got home, I was able to ascertain that the file was OK. The problem seems to be with the computer. After several months of having perfect counts, we ended up staying very late (4 hours), with two unreconciled checks, and leaving on somewhat of a downer.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

I ran across somebody’s comment about the movie “Practical Magic” with Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, and Dianne Wiest. I thought that would be a fun movie to watch on Halloween night. It turned out to be a great movie. Danita and I had a great time watching it. I told Danita it appears to be a Halloween chick flick. She didn’t see how a movie could fit into those two categories. But after we watched it, she agreed.

Every year our church has a memorial mass for those who have died within the last year. We went to light a candle for Bud. It was a nice service.

Our great fun was Mark and Mira. Jaijai had a seminar in DC. Mark and Mira stopped at our house for two days. This time Mira let us hold her and feed her. This was great progress. In the past, she would grab the nearest parent’s leg and hide. Or cry and turn her head. Or otherwise make it clear we were probably trying to steal her away from her parents. I offered her a little ice cream after lunch and dinner. Mark said that didn’t make any difference. I say sometime, grandparents know things.

We’ve had several days of perfect fall weather. For whatever reasons, the fall colors are particularly vivid this year. A ride on the trails and in the woods is amazing. There are so many leaves down, it can take focus to figure out exactly where the paved trail is. But overall, the experience is breathtaking.

Sunday we attended a concert offered by the community college faculty. They did a very credible job.

Wednesday we went to a financial seminar. We attended because the presenter is the CEO of the financial services company. The flyer mentioned several subjects that have had recent changes. We expected to learn something interesting. Unfortunately, the presenter was not a very good speaker and did not seem to have particularly good knowledge of the subject matter. We were both surprised that well over half the attendees asked for the follow-on free financial check-up. At least we got a free dinner at Seasons 52.

We enjoyed a food truck dinner with our neighbors. My ophthalmologist gave me an “A-OK” rating on my eyes.

Danita reached a milestone this week. All of the executer paperwork for Bud has been submitted. It wasn’t trivial. The hardest part was getting OPM to send Bud’s 2021 1099 so we can do Bud’s last year’s taxes, a full six months after they were due. After working on that for over six months, she finally contacted Paul Sarbanes office (our federal Senator). Senator Sarbanes has a staff member that handles all the requests for OPM. We don’t know what this lady did, but we got an immediate copy of the 1099 by Email. We will be getting a few follow-up communications over the next week or so. After that, we have to wait six months before closing Bud’s probate account.

Our big activity this week was the mentalist Mark Stone. He gave a very entertaining show. Everybody who came had a good time. We also enjoyed a presentation about Korean culture, complete with a Korean lunch. It was quite tasty. We’re going to a concert at the community college this afternoon. Just to keep occupied, I mounted new tires on my trike. The old ones were crying out for retirement. Busy busy.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We took a 3 day getaway Monday – Wednesday on Solomon’s Island in Southern Maryland. It was a huge success. We stayed at an upscale B&B. We originally planned to go last week, but that was during the tail end of a nor’easter. The weather was cold and wet and raw. Fortunately, the B&B owner let us delay our visit a week. That’s just one example of how generous and friendly the owners are. We enjoyed warm, sunny days for the entire three days. We expected the breakfasts would be good. They were much better than we expected. We got a 3-course breakfast, and the food was exquisite.

On the way down Monday we stopped to see a Bald Cyprus swamp, a sculpture garden, and the Calvert Marine museum. All three were very nice. The winning attraction was St. Mary’s City. We went there Tuesday morning, expecting to stay a few hours. We ended up staying all day. The third day was OK, but not quite as good as the first two. We visited the Patuxent Air Museum, Calvert Cliffs State Park, and an Indian village at Jefferson Patterson Park. I’ll put a few more details and some pics in the website for those who are interested. We had heavy traffic on the drive home, but overall the getaway was a great hit and a lot of fun.

I didn’t take any pictures of the swamp. I don’t know how to do that. We saw a small sign that said to ask about the audio tour, so we did. The device was underwhelming. It had a tiny sound player with a Bluetooth speaker that wouldn’t pair. We had to hold the player near our ears. The presentation was almost monotone. It didn’t stop or pause when it got to the end of a site. Some of the site numbers were missing. But the information was fantastic. We really enjoyed listening. There are some things scientists don’t know about Bald Cyprus trees. The presenter did a good job of presenting popular theories and making it clear what we are sure of and what we aren’t. Bald Cyprus are deciduous conifers. I didn’t realize the combination exists. To protect themselves from freezing temperatures, they release their leaves and let the water in the tree flow back into the ground. Apparently the water level in the swamp goes up 6″ in the fall.

The Annemarie Sculpture Garden mostly has artwork I don’t understand. But the work at the entryway is something everybody can understand. If we didn’t understand the art, we certainly enjoyed the beautiful grounds and pleasant weather.

The Calvert Marine Museum was much larger than we expected. Neither of us was excited by the outboard motor display, but the rest of the museum was interesting. We went up into this lighthouse. The space is incredibly cramped. I couldn’t believe that lighthouse keepers lived in the lighthouse with their families. I would be going bonkers in just a few hours.

We arrived at St. Mary’s City Tuesday morning just as they opened. We were the only people at the printing shop, and we got all kinds of questions answered. Here you see us making an indentured contract. The wavy cut line is to prove that the contract presented by the indentured servant is actually the same as the contract held by the bond issuer.

Here’s the mandatory picture of the Dove. They actually have two reproductions of the ship. This is the newer reproduction. It’s a lot closer to the original ship. Note the sailor talking with Danita is barefoot, as are all good sailors of the era.

Of all the things we saw and did, this is one of the most interesting. These bricks look like ruins from the 17th century, but actually they are recent. There was a time when museums would build fake ruins to show what they might have looked like and to create interest, which of course helps sell admission tickets. The problem is, they didn’t say the ruins were fake. Today, the folks in St. Mary’s are much more careful to stay truthful. St. Mary’s is an important archeological site because it is largely untouched. The city was founded early in the 17th century and abandoned early in the 18th, when the capitol of Maryland was moved to Annapolis. Between then and now, the area was used as as tobacco farm. The end result is that this is a pristine archeological site for both the colonials and the Indians. Unfortunately, the Indian village at St. Mary’s was a little below the mark, the only weak exhibit in this otherwise excellent facility.

The air museum Wednesday turned out to be a kind of a dud. Pax River is a testing site, and it’s really hard to make testing interesting. They had some interesting aircraft, but their entire slant was on the testing. Docents were there to ramble on about what they did back in the day. It was OK, but unexciting.

Our next stop was Calvert Cliffs state park. Calvert cliffs is an important geographical archeological site with may artifacts and an easily studied view of the Earth’s ancient history. We expected to see numerus artifacts and examples. But there was no museum. Even worse, they did not permit visitors to walk to the cliffs. In my mind, that pretty much is what the Calvert Cliffs park should be about. The sole redeeming virtues were the nice picnic tables for lunch, and something I haven’t seen in years, and did not expect to ever see again. The merry go round works perfectly.

Our last stop was a reproduced Indian village at Jefferson Patterson Park. This museum has spent a ton of money on their museum and site. This picture is lifted from their web site. They didn’t have anybody around who knew much about the village, but from the placards and what I saw, it is an excellent reproduction. It is certainly better than the Indian Village at St. Mary’s City.

This week was quieter than last. We ordered bedding for the new couch and new floor mats for all the bathrooms. Most of what we ordered has already been delivered. The balance should arrive in a few days. We had one of our favorite food trucks. Greek on the Street makes some if the finest gyros in the area, and they are the only place we know of to get Greek Fries. (French fries with fetta cheese. Yummy!) We enjoyed a lively dinner with the Jonses. Mom seems to have her blood pressure under control. We’ll get further information Friday. Our week-long nor’easter finally ended. The bike saw a few more miles this week.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

The new couch came on time. I’ve assembled my share of Ikea furniture, but this time after unpacking everything and looking at the directions, I felt overwhelmed. Ikea partners with a company called Task Rabbit. I went to the link, said ASAP, and ZOOM! a clean young man with a backpack full of tools arrived the next morning. I had my pick of people. Each had a brief bio and list of experience. The guy did a great job. Task Rabbit folks do other things also. If you need something done, you should give them a look-see.

Mom had a zillion doctor visits. She seems to be settled in with a modification to her meds. She has a follow-up in a couple of weeks.

JaMM came down so Jiajia could attend a seminar in DC. We spent a day with Mark and Mira Friday. Then we went to the Natural History Museum Saturday. The museum was crowded and noisy, but Mira did pretty well. Then Mark & Jiajia found an amazing restaurant for lunch (with the help of a little serendipity). If I have the story straight, a Spanish chef offers a Peruvian – Chinese fusion menu. Whatever. The food was fabulous. And it was only a few steps from the Metro. Double win!

We wrapped up the week with a BSO concert this afternoon (Mozart Piano Concerto 24 and Dvorak Symphony 7). It was great music well played. We had a good time. When we started attending Sunday afternoon concerts, I had a hand full of places where we could park for free. The spaces were taken away, one by one. This was our first concert where I paid for parking in a garage. I have to admit, it was nice not to have to walk very far in the rain.

Unfortunately, the Ravens let out just before the concert was over. Ravens fans sat in cold rain watching their team lose 20 – 23. So 70,000 Ravens fans (out of 70,000 seats) joined 2,000 music lovers (out of 2,400 seats) trying to all get out of town at the same time. As disgruntled as they might have been, Ravens fans were mostly courteous on the road. Nevertheless, it was a slow drive home.

This is the 40th year for the Meyerhoff. It led me to some sad thoughts. 40 years ago, Sergiu Comissiona, Joseph Meyerhoff, mayor William Donald Schafer, and governor Harry Hughes built a $25 million music hall. Today, the BSO is downsizing. Nobody is thinking of building anything of substance in Baltimore. Irrespective of vacant commercial real estate and strength of the economy, we just don’t have leadership that capable.

Enough of the downer. There are some cute baby pics on the web site for ya. I hope all are doing well. By the way, that “house” in the pics is a piece of art. If you look closely, it looks a little off. If you walk past it, you would swear the house is moving. I don’t have any idea how they did that.