Is It Dry Yet?

As I sit here this moment, the sun is out and it's a balmy 80 degrees. It's quite the difference from yesterday when it was pouring and rain rates were hitting over 2 inches an hour. Over the past few days area rain totals have exceeded 12 inches. There has been a lot of flooding in various areas, including around the Ft Belvoir area where The Son now works. They closed Rt 1 and the Fairfax County Parkway leaving him little options on how to drive home. After sitting in traffic for about 40 minutes with no movement, he pulled a U turn and went back to work for a few hours. His second attempt at getting home got him lost in the Springfield area, which led to a phone call home. I was able to get him in the right direction and get home - finally.

This is the weekend for the Wye Island Regatta - a 12.5 mile row around Wye Island hosted by the Annapolis Rowing Club. This race has been the kick off race for the head race season for my rowing club for years. It's our novice rowers first introduction to organized racing and what's involved in attending an away regatta (i.e., derigging boats, loading them on a trailer, rerigging them on site ,etc). It's one of my favorite races just because it's so different from anything else we do. For whatever the reason, the club bailed on the race this year. We just couldn't come up with enough men to row a Men's 8+ and we couldn't even get 4 women (our club is like 80% female) to row a mixed 8+. Very disappointing. I hope we can get everyone on board for next year.

I have to fly to the west coast on business on Sunday, September 11. I can't tell you how excited I am to have to be traveling (flying) on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Sometimes the lack of proper planning to avoid this kind of nonsense drives me crazy. To make matters worse, my boss will also be attending the program review. Totally uncalled for to have both of us there. Waste of time and money. This will probably be my last business travel ever. More on that to follow. 9/11 is also my wedding anniversary so Ann is thrilled I won't be home for that. What's the present for year 37 anyway?

Of This and That

Its been quite a while since I have posted anything. I'd like to say I've been so busy that I've just not had the time. Alas that would be a lie. It's more due to pure laziness. That being said, lets do some catch up. The most exciting news is that Daughter#1's husband has finally found a job in the Old Dominion State and has rejoined his bride after 9 months of being separated. He has given up his sales job to work in a rehabilitation clinic out in Warrenton. He eventually wants to work in Occupational Therapy. This job is a good foundation while he completes the educational requirements. Speaking of Daughter#1, she began a new job this past Monday working at Fairfax Hospital doing some sort of meeting planning work. So far she seems to like it. The added income doesn't hurt either. She has also been named the Head Coach for the Prince William Rowing Club's women program. She was the assistant coach last year and is looking forward to taking over the program and keeping the women as one of the top women Masters programs in the country. The Son is currently between jobs - again. He has a job offer but is waiting for the necessary security clearances to come through. It's for more money then his old job so he's excited about that, but the commute will be a little tougher. He doesn't do well with a lot of free time on his hands so we are all hoping that the necessary paperwork comes through quickly. No new news from Daughter#2 and her husband. They are still renovating the farm house they are living in and renting out their old house in Harrisonburg. She was really excited when they managed to finagle high speed Internet in their remote cableless location. She is also close to completing her masters degree with the University of Florida. I told her she had to go down to Gainesville to do the graduation walk. She has put in a lot of work in getting this degree and she should be able to take the bows for it. A vacation to Florida wouldn't hurt us either. Ann has sold and had closing on her Aunt's house in Cape Coral, FL. Ann inherited the house when her Aunt passed away in August. We toyed with the idea of keeping the house and using it for vacations and winter times especially with Ann and I approaching retirement In the end we decided that we wouldn't get that much use out of it and none of the kids were interested in using it for vacations either. The upside is it will make our retirement easier as it has allowed us to significantly reduce our debt load. As for me, it has been a tough winter. We haven't had much snow, but its been brutally cold for Virginia. I have also been inflicted with an upper respiratory infection. After getting over that, I broke one of my toes in January. Now again I seem to be fighting some sort of respiratory ailment. All to say that that combination has severely limited by off season conditioning to get ready for this year's rowing. I can get out on the water starting tomorrow (although the weather will be crap so I won't actually row, but I could!). My aerobic condition is sucky to say the least. I hope our spring is really nice to allow me to spend a lot of time rowing on my own to get me ready for the competitive season, which starts in early June. Looking forward to getting my first blisters of the season.

Christmas Aftermath

I hope you and yours had a wonderful Christmas. We did here at the old hacienda. While not quite the mayhem as when the kids were little. it still ended up being exhausting as ever. I was up at 6:30 to prepare the family breakfast (for 6 of us) while Ann handled all the dogs. Five of them in all. After a breakfast of bacon and eggs, toast and OJ. We retired to the living room to dive into the packages left to us by Santa Claus. As we started the only one not in attendance was The Son who, although up, was running behind and still at his condo. He did tell us to go and get started and so we did. We had opened almost all the gifts by the time he arrived, but we sat him down and let him open all his presents. By the end I think I can safely say that everyone was quite happy with the presents received. After all the presents had been opened, Daughter#1 and her husband retired to the kitchen to prepare appetizers for the family to enjoy while the Christmas dinner was cooking away. We enjoyed a game of sorts (the name escapes me) the The Son managed to win. By late afternoon the turkey was ready and The Son had made his garlic mashed potatoes and we sat down for dinner. After saying grace for the many blessings we enjoy as a family, we proceeded to stuff ourselves silly. That included apple pie ala mode and pumpkin pie with whipped cream for desert. All I wanted to do afterward was to lay around and take a nap before heading to bed. After tending to the dogs one last time thats exactly what I did. I was in bed by 9:30 and glad of it.

Because of the threat of a major storm heading up the coast, Daughter#2 and her husband decided to head home to Harrisonburg Christmas night rather then stay the night. They ran into the leading edge of the storm during the drive home. The pickup they were driving skidded on the slick surface about 30 minutes from home and hit a concrete wall. They were safe, but the truck was undrivable. A call was made to his parents to come rescue them. They finally made it home around midnight.

This morning Daughter#1's husband was kind enough to make us blueberry pancakes. That was the last thing he was able to do before being felled by the stomach virus that has struck Daughter#1, Ann and myself in the past few weeks. I feel for the guy as I know what he's going through. The good news it doesn't last more then 24 hours.

Organization from Chaos

For years our kitchen pantry had been a thorn in my wife's side. She hated how it looked. She hated how disorganized it was. Hated how it was just a giant mess in general. You couldn't grab an item from the pantry without several other items falling down off the shelves. It was that bad. Of course not so bad that she was willing to take on a job she felt a bit overwhelmed by. Ann had been not so subtlety hinting to Daughter#1 that she would love it if she would take on the project. Its a project right up Daughter#1's alley what with her anal ways and all. Heck she has already sent us all itineraries for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. However Daughter#1 has been pretty busy with the move back home, starting a new job, coaching crew and starting back to school. But tonight after dinner she dived right in. Determined to get the job done before the rest of the family arrives on Friday. After the first few minutes I was drafted to help out. Shelves were emptied. Old stuff thrown out like the jar of oregano that expired sometime in the 1980s. Other things placed aside to be donated. Spices arranged alphabetically. Different things grouped together logically (i.e., things for baking, soups, oils, etc). In a little over an hour we had a decent looking pantry ready for the big cooking days ahead. Thanks Daughter#1. A look at the finished product. I just wished I had taken a picture of the mess before we started.

One Of Those Days

Ever have one of those days? You know the ones. Where the days starts out bad and just goes down hill from there. Today was one of those days. My first chore of most days is walking the dogs. The devious twins, aka Amy and Emily, go first. I try to get them out in that time between when the middle school bus has picked up its charges and when the elementary school kids begin their walk to their school. I do this to minimize the chance of actually running into anyone. The twins tend to go ballistic if they see any one (as terriers are want to do) and who needs that racket at 7:30 in the morning? Upon opening the garage door there at the end of our driveway walking passed our house was another person walking their dog. Clue in the barking, the yelping, the carrying on. As the Grinch noted: "The noise...noise...noise...noise..." I dragged the twins back in the house to wait a few minutes and tried again. This time with success. After walking all the dogs, I showered and was getting ready to leave the house when I got a phone call from Ann. She had gone to Mass and was calling to report she had a flat tire. Great. Luckily a few kind men offered to help her change the tire so I was off the hook for that one. Dodged one bullet. Then I was off for an appointment with my eye doctor. I'm having continuing problems with my eyes due to the fact that some of my lower eye lashes grow back toward my eye and scratch my eye. Today was a scheduled treatment where the offending lashes are literally burned out of existence. Sounds painful doesn't it? Actually that part isn't bad at all because your lower eye lid is numb. Now getting the shot in your eye lids to numb them - that's the painful part. That and they bleed like crazy. While waiting for the doctor, Ann calls and informs me that they tire has been changed. Great news! Except the spare is also flat or just about. Crap. The kindly gentlemen that help change the tire direct her to the nearest service station to get both tires fixed. I hang up and I'm then directed into an exam room and given three injections in each of my lower eyelids. It's as painful as I remembered. I'm left alone to give the shots a chance to work. And alone and alone. The doctor finally returns with an apologetic "Oh I forgot all about you!" Oh how nice. Three eyelashes from each eye meet their end and I'm released. Thank goodness. I now get another call from Ann who is sitting at Starbucks while the tires are being taken care of. Someone or something has tripped the alarm at our house and the police are on their way to investigate. She thinks she may have forgot to cancel our dog walker or maybe not. I finally arrive home and no police and no note. I assume that they found no forced entry and no one home and figured it was a false alarm. A bill should arrive from the county in a few days for that. Merry Christmas. Driving into the garage, I notice the door into the kitchen has blown open and thats what tripped the alarm. Not to self - make sure the door is securely shut before running off to appointments. The rest of the day in uneventful. The quiet before the storm. Just as we are about to sit down to dinner, The Son calls. A phone call from The Son is almost always bad news. Its just a matter of degree on how bad. Turns out his car battery is dead. He wants me to come take care of it. What? He wants to use our car (flat tires now having been fixed) to go to work in the morning. I tell him to call AAA and they will install a new battery for him. Grumbling ensues, but he agrees to do it. 30 minutes later he calls back. AAA has arrived, but they don't have the right battery for his car and will have to return to the shop and pick one up. Oh and by the way, they're showing 2 different types of batteries called out for his car and would I know which one is the right one? Of course I don't so they leave to get the one they do have and we're all praying it's the right one. AAA returns and all seems to be ok. We'll see come morning. The car will be sitting out all night during the coldest night so far. The wind chill is already down to 3 with 25 mph winds. We finish dinner and Ann and I immediately fall asleep in front of the TV. We're old. Its what old people do. We wake up and face the dreaded job of taking the dogs out for the final time before bed. Its cold. Its windy. We whine a lot about it, but we walk the dogs. Scruffy's business looks terrible. We get home and unleash the dogs. We notice an unsettling smell coming from the dining room. Apparently Scruffy isn't feeling well and the dining room has borne the brunt of his intestinal distress. I watch the dogs while Ann does the clean up. We are keeping our fingers crossed that he isn't all up night having problems. After all who needs another day like today?

Long Distance Romance

Daughter#1's husband Matt was here for the weekend visiting his bride and trying to make the most of their time together. Daughter#1 is living with us for the moment here in Virginia. Her husband is still living in Connecticut while trying to find a job in the Washington DC area so he can rejoin his bride. Watching them reminds me of my own long distance romance I did with my now bride, Ann.

I met Ann back in January of 1975. We were both just out of college and trying to make our way in the world. We both worked for the Government, but at different locations. I was living in Charleston, SC. Ann was living here in northern Virginia. We were both in an intern program and required to take a lot of classes as part of the program. The first was a 4 week course usually taken at Ft Lee, but occasionally offered elsewhere. Where Ann was working had a large number of interns and, therefore, it made sense to being instructors to her workplace rather then send a lot of interns off on travel for 4 weeks. They still had some open spaces in her class and I managed to get one of them. It made sense for me to take the class in northern Virginia as my family (Mom and Dad) lived in suburban Maryland at the time and I could stay with them while I took the class. I made a great first impression on the class as I was over an hour late the first day due to traffic. Nothing like getting off on the right foot. The days were long - 8 hours of classroom lectures. By the second week, during one of our breaks, Ann came up and introduced herself to me. Not that I hadn't noticed her before. She and her two friends were hard to miss. But being the shy clod that I was, it was well she made the first introduction. She invited me to join her and some of her friends at the hotel bar next to where the class was being held. The rest as they say is history. We got together everyday after class for drinks or dinner or a movie or just going to her apartment and watching TV. On weekends I would drive from my parents house to take her out. All to soon the class was over and I was back in South Carolina. We would talk on the phone during work hours as I was too poor to have my own phone in my apartment (remember this is way before cell phones). We planned our next class so we could take it together. This time a 3 week course in April. This one was also as her workplace and this time I stayed at a hotel close by rather then stay with my parents. Seeing her everyday first for 4 weeks and then for 3 weeks was like speed dating someone. You got to know them well pretty quickly. After the 3 week course, we decided we were a pretty solid boyfriend/girlfriend and made weekend plans to see each other when we could. Back in those days, the trip from Charleston, SC to Alexandria took 9 hours. The speed limit was only 55 and their were portions of I-95 that were not yet completed in North Carolina. It helped that I got let out early on Fridays if I gave blood. So every 6 weeks I would. That would get me to Ann's place by 10:00PM. Otherwise I'd roll in at 2:00AM Saturday morning. We'd have Saturday together and part of Sunday. I was usually back on the road between 1 and 3 PM. The drive back to South Carolina always seemed a lot longer then the drive up. We did the long distance dating for over a year. Most of the time I would make the drive up to see her, but occasionally she would make the drive down to see me. Rather she found a Navy CDR with his family still living in Charleston and the two of them would drive down using her car. I was finally able to arrange a job working where Ann worked and moved up in July on 1976. We were married that September. It's an anniversary hard to forget these days. We were married on September 11.

Holidailies 2010

Wow. I can't believe I haven't written anything here since the twins birthday in July. That is down right embarrassing. I'm glad December has rolled around and the chance to participate in Holidailies once again to get me writing. This is my fourth year to participate in Holidailes where bloggers are asked to update their blog every day for a month. As I stated last year at this time, I'm looking forward to joining in for two reasons: I usually find some new blogs every year that I didn't know existed and look forward to following as we start the new year. The second is a bit more selfish in that it exposes my blog to a much larger audience then I could ever hope to drum up on my own. I typically get a big jump in readers in December over the rest of the year.

I don't have a Cast of Characters listed on my blog so let me introduce everyone that you might run across on these pages. I'm Frank, author and creator of Ready.....Row. I'm a 50ish Federal Worker who resides in Virginia and works in southern Maryland. I have been reading blogs for quite a while and it seemed like having one was fun so with a little encouragement, mostly from Beth of So the Fish Said, I set up this blog. This is my fourth year of writing in this blog. As the title of my blog might indicate, my main hobby is rowing. I belong to two rowing clubs in the northern Virginia area. I've been rowing since 1995. I got into rowing via my oldest daughter, who was a coxswain on her high school and college teams and now coaches for one of the rowing clubs I belong to. I row in 8+s and 4+s primarily when racing in Masters events and I also row a single for fun and exercise. When not rowing, I also like to bike and I have been know to brew my own beer from time to time.

Others you will run into here:

Ann - Wife of 34 years who puts up with me.

Daughter#1 - Our oldest child and who is currently living with us. She is working for a University Medical Hospital in Washington, DC while pursuing a Masters degree from Boston University online. She graduated from Ohio University with a degree in Journalism, which to date hasn't quite produced a paying job, hence the work on the Masters degree. Her husband Matt is still residing in CT and trying to get a job down this way. He visits as often as he can.

The Twins:

The Son - Twenty something IT Geek. Graduate of Radford University. Only one still living close to home. Video gamer obsessed.

Daughter#2 - Twenty something VA Tech grad living out in the Shenandoah valley with her husband also named Matt and their dog Gracie, known as the Black Demon. She is an environmental planner and current University of Florida grad student. Former soccer player extraordinarie.

Rosie - Our 16 year old mini schnauzer mix. Obtained through a schnauzer rescue organization when she was 9. Bottomless pit when it comes to eating.

Scruffy - Wheaton terrier. A rescue from the Homeless Animal Rescue Team (HART). A truly lay back dog in a house of chaos.

Amy and Emily - Affectionally referred to as "The Twins". 2 year old Miniature Schnauzers. Sources of endless energy. As mischievous a pair of dogs you will ever meet. Rescued from a West Virginia shelter in the middle of last year's record snowfalls.

If you're reading this, I hope you take the opportunity to come back over the next month and see what this crew is up to.

Happy Birthday!

Today is the 28th birthday for The Son and Daughter#2. Twenty-Eight years ago they were born about 7:30 AM at Alexandria Hospital. The Son was born first followed about 6 minutes later by his twin sister. Here is wishing both have a great day.

Speaking of Daughter#2, she and her husband stayed with us last night after they attended the Iron Maiden concert at Jiffy Lube Live (formerly Nissan Pavilion). After weathering a thunder storm it all apparently went well. Jiffy Lube Live? What a name.

We're having work done on the house. We've had the basement area, including the bathroom, repainted. Now we're having the wallpaper stripped off the dining room walls, prepped and painted. Next on the agenda is our bedroom. That's if Ann and I don't kill each other over what color it should be.

Practice continues for Sunday's Diamond States Regatta. I have practice tonight in both the Mixed 2X and the Quad (4X). I'm sure I'll be one tired camper come tonight.

First Race and Other Topics

It appears that I've been absent for some time now. Nothing posted at all for June. That's embarrassing. I'd like to say I've been super busy and couldn't get around to it, but that's so not the case. Just a case of laziness. With this post hopefully I can get back on the wagon.

The rowing season is off and running. I've been sculling a single since early April and my other rowing club began practice in early June. Our first race is this Sunday on the Occoquan. The Occoquan Boat Club (OBC) is sponsoring the Occoquan Masters Sprints. I'll be racing in a Quad in the "E" age category. "E" = Avg age is 55-59. My main rowing club is primarily a sweep rowing club. We race in 8+s and 4+s. We only dabble in sculling boats like the Quad. So of course, I'm in the Quad. I'm in the bow seat and responsible for steering the boat while I row. Fun times that. We haven't had much practice time in the Quad(see statement about the club being a sweep rowing club). So far there is only one other boat in the Quad category. They're from Pittsburgh and Three Rivers Rowing. They are an "A" age category boat. I have no illusion of keeping up with guys 20 years my junior. I would just like to keep close enough that the race is respectable once the time handicap is taken into account. (The younger the average, the less time handicap you are awarded). Racing against us old guys, Three Rivers will have to give us a significant handicap. I just have no idea how much - 15 or 20 seconds? We'll see.

On to other topics. Daughter#1 has moved back in. The family got together and painted the basement room for her. Less you think she is living in some small, dank, dark basement be advised that the room is huge, fully carpeted, has its own full bath, a fireplace and sliding glass doors to the backyard. The room has 4 windows in addition to the glass doors. She's hooked up with cable and Internet so she's all set. She is also coaching the women in my rowing club who are in the competitive category. Its neat having her out on the water with me. In other even better news, she has landed a job with Georgetown University. Things are looking up. We just need to get her husband a decent job down here.

In other news, hell must have frozen over here because The Son has also joined our rowing club. Something I thought I would never see. I've been asking him for years and he's always said "No". I think the combination of his sister now being involved with the club, his old high school coach also joining this year and his utter boredom with running and using his Elliptical for exercise finally got to him. We've already rowed several times together in the same boat. It helps that he rows starboard and I row port. He rowed in high school so its not a new endeavor for him. I actually think he's getting excited about racing tomorrow. It will be his first race in over 10 years. I hope his boat does well.

So as not to make this overly long and use up all the news in one post (plus it's time for lunch - priorities people!), I'll get this posted. Hopefully it won't be another month and a half before the next post.

Boomerang Child

Like a fair number of adults my age. Ann and I have have been empty nesters for about 2 or so years now. Ever since The Son moved into his condo back in 2007. Being an empty nester has its good and bad points, but we have made the adjustment and have pretty much settled into our own routine. That has all changed as of yesterday. We've now joined another select group - parents of a boomerang child. As Wiki defines it, a boomerang child is one that has moved back in with their parents after a stint of living out on their own for a period of time. Our boomerang child is Daughter#1. She has been living in Connecticut with her husband for several years now. During that time she has obtained work and been subsequently laid off several times. She has worked part time gigs when available. The economy has hurt her and her husband pretty hard. He works in sales and a large part of his income is based on commission. The economy has taken a bite out of his commission income due to lower sales. With Daughter#1 out of work and with his lower salary, they have had a hard time making ends meet. Daughter#1 decided that she needed to go back to school as her Journalism degree wasn't bringing her much in the way of job offers. She has decided she wants to get into nursing. An honorable profession. Unfortunately, a degree in Journalism doesn't get you much in terms of prerequisites to get you into nursing school. In addition, Connecticut doesn't seem to offer as many alternatives in terms of getting into an accelerated nursing program. Virginia offers several alternatives for such a program. Therefore she decided to return home to work on her degree program. Her husband will be joining her shortly, we hope. He has been applying for jobs here in the Washington area and we're hopeful he'll land one soon.

It will be strange for a while having a kid back in the house full time. On one hand it will be nice having help with the dogs and she will also be joining my rowing club. She will be one of the coaches for the Women's competitive team. I know its something she enjoys doing. I just hope the women, who have been known to run off a coach or two in the past with their antics, treat her with some respect. On the other hand, Daughter#1 is notorious with using excessive amounts of hot water and wanting food items not usually on our shopping list. I'm sure it will all work out for the best in the long run. She's already had her first class at the local Community College (Chemistry) as she continues to work on those nasty preregs. I'll give her this, once she has an idea in her head she'll stay focused on it until it's complete. She's the most anal child I've ever known. She has a lot of work ahead of her, but I have confidence she'll manage it.

It's a Sad Day in Washington

For sports fans here in the nation's capital, it is a sad day as the beloved Capitals, the best team in the NHL this year, laid an egg in the playoffs losing to the Club de Hockey Canadien - the Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens were the 8th seed. Frankly it wasn't a fluke. Even though the series went 7 games, the Canadiens totally outplayed the Capitals though out the series. I think the loss certifies Washington as the worst sports town in the world. The Redskins - last place, the Wizards - last place. The Nationals - back to back 100 loss seasons. It certainly makes being a sports fan here a trial. Sigh.

On a lighter note, we got a new high def TV. Now we can watch our lame sports teams in sparkling 1080 clarity.

Another thing that makes me happy - Daughter#2 has decided to return to the pitch and play soccer. She joined a league in Harrisonburg. One of the things I miss, now that my kids are older, is watching them play their various sports. As the kids were growing up, particularly when they were in high school, our weekends were spent following the teams our kids were on be it Daughter#2's travel soccer team or her high school soccer team or the high school crew team that Daughter#1 and The Son were on Their regattas would literally last all day long from 8:00 in the morning to 4:00 or so in the afternoon and, in the bigger ones, do it all the same the following day. Anyway, I plan to travel out to the Valley to catch at least one of her games.

It's suppose to be a good weekend weatherwize so I'm hoping to both get out on the water and do some rowing and break out the bike for my first ride of the season. I just wish it would stay warm instead of this 80 degrees one day and 40 the next. A little consistency would be nice.

A Late Christmas Present

This past Christmas the kids got together and gave us a number of presents and one of them was tickets to see the Moody Blues. The Moody Blues was Ann's favorite group when I first met her and we used to listen to them a lot as we dated and later married. We had seen them once before, like 15 years ago, when they came to the Nissan Pavilion. A good show that was partly ruined by two women sitting behind us who decided they were way more interested in talking to each other then listening to the music and the fact that it takes two hours just to get out of the Nissan Pavilion parking lot. The tickets this time were for the DAR Constitution Hall. DAR = Daughters of the American Revolution. I've lived in this area going back all the way to high school and I've never been to Constitution Hall, which is a crime in itself. Anyway the venue was very nice and the Moody Blues didn't disappoint. They played all the old favorites and the crowd ate it up. The crowd itself was definitely on the older side. I felt like we were on the younger side of the average age, which is saying something these days. Overall a very good time so thanks kids for the treat.

Saturday consisted of a rowing club meeting in the morning as we try to get things rolling for the coming year. We also signed up for dog sitting for Daughter#2 as she and her husband were headed to Philly to pick up a drum set. We were a little worried how Gracie, her dog, would get along with our three new additions. Ann drove out to Gainevilles to meet Daughter#2 and pick up Gracie. When she got back to our house, we slowly introduced Gracie to each of our new dogs one at a time so she wouldn't feel overwhelmed. Amy and Emily can do that. A few butt sniffs and everything seemed to go well and we all settled in to enjoy the rest of the day watching the basketball tournament.

Sunday I got up early and walked first Gracie and Scruffy up to the tennis courts and back a distance of about 2 miles. After walking them, I walked the twins, Amy and Emily, around the loop, which is just over 2 miles to burn off some of that terrier energy. It seemed to work. Daughter#2 and her husband had returned from Philly Saturday night and they wanted to go out for lunch. The Son joined us and we headed out for Thai, I'm not a big Asian food guy, but Daughter#2 and The son are so I don't mind eating Thai. We all ate our fill. They had a sea bass special that I got and loved. It came with a seaweed salad, which I really liked. Who knew? We said goodbye to Daughter#2 around 2:00 and I spent the rest of the day catching up on chores - doing laundry and grocery shopping. Needless to say, I crashed early, but a good weekend overall.

The weather forecast is calling for temperatures to reach the high 70s and even low 80s by the weekend. Rowing season starts this weekend so a perfect fit. I can't wait to get back on the water. I just hope the winds stay down so I can actually get out. I need the work.

A Bad Treat

I didn't want to let another whole week go by with out writing something here. I have a post ready to go in my head about Daughter#1's and her Husband's visit last week, but I have been putting it off until I upload some pictures I have to go with it. I was going to do that last night, but I couldn't put my hands on the camera and I was too lazy to go look for it. Hopefully I can get around to that tomorrow so check back.

I mentioned a time or two on here that Thursday is Treat Day here in the office. We all take turns (or least those of us participating) bringing in goodies for the rest to enjoy. Usually it's some combination of bagels/donuts/egg casserole/fruit/etc. The usual early morning fare as we try to get our eyes open and focused. It's a nice way to start the day and mingle with the co-workers. I have to say though, and we had them this morning, that Thomas makes the worst bagels in the world. There ought to be a law that they can't even call them bagels. They're just bread shaped like a donut with a bad aftertaste. Blah!

Daughter In The House

Yesterday Daughter#1 traveled down from Connecticut to visit with the rents for a week. She's down to look into getting registered for some college classes when she leaves Connecticut in May for the foreseeable while while she works on her nursing degree. Her husband will join her on Wednesday and stay until the end of the week when they will return back to Connecticut. Hopefully they will have some power by then. It has been out since Saturday night. Ann and I went and picked her up at National Airport yesterday morning.

It was Daughter#1's first chance to meet the new kids in the house - Scruffy here on the left and the twins, as we are now calling them - Amy and Emily, the miniature schnauzers. She loves them all, of course.
The twins are so full of energy, but seem to be settling in well. We even discovered that they know how to fetch. Obviously someone has spent some time with them doing some training, but lord can they be loud. We also bought a "coupler" so we can walk them on one leash that splits into two leads. Note the last remnants of our February snowstorms. Even this little bit is now gone.

Scruffy too has settled in and we are even getting him to eat without to much problem. Seems he likes various takes on dog stews. The Hill brand Irish Stew seems to be a favorite.

The twins are into everyone and everything. Here The Son keeps an eye out to make sure they don't get into trouble. Amy on the left and Emily on the right.

I forgot to mention in my last point that the previous weekend, my rowing club, hosted erg sprints for the local high schools. It is the 7th time we've held the sprints and it marks the end of their winter on land training as they switch to on water training. We had upwards of 180 rowers competing. The registration desk: two coaches and a rower checking in.

We hold the sprints at the local Gold's Gym where our club and Golds own 20+ ergs. 10 ergs were set up, and run through a laptop and the display shown on a large screen TV so spectators could follow the action.

Rowers taking their seats on the ergs. It was very competitive and everyone seemed to have a good time. A fitting end to the toil that is winter training.

Final Day of Freedom

The house is once again quiet. The kids have scattered back to their homes leaving this house seeming vacant and cold. It was nice having everyone here if only for a day or two (Daughter#2) or for most of the week (Daughter#1). It's hard to say when everyone will be together again, which makes these moments all the more precious.

In seeing Daughter#1 and her husband off this morning, it was quite the shock helping them load up their car. The temperature was in the midteens and the wind chill down to 5. That is really cold for around here and quite unpleasant I might add. Definitely a day for staying indoors. the wind has been blowing hard since yesterday sounding like the proverbial train you are suppose to hear before a tornado hits. The gusts have hit 35 mph. It's not suppose to get any warmer anytime soon. I just hope they keep the heat up in the vanpool tomorrow. Sitting in the back can get mighty frigid if they chose to be dicks about it.

Today (hopefully) marked the end of painting down at The Son's condo. We did some touch up painting and put the curtains back up. It actually looks quite nice. I hope he enjoys it. He was funny today in that he couldn't get rid of us fast enough. Seems he had some big "event" scheduled for 4:00 in Final Fantasy. Can't mess with his gaming don't you know. Well whatever keeps him out of trouble.

Back to the grind tomorrow. Ugh! The thought of getting up at 3:30 sounds like sheer torture after two weeks of getting up pretty much when i wanted to. Retirement is looking better all the time.

Another Day With The Kids

I think we are finally finished with the painting. We painted The Son's dining room area today and except for putting a few things back up, like the drapes, I think we are done. I am so tired of it. The actual doing of it isn't so bad, its the prep and clean-up and the large chunk of time it has taken of my vacation time that I hate. But I know The Son is happy with it. It's something he has wanted to do since he moved in two years ago. Thanks to Daughter#1 for the push to make it happen. Thanks also too everyone in the family that pitched in and helped out. And as you can see from the photo, The Son actually got off the coach and helped out today. Miracles do happen.

We managed to get the painting done by noon so we could go out to lunch. Daughter#1 and her husband drove back from Virginia Beach in the morning while we were doing the painting and we finished up about the time they arrived. We went to the Macaroni Grill to eat. I had their lobster ravioli which was pretty darn good. Afterward we crossed the street to get a couple of paintings to be hung on The Son's walls to go along with the new paint scheme. The rest of the afternoon was spent just chilling although the no rest for the weary Daughter (and her poor husband) cleaned up our finished basement to make it more livable.

In the evening, Ann whipped up some White Bean Chili with turkey and some sourdough bread to go along with it. Then we settled in to watch "He's Definitely Not Into You". It was pretty funny with some "awwwww" moments to it. All in all a pretty fruitful day. Now the specter of returning to work is beginning to raise its ugly head.

Another Day In The Paint Mine

It would seem that most of my free time this Christmas/New Year's break will be spent painting The Son's Condo. While there was a bunch of us painting it the other day, today it was just me. Sure it's The Son's Condo, but he was of no help whatsoever. Even though he knew we were going to paint today, he stayed up super late last night and spent most of today asleep on his couch. I'd like to say he was out partying at least ringing in the new year, but apparently he was just gaming all night. I suppose its better that way as he doesn't have a massive hangover and was just tired instead. I wanted to get an early start, like around 9:00, but The Son didn't get up until 11:30. By the time I finished putting a second coat on the accent wall, it was time for lunch. By the time lunch was over and I had put a second coat on the second living room wall, it was getting to be late afternoon. I finished up by taping his dining room in preparation for painting it tomorrow and then it was time for dinner. Getting home I relaxed for a few minutes with a beer or two, had dinner and then promptly fell asleep on the couch watching the end of the Rose Bowl. I'm awake just long enough to get this posted and then it's back to bed for me. I let The Son know tonight that I didn't want to take another whole day waiting for him to get his butt out of bed and then spending all afternoon painting. I plan to get down to his place as early as I can and finish up before lunchtime when Daughter#1 and her husband will be returning from Virginia Beach. I expect to relax the afternoon away with them. Time for bed. Goodnight.

Slow Down Day

So today was a day to relax and knock back. To recover from the whirlwind pace Daughter#1 has been setting all week. I slept until 830, which these days is almost unheard of for me. It felt good believe me. By the time I rolled out of bed, showered and got ready, it was almost lunch time. Daughter#1 and her husband, M#1, were headed to Virginia Beach to hang out with some of her husband's friends. We decided to go out for lunch and picked a spot that would allow them to quickly jump onto I-95 and head south. That spot was a bbq place. As I just had some pulled pork with The Son right before Christmas, I decided to go with ribs this time. I do love bbq in whatever shape it comes in whether it be pork, ribs, brisket or chicken. After devouring lunch we bade the kids a safe trip we returned home after a short stop at Target for a few items for The Son's place. While Ann was smart and took a nap, I decided to get on my work laptop and see if my travel voucher for my December trip to LA had gone through. I found out it had been returned now a second time. Frustrating. I then proceeded to waste about 2 hours trying to correct it before deciding it was a lost cause. I'll just have to call the Help Desk on Monday when I go back to work. Bah. The evening was spent watching The Son's alma mater, Radford, play George Mason in Men's basketball. It was played down in Radford so I couldn't go to the game, but it was nice being able to see them on TV. Radford won easily, which was a bit of a surprise. The Son and I are hoping they will repeat as Big South Champions and get to be part of the craziness that is March Madness.

Busy...Busy...Busy...

I've been really really busy the past few days. The kids have all been home making for a full house what with the two daughters also bringing their spouses and Daughter#2 her dog Gracie. As I mentioned in my previous post, Daughter#1 has to fill the days and has she ever. Lets get a run down:

1. Day After Christmas and the two daughters arrive in the morning from out of town and The Son leaves his cave to join us for a day after Christmas breakfast prepared by yours truly.

2. Next up was opening presents. Here Daughter#1 does the honors while her husband looks on and takes her picture.

3. Then there was Christmas dinner to prepare. Here The Son works on his oyster dressing.

4. The next day (Sunday) we were down at The Son's place painting his living room and hallway of his condo. Here The Son paints around his balcony door.

Guests were not exempt. Here M#1 and Daughter#1 paint a portion of the hallway. Welcome to the family!

5. For Monday we were off to the Air and Space Museum Annex out by Dulles Airport. Here they have some of their larger aircraft/spacecraft that would never fit in the downtown museum. A look down just one third of the exhibit hall.

They have some really famous aircraft there. Like the Concorde. Oh if they could just make supersonic air travel economically feasible.

I think everyones favorite from our group was the SR-71 Blackbird. On its final flight from LA to Washington, the pilots made it in 1 hour 4 minutes. Average speed was over 2,000 mph. Amazing.

Probably the most famous bomber in the world. The Enola Gay. It had been in storage for decades before they finally had the space to display it. It wasn't as big a plane as I had envisioned from seeing pictures of B-29s.

My favorite fighter of all time. The plane that Tom Cruise and Anthony Edwards made famous. The F-14 Tomcat. "Talk to me Goose".

All that walking around not to mention two big meals, left me wiped out. Hence no entry yesterday. Just too tired.

6. After sleeping 10 hours, we headed down to southern Maryland today to look at the Naval Air Station and the surrounding area. Daughter#1 and M#1 are considering relocating there. After touring the base, lunch was in order - crab cakes!

After a day of running around touring the base, Saint Mary's College, Solomon's Island, visiting a dear friend that lives down there and a last stop at Leonardtown and Breton Bay in the background, we headed home. Daughter#1 and M#1 pose for a final photo.

Its time for another long winter's nap.

Rembrant or Michelangelo?

Every since The Son bought a place of his own about two years ago, he has wanted to change the look of it by painting the place. The previous owner had had the place painted when he put it on the market. To make it more buyer friendly, he had painted it all white - everywhere. It's a two bedroom condo so its not all that big and it had the sterile rental property feel to it. Now The Son has wanted to paint it, but he hasn't been much on the action part of it. In particular he hem and hawed a lot about what color to paint what rooms. Enter in Daughter#1. Daughter#1 is like that old axiom about nature abhors a vacuum. To her every day has to be filled with some activity or another. A day laying around is a day wasted to her. So today we had nothing planned and there was a condo that needed painting - in her mind we had a match. In the weeks leading up to her visit many e-mails and phone calls ensued to nail down colors that would please not only The Son, but also the females in the family (Ann and the two daughters). A consensus was finally achieved and a game plan developed and the battle was on. After a breakfast of waffles (made from a dairy free and gluten free mix for our lactose intolerant guests), I took The Son and M#1 (Daughter#1's husband) and headed to his condo to begin taping while the Ann and Daughter#1 headed off to buy the paint and painting supplies. Daughter#2 and M#2 (Daughter#2's husband) also joined us. M#1 and 2 proceeded to remove all the outlet switch plates and register covers while I taped. M#2 joined in on the taping and ended up doing about twice as much as me. He is fast and I am slow. Once Ann and Daughter#1 arrived, the painting began. The plan was to do the living room area and the hallway. Most was a color called "Silver Setting" with an accent wall painted in "Bayside". They are Behr paints and you're welcome to go to their web site to look at the colors. I'll try to get pictures up shortly. It took us about four hours to get everything done including a break for some pizza. It turned out rather well and everyone seemed satisfied with the results. There is some debate on whether a second coat is required, but by the time we finished up it was starting to get dark and we thought it best to check back when the light would be better. Definitely a busy day, but with something concrete to show for our efforts.