There is one pic — a map of our trip. (As always, you can click on it to make it bigger.)

China Trip Map

We’re leaving for China Thursday. It’s busy times, but not because of the trip. About the only thing we have to do is pack our suitcase. That won’t take long because we aren’t taking much. I was lucky with the Howard County Library E-books. I was able to get several good ones loaded into my Kindle reader. There’s even a possibility of picking up one more   book if I’m lucky.

Our Church had a seminar about the timeline of the bible Friday evening and Saturday. That sounded interesting so we went to that. We both enjoyed it, and we both learned a lot. Sunday after Church we went to a Church breakfast. Then Danita got a haircut while I counted money. We have a BSO concert this afternoon (highlighting Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”). After that, Dot and Duane are hosting their annual open house. They traditionally do this in January, but Dot was still recovering this year. It will be the first time we’ve seen them since Dot’s surgery.

We usually have dinner out on Thursday. But last Wednesday Hooligans (my vote for best restaurant meatloaf in Howard County) was offering $10.40 off in honor of tax day. We couldn’t pass that up. Danita cooked her last dinner last night. We’ll be eating leftovers until all the food is gone. If we run out of leftovers, we’ll just have to eat out.

That’s all for now. I’ll try to post often while we’re in China.

There are no pics this week.

We’re going to China in a week and a half. If everything works, it will be easy to find us. Part of our trip is in some pretty remote areas, so there may be times we are unavailable. To contact us, call or Email as you usually would. We each have an hour of prepaid calls. Calls are basically free, even though we are in China. (Is technology cool, or what?) If that doesn’t work, Jul and Mark will have alternate ways to get hold of us. Contact them; they will forward the message.

Dennis: 410-417-8854, deichenlaub@gmail.com
Danita: 410-709-8854, smart.lady@verizon.net
Julia: 704-506-5500, julia.e.reed@gmail.com
Mark: 410-446-6988, mark.d.eichenlaub@gmail.com

We had a miserable, rainy week. It was cloudy or raining continuously every day. It didn’t make as much difference to me, because I spent the week hacking away with my cold anyway. I was feeling better, but still coughing.

We usually go out to dinner on Thursdays. This week, we decided to try a place we hadn’t been to yet in historic Ellicott City. It was doubly attractive because the county had just removed the parking meters from the area. (That’s something that doesn’t happen very often! I’ll probably vote for our new county executive until he stops running for office.) But the trip was fraught with misadventures. Nothing major — no wrinkled cars or hurt people. Just multiple misadventures. There’s no way I could explain everything that happened. The short story is that we ended up eating leftovers at home. Historic Ellicott City is a area 6 blocks long and 2 blocks wide. The area was built over 100 years ago. They mostly have original buildings. It’s right next to the Patapsco River, with steep hills on either side. It usually floods once a year or so. The area has a lot of charm and is quite popular. I like biking there. But we’ve never had a great experience eating or shopping there. I think we’ll be focusing our energies on other parts of the county in the future.

We spent the last of the rain this week at a SOCA party Friday evening. Afterwards, Rob showed the most recent “Hunger Games” movie. I had seen this with somebody (Kathryn, I think). It was still a nice movie the second time around.

The sun came back Saturday morning. We spent the better part of the day at a funeral for Danita’s Aunt Ann. Ann was the last Hartka of her generation. (But a few spouses are still around.) She lived the last years of her life out West, near her son. This was the “East Coast” funeral, because so much of the Hartka family is still in the Baltimore area. The priest gave one of the better funeral homilies I’ve heard. I complimented him on the way out. He said it’s the homily he gave at his Dad’s funeral. Pretty remarkable priest, if you ask me. His was also a large family, still centered in Baltimore.

Since we went to Mass Saturday, we decided to play hooky from Church today. But we didn’t skip eating Sunday breakfast out. The weather today is fabulous. Earlier this week, I spent a rainy afternoon replacing tires, chain, and brake pads on my bike. I was happy to have great weather and enough time for a nice shake-down ride. We’re hosting Circle this evening. Danita made some kind of cake that is smelling pretty good. Our subject tonight will be “Bucket Lists”.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Addie Danita

Easter week has been a sick week for Danita and me. We have both been suffering from colds. I got sick Tuesday morning and missed Yoga Tuesday evening. Danita was sick first, so I’m definitely blaming her. She’s been sick for the better part of 2 weeks now, so we’re ready for this stuff to be over. Danita took one sick day when she first got sick, but she’s too busy at work to take more time than that. On the bright side, she took Good Friday off, as she does every year. We enjoyed hanging and being low key.

Addie

We missed our anniversary this year, spending the day driving back from NC. So last Sunday we went to Miss Shirley’s for breakfast. It’s always a special treat, but it’s even better now that we’ve figured out how to get the $3 parking and walk the sky bridge when we go. The SOCA party Sunday evening was a potluck. Danita made her decidedly decadent 3-cheese with macaroni casserole. I was smelling it cook in the oven. I suggest we skip the party and just eat the casserole. At least I got some at the party.

Today was Easter. Lynne held Easter dinner as usual. There was lots of food and lots of Easter Eggs to be found There are plenty of pics attached.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Suzanne Addie

Toni Joe

Rebecca Pete

Pete

Pete Suzanne Rebecca Addie

Mark

Joe

Mark Lynne Rebcca Toni’s Parents

Joe Toni

Hunting Eggs

Ed

Ed

Bud Danita

Counting Eggs

Ed Toni’s Parents

There are a couple of pics this week.

The big news for Danita was work – work – work. Unfortunately, she got sick Wednesday. She was feeling pretty bad. She stayed home from work and backed out of having dinner with Bud. (There’s no sense to take a risk of getting him sick.) She wasn’t better Thursday, but she was back to work. She was also sick but worked Friday. She seems to finally be getting over whatever she had.

Mom & Glenn at Okeeheelee Park

While Danita was working and being sick, I visited Mom & Glen. When I got up Tuesday morning, I received an Email that my flight was cancelled. All other flights to West Palm Beach were full. So I called Southwest. They offered to reroute me through Ft. Lauderdale. It took away from time with Mom on Monday and Friday, and it meant a 45 mile drive in FL. On the bright side, the rental car in Ft. Lauderdale was $100 cheaper than the same care in W Palm Beach. I was surprised.

Birds at Okeeheelee Park were quite bold

I arrived in plenty of time to attend the play “7 Brides for 7 Brothers” at the Century Village theater as Mom’s guest. Wednesday we went to Okeeheelee Park and took a walk. The weather was quite pleasant. There was plenty of wildlife to see. Thursday we went to the Havana restaurant for dinner at lunch time. The food was quite good. Friday wasn’t quite as successful. We went to Sarah’s Kitchen for breakfast. The food was great, but it was so noisy Glen couldn’t hear us talking. On the way back, we stopped at Ocean Reef Park. There were a few picnic tables around the parking lot. There was a sandy path to the beach, but Mom and Glen can’t walk on the sand very well. I walked out to the beach and saw some nice tables, chairs, and umbrellas. I thought that was much nicer than the parking area. Then I saw the sign — this was a private area for the hotel next door. I had planned to leave Mom’s about 12:30, but I started feeling nervous and decided I would rather wait an extra hour in the airport than take the chance of getting caught up in traffic on I-95.

Mom & Glen at Ocean Reef Park

Besides our trips, we spent time going over Mom’s new computer setup and how to get things done. Mom did quite well. Mom wanted a new Wi-Fi printer. With color printing. With a scanner. With a copier. (These are called all-in-one printers). I figured we were in for a bruising, but that’s what she wanted. So we went to Best Buy and picked out an HP Envy. When we got home and I started working with the printer, I was impressed. HP has always made great printers. But in the past, all the options required to make a printer do all these functions made for a confusing set of configuration screens. Then use of the multi-function printers was made complicated by confusing buttons marked with obscure symbols. But this printer is actually a snap to set up and easy to use. Here’s an example. Mom wanted to see how the double-sided printing worked. We found a 2-page document. The printer printed the first page, then sucked the page back inside, then printed the second page on the other side of the paper. It couldn’t possibly be any easier than that. Exampe #2. Mom wanted to scan a document. We had to follow a menu. In every case, the first option was the one we wanted. When we were done, the File Explorer screen opened on Mom’s computer to show her where her scan file was. Every time I wanted to do something, no matter how obscure, I was able to get to it right away with one press of the graphic control panel. It’s an amazing amount of functionality for less than $100.

All good things must end. I came home Friday to move from the high 80s to below freezing. Today (Saturday) is the Church dinner. Danita and I will be servers. It’s going to be a long dinner — from 4 to 8. If we survive that, we’ll go to a SOCA party Sunday.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

There are some pics this week.

Cherry Trees at the Park

Last week was pretty exciting. We started seriously thinking about what we’ll take to China. The warning was that there are times we will have to carry our own baggage, possibly on uneven steps without handrails. The mantra is “travel light”. We reluctantly admitted that the day hike backpacks we got for England are too large for China. I found my China backpack. Danita’s still thinking about it. We had our last Tai Chi class Wednesday. We managed not to fall in class. We’re hoping to duplicate that in China.

Suspension Bridge was the Favorite

Thursday we went to the National Aquarium for a lecture titled “Looking Through a Lense”. Doug Allen is world famous for his nature photography and films. He specializes in underwater filming at the North and South poles. It was an amazing presentation.

Friday we drove down to Jul’s. Unbelievably, there was snow in our area. It was scheduled to start early in the morning. We left at 4:45 AM to beat the snow. It worked. I don’t know when the snow actually started, but we had nothing more than rain. Columbia ended up with 2 inches of snow. We made it down safe and sound. Saturday was a beautiful day. We took the grandkids to a park and had a great time. Sunday we saw Cinderella and had some ice cream. We no longer have more stamina than Bryon, but Elizabeth was sound asleep by the time we got back Sunday.

River was Inviting but Too Cold

We’ll be driving back to Columbia tomorrow. Our big constraint is that we have to be at the breakfast IHOP at 8:40 AM so I can check into my flight for Florida. I should have just enough time in Columbia to repack my bag for the next trip.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

There are no pics this week. Friday we are leaving to visit the Reeds, so look for some pics from that. The day after we get back, I am flying down to Florida to visit Mom. We’ll see when all this stuff gets posted.

Today is Pi Day. π = 3.14159265359 (approximately). Since today is 3/14/15, the date matches Pi when truncated to 5 digits. Or you can wait until 9:26:53 AM and match Pi to 10 digits. We decided to match just the 5 digits. We went to the Double T diner for breakfast and had pie for dessert. But we had a moment of silence at 9:26:53. At least, I’m pretty sure we did. It’s pretty quiet around here without kids. Some people say this good of a match for Pi only happens once a century. But to my way of thinking, 3/14/16 matches Pi when *rounded* to 5 digits, and it’s a lot closer to the actual value of Pi. So I’m sure we’ll be doing something extra special for Pi day next year.

Danita and I had our Hepatitis A shots in preparation for our China trip. I took to mine without trouble. Danita’s arm was sore for a couple of days. She took her shot in the left arm. That was unfortunate because she usually sleeps on her left side. I’m still waiting for my float switch to come in so I can set the sump alarm. Aparently it’s being shipped direct from China. We’ve had a lot of snow melt and quite a bit of rain starting late last night to boot. The ground is saturated, and our sump pump is kicking off every 2 minutes. I was able to determine the exact height I want the float switch. So things should move along quickly once the part comes in.

We had a SOCA party last night. It was such good fun, we’re having another one tomorrow. Tomorrow’s party is our St. Patrick’s Day dinner.

The weather’s improving and I’m getting some good rides in. I have some training to do, but I’m pleased with what I’ve done this week.

The ladies in the office decided to rearrange their office furniture. They don’t tend to think of the networking equipment as being very important, so they laid it on the floor. Unfortunately, that disturbed some of the connections and their network stopped working. They sent me Email, text, and phone call. For some reason, I didn’t hear my phone ring. I didn’t answer them for over an hour, when I reached my ride destination of Glenwood. It’s two more hours to get back home, and I wasn’t skipping lunch. Fixing the network wasn’t hard, but the equipment was still on the floor. I told them they had to do something to get it off the floor, and they ordered a file cabinet. It’s supposed to be in this week. We’ll see if it gets in before I start my grand travels.

Mom’s computer problems might be on-going, but mine are done. Lappy arrived about 9:30 Monday morning, and this time everything was working fine. It took me little time to get everything set up on Lappy; and to get the new HP Stream computer hooked up to use with the TV. I was pretty happy. I didn’t want to pay for an Microsoft Office license for the Stream, so I was using LibreOffice. It’s supposed to be a great package and compatible with Microsoft Office files. I found it was full of bugs. While it could read and write Office formats, there were plenty of differences. When I got Lappy back, I completely re-started one Word document because it was too hard to fix all the formatting problems.

Besides all the travel that starts next week, we’re looking forward to a presentation at the National Aquarium. An underwater wildlife photographer will be making a presentation. It should be fun.

That’s the news for this week. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

There are no pics this week.

We got slammed. The ice storm that was supposed to start late Sunday started early Sunday. We weren’t able to meet Mark for breakfast. Then it got cold again. We had single-digit temperatures. Thursday, we got another 8″ of snow. At least Danita got her snow day. UMBC announced Wednesday that they would close the campus Thursday. It looks like that was the end of winter. The temperature got over 40 today. Snow is melting. The forecast is for temps above freezing from now on. We’ll try that breakfast with Mark again tomorrow.

The cold temperatures didn’t bother us so much this time, because the furnace was fixed Monday. The furnace people brought 3 trucks and three techs. It was all done in one afternoon. Tuesday we started getting an occasional really bad screeching sound. A furnace tech came and solved the problem with a little oil.

We’ve been preparing our house for our trip to China. We had a backup sump pump installed. This runs off water pressure. Since we’re on county water, we can now pump the sump even if power fails. When we go to China, we are required to turn the water to the house off. So we installed a new line to connect the backup sump before the water shutoff valve. It took two guys all day one day, but it’s installed and working. I’m working on an alarm to let me know when the main pump fails. I had an alarm, but the sensor is getting wet with water sloshing around in the sump well and making alarms even when the pump is working. I ordered a float switch to replace the water sensor. Everything should be set in a few days. I also installed more security cameras. We have the house covered. If anybody breaks in, their picture will be in my Email. I feel like we’ve made a lot of progress this week.

Unfortunately, we didn’t quite clear the decks. Lappy came back from HP. I ordered my computer with 2 disk drives. The second disk drive wasn’t working. I called the repair facility. The guy said the second disk wasn’t in the computer. He didn’t call me back; then we got that snow. While I was waiting for them to reopen, I took the computer apart and verified the 2nd disk is still there. I got hold of them Friday. They agreed to take the computer back and fix the disk. Maybe when I get Lappy next week everything will be working.

We’re looking forward to a BSO concert tomorrow afternoon.

That’s it for now. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

There are a couple of pics this week.

Snow in Visitor Parking

We started the week with a whopping 8″ snow Saturday evening and Sunday morning. (Yea Dani, but it’s a lot for us). Danita did her grocery store run very early Saturday morning to avoid the big rush later in the day. We stayed home Sunday — no Church, no breakfast out. Danita made the best omelette I’ve had in many years. The grounds crew had bobcats moving the snow. All the visitor’s spots were piled high with the stuff. That’s one of the disadvantages of high density living. There’s lots of streets, sidewalks and driveways. Tiny yards. It’s all got to go somewhere. Danita was disappointed because everything was cleared out by the end of Sunday. She didn’t get even one day off of work. It would be nice if that were the end of winter, but temperatures got cold again. It got down to 12 last night. Things should be warming up later on this week.

HP Stream PC

Other than winter, we’re making progress on stuff. Taxes are done for the year. These days one can E-file taxes, tell the government to take the money owed from the checking account, and not to take it until April 15 — no matter how much snow is outside. Pretty cool. I got a great deal on Turbo Tax this year. They sell several different levels of Turbo Tax. They took stocks (Schedule D) out of the package I normally buy, and they’ve been getting very bad publicity. Amazon put the more advanced package on super sale. After I bought that, Turbo Tax offered a $25 rebate for people who need Schedule D. With taxes done, I sent lappy off to HP to get the keyboard repaired. It’s fixed and should come back next week. HP came out with a new, small, inexpensive computer they call the Stream 200-010. It’s kind of like a desktop, but it’s not much bigger than my fist. We decided that’s cheap enough and small enough that we can buy it and leave it hooked up to the TV for streaming movies from the Internet. In the mean time, I’ve been using it as my computer while lappy’s being repaired. It’s amazingly competent. But only because I was forewarned by the reviews and added another stick of memory. Still, the total cost with the extra memory is still under $200.

5 of the 6 parts we need to fix the furnace came in early last week. The last part came in Friday. The furnace fixers will be over Monday afternoon. In the mean time, the fireplace has been doing a credible job of keeping the house reasonably warm.

With all the bad weather we’ve been having, I haven’t ridden my bike in since Feb 11. I went over to the gym in our clubhouse several times, but going to the gym isn’t my cup of tea. I was able to take the bike out to the bank yesterday, to deposit that $25 Turbo Tax check. But it was too cold to ride very long, and the roads weren’t good enough to go on the narrow back roads I enjoy riding so much. Hopefully I’ll be able to start riding soon.

My Chinese Culture class has settled in. When working over the internet, it’s easy to forget how young most of these students are.

We don’t have any parties this week, but we should have clear roads Sunday for the first time in many weeks. (Not the whole day. That would be too much to ask for, apparently. But they should be clear until Noon.) We plan to meet Mark for breakfast.

Well, Danita’s back from the grocery store. It’s time to unload the groceries.

We’re having a cold February. Some people are comparing this February to all the other Februaries in recorded history. That’s quite a trick, considering the month isn’t over yet. But there’s no doubt we have a cold one this year. That’s one reason why it’s inconvenient that our furnace stopped working. We talked to two different repair companies. The parts are under warranty, but we have to pay for the labor. The have to pull the furnace apart to replace the parts, and they’re working in a tiny closet, so this isn’t going to be cheap. Parts are on order. But we’re not the only people in the state with a furnace that doesn’t work. We’ll see when it gets fixed. In the mean time, our gas fireplace is doing a good job of keeping the house warm enough that there’s no danger of pipes freezing. Sweaters and blankets take care of the rest.

I’ve been checking our financial site for the last 1099 every day. Finally it was posted. I downloaded it and opened it, only to find that the account summary information was incorrect and the 1099 information wasn’t in it. I called our friendly financial advisor. He had been getting quite a number of phone calls on this subject, and as friendly as he is, he was beginning to get a little frustrated. It turns out he had told several of his clients that the 1099s were finally posted. But I was the first person to actually look at the form and see the emperor had no clothes. The advisor kept his cool, but I had the distinct impression that he was wondering about his career choice. Three days later, they had the file renamed from “Summary and 1099” to “Account Summary”. The summary was still wrong. Finally today, the 1099 was posted. I don’t know if it’s correct, but it’s close. Fortunately, it doesn’t make any difference whether it’s exactly correct. It only matters that the numbers on our tax return match the numbers reported to the IRS. Taxes are completed, and will be filed after Danita reviews them.

Retirement is a strange beast these days. There are so many rules. If one delays Social Security payments, they increase 8% a year until age 70, so it’s a good idea to delay Social Security if one can. IRA accounts require minimum withdrawals after age 70 1/2, so it’s a good idea to delay withdrawals until 70 1/2, if one can. For us, Danita plans to retire next year, and I won’t be 70 yet. I’m close, but we need something to live on while we’re waiting for that magical moment. We decided to use some stock. We decided it would be a good idea to sell the stock now, because a major market downturn would put a definite crimp in our life style while we’re waiting for me to be 70. So we sold the stock near the end of last year. Between the taxes on the stock, the trip to China, and repairing the furnace, we’re doing an breathtaking job of spending money.

My online Chinese Culture class is getting stranger and stranger. We had an assignment to pick a topic and lead an online discussion for one day. My topic was “Working Through Cultural Differences”, which I based on my experiences working with Chinese people at Axalto. I posted my blurb on the web, and got no comments. Some discussion. I figured I’m so old I just don’t know how to do it. The next day, another student posted a blurb about Chinese holidays on the web. She also had zero replies. Nobody else has been brave enough to give it a go.

It’s started snowing. According to the weather folks, this could be the biggest snow so far this year — as much as whopping 8″, before it switches over to rain. Somebody asked me my opinion. I told them that if the snow was a big one, I wouldn’t go to work. They didn’t catch my humor. It’s supposed to warm up tomorrow. The temperature could “rocket up to 38 degrees.” That would be nice, because we have a SOCA party Sunday.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

There are no pics this week.

We got a new thermostat this week. BGE was offering to install them for free. It’s pretty easy for me to be at home during the day, so I signed us up. This one is WiFi enabled. We can change our home temperature from anywhere in the world using our phone (there’s an app for that!) or a computer. It displays the indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity on a color screen. It displays the weather forecast. It can change the temperature throughout the day if we wish. In the winter, we keep the house at 68 all the time. They claim that the thermostat can save us money by being aware of the weather.

I also received my new Kindle this week. I got a Kindle Voyage with the Origami cover. It’s a very nice E-reader. This is the first Kindle with a glass screen. (Earlier Kindles have a plastic screen.) It also has a backlight and a high resolution display. The total effect is that the Kindle Voyage is actually easier on the eyes than a paper book. I used to put my old Kindle in the cargo pocket of my pants to have it with me. Somehow, when I took it out, it had turned itself on and done a bunch of page turns; sometimes even changing the displayed book. The Voyage is so small that the Kindle with the cover is actually smaller than my old Kindle was without the cover. The cover keeps the Kindle from turning itself on or pressing pages. The smaller size means it fits in my pockets. It’s a little pricey, but it’s very nice, I use it a lot, and I expect it to last as long as my previous Kindle (which was almost 6 years).

As I mentioned in my previous blog, we ate out a lot last week. Danita’s been having a party at work each month in appreciation for the work her folks do. This week, she had a Chinese lunch and had one of the Chinese faculty talk about Chinese New Year. We had a SOCA party yesterday. We’re having a SOCA Valentine’s concert with dessert tomorrow.

I had to give up riding. We haven’t had very much snow, although it’s snowing as I write this. The streets have never been snowy for more than a day or two so far this winter. But this month, when it’s “warm” (above freezing), it’s threatening rain. When it’s dry, it’s cold (below 20). The low tonight is supposed to be 7. It’s supposed to get down to 2 Sunday night. I’ve been going over to our neighborhood gym. It’s no where as good a workout, but it’s better than nothing.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.