Which means that spring is around the corner. It will be especially welcome, even for those of us who missed a month of this winter. However, snow is expected again tomorrow, so we have a ways to go.
We went cross-country skiing this week, and with a clear, blue sky it was wonderful. It looks like we may have many more skiing days if we want since the snow pack is 2-3 feet deep. What will it look like around here when it melts?
Even in Washington it was cold, frigid really. We went down there last week, during Mary's school break, and stayed with Margaret and Andrew (thank you!) We arrived a day after a snow storm and the the government was closed. It was an eerie quiet driving into the city at rush hour and seeing no cars. We picked up Joe and Leonore at the Jefferson Memorial; Leonore was in town for a long weekend and I don't think she was fully prepared for the cold. She had been here in August when it was stifling hot so she has now seen the two extremes of Washington weather.
It was a good, and longer than normal week for us. We met with State Dept friends from Lima and Mexico, and also with Peace Corps friends who were interested in hearing about our Gabon project. We ate and drank our way through the week, and then had an extra day for such merriment as it snowed along the eastern seaboard on Saturday so we stayed an extra night. Margaret is busy, even swamped, with school work and work work. I helped (or tried to) fix Joe's bed with new metal slats. And on the way home we saw Annie in New York for lunch, and she is winding down her school work with a different kind of semester, with projects with real clients.
We made the rounds with phone calls, with a lot of commiserating over the cold winter in Princeton, Dundee and Rochester. We're trying to get away to a Princeton basketball game (perhaps this coming weekend.) And David has made some headway for a family get together this summer at Mountain Springs.
This weekend, Andrew and Lur are watching Myles and Auden (photo below) while Bill and Jen are off skiing. Andrew reports that Claire has a job as a counselor at Camp Pilgrim in Green Lake for the summer. Camp Pilgrim is the same camp Mom went to as a girl. Now does that send chills down your spine?
From Florida we saw lots of photos of John and Marilyn with Robbie,their grandson, at the Daytona 500. Looked like fun, and I even saw them wearing shorts. Do you think we will ever again be able to wear shorts? Hard to imagine.
Before DC, we hosted our friends the Dickmeyers who are at the Consulate in Toronto. Jim was in my class when I started. While in DC a few days later, we went for the first time to the National Portrait Gallery. When we got there, we were told that a tour started in 15 minutes, so we waited around. Much to our surprise, the docent was another of my Foreign Service classmates, who gave us a wonderful tour through the collection, highlighting U.S. history and the history of portraiture. Recommended.
Back to our routines here, with Mary tutoring and me heading over to UMass a couple of days a week. Exercise is not enough to keep us from gaining the weight we lost in the village. Just too much good food, pizza and eggs benedict and bagels etc. Tonight we're off to an early St. Patricks Day dinner with corned beef and cabbage. And beer.
That's about it from up here. Hope you all are keeping warm and happy! Love.
