Week 17

[Re-do] I heard the Canterbury Cathedral Choir when they stopped in Richmond as part of their U.S. tour. The choir performed at St. James in the evening. We started out sitting in the pews on the ground level, but an overhang was baffling the sound, so we moved up to the mezzanine. It is hard to find any criticism of the concert, especially from a novice such as myself. I take comfort in the fact that Antonia and Darien, as well as all of the accomplished musicians in the audience, agreed with me. I find safety in numbers. We were also delighted to host Kim and Julian, two of the chaperons of the choristers and parents to one of the young choristers, at our house for several days. The only disappointment was we didn't have time to show them around Richmond before they had to scurry off to New York.

In an amazing turn of events, significant progress was made on the counter this past week. The left image is the one that I was prepared to use this week, but then Darien got a spurt of energy and spent her Saturday evening going through lots of papers. It was worth it, even though she had promised me we were going to watch a movie. Do we know how to have fun, or what?

Week 16

Darien had another birthday this week. She turned 39 for the first time. Ooops, I probably shouldn't reveal her age like that. The damage is already done, so I will just have to let it stand.

As I said, Darien had a birthday. I thought it would be fun to surprise her for a change, so Antonia and I schemed and came up with the idea of asking a chef from one of her favorite restaurants in town to come over to the house and give her a cooking lesson. As you can see from the picture, she was a bit taken in. The dinner was a smashing success. All of the kids came over to enjoy in the sight of watching Darien sing for her dinner. The food was stunning. Antonia contributed a killer tiramisu that the chef instructed her the day before in how to make. I hope Darien remembers how she prepared everything. Part of the idea here was that I was going to continue to get superb meals for a long, long time after the leftovers were gone.

The weird thing is, Darien came up with the same idea -- inviting the chef over to cook -- several weeks after we did. Fortunately, Antonia poo-pooed the idea and Darien let it drop. Sometimes it is so hard to fool that woman.

On another front, I think we have some backsliding going on in the rest of the kitchen.

Week 15

I visited Lewis G. Larus Park for the first time. This is a mysterious park near the Ukrop's on Huguenot. There is a sign on the corner announcing the park, but no obvious way to get in. We noticed the sign a number of years ago, but never got around to actually exploring it. What happened was, Darien and I were on our bikes last Sunday, having finished our workout at the gym. In another first, we decided to ride to the cabin. This was one of the routes that is on our to-do list, coupled with a lunch prepared by Antonia, but we went anyway just for practice. The idea is to avoid the main, busy streets, so we had to wend our way through a hilly neighborhood. It was a good workout. For the way home, I suggested we try taking the park route back, which arcs through the neighborhood. Darien was very resistant because we didn't have real mountain bikes, because we might not make it through, because we could get lost, because there might be lions and tigers and bears, and probably some other reasons too. We went anyway. Sometimes it's tough to do new things.

In recognition of Darien's birthday, I am not going to post a picture of the counter this week. However, I will point out the excellent work on cleaning off the front of the refrigerator and the freezer. Good job, Darien!

Week 14

I took another dip in the blog pool and started my Duke Dip. This isn't really the first blog I've ever started. But it is the first in which I've invited others to be co-authors with me. We'll have to see how that is going to work out.

It is a bit unbalanced, but there is some visible progress. Too bad she didn't decide to tackle the right side first.