Aaaand I lost

Muffin Man was Beast Boy for Halloween, btw. No need for new pix.

He's in his school's production of Seussical, very cool. I am excited to see it!

Hey, Mystery Mommy, why the heck aren't you posting?

Because I'm doing this instead.

Eight days until the election!

What a weekend!

Jim Dean of DFA canvassed for me! JIM DEAN OF DFA CANVASSED FOR ME!

And in other canvassing news, Steven Colbert's brother canvassed for me too!

And I got to thank them both in person!!! And they are both so incredibly nice!

SQUEEE!

Remembering

Today the sky is as blue as it was 11 years ago. I've written about that day many times, but the truth is that I remember it most on days like today, when the sky is blue and cloudless and the air has that taste of Fall.

On days like today, I look up at the contrails left by the planes flying hither and yon and I remember the emptiness of the sky that day and the days after.

I look at the contrails and I remember the smoke rising from where the towers had been that day and the days after.

I look at the contrails and I remember.

Another short post

Too pooped to pop, and feeling gloomy over yesterday's outcome.

Short post

Tired. Feet hurt. Talk to you tomorrow.

Musical interlude: sunshiney weekend before election day edition

Yes, we have no banana bread. But we do have beef stew.

Yesterday morning, after breakfast, I hauled out of the fridge several pounds of beef cubes, a sheaf of golden beets, a bunch of young carrots, a bag of red potatoes, a package of chopped crimini mushrooms, a leek, a large onion, and a quarter of a stick of butter.

Mr. Spock and I chopped up the beets and the carrots and put them and the beef and potatoes into our large slow cooker.

We chopped the leek and onion, peeled and squished a large clove of garlic, and added them and the butter to a large pan with some kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, and sauteed them until they were soft. Then we scraped the whole mess into the slow cooker.

By that time, MS had poured a half a cup of wine and a half a cup of water and added them to the mix. I popped a bay leaf into the pot and then I went walking for Cliff Keirce (and Jennifer Wexton, and Mike Kondratick).

I was able to get one development done before it started raining in earnest, so I went back home, had a cup of tea to take the chill off, and tasted the stew broth. I added rosemary, thyme, sage, more salt, more pepper, and three more cloves of garlic.

And then I looked at the five really ripe bananas that were in the fridge. I got out the Fanny Farmer Baking Book and realized that we're all out of walnuts. So I put the bananas in the freezer for next week.

Then we all played an escape game together, while the aroma of stew wafted through the house.

Dinner was pronounced a success, though we all agreed that the potatoes should have been cut up, the beets could have been left out, and more garlic was needed.

What did you do this weekend?

Earthquake!

I was outside my son's school, looking at his class list when the ground started undulating. We all looked around for the delivery truck and it slowly dawned on us that it had been a seismic event.

Wow. Earthquakes in Virginia.

6 Years And Two Days

April 6, 2005 was my first blog post here. I blogged on the anniversary, about my fun sweater, but I forgot it was a special blogging day.

Thank you all for reading, commenting, and being a huge part of my life.

Today is most certainly NOT ninety degrees and sunny, but you make it so for me.

He got a sunburn

On his shoulders. So did all the rest of the campers. Apparently 2 extra slatherings of sunscreen yesterday weren't enough.

I think that the daycamp should have them keep their shirts on in the pool.

We went camping.

Perfect weather. 75 and sunny. Not humid. It rained in the middle of the night. Poured, actually. We stayed snug and dry in the tent. The sun was out and the tent dried completely before we packed it up.

Hotdogs, hamburgers, s'mores for dinner.

Bacon, eggs, and toast for breakfast. And french-pressed coffee. We're not savages.

Farm stands, and diners, and ice cream, and inexpensive gasoline.

Badminton, and batting practice, and Rummy 500, and Labyrinth.

And the views. HOLY GUACAMOLE, the views. Turns out, the Shenandoahs have good reason to be such a big deal, who knew?

Pictures coming later. Both MS and MM took some.

I took along an appropriate book, but I didn't get much chance to read it at the campsite.

I did read some more of The Magician's Nephew to MM.

Neither book I've linked to is the edition I own.

What did you do over the weekend?

VOTE TODAY!!!!

Virginia town elections are TODAY! TUESDAY! MAY 4! Go vote!

Leesburg: Marty Martinez.
Herndon: Cesar Del Aguila.

I'll be working the Brandon Park polls at Loudoun County HS from 4 PM till closing. See you there!

Observations

• You'd think that cooking lentil stew and pot roast at the same time would make the house smell weird, but it didn't...the house smelled wonderful. Bacon, and onions, and garlic, and tomatoes, and a hint of beefiness. It was magnificent. We now have a ton of food in the house.
• You'd also think that an eight-year-old child couldn't hold his own against his parents in a rousing game of Scrabble...but you'd be wrong there too. The grown-ups were not allowed to use words with less than 4 letters. MM won by one point.
• Bananagrams! We love it. MM is great at it. He has real stick-to-itiveness and a terrific vocabulary.
• The snow is beginning to melt. It's nice to see grass again!

On reading "The Long Winter" during what may end up being the snowiest winter this area has ever seen

It makes me grateful for heat, and light, and grocery stores, and baking bread with yeast and white flour.

Grateful for having a full freezer, knowing that even if we run out of milk or bread or other staples during the storm, that once the storm has ended and we've dug out of our garage, we can find a store somewhere nearby that will have more milk or bread or other staples.

MM was disappointed about the postponement (again!) of his party, but cheered up over the baking of bread (Little House on the Prairie Cookbook), and cake (Joy of Cooking - I overbeat it and it came out dry and crumbly), and cookies (with M&M's, too sweet for Mr. Spock and me, but MM loves 'em). Also, Mr. Spock gave MM his first cooking lesson. He cooked, all by himself (though with supervision), perfect fluffy rice. And we spent some time outside, being shocked by the amount of snow.


So, in short, I'm feeling pretty privileged, and lucky, and grateful. We have just two more chapters to go in HP 7. I hope I can get MM to agree to let me start reading "Farmer Boy" to him.

Loudoun County Public Schools CLOSED until Tuesday, 2/16.

As per Hatrick's announcement on the LCPS homepage.

I think they should use President's Day as a make-up day, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen.

Blogging for Choice

Even if no one ever again is faced with an unwanted pregnancy - and I hope we get to that day - we will still need abortion to be safe and legal.

Because there are times when a wanted pregnancy needs to be aborted. To save the life or future fertility of the mother.

So especially late-term abortion needs to be kept legal and safe. Yes, I said ESPECIALLY late-term abortion. For Cecily. And for all the other women who have lost their wanted child, but not yet lost the pregnancy...for those who have pre-eclampsia...for the myriad reasons that a pregnancy can go horribly wrong in the last few months or weeks.

Keep all abortion safe and legal.

Whoa Nellie! That was some snow!

MM wading through some of the more shallow areas.

About two-thirds of the way through the storm. As viewed through the screen.

At work now, alas. LCPS is shut down today and tomorrow. Wednesday is the start of Winter Break, so MM doesn't go back to school until Jan. 4.

Posh Place is open today from 9 until 4, but MM's stayin' home with MS. They're probably playing Wii Playground. I'm pretty good at the paper airplane races. MM is best at dodgeball. MS kicks butt at slot car racing.

If they're not playing with the Wii, they're doing kid-friendly science and electronics.

What did you do this weekend?

It's a two coat day.

Today I wore my Land's End Primaloft jacket (discontinued, it seems. At least, I can't find it on their site) under my 10-year-old red JC Penney pea coat. My torso and arms were mosty toasty, but my legs were complaining bitterly of the cold.

Seems that my lovely pants were not adequate to the job today. I should have broken out the long-johns.

Question for you folks

Should I change the name of the blog from Mystery Mommy to Doorbell Queen?

It's been much more politicky here than bookish for a long, long, long time.

What do you think?