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THE WEISS CHRONICLES
Chronological Account of the Weiss family with contextual remarks, some weather, sports and other news.
You can write to me at: mhw20854@yahoo.com
The people in the Weiss family are: Martin, Ann, Beth and George. I also sometimes write about other people or our pet.
Friday, June 24, 2016
Flower Picture for last Sabbath in June
This is another pre Sabbath flower blog post.
The tallest flowers are day lilies.
The flower bunch leaning to the left are roses.
The flower leaning to the right is a giant lily - first of the year that I've noticed (its also very fragrant).
The one at the bottom is the first purple cone flower I've noticed.
For scale, the Panda is about 5" high.
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Extra Base Hits not a recipe
Scott Kazmir started last night for LA against the Nationals.
He has a season ERA of about 4.5 as of this post.
In the 6 innings he pitched against the Nationals, he gave up 2 HRs and 4 doubles but only 2 runs.
I don't recall ever seeing any 'scattering' of hits like this before.
Washington Post story on the game is here.
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Square Plates
We got a new set of stoneware several weeks ago. Last Sabbath was our first use of the new plates, bowls and cups.
The first image shows the new stoneware. It also shows the roses from our Sabbath flowers, another view of which is below by a few blog posts.
We decided to get a set with square plates.
This was partly because I've noticed, at the catering company, that some very upscale functions insist on square plates. I'm guessing this is some sort of statement being made for example, "we're not afraid to be different" or "we're better because we've improved" or some such.
We still have round plates for Passover.
While doing this, I remembered that a hostess of a late night horror movie series named Elvira (real name was Cassandra Peterson) famously (well maybe not that famously because I doubt if that many people remember it) marketed her movie within a movie, "Elvira, Mistress of the Night" with the phrase, "Be there or be square".
That's her in the second image (although it seems to have been a daylight parade).
A Father's Day Memory - although with an anti climax
Yesterday, the Washington Nationals were playing on the west coast. The game began about 10:00pm EDT 18 July.
The National's starter, Max Scherzer, pitched well for 6 innings. He gave up only one run and struck out 10 with no walk (Scherzer's walk to strikeout ratio is amazing). The National's 7th inning pitcher got the side out in his inning and the National's had a 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the 8th. The National's 8th inning pitcher was Felipe Rivero (first image). Rivero (now pitching on 19 July EDT, that is father's day) gave up 3 hits, walked two and fumbled a ground ball to the mound that should have been a double play. He was charged with 6 runs (5 earned) and failed to get a man out.
This reminded me of something my father asked me at least three times as we watched numerous Senator pitchers blow leads over the years.
Dad would ask something like,
"The warm up catcher in the bullpen has caught this pitcher dozens and dozens of times. Can't this catcher just tell the manager when the pitcher doesn't have his stuff and they can warm someone else up?"
The short answer to this question seems to be "No" (that's the anti climax).
A somewhat longer answer is that the warm up catcher can tell if there is some major problem with the pitcher (say he is throwing way too high) but not if some subtle defect exists. In the case of Rivero's performance, none of the hits against him were hard hit and his fumbling error was obviously not something a bullpen catcher could foresee.
Friday, June 17, 2016
Weekly Flower report
The tallest flowers in the vase are some day lilies.
The purple one on the right is a Siberian lily.
The pink flowers below the Siberian are roses.
The ones at the bottom of the vase are astilbes, a.k.a., sweet meadows. They are one of the few shade plants that I find come close to what the catalogues say they are supposed to look like.
The astilbe, Siberian lily and roses are all resistant to deer and rabbits (second image from internet) . I've managed to keep the day lilies in good shape by using a commercial product that repels rabbit and deer. I also have occasionally put some egg shells in with the flowers because some advise columns say this also repels deer and the decay of the shells adds calcium to the soil.
The blue blossoms in the separate pot is the same plant as last week (bellflower). The blossoms actually look better than last week partly because I remembered to use the flash and partly because they opened a bit.
The white flowers in the pot on the left are chrysanthemums. I'll plant these soon but typically the nicer the chrysanthemums look, the more likely they are to die in the winter.
After School Year Party at the Pizza Place
I was working at Siena in Rockville Maryland today (first image is from the internet and shows the front of the restaurant that faces Twinbrook Parkway).
I had a faint recollection that this was the final day of the Jewish day school year but had never experienced what such a day was like.
It was a mad house.
Typically on Fridays, they have some pizzas for delivery (as many as sixty 14" boxes) and a few walk in customers and a few people coming by for pick up.
Not today ('why is this lunch different from every other lunch').
They had about 10 boxes to be delivered, about 10 boxes picked up and about 80 walk in customers between 1130am and 130pm.
The second image is from the internet but it was about this crowded.
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Calorie Heavy Feast of Weeks
We had a very calorie heavy Shavuos (aka Pentacost, aka Feast of Weeks).
The first night of the holiday was Saturday night. The synagogue had all night learning with lectures at midnight (there were at least a hundred people for this), 1 am, 2 am, 3 am, 4 am and 5 am (still about 30 people including Ann and myself).
Each lecture was about 45 to 50 minutes and in between lectures we snacked and chatted.
At 1250am, the main snack was ice cream.
At 150am, it was tuna and sesame noodles.
At 2:50am, it was barbeque wings.
at 3:50am, it was wings with a different BBQ sauce or tuna and sesame noodles
at 4:50am, it was wings with both BBQ sauces (two separate pans)
At each snack time there was coffee or soda.
Shaharit was from about 510am to about 710am.
\
Sunday, early afternoon, we had fish (I cooked it with minimal oil and with the skin off to reduce the calories) and cheese cake at home.
Then on Monday morning, after Shaharit, our annual Synagogue Shavuot BBQ took place.
It had burgers, hot dogs, wings, pastrami bits, fries, Cole slaw, tomatoes, vegetable salad and a few more things. One surprise was a lack of Coca Cola products (they had Dr Brown products and, I think some other brands which I'm guessing were donated).
Ann was still tired from the all night study and didn't make it.
I estimate I had about 8000-10,000 calories of food and drink over the 48-50 hours of the feast (evening of June 11 through evening of June 13).
Postscript: some years ago our Rabbi initiated both the 'meat on 2nd day Shavuot' and the 'BBQ on Shavuot' to make several Halachic points. The first is that the custom to eat dairy on Shavuot is only for the first day of Shavuot and for the second, the Talmud says in Tractate Pesachim (109) that 'there is no simcha (joy) without meat and wine' and the Torah commands simcha on festival days (Deut 16:11 in the case of Shavuot) and there is even a warning against not enjoying that which you are suppose to enjoy (Deut 28: 45-47). The second is that while lighting a fire is forbidden on Shavuot, adjusting a fire and cooking are both permitted activities (because the commandment for the sabbath forbids work [melacha] while for the festivals it forbids servile work melacha avodah).
Friday, June 10, 2016
Lily Season begins
This continues my 'flowers for the Sabbath' series.
One of the first lillies to bloom is the Siberian Lily.
We have a pretty substantial patch of these on the side of our yard near the sidewalk.
They make a border between our house and the house next door.
I also got some roses (one pink, one red). The other plant is a Campanela or bellflower (first image). Coke bear and Panda got into the image somehow.
There are several varieties of bellflowers, I think I have bought a dwarf variety but you never know.
The one I bought was small and discounted to $1.00 at the grocery store. A close up of the flowers is the second image (from the internet).
Friday, June 03, 2016
Roses and Peonies time in the yard
I brought in some roses (the smaller blooms) and peonies (the larger ones) for the sabbath this week.
Two of our stuffed animals were then discussing it.
To find out what they said, go to the stuffed animal blog post on this event.
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We got a new set of stoneware several weeks ago. Last Sabbath was our first use of the new plates, bowls and cups.
The first night of the holiday was Saturday night. The synagogue had all night learning with lectures at midnight (there were at least a hundred people for this), 1 am, 2 am, 3 am, 4 am and 5 am (still about 30 people including Ann and myself).
At 2:50am, it was barbeque wings.
This continues my 'flowers for the Sabbath' series.