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,...

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...

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....

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...

2010 Snowmageddon  We are happy to report that the bomb cyclone missed the Washington, DC area.  Aunt Mary and Aunt Loren were not so lucky on Long Island where they are digging out of more than 20 inches of snow.  Fortunately, they are better equipped to handle snow than Northern Virginia (as evidenced by the great I-95 shutdown a few weeks ago). It was a quiet pandemic week, with the exception of excited weather forecasters watching the potential snowstorm.  Here are some of the other highlights: Anna went to school (we are thankful every day teachers show up).   Theresa went to the office a couple of days.   Joe bought a new mattress, that was delivered the next day (also good luck given the supply chain issues).   Theresa had her first night of "Jammers Gold," the adult percussion group. They meet once a month on Friday evenings. The long month of January is at last coming to an end.  Will there be more snow?  Will there be...

Happy Birthday Joe!  This week marked Martin Luther King Day along with another major celebration - Joe's birthday on January 18.  We decided to do something crazy to celebrate and went out to a restaurant - and ate there.  Joe picked an Italian restaurant we heard about and decided to mix it up on a Tuesday night.  Unfortunately, Joe also had a bit of a stomach bug and really did not get to enjoy the dinner or cake afterwards (he was out of commission Wednesday & Thursday).  We decided to try again on Friday with an Italian meal (including cannoli) from a local Vienna restaurant (this time we did carry-out).  On the plus side, Joe got two birthday dinners (even though he only enjoyed one).   The other big news of the weekend was the arrival of Girl Scout cookies.  This is a much more subdued event from earlier years when we use to warehouse 1,200 boxes of cookies at our house.  Thanks to on-line ordering and direct ship option, the ...

 The good news for the week is that Anna went back to school after an extra week of winter break thanks to the snowstorm.  The bad news is that COVID cases continue to cause problems at the schools.  Anna's chemistry teacher served as her English teacher one day this week.  The school also prepped kids and parents to take laptops home each night and be prepared for virtual school, albeit for snow or COVID.  Another interesting twist was that the new Virginia Governor was sworn in on Saturday and immediately signed an executive order eliminating the mask mandates in schools.  The next day, Fairfax County schools (where Anna goes) sent out a reminder that they do have a mask mandate.  The battles will continue. We continue to lay low and enjoy the warmth of the house after a chilly week.  The treat on Saturday was Swedish meatballs (Mrs. Latimer across the street joined us for dinner).  Sunday marked another snowstorm, albeit a couple of inches...