Notes For Me ( and You)

I was very fortunate in many ways yesterday. I had a relaxing day and received some very nice and useful presents. We also were able to have Nancy’s mom and dad over for dinner. I missed Peter who is away at work camp, though he did call – which was very wierd, and kind of sad, in “flash-forward” kind of way.

This weekend was also the start of summer swim season. All of the news on the swim team is available on the team web site , which I run. This was the first Saturday morning meet that I can remember that was interrupted by thunderstorms, a problem that is usually associated with the Wednesday evening “B” meets.

Alex is picking more hours as a delivery driver for Pizza Palace. Peter, as I mentioned is away at work camp with the youth group from St James Episcopal Church. Jake starts working today as a youth assistant at our church’s bible camp.  So no one is really sitting around !

Finally the weather is supposed to dry up this week, at least for the first few days. The garden is growing well, including some weeds that are in the middle of the veg beds – I have not been able to get to them without clomping in the mud and squeezing the clay soil into bricks.

It has been a busy time, so I have missed a few days on this blog. Chief distraction – on top of all the usual sporting events and household chores – was moving my in-laws out of their house of 44 years to a nice new condo in a retirement community. Everything went smoothly, except that that a record setting period of rains cause water to leak into their old basement – much to the understandable consternation of the new owners!

They are now living in Ingleside, part of a new development called King Farm. It is not far from us and is certainly a much better choice than their big old house.

Last night we went to a Wootton football party ( it is always football season !) and I made this crab dip -which was easy to put together and a great hit. This recipe makes a LOT of dip, plenty for a crowd.

Hot Crab Dip

40 min | 10 min prep

3 1/2 Cups

* 3/4 cup sour cream
* 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
* 1 tablespoon grated fresh onion
* 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
* 3/4 teaspoon dry mustard
* 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
* 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
* 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese
* 1 lb lump crabmeat, shells removed (I’ve substituted 2 cans of canned crab meat as well)
* paprika or Old Bay Seasoning

1. Mix together sour cream, lemon juice, onion, Worcestershire, dry mustard, garlic powder, and cream cheese.
2. I use a hand mixer to get it blended really well.
3. Fold in cheddar cheese and crabmeat.
4. Spoon mixture into casserole dish and sprinkle with paprika or Old Bay Seasoning.
5. Bake at 325°F for 30 minutes, or until heated through.
6. Serve with tortilla chips, crackers, toast points, or crusty bread.
© 2009 Recipezaar. All Rights Reserved. http://www.recipezaar.com

We have new neighbors in the big house downtown and a nation has pinned completely unrealistic hopes on President Obama – but hope is better than what we had before.

We did not try to go downtown, settling instead for our TV and then a neighborhood party. Things are heading back to normal today with everyone back to school and work. The weather remains cold and snow still covers, just, the grass and garden.

The Christmas break has finally ended. School is open and Nancy and I are back to work. 2009 will be a big year for our family, the main event being (hopefully ) the graduation of Alex from school and his departure to a college or university somewhere.

The break was nice and relaxing – maybe too relaxing since there were a lot of “to-dos” on the list going into the holidays and not many of those became “to-dones”. Still, I caught up on sleep and on some minor chores and I will just have to get to everything else as time allows.

It’s January 2nd and I am sitting looking at man made snow on the slopes of Liberty Ski Resort. Somewhere out there Peter and his friend Russell are snow boarding and I am sitting in the “lodge” reading and doing computer stuff.

We had a peaceful new year, focused around all of Nancy’s family and all the cousins. On the 31st the adults went to dinner at a Moroccan resturant in the Kentlands and the kids had Chinese at our house. We came home and were all together for midnight. We went to bed around 1:30, but all the cousins stayed up until maybe 5 am before they all finally crawled into sleeping bags and slept all over the living room.

All of the out of town folks are leaving today or tomorrow so by Sunday we will be getting back to normal, with everyone back to work or school first thing Monday.

It has been chilly but no rain or snow had fallen, nor is any expected.

Every year I resolve to be all ready for Christmas by this time – and every year -NOT!

Maybe it would not be the same if we were organised ?

This has to be the nicest time of year here in Maryland. Cool nights, and beautiful days with blue skies and temperatures just over 70 degrees. Perfect for our usual full slate of weekend sports. Alex and Peter both had close losses in football to (re)open the high school field. It had been closed for the first half of the season while new stands were being installed, bringing the seating capacity to almost 3,000. Many of those seats were occupied on Friday night for the game against Northwest High School. The Patriots came up short by six points but Alex did have an interception. Jake and Peter were both excited to see their brother make an important play, Jake more obvious than Peter of course!

On Saturday Jake played strongly and things went our way as the North Potomac Thistle beat Real Potomac 7-2 in soccer. To top things off, just before I wrote this the Redskins came back to beat Philadelphia in Phily – big win. So apart from the disappointing news from Love Street, overall a good weekend on the sports front.

Last night we and two other couples drove a bunch of Jake’s friends out to Markoff’s Haunted Forest , out past Poolesville. We dropped them off and then went to dinner in Poolesville, before returning to pick them up. They had a great time, but everyone was tired by the time we got home, close to midnight.

There are few moments these days when the whole family is together. We do manage meals together fairly often, more often I think than many families, but it is common for someone to be missing, their dinner put on a plate to be microwaved later.  And we do all go to mass together most weeks. But we are not often in the same room for many other occasions. Last night found us all watching TV together and I thought that was more important than the actual show ( “Fringe” if you do want to know – a rather strange Si-Fi /thriller thing on Fox). This time next year such casual events will be history with Alex off to college somewhere. Even Mopsy came to join us all. I am so glad I actually appreciated this while it is still happening.

We had our first ( and probably our last) all family, only family, day out yesterday with a great visit to Hershey Park, PA. We rode all the “real” roller coasters, some of the twice and even did the chocolate factory tour – including of course the gift shop, which provided dinner for some of us.

There was a brief thunder shower that closed the rides at around 5, which is when we did the tour, but otherwise great weather. The same storm line or it’s close cousin actually brought the first real rain for many days to the garden at home.

The older two boys school timetables arrived yesterday in the mail, and football equipment pickup is tonight, with two-a-days starting tomorrow. The end of summer is nigh!