Year: 2014

Vince’s school orchestra performance of the Pink Panther.  He’s the forehead right to the left of the conductor.  He put a lot of gel in his hair, if that helps.

And the most popular song of the year:

Not only was Vince gone camping this weekend, Jeremy was too!  He went with his friend, Ben.  Jeremy ate a lot better than Vince – listen to this:  for dinner, Jeremy had rockfish coated with blue corn meal fried in bacon fat, cous cous and a green salad and for breakfast the next day, he had a salmon and asapargus omlet.  Jeremy certainly ate better while camping than I did at home.

Vince has a funny way of packing for a camping trip.

So many people are part of Edda’s day.  Many of them, I don’t even know their names.   These folks are Edda’s afternoon bus driver and aide.  Thursday was the last day for them to drive Edda home.  The powers that be assigned them to another route (strangely 3-4 weeks before the end of the school year).  Thank you for driving Edda home everyday!

Vince is “grubmaster” for his scout campout this weekend.  Means he’s in charge of procuring the food for about 5 boys: two breakfasts, one lunch and one dinner.

Here’s the list.  Do you see the bacon?  Oh yes, and the Oreos!!!

Be still my organic, whole wheat, free-range, cage-free, artisanal and quinoa loving heart.  We have: Wonder bread, instant ramen cup-o-noodles, Campbell’s double noodle chicken soup, and the crazy peanut butter with the jelly in one striped jar.  Buried underneath all this classic processed food goodness are the unforgettable Kraft American cheese slices.  It’s going to be a great culinary weekend.

Catching up with the things I’ve put off all term.  I hand sewed Vince’s merit badges on his scout sash.  I find hand sewing a form of meditation.  If I had more time, I’d pick up needlework as a hobby.  I also spent some time looking for a marriage equality merit badge online – no luck.  Vince is going to advance in rank tonight, to Tenderfoot.  Which means that I’ll have to rip off a patch I just sewed on to put the new one on.  That’s how much I like sewing patches onto cloth.

Jeremy bought a new back up hard drive for the household IT infrastructure.  He was a sweetie and bought the DeskStar which is the descendant of the hard drive I used to make at IBM in the late 90s. Ah, the fond memories of a well-running manufacturing line.  I hope to someday make something again.

Most Sunday mornings at sunrise, you can find me on the C & O canal getting ready to do my weekend run.  The trail is pretty empty, as you’d expect – execpt for about 25-30 Korean runners.  For a long time I wondered why Koreans liked running at 6 am on Sundays.

A cute little aid station!

So now the mystery was answered.  A Korean running club.  A few months passed and I kept waving happily to my early morning running pals.  Then, one morning, near my parked car, I saw a whole table full of Korean delicacies.  A pot of rice, dumplings, and who knows what else.  I could see the steam rising from the food.

Then I became intensely interested in wondering if I could pass myself off as a member of the Korean Marathon Club.  I didn’t take any of the food – but every few weeks, the food would magically appear again in the parking lot and I would look longingly at it as I drove away.

This weekend, I ran into a guy setting up the little aid station.  Here’s Harrison, the president of the Korean Marathon Club.  Finisher of 53 marathons and on his morning 20 mile trail run.  He’s made me an honorary member of the club.  I get to eat all the goodies!  I’m so excited.  The little aid station has ice cold water, gatorade and cute little Korean granola bars.  I missed the big buffet table this past Sunday, but I’ll be on the lookout for it.  I have to text Harrison as I want to pay dues, but the website, of course, is all in Korean.

Happy Mother’s Day y’all.  Jeremy made me cinnamon buns.  Just follow the recipe in the Joy of Cooking and everyone will be amazed.  I prefer the one with nuts – I’m not a fan of frosting.  But some people in the family are allergic to nuts, so they were limited to the ones with only frosting.  I’m sure they were disappointed.

Vince holding my unnaturally colored flowers:

Every once in a while, you get a photo of Edda that just, kind of, maybe, shows a glimpse of what she would look like without Rett Syndrome.  You gotta make sure there is no arm brace, no wheelchair, no bib and no one really holding her.  I can’t decide if this is one of them.  She’s still clenching her teeth a little tightly, but it’s close.  She looks like such a grown-up!

Bette’s birthday always coincides with Mother’s Day.  So we sung her the birthday song and gave her a lot of soap/bath products.

Since it was Mother’s Day, we insisted that the children sit at the table.  Usually, they sit at the island or drift in and out during the meal.  It’s a tight squeeze, but we did it.

Cinnamon buns demolished!