TeamReedBlog.2020

Alison has never had Christmas in her own home, and we like it that way. But like most everyone else, COVID has put a cramp in our stockings. Actually, it's forced us to use our Christmas stockings for the very first time. Because we have spent Christmas in Maine since 1996 - and Santa knows where to find us - they've been for decorative use only. For three years, there were just two stockings, which explains why the third one doesn't match. (Yes, I looked.) COVID did not, however, rob us of Cookie Day with Auntie Jen. We think Ali was three-years-old when we started, and that photo of Grammie and Ali is cheating just a bit. It was the same year, but not yet Christmas. That was the summer Grandpa took Ali fishing. She didn't catch any fish, but she got to pee in the wood on a rock, so it was still a good adventure.  Grammie couldn't hide her horror when Ali plunked her cookie cutter into the middle of the rolled-out dough rather than carefully positioning them all t...

 Alison came home Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and her boyfriend Jason came along. We had a great few days full of good food -- crab legs, steak and King Rib ribs and some truly decadent mac-n-cheese -- and lots of couch time for the kids. They lit up the outside of the house for me, too.  All too soon, though, Ali drove Jason back to campus in West Lafayette because, "There's no way I can study if he's downstairs." They had a week of classes before finals week starts tomorrow. Most of the students went home and stayed there. Jason lives in California, and won't fly home until after his last test. Alison might as well have gone back with him as we have seen very little of her in the past week. She's holed herself up in the downstairs bedroom with her laptop, a whiteboard and assorted food items. She emerges periodically -- mostly for more food. She has asked Jeff and me -- separately -- to study with her on occasion, which is humbling. I did flash cards with h...

In the annals of our friendship history, John Vielee will no doubt have his own chapter. A couple weeks ago, he announced that we are not going to let cold weather stop us from safely socializing as we work through what we hope is the tail end of the coronavirus pandemic. "We'll be doing this in the snow," he declared a couple weeks ago as we gathered around their firepit. Lisa and I, layered, blanketed and huddled around the fire, debated how long we'd last as the mercury drops. "I think we'll acclimate," Lisa claimed.  I'm a chronic complainer in the winter because I really hate being cold, but I nodded along in solidarity but also drew so close to the fire that I may have scorched my knock-off  Uggs. We have a chimenea, which is great for maybe three people, but won't allow bigger, safe gatherings, so Jeff and I went firepit shopping. He was already planning a beer share as the weekend was unseasonably warm, but I thought we should act before ...

 If I were a bear, I'd be in great shape for a long winter. But sadly, I am not a bear, and the last couple of weeks have seen me at perhaps my dietary worst in a very long while. Pizza. Pumpkin roll. Pie. Those are just the "p" examples of my culinary excess.  And it has all been delicious. Perhaps the best was yesterday's trip to Zionsville to redeem "Duchess Tea for Four" from the Serenity Cafe & Tea Room .  I'd won the treat in a charity raffle for New Hope of Indiana , which helps people with disabilities live productive lives. Kate Shepherd had told us about the charitable opportunity, so I invited her, Niki Lohrmann (who gets photo credit) and Jen Dunlap, two other longtime friends who live kind of on the way to Zionsville. We'd tried to go earlier, but it was cold and rainy, and we wanted to sit outside for safety's sake. It did get a little chilly, but it was also lovely and I've never had anything but a great time with those lad...

 I don't remember the origin of the Bickel Family Cookbook, and I don't remember how some members of my Bunco family got copies of it, but they did. Last night at a socially distanced gathering in my garage and back porch, Amy brought newly printed copies of the booklet to distribute because, according to her, some disenfranchised Bunconians had groused that they didn't have copies.  I have my original one, but I flipped through the photo-copies just to be sure it was what I was thinking, and just based on who contributed, I'm certain my cousin Lori had to be the impetus. I have no recipes in it, so maybe they were trying to coax me into cooking? Lyn sent me a note asking if my mom was a baker, based on the fact that 2/3 of the recipes are desserts. She wasn't, so much, but the contents of the recipe book is definitely a clue about the origin of my fat cells. They took root many years ago and have resisted my many attempts to evict them. In addition to softening my...

 We've been having some fun as fall settles in, giving us glorious warm weather an excuse to be silly. This particular project is the result of me complaining for years - literally - about three scrubby evergreen bushes that were taking up space in one of the window boxes that frame our front porch. I chopped off the limbs and then tried to rip out the remaining stubs but found they were more deeply rooted than I'd expected. Jeff spent some time with them and a shovel and we finally got them out, then created this seasonal masterpiece, which he used to post a review of a Halloween-themed beer on his beer nerd app. I'm itching to go buy more decorations. I may not have a little one to entertain, but we have been continuing our Lido Deck gathering at the end of the work day, so it's kind of a home improvement project, right?  In other fun news, Bob and Kathy Johnson introduced us to pickle ball and we've been playing a bit, both as a couple and me with some girlfriend...

 After what seems like interminable confinement, we had a run of outings that I'm hoping none of my clients will discern once the work week kicks back in. We had a great dinner (outside) of course on Wednesday at Diavola with John and Sara; followed by a beer share on Thursday where John Dimmick brought lasagna, the remainder of which he thankfully took home; followed by Book Club on Friday with an amazing pie from My Sugar Pie in Zionsville that somehow stayed here; followed by a birthday party Saturday with people who've become family, deep in the woods of southwestern Indiana where we started early and didn't leave until well into the night. We're just now back from West Lafayette where we brunched with our favorite Boilermaker, who took us on an 8-mile bike ride that included a little jaunt through Celery Bog, which made us all think of Grandpa Reed. (He hates celery.) We went back to Bistro 501 , which is so worth the drive. We brought up a few things Ali needed an...