New, Beautiful Sunday

• Today, beautiful, sunny, windy, quite cool, not quite below freezing but you can feel the cold due to the wind.
  
• Yesterday we did the following:
• I went to farmer's market, late, but got some onions, potatoes, kale
• I made a nice luncheon salad of mixed greens with blanched, sauteed onions and gravlax; queso blanco; a one-egg cheese thin omelet in julien strips; turnip and carrot shreds; kalamata olives; and a lemon juice / dijon mustard / olive oil vinaigrette.
  
• We went to funeral of John Fotos, son of Christine and Nick, brother of Alexandra and Dmitri, nephew of Bill. We spoke with Angie Nichols after the service. At Sts. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church on Riva Road in Annapolis. Burial followed at St. Demetrios Cemetary, Annapolis. While there we observed the graves of several people we had known, in particular George Nichols, his mother, and Angie's wife, Mary Ellen.
• From there we went to flat of Charlie Berliner and Kathy Dahl on Prince George Street, in the old synagogue, now converted from CBF offices to two luxury flats. They were hosting a harpsichord recital followed by an art show. The harpsichord recital was OK, if a bit boring with second rate Baroque composers, Dowland, Frescobaldi, Frobisher (?), L. Couperin, Handel. We saw Joyce Olan and Chris Nelson, President of St. John's, from whom I learned that they had just elected a new President, finally, at Santa Fe. Also, the Kutlers. The art had been brought in by a friend of the Charlie and Kathy's who has a gallery in Gloucester, MA and works also at a gallery in London, UK. Some works were mildly interesting, mostly for technical reasons. After the concert more people arrived. We saw Paula Binder, the Benders.
  
• Then, around 6:30 or 7 p.m., we went on out to the Fotos house, to spend some time with Christine and the family. Nancy spoke with Alex about perhaps joining us for Thanksgiving. Dmitri and I talked photography. Dmitri and Bob, a friend of John's from Tennessee where he had been living for many years, talked of memories of John, speaking of his eating habits, his friendliness, and, Dmitri, childhood and teenage problems with alcohol and drugs.
• Around 8 I would guess we proceeded downtown for the gala 10th anniversary celebration of the Main Street Gallery. Parking was bad and I left Nancy off while I went and parked the car. Then, at the Gallery, I saw Christine (the Gallery founder), spoke briefly, and, overcome by the density of the crowd and a long day with crowds, took Nancy and went home.
• And the week was almost as busy.
• Friday, a bleak, rainy, windy, cold day:
• We had an early lunch of leek and potato soup, per J. Child The Way to Cook, and a saute of large shrimp in a chipotle in adobo with brown sugar and lime juice sauce, from Cook's Illustrated. We had a bottle of Beaujolai Village that was quite good and then took naps until time to go to the funeral home.
• We went to the Hardesty Funeral Home on Ridgely for the afternoon gathering to honor John Fotos. We saw many people there from St. John's - Jeff Bishop, Barbara Goyetter, Mary ..., etc. We talked with Chris, Alex, Neil, Dmitri.
• From the funeral home we went out to Maryland Hall to greet Rob Levit who was hosting an art show and was playing with his trio for the show's opening. We saw lots of people, including Arlene from the Mayor's officed and Paula Binder and went home.
  
• From The Cuisine of the Sun I prepared what turned out to be a marvelous Thon Provençale accompanied by sauteed shredded zucchini with a few onion slices I threw in. We had a chardonnay with dinner.
  
• Thursday evening:
• We saw Ray at the Mall. It was excellent. We went into town for dinner at 49 West and heard Rob Levit trio play interesting stuff, especially Rob's solo acoustic guitar musings. Spoke briefly to Brian, just returned from Paris, where he and Sarah seemed to have had a wonderful time.