Dear Friends, Family and Diary,
It's the middle of the month and I haven't considered written anything. That's a sign of a slow start to the year! However, it's time, and when I look at iPhone pictures, there are a few reminders at least.
New Year's Eve
It has been many years since we partied hearty on New Year's Eve, at least in groups. Mostly, it has been just the two of us and so it was again to bring in 2019. (past examples: 2000, 2008, 2009, 2011).
After all the Christmas gatherings, it was nice to celebrate quietly - and early. We made it to midnight (Eastern US Time) after our favorite celebration meal: cheeses, crackers, shrimp and prosecco. All health foods.
(This was, mostly, our last high-calorie event for awhile. Marianne and I had both added 2-3% to our weights and it was beginning to show. NY resolution: stop the increase, get back to normal.)
Mamo update
Starting her 100th year, Mamo keeps putting along. We managed to celebrate a late birthday at Black Angus restaurant, one of her favorites. Her free treat was a lemon cake with a single candle. Safer than one-flame-per-year!
Otherwise, it's been dinners at her house. Sometimes we replay her life-story videos or the video of Peter, one of her elementary school classmates almost 90 years ago. Or just chit chat. I'm sure she would like all-day chit chat, but we (Marianne, mostly) do what we can. We may even do another video or two - once her voice recovers from the cold we all managed to catch. Stay tuned.
Weekend Farmer's Market
On Saturday, I considered a photo excursion, but could not get inspired since the local National Parks remain semi-closed due to the government shutdown. (Grrrr). Instead, we headed to the farmer's market for a little shopping.
In summer, this space is filled with local fruits, vegetables, meat, cheese, honey, baked goods, etc. In winter, the selection is limited. This is a real farmer's market and the local farms are mostly hibernating. Food purchases were limited to brown rice (local, from Koda Farms) and winter veggies, not as colorful as fruit, but pretty enough.
Next??
We will be heading to the Bay Area on Wednesday to see family, enjoy a dinner meeting with our medical study ("Project Baseline") and then head to a Hungarian birthday party on Saturday. I will work to take good pictures and notes!John and Marianne
ps: A new website has been forced upon us. This website is almost 20 years old and, from time to time, the software I am using becomes obsolete. I have been using a shareware product called "KompoZer" and it was abandoned by its Czech developers seven or eight years ago.
Now, Apple is threatening that the next Mac system update will no longer support KompoZer. Consequently, I embarked on an effort to learn "Dreamweaver", an extremely powerful Adobe software package that is what "the big guys" use. It is ard to learn, but it's good for my head to struggle a bit. I think. (I actually started with Dreamweaver, even before Adobe owned it, but there is little I remember from 15 years ago!)