10/15 Barbara visit AND PIZZA!

 Today was very busy.  The cleaners came so Bob and I lurked in the office on the 3rd floor.  Lorraine went for a boob squeeze. Then the mow and blow guys came.  It was pretty noisy here for a while.

Lorraine, Barbara, and I worked together at the phone company from 1965 to 1968.  We vacationed together on Cape Cod with our husbands and had many good times.  Both Barbara and I moved away and hadn’t seen each other since.  She moved back about 5 months ago and showed up at Lorraine’s door.  We thought it would be fun to get together and catch up.  We both said we wouldn’t have recognized each other until we spoke and then we sounded exactly the same.

So, Lorraine invited her for lunch while I was here.  We had caprese and curried chicken salad.  For dessert Lorraine had made peanut butter cookies and also added Jaffa cakes. (Thanks, Janet, for the recommendation). After lunch we just talked and talked.  Caught up on children, grandchildren, and husbands-both past and present. 

She left midafternoon and we read and rested until dinner time.

BIG TREAT FOR ME we went out to Moden Apizza.  This not as good as Sally's but only had a 15 minute wait instead of being in a line around the block.

Bob and I shared a medium bacon with onion on one half (me) and spinach on the other half (Bob).

Lorraine had a small “muts” which is how mozzarella is pronounced here.

The drink of choice is birch beer.  I ate tooooo much.  It was delicious. We brought a lot home.

Watched the news and retired to read in bed.

10/14 errands etc.

 It finally stopped raining and all the squirrels and chipmunks came out to forage.  Today we are just doing errands and getting ready for a guest tomorrow.

Lorraine and Bob went to get him a haircut and to replenish the bourbon supply.  They came back with bourbon but no haircut.  The barber was in his shop but it was closed.  He said it was because of the holiday.  But the holiday was yesterday.  Come back tomorrow- but he is closed on Wednesday.  Oh well, he doesn’t have a solution- not his problem.

When they came back Lorraine and I went to the bank, a farm stand and Aldi's.  Janet will be happy to know that I introduced them to Jaffa cakes.

After lunch we went to COSTCO!  I was beginning to have withdrawal.  She was getting her first hearing aids.  While she was occupied, I looked for anything new and different.

Have you ever seen Goat Cubes?

Home again Lorraine made cookies and chicken salad for tomorrow and then Bob made cocktails and I put out the nibbles so we could watch the news.

Dinner was the seafood stew.

We read for a while and then everybody goes to their bed to read.  (Not for long, we were all falling asleep downstairs.)

10/13 RAIN

 I know that I have become a Californian.  It was raining when Lorraine and Bob picked me up at the train station.  When I woke up this morning and looked out the window it was still raining.  I said, “Oooooh, rain” instead of “oh, shit! It’s raining!”

So we stayed in except for a really quick trip to CVS for distilled water.  We all read all day.  It was lovely.

For cocktails Lorraine and I had Manhattans and Bob had scotch and soda.  Lorraine warned me not to order scotch because she has watered it down for Bob.  He doesn’t realize. We had very good chicken liver pâté for nibbles.

Taco salad for dinner and gelato for dessert.

Lorraine has a zoom meeting so Bob and I are in the living room.  The news is taped for after and then we will all retire to read in our rooms.

10/12 The End and New Beginning in New Haven

 The last day is a breakfast with a speaker and the introduction of the next two host cities.

John Mullins talked about Jane's use of words.  She created many new words, mostly in her letters, but here use of ordinary words to make points gave me insight into how she wrote.

Tucson, next year’s AGM, offered dancing cacti

Conference over we said our goodbyes.  Janet flew back to Cleveland and I took the train to New Haven.  Lorraine and Bob picked me up on a rainy night.  Lorraine made a fish stew which was delicious and just right for a nasty night.

We watched the recorded news (mostly there is going to be a storm) and then off to bed to read.

10/11 Ball

 We are loving the breakfast and lunch in our room.  This morning there were muffins and coffee outside of the room with the speaker.  We packed up ours to augment our lunch.

Our speaker this morning was Dr. Juliette Wells, from Goucher College.  She talked about an alumnus who had a very extensive collection of Jane's works.  First editions, translations, etc.  Pretty much anything she could get her hands on that was worth while.  She donated it all to the Morgan Library and Goucher.  Dr. Wells recently co-curated a JA exhibit at the Morgan and her talk was about all of these things.

The fearless leader of the Southern California chapter in one of her many dresses and the hat she wore to celebrate Jane's 250th.

A young woman wore an homage to Edgar Allen Poe. (From Baltimore)

Banquet was ordinary.  Janet had chicken and I had salmon.  Mine was better but not great.  The birthday cupcakes were pretty good.

We took our pictures in front of Chawton House and went to the ball.

We managed to dance the 1st and 3rd with a rest between.  These dances went on for a long time.  We were only doing short versions of them.

Off to bed.

10/10. Lectures all day

 Woke up to the good news that Trump didn’t get the Peace Prize.  Breakfast in our room again.

Our first speaker mostly writes biographies, but has recently written a novel about Jane at the sea.

I thought this was a priceless moment - the woman in regency dress working on her lap top.

The second speaker was drawn to Austen when as a black girl she recognized herself in Miss Lamb.  Now she has written almost 30 books with historical black women as the heroines.  

Both of these women gave excellent talks and I will try their books.

Our regular lunch in the room.

2 more talks - 1 bad and one about what articles of clothing are called that was interesting.

Changed out of my blue regency dress to go back to MO’s seafood for dinner.  This time we were more savvy with our order.  It still was an enormous crab cake but doable. I also took a picture of 2 of the lumps of crab.  The menu says JUMBO LUMP CRAB and they aren’t kidding.

Back to the room and now to bed.

Me in my blue dress at the Denver conference.

10/9 Jane Austen begins

 I slept the sleep of the dead after yesterday.  We had a leisurely morning with coffee, small cinnamon buns (brought from Cleveland) and trail mix.

Our first activity was the Country Dance lesson.  We took this last year also to prepare us for the ball.  This year was a review and also worked off a few calories from last night’s dinner.

The dances are done in a line which divides into groups of 4 and then after each set of steps you move up towards the top of the line.  We had the same instructor as last year.

We bought hard boiled eggs to supplement our crackers and cheese for lunch in our room.  We both think that this is the best way.  It gives us a little quiet downtime and we don’t eat as much.  (It’s also cheaper.)

Our afternoon class was the Georgian Portrait Bracelet workshop.  This was not very successful.  I don’t think the teacher had ever tried to teach it before.  She can make one in 1/2 hour, but in 1 1/2 hours no one even came close to finishing. She asked how she could make the next class better - so I told her, with the people around me saying “YES, that would have been better.  This is one the teacher made:

We went back to the room to rest and decide tonight’s restaurant.  Phillips is well known and was a close walk.  We started with cocktails.  I had a blueberry pomegranate margarita and Janet had a strawberry colada.  Then we both had the fried trio - crab cake, haddock and shrimp with fries and coleslaw.

I think huge portions are a Baltimore thing.  I don’t know how many potatoes gave up their lives for the mountain on my plate, but I had enough leftover to feed a family of five.

We waddled back because we were signed up for the first breakout session: Head to Toe.  The first speaker talked about what headdresses Miss Lamb in Sanditon would have worn.  She showed many paintings of women of color of different classes and how they styled turbans, tignons and hats. Jane Austen Footware in Fact and Fiction was the second topic.  This speaker specifically talked about boots.  Emma breaks a lace so they will have to stop at Mr. Elton's to fix it.  It was interesting to see what that kind of boot and lace would have looked like. Very different than I had pictured them.

Then we went to a session on the smells of the time.  Since London had 1 million people and no sewers, thousands of horses and other animals roaming the streets, it was pungent to say the least.  Slaughterhouses and tanneries, and markets without refrigeration, and wood or coal burning added to the stench.  It was fun and informative.

Bedtime. 

10/8. Moving on to Baltimore

 Up at the crack of dawn, out the door early, (thanks Stacy for taking us), no problem or holdup at the airport, early takeoff, really early landing, luggage there to greet us at baggage claim.  I could go on, it was a perfect trip.  The icing on the cake was the room was ready in the morning instead of 4 pm. We have a lovely view of the Baltimore harbor.

We settled in the room and then walked to the aquarium.  This is really a nice one.  Exhibits well done and a good variety of habitats.  We got to touch moon jellies.  They have a slimy velvet feel.

 Very tired and footsore we still had to go to Whole Foods to get snacks and distilled water.

Then we rested until a rational dinner time.  Janet even took a nap.  

We went to MO’s seafood for dinners.  

We made the whole thing easy for the waiter. We both had the MO’s Relaxer as a cocktail (vodka, coconut rum, peach snaps, pineapple juice, and cranberry juice. It was very relaxing.) and the crab cake on a bed of scallops, and asparagus. It was too much but delicious.  We couldn’t finish but although we have a mini fridge there would not be any way of warming it. We may go back tomorrow.

My step count today was 12,272. We are both very tired and planning to hit the hay early.

10/7 Last day

 Our beautiful weather finally ended, but luckily we had a great treat planned.  Miss Hickory’s Tea Room.  It was recommended by a friend.  We were a little worried because this friend also recommended a really dismal tea biscuit.  (Not to worry, it was great.)

It rained the whole way there, so we kept saying what a great choice this was for the day.  Miss Hickory’s building dates from 1804 and is charmingly decorated.  We decided to have a cup of soup as well as the tea.

We each had our own pot of tea (on a stand and kept warm with a tea light) 

There were 4 kinds of savories, a scone with clotted cream and pumpkin butter, and lemon cake with strawberries.  We then chose desserts that we took home from the dessert tray.

We had a light dinner of Scotch Pie, salad and our desserts.

Did laundry and packed so we can leave at the crack of dawn.  We have been hearing about airport shut downs and are a little worried.  Wish us luck!

10/6 Rocky River Nature Center

 Another beautiful day, so visited another of Cleveland's metro parks.  Rocky River has a nature center that explains the geologic history of the area and also all the animals, birds, reptiles, and plants that live in the area.  We did a 2 mile hike (saunter).  The river is really low and in some places mostly mud.

We went home for lunch (BLT) and then went shopping for mums and snacks for our trip.

Janet loves colorful flowers in the garden.

We also had to take my picture with her front yard tree.  This is the 3rd year.  The tree and I used to be the same height.

Janet grilled pork loin for dinner.  Stacy made the potatoes and broccoli and I poured the wine.

After dinner we watch a little TV and then retire to our rooms.

10/5 Sunday dinner

 Another beautiful day.  Janet wants to clear up a point in the last blog about the tram incident.  She wants me to tell you that she is not bossy.  The best I will give her is that she is not as bossy as me.  Our mothers were sisters and we come from a long line of bossy women.

In the morning Janet watered her flowers and gave me a giant hanging plant to deadhead.

Every time I thought I had found all the dead ones more appeared.  Janet loves flowers and has a really pretty garden.

For Sunday dinner we went to Pickle Bill's on the other side of Cleveland. It is casual seafood?

Lakefood? The decor is a hoot.  I think they robbed Cabela's.

The mural in the ladies room:

Which goes so well with the sink separator.

The restaurant backs on to the Grant river just as it meets Lake Erie. So we could watch the boats go by.

Janet and I had margarita variations.  She had the Bahama Mama and I had the Aruba Island Blue.

We needed to try the fried pickles.  (Which were deep fried breaded dill pickle spears.) They weren’t bad, but I don’t have a real need to have them again. Janet and I had fish and chips, Stacy had crab legs and John had lobster tails. We were stuffed and brought home leftovers.

After, we drove to The Headlands Dunes park and walked on the boardwalk to viewing spot near the beach. 

Stacy drove home and then we all vegged and digested.