Monthly Archives: December 2010

A failed, unimportant, quest


Slept in again. That is getting to be a habit. I am getting to like that habit. Of course I stay awake until two or three in the morning. This will all have to change.

Upon rising, I did some email follow-up related to EAPPI, Red Hands, and transferring my membership to the Presbytery of New York.

The animals of the day were deer. Three doe showed up in our back yard (although Tricia was awake early enough to see turkeys again. The doe stayed there a long time, settling in for what appeared to be a nice rest.

Watched a variety of football – no one game in its entirety but saw bits and pieces of Army beating SMU, North Carolina beating Tennessee, and Syracuse beating Kansas State. Now watching Washington and Nebraska. They had played once before this season. Tonight is a different story, at least so far.

Went to see Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It seemed good enough but those who know the book did not like it. I can see their point – the movie not only changed things, it watered things down quite a bit. Not sure if we will go see other movies made from the Chronicles of Narnia.

After the movie went to dinner at Tommy’s – always a treat.

Scrabble again closed the evening with Tricia winning one and Eric winning one and me losing both.

The day also saw a failed quest. Of course it was a completely unimportant, inconsequential quest. I have had a yen for the last several weeks for Wedding Cake cookies by Archway. True, they are not great cookies – crunch shortbread, some nuts, a ton of powdered sugar. But I have always liked them – and I have not been able to find them this year – at least not in Louisville. I went to three different grocery stores in Cleveland Heights and South Euclid and came away empty. Oh well. Some day. Some where. I will find them again.

See you along the trail.

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Games played; games watched

Today was a games day – once everyone woke up.

We played Scrabble – Sean designed an Excel spreadsheet score card. Pretty cool.

Eric continued to win – I may have picked up one.

Sean left for CLE to return to Madison. I haven’t checked his schedule but I assume he is there by now. Eric went to Solon to hang with his cousins. They enjoy doing that.

This led to me watching football. NC State beat WVU – thought the Mountaineers might do better. The Vikings upset the Eagles – did not see that one coming. Iowa and Missouri are now playing – Iowa has the lead which is a surprise – but good for those who once lived in Diagonal.

Slipped some work in between Sean leaving and football beginning. During commercials and long half-time shows, I watched a fair hunk of the second and third Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Tomorrow – another day to sleep in – another day to do some work.

See you along the Trail.

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And Nixon wept

Played Trivial Pursuit with the family and Jeff, Carol, and Heather Phillips. It is an annual tradition. Drew had to work and missed this year.

A couple of things stood out:

Early on there was a question that essentially asked “Who said, ‘Henry, don’t ever tell them that I was weak and that I cried?'” It wasn’t my team’s question but for some reason, I knew the answer. From that point on, whenever an absurd statement was needed, the obvious response was “And Nixon wept.”

At one point in the 90s edition, Heather went on an absolute tear. She must have answered a dozen or more questions in a row. It was pretty awesome. The performance of the night.

Too much food was consumed, but there was great fun and much laughter. Until next year!

See you along the trail.

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Lazy day

Slept in today. I knew I would after last night’s marathon Scrabble playing with the family. Two games. Four players. Eric won one. I won one. But they were both close (my win was even closer) and they were tautly played – keeping us awake until about 2:00 a.m. It’s a Wonderful Life was on in the background as we played.

I had promised some folks that I would see them after church, but I simply knew there was no way I would get up. And I did not. I will try to call tomorrow and see about making it up to them.

I had a fairly significant (and nice) gift to return – because I had already purchased the item. Our conversation over the Scrabble board focused on what we should do with the return. The decision was made to purchase an HDTV for downstairs in Cleveland. Conspicuous consumption in anticipation of football watching. We would cobble together the return plus a couple of gift cards to come up with the needed funds.

Eric made it up for church at Noble Road. I got up about 11:15 or so. Sean was already up and we decided to visit Best Buy and get a TV, hoping to accomplish the task before the Browns game. Traffic proved surprisingly light and the crowd at the store quite manageable. The desired TV was sold out, but we found an alternative. It was purchased – some work needs to be done to activate one of the gift cards – the return trip was uneventful. Sean and I got the TV put up and attached to the cable in time for the second or third play of the Browns game. I rooted for the Browns as their winning would have been in the Steelers’ best interest. Their losing, which is what happened, was not.

Sean headed off for a party with friends; Tricia took a nap. Eric and I watched the Packers crush the Giants and the Cavaliers lose a tough one. Bummer.

The TV should get quite a workout this week with all the football. Then, probably not so much until Sean, Eric, or I return.

See you along the Trail.

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Christmas Eve Services 2010

A bit behind here.

On Christmas Eve, we went to the 7:00 p.m. service at Noble Road Presbyterian Church – a laid-back service of readings and carols.

At 11:00 p.m. we went to the service at Forest Hill Church, Presbyterian – a service of good music that included a sermon.

In between we watched A Christmas Carol starring George C. Scott. There are many good versions of that story – lots of folk prefer the Reginald Owens version – there is also one with Mr. Magoo. Discussions were held about the pudding made by Mrs. Cratchit. No decisions were reached.

Hope you had a blessed Christmas eve.

See you along the trail.

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Christmas Eve 2010 Cleveland Heights


Seen in our back yard around 11:00 a.m., December 24, 2010.

Is Santa using new transportation this year?

See you along the Trail.

 

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One of my favorite Christmas songs

Christmas carols come in a variety of forms.

John McCutcheon has written one of my favorites.

Check out the lyrics to Christmas in the Trenches.

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Preparations

Along with the usual preparations to celebrate Christmas, today brings preparations for viewing theatrical movies.

A Harry Potter marathon will come to a close with HP 6 up for viewing shortly. At the moment, the original True Grit is on. I remember seeing it on a Boy Scout trip to Philmont – think it was on a military base. We drove from Grove City on a bus and stayed at a couple bases on the way. Interesting trip.

This afternoon – Harry Potter 7.1 or 7A or 6.5 or whatever the right numbering is.

Tonight – the Steelers at the Winking Lizard– several steps up in terms of food from Buffalo Wild Wings.

See you along the Trail.

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Toward the end of an era

It has been almost two months since my last post. Numerous trips between the Shire East and the Shire West have occurred.

I have been at the Shire since December 8. There were meetings – a wonderful celebration (including a fair imitation of lembas) led by my colleagues in the Peacemaking Program (Tricia and I made the run to Costco to buy many of the other supplies) – a great dinner at Havana Rumba with good friends – a football game won and a football game lost.

Mostly there has been transition – pretty relentless transition – working to prepare the Shire to go on the market. Home repair is no where near the top of my list of either things I enjoy or things I do well – even when my primary role (well, pretty much my only role) is writing checks or making runs to Home Depot.

It is made more than a tad bittersweet because this marks the end of an era.

Tonight’s movie – 3 Godfathers – John Wayne does Christmas.

Tomorrow – Cleveland.

See you along the Trail.

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