1. I woke up this morning feeling some measure of a satisfaction that I had already cooked my contribution to tonight's family dinner and so my Sunday morning and afternoon could be relaxing.
I got to enjoy two college basketball games. One was a shocker, the other deeply satisfying.
I'd say I saw two teams win today who, after slow starts to the season, are playing their best basketball at this late stage of the campaign -- and that's good. Teams want to be on the upswing coming into their conference tournaments and, should they qualify, be playing their best when the national tournament gets underway.
I turned on the Villanova/Butler game expecting the Wildcats to cruise to a ho hum victory.
Was I ever wrong.
I'm not sure what had Villanova rattled or why they shot so poorly. In these situations, I always want to give credit to the opponent's defense, so I'm letting myself believe Butler's energetic, determined effort had something to do with Villanova's poor showing.
I should say, at this point, that I am a fan of both Butler and Villanova. I didn't come into this game rooting hard for or against either team. But, I also gravitate strongly toward underdogs and Butler was the decided underdog in this game, especially considering that their best player, Aaron Thompson, was unable to play. In Thompson's absence, freshman guard, Chuck Harris played brilliantly, scoring 15 of his 20 points in the first half, and senior guard Jair Bolden complimented Harris with 12 second half beans. I thought Butler got a significant boost from the inside play of Bryce Golden and Bryce Nze who combined for 25 points.
The final score was Butler 73, Villanova 61.
Next, I watched the improving Maryland Terps (my old home team 😀) play suffocating defense against Michigan State while playing more confidently and sharply on offense than I've seen them all season and, led by Eric Ayala's 22 points, defeat Sparty, 73-55. I'd seen Maryland play earlier in the year and they looked lost. I attributed their insecurity to having lost last year's point guard Anthony Cowan, Jr and their superb forward, Jalen Smith. Players who played last year in support of Cowan and Smith needed to figure out how to cohere without them and determine who their leaders would be. Today, they looked way more comfortable with each other than earlier in the season and I enjoyed seeing, in particular, Eric Ayala, Aaron Wiggens, and Darryl Morsell growing into their roles as team leaders.
2. I really had Maryland and Washington, D. C. on my mind today. A tweet from LT Goodluck popped up on my Twitter feed. He reported that he had walked 11.5 miles on Saturday, reporting that he and his wife had served over 200 pints of beer on the patio.
The tweet came from D.C. I wondered if I could figure out where he had served 200 outdoor pints.
With a tiny bit of work, I figured it out: LT Goodluck is a brewer at Hellbender Brewing.
Man.
I suddenly wanted in the worst way to jump in the Sube and drive for 36 hours the 2390 miles and get off of New Hampshire Ave NE and go up and down a few residential streets and make my way back to Hellbender.
Unable, exactly, to do that today, I settled for doing a Google map search for the route from our apartment home at 432 Ridge Road in Greenbelt to Hellbender.
When I did that, an eatery I'd never heard of, Crab Pie Queen, located near our former apartment, popped up on the map at 414 Ridge Road. I could not for the life of me picture a structure at 414 Ridge Road and so I obsessed for about a half an hour, looking at pictures, reading about Crab Pie Queen, doing all I could to figure out what the structure looks like that houses this business.
No luck.
I decided that I would just have to return to Greenbelt as soon as possible, figure out where Crab Pie Queen is located, order a crab pie and some banana pudding, and then, at some point, cruise back to Hellbender Brewing and enjoy a pint or a flight of their tasty beers.
3. The rest of my day was jam packed with enjoyment!
Bill, Diane, Bridgit, for a few minutes, Val, and I jumped on Zoom this afternoon and had a wide-ranging conversation about movies, Shakespeare, illness and growing old, caring for the elderly, and even a word or two about cats. I think we might be moving forward with the idea of having me do some presentations for our Westminster Basement Study Group. It would mean having me awaken my former English teacher self from his nearly seven year slumber! My favorite subject matter to teach at LCC was the literary genre of comedy. It's possible that I might brush up on the question that's on my mind all the time -- what gives life vitality? -- and do a little yakking with my Westminster friends about renewal, community, togetherness, resurrection, and the other features that make literary comedy such a profound genre of stories, poems, movies, plays, and other writings.
After our Zoom conversation, I headed over to Carol and Paul's.
First thing, I put the Greek White Bean Soup I made on Saturday in a pot and started to heat it up.
Then I mixed us each a Southside. I crushed a sugar cube with some water in a glass, poured that into the cocktail shaker, and then added gin and fresh lime juice. Also tossed in a smashed mint leave. I shook this up, poured it into each person's cocktail glass, added a mint leave, and PRESTO! we each had a Southside.
Tonight Christy spearheaded a Greek dinner. That's why I brought the Greek White Bean Soup as a starter.
Carol made a really delicious Greek salad, dressed perfectly.
Christy made her first ever Pastitsio. It's a Greek lasagne-style dish combining, basically, pasta, tomato, ground meat seasoned with cinnamon, cloves, and allspice, and Bechamel sauce into a layered dish.
Because I love meat seasoned with cinnamon, allspice, and cloves and because I love white sauce, I declared Christy's Pasitisio to have been enshrined tonight in the Family Dinner Hall of Fame (which doesn't exist, but it was fun to say!).
To top off the evening, Christy made baklava cups served with limoncello, a perfect way to round out tonight's unforgettable and adventurous family dinner.
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