The End Of A Year

Our Kids, Beth and Ramiro

It's 7:30 and I sit here in Darien, lonely and feeling a year older.  Everyone, fortunately, is still sleeping and I have been up for an hour.  I can see blue skies through the trees, with some clouds and it's a chilly 26º out, so we can look forward to a nice day.

Yesterday Rami and I were up for at least an hour before the others, drinking coffee from his new coffee pot.  We talked about everything, from cameras, to politics, to the economy, to his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers, and whether they have a chance at the Super Bowl.  Everyone starting getting up about 9:00 and Evie, unfortunately, felt terrible, a fever, cough, the works.  What is this, our getting ill every time we take a trip to see our kids. After a few cups of coffee, we decided that Beth would take Evie to the Urgent Care.  And since I was in the market for a new camera for Evie and me and a computer, Rami and I would drive into NYC to the famed B & H Photo, 420 9th Avenue, NYC, for those who might want to visit it sometime.  It's an experience, like going in the NYC Apple Store.  It took us close to an hour to get there but fortunately, they have a parking lot across the street for the store that's free if you spend more than a hundred bucks, which is pretty easy.

B & H PHOTO

We walked in through doors and guards and into this huge array of any kind of camera, video, printer, TV, computer, etc.  It's the old fashioned kind of the store (Stew Leonards's Grocery in Norwalk would be its counterpart).  It has not changed much inside in fifty years and unlike modern Best Buys, everything in this store is shoved together so that there are people and salespersons everywhere.  I would venture to say at least 500 people were in the store shopping on a Tuesday morning, close to a hundred agents.  We wound our way through aisles to the Apple computer section, looked at the new Mac Book Pro and Mac Air but we both decided it made sense to wait for the new Mac Book Air's arrival in the next couple of months,  the Pro just too cumbersome and heavy compared to the Mac Air.  We then went upstairs to the camera sections where close to a hundred cameras are on display so you can hold them, play with them, with a salesperson nearby to help.  And around the sides of the store are counters with mostly men in yarmulkes, seated behind the counter, with numbers above them.  You wait in line and when a salesperson finishes, a number lights up and you move to his counter.  We ended up talking to an older guy, my age probably, and he was very knowledgeable, knew the kind of camera I was interested in, pulled it out along with a couple of others, and we talked with him about the pros and cons for about 15 minutes.  I wanted something that could fit in my pocket, had a good telephoto, and was good in low light.  I ended up buying a Panasonic Lumix which seems to fit our needs perfectly, with a 30X telephoto.  He took our order, typed it in the computer, and gave us a printed order, which we were  to take downstairs to the cashier.  Downstairs,  20 cashiers sat behind booths, again with numbers, and we waited in line for one to open up.  I then paid, got another receipt that showed I paid, along with a 50 dollar gift certificate, and went to another line, another counter of 20 agents and when a number lit, I gave the agent my receipt and he went behind him to aisles of stuff hanging from bags, with numbers,  and picked up my camera.  And we were done, or so we thought, but Rami wanted to get something for Mitch's new GO PRO camera, so we walked back in, got what we wanted and I ended up getting a small, bendable tripod for my camera, one I could easily carry in my back pack.  And we were finally done, bid B & H adieu, jumped in our car and drove to the West Side to return a jersey for Marisa only to find out the store was closed, a waste of time.  So, we jumped back on one of the many thruways around Manhattan and drove home, getting there around 2:00.

Cameras To Handle

Camera Experts

Meanwhile, Evie had been to the doctor, had an upper respiratory infection, got antibiotics and cough medicine, and was sleeping when we got home.  Beth and Marisa were in the sunroom, knitting and watching  TV and Tyler was upstairs playing music on his new keyboard.  We then hung out the rest of the afternoon, but Mitch visitied his girl friend, Mimi, and I walked Cody for the first time.  Evie was up a couple of times but was too tired to stay up long, so she took a couple of naps during the day.

Mitch At Play

The Dartmouth Boys

Around 6:00, we started prepping for dinner.  First, we cleaned up the fat from our prime rib for tonight's dinner and put it back in the refrigerator to air dry.  Beth had brined the chicken thighs overnight, so she drained, washed and patted them dry and let them sit until Rami made up the coating for deep fried chicken, a combination of spices and flour  from a Thomas Keller cookbook. Then Mitch took over (Tyler was at the gym working out), and dipped each thigh first in the flour mixture, then in buttermilk, then in another bowl of the flour mixture until we had sixteen thighs ready for deep frying.  Rami took over and fried four pieces at a time, each batch for approximately 12-15 minutes I would say, as we all sat around the kitchen counter, watching the chicken sizzle, sipping wine and even Evie, who was  feeling a bit better, had a small glass of wine.  And while the chicken was deep frying, Beth was making homemade biscuits to go with the chicken, so we were having quite a dinner,

Deep Frying Chicken Master

Darien Fried Chicken

When the chicken was done, we sat down in their festive dining room and feasted on chicken, coleslaw, roasted corn salad, biscuits with butter and honey, and a green salad.  We ended up sitting at the table for an hour or more, all seven of us, talking and listening to music, exchanging our favorites, then playing them on Spotify which was fun.  Even Evie was able to enjoy herself and the food tasted good to her.  I don't think we finished dinner until 8:30, the dishes by 9:00 we everyone helping.

A Fun Dinner Of Food, Conversation, And Music

We then watched a WW II movie called Fury, while Marisa and Evie went up to bed, around 9:45. About 10:30, Marisa came down and complained about not being able to go to sleep, so I went upstairs with her and we talked until she got sleepy and since it was close to 11:00, I decided to go to bed rather than watch the rest of the movie.  It was the end to a busy day but not a very fun one for Evie,

It's 8:10 at the moment, Ramiro is up, and I am waiting for a message from Evie to see if she needs anything.