Togetherness

Looking at our Family Tree chart showing my first American ancestor's arrival in 1630!

Finally, a home cooked Chinese meal: chicken stir-fry with bok choy. Thanks for the lesson, Lynn!

Ah, to wake to the sound of rain was blissful this morning. Sadly, it didn't last long, but I guess it helped the plants a bit.  Harry was long gone to work when the three of us got up. I made the kids some pancakes from a recipe on the Jiffy Corn Muffin box.  Harry and I always enjoy those and put walnuts in the batter. We serve them with warm applesauce and genuine Maple Syrup.  This was another hit with Lynn.  I think she's really a New Englander at heart.  The final test will be next week when I make that long-promised Indian Pudding.

While I was messing around on the computer, Eric showed Lynn the hand-written Family Tree that my mother's Great Aunt had made back in the 1960s.  It traces my maternal line, with a few of her male ancestors thrown in, I think.  Pretty cool to realize that my first ancestor to come to America did so right after the famed Plymouth Rock crowd.  And the woman who made the chart also wrote an extensive family history, so we know all about several English, French and Portuguese lines too.  Lynn says there is nothing like this in China, as far as she knows.  Nothing written down, anyway.  It's all oral history.  And everybody's families have always been Chinese, so nobody's all that interested in it.  She thinks it's cool that Americans get to do this, since all of us (except for the first people to cross the Bering Strait) came here on a boat and had to make whole new lives.

When Harry got home the four of us headed to the fitness center in Keowee Key. Harry and Eric hit the gym for some cardio work; Lynn and I headed for the pool.  The pool is indoors and usually heated (too hot for me most of the time), but today it was much cooler than usual, so I didn't mind.  Lynn, however, was quite chilly for the first few minutes.  Then she practiced the swimming techniques she's been learning and I watched over her.  We spent about 30 minutes at that and then the guys came and got us and we all headed home to warm showers.

Then began preparations for a genuine Chinese dinner that we've been planning for days. Lynn cut up the chicken into small pieces and tended it in the largest pan I have (don't have a wok), while I washed the baby bok choy, and chopped the onion, garlic, and ginger. I got to use my new rice cooker for the first time (it worked perfectly).  Lynn was the head chef, declaring when each ingredient was done just right. We served the meal in the Chinese style: deep bowls, into which each person scooped the rice first, followed by the chicken, and topped with the wilted bok choy.  Yummy!  It really reminded me of the flavors we enjoyed in China last winter.  We used the lovely chop sticks Eric had given us last year until we had to switch to forks because our rice was traditional American rice, not sticky rice.  You can't eat our rice with chop sticks. Lynn was so happy having a taste of home, her home.

That's about all for today. Tomorrow I'll go to CCDC in the morning. Harry will go to work and then will meet a bunch of his graduate students at the Michelin Tire test track in Laurens, SC, about 1.5 hours from Clemson. So it'll be a long day for him. We may not be able to have our Friday night date. But the kids will have a full day of taking advantage of a big sale at the local Belk Department Store (name brand shirts - buy one, get 2 free!), and then off to G'ville again where they'll meet up with Eric's friend A.C. Whitley for a lively evening downtown.  Lynn doesn't drink, but the bar scene doesn't bother her. On Saturday they'll go to the Clemson - Florida State game.  They'll make some brownies for tailgating this time. Lynn told me, "I think I'm gaining a little weight. My clothes are getting tight."  As I wrote before, "Welcome to America!"