Breaking from Tradition

Did you know the word for March is Barbeque?! I would have guessed something like Spring or Rain-showers. Geezeum crow, I was waay off.

Last week, my former-nemesis-now-friend Todd Yezefski brought his Dartmouth cycling team down to Asheville for a good dose of southern Appalachian Mountain training. (Todd might not know we were ever nemeses, so I’ll explain. He and I raced frequently in our collegiate days – he for Dartmouth and I for Middlebury and we often finished one-two… more often than not, I was two.) I only rode with them once during their week here, but it was a good’n with many thousands of feet of climbing. Thrilling. The day before the ride the Dartmouth crew treated us to a semi-traditional St. Patrick’s Day feast of corned beef, potatoes, and brownies. It diverged from the traditional, though, because when Robbie, Mayo, and I arrived at cocktail hour, the ingredients were all sitting coldly on the counter! Moreover, the only thing that was complete was the brownies. However, with a bit of Dartmouth ingenuity, they threw the beef on the BBQ grill and a few hours later we were happily chowing down on crispy corned beef, veggies, and brownies. Deee-lish. Here’s Todd in the customary post St. Patty’s Day arm wrestling match with Ari. 

This past Sunday was of course Easter. (I was told the earliest Easter since 1818 and the next one this early will be well past our lifetime in the 2200s!) Mayo and I played host to Robbie, Mayo’s brother Gehn, and our Asheville friend Adam. Again, traditional fare was extrapolated upon with roasted pork (yours truly), Thanksgiving stuffing (Mayo), peas (moi), and apricot, pine nut, & thyme cookies (courtesy of Robbie). Our extraordinarily cozy apartment was filled with holiday cheer and everyone left happy and well fed.

Here’s a sweet story… about candy. People sometimes talk about buying candy after the holidays – Halloween for example is obviously a big one and I’d guess that Easter is another post holiday candy coma waiting to happen. I’ve never actually participated in this ritual, but finding myself at Wal-Mart the day before Easter and the day after, I realize that people go NUTS buying out their candy. They went from stocked shelves to virtually empty, with their “All Candy $0.77” signs. By weight, it’s cheaper than dirt and twice as delicious. I’m embarrassed to admit that although I didn’t buy anything at The-Mart, I returned home and walked to our local grocery store and bought a massive bag of Easter M&Ms for $1.01 and four Cadbury eggs for a quarter apiece. It was too good to pass up.

With Robbie’s name mentioned thrice already, you may be able to guess that he’s visiting Asheville before his team camp up in sunny PA. Here he is casually repairing a flat tire.

Having Roberto Carlos in town was a blast – two weeks of good riding, good food, and cozy living. Our “two bedroom” apartment is a misnomer, with a combined area of about 37 square feet. In this shot, he's creating Cheerio-and-Craisin-Krispie-Treats... just like Rice-Krispies! He's very clever and opted for the microwave in round two, instead of the messy stove top cooking. Alas, it was no help.

And in iamtedking tradition, I'll end with a brief story about Scrabble. The three of us played Scrabble, which is even more fun than the heated two player battles Mayo and I have. Here is my collection of letters at one low point in the game: E E I I I O O R R

(Yes, nine letters. It’s called Speed Scrabble. Yes, we’re dorks.)