Mother's Day Weekend

A Happy Belated Mother's Day to all the mothers in the world. I hope everyone got to celebrate with that special women in their lives. For us, Daughter#2 and her husband were in the neighborhood as The Husband had a band gig in Sterling and they crashed at our house afterward. As they had a Mother's Day dinner back in Harrisonburg, we decided to do a BBQ Brunch. We tried to contact The Son to let him know of the plans for the celebration, but we were unable to contact him. Turns out he left his phone in his car and therefore didn't receive any of our calls and texts. So he missed the brunch, but did drop by later after his twin had left to drop off his Mother's Day gift and have dinner. As far as the Brunch, it was quite tasty. Since Daughter#2 is a Vegetarian (most of the time), we grilled some portobello mushrooms and a few hot dogs. Ann also made some potato salad and Daughter#2 made some chip dip with fake sour cream,. We also topped it off with some Longboard Pale Ale and some Bud American Ale., The weather cooperated and we were able to eat out on the deck. We showered Ann with some gifts including some Fiestaware, a new coffee maker and some beef right from Daughter#2's In Laws cattle farm. While we're talking about Fiestaware and the people who sell it, can I say how frustrating it is that there appears to be no standard way to describe the size of the bowls. While trying to find a bowl Ann wanted, I came across bowls described in terms of inches, ounces/quarts and generic small, medium and large or cereal, salad bowls, etc. It made choosing very difficult and, of course, I picked the wrong one and I'll have to re-order. But its the thought that counts and it was all fun Not counting that I had to get up at the butt crack of dawn to walk Daughter#2's dog, Gracie. Daughter#2, when she sleeps over, she'll open the bedroom door to let Gracie out before crashing back into bed and leaving us to walk Gracie. Usually it isn't to bad but I was pretty tired and wanted to sleep in myself. It was either walk the dog or go to Mass. I walked the dog.

Saturday morning was spent preparing a tax return for my rowing club and getting that off into the mail. As a non-profit we don't actually pay taxes, but we still have to file. So that took a few hours. Then I went shopping in preparation of the Mother's Day BBQ on Sunday. Saturday night we grilled some ribs, which turned out really well and then watched the Caps-Penguin hockey game. The Caps lost in overtime losing the home ice advantage. I hope they can rebound tonight.

Friday was a work day and I spent most of the day to getting a draft Request for Proposal finished and posted to my work web site. I worked through lunch to get it done. I sent it off to our web gurus who have still to post it, Bah. After work I drove over to Sandy Run to get in a row and get out of the house. The weather report assured me that the winds were mild and all was well. Wrong. The wind was blowing hard at Sandy Run and the water was choppy. I looked down river toward the race course and it seemed more or less calm although a bit funny looking. I finally realized that the calm areas were actually large clumps of debris lifted from along the shoreline due to the heavy rains we had all week. I didn't relish having to turn around every few strokes to avoid hitting the debris in the river and given the wind and water conditions were marginal, I decided to bag it. In addition the main dock at Sandy Run was buckled and broken and out of service. Given that the Virginia High School State Rowing Championships were being held the next day, losing the primary dock had to present some logistical problems with launching and recovering boats. At least they had some nice weather for it