Slip Sliding Away...

and before my brain succumbs to the numbness of the onrushing heat


I am slipping (in a lot of ways) some. In the formative years of the Bottom Feeder I used to be enamored of curious dates. Things like day*month = year like 9/9/81. Or you could mess around with the square root, things like that. And then there were the clock/date things like 01:02:03 on the fifth of april in 1967 would be 1/2/3/4/5/67. Or people would send me things that will not occur again until three centuries from now. Some were true and some were not.

Well, I kind of missed one last Saturday. It was 7/9/11, a progression of three odd numbers. The next one will be 9/11/13, then 11/13/15 and that will be it for this century.

And, today being 7/11, it is of course convenience store day. I think I heard that that particular store will be giving away free slurpees..

Weekend wrap..

After our lovely Plan B Picnic, the weekend included:

Going to a recital that was part of Piano Fest. It was performed by Beverly Babcock, who usually is seen lurking behind Brian Ganz and playing the “orchestration” (see I’m learning) part while he solos. It was such a treat to see her perform for herself and display her considerable talent. She played the lovely Prelude & Fugue XII in f minor, WTC Book II (whew!), by J.S. Bach, then a Haydn Sonata in E-flat (and a bunch of other descriptors). After that she played a beautiful piece written for her by a student at SMCM called May Afternoon. What a treat that was, and to cap it off, the composer Mary Coy (aged 22!!) was in the audience. For the final piece, Brian joined her on stage and they played a delightful series of four handed Brahms waltzes, 16 of them!

Then yesterday our friend in DC came down with one of his nephews, and another friend. The second one was the lifeguard at the pool in our DC’s friend's apartment building, and is one of those who come from the Balkans every year to do such jobs in hotels and so forth. Both young men were extremely engaging, and it was fun meeting them. They both (by coincidence) were very much over six feet. We took them on a short tour of St. Mary’s City (my third visit to the chapel in as many days!) and then we went to Courtney’s for lunch to show them the “real thing”. And in fact they did get the full show. We sat for a good seven? ten? minutes before Tom brought the menus. Then another lapse while we pondered the menu (with some interpretation for our friend from Slovakia), and finally ordered. Pretty much rock fish all around. It’s what you do at Courtney’s. There was a large family group next to us that were sitting when we arrived, kept sitting while we were sitting, and sat some more. They asked about their food a couple of times, and eventually two plates were served (the party was about eight). After another whiles, a steaming tray of hard crabs were brought out. So our friends got to see the whacking and cracking of crabs as well. The whole deal. The rockfish baskets, plates broiled and fried were the best as usual. MFO had the broiled version. Fresh fish is so good… Anyway they had to sort of rush out the door to make their evening appointments in DC. Consistent experience at Courtney's. You just learn to expect and live with it..

Before we began our communal journey, MFO and I supplied a little snack for their off the road recovery of a glass of Prosecco and I whipped up a little frittata..



We were also reminded of the benefits of the big city when they brought us a house gift of a wedge of Montgomery’s Cheddar from the Cow Girl Creamery. Wonderful stuff..

So after our travels and lunch, MFO and I eschewed the Brian Ganz recital of last night..

And of course with Courtney’s there is no standard for which to

DFD