Friday I went to my Mom’s house from work. It was my Dad’s birthday, so we gathered to celebrate, even though Jill was out of town. My sister and her boyfriend made it, and I was pretty busy, between grilling the steaks, updating Mom’s computer, and helping her search for flights. Dinner was good, we also had salad and scalloped potatoes, along with Mom’s scrumptious chocolate cake for dessert. I headed home around 9 because Illa hadn’t been out since around 1. One bummer about the night – I’d won tix to Widespread Panic earlier in the day from 94.7 The Globe, but I had to turn it down because there was no way I could have made it.
Saturday I was up early, happy that the snow that had fallen wasn’t significant. I tried to make it to Mom’s by 9, but was about 20 minutes late. She bought a second house on the Northern Neck several years back, but I’d never seen it due to tenants occupying it or her working weekends. So she’d suggested Saturday, and I’d agreed. We headed down 95 to Fredicksburg, then got on 17 (her house is off 3, but it’s more scenic on 17). A lot more snow had fallen, but we didn’t realize how it was going to affect us. When we got to her house, you park in a circle surrounded by trees. Right then, the trees were loaded with snow and it was melting, so we had to cover our heads and dash for the house. All the time we were there, snow would thump on the house and car every couple seconds.
View from the creek (looks like a river) bank
So I took pictures (all here) and she showed me around, then we headed off. We went through White Stone to Windmill Point on the bay, the eastern most spot on the Northern Neck. We looked around then headed back to White Stone. Mom checked to see if her real estate agent was in (she’s the one who rents it out), then we went nearby to the River Market, where I found some Northern Neck Ginger Ale that Dave had asked for (I’d looked it up the night before and found it’d been sold to Coca-Cola and figured I wouldn’t have a hard time finding it), and a bottle of Belhaven Wee Heavy I’d save for dinner, as well as sandwiches made fresh -pastrami for mom, chicken BBQ and a clam chowder for me. The clam chowder was not the usual kind – still creamy, but not as heavy and different spices. Tasty, though. We ate in the car since the only tables were outside and it was a bit cold for that. On they way back, we took 3 and Mom stopped at a Dairy Freeze in Montross with “Shrimp” in as big letters as “Dairy Freeze” on the roof. She said she had to get some to go, and convinced me to get some too. I still don’t know how they taste, since they screwed up the order and gave us chicken fingers instead (we didn’t find out ’til we got home – actually Mom called me and warned me).
I stopped by Record & Tape Exchange on the way home, but they didn’t have anything I was looking for. I came home, and Illa was happy to see me, even though I’d had the dog walker come. For dinner I’d marinated lamb based on this recipe, except I don’t like mint and it was a chop and I grilled it. The pesto was good, and it went well with the creamed spinach and Scottish ale. I watched some TV and read the paper before heading to bed.
Today was not lazier, but I was at home all day. I got up and did the usual. I spent a lot of time on comic books today, unfortunately none of it reading my monthly shipment. I spent a couple hours in the basement going through ones I don’t want, figuring out some of my future auctions. Now that I’ve dedicated myself to doing an auction a week, I can see the piles actually getting smaller. I still have a lot to sell, though. I came upstairs and took Illa for a long walk, and we had a snack (I had the chicken fingers), then took photos and hopped online to start auctions. My previous week’s auctions completed and I spent a long time bagging and packaging those – almost finished watching “King Kong” while I did it (I’m glad I didn’t see that in a theater – decent, but a dropoff from Jackson’s previous efforts). By the time I sent invoices and printed postage for the folks who’d paid, it was 9:30 and Jill’s flight had arrived, so I went downstairs to wait for her call that she was at baggage claim. I picked her up, and made a quick dinner of mini crabcakes, fruit, and spinach.