A Morning of Clouds And Fog

6:31

August, 2011 

Listening to Only A Game on NPR,  and they are talking about Ohio State football, yes, summer is over if they are taking football.  It's a gray on gray morning, a lack of clarity to our lake vista, the only action, bass boats roaring out of the Marina at 6:30 and like clock work, our neighbor, skiing by on a slalom, raising rooster tails as he goes.

Yesterday was getting ready for the arrival of my sister Ellen and her husband Wally, from Herndon,VA.  I decided to skip yoga, mostly because it was early, 8:30, forcing me to rush my morning and I 'preferred not to,' echoing Bartleby, a character in a Melville short story I always liked to teach.  So, we gussied up the house, vacuuming, straightening, making sure the bedrooms were in order. And Evie put together our dinner, a vodka shrimp pasta sauce which we always have enjoyed. And we both worked some outside, Evie cutting the lawn, me watering, doing some weeding, washing windows, though there's not a lot to do in the yard this time of year.

For lunch, I made fish tacos, finishing up the tilapia from a couple of nights ago (waste not, want not). And we spent the afternoon relaxing, reading both in and out, waiting for the Bottiny's to arrive.  They finally got here around 5:30, a much longer drive than they expected, partly because of a violent rain storm in Warren, forcing them to pull over and wait it out.

Since my sister Ellen is a great gardener, we had to walk the yard, looking at the various bushes, shrubs, some in bloom like the hydrangeas, which surround our house, and of course, Evie's garden. You have to see my sister's yard to appreciate her green thumb with flowers.  We then cracked open a couple of beers, got out the pretzels and veggies and dip, and sat on the front porch, enjoying the late afternoon, catching up on the lives of their two children.  They have not been to the lake for at least a couple of years, so they were excited to be here.  They first visited us with their then infant son Brooks, back in 1981, the year we bought our house.

Making Fresh Pasta

Around 7:00, we went in, and everyone pitched in and helped Evie make the fresh pasta for our dinner involving everyone in the process.  Once the fettuccine was made, we quickly dropped it in boiling water for a few minutes, then added it to the vodka and shrimp sauce, letting the noodles and sauce sit for a few minutes while Evie got the salad and garlic bread ready.

We decided to eat on the front porch, rather than the yard, afraid the lake flies would be a nuisance.  It was a good choice and easy as I just set up a cardtable, set it, and we already had the chairs, so within five minutes, we were out on the porch, enjoying our dinner, a glass of wine, and great conversation, mostly about both of our kids and our grandchildren, their travels to Maine.  Ellen follows my blog so she knew quite a bit about our grandchildren's visit in August.  For dessert, Ellen made cookies, so we finished off the wine with cookies, then went inside to wash up the dishes.  Then, we adjourned to the couch, so Ellen and Walt could 'ooh and ahh' as they admired the Shutterfly album Evie made of last summer's visit of our kids and grandchildren. It is an amazing photo book.  We actually got the idea of using Shutterfly from Ellen, as she made an albums for each of her kids, of their first twenty years. Neat.

Not sure what's up for the day.  We have the Woodlawn picnic in our yard from 5:00 to 7:00 and then we are going out for dinner at the Rod and Gun but that's about it.  The day is open...hope it clears up so we can go for a cruise.  If not we will have to go to Ryder's Cup because Walt is a coffee lover.  O, yea, perhaps stop at the Transfer Station, too.