Little Susie Homemaker

Dulce de Leche cheesecake on homemade graham cracker crust with chocolate glaze

(based on the recipe from Gourmet via Epicurious)

The Poseidon Adventure

Went sailing with Mike Cintron yesterday, racing the Albacore fleet out of Daingerfield Island. It was blowing in the teens, maybe. There was a long wait at the start before the races got underway, and as the wind filled I was glad Mike loaned me his spray suit.

Anyhow, we're doing triangle-windward-leeward, twice around, for each race. We get a decent start, second or third off the line. We beef a couple of tacks, either through me not trimming the jib well, or Mike having some difficulty on the transfer and powering up out of the turn. We lose some ground, and have some technical problems with the whisker pole.

On the final downwind leg, we go to jibe and all hell breaks loose. Somehow, I think we capsized to windward. We turtle the boat, and the water in the Potomac is absolutely frigid. But we camp out on the board and get her righted. We are completely swamped, but Mike says we're going to finish this race. We open the scuppers and try to dewater. But we're still going downwind, and the extra weight has pushed the bow down. Instead of planing in the heavy breeze, the knuckle digs in and we nearly pitchpole. But we take water over the bow, and capsize again.

So, we right the boat once more, and start dewatering again. We're cold, we're wet, and it's still blowing. Mike asks me for my opinion, and I say I might be done for the day. It's very disappointing - I had been looking forward to sailing all week, and it's been months since we've gotten out there so I know Mike wanted to race more. But we were getting out asses handed to us. We headed in.

Mike let me do a little driving on the way back to the dock; I'm rustier than I thought. And we talked about tuning the rig for conditions and tactics, something I've never been at all good at. Mike has always been really good at teaching his crews - he's an excellent skipper for someone who is new to serving as racing crew. I'm looking forward to next season, when he will be traveling less and we can race more.

Now I'm sore from hiking out and getting bruised up in the tacks, but it was a great weekend because I got out on the water. And in a weird sequence of events, right afterwards I spent about 2 hours looking for dulce de leche to make cheesecake. Less demanding physically, but just as frustrating, since I had to go to 5 different stores before I found it. This thing better be delicious.

[images from www.farr40.it]

Happy Halloween!

Jack o'lantern!

Marine Corps Marathon, October 2005

I went out and cheered for the bold souls who were running the 30th Marine Corps Marathon. I saw Steph Morrison and Abby Benson a few times, but didn't have any luck finding other folks I know. Here are some pictures I took around the course.


DUKW leads the way through Rosslyn

Lead runners from the First Wave

...followed by others

Connie Morrison, Aaron Scholer, and Don Morrison await Steph at the Kennedy Center

Steph looks surprisingly happy at mile 22.5 in Crystal City

Bad aim on my part; you can just see Steph edging into the frame on the left

Steph finishes strong, smashing her previous best time

Abby is all smiles finishing her first full marathon

Dan shows off the custom shirt he made for the race, then forgot to uncover until after Steph finished

It was a beautiful day in DC...

...Nice temperatures, few clouds...

...and plenty of sights to see in between rooting for runners

Let the record show that not only did I make a spreadsheet and mark up the map, but I took notes during the race.

And the [unofficial] Results (some numbers may be messed up, since it was a staggered start):

Runner/ Time / Overall Place / Place in Gender / Place in Division
Walt Chubrick / 3:39:07/ 1419 / 1163 / 205
Ben Earnest / 4:01:51 / 3627 / 2757/ 327
Steph Morrison /4:07:19 / 4214 / 1069 / 246
Abby Benson /4:50:28/ 10180/ 3279 /557
Amy Kitzmiller /4:59:27 /11521 /3851/ 851
Theresa Grano /5:02:42 /11936 /4040 /897
Josi Heron /5:02:42/ 11938/ 4041/ 898

And for perspective:

Ruben Garcia / 2:22:14 / 1 / 1 / 1

Great job, everybody.

Occoquan Chase, October 2005

Women's 8 passes the dock

Women's 8 returns after a successful race

Put away your toys when you are done

Women's 4 gets rigged

Women's 4 underway

Off to the races

Women's 4 digs deep

Women's 4 approaches the finish

Regatta

Women's 4 cheers on Men's 8

Back to base

The end of a long day

Terhune-Rivers Wedding, October 2005

The Groom

Aaron is Michael, which makes Chris Jermaine, Brock is Marlon, and Matt is Tito. I don't know who gets to be Jackie.

The Bride arrives

The Father of the Bride prepares to give her away

Aaron & Lorissa have trouble paying attention with the rest of the class

Vows are exchanged

Women love a man who can commit

The Riverses

Wedding Party

Bride & Groom arrive at reception with Red Sox caps in place. This was the same day they lost the ALDS; sometimes it is hard to be a fan of the Olde Towne Team.

First dance

Aaron dances with his Mom

Aaron with Travis, Chris, Dan, Frank, Ryan, and Jack

The Riverses and the Pellegrinis

The Bride needs a beer

A pair that could beat a full house any day

Aaron and some of his mommies