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mom and dad in colonial williamsburg – a beautiful day

Jeremy started to feel pretty lousy this evening. I think all of his crazy work and travel (in addition to helping me with my freak out period of the past few weeks) has finally taken its toll. Jeremy hasn’t been sick in a couple of years, so I feel bad knowing that it was probably my fault. While he napped, I prepared dinner. Dad hovered over me because he (like me) has a tendency to think that I (he) doesn’t know what I’m (he’s) doing. It turned out just fine though! I made filet mignon with a port reduction sauce over parsnip purée with sautéed asparagus. I was worried they wouldn’t like the parsnip because you never know with my folks. They totally didn’t go for Thai food when I first introduced them to it, and my dad dislikes Mexican food… but they loved the parsnip and even want to use it for entertaining. Success! Dad served a fabulous 1990 Stags Leap cab with the meal.

the dinner i made for my folks

It’s kind of neat to trade entertaining recipes and techniques with my parents. They are such avid cooks and love to feed people. I am pretty sure this is at least 50% responsible for why I enjoy the same thing. Kris wasn’t an avid cook, but she had impeccable taste and knew how to throw a Good Party. Aside from being psychotic, hyper, loud, and garrulous, I suppose this is another thing that ties us together – food.

It was a very long day getting to Virginia. I got up at 2 am to pack and get my junk in order *yawn*. All of these nights of truncated sleep are catching up to me. I rarely sleep soundly on planes, but managed to not only sleep, but dream during both flights. Atlanta is a stupid stupid airport, but I will give them one thing – they have seats at the gates that do not have arm rests which means you can lie across three or four to take a nap.

We got into Virginia at 5:15 this evening and my parents were their typical high energy selves. Their new house is quite lovely with beautiful views. I think their ramped up entertaining schedule has helped them with their decor, although I see a lot of competing themes in the style: ornate chinese, contemporary chinese, ornate western, contemporary western. Virginia is totally green and all of the cherry blossoms have long fallen to the ground. My father is heartbroken over an apparent double-attack on his fish pond in the front courtyard. It looks like the MO of a blue heron who has nipped a nice meal or two of the fishes. Dad has now set up a boobie trap worthy of an action movie to prevent the heron from landing in the water (a crazy network of fishing line strung across the top of the pond) and a motion-triggered floodlight.

Dad made his famous bouillabaisse for dinner tonight while everyone snacked on sweets I brought from my class. Boy, that really hit the spot. I love the way my dad makes that soup. Perfect night for it too – cool and rainy.

mom and dad with more energy than most 25-year olds

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Drizzle came down steadily as we made our way into the fog on a familiar route. We were hiking Echo Mountain, the trail behind our old house in Altadena that we used to do twice a week. I know that trail better than any trail… every turn and hill and switchback and even where certain plants bloomed. We were supposed to go with Ro, but the poor thing has been exhausting herself working like a madwoman on research, wedding, moving, in addition to the daily stresses of being an OCD. She slept through her alarm and decided she needed to sleep. So after our hike, we met Ro at a local coffeehouse to chat and juice ourselves up. It’s important to get QT with your pals.

When we arrived at Melinda’s house, the door swung open with Kevin and Thomas shouting out of unison, “Jennifer! Germany!” Kevin gave me a big hug and Thomas played coy. Aaron was getting BBQ from the doctor (Dr. Hogly Wogly’s Tyler Texas BBQ). We enjoyed an energetic lunch and then moved to the backyard for Easter projects.

kevin shows me the trambambompoline

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