People

One Year Beard

Self-portrait with One Year Beard

Self-portrait with One Year Beard

A year ago I had a longish beard and mustache that had been growing since the previous Thanksgiving. At that point I decided to cut my beard short. I didn’t shave but using my trimmers cut it to about 1⁄8″. I didn’t cut my hair at that time. Then I let my beard grow again. The previous mustache had been a bit annoying so this time around I trimmed that occasionally. By Christmas my beard had gotten long enough—and it’s now white enough—that I got quite a few ‘Santa’ comments. You can see what it was like at the end of December in my annual 2023 Reading post. By February I was thinking it was time for it to go but since it was coming up on a year’s growth, I decided to give it until this week. I took this picture to record the longest beard I’ve ever had. I’m not making any promises but I suspect this will be the longest beard I’m ever going to have. It was fun while it lasted but I was ready for a change. Again, I have left my hair long, which is also probably the longest it has ever been.

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Col. Paul Peck and Ruth Owens

Paul and Ruth Owens Grave Marker

Paul and Ruth Owens Grave Marker

We went for a walk in the rain near the Croyden Creek Nature Center today. In spite of the fact that we got pretty much soaked, we really enjoyed being outside. I carried my camera under my jacket and got a few pictures. After we got back to the car, we stopped at Rockville Cemetery, just to walk around (again, in the rain). We chatted for a while with the President of the Board of Directors of the Rockville Cemetery Association. She pointed out her family graves and also this marker for the graves of Col. Paul Peck (August 10, 1889 – September 11, 1912) and his wife, Ruth Owens (January 7, 1893 – April 5, 1912). He was an early pilot and set a speed record, flying 24 miles in 25 minutes (57.6 MPH). He died in a plane crash in Chicago, Illinois.

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Dot’s 93rd Birthday

Dot's 93rd Birthday

Dot’s 93rd Birthday

Tsai-Hong has originally planned to have us all over on Chinese (a.k.a. Lunar) New year on February 10. For a number of reasons, it got pushed back first to the 17th and then to the 24th. We did get together and celebrated mom’s 93rd birthday, as well. We don’t ever really need much of an excuse to get together and we should do it more often but of course everyone is busy and it’s hard to find a good date for everyone. As usual, mom made her own cake, her favorite angel food cake, which turned out marvelously. Tsai-Hong bought carry-out from Far East Restaurant and is was terrific.

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Jed’s First Birthday

Aria, Evan, Jed, and Maria

Aria, Evan, Jed, and Maria

We attended the birthday party for little Jed’s first birthday today and had a very nice time visiting with his parents and extended family. We’ve known Maria since she was a little older than Aria is now and have been blessed to watch her grow into the beautiful young woman she is. He wedding to Evan in 2019 was a lot of fun. Sadly they live too far away for us to see her very often, but we are happy for opportunities like this to get together.

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New Year’s Day

New Year's Day Gathering Participants

New Year’s Day Gathering Participants

Many January firsts since 2004 we have gotten together with Amy and her family. Other guests have varied over the years and we’ve missed a few years (like last year, when Cathy got Covid at the end of December). A few things have been very consistent, including having fondue for the meal. Today’s meal included both cheese fondue and chocolate fondue for dessert. We decided to forego the meat fondue because Jon smoked a large piece of beef instead. Choosing between smoked meat and meat fondue is something of a toss up, but we made a good choice. We also had two new attendees this year. Carly, Jon’s wife of about a year and a half and their little one graced us with their presence. It’s great to start a year off with a relaxing time catching up with friends, even if much of the conversation these days seems to be centered around caring for parents or personal medical issues. Regardless, here’s wishing you a very happy new year.

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Dot and Her Great Grandchildren

Kaien, Silas, Dot, and Eloise

Kaien, Silas, Dot, and Eloise

At about 2:00 PM my family started to arrive, starting with George and Carmela (and their dog Chester) who drove down from New Jersey and made better time than expected. The rest came between 2:30 and 3:00 and we have a very lively Christmas afternoon. Our meal this year was all sorts of appetizer-type things. Some might call them tapas but we prefer the name ‘what-nots’. There was considerably more food that the 15 of us could eat so plenty of leftovers. I had planned to make latkes and had already prepared the potato and onion batter but lost track of things and didn’t make them. I fried up a few the next day and they were terrific, but we really didn’t need them today. We didn’t take a whole-group photo but I did get some of mom on the sofa with her three great grandchildren, from left, Kaien, Silas, and Eloise.

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Christmas Morning

Margaret and Friends

Margaret and Friends

As we did last year, we took Christmas breakfast to Cathy’s mom. Also like last year, I made a quiche Loraine and it turned out quite well (it’s not really very difficult, to be honest). Today’s visit was a bit more hectic than last year, though, when it was just Cathy, Dorothy, and me. This year, Tam and No were visiting, having arrived shortly before us. Then Tam’s sister Dieu and her husband Henry and his aunt arrived while we were there. We don’t get to see Henry and Dieu very often, because they live in Florida. Tam and No were planning to leave for a visit to Vietnam tomorrow and Henry and Dieu towards the end of January. So, a very nice reunion but not really a quiet Christmas morning.

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Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve

With my beard and wearing a red and white ‘Santa hat’ this morning I was asked if I would stand in for Santa in a picture with some friends’ kids. I was happy to oblige, of course. This evening we returned to church for our Christmas Eve service, which is a real favorite of mine. Sadly, there are more good Christmas hymns than there is time for in a service and some of my favorites are inevitably missed. We do end, as many churches do, with a song sung by candlelight. We sang Silent Night, where our former church ended with Joy to the World. I took pictures and of course without flash, had to set the camera at a high ISO. The pictures are naturally lower quality because of that but it gives them more of the feel of candlelight, anyway.

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Office Christmas Party

Bonn, Doris, Bill, and Cathy

After a few years without, during that whole pandemic thing, we had our first group holiday party last year and another one this year. In the past I’ve been parts of small groups that had parties. When I worked for Mike his group had a party and that varied in size from a dozen or more, down to a low of three of us. Then we were invited to go to the party for the group we supported and we did that for quite a few years. More recently the larger IT team directly supporting project work had a party. That was a larger group. Last year and this, however, it’s been a larger group again, this time including all the systems and other support groups. We are now call Technology and Digital Solutions or TDS, which sadly has the effect of sounding like tedious. These are a few of my not so tedious colleagues, Bonn, Doris, Bill, and of course Cathy.

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Roosevelt Island

Jim and Cathy on Roosevelt Island

Jim and Cathy on Roosevelt Island

Cathy’s brother Jim came for a quick visit. After we picked him up from the airport we had a little extra time before his and Cathy’s mom would be done with lunch so we stopped at Teddy Roosevelt Island and walked around it. Part of the way around we saw two of these shelter-like constructions made of collected branch pieces. I dont think they are official, National Park Service structures and may well be gone the next time we’re there. But it seemed like a good opportunity for an informal portrait of brother and sister.

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Cathy

Cathy

Cathy

Where the Northwest Branch Rock Creek goes under Muncaster Mill Road the Kengla House Trail heads upstream. We seem to go there right around this time of year fairly regularly. We happened to go there again today. It’s not the most exciting trail around, but it’s nice. The worst part is where it goes under the ICC (MD route 200). Our favorite part is a little ways beyond that where a side stream goes between two huge sycamore trees. Whenever we head this way, I take pictures of Cathy leaning on one or the other of those trees. You can see two pictures from Friday, December 31, 2021. This year the sun was out so I had to move her into the shadow of the tree to get a better picture.

From there we continued upstream until we got to Norbeck Meadows Neighborhood Park where we crossed another side stream and then headed back. There were a lot of dogs out today, which Cathy enjoyed. One border collie wasn’t as happy to see me as we initially were to see her and she lunged at me, whacking me in the leg before her owner pulled her back. But no real harm done, thankfully.

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Rob’s Birthday

Rob's Birthday

Rob’s Birthday

When we moved back here after living in England I was going into eighth grade. In many ways it was like moving to a new town, even though I had lived in the same house until only 14 months before. One of the people I met was Rob and we’ve been close friends ever since. It was really nice to spend the evening with Rob, his lovely wife Susie, and a large handful of their closest friends. I only knew a few of them and those not very well, but I enjoyed talking with them, regardless. This is Rob and Susie with three of those friends who were able to come.

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Rat Gallery DC #2

Rat Gallery #2

Rat Gallery #2

Back on September 30, Rat Gallery DC had their inaugural event. Tonight was their second and the turnout was very encouraging. For the first event, some people came, I’m sure, out of devotion to Dorothy, Rachel, and Katharine, the artists but also the organizers of the event. Tonight’s show featured three other artists and was even better attended than the first. While taste in art is about as varied among people as is taste in food, one can appreciate even what one might not pick to fit their home decor. So, while I wasn’t tempted to buy anything this time, I did enjoy the art and the people. Naturally I took photos. I could only wish it were a little easier to get to North Capital and O Street, Northwest. But it was definitely worth the effort. The next show, I believe, is in early February.

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Cathy and Henry

Cathy and Henry

Cathy and Henry

A few weeks ago I agreed to take portraits of folks at church for a new photo directory. It’s been quite a while since we had one and there have been significant changes since then, including pictures with children who are now young adults. Each Sunday I set up a mini-studio in one of the offices and took three to five photos of each family, couple, or individual (generally more for the larger families since it’s more likely that there will be closed eyes the more people there are). I had Tammy press the shutter release for me to get our photos and I think they turned out pretty well. So, here we are.

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Cathy

Cathy

Cathy

Cathy and I took the day off work today, as many people do the day after Thanksgiving. It was a pleasant, overcast day and we drove out to the Rachel Carson Wildlife Management Area on Zion Road in Brookeville for a walk. The trail we took starts along a field scattered with American persimmon trees (Diospyros virginiana). Then we headed down into the woods where we heard but never saw a barred owl (Strix varia). Eventually we reached the Hawlings River, which is nice as it tumbles over rocks. As we ascended from the river on the Greenway Trail we came upon a large outcropping of boulders which appear to be mostly quartz. This is one of a series of photos I took of Cathy on those rocks.

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Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

Iris and Seth hosted our family Thanksgiving feast this year and it was quite a feast. While I confess to being indifferent to turkey and while most of the sides are high in carbs, taking them off my regular diet, it is still a meal I enjoy. That’s more for the family I’m blessed to have than for the food itself. With three little kids in the house, it’s not necessarily a time for quiet chats but it’s still good to get together as a family. We missed having George and Carmela here, but they plan to come down for Christmas.

I made green bean casserole, sweet potatoes with oranges and marshmallows, and a fruit salad. Tsai-Hong also brought various fruits and amazingly, with my five fruits and her four, there were no duplicates. After the turkey came out of the oven and I could get some of drippings from that I made the giblet gravy, as well. The turkey was quite large and of course there was more than enough for everyone with leftovers to take home with us. There was dressing with chestnuts, peas, salad, bread, broccoli, and two types of cranberry sauce. Mom brought cake and Steve made both pecan and apple pies and of course there was ice cream. Trader Joe’s had a sparkling, rosé tea that Iris bought, which was really nice (but sadly appears to have been a one time thing).

It took two pictures to get everyone in.

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Abba and Hannah

Abba and Hannah

Abba and Hannah

Abba, Hannah, and Sean’s visit ended today. I’m taking directory photos at church so I had to be there but the rest all went to see grandma again. She seemed a little confused but enjoyed having them there. They sang to the birds again. They got home about the same time I did. Before we took them to the airport I took a few pictures and this is my favorite, of the two sisters. With Abba not in the Chicago area, they get to see each other more often but we don’t get to see Abba as much as we did when she was in New England.

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Visiting Grandma

Visiting Grandma

Visiting Grandma

As mentioned in the last two posts, Abba, Hannah, and Sean are visiting from Illinois and Dorothy has come down from Pennsylvania. We had a nice dinner last evening with their grandma and we went back to see her this morning. We went outside for a bit and I took a group picture with the camera on a tripod so I could be in it. Then Abba pushed her grandma around outside but we didn’t stay out too long because it was a bit windy and chilly.

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Dinner with Grandma

Dinner with Grandma

Dinner with Grandma

Last night Abba, Hannah, and Sean arrived from Chicago. Abba, Sean, and I had to work today. Cathy normally has Friday’s off but she had to work some, as well. Dorothy was here, though, and she hung out with Hannah and the rest of us were here, working on our various laptops. I had cooked shrimp, salmon, broccoli, and rice for dinner and it all turned out pretty well. The shrimp were a little spicy, cooked briefly in a little hot oil infused with chili peppers. We went out into the living room and Margaret sang to the cockatiels a little. We left with promises to return tomorrow.

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Sean, Abba, Cathy, and Hannah

Sean, Abba, Cathy, and Hannah

Sean, Abba, Cathy, and Hannah

Two of Cathy’s nieces, Abba and Hannah, and Hannah’s boyfriend Sean came for a visit. We picked them up at the airport and as usual, I took a few pictures while we were there. Abba had planned to come when her dad came back in September but at the last minute had to cancel. At the time she said she’d do her best to come, and here she is, with Hannah and Sean thrown in for good measure. This was the first time we’d met Sean but he fit right in and we had a really good time with them all.

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