Dwarf Planet in Purple

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! If Hanukkah is your holiday, I hope it was a totally happy one.

This month has been fairly busy, with the usual activities. Unevent, the Kingdom of Atlantia's annual business meeting, is permanently online, which means it's easier for people from all parts of the kingdom to attend (the kingdom stretches from Baltimore to Hilton Head Island). Dun Carraig had a baronial investiture at a lovely site on the north bank of the Potomac River; they'll use it again for the 2024 Spring Coronation. I managed to convince R. to attend the Washington Christmas Revels; the parent organization cut back from two weekends to one this year, ostensibly because renting Lisner Auditorium is more expensive than it used to be. I hope the Revels will be around for many years to come.

I also wrapped up the Year of Many Vehicles by purchasing a new-to-me 2011 Subaru Forester. My first Subaru. Remember how I explained that I bought a Hyundai Tucson, but it couldn't ever pass inspection? Yeah, I kept on driving it without renewing the temporary registration and hoped the cops wouldn't catch up to me. Then I brought the Tucson to the Sunoco near where I used to live. I had thought, gee, maybe the first inspection station I used was acting all tight-assed because I'd never patronized them before, and the Sunoco has a good reputation for fair dealing. But the Sunoco fellow told me the exact same thing -- sorry, way too rusted out to pass Maryland inspection, ever. And as this year winds down, having a "23" sticker on my rear license plate instead of "24" or "25" will be a giant clue to the local constabulary. So I went to a *real* dealer and bought a car that PASSED inspection. It's a joy to drive.

(I am calling this the Year of Many Vehicles because I started out with a 1999 Toyota Corolla; then I had a rental Grand Cherokee for one weekend after the Corolla was totaled and taken from me; then I drove the CR-V belonging to my temporary housemates; then I bought the 2008 Tucson; and now I have the Forester. That's five vehicles.)

Despite the new wheels, I've spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day here in Maryland. I haven't heard from any of my Massachusetts cousins, so I guess they have gotten used to my not traveling up there, so they didn't invite me. *sigh*

Last night I phoned my cousins up in Massachusetts to wish them a Merry Christmas. We had some cheery conversations. I miss them and their families. (OK, I haven't met the newest family member because she was born just 5 days ago -- yes, my cousin D.A. has a new baby granddaughter named Paulina!)

I'm not traveling to Massachusetts again this year for various reasons, mostly involving the weather. Earlier this week I had to talk R. out of driving to NJ for a funeral today because I was hearing predictions about lots of snow and ice. (R. has a friend in Freehold who lost his wife about a week ago -- although she had many chronic health issues, sudden cardiac arrest did her in.) I don't think we got too much sleet/freezing rain here along the East Coast, but we're certainly in a deep freeze.

At least the things I *need* to do are done, so I can do things that I *want* to do, like catch up on movies and TV, knit, read, and eat homemade sweets. The boy toy has been baking cookies and a chocolate tart. Tomorrow night, for Christmas Eve, he'll make clam chowder and biscuits from scratch. For Christmas, he follows his family's traditional menu: eggs Benedict for breakfast and a roast beef for dinner. In between we'll have a light lunch of broccoli soup, and for evening dessert we'll have a Christmas pudding, both from a "Christmas at Highclere" book his Anglophile mother gave him a few years back. We'll have a bit of Downton Abbey around here!

Not much else to say; I'm still plugging along with church and Toastmasters and SCA. I'm about at the halfway mark of my three-year term as a trustee of the congregation. Whew.

Yep, the summer heat and humidity are here, big time.

This was possibly the quietest Fourth of July weekend I've had in a long, long time. Because of the pandemic, my neighbor-friend T.V.P. did not have her usual blowout birthday-solstice-Fourth party, complete with the public fireworks display over the lake. My town did not have its municipal fireworks display this year. The boy toy and I watched the coverage of several major cities' fireworks on CNN.

Earlier in the day yesterday, I finally got to see Hamilton on Disney+ (courtesy of the boy toy's parents -- they subscribe on one device, and the subscription says "up to four devices," so they sent him the code). OMG. SO EXCELLENT. Of course I've listened to the soundtrack in bits and pieces over the years, and I've read the Ron Chernow biography on which the show is based, but somehow it all came together when I could see the action and could tell who was singing when. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Lin-Manuel Miranda is his generation's Shakespeare.

(I know some people don't like rap music, but I can take it in reasonable doses, and I don't find the speed of the lyrics any worse than listening to well-performed Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.)

On Friday I watched the YouTube video of the Lithuanian folk dance festival from 2016. The festival was *supposed* to be TODAY in Philadelphia, but because of the pandemic it has been postponed to August 2021. Smack dab in the middle of Pennsic, which of course has been postponed from this year too.

Le sigh. The whole year is being postponed. EXCEPT for the election. We MUST have the election.

To jump-start my writing here....

1. What is one of your favorite things about your country?

We still have freedom of the press and the First Amendment. Who knows how long that's going to last?

2. What is your favorite thing to do on your country's national holiday?

Eat food, watch fireworks.

3. What do you usually do for your country's national holiday?

See answer to question 2.

4. What is your favorite national/regional ethnic dish?

Oh, gee, there are so many. Regions of the U.S., as opposed to my ancestors' homelands? I love Boston baked beans, Tex-Mex, burgers, McIntosh apples, real maple syrup....

5. Who is your favorite national hero and why?

It's a tie between Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton. Brilliant writers, no slaves...

Breakfast:
Caramel apple sweet rolls, made from local apples

Afternoon snackage:
Shrimp cocktail
Kalamata olives
Cheese and crackers, chips and dip

The main event:
Champagne (sparking wine), garnished with dried berries
Roasted turkey breast with homemade gravy
Brussels sprouts sauteed with bacon
Green beans
Homemade stuffing/dressing with nuts and dried berries
Cranberry sauce
Pumpkin pie, made with a REAL pumpkin, not the canned stuff

Friday, July 3: It would have been my parents' 68th wedding anniversary. Of course, my parents were married for 34 years and about 7 weeks before my Dad died. Consequently, in about 14 weeks I'll be able to say that the time that has elapsed since my father's death is equal to the length of their marriage.

Saturday, July 4: Pretty quiet day staying at home. The boy toy and I binge-watched the second half of the first season of Turn on Netflix. We had watched the first half of the first season and then never got around to seeing the rest. Of course, we haven't seen the second season yet, and it's no longer on FiOS-on-Demand, so we'll have to wait a bit longer. In the evening, I went to the next court over in my condo complex to watch the municipal fireworks, while the boy toy stayed indoors to reassure poor Julia.

Sunday, July 5: Boy toy and I stopped at the farmers' market, where we bought our first peaches of the season, and then we drove down to the southern end of Calvert County (southern Maryland). We had a nice meal of fish and chips and checked out the Calvert Marine Museum, which has a little bit of everything -- dinosaur bones and other fossils, aquariums containing live fish, many different boats, tons of artifacts from the oyster and crab industries, and a restored lighthouse, complete with attached outhouse. (Apparently the museum hosted an outdoor Barenaked Ladies concert on Friday night. Dang.) On the way back home, we cruised some of the Calvert County byways in a search for public beaches that might be worth visiting in the future.

Coming up this week: work on my next freelance magazine article and an attempt at water aerobics class.

Yesterday was a low-key day, despite what my cat might have told you. :-) Over yesterday and today, the boy toy and I have watched all the episodes of the HBO series John Adams. We've seen them all before, but somehow it seemed like a good weekend to contemplate the origins of our nation.

Today the boy toy and I went out for a late lunch (our main meal), and then we went for a walk around Lake Artemesia. He'd never been to that park, which has a different vibe from the lake in our neighborhood. It was such a gorgeous day -- moderate heat and humidity, not a cloud in the sky -- much more like a Massachusetts summer day than our usual mid-Atlantic murk! I couldn't let the day go by without spending some of it outdoors. (And, hey, I gotta prep for Pennsic. *smile*)

Speaking of Pennsic, after our walk I pinned together the pattern pieces for my Ottoman coat, minus the sleeves. I would like to make a vest out of the remaining cloth that I didn't use for the coat, so that I can have a Turkish outfit for really hot weather. I'll probably send a photo of the thing to the woman who taught the Ottoman clothing class last fall, and also seek opinions at next Saturday's Storvik sewing party.