Dancing in the Streets

Winter weather is now fully with us.  Time to put out the bird-feeders and provide a little help to the animals now scrounging for food…except the squirrels…we are not encouraging the squirrels (see my earlier blog about squirrel bowling).

As a parting gift at our party last weekend we gave each guest a small bag of seed similar to the one above.  Just like tomten we can play our part and possibly bring ourselves some luck in the new year.  We have our niece Karin to thank for bringing this tradition to our family.

We started a bit of a whirling dervish on Friday evening.  As a fund raiser UMass Memorial has begun a Winter Ball and this was the kick-off event for our weekend.  This black tie event—Christmas red tie in my case—was held in the restored Mechanics Hall in Worcester.  Cheri looked gorgeous—as usual—in an evening dress and we tapped our way through the evening. 

The Ball included a VIP Reception into which we tap-danced our way.  Then it was on to a great dinner, live music, dancing, a silent auction and a live auction.

The evening was fun and we stayed fairly late considering we needed to get up early on Saturday to head off to America’s Game…

We are fortunate that Scott’s continued involvement with the Naval Academy Athletic Association gets him access to great seats.  So we were on the Club level with seats right in front of the Press Boxes.  Being in the last row of the Section was great since we could stand when we wanted without bothering anyone behind us.  The Brigade marched on—three hours before game time so the stands were not anywhere near full—and we stayed outside to watch that and then went inside to have some lunch prior to game time (while the Midshipmen and Cadets sat outside in the stands—go figure). From Winter Ball Football Weekend 2009 The end result was the same as the last eight years with Navy coming out on top.  Although Army seemed to make it a game going into half-time with a 3 – 0 lead; Navy came out firing for the second half and won 17 – 3.

We headed out from Woodstock at 6 a.m. with a quick stop in New Jersey to meet up with Papa, Scott and Deb.  Cheri stayed with Nana and Laura in the warm house in NJ while the rest of us were chauffeured by Scott to Philadelpia for the game.  It was a sunny but cool day with the temperatures in the high 30’s at game time and heading down…although it wasn’t too bad out of the wind. From where we parked we had to head through the forming up of the Brigade and the Corps to enter in to Lincoln Field.  We were able to find Tim in the formation (who was attending his final game as a Midshipman) and then we went in to find our seats. Also on the Club level we had access to a large indoor area with food stations and restrooms which allowed us to stay warm prior to the game and at half time. To see a little of the pre-game pageantry  you can double-click on the photo to the left and to see the football team coming on to the field double-click the photo below. From Winter Ball Football Weekend 2009 Following the game there was once again the moving tradition of singing the alma-maters with the teams standing respectfully in front of the other’s student body.

We met up with Tim following the game and headed out to Roy’s restaurant for dinner with his “friend” Kayla’s family.  It was a wonderful meal and the company was great for the victory dinner.

Scott drove us all back to NJ for the evening and it is back to Connecticut on Sunday.  Another successful adventure.

Foraging for Nuts, Fruits, Grains and Berries in the Mid-Winter

 
As long nights and short days set in we realized that it was time to celebrate the turning point of mid-winter—Lucia Day.  It wasn’t exactly the right day or mid-winter, but we needed to make do with holiday schedules.

Invitations went out to about thirty people a few weeks ago, and we ended up with twenty-one showing up.  Cheri had the last three days of the week off so she was able to spend time cleaning, decorating and cooking to get ready for the party.

We set out a buffet with Swedish food as the theme.  There was sillsalad (herring salad made with apples, beets and walnuts), roasted pepper cheesecake, Swedish cheese, and Swedish kottbullar (meatballs) for appetizers.  Then it was on to spiral cut ham, smoked salmon, (with a mustard-dill sauce), more meatballs (this time with a beef-sour cream gravy), cucumber salad, potatoes stewed in cream, Janssons Temptation (potatoes, Swedish anchovies, onions and cream), Holiday Fruit Soup, and glazed carrots.  All of the appetizers and buffet were accompanied by berry liquids (grapes in particular), glogg and punch. 

Card tables were set up in the large Keeping Room and one of the Front Rooms—the Scotch Room—so guests wouldn’t have to try eating out of their laps.

Guests ate and visited for a few hours enjoying the food and the company.

Then it was some clean up before moving on to Snow Pudding with custard sauce, along with pepparkarkor and candy-cane cookies for some dessert. It snowed a bit during the party and overnight so we woke up to  a wintery setting and the winter sun glowing through snow and ice covered branches.

Of course a Swedish theme would not be complete without some aquavit.  A couple of days earlier I set the bottle in a container with some holly, berries, baby’s breath and boxwood and then filled with water and set in the freezer.  The result is in the picture to the left. For those of you in warmer climates—and there are several of you—here is how nice the dusting of snow looks on the trees and in the front yard.  It was a cool crisp morning and a sign of what is coming when the days begin to lengthen again. ‘Tis winter now; the fallen snow Has left the heavens all coldly clear; Through leafless boughs the sharp winds blow, And all the earth lies dead and drear.                               - S. Longfellow

Talking Turkey about Blogging…

Right away you notice that the design style has changed.  After a year of blogging, a change is appropriate.  The labels are also a little more prominent, so if you have an interest in certain types of ramblings you can get all the associated blogs by clicking on that label.  In the new format some of the earlier pictures may look cut off, but if you click on the photo (sometimes double-clicks are required) it will bring the whole picture in a single window…so nothing is lost.

The Adventures haven’t stopped since the October entry…only the writer has been focusing on some other items.  Now it’s back to you…the readers, because really…it is all about you.

Since the posting in October, Cheri made a weekday trip to New Hampshire where she met her Mom at Aunt Louise’ house for a Birthday Lunch.  It was a celebration of Nana’s ###th birthday (you fill-in the years).   

There was food and cake and a chance to take a generational photograph.

Besides Cheri and Aunt Louise the party included Papa, Uncle Dave, Uncle Tim and Aunt Beth.

Another great time was had by all there.

The next significant item—significance  is a relative term and may be gender related—was the addition of a riding lawn mower to the family.

The new toy…I mean tool..was extremely helpful in getting the fall cleanup completed in record time.  There may even be another ride around the lawn taking place this weekend…you can’t have the yard too picked up and neat.

Thanksgiving took the Adventure to New Jersey—sometimes an adventure in its own right—to spend a few days with the Whitney Family.  Deb and Scott prepared an outstanding meal to celebrate the holiday and Cheri contributed with a savory red pepper cheesecake appetizer for Wednesday evening and some winter squash and  a pecan pie for the big day.

      A couple of bottles of Pinot Noir made its way from Connecticut to New Jersey for Thanksgiving Day (but we did sample a nice Chardonnay and Chateauneuf on Wednesday evening…why have wine in your cellar if you are not enjoying it?)

The gathering around the table was full of great food, thankful stories and quite a few laughs.  Much of the food didn’t survive the meal, and everyone left the table at a more than full level.  We ate until late in the afternoon and then settled in to watch a little football.  We had mixed success using Skype to have video calls with family during the day—a good conversation with Sarah in Australia (it was early on Friday morning for her) and my Dad and Deb in Florida.  Unfortunately, Skype kept failing for us when we tried to connect with Nana and Papa.  We tried rebooting and upgrading software without any success.  We’ll check the system live later this weekend.

We stayed in New Jersey through Friday afternoon.  It was an opportunity to spend some time visiting with Monica, Dan’s fiancée, who was with her own family on Thanksgiving Day.

The Adventure was great and we are thankful for being able to share the day with family.

Coriolis…a Fictitious Force

fictitious force, n. Coriolis isn't even a real force, since it doesn't make anything speed up or slow down -- it only explains why things appear to speed or slow as the world spins out from under them. This sort of impostor is known as a fictitious force.
Ohhh…one of the myths of my youth (and even older age) has been shattered.  Sarah hasn’t reported back to us yet, but it seems that the direction of spin in a toilet bowl is controlled by the direction of the jets and not a coriolis effect (note the use of the word effect and not force, something I did pick up from all of those engineering classes).  While the effect is felt on air masses 1000’s of kilometers in diameter, the effect on a mass of water only about a foot in diameter is negligible and can be overcome by changing the impulse direction.
Enough Engineering!!  On to the party to send Sarah off to verify this hypothesis—even if it isn’t true.
Sarah had been with us for several weeks already, but time was marching on to send her on Down Under.  She’d done all the fun things of staying at the cottage in NH for a few nights, traveling to VT for the Harvest Market weekend, and driving down to Washington, New York City and Philadelphia to visit friends, cousins and Aunt Debbie.  Now it was time to have a party to send her on her way.
An event invitation went out over Facebook and several personal invitations were sent out as well.  The calendar moved towards the weekend as the first guest arrived. 
It was too bad that Sarah was going to move 15 time zones away from us—ahead of us actually—without a chance to visit with Jess.  So Cheri and I connected with Jessica and planned a surprise visit back to Connecticut starting late on the night of October 8th.  Cheri made up an excuse of being called by another nurse to help fill in a late night shift and I appeared appropriately disgusted that she would go in on one of the last nights Sarah would be home. 
Cheri picked up Jess at the airport around 11:30 pm and brought her home.  Sarah was still up when they arrived and the surprise was complete when Jess walked into Sarah’s bedroom with Cheri. 

Thomas quickly fit right in and enjoyed being surrounded by several members of the Swenson family for a while.

It was great to have the girls home and around the kitchen table when I got home from work on Friday.  We did start the party a little early (okay maybe a day early) with some lemon drop martinis for the ladies.  Then it wasn’t too long before the next guest of the weekend showed up.  We hadn’t told anyone that Jessica was coming so it was a nice surprise to everyone that walked through the door to see both Jess and Sarah.  We cooked up some steaks, opened some beer & wine and started the weekend on the right foot.  Kristina was suppose to join us for dinner, but with her schedule we ended up starting without her. The next day the surprises continued with people coming to send Sarah off and getting the chance to see all of the Connecticut Swensons!

Cheri had planned a big lasagna dinner and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.  Of course this was also a good time to get various group shots with Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and Grand-Parents…all in all a very photogenic group!

The evening wore on and then many people needed to head back north.  Soon we were down to a core group…and out of that group, Cheri and I were heading to bed!  So everyone else headed out to the hot tub.

I have since had to add several inches of water back to the hot tub…and I’m still finding beer and malt-ernative beverage bottles around the deck.  So obviously a good time was had by the core group well into the evening.

People were up and gone the next morning…everyone had things to do.  But we looked forward to later on Sunday having Michelle and Justin showed up to visit with Sarah. We did relax Sunday evening and enjoyed a selection of items from our local Thai restaurant…something we all like.

The next day, being Columbus Day, we all had off and some people lounged around while Sarah and I made eggs benedict for everyone.  Then it was a slow quiet day before we took some family pictures (thanks to the gorilla tripod) and then took Jess to the airport. Then came the first of many hugs…this one to send Jessica on her way back to Phoenix.

We had a couple more days with Sarah around.  I took Wednesday off to spend the time with her and so Cheri and I could both take her to the airport.  We spent some time with her in the airport and then sent her off on the first flight to Los Angeles…she called us about 11:30 that night to let us know she had made it that far and was waiting for the big flight from there.  More than half a day later we got a message from her in Sydney where she had a final layover and time for a shower and some rest.
She is now in Canberra and seems to be settling in…we haven’t spoken, but we’ve exchanged some E-mails.  Now we need to set up a Skype schedule so we can tele-visit with her occasionally.
Sarah is off and starting this adventure in her life!