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Visit To Alans 05/13/10


I took a couple days off work from Thursday morning 05/13 and came back Sunday 05/16 to fly down to Towson, MD to visit with my brother Alan with the secondary goal of practicing The Fine Art of Southern Porch Sitting.

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Also, to just go for once when the weather wouldn't be a hundred degrees in the shade. But the main reason was to celebrate with him for his upcoming 80th birthday June 13th.

June is fixing up to be a really busy month for me, and I suspect it will be for him as well. So, I thought I'd go down now!

Other than a quick, but massive, thunderstorm on Friday afternoon, the weather was just super, and I was able to get in a lot of training and direction by Alan in The Fine Art of Southern Porch Sitting. Yeah, baby!


05/13/10 - Thursday
Smooth trip down. Alan met me at the airport and then we went to lunch at Jennies Cafe. Killian's on draft and a terrific chicken salad sandwich.

When we got to his house we started in right away planning the evening's meal and settled on a Porteguese recipe: Steak With Onions and Tomatoes. At first sounds a little bland, but with all of the other spices it called for, it was terrific. With it we had a nice bottle of Argentinian Malbec - Tango Privado Tannat 2006.

Ended off the night with a documentary of the time that Churchhill ordered the sinking of the French fleet during WWII. I was a hurtin' unit from the flight and had to fold my hand before the end of it. Slept good, though.

05/14/10 - Friday
I slept in until 9:00am and Abbie fixed scrambled egg with deviled ham on an English muffin. Alan made a Peruvian Cajamarca coffee (grown high in the mountains of that region of Peru near Jaen) that was so smooth that I could very easily get spoiled on that.

A WONDERFUL Southern Porch Sitting day! Feel much better today; don't know what hit me yesterday but I was a hurtin' unit for sure. I read for awhile and then Alan and I had a wide ranging series of philosophical conversations and discussions of obscure and inconsequential trivia that only he understands. Then we were off shopping for the evening meal - a little like the MEN hunting in the WILD.

We also got some Portuguese wine - a bottle of Quinta de Ventozelo Douro 2007 Reserva. I had to buy it because he just can't relate to spending more than $11 for a bottle of wine and this was double that. The meal we chose, an Herbed Portuguese Veal, was a total success! But we all agreed that the Portuguese wine was a pass; it was just a little thin and lifeless for our tastes.

After dinner, Alan and I spent 3 hours totally engrossed in The Godfather. It has been years since I have seen it, and after having discussed various aspects of it with him during the day, the effect was indescribable. I always liked the film, probably one of my favorite. But I never really 'understood' it until now and am left... well, speechless. Oh.... and I was really tired, too, because I didn't get to bed until after 12:30am.

05/15/10 - Saturday
I was up around 8:30 and as I walked into the kitchen I could smell coffee. Alan had just brewed up a Fair Trade Organic Peruvian coffee, and I wasted no time in getting into that. I thought it... well, stronger, or more 'sharp'? Alan said that the pros said that it had a 'fine finish'. Whatever.... It certainly was good. But not as good as Friday's. The plan tomorrow is to have a blend of the two, so we'll see.

One of the things I always try to do when I come down here is to go to Baltimore's Inner Harbor. I just love it down there! But I could feel my body telling me that hiking in some 3 blocks from the closest parking would just play havoic on my back and muscles in my right leg.

Though I'm up and moving around pretty good from my surgery, my body is still recovering from the shock of the operation. And my spine and hips have been out of alignment for so long that now that they are trying to restabalize, my right quad and glut are constantly causing me a lot of pain. I just knew if I pushed it, I'd be really hurting on that flight back tomorrow. So, unfortunately, I had to pass on the Inner Harbor trip. Hey! A marvelous excuse to come back again!

Thus, Alan and I had a grand time practicing The Fine Art of Southern Porch Sitting for the entire afternoon. We didn't have to go shopping because we had laid in all the essentials the last excersion that we went on.

So, around 5:00pm Alan cranked up the Italian Opera CD that he loves, and away we went with the meal prep work. Tonight, we prepared Grilled Lamb Chops In Port and Mustard Cream Sauce. Really simple to make, and it turned out great, though we all agreed that Friday's Herbed Portuguese Veal was the best meal out of the three that we fixed. We had another Argentinian Malbec, though not quite as good as Thursday's.

Abbie insisted on cleaning up and so the two hunter-gatherers headed into the living room to watch the movie of the night: The Godfather Part 2. Based on Alan's analysis of the series, I have the assignment of watching Part 3 as soon as I can so that I can see how it wraps up the themes of the first two parts. Part 2 is just about as long as Part 1 and I didn't hit the bed until after midnight again.

05/16/10 - Sunday
I was up before 8:00 after a great night's sleep. Hopped into the shower and by the time I rolled into the kitchen, terrific smells of that two-thirds Cajamarca and one-third Fair Trade blend filled the air. Well, it was better than yesterday's Fair Trade alone, but not as good as the Cajamarca itself. Don't like it too much as it can get expensive!

So Alan could get on with his day, we headed out to the BWI airport about 10:30. Though my flight didn't leave until 12:30, I figured I'd grab lunch at this end, which I did. Read some from the book I was on until boarding was called, and then had a nice easy flight back into Manchester, NH airport.

I got home about 3:30, did the laundry, and messed with some other stuff until Sue came by with a bottle of wine - a Malbec, of course! I ordered a pizza and we sat out on the deck and chatted, and then came in to watch the movie Pollack with Ed Harris.


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A view of the back of Alan and Abbie's home with 'the porch' (where we practiced The Fine Art of Southern Porch Sitting very happily on) to the left. This house has been in Abbie's family for a long time. In fact, it was a farm and they owned all the land around it. But like many, they ended up selling most of it off. The neighborhood is really upscale with this old farm house a real historical element.

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Standing on the steps of the back porch looking out to the left.

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Standing on the steps of the back porch looking out to the right.

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Alan settling into Southern Porch Sitting mode. Ah.... so easy to do; so difficult to stop!

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Alan returning to the car after dropping the shopping cart off after our Excellent Thursday Shopping Excursion!

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Does this guy look relaxed and retired, or what? A Thursday night toast to his fans!

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I took this of Friday afternoon's thunderstorm. You can even see the hail!

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Abbie and Alan in their kitchen. Note his Arabic hat (from Kyrgyzstan) to keep the drafts off of his head. Also, see the picture on the fridge just behind Alan's left shoulder? Check it out below....

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This is a picture of their whole family: Their son Scott and his wife Mary Liz, their son Dean and his son Justin. In the front row are Scott and Mary Liz's kids: Austin and Aubrey, followed by Abbie, Alan, and Candace who is now Justin's wife.

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This is where all of the cooking (and wine drinking!) took place.

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Ahhhh... the local of The Fine Art of Southern Porch Sitting training.

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Alan took charge of most of the Saturday night's sauce preparation. What you can't experience from the picture is the powerful singing of Maria Callas that filled the room. You know, the more wine I drank, the more I enjoyed all that Italian opera....

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