Six Degrees In Darien, Zero In Chautauqua

Rockin Robins...Signs Of Spring?

Clear and COLD at 7:40

Up at my usual time, 6:00, and it does seem really cold outside, as the windows are frozen.  Mitch is up as well, and Evie came down around 6:15.  Marisa is awake now, but is lounging in her bed for some before coming down for breakfast.

Yesterday, I took both kids to school at 7:00. so we had a large day to ourselves until the young ones came home from school.  So what did we do, took it easy most of the day.  Just some of the usual, keeping up the house, thinking about lunches and dinners for Evie, surfing the net every couple of hours just to pass the time, as nothing much changes other than Facebook posts, and I am into the thick of WILD, by Cheryl Strayed, and just discovered she changed her last name to Strayed, which seems to fit her well.  The book makes me want to do some hiking but not the Pacific Coast Trail though I would have loved to do parts of it, if I were younger.  I wonder why I never really thought much about hiking until I retired five years ago.  It just didn't seem like something to do.  Perhaps my life was too filled with family and teaching, summers, too, some basketball and coaching, and of course, buying our house at Chautauqua Lake in 1981 meant we spent our summers at the lake, rather than traveling or doing other things like camping and hiking.

Yet we camped every summer for seven years when we lived in Turkey but never camped again, until I spent a uncomfortable night at Letchworth State Park three years ago, hiking and bike riding for a couple of days.  Now, Evie and I love to take short hikes on the trails around Chautauqua Lake, a highlight of the day if we can get out there in the woods. And we both totally agree with the great environmentalist and co founder of the Sierra Club, John Muir who said:  "In every walk in nature one receives far more than he seeks."

Ready For Winter Break

Early afternoon,  Cody kept bugging me, so I took him out for a walk, a good idea as I got my mojo back.  And for some reason, it felt like spring in the air, as a round of robins, harbingers of spring, were sitting in the branches of a pine tree, swooping from branch to ground and back. Could spring be far behind?

We did not know what to do for dinner since Mitchell was going out to dinner with a friend and Ramiro was out of town.  So, I decided to make up some chili with ground turkey.  I found a recipe for vegetarian chili but threw in the turkey to make it more palatable for the family.  It has two or three kinds of beans, the only difference was adding a can of refried beans, a new twist, and lots of canned tomatoes because I like my chili with lots of them.  As for seasoning, I just threw in teaspoons of them and hope for the best, lots of cumin and chili powder, garlic salt, etc.  Letting it simmer for an hour brings out all the flavors.

We had our chili dinner late, around 7:30, and watched a couple of episodes of The Office with Marisa, her favorite show at the moment.  She had spent the past hour working on her homework, so this was a nice break for her, to relax with us, watch TV and have some thing to eat before bed.  The chili was top notch, according to Evie, but she always says that about anything I make, encouraging me, of course, to cook more in the kitchen.

We are excited because our daughter Jill and her family are coming to visit us in Darien tonight, to spend the President's Day Weekend with the Albarrans and us.  We cannot wait to see them.  And Marisa, of course, will be ecstatic to see her cousins, Hayden and Halle.  It looks like a wild and crazy weekend.