November-December 2005, Part 3

Murdock Muse
November-December 2005, Part 3

Jason at
Glacier Park

Gallery photo

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS
Jason Murdock
My birthday was very nice. Last year I almost forgot it was my birthday, because I was out on a mission in Afghanistan and lost track of the days. But this year I got to celebrate first off with Kris and my mother.

They prepared a wonderful stirfry dinner at their house, and I enjoyed it with my girlfriend and my cousin Kevin and his girlfriend on my mom's side of the family. Unfortunatley my sister Amber had to work and couldn't be there. I received a call from Nick on that day, and he later sent a card in the mail and that was nice. My Dad remembered too and sent a card out which really meant a lot. My girlfriend also took me out to dinner that next Friday to "Outback Steakhouse;" I know you guys are vegetarians, but I sure loved it. And she got me a 1 hour professional massage at a reputable business establishment as a gift. So overall it was a fantastic Birthday and I feel so fortunate to have loved ones all around.

Well it has been awhile since I have written you last, and I have been very busy with work at the printer shop fixing printers and sub-assemblies. The business has changed a little bit while I was gone and it was a little tough getting back into it and resuming the role stature I once had. But that's ok; evolution is a good thing and I am challenged with deadlines and accomplishing the impossible quite often, and it keeps things interesting.

My girlfriend and my cousin and his girlfriend all moved into my house this last month, so things are a little different around here. My cousin and his girlfriend are planning on staying until Spring. They are no hassle, and they pitch in around the house and pay rent, which in return gives me a chance to save and build a larger savings for investments down the road.

My girlfriend and I make a nice pair. She is a preschool teacher in St. Louis Park and is continuing her education to eventually teach Elementary students. She and I both have Health Club memberships. She gets up at 4am every day to work out for 2 hours, and I mix it up in the evening playing recreational volleyball 1 to 2 times a week and working with weights on Monday evenings and Friday mornings with a buddy of mine, and than I run on Wed. in the afternoon. I am benching 280 lbs. and my goal is 300 by Spring; then I will stop and just maintain. My mother and I are talking about doing another Multiple Sclerosis bike-athon to raise money early next summer. They have a 50 mile one that we have done before, and a 150 that I am trying to talk her into.

About a month ago my best friend Andy from high school and I went out to Glacier National Park for a few days for an end of summer vacation. We hiked up a 4000 ft. mountain trail in 1 day. We had stashed our bikes at the top in the bushes and driven the car to the bottom. Then when we hiked to the top, we biked down a winding road at 42 miles per hour for 6 miles non-stop. It was awesome, to say the least. I had never been to Glacier; it was beautiful. Attached is a picture taken of my friend and me.

ATTITASH REVISITED
Bob Murdock
Nancy and I stayed at the Attitash Mountain Village resort in Bartlett, NH in May, 2002. We enjoyed it so much that we thought it would be a nice place to stay during the time of the Howlett Family Reunion this year. That event was scheduled for July 23, but alas, Attitash was not available until Labor Day weekend. (Lots of White Mountain visitors in summer.) So Nan booked us up for Sept. 3 to Sept. 10, and that turned out to be our third visit to New England in 2005.

We didn’t go and see anybody on this trip. But we were delighted to have some company for a day: my cousin Priscilla Januskiewicz and husband Roy came all the way from Nashua, NH and we had a nice visit. At lunch time we went to a nearby restaurant at Glen Junction. The food was pretty good, but the feature of this place was a model railroad train that ran on an elevated track around the perimeter. A quaint idea, but once an hour might have been enough rather than every ten minutes.

Roy and Priscilla gave us the phone number for Joan Calder, a Charlton cousin who lives in Portland, ME. When I called her, she too said she would be delighted to visit us. “I’m familiar with the area,” she said. “I can come tomorrow.” But the next day she called and regretfully said she wouldn’t be able to make it. So we will make that connection another time.

Once again we went to Mario’s Italian Restaurant. In 2002 they had just re-opened with a new chef, and their food was fabulous. This time it didn’t seem quite as good, but maybe our expectations were too high. We had planned to take Roy and Priscilla here, but now Mario's is open for dinner only. Nancy and I also found a nice Thai restaurant with tasty offerings.

As usual Nancy did some fabric dyeing, with some gorgeous results. I took the liberty of shopping in North Conway, only ten or twelve miles south. At a Socks Galore outlet store I found some heavy loose socks, my favorite kind. The brand name? Rockport, the shoe people! Back home though, the Rockport store carried no such thing.

NO GRADUATION CEREMONY FOR US
Nancy Murdock
Sept. 21: We had to abort our trip to Tim's graduation cermony in SC. Several things didn't go well, including the fact that Bob lost the gas cap last night and we didn't find it, after combing the streets for a while, no doubt disrupting several drivers by our creeping pace. We also walked part of the way with our trusty flashlights to scan the gutters, and inspected the two trash cans at Mobil. It was midnight when we got to bed.

The route chosen for today was not particularly good and took a lot longer than we had planned. Plus, we didn't leave until 8:30, instead of 6:00, as planned. Then to crown it all, we had a serious flat tire today on the cutoff past Richmond, VA. By the time they had replaced all four of our tires, which had aged a lot during the recent long trips in the heat, we had made up our minds to go home. Otherwise we would have arrived at the motel after midnight. No, thank you to that!

We called Ian on his cell phone, and he called back after they got to SC. They are thrilled that everything is going so well for their trip, which I think is much more important than ours. He was excited to find a number of LA evacuees at their motel (which he described as a cute little cottage out in the country), with everyone being really good to the displaced people. Someone set up a nice lunch today and they are having a barbecue tonight. The locals are being very hospitable to the evacuees, Ian said.

Ian also said that one of the evacuees in Los Angeles was a young teenager (I think he said 13 or 14 years old) from a large family. He took off a refrigerator door and ferried each member of his family to safety. Both Ian and I got choked up about that story! Now there is a kid who could grow up to be a good planner and executor of emergency assistance!

AWARD-WINNING SCRABBLE
Nancy Murdock
We had an exciting Scrabble game tonight. For many years we have used a longstanding list of what we feel is par, and what constitutes goals. Tonight we met par plus FOUR goals! That may well be the first time ever, or at least reached so seldom that we lose it in the fog before the next time. Here is what we got. PAR: a total of at least 600 for all players combined.

GOALS 1 AND 2: Using all of a player's 7 letters. We had 2 of these goals. I got "DARTLING" (using 2 blanks) and VENTURES.

GOAL 3: Both players getting a total of at least 300 - 1 goal. (If 3 players, this would be at least 200. It's 600 divided by the number of players.)

GOAL 4: Total of over 700 - 1 goal.

I don't know when we will ever have another game like this, but we are ready to enjoy it when it comes!

VISITORS FROM JAPAN
Nancy Murdock
Sept. 24 - We enjoyed our visit Monday with two delightful ladies from Japan: Akiko Matsumoto and her lady doctor friend, Yukie Hori. Akiko was my translator in Japan in 1990, and her sister Michiko Kurosu was my hostess. The trip is one of my happiest memories, and these two played a large part in making it so memorable.

We picked up Akiko and Yukie in Reston, VA. It, but we made it with no problems. Our guests had changed their mind about touring a museum in Washington, because it might be too exhausting. So we brought them to our church (Christ the King Episcopal Church) for a short time with the Senior Seekers group, a Bible study group of the elderly, which I had never been to because it's during my workday.

Then we took them (and the other members and our priest) out to the church's Memorial Scattering Garden for a short ceremony I had written to honor Earl Hagan and the relationship between our two congregations. Akiko had asked to come here so she could see where his ashes were buried. She was his hostess for part of the time we were in Tokyo in 1990, and later she stayed with him and his wife over here.

We next spent some time at our apartment, where they seemed to enjoy looking at the paintings and quilts. We presented two of my small quilts to Akiko for herself and Michiko. Michiko's is "Pleasurable Poppies," which Akiko said is "my sister's personality." For Akiko the choice was "Patapsco Valley Overlook," as her name means "Autumn Child" and the quilt is an autumn display at our local park. Akiko gave us a large set of slides on the history of Japan, which we hope to get converted to a CD. She also gave us a set of lovely traditional Japanese fabrics that will end up in special wallhangings.

I called a quilting friend, Beth Rice, who eats out often, and she recommended a restaurant in Linthicum that serves excellent crab cakes. We ate at 3:00 PM, very late for lunch. They split a crab cake dinner and had to take a deep breath to finish even the half. (American portions are disgracefully large now. We always have to bring some home.) The service at the restaurant was excellent, and our guests were pleased to taste Maryland's popular specialty for the first time.

Coming back, we checked at the church to see if Bill Moore, the chairman of our Companion Parish Committee, had arrived, but came back home when he wasn't there. When we got in the apartment, we found we had two messages from Bill, one just before he got to CTK and one right after he arrived. We'd missed each other by about three minutes! So we took the ladies to him, and he was happy to enjoy a nice conversation with them as he drove them back to their hotel in Reston.

We hope they have happy memories of the day. It made us a little nervous not to have a backup plan, because the plan had been to tour Washington until late afternoon and then go to CTK, after which Bill would pick them up for dinner and return. Our apartment was sort of torn apart because the management had asked us to take everything away from the windows and doors so they could install a security system. Also, I warned them that the stairs leading to the apartment looked like a slum entrance, because the management had torn out the carpeting in early May and hadn't yet replaced it. The carpet pad had left little pieces stuck all over the steps, and it was quite ugly. Wouldn't you know - it then was replaced Wednesday!!! Great timing!

We did what we could to make them feel at home, but they really didn't get to do anything very touristy. Since it was Monday, the museums and other special places in Baltimore were not open. We hope they got to do some of the fun stuff in Washington on other days.

Both ladies sent lovely notes to thank us for their day. It's so nice to know such kind, easy people. Bob and I will remember this visit forever.

Top / Muse Home / Who's Who / What's New