All posts by Andrew

Andrew, Photo

Cabin Retreat

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In 2020, on the cusp of the pandemic, some of my gaming group joined me at the cabin for a wonderful retreat (pictured in this post). We’ve been wanting to repeat the trip ever since, but scheduling is difficult. This year, miraculously, we were able to make a second go of it in the midst of spring break.

This time we weren’t receiving apocalyptic text messages as the state shut down in the face of Covid, but it was a bit surreal arriving to the cabin in March with no snow and just a thin layer of ice on the lake. (It wasn’t nearly strong enough to walk on.) On our second day, however, temperatures dropped and we had a bit of snow.

It’s a wonderful thing to be able to get out into the woods to relax and hang out with friends. We played through J.C. Connors’ ice age horror adventure, Canyon of the Snow Cairns. This involved a mammoth hunt, mysterious disappearances, survival in a forbidding wilderness, cultists, and confrontations with things that man-was-not-meant-to-know. In other words: fun.

Griffin

Wyre

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Griffin and his friend, James (and a few other friends), dove into a programming contest last week: the New Year, New Skills Game Jam. The contest ran for exactly one week, from January 7 to 14. They worked hard and developed a prototype game called Wyre. James was the lead coder and Griffin composed the music and designed many of the graphics.

You can play the game here and see the contest submission here. A few screenshots posted below.

Congratulations Griffin and James! This took a lot of work to put together.

Photo

A Bit of Culture

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We spent a fabulous day exploring the Hirshhorn Museum on the National Mall. We were wowed by sculptures by Simone Leigh, Yayoi Kusama, and Rodin. We also explored other worlds through an exhibit of contemporary Chinese photography, Laurie Anderson’s “Four Talks,” Mark Bradford’s 400-foot long “Picket’s Charge,” and John Akomfrah’s “Purple.” And food trucks. Obviously.

Oliver

Fluffy

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This is another song that Oliver wrote at school last month. Here’s the transcript followed by the original.

Fluffy monkey puppy pants.
Ya ya ya.
If you don’t like it, you will be a saw.
Ha ha ha.

Fluffy monkey puppy pants.
Ya ya ya.
If you don’t like it, you will be a saw.
Ha ha ha.

Oliver

Trees

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This is a song that Oliver wrote in school in the last month. He says that it is not in his best handwriting. Here’s a transcription with the original below.

There’s trees there. There’s trees here. There’s trees everywhere. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. I love trees. Trees are the best. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

There’s trees there. There’s trees here. There’s trees everywhere. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. I love trees. Trees are the best. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Andrew, Griffin, Maggie, Oliver, Photo, Sarah

Thanksgiving 2023

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Pam and Jeff joined us for the feast. We grilled the turkey on the green egg. It came out well, but I may have been over-enthusiastic with the apple wood chips—the smoke flavor was intense.

Besides the turkey, the menu included mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green beans, and Dick’s Buried Treasure. (The latter is a delicious Stocco tradition consisting of yams, canned pineapple, and dollops of cranberry sauce.) Dessert was Sarah’s pumpkin pie and Andrew’s cheesecake.

While we were prepping the meal, the kids asked what everyone’s favorite Thanksgiving food was and what we were thankful for this year. Then they created custom place cards for each of us.💖

Grilling notes for next time:

  • 300-325° on the grill is perfect
  • Use fresh lump charcoal (the smaller chunks at the bottom of the bag interfere with airflow)
  • Cooking time is faster than in an oven at the same temperature. The Green Egg estimates seemed spot-on. (We started our 17 lb. bird at 11:15 and it was done just after 2:30.)
  • Skip the smoking chips next time. I think the basic grill flavor will be enough.
  • The drippings were very dark and smoky too, which made the gravy a bit too powerful. Might be better without the wood chips. Clean the grate beforehand so none of the old char falls into the drip pan.