Anna Grows

Our first indoor concert in 2 years   This week was quite a roller coaster ride on several fronts.  We started out the week with a holiday and gorgeous weather and ended the week glued to the news watching the latest on the invasion of the Ukraine.  Here is a summary of the week's events. Monday This was the nicest President's Day weather ever.  It was 65 degrees and sunny, so we met up with friends Klara, Fefzi and the boys for some sunshine.  Incidentally, Klara is a former political scientist with an expertise in Eastern Europe turned cyber security specialist, so she is a very good person to talk about world events with.  Since she grew up in Eastern The Barns of Wolf Trap Europe and has spent time in Ukraine, she has quite a perspective on what is going on in Russia.  We will get to that later. Monday night was a special treat as Theresa got tickets to see Mavis Staples at the  The Barns of Wolf Trap .   After all these years, this is the first time Joe & Theresa had

Happy Valentine's Day The title of the post may be a bit misleading as we did not spend Valentine's Day at the army museum (although Joe may have considered that a very romantic gift).  The week began with Valentine's Day and ended with the army museum.  Maybe I should begin again. Monday was Valentine's Day.  Joe treated Theresa & Anna to some beautiful flowers and cards.  Joe received some chocolate covered peanuts (his favorite) and a card.  Note there are no pictures of the peanuts as they were placed in a secure location.  Theresa made some heart cookies to share with the neighbors and the few people in the office.  Anna must have celebrated with her friends based on the number of candy wrappers Theresa found in her bedroom on Monday night.  It was not quite the same as exchanging valentines in elementary school, but it was a good reason to wear red. Anna's big success for the week was making millionaire shortbread, complete with homemade caramel.  This was

COVID Tests arrive  It is week 100 since the pandemic started and I am happy to report that our free COVID test just arrived on Saturday.  Oh sure, we really needed them about two months ago when there was no testing available, but we are ready for the next surge.  In a creative move, the Federal government decided to leverage the post office to distribute COVID tests (you can order your tests  HERE ).  Again, someone should have thought of this around week 40 after tests were available, but I guess that wasn't in the pandemic planning either.   In other news of the week: We had 3 days of 60 degree + weather.  Today is snowed.  It was good while it lasted. Anna and Theresa finished the Ted Lasso  series.  Joe watched a couple of episodes and decided it was not for him (there was not enough gun violence or construction projects).  He may have regretted his decision after hearing lots of laughter coming from Anna and Theresa.  Maybe he will decide to catch up before the next season c

Darth Vader in the tub  For years, Anna has complained about the water draining slowly in her bathtub.  Joe has repeatedly tried to fix the problem.  He has consistently warned Anna about making sure to use a drain stopper to catch any hair.  He has used countless bottles of Draino.  He snaked the drain.  There would be minor improvement, but not much.  This week, he did some additional research and came across an idea to use a plunger.  Low and behold, the source emerged - Darth Vader, specifically a plastic one.  We can only assume that Darth Vader became a bath time casualty with the previous owners, so he must have been stuck there for at least 14 years.  We are happy to report that the water is flowing perfectly now thanks to a YouTube video.  The power of the plunger. In other news of the week: Theresa ordered the Breads Illustrated   from America's Test kitchen.  Suffice it to say she wished she would have done this sooner.  Theresa tried it out this weekend and made cheese