Lots Of White Stuff Overnight

Happy Together

7:09

8:35

A delightful morning as winter, snow, the cold has returned once again to Chautauqua Lake.  And it seems to have scared away the fishermen as I have yet to see a hut or bucket on the lake.  It's 16º and may stay in the teens the rest of the day.  It's a good thing we did not put away the snow shovels because both Evie and I will be out clearing our parking area this morning.  Yippee as my buddy Mac used to say...we love the snow.  It's 8:45 and I just noticed two fishermen walking out, towing a sled.  And ten minutes later,  they headed back in for some reason?

9:20

Yesterday was a good day for ice skating as the snow had mostly disappeared and the lake was a vast sheet of ice.  The fishing guys were out, enjoying the day.  Unfortunately, neither one of us is a skater so I drove to Lakewood at 9:30 for a Yin Yoga class.  The class was fine and I needed it as I had a bad night, waking, then falling asleep, then waking.  When I got home, I helped Evie put the finishing touches on our dinner preparation.  We were having six for dinner, the winter remnants of our breakfast club with their wives.  Since Evie had done most of the prepping on Sunday, it was fun getting things ready.

Evie had my lunch planned as well,  homemade vegetable soup, of course, and toasted cheese sandwiches.  We then had our usual afternoon, relaxing and napping for me, putting the finishing touches on dinner prep for Evie.  Around 5:00, we got out the drinks and Evie made the white sauce for the ziti before putting it in the oven at 6:00.  Because so many things needed to be baked, the timing was essential, so as she put in the ziti, she took out the appetizer, breaded pickles stuffed with mozzarella cheese.  And at 7:00, when she took out the ziti, she put in the baguettes.  Timing is all.

Everyone arrived at 6:15 and I went out and helped them park so that it would be easy to drive home even if we had snow.  And, typically, it started to snow just as they arrived.  It was fun to have a house alive with conversation, as we stood around the kitchen island, laden with drinks, deciding what to have.  We finally got everyone to the living room, and Evie brought out the pickles.  None were sure what they were and a bit hesitant to try them, but once they tasted them, the plate was empty. As someone said, we are getting our vegetables.

A Ziti Dinner For Eight

We sat around, listening to music, eating pickles and talking until 7:30 when dinner was ready.  The dinner was perfect for a group and with a salad and baguettes, we were happy.  After dinner, we had Revani for dessert, a Turkish semolina cake topped with creme fraiche, and Turkish tea to finish off the meal.  We ended up sitting around the table, enjoying just sitting, reminiscing about the good old days (for example, we discovered both Charlie and Wendy lived on the same street as writers David McCullough and Annie Dilliard!), and discussing favorite films, books, and TV series.  We never made it back to the living room.

By 10:15,  everyone was ready to drive home in the snow.  Cars were covered with snow, so  I went out with my broom and helped clean off the cars and everyone drove slowly down Woodlawn Road.  Evie and I were still energized from the evening so we ended up cleaning up somewhat, putting things away, clearing off the table and rinsing the dishes, leaving most of them for this morning.  It was a really fun night with good friends.