Community garden yields…..

Wow! After returning home from more than a week away, my plot in the community garden looked terrific. I was shocked to lift the elephant-ear sized leaves on the zucchini and squash plants to find….zucchini and yellow squash! And when I say zucchini, I mean 4 zucchini the size of my upper arm.

What does one do with such bounty? Well, here’s a recipe that turned out incredibly delicious. Halve a zucchini and a yellow squash and roast in oven at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes while you mow the lawn, as needed. Mince a yellow onion and saute until beginning to caramelize in butter. Add more butter and to the saute add chopped mushrooms in a generous amount. Let the zucchini and squash rest and cool somewhat then scoop out the roasted zucchini and squash and chop into bite sized pieces. Add them to the saute pan. Toss and heat all. Season with a mix of herbs and pepper. Add a few tablespoons of Italian seasoned breadcrumbs. To serve, put in a bowl and top with a few teaspoons of freshly grated parmesan. Excellent as a side dish with Ukrop’s cold fried chicken.

Making it home

It is hard to get to Panama City, and apparently, harder to return. Marie and I had a great day just hanging out, which included a round trip to Dothan Alabama for 15 5-gallon oil drums, delivery to Mexico Beach job site, popping in for a howdy to her family at the beach, errand running to return tuxes, chafing dishes, and the like, and a lovely marina-front drink and snack before heading to the airport. My 5:45 departure left by 8 pm, ensuring I missed my flight to Charlottesville. Luckily, I was booked on the 10:30 to Richmond, with Mom waiting in the wings to retrieve me, but that flight left around 1 a.m. All told, I returned by 4 a.m. to my silent home and had to get up at 7 a.m. Yikes! My reward was being surprised by a garden now full of flowers. The gladioli are blooming profusely on the west side of the house, and the salvia is perky and lovely in several spots, along with soft lamb’s ear and hosta in the top picture.

Young love, old friends, and feeding 6-80 in Florida

Kevin and Becca married on June 23, 2007, in advance of going up to Florida State together. They left the reception amid a flurry of bubbles.
 Kevin and Becca Cox.

Mitch and Marie were the proud parents of the groom and they held up amazingly well, while I cried a bit throughout the ceremony being a complete softie at weddings. All weddings. I guess the poignancy of the leap being taken gets me every time.
 Proud parents of the groom after the newlyweds left.

In advance of the wedding, we had quite a raft of activity. Marie was decorating the reception hall, as well as self-catering the rehearsal party for 80! It was ambitious but with several of us pitching in, she pulled it off admirably and there were lots of compliments for the food–we had quite a spread.  I was impressed with 14-year-old David Cox, my personal helper hero, who leaped to his feet to unload the car on the many trips we made to deliver items to the house, and who looked fantastic in his tux despite hating every minute of it! Her friend Terri did the flowers, and Bea and Sharon were in charge of other decorations.    I personally was on a ladder for 2 hours stapling strings of lights all around the room!   We applied beach Scene Setters to one long wall, and it transformed the room into a tropical paradise.  The theme was Family Union, a take on family reunions, so for the menu we had chicken, and honey ham, and side dishes like a layered salad, rolls, green bean casseroles, glazed carrots, roasted potatoes with rosemary, and multitudes of pies for dessert. Check out the decor and some of the food.
 The rehearsal dinner decor.

 Teri, Marie, and me at the reception

After the wedding, the real culinary treats came courtesy of Greg, butcher for Whole Foods, and bf of Amy, Marie’s sister. Here he is showing off his fantastic shrimp creole. Other treats of the weekend included a corn and green onion pancake topped with fried eggs and a side of bacon for breakfast one morning, and a freshly made slightly lemon-tinged cheesecake that was the perfect ending to a long day at the beach.

 Greg and his Shrimp Creole.

It was wonderful for me to get to see Marie’s brother and sister, their partners, and Marie’s mom, uncle, and aunt.   I forgot how much fun families from New Orleans can be–their zest for fun, storytelling, and even gameplaying felt like I was home again.  I was also excited to see Teri, my long-time friend, and catch up on both of our lives.  Hanging at Mexico Beach was lovely with warm water, an overcast sky that allowed us to evade burns, and great company with storytelling continuing in the water all day.

What do men want?

A smart guy recently said to me that if I’m confused about motives of men, it’s easy:  they want money, sex, or a nap.   Women’s motives may be more complicated but other than adding emotional connection or good food, it’s probably a short list for us also!

Sometimes boiling things down muddies them, but in this case,  considering a short list of motives may help me to respond appropriately.

Recently, my social and work relationships have undergone seismic shifts and it’s time to rebuild, reinforce, or raze them.   I am reconsidering my long habit of valuing loyalty and affiliation above most things.    Certainly some of my loved ones have earned continued loyalty and strong attachment.  With others, it’s been mixed.  With some, it’s clearly over.   Time to check motives and see how the categories shake out.  

And I don’t get off the hook either.  Time to think about my own motives and choices.  Am I living in accordance with my values?   

Before and after

Jamie before his summer haircut, and after.

Tristan before his summer haircut, and after

Hot off the shelf–of the Crozet Great Valu?????

Incredible.  While convenience stores have been offering Coca Cola Zero Vanilla for the last few weeks (at $1.49 a pop for a 20 oz. bottle!) I had yet to find them on the grocery store shelves until last night.  Props to the Crozet Great Valu, which also reliably stocks Mennonite pastries and breads, organic produce, and Cheerwine/Diet Cheerwine, when these items are hard to find even in Charlottesville. 

5th Grade Graduation

When we were kids, my friends and I moved through an endless series of events without any real sense of time passing.   Yes, I completed kindergarten, then elementary school, and middle school.  It’s true that I went through a “graduation” ceremony from a summer enrichment program, but even that seemed to lack meaning given that I went back the next year as a “Grad I.”  Not until high school did I really notice that when one graduates, one leaves behind friends, mentors, and the lifestyle that up until then defined the self.

My kids have already experienced several of these deliberate acknowledgments of the passage of time and the gaining of maturity.  Both had a preschool graduation ceremony, and given that they attended the same preschool for 5 years each, I suppose there was importance in their saying goodbye to friends and teachers they’d known so long.  But then there was a ceremony following Kindergarten, and now, Jamie has completed a 5th grade graduation.  The ceremony included a number of brief speeches, an awards ceremony, a 4 song choral and recorder performance by the 5th graders, and a slide show of which I was unfortunately not aware (and therefore Jamie’s baby vs. now photos were not included).  Following all of that, each “graduate” got a certificate of completion along with cheers from parents and grandparents. 

It was all too much for me.  Not only did I feel bad for Jamie not having his photos included, but this attention to every little life passage seemed overdone.   It seems that these ceremonies might lead to pressuring the kids too early towards attention to the goals of getting good grades, high achievement in sports, participating in numerous clubs, and eventually, getting into a good school in order to have a better future life.    When I was a kid, the major aspect that was clearly different about my life was my ability to live in the moment without excessive concern for the future.  I want that for my kids.  I miss that for myself.   

Evening at Mono Loco and Rapture

Saturday was a LONG day.  It was blisteringly hot and humid, and we were all waiting for rain that never came.  Jamie played the first half of the makeup game for his Crozet team, Purple Galaxy, and got lots of accolades for his contributions to the team before he left.  He then headed out to Richmond to play with his old team, the Rockville Rockets, as a ringer really.  That left me with time to buckle down and work.  The office was hot and I stayed sweaty most of the day.  I spent 5 hours at the office finally completing a paper I’ve been struggling with for 70 days to revise.  Now it rocks and if it doesn’t get published quickly and in a solid journal, I’ll be surprised.  I decided to reward myself with an evening out with a big group from work.   So I popped home, showered, and changed into my fun, swirly, kicky black and white sundress and the only black sandals I can tolerate with my still broken and painful toe.

Mike’s idea was to gather for drinks and dinner and Amy suggested Mono Loco on Water Street, just off the downtown mall.   We had a group of 12 but Mike had made a reservation so we were accomodated on the unlit side of the large outdoor patio.  We got to hear a little about Amy’s college reunion, Leah’s recent upstate New York marathon, Mike and Cecily’s upcoming move to Memphis, and Corey and Katie’s upcoming nuptials and her second graduation within a month!  I’m sure the other end of the table had fun too, but it was too far and loud to hear what they were talking about.  I had the fish tacos and could only eat about half of what was on the plate—they started with black beans and perfect rice, loaded on crisped red, yellow, and green sweet peppers, added some habaneros for fun, and layered on top of all that 2 perfect handmade tortillas and some crispy Mahi with a cilantro sauce.  Yum!   We also heard rave reviews for the roasted chicken which came in a au gratin style dish with a creamy sauce and lots of veggies and cheese, the p0rk tamale, and the chicken burrito.   Several types of margaritas were sampled but they were a bit light on the tequila.  We had a great time despite the humidity and loud crowd. 

After losing Corey & Katie, Theresa & Mark, and Amy, who had high hopes for the rest of her evening, we headed for drinks on the downtown mall.  Of course we ended up at the Rapture patio, and the beer drinkers in the crowd were satisfied.  I had to make do with Knob Creek but really the crowd was why I was there.  That and the notoriously uneven service which usually inspires multiple funny comments.  Florence entertained Brad and the rest of us with wild stories of the politics of grad school and dealing with nearly autistic advisors, and made me feel better about what had to be one of my most bizarre job interviews ever.  Mike informed me that we have a MySpace page for our project (we do????) and that we keep getting hit up to be friends with scantily clad young women, and that he has to spend a lot of time blocking them  (yeah, yeah, better look through all those photos carefully!)   We got to hear more about Stefania’s trip to Croatia and how much better its Adriatic is than on the Italian side.    Stefania’s husband Alex entertained us with tales of their recent pool tournament fiasco and reassured me that the competitiveness and bad sports moods and related angry withdrawal after a soccer loss that I see in my eldest are normal, good signs—he’s a solidly American boy!   Unfortunately, I’ll be dealing with those for at least another 9 years!  We also got to hear longing comments from the gay guys when Mike got up to leave.  We knew he was gonna get into trouble with those eyes…..