A Cold, Tired, Post Oscar Morning

7:13

Up at 6:30 despite staying up to the bitter end of Oscar night.  It's one below, not as cold as I thought it would be, mostly cloudy, with the sun breaking though occasionally.  Another single digit day, too cold again to be outside for long.  We will have to see if I have the mojo and courage to venture out on the lake later today.  It's supposed to be sunny but a high of only 8º.

A Picnic On The Lake?

Yesterday was an orgy of TV watching, as neither of us ventured far from our living room or TV room most of the day.  It was very cold, once again, though there were people out cross country skiing, some fishing, even a group off of Victoria, sitting around, in camp chairs, enjoying fishing and just being cold on the windy tundra of the lake.  It actually looked like fun, especially if they brought a cooler along.

Just as we were finishing our brunch, a western omelet, made with left over meatloaf, our good friend Mike Cassell from Hudson stopped by, having skied the morning at Holiday Valley.  We had not seen him in over a year, so it was fun to catch up, as he's always amusing in a curmudgeonly sort of way. He was part of a  group of guys who met every Tuesday night for years (at least fifteen) when I was teaching at Western Reserve Academy.  I miss the camaraderie and of course, the two beers we limited ourselves to each Wednesday night, like the good boys we were.

He stayed for a couple of hours and headed home just as Ohio State basketball was on the tube, a team I have enjoyed watching in the past few years.  Not so much this year, perhaps because I have become surfeited with basketball, or I am starving myself so I can enjoy the feast of March Madness.

Redpoll 

Finch Perched  on Drooping Rhododendron

The highlight of the day was a retro dinner, our family favorite when we lived in Hawaii (as I remember), the inimitable hamburger stroganoff, served over wide egg noodles.  Brown a pound of hamburger, add garlic and onion, and mushrooms, then add two exotic ingredients from the 1960's, Campbell's cream of chicken soup and sour cream.  Yum.  It was delish, of course, took us both back to the early days of our marriage, when this was our 'go to meal' when friends came over for dinner.  As I recall, we even served wine, a Mateus or Gallo Hearty Burgundy, a novelty for most of us with Midwestern roots.

We then overdosed on the boob tube, watching two episodes of House of Cards till about 9:00, then the Red Carpet, saved on the DVR, so we could fast forward through the commercials, till 9:30.  Then we watched the Oscars, also on DVR, so we could forward through commercials  and some of the more boring speeches.  We finally watched it live about 11:40, and stayed up till midnight, to see the last three awards, all accurately predicted by moi.  We were asleep by 12:30, thinking we would sleep in but both of us were up by 6:45.