A Working Hodgepodge

The Hodgepodge is back, just in time to kiss August goodbye. Thanks for joining in today...be sure to add your link at the end of my post before running off to see what your fellow 'laborers' had to say.  Here we go-

1. As August draws to a close, share what's been your favorite weekend of the entire summer.

Tough question. We've had a lot of really wonderful weekends this summer. I guess my favorite was probably Portugal. I loved the scenery, the food, the history, and most especially the company.  I miss traveling abroad. 

2. Labor Day is marked in the US of A on Monday, September 1st.  What paying job have you held that you've loved the most? Liked the least?

Another toughie. I've had many jobs I've truly loved and none I've truly disliked. I loved teaching kindergarten. In my mind 5 is the perfect age. As for what job I liked the least? Maybe working in the dining room of a local nursing home my senior year of high school. I didn't dislike it, but it wasn't something I loved either.  

3. Does the new school year start before or after Labor Day where you live? When do you think it should begin? There is much discussion now about older students having later start times to their school day...your thoughts?

The school year begins after Labor Day here. Students don't get out for the year until June, and I guess May-August or June-September is all apples. 

Except in my head May is spring and June is summer. 

And August is most definitely summer and September is back-to-school.  

Regarding the later start times...the studies are pretty persuasive. Just sayin'. My girls went to high school in the UK and didn't leave the house until after 8 am.  The year before we moved though, my oldest attended grade 9 in Maryland. Her bus came in the literal dark of morning at 6:21 a.m., which I thought was positively absurd.   

4. What's something you've worked at recently that could be deemed a 'labor of love'?

Wedding planning. Definitely a labor of love! My girl and I make a good team and while there are many decisions to made on what feels like a weekly basis, we're having fun with it all.  Can't wait to see the 'fruits of our labor' in just a few months.  

5. Which of the following work idioms can you most relate to right now...'A woman's work is never done.', 'All work and no play make Jack a dull boy.', or 'Many hands make light work.'

Hmmm...well I've been catching up on housework a little bit this week, so maybe the first one. There are not many jobs within a household that only need doing once. In fact I can't think of any...a woman's work is never done. 

6. Crab or lobster or thanks, but no thanks? Favorite way to have your choice prepared?

I love them both, but if you make me choose I'd opt for crab over lobster.  Favorite way to have them prepared? Steamed, seasoned with Old Bay, and picked while sitting at a wooden picnic table beside the river.  

7. Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, 'Three rules of work: Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity." Which of the three do you think is most important? Share one of your own 'rules of work'.

I'm going to say c is most important-in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. Opportunity to learn, grow, develop a new skill, a little humility, or a heaping helping of patience. Sometimes I feel like the message today is along the lines of- if you don't absolutely love everything about your job, then you should quit and find one that makes you 'happy'.  

I have a saying I'm not sure my girls particularly love, but it's this-If it were all fun and games they wouldn't call it work. They'd call it leisure.'  I do think it's nice if you can love everything about your job, but let's face it, that's rare.  Most jobs are a mixed bag.  If you can't find personal satisfaction in the actual work you're doing, then take satisfaction in knowing you're supporting yourself and are growing in some way. 

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

My husband got a new personal phone and it's not able to locate our home wifi. Or something? He was on the phone with Apple for over an hour, has made three trips to the Apple Store in the past two days, in addition to a lengthy call with our Internet provider.  And for some reason he wants me to be in on it all, even though he knows if we were ranking technology know-how in our family of four I would land in the number 4 spot. 

It's possible I will not have Internet access today because Apple wants to look at our airport. 

Or something.  

Anyhoo, I'm only in the middle of filling out umpteen pieces of paper needed to move some investments around, am completing and signing four different vendor contracts related to the wedding, and it's Hodgepodge Day.  I'll do my best to visit, but it may be Thursday. That's the day I'll be without a car because, again with the no air conditioning. 

It's been a week. 
Half a week? 

Happy Wednesday Everyone! 

*postscript-we turned off wifi on all our devices, shut down the AirpPort and modem, then restarted and whoohoo! Success! His phone is now magically working.  Because that's how the Internet works. By magic. 

Feelin' Crabby

We had a fun full weekend, and I thought about just throwing a few pictures up here and letting it tell itself.  

But of course I won't. Ha!  

We spent the weekend in one of our favorite places in the whole wide world-Annapolis and the surrounding creeks, rivers and Chesapeake Bay. As some of you know we lived in the area for nine years, and still have lots of good friends there. Also a big ole piece of our hearts. We always feel like a trip back there begins at the bridge....

When we get a glimpse of the bay rolling in the direction of 'our river', our stomachs get all knotty and our hearts lurch just a little.  

I cannot explain in words why this happens, but it does. 

Well I could explain in words, but it would take many, and I'm already planning to use more than my allotted amount. 

See how many I used just to explain why I can't explain? 

How 'bout a picture? 

Very special friends, whose children grew up with ours, invited us down for a weekend of all things Maryland, aka-crabs-boating-water. They've just purchased a brand new boat, and wanted us to come play. We spent many a weekend together back in the day, our boat rafted up to theirs, the radio on, small people with purple noodles and bouncy pony tails splashing in the water beside us.  We all get a bit of an achy breaky heart when we remember those magical summer weekends of yesteryear.  

Let's get back to present day which was positively splendid. 

We won't mention the boat hair. 

Ya just gotta deal people. 

We arrived at our friend's house early afternoon on Friday, loaded up in their brand new boat, and motored off. We meandered around a while before crossing the Bay into Maryland's Eastern Shore.  

We pulled into a spot called Hemingways for an early dinner, and in my opinion the only thing better than dining al fresco is arriving by boat. 

Hubs is in his happy place doing boat type chores. He misses owning his own, but it's just not practical for our crazy life right now. Soon though! I annoy him just a teensy little bit by saying things like park instead of dock, ropes instead of lines, and front instead of bow. Mostly though, he's just glad I love being on the water as much as he does.

Quite often me and motion don't mix, but the rivers and Bay around Annapolis are like a tonic to my soul. My stomach seems to sense this and cooperates. 

The weather was glorious. Truly, a picture perfect day, so we sat outside and talked while having a leisurely meal.  

We let the water and the sounds and the scent seep into our pores. 

After dinner we flew back across the Bay into Annapolis.

We love this town. If you take a trip to our nation's capital Annapolis makes a great side trip.

There's a whole lot happening on the water in Annapolis on a Friday night.

We 'parked' the boat, walked a bit, then headed back to 'our river' for the ride home.

Saturday the weather was a little iffy, but we were on a mission to get crabs for lunch so back to the Eastern Shore we went. By car this time, to Harris's Crab House. You can get steamed crabs a hundred different places on our side of the shore, but we were going to a little party on that side later, so decided to eat over there.

Plus you can't get these homemade nutty buddies on our side of the water, and we all wanted nutty buddies. Yes, it's as big as it looks, so we shared.

Reluctantly. 

Hubs makes fun of me, because everytime we have crabs I take the same picture. I can't help myself. The sight of these beauties makes me happy and it screams for a photo. There is nothing better than Maryland blue crabs. 

Except maybe the nutty buddy.

Sunday morning I got up and had my coffee here.
I need this every day.

We took another boat ride around our old stomping grounds, and contemplated  how difficult the re-entry into New Jersey was gonna be in just a few hours.

Very.

Crossing that Bay Bridge heading home isn't nearly as much fun as crossing it in for a weekend on the water.

So thankful for good friends and the ties that bind.

Crab Town

Daughter1's boyfriend is in the DC area for the month of July, and she really wanted us to meet him. We had exactly one weekend with a window just wide enough to squeeze through, so Saturday was the day.

In the meantime hubs had a work trip to Canada added to his calendar, but not a problem because he was still supposed to arrive home Friday evening. The plan was I would pick him up at the airport and then we'd drive down to my moms in South Jersey to spend the night. Our pup was going to hang out with Mema while we drove a little further south to meet our girl in Annapolis on Saturday around noon.  That was the plan.  

You know what they say about plans, don't you?  

Friday afternoon hubs phoned about 4 pm to let me know he'd finished his meeting, and had arrived at the Toronto airport. He said his flight was already delayed, and he'd keep me posted. At 11:30 PM they finally cancelled his flight. Like I said, no biggie...just seven hours wiled away in an airport on a Friday night.  Bother.

We could salvage the weekend though, because they put him on another flight arriving in Newark at 8 am Saturday morning. We figured we could still drop the dog at my mom's house and be in Annapolis about noon as originally planned. 

There's that word again-plan.

He phoned again at 1:15 am to say the Saturday morning Newark flight was also now cancelled, and he'd gotten on a flight to Dulles (D.C.) arriving at 7:30 Saturday morning, and could I please let daughter1 know she'd need to trek to Dulles to collect him. 

For every wonderfully uneventful, somewhat exotic flight he takes, there are ten trips in between that go like this. Its why the frequent business travelers deserve their upgrades and airline rewards. 

Hubs is a trooper though, so he went to bed at 2, got up at 4:00, and arrived fresh as a daisy in DC at 7:30 am on Saturday.  I drove to my moms, said hello and goodbye, left the dog in her favorite spot, and trekked on to Annapolis to meet up with everyone.   

We were finally all in the same place at the same time around 1. That's the Maryland capitol building in the background, and please just ignore the guy in green trying to untether his boat from the dock. We strolled down to the waterfront before deciding what we really needed was a serious blast of air conditioning. Holy moly it was hot! Too hot to be walking around town, but not too hot for some of our favorite mussels and the world's best crab dip. 

I challenge anyone to prove me wrong on that last point. When we lived in Annapolis and ate in this little spot, Daughter2 would order the crab dip as her entree. That bread is just the right degree of warm.

We sat and chatted until we felt like we could brave the heat again, and then walked over to the US Naval Academy to look around.  Daughter1's boyfriend is an Army guy, so I had to convince him he needed to stand under the Navy sign for this picture.

We looked at some of the indoor exhibits because the walk over about killed us.
Did I mention the heat?

The grounds are so pretty, but I didn't take a lot of photos...it was just too hot to fool with my camera.  I did snap a couple of the gorgeous chapel, and we did go down in the crypt to see where John Paul Jones is buried because it's interesting, and also because it's air conditioned.

As it happened a newly married couple and their wedding party were coming out of the chapel as we approached.
 

I could not imagine being in a dress uniform or a bridal gown in the crazy heat, but I have to say the bride was beaming.  I love that he's carrying her dress, and she didn't seem to notice the temperature at all. So pretty!

Speaking of pretty~

We felt it was our duty to introduce the boyfriend to the fine art of picking a Maryland blue crab. Course when they're steamed they're no longer blue, but instead turn a delectable shade of pink with a hefty sprinkling of Old Bay Seasoning on top.

This place is always booming. We got there late afternoon, and the temp had dropped maybe an eighth of a degree so we sat outside (under the awning where the ceiling fans whirred) and enjoyed a long leisurely lunch/dinner beside the water.

Picking crabs beside the water makes my list of top five favorite life experiences. You should try it, but definitely go with someone who knows crabs...we always smile at the people who come in asking for bibs and a fork.

You know what I'm gonna say next don't you?  The day went too fast. That's what I always say whenever I have time with one or both of my girls.  And in spite of the heat, and the hoops we had to jump through to make it happen, we had a great day together...

 We always do.