THE WEISS CHRONICLES

I was at Nationals Park last night. It was a 2-1 win where the Nationals had no extra base hits. The Nationals used 5 pitchers (each of the final four pitched one inning per the template they've been using all season). I used lot W to park at.

Accompanying me were Gerry Berg and Rich Weinstein. I got the tickets from Stanley Cohen who got them from someone else.

(the image shows five Nationals relievers on their way to the bullpen sometime in 2013)

posted by Martin Weiss # 12:23 PM

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Grocery Advice now vs then

I was at the grocery store. I was looking at a large box containing the house brand of donuts (the motto of Shopper's Colossal Donuts is 'Our donuts eat their donuts for breakfast').

A woman near me said to me, "why don't you get the box (I think it was a 24 pack marked down to $3.99).

I responded that there was a diet problem.

She retorted that she has worked in a hospital for 30 years and she had seen many, many healthy looking people die so she concluded that 'when your time is up, its up'.

We spoke for a little while longer and then she saw me several more times in the store and wished me well each time.

Having strangers speak to me in grocery stores is a familiar experience to me.

I still remember the time, back in 1975 when I lived in SF, California that I had just loaded my cart with a six pack of beer. A woman (always a woman on the grocery advice issue) told me that I shouldn't buy beer.

"Why not?", I asked.

"Because it will turn you into a Nazi", she said.

"It is too late, fraulein." I responded while clicking my heels together.

posted by Martin Weiss # 11:03 PM

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Cool dry spell ends

We've had about a week of unusually nice weather. Several days had a max temp below 80F.

today the max will be about 90F with increasing humidity

oh well

posted by Martin Weiss # 8:57 AM

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Mom Gets An Award

In the mail this week was a package from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. It included a 'Certificate of Appreciation' for Ms. Lillian Weiss for outstanding leadership, commitment, etc. in cancer research. It also included several dozen address return labels (with her address at 8211 Postoak...).

I'm pretty sure she hadn't donated to MSKCC in over 15 years (she died in 2001 and I was managing her finances for several years before that). The image shows some imaging procedure in process and I'm sure MSKCC is pretty good about verifying digital info from such procedures. However, with respect to donors, they seem to be behind the curve.

posted by Martin Weiss # 5:41 PM

Along Rock Creek Trail

It was a cool dry day today (max temp in low 70s F), a rarity for mid August around here.

We decided to go for a walk.

We did about 2 miles (one mile south and then a mile back) along the Rock Creek Trail. We parked at the local Veirs Mill Park just north of Branch Rd (its about a mile from where we do much of our grocery shopping). Branch road is the one that connects Md 355 with Connecticut Ave between Randolf and the Beltway.

We ended up at the west terminus of Plyers Mill Road.

posted by Martin Weiss # 2:44 PM

Monday, August 12, 2013

Summer Flowers

Its mid August and the crape myrtles, a.k.a., Lagerstroemia, in the front yard are in full bloom.

The first image shows two of our three front yard crape myrtles and also the #42 Rideon bus which was passing at the time of the image.

The second image shows the last few flowers of one of our lilly trees (the flowers are about 6' off the ground). One of the flowers is still to emerge so I'll have a bit of color from this plant for at least another week. In the background are flowers from one of the rose bushes.

This image is taken about 10 feet closer to the street than the July 9 image a few posts before this one.

posted by Martin Weiss # 5:24 PM

Sunday, August 11, 2013

A&M in Alexandria

Ann was in Alexandria for a study session for her upcoming tumor registry exam (that is scheduled for mid Sept).

I got there late on Aug 10. Her study session ended about noon on Aug 11 and we did a bit of sight seeing.

On thing we saw was the museum part of Gatsby's Tavern (there is a commercial part which is a functioning restaurant and bar). The museum part has period and some original furniture from the 18th century. The room shown in the first image is where the first five Presidents of the US had some inaugural and State events (many such events were held outside the area, including in NY and Philadelphia and beginning in the time of John Adams events started to be held in the White House).

We also went to the Carlyle house which was the first stone house built in Alexandria and was HQ for the planning of the French and Indian war. The original house was built with sandstone blocks but they had decayed by the 1960s when restoration began and the house was rebuilt using limestone. It does have a lot of period and original furnishings. The Carlyles were among the richest in Alexandria but very few of their children survived (they were a slave holding family and the slaves had better survivability).

Anyway, after the touring we had some of the local beer near the waterfront and then home.

posted by Martin Weiss # 4:43 PM

Friday, August 02, 2013

where are the stinkbugs

Back in January of this year, the WTOP had a new report that predicted a big stink bug outbreak this year.

Well we haven't had it.

That's a good thing.

Today I saw a report in the York, PA news which actually admits that we have essentially no idea why this happened.

posted by Martin Weiss # 7:47 PM