Good Morning, Darien

Picking Up Marisa at School

Mitch's Newest Pottery

Mitch's Plates

Marisa relaxed

I am the first one up, like always, and even Rami is sleeping in.  Marisa is the first one up after me, then Mitch, and both Evie and Rami are still sleeping at 7:30.  Marisa and I have been talking about her Lemony Snicket books and she's on her 10th volume. It's amazing how detailed a young person's memory is; she knows all the details from the various volumes.   It looks like a great day, sunny, high in the 50's, a perfect day for a hike or walk, anything outside.

We had an easy ride yesterday, 435 miles door to door and it takes us little over seven hours, with two stops, for breakfast and lunch, once in Bath, once just outside of Middletown on # 84.  It's still winter along # 86, the trees a lavender color, the only green the occasional pine forest, a pretty ride especially when we get to the Catskills, around Roscoe and their famous diner.  The early spring goes for Darien as well, a few fruit trees and the forsythia are in bloom but none of the deciduous trees.  We arrived at Beth's around 2:30 and hurried off to meet Marisa at school at 3:00, our usual routine.  Beth picked up Tyler and Brian around 3:30, got packed, and headed off, with Brian's Mom to Bucknell for twenty four hours.  They are spending Thursday night in Lewisburg, have tours and interviews Friday, and should be home tonight around 7:30, depending when they leave.

So, it was Mitch and Marisa, with Evie and I till Rami got home, around 8:30.  For dinner, we had the baked ziti Evie brought, along with garlic bread and my banana bread, which the kids devoured.  We relaxed and played with the kids in the afternoon, then after dinner, went out for a fun walk with Mitch on his long board and Marisa and Cody.  This is our typical evening routine, to walk the street about dusk, with flashlight. Mitch brought along a kite, so he would long board down the hills on their street, with his kite trailing behind him, a bit of a drag.  It was neat but he had to watch for electrical wires, which crossed the road at various spots.   Cody loves the walk as well, so it's a great way to end the day.  Rami, as I mentioned, got home late, so we sat around talking until about 10:30 then we all went to bed.  Marisa, however, went to bed around 8:00 which is her normal time.  Perhaps that's why she's the  first one up.

Off To Darien for Easter

Hairy Woodpecker

Easter Cookies by Evie

Gold Finches at Evie's Kitchen Window

Up too early, about 5:15, to blackness, blinking lights and 35 degrees.  It looks like a dry weekend here at the lake, though there are freeze warnings for the next couple of nights. We are off to Darien this morning, about a seven hour drive.  We cannot wait to get there, to see the Albarans as we have not visited since New Year's.  It looks like a nice day to drive and the weekend should be great in Darien as well.  We arrive by 2:30, in time to meet Marisa at school and walk her home.

Yesterday, as usual, we spent getting ready for our trip.  We spent most of the morning and part of the afternoon in the kitchen, believe it or not.  We are bringing dinner to Darien, so Evie made baked zita, roasted cauliflower,  brined and roasted chicken breasts, made some cookie dough while I just measured various spices, opened cans, and did the dishes.  This took three hours easily.  I then made some banana bread, from a recipe I found on the web; it's supposed to be healthy and delicious.  Unfortunately, it did not rise much, so I don't know how good it will be.

We had eggs, potato pancakes, garlic spinach for dinner and watched the movie Carnage.  It took place in one room, like a play, involving two sets of parents trying to be mature and understanding adults as they discuss the striking, with a stick, of one of their sons by the others son.  It reminded me of Who Is Afraid Of Virginia Wolf as the two couples end up losing their cool, airing their dirty laundry as well as defending their son.  Jodie Foster and Kate Winslett star.  It was amusing at times but I got tired of the constant verbal fireworks and lack of action or plot other than Winslett vomiting on Jodie Foster's coffee table!

A Sunny Wednesday Morning, Again!

6:45

7:10

Maples in Spring

The spring, so far, has been amazing, somewhat like the winter, in that we have more than our usual amount of sunshine, not as much rain as we expect, and its warmer than most winters and springs here at the lake.  This morning is not exception, a cloudless sky, bright sun rising, and 37 degrees outside, with a high in the 50's and no rain expected.  I sit here, listening to Morning Joe on Sirius, as they debate whether Santorum should stay in the race, their assumption being that Romney has the nomination wrapped up.  It's interesting to hear their take on Romney, as they argue how electable he is.  They seem to forget that people mostly vote parties, thus almost half the nation would vote for Porky Pig if he were the democratic or republican candidate.  Romney has been diced and sliced by the media, so it's difficult to see who he really is.  And he hasn't helped as he has been forced, in order to get elected, to move to the right  to please conservatives.   That he could have been the Governor of a liberal state of Massachusetts suggests that their were qualities and beliefs that could appeal to democrats.  Will he revert back to some of his earlier positions, once he gets the nomination (becoming the Etch of Sketch nominee) is the question.  His choice: risk losing the conservatives by modifying some of his positions  in order to attract some democrats and independents, or stay conservative, cater to the far right and lose the independents.  Either way I predict a  close race, with Obama winning a squeaker in the end as long as no huge change occurs, like the Iranian kidnapping during Carter's last year, or the Wall Street debacle during Bush's last year.  I wish people would remember that what a politician promises and what he ends up being able to do are almost as different as night and day.  Both Obama and Romney promise us the world, Romney a return to the 1950's and Obama, a vibrant, sustainable, new world.  Neither seem possible with politics being the way they are.  How could Obama be successful with the single goal of the Republicans being to defeat and oppose anything he proposes.  Would the democrats do the same to Romney if he were elected?  Perhaps but they seem more wiling to compromise but I could be wrong.  Neither candidate is as bad as painted by their opposition.


Yesterday was a big shopping day for Evie, off to Weggies and then to Old Navy and TJ's to look at spring clothes and browse.  I was left at home, fortunately, as I tend to get impatient (very) when Evie shops.  Instead, I took a long kayak paddle along the shore, all the way to the tip of Tom's Point and back.  It was quite windy, even cold when I started, about 10:00 but within the first ten minutes, the wind died down, and it was a perfect morning for a paddle.  I noticed that the reeds, which I had photographed a few weeks ago, peaking up through the water, have more or less disappeared again, perhaps because of the cold weather but I am not sure.  Maybe the ducks have chewed the tops off but they are not as prevalent for sure.  It took about an hour and by the time I returned, I had worked up a sweat.

Lake House in Spring

We spent the afternoon getting somewhat organized, as we leave for Darien tomorrow morning, but that's what we will be doing most of today, getting ourselves and the car packed for our trip East.  I have been reading Jeffry Eugenides THE MARRIAGE PLOT, the third novel of his I have read.  This is very readable and its fun to read someone who can really write, whose prose sings, quite different from the lighter fictions I have been reading lately.

For dinner, we tried a Boboli Pizza dough, two for five bucks, with sauce and it was pretty good.  One crust was enough for the two of us and I all we needed to do was add cheese, mushrooms, and some pepperoni and in ten minutes it was ready to go.  The sauce was tasty, had some bite to it, and we both liked the pizza.  An easy way to have a quick meal.  We watched Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, then  Smash, which we are beginning to enjoy, then to bed early, as we were both tired.

(Hiking Pat Mc Gee Trail)

6:15

Pat Mc Gee Trail

One of the typical signs to inform as we walk

Abandoned Train Station in Little Valley

Abandoned Cattaraugus Cutlery Building in Little Valley

Plant Check List for Pat Mc Gee Trail

Up at 6:02 for about the third day in a row.  The sky is a faint blue, a slight pink or orange above the tree line.   I am waiting for the sun to pop up over the Bemus shoreline; it's first edge rises about 7:04.  It seems to rise right above my martin house as I sit in my living room, in other words, if I were to walk out my front door and keep going, I would walk in to the sun.  It's rising so quickly and brightly, I have to move my chair.  Earlier, I walked outside to a frost, a temperature of 25 degrees, crisp and invigorating.

Yesterday, because it was such a beautiful sunny yet cool day, we decided to explore a new trail, The Pat Mc Kee Trail, which runs for 12 miles from Salamanca up through Little Valley to the trail head in Cattaraugus.  We too #86 east, getting off at #10, the Steamburg exit, #17, where we could get cheaper gas, at least 20 cents cheaper than here.  We then took #10 north to # 242.  Then, we took it into Little Valley where we parked behind the County Center building, about 46 miles.  Behind the building, we jumped on the trail, obviously an old railroad track, with ties littering the sides of the road along most of the trail.  It is well taken care of, would also be a great biking trail because it's smooth, straight, with little ups or downs.  It ended up not being our favorite trail, at least the section we were on because it was so straight, with little variance and most was out in open country, not the woods.  We had this vision of walking a trail up through winding mountain paths but it was not to be.  We walked a total of six miles, three out, three back, to a point just beyond Linlyco Lake, a large pond, hardly a lake.  We ended up eating our lunch in town, at the park.  The trail did have various signs( called either interpretative or ecological stop)along the road which was really neat, describing the terrain we were walking through, much of it swamp or lowlands.  It also described some of the details of the walk, like the lake we passed, the gravel pit, with an explanation of why it was there.  We want to do the entire trail, perhaps walking the last half next time, where we actually will hike across the continental divide, where the water flows either east to the Atlantic or west to the Pacific Ocean.  We drove home through Randolph, a little shorter, about 40 miles.  We left home around 9:30 and returned about 1:15.

I mentioned yesterday that our neighbors had seen loons on the lake. Well, yesterday afternoon, when I was in the front yard, I heard their distinctive call and about 100 yards out, their they were, diving and staying under water for huge lengths of time.  They seem much bigger than mallards and buffle heads.  It would be a great sound to wake up to, rather than the quack of our resident mallards.  I read about them and they are able to dive up to 200 feet.  Amazing.

Today, no hikes, as we start to get ready for our trip east on Thursday, to visit the Albarrans for Easter weekend.  Evie started making Easter cookies yesterday, to send to Hayden and Halle.  We will take them to Marisa's, next week to Marlena's.  We have quite a bit of driving over the next three weeks, to Darien and back, then to KC and back.  Better than flying.

THE NEAREST EXIT: OLEN STEINHAUER

I came across Steinhauer in the The Week magazine's book section, where he was asked to name his five favorite books.  They had a brief biography about him and mentioned his prize winning thrillers, mostly about CIA agents, in this case, Milo Weaver, one of the old war horses, ready to hang up his spurs as things have changed so much that Milo no longer enjoys his work, nor believes in it.  Sound familiar.

Milo has been disgraced, for the wrong reasons of course, trying to expose a wily old power hungry Senator and Milo loses, even spending some time in jail.  He gets out and to rehabilitate his reputation, he is off to Europe to prove he's still got it, robbing an art museum, to get cash for the Agency, underfunded now because of a recalcitrant Congress.  His final job, to kidnap and kill a 14 teen year old girl is too much.  He ends up kidnapping her but has a plan, with the help of his father, a Russian agent who works at the UN, who promises to hide her.  Unfortunately, she escapes and is eventually found and killed by another agent.  Milo's actions upset the ire of the Germans.  They begin a search for him. 

Milo's main goal, however, is to find out who set him up, to discover who the mole is inside the agency.  He ends up befriending a German agent after being arrested, a stout, elderly spinster who seems to be second in command of the Secret Service.  They realize they can help each other; he can help her to rid their Agency of a sexual deviant, her boss to be precise, who just happened to frequent a brothel where the girl Milo kidnapped worked for a time.  Synchronicity.  Erika Schwartz is able to help Milo by leading him to the mole, one of the aides to the Senator.  Unfortunately, the mole's Chinese keeper realizes the mole's cover has been blown and has her killed before Milo can get to her.  Dam. 

While all this is going on, Milo is trying to repair his marriage, a difficult task since he has not been honest with his wife about what he's been doing for the past 20 years.  He promises to quit the agency, goes back, then promises again, but goes back to find out who led this young girl in to prostitution.  All seems settled in the end until the young girl's father, led to Milo by the Chinese keeper, comes to Brooklyn, rings Milo's bell and shoots him in the stomach when he comes outside.  His wife takes him to the hospital, but Milo tells her he deserves this bullet, though not explaining why.  He lives, the Chinese keeper triumphs, sort of, and we don't know what's up with Milo for the rest of his life.  Will he stay with his wife and child or be pulled back in to the Agency.  

Rails to Trails: Mayville North Partly Cloudy and Cool, A Good Day for a Hike

6:30

7:05

Pond Along Rails to Trals

Up early, about 6:15, to streaks of light off to the east, 34 degrees, with the promise of a nice day.  At the moment, the sun has risen, just above a line of clouds over Long Point, making it hard to read on my computer.  A fair wind keeps the flag moving, ducks are off the shoreline but no loons (our neighbors, the Foxes, saw a pair yesterday).  When I went out to get the paper, it was chilly but I look forward to the day, as we hope to go off to the Allegheny National Forest near Salamanca for another hike.

Beaver damage

Yesterday morning, we walked the Rails to Trails in Mayville; we have been on this trail numerous times, the last time we cross country skied on it.  It's trail head is just east of downtown Mayville and it heads north, going north as far as Westfield I think. It was fine for he first mile or so, then got wet and muddy but we were able to swerve off to the left, taking another trail, which allowed us to continue and eventually it wound back to our original trail, just about where the pond begins.  We ended up walking just about three miles, out and back and though it was a cloudy day, we enjoyed the hike, especially when we went off the trail through the woods.  The path seems to have been a railroad track, at least that's our guess. We did see a single deer off in the distance and lots of evidence of beavers, as a number of trees have been chewed up.  Other than that, little evidence of wildlife though the woods floor was beginning to turn green, with lots of small plant beginning to sprout. In a couple of weeks, all the brown will disappear and have turned green.  We also stopped at Topps to pick up a few items for dinner and got home around noon for breakfast.

Beaver Work

Because it was cloudy and we weren't sure what we wanted to do, we ended up doing something we rarely do, going out for a movie and dinner.  We saw the 4:00 showing of The Hunger Games, a movie that everyone teen in America has seen.  Neither Evie nor I was taken with the film.  Evie did not like it's violence and I found it somewhat boring and predictable, wondering what there was about it that has made it so popular.  It was billed as a movie both democrats and republicans would like, but  I am not sure why.  Certainly, there's the feeling of a group (those who live in poverty to support the lifestyle of the elite) that could be the 'underclass' in almost any society.  And the games are definitely the 'bread and circus' for the masses, organized by the elite.  I suppose the totalitarian leadership that keeps order in society might suggest the direction  conservatives  think Obamacare and all it's accoutrement's might lead to. In the end, the plebes triumph, of course, to the dismay of the 'great leader' and we know trouble will ensue (the sequel, no doubt).  I might read the book just to see how different it is from the movie.  After the movie, we went to Applebee's in Lakewood, for the first time in our thirty years at the lake.  We sat at the bar, had a beer and one of their specials, and it felt like we were on a trip because this is the only time we tend to eat at chain restaurants. The waitress even asked us if we were traveling! Our dinner was decent, noting special and I don't think we will be back soon.  Not that it was terrible, just that we like local places more, would like to support them rather than the big chains.  I must say it was a popular place, mostly full on a Sunday night with a prosperous looking crowd.

We hope to head off for a hike this morning, by 9:00, as the drive to the Allegheny Forest will take us at least 35 to 40 minutes.

Another Sunday With Nothing We Have To Do!

7:05, A Touch of Pink

Up at 7:00 to a mostly gray sky, a gash of pink off over Long Point, 36 degrees, with the possibility of either rain or wet snow this morning.  I turned on NPR and listened to two interviews on Fresh Air, the first with Matt Weiner, creator of Mad Men, then Rachel Maddow, from MSNBC.  Weiner was really interesting, as he talked about last week's episode, the relationship between Don and Megan though he gave no hint as to where their relationship would go.  I did learn that he has signed on for two more seasons, so we have 12 more episodes this year, then 26 over the next two years.  He also mentioned that the creepy little kid, Glenn, who spied on Betty in the bathroom is actually his son. It is interesting to hear him talk about what he had in mind as he wrote a scene, how it doesn't necessarily parallel the viewers point of view but we can see where he was going.   He seems most excited about all the viewers speculations about where the series is going, a sure indication of the success of the show.  Right now on Mad Men, it's June, 1966, and last year ended in 1965.  Things are changing, in the US at this time, and also on the series.  Clothes, culture, business as well as society, are all changing before our eyes.  And Megan, Don's new wife,  is certainly a different sort of person and wife from Betty, as we could see from her sexy French song at his birthday party and the scene where she cleans the carpet in her underwear in front of Don, tantalizing as well as punishing him (according to Weiner), typical of the sexual games that couples play.  Listening to him made me like last week's two hour beginning more.

Tas Kebab, A Turkish Stew

Yesterday seems like a lost day, other than yoga and a workout for Evie at the Y, a cup of coffee at Ryder's Cup, then home, to make cookies and Tas Kebab for Evie, to sit around and do nothing for me.  Where does time go, what did I do?  Now I remember, the Foxes, our neighbors, stopped over for a beer around 4:30.  They are up just for the weekend.  They love it here at the lake as much as us and reluctantly leave on Sunday, just like we used to.  They are planning a trip to Alaska in June which sounds adventurous, flying there, renting a RV and then traveling for ten days.

Salted Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

We had a great dinner, just what I wanted, tas kebab on mashed potatoes, with brussel sprouts and a salad, with cookies for dessert.  We both watched the NCAA semifinals, with Kentucky and Kansas the winners.  The Kentucky/Louisville game was by far the better of the two, as both teams played hard and well.  In the second game, I felt Ohio State threw the game away by there poor play, lack of offense, and confidence but you have to give Kansas credit for coming back from a huge first half deficit.  I predict an easy victory for Kentucky; Kansas is just not that good, nor was Ohio State or Louisville, at least compared to Kentucky's talent.  I almost feel sorry for Kansas but will probably eat my words Tuesday morning, as anything can happen and any team can win ONE game.  If Kansas were to win, it would be like Villanova beating Georgetown in the 1980's, when Villanova shot something 75% from the field to win the championship.

Today we will walk the CI, our usual Sunday walk, and Evie's making pizza today as she experiments once again with pizza dough.  We are trying to find the perfect thin pizza dough, a never ending quest.  It would be so nice to find the perfect dough, make four or five pizza shells, freeze them,  pull them out whenever we felt like eating pizza for dinner.