Destination Northwood: Day 5
When I woke up, I read an e-mail sent out from Pastor Tani to the staff at about 2:30 AM this morning about another water system failure at the church. Ugh! Sounds like they were in water up to their ankles in the three children’s ministry rooms. Double-ugh! Tani was scheduled to meet with the head contractor and the pipes guys to try and get something figured out sometime this afternoon. My prayers are with her. Again… ugh!
The temp here in Northwood continues to stay cool — weather.com said 13 degrees… “feels like 3 degrees.” This morning Karen prepared a great brunch for us featuring great big, fluffy pancakes with “real” maple syrup (and Hawaiian coconut syrup for another option), sausage links (and bean-sausage patties — imitation sausage — for another option; I tried both), fresh kiwi, and pineapple. Very filling. The maple syrup was good: a little thicker and not quite as sweet as what I’m used to.
This afternoon, I finally got to finish the tour of Bryan and Karen’s house and see Bryan’s studio downstairs (you have to go outside to get down). Nice equipment; I was drooling a little bit at his monitors and studio equipment. I’ve always thought about trying to learn more about graphics design; I love creative projects and I think it would fit well with my laid back and artsy personality.
Here’s a quick video-tour of Bryan and Karen’s house, just for you…
Later in the afternoon, Karen and I suited up and went out for some cross-country skiing and kick-sledding across the lake in their back yard. The weather was perfect. I was a little unsure at first, but felt pretty comfortable about halfway across. Here’s some shaky video that Mom shot from the picture window.
For dinner we had some more amazing vegetarian cooking, compliments of Karen. There was fresh haddock fish, some kind of Moo-Goo burito with an interesting sweet brown sauce as the base, spring rolls (with sweet and sour sauces), and some kind of thin pancake that reminded me very much of egg foo yung (served with soy sauce), and a bowl of fresh cooked broccoli and carrots — all very appetizing.
After dinner we drank latte and tea (pretty much an after-meal ritual so far) and shared stories from our lives (something else we’ve been doing a lot of). A lot of the stories I’ve never heard before; some, I have, but are humorous or interesting enough to hear again. Then, we migrated to the living room to watch A Shot in the Dark, the second installment of the original Pink Panther movies with Peter Sellers.
After Mom and Dad went home, Bryan and I started watching one of his favorite movies of all time, Young Frankenstein with Gene Wilder. I must admit, it’s very funny. We watched probably about forty minutes or so before we all started getting ready for bed. I called and talked with Deanna and then lay down to type this blog-update. Now, it’s sleepy-time… zzz…