Once More To The Lake (Happy Mother's Day)

Wrapping Mother's Day Presents with Granny

Almost Done

Mitch's Original

Up at 6:00, to a quiet house in Darien.  Cloudy and wet outside, though it may clear up later in the day.  It looks like a gray ride home to the lake but at least we don't have to worry about snow and ice though  I did see the possibility of snow flurries on the Chautauqua weather report for tonight.  Right now it's 57º in Darien, 36º at the lake, quite a difference.

We were limited with our choices yesterday because it rained all day.  I did manage to get in a couple of walks with both Marisa and Mitch, on their bikes, with Mitch on his long board though the street could be dangerous if wet.  He took it easy.  The day began with dropping Mitch off at the Darien gymnasium for a three hour volleyball practice, one he really enjoyed because they scrimmaged quite a bit.  Evie, Marisa and I went off to do some shopping at Fairways, Marisa's favorite after Stew Leonard's and we also did some shopping at a couple of other stores, looking for Mother's Day presents for Beth.  Fairways was fun, lots of colorful displays, great looking deli, meats, and breads, and all pricey, keeping away the locals since it's a depressed neighborhood with a high end store.  We finally found a few gifts for Beth at Palmers, the local grocery and gift shop.

On Albarran Pond

Spring Heron

When we got home, Mitch was back from practice, so all three kids helped Evie wrap Beth's Mother's Day presents and write  noted on her card.  They had fun doing it, as Tyler and Mitch are both imaginative present wrappers. to be nice.  Also, Tyler had been begging  Evie to make my Mom's coffee cake (really Mrs. Snavely's), so Marisa helped Evie put it together, baked it, and when I got up this morning, about a quarter of this morning's special Mother's Day Coffee Cake is left, no surprise.  Late afternoon, I stopped briefly at Trader Joe's to pick up some cheese to bring back to the lake, then took Mitch to the Utopia Skate Board shop in Norwalk.  He has a birthday coming up, wants a new board, and wanted to check it out in person.  It was terrible weather to drive in, rainy and lots of traffic, and Interstate 95 was busy one way, fast moving the other, for reasons I can never figure out.

While we were at the store, Evie put together her famous Turkish spiced kofte's, ground chuck with all kinds of Turkish spices like sumac, made in to small, football shaped patties.  For dinner, Mitch and I grilled four pounds of kofte's, Evie put together a  tomato sauce, sauted small squares of Naan in butter,  and we made what the Turks call Iskender Kebab.  To make it, you put the cut up and toasted naan on your plate, put three of four of the koftes on top, cover that we tomato sauce, then put yogurt on top of that and, if you were in a Turkish restaurant, a waiter would be coming around with a pan of sizzling butter, to pour over the top of your kebab.  We skipped that part.  It was a feast but we still had a mountain of koftes left because Tyler went to a reception for area students who were going to Dartmouth next fall.

Late evening Walk and Biking

Fortunately, when Beth and Rami arrived home at 8:30, they were both hungry so they did a good job of putting a dent in the left over dinner.  We spent the rest of the evening talking about their four days of fun in Vegas.  They had a great time, lots of good food, some gambling, shopping, walking,  sun bathing and of course, people watching.  We went to bed around 10:30, as did everyone.