Connecticut Warms Up Some

7:00

Finding Books And Films With Granny

It's almost 7:00 and Evie's up, making a fried egg sandwich for Mitchell who is yet to get up.  He wants to eat at 7:10 because it's an important morning for him.  He is taking the SAT's, which were scheduled for January but had to be postponed because of the weather.  This test takes on an almost insane importance in the college roulette acceptance game.  Do well and you might just get your first choice.  Maybe.  And, hard to believe, it's colder here in Darien, 5º then it is at Lake Chautauqua, 1º though both places are warming up some, into the 30's here.  Perhaps a good day for a walk or hike.

A bitter cold Friday kept us in most of the day, with an occasional excursion out in to the arctic temperatures.  First, Mitch and I took Beth's car in for its service, oil and various maintenance, the same place I took my Pilot earlier in the week, a very busy place in Darien because they are trustworthy, good, and reasonable.  Because it is next door to Trader Joe's, Evie made me up a small list and it was surprisingly empty, even though it was lunch time.

Lunch for Beth and I was leftover Chicken Marbella, Thursday night's dinner...always better the day after.  None of us wanted to do much in the afternoon, in fact, Evie and Marisa stayed in their pajamas for much of the day.  We played lots of backgammon as Marisa is becoming an expert at it, wants to play continually.  In between, she is making a braid for her iPad ear phones, a cool idea.  And we decided to have an Office marathon, starting with the first season, the ones where Pam and Jim are at first friends, then on and off more than friends.  I think the earlier show are by far the best, before they end up married.

Baba and Marisa

What's Good?

At 4:00, we gathered up our communal mojo to drive to the library, to look for videos and books for Marisa.  The library was packed with residents, which is great to see.  People still read even though they have so many distractions then we did growing up, like iPads, Facebook, email, etc.  I do wonder if the younger generation is reading as much as my generation because I saw few teens in the library mostly adults and middle school or younger aged kids.  We found three or four movies we thought we might like, and Marisa came home with a pile of books.

The Old Man And The Book

We then played a few games of backgammon, what else, before Evie and Beth went into the kitchen to put together dinner, tacos, Evie and my guilty favorite.  Beth puts refried beans and tomato sauce in with her ground chuck and taco mix, which makes it go farther and is more healthy.  She then stuffs the taco shells with the mixture adding cheese and puts it in the oven for five or ten minutes.  That way the mixture soaks into the tacos, making them tasty.  We did a great job on them, topping each with cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, avocado, and salsa, a very satisfying dinner.  We then watched a much ballyhooed film (by the Bissells), The Internship, which we enjoyed because it was a movie the entire family could watch albeit few tasteless scenes.  Ramiro walked into the room just as we were finishing because he had spent the day in Chicago.

After filling up on the tacos, he and Beth went into the sunroom to watch some of their shows, and Marisa, Evie and I stayed in the den and watched more of The Office until about 10:15 when we had to make Marisa go up to bed.  So the three of us went up to bed, leaving Beth and Rami to themselves, the end of a quiet day.