Hello Honolulu
Grandpa Paul missed little Anthony while Anthony was on vacation with his parents in Honolulu so he decided to phone the little guy. Grandpa could hear his voice in the background, but he did not seem inclined to come to the phone."Grandpa has a very special message for you Anthony. Do you want to talk to Grandpa?", asked David, coaxing him to pick up the phone.
"What special message do you have for me?", asked Anthony of Grandpa over the telephone line.
"Is this the KICKER BOY? What did you have for breakfast? What are you doing today?" asked Grandpa. "I have toast. And today I'm going to the Zoo with Mommy and Daddy. I love you. Bye, bye." called little boy as he ran off to play with more interesting things.
Seder during Passover
Do you know the meaning of the word Passover? Do you know what a Seder is? Well, Paul and Rachel were invited by a friend to join him and some other friends and family at his home during their Passover celebration of a Seder dinner... a dinner and worship meal held during the first two days of the Jewish Passover.Boy, this meal takes a long time as stories are told, special foods are eaten, songs and prayers are said, and a lot of tun is had. All told, with an abreviated ceremeony, the Seder took about 4 hours. The first Seder was held after the Israelites escaped from slavery and had successfully fed Pharoh and Egypt by crossing the Red Sea. It is a meal of renewal and freedom. The Jews were enslaved for 430 years in Egypt.
What are some of the special foods found on all Seder plates around the world as they enter into the celebration of Passover? They are matza(unleavened bread), Moror(horse radish, bitter herbs or Romaine lettuce), salt water(signifying tears of suffering), a lamb shank bone,Karpas (parsley or some other green )to celebrate Spring time or rebirth and Charoseta (mortar mix of chopped apples, dates, nuts and wine). Each of these foods and lots of wine have a special meaning during this celebration.
As the only non-Jews at this particular Seder, Paul and Rachel were made to feel very welcome and comfortable by our host and his family. It was a wonderful evening filled will new learnings and lots of laughter.
Roasted Goose
Yep, Rachel and Paul liked their roasted goose so much that they decided to do another one for a small party in early April. Rather than purchase a frozen one from Wilson Farms in Lexington, this time they went to Owen's Poultry Farm in Needham and purchased a fresh killed goose.It turned out to be a pleasant surprise. The fresh goose is cheaper... $3.00/pound verus $4.00/pound for the frozen one. And the fresh killed goose was tender and had a wonderful flavor too.
Goose is fun to serve as it is not unusal for it to be a fitst time experience for many of the guests. So far, most of our guests have never eatten goose before.
Health Update on Paul
Curious about Paul's physical tests conducted in March? We the bottom line is that the doctors could find no cause of the blood in the stools and the blood in the stool disappeared, so Paul has been given a clean bill of health.In January, after his normal annual physical exam, the results of the home test kit for blood in the stools was positive. This sounded the alarms to go and find the source ASAP... everyone is of course worried about cancer of the colon.
Well, in early March, Paul went to MGH for a colonoscopy. Results, negative. In mid-March, Paul repeated the home test kit for blood in the stools. Results, negative. Then at the end of March, Paul returned to MGH for an Upper Endoscopy. The results, again negative. The doctor, Bob Schapiro, said, there's a section between where the upper endoscope sees and the colonoscope sees that we haven/t looked at. However, I am 99% sure that you have nothing wrong. Let's stop looking." Paul was also 99% sure and agreed to stop. Health is so important!
Rain, Rain,Go Away,...
And don't come back for a month or more. My goodness! In March, we had our first flooded basement caused by heavy snows and heavy rains, the first flood caused by Mother Nature in the ten plus years that the Baus have lived in Weston.After about a week of dry weather, it rained and snowed again on the 30th of March... about 4 inches of water! The sunken pond in the front yard(our informal water barometer)overflowed again. As this writer pens(punches keys) this article on March 31st, the basement is still dry. Praise the Lord! However, the weather forecasters say that a major rain and snow storm will hit the area again by April 2nd. Can you believe it? There will be major flooding in the Boston/Worcester area through most of the month of April.
