Rain and Cold

Tasks

• Weather today:
  
• warm early with rain; clearing to very cold later
• tide quite high, possibly due to wind from the east
  
• Walk Luigi optimism
  
• Record last two days: DONE
  
• Breakfast: DONE
• Asana
• Lunch at Touchstones: On my way; DONE
  
• Send note out for schedule of KKAH Program Committee meeting; DONE
  
• Work on OEC narrative; DONE and sent to Nancy V.S. for review
• Attend Study Circle meeting Wed. evening, the 12th: DONE

Discussion

• Walk Luigi optimism: It may not happen as the weather and my availability will both limit our possible times.
  
• Record last two days
• Wed.
  
• Attend Study Circle meeting this evening: DONE
• Six people present: Claudia Boynton, Judy Cabral, Leonard Blackshear, Alan Hay, myself; coming in about 7:30 or 7:45, Sheila Murdoch, friend of Pat Schenck and member of AnnapolisFriends Meeting.
  
• We discussed some of the Program preparations and Fund Raising possibilities. It turned out to be a fairly good, productive meeting.
• Low turnout partly determined by very unfriendly, foggy weather, as well as knowing some people could not attend, e.g. Pat S. had told us last week she would be away.
• Decided to hold next meeting next Tuesday, not Wed., which works out OK for me.
• I agreed to get Program Committee together before next week, to hold a meeting between now and then. I need to send out a schedule with my meeting availability so that others can respond and we have a meeting. Must do before noon, today.
  
• Prep dinner: DONE but... Thursday
  
• Made pumpkin soup / Soupe de courges au Curry per curry powder from P. Wells The Paris Cookbook and from M. Johnson's Cuisine of the Sun but did not eat it, as we got a call from Brian Cahalan, proprietor of Cafe 49 West about the appearance that night at his place of the classic folk performer Carolyn Hester.
  
• Thursday
• MCIJ
• Letter for Larry Bratt
• Walking Luigi: His 2nd Birthday. We walked at the Naval Academy for about 1 1/2 hours. The sun was shining, puffy and skittering clouds and wind, the temperature in the low 60's, a most special and glorious afternoon for dog walking and dog birthday. We met lot's of mids running around the Academy. Taught Luigi to ascend and descend the parade ground risers around Worden Field. He pranced along the sea wall along the Severn facing into the bracing wind. Then we rock-hopped along the big boulders of riprap along the Spa Creek sea wall. He had reservations about this for most of the way but did not balk and kept up with me. We both got home real tuckered out.
• Shopping: I shopped after MCIJ at Frank's for fish, where the mild weather has allowed fishermen to get out a lot, providing lots of fresh fish at low prices, $2.99 / lb for fresh, large wild rock, flounder, and farmed salmon, as well as $1.50 / lb for large wild blue - say 5 lb. and above. I got one of each, two flounder, and had them filleted into the bargain, plus a couple of pieces of cod to try the poissons aux champignons with cod, as specified.
• Also went to David's Natural Market, the Giant on Riva, and Shopper's; made it down to SECU to withdraw some money for the week.
  
• Dinner:
  
• An opening course, as the weather had just begun to drizzle, of Charcoal-Grilled Prawn Salad from Dancing Shrimp by Loha-Unchit. Made with medium shrimp from the Giant on sale at $5.99 lb. GREAT. HOT.
  
• The soupe de courges au curry, previously described, with a dollop of creamy yogurt, as a second course.
• Bluefish fillets slow cooked on a piece of foil on the grill after cooking the shrimp. I had sprinkled the fish with coarse salt and pepper (black and white) and crush allspice and sugar mix from Blox recipe, then as, they went on the foil, sprinkled them with lemon juice from a Meyer lemon. Covered the fish on the foil on the grill with a lid after placing a piece of bark from the trees here on Ridgely between the grill pan and the grill top to make sweet smoke. The fish were on the grill for perhaps 25 min. as the heat was very low. The smoke permeated the fish. When it was done I cut a few openings in the fillet pieces and but little pats of butter in the openings and sprinkled some more Meyer lemon juice over the fillets to server. Amazingly delicate and delicious.
• We had water with our meal.
• As alluded to above, I used the rest of two big bluefish fillets to make Blox, i.e, bluefish substituted for salmon in a recipe for gravad bluefish, per the Bluefish Cookbook.
  
• Breakfast: DONE
• Heated in a skillet some leftover pommes de terre aux herbes; fried sunny side up a couple of egges; sliced finely a couple of kumquats, added some P. Wells Chanteduc rainbow olives, a bit of ketsup: quite good!
  
• Asana
• Lunch at Touchstones: Yesterday at MCIJ Eric Badger attended. He is on staff at Shimer College. He and Dan Sullivan told me that Stephen Werlin is in town, on his way to Florida and then on to Haiti. Someone else, also a Haiti veteran, like Eric, is here who lives in Hershey, PA and is interested in ways to use the Open Space / Touchstones model in the US. I suggested we all get together for lunch. I'm not sure who or when or where, but will head over to Touchstones pretty soon, it now being 11:32 a.m.
• Work on OEC narrative