Category Archives: Food

3/15/2020 – HAL, Coronavirus, drinks, dinner

Sunday

Slow start to the day. Read NYTimes Sunday edition on paper. Cancelled tennis date with Ted because it only got to 42 degrees. Went to Carol Pledger’s house on East Allen for a get together with Emily and Lisa Dolan. Just a check in about library matters. Friday’s announcement of program and event cancellations graduated to a full shut down on Wednesday 3/18 thru the end of the month. Lots of talk about the coronavirus pandemic. The Hudson City School District announced their closing so we followed suit.

225 Warren Bar & Grill

Texted Dave Drake about drinks at Swoon. It closed at 4pm so we met for a drink at 225 at 4:30pm. Only 5 or so people at the bar. We practiced social distancing at the end of the bar.

Came back to 114 for a dinner of bacon and gruyere quiche with spinach and asparagus. Talked about memories of family, cousins,…. he left about 8pm. We listened to music before another chapter of Major Crimes.

3/5/2020 – weight, work, tennis

Thursday

Weighed 218 this morning down from 222 on 1/9/20 when we returned from Europe. Close to weight when I graduated from Taft in 1965. Did exercise routine.

Spent most of day at UTMH. Leon Greene came for a product demo with Brandon and James. He has an easy touch with people. Very assured without being obnoxiously so. Chatted with him about corporate jobs, weight and exercise. Turns out he once weighed 260. He’s about 6’3” weighing he says 235 now. Doesn’t look like it. I will have a private chat with him next week.

Sspoke with David A about Troy Web’s run away billing for software development. Seth was completely over wrought about the ongoing train wreck with them. Also discussed CMH’s move to become a 3rd party provider of RPM services…..

Wrote emails to Michael Chameides, Michael O’Hara and Kite’s Nest about composting. This may be my next big public project…..

Tennis nets are up at the school here in Hudson. Earlier than I ever recall. Ted and I will play there on Sunday. Weather should be in high 50s.

Made another batch of bran muffins with raisins and apricots.

Received first test of my place mat series.
Made tofu vegetable gorp for dinner. Karen declared it good.

1/30/2020 – DOG, web project, tennis, dinner

Thursday

Got up at 5:30 am. Worked on updating DOG website for the next season. Then worked more on the timeline here.

Tennis lesson at 11 am.

Troubled left knee was concerning. But once I got going it proved to be just a little annoyance occasionally. Saif introduced the idea that I should be flicking my wrist during my ground strokes. I seem to have interpreted earlier instructions to indicated keeping the wrist immobile during the stroke. Flicking the wrist involved letting the racquet drop below the ball and the flicking the racquet in an upward direction as the arm carried through the stroke. Will have to work further on this.

Big revelation was the time we took with my serve. He pointed out that I am rushing the whole arm motion from then time I toss the ball in the air. Now that I toss the ball quite far up I can slow down my back swing and the wind up to only accelerate during the last quarter or so of the whole swing path. This worked wonders. I hit one ball after the other over the net most landing in very close to the service line. I also had time during the serve motion to think about where I was hitting the ball.

HAL Meeting with Mayor Kamal Johnson

Held meeting with the mayor to provide him with an overview of library operations, future plans, and budget. He is very young, Emily did her usual good job. Gary Sheffer spoke about the History Room. Theresa Parsons chimed in; Bill Stenehjem was present. Toni Koweek represented the Friends and gave a longer than necessary description of their activities. Very good meeting. He is quite familiar with the library but hopefully this gives him a better view of ours issues and the overall program.

Dinner with SJ Williams and Pauline Decarmo

Went to Barnwood. Were horrified at the announcement that there was no fried chicken available. Did eat our dinner. Lots of chatter. Followed up with visit to Dave Drake at Swoon for drinks. Very crowded at the bar. Pauline and I talked about her billing practices. 

12/15/2019 – pre-Christmas dinner

Sunday

We had a dinner for 14 people. Dave Drake cooked the duck breast and red cabbage. Karen made various dishes as did Mark. Anne Bertrand-Dewsnap made a desert, others brought wines and hors d’oeuvre. Ed, Meredith, Maggie and Parker came up from NJ. Ted and Anne came too. Pauline Decarmo, Susan???? Unfortunately none of Dave’s kids came.

8/1/2019 – prostate biopsy

Thursday

Went up to CMH and met up with Dr. Subudhi, the urologist. Karen went with me. The biopsy was moderately uncomfortable, but as expected it only took perhaps ten minutes of so. Went home and spent the rest of the day snoozing, reading, doing very little. Watched more videos about prostate cancer topics. Results of my biopsy should be available in a week. Then we’ll see what decisions need to be made.

I’m really annoyed with Seth because he told everyone at UTMH about the biopsy. I’ve received notes from Wexelman, David, Ole…. But maybe I should not be so annoyed since I also told David rather casually the other day in an email about scheduling some meeting.

Saw a video about making a drop down work bench for the barn. I can use the dining table we retrieved from the alley.

Made a tofu dish for dinner. Onions, green peppers, red pepper, bok choy, chopped tomatoes (canned), tofu, tikka masala sauce. Combined with leftovers. Bulgur, meatloaf, cauliflower and cheese.

7/30/2019 – HAL, clean up, tennis lesson

Tuesday

Did some of the standing exercises with the exercise bands….monster walks….These Indian clubs showed up in the mail:

Ducked out of the UTMH team meeting today. Cannot stand the blather…. Caught up on HAL stuff. Set up meetings with board members…looked at ellenliburt.com website in advance of tomorrow’s meeting with Ellen. Spent time getting ready to transfer the new UTMH website to the domain. Also watched more videos about prostate cancer and treatments, especially robotic prostatectomies. Updated my exercise protocol pages.

Sudden, quite violent thunder storm with hail descended at about 1pm. Power went out. Took Karen to library on the way to Saugerties. Tree limbs and trees down over in Catskill.

Tennis lesson at 3pm. Worked on hitting backhand crosscourt. Spent a lot of time on crosscourt rallies, both forehand and backhand.  Ended with serve. Saif seemed pleased that my toss is finally high enough to slow down the swing of the arm and racket. Ted Dewsnap showed up for Saif’s next lesson as I was leaving.

Put a big pile of recycling out. Got rid of many computer boxes that have been upstairs in the barn for ten years. Started working on new motion detector light over door to office. Will come in handy when the shorter days return in a couple of months. 

Karen made a real meatloaf with a mixture of veal, pork and beef. Excellent.

More Boston Legal

7/28/2019 – tennis, dinner with Sue and Mark Haven

Sunday

Woke up at 5 am. Got up and read more of Stalingrad, coffee, breakfast.

Cindy Weisbart appeared for breakfast along with Karen. Got NYTimes on paper.

Left to practice serve at 9. Probably hit 250 serves. Big focus on tossing the ball very high so that I have to delay my swing and hit up on the ball. Making progress with both flat and slice.

Did gallery duty.

Cindy left for the train at about 1pm. We jumped in car at 2:30 after Pauline Decarmo showed up for gallery sitting. Stopped at Pondside Nursery to consider plants for the backyard just behind the new sun room which ironically receives almost no sun at the level of the plants. Helped by older woman who had taught at Hudson High for a career then went on to teach remedial English at CGCC for another 20 years. She knows Joan Damiani.

Left for Sue and Mark Haven’s house in Lexington, NY in the Catskill Mtns. Since we weren’t due there until 5 pm we drove beyond through Wyndham, Prattsville, Grand Gorge, then to Stamford before tracking back to Lexington and dinner. Excellent time with the Havens. Looked at the vegetable garden in raised beds. Not much there due to hedgehog rampages. Maybe my thinking about a raised bed should focus on flowers? After all we can get excellent veggies at the farmers market here in Hudson every Saturday.

Combination of conversation about aging, photography, children, current politics and good food. Returned home as sky darkened with brilliant red sunset behind us.

7/27/2019 – breakfast, shopping, tennis, reception

Saturday

Up early for breakfast at Bob’s. Shopping. Tennis with Ted. Already in high 80s. Cindy Weisbart arrived about 3:30pm. Karen cooked her famous “sesame chicken egg roll in a bowl”

Reception for 5th Annual Group Show – “50 photographs, 50 photographers, one video…” A mob scene. Very hot and stuffy. Paula Tognarelli spoke at some length. Fortunately Karen interrupted her to get an explanation about some malfeasance at another gallery that she was speaking about.

Paula Tognarelli and Steve Gentile