THE WEISS CHRONICLES

 

I almost always have daylight appointments for blood donation.

Also, I have mostly given platelets.

 

But today was whole blood as I can't wear the mask and remain motionless for 3 hours.  I might try plasma next time as it is only about 20 minutes more than whole blood. 

So I brought Vampy.  He was pretty frustrated because the red cross made him wear a mask and this ruined his plans for blood withdrawal. 

 

On the other hand, the staff at Red Cross loved him.  The Phlebotomist wanted to get in a picture with Vampy.  I happily agreed and this is shown in the second image.

 

Metrics: Pulse=62, BP= 130/88, Hg=15.4

 

Lutherville, MD is where Cheryl and Irwin live now.  They moved a year or two ago.

It is just outside the Baltimore Beltway.

Ann and I visited today.

Image one is Cheryl and Irwin with Sir Charles.

Image two is Ann and I with Sir Charles.

Irwin bought the knight in the 1980s from the owner of a store who used the knight for marketing but was tired of

moving the knight around (it weighs a lot - so locating it in a residence in a permanent place makes sense).

It was called Charles V by the owner of the store. 

Perhaps because Charles V was a not particularly successful Emperor  (one of only two Holy Roman Emperors to abdicate, the other being Francis II), Cheryl named him Sir Charles thus sort of changing him from a Hapsburg monarch to an English Lord.

We had a nice lunch and chat and Irwin gave me a couple of hats from the Aberdeen, Maryland Ironbirds, a baseball team affiliated with the Orioles..

 

When I was growing up, my parents made a whole turkey for Thanksgiving.  Mom would cook it and Dad would put it on a tray of some kind and bring it to the dining room and show it off.  Then he would spend 15 minutes cutting it up.

I haven't had a whole turkey for many years.  I can't stand the thought of people waiting around for me to finish the cutting job. I also would worry about cutting myself (I've seen people cut themselves while cutting challah*).

We had white turkey roast, which I first seared on both sides in a pan, then cut into portions, then broiled for 4 minutes on each side then removed from the oven and then heated for 30 minutes before eating. It came out nice and tender. 

Ann made the dressing with a pretty standard 1. cook the celery and onions with various herbs, 2. add croutons, add eggs, cook a bit on the stove top then 3. finish in the oven. It came out nicely.

I did the gravy using mushrooms from a can, chicken soup mix, corn starch and some soy sauce. This came out nicely also. 

I made asparagus while we were eating our salad.  I did this because asparagus is easy to overcook but needs to be ready when the other food is ready.

 

*human blood is not considered meat fyi

 

I had been thinking about the Minimum Required Distribution, MRD (George reminded me about it) of  various instruments, typically individual retirement accounts, IRAs.

 

I went to sleep. In my dream I was talking to a tax advisor, presumably about the MRD.  I heard someone in the background talking to my tax advisor (not my alligator who currently works in enforcement for the IRS - this is cross posted to the Stuffed Animal Blog),

 

Talker: "I have an answer for you on whether business expenses offset income from extortion."

Adviser: "Just a second, I'm on the phone with a client."

Me: Maybe we should talk later. 

Then I woke up.

 

We had new carpet placed today in our living room, dining room, stairs and upstairs hallway.

The carpet placers kept the door open to let the smell of the carpet glue diffuse to the outside.

In a violation of Murphy's law, it was a nice day and then the weather got bad a few hours after they finished. 

The carpet is about the same color as the font in this post.

 

One nice thing about fall is that some of the summer flowers persist while the trees are changing color. Also, the pollen counts in the fall are not as high as in the spring.

 

In our yard we still have both red and pink roses (click twice to enlarge so you can, with some effort, see the difference between them -btw, the red ones have big hard thorns, the pink ones have small flexible ones). We also still have some of the Montauk Daisies.  Also note that the roses are still budding.

This is my 3rd post today and 8th in four days.  

 

OCD Alert.

 

It is over 30 years since Dad died. This was about 5 years before we moved to the address on the envelop.

 

 

The American Heart Association was kind enough to send address stickers to him anyway (that was one of the 3 free gifts - also other stickers and a thank you card in a separate envelop).

 so

I was walking around and realized that the trees aren't the only nice for fall viewing.

The leaves on the ground are also nice. 

 

 

The image was taken near Shady Grove while waiting for Ann to finish a physical therapy session.

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 I was at Harris Teeters today buying groceries.

I got $32.85 VIC club savings.

 

 

I got $4.47 in senior discount savings.

I got $12.12 in Veteran's savings (I don't have a military ID anymore but I showed them my discharge letter and they accepted that. 

I also got 102 fuel points (saving about 10c/gallon on next gasoline purchase if it is  from BP).

I don't know how this all was calculated.

 

Total savings:  $49.44 (not counting the gasoline to be purchased)

Somehow I think my father (image above) from 1942 or so, who was a veteran of an actual combat war, would appreciate this. After all he and my mom had us paste H&R green stamps into books for at least a year or two.  I doubt they got as much as $49.00 in merchandise for doing this. Of course the 1963/2021 Deflator is about 8.0 so the $49 of today would only be about $6 in 1963.

Somewhat annoying coda: When I got to the counter to away the price checking I told the checker that he should 'round up' for the charity of the week.

He said, "Awesome." Then he forgot to round the purchase up.

 

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Lake Needlewood, which is part of Rock Creek County Park is only about 10 miles away. 

We visited it today.

I took a few pictures but they didn't come out nearly as nicely as this first one taken by SeaofBlush. It was taken a year ago obviously in the fall (click to expand - it's very pretty)..

Her website is https://seaofblush.com/`. IMO, her work is very nice.

 

Actually, there are a lot of nice fall color views around town.

 

Image 2 is taken from the Shriver Aquatic Center looking west out the window near the leisure pool (also nice if you click on it).

Image 3 is taken from our sun room looking north.

 

 

Irwin wrote an email about the 'good old days' and the discussion evolved. 

I recalled a 'good old days' experience. This

was having toasted raisin bread with butter after Passover.

Yesterday I bought some raisin bread and butter and made some this morning.  It was good but no where as good as I remembered it. 

Then on one of the toasts, I put a second layer of butter after it had cooled a bit.  It was much better than before. 

I looked up a bunch of sites on the internet and found out some things.

- raisins taste different, sweeter and more plump when they soak in butter (Irwin had speculated on this point).

- butter is hard at 30F, gets very soft at 80F and melts at 90F

It may be that back in my youth, my mom had the butter stored in the freezer during Passover and brought it to the refrigerator after Passover.  The butter would have melted into the hot raisins but the butter not on the raisins may have stayed more solid on the toast surface. 

Seems like a lot of research for something not very important but I am retired.

As has happened with others, Ann has redness and itching where she got the vaccine booster.

Per various reports this is an allergic reaction that should go away in a week or so. 

It has happened often enough that people are calling it (right image) the "Moderna Arm"

 

An article about this is  here.

 

The exec chef prepared "homemade" apple strudel for a client (if it is a very big pastry intense event they order it from one of the pastry kitchens, e.g., Pariser's).

He gave me a couple of pieces. Still hot from the oven it was really, really good.

Post eating conversation:

me: How did you get the crust so flaky

chef: The secret ingredient is love

me: good answer, if you had said, "Druid Wizardry" (chef is Scottish) I would have had to call Rabbi Holland (person on duty at the regional kosher supervision office). 

Somewhat ironically, there is a website which proclaims that the secret ingredient of grandmothers is lard.

 

Both Ann and myself got Covid booster shots today.

We used the Arthritis and Rheumatism group we both have seen.

I have our cards now on hard copy, in email and in the photo library of my phone.

 

That really ought to be enough.

 

Side effects:

 

 I felt a little weaker than normal Saturday morning. 

 

Ann felt weaker and also her normal gastro intestinal problems were worse than normal and she felt she had a low grade fever.

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I think we have had frost earlier this fall but I didn't notice it, perhaps because it was gone by the time I went outside or perhaps it was just on the grass.

 

This morning however, there was a pretty substantial frost at 7am when I was out on the way to mashgiach duty.

 

The first image is of some pansies.  Its interesting that the name 'pansy' is mostly associated with a person who is weak. These pansies hold up well in moderate cold, go dormant in the deep winter and bloom nicely in the spring. They do die when temperatures go to 90F and the soil dries out.

 

The second image is my windshield this a.m.

 

One of places I do mashgiach work is the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School.  I don't do much there, about 30 hours total in 2021 so far (a typical job is two or three hours so the regular Mashgiach can get to a doctor's appointment). Nonetheless, I was required to fill out a bunch of forms and get fingerprinted.

  

The CECJDS claims that this is to comply with Maryland law since I have 'contact' with students (sometimes I help serve food on their plate or ask them to provide their ID when taking food from the serving area to their table).

 

The previous time I was fingerprinted, it was, as I recall, like the first image, i.e., with ink on paper.

Today's was done with a digital scan machine with each finger getting a thorough scan. A private security company, about 6 miles from the CES JDS, handled this.

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We went out to Seneca Creek State Park today.

This image is at one of the overlooks to the Seneca Lake.

The park only charges admission from April to October so we saved $5.

We felt so good about the saving that we went out to eat after visiting the park (cost over $30).

The park is about 9 miles from out house so its not a big drive. Their website is here.