Sunday Dinner at Gayle & Kate's

Three photos by Kate from our dinner.  

Sunday Dinner at Gayle & Kate's

This evening we had a terrific meal at Gayle and Kate's. Fried rice, teriyaki chicken, an oriental salad, a stuffed rice paper delicacy, an appetizer with caramelized onions and sour cream wrapped in a pasty shell.... And then came dessert! First, a chocolate - chocolate dessert wonder with whipped cream and then a Canadian square (Gayle, what's the name?) with chocolate, cream, and oh so many delicious but sinfully rich ingredients. We're all stuffed and very happy. We especially enjoyed Minga and Bapu's pre-meal "show." For details please contact Rich, Peter, or Alex... :-) 

Gayle & Kate and their furry kids, Minga and Bapu. The pups are looking so eagerly at me because I said "Yum, yum." These pups love their snacks! 

Alex debuting a song for Gayle. 

Peter and Rich headed to Weld on this Wednesday afternoon to explore the lake, check on the camps, and soak in the sun. The temperatures were in the mid-50's F (12.8 C) and the snow was perfect. We ran into a couple of ice fishers who had pulled in one brown trout so far. We skied and snow shoed for an hour and then headed up to Center Hill to climb the small mountain. This photo is taken just in front of the camps at Burt's Point. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Peter after running up Center Hill on snowshoes. 

Peter on Center Hill. 

Rich on Center Hill, Weld, Maine.

Breakfast & Technology

So this is the 21st century breakfast table.... We honestly do talk. 

Sunshine & Technology

So far we've had a gentle spring in Maine. The snow is slowly melting and the rivers and lakes are still thick with ice. Alex finds time on the weekend to enjoy the back deck, wireless internet, and sunshine. Next weekend is the last skiing at Black Mountain for the 2008-2009 ski season. The season ends with pond skimming --> picture a large open swimming pool affair, a small hill, and a few dozen kids on skis trying to "water ski" across the pond. 

Winner by a ....

Rich and his favorite sister Barbara compare hair lines in the battle of the most hair-challenged member of the five Kent siblings. Barb wins! 

If you ever wondered what Rich looks like when he ventures into the 3rd glass of wine (Hess Select)... that's the grin he's wearing. Clearly, Barbara handles the wine much better than her baby brother!

Here's to Barbara as she fights the good fight. One more treatment before a summer break. We love you, Sister Dear!    

Celebrating Kaiser Kent

Fred & Pam's beautiful German Shepherd "son" Kaiser died of Leukemia on Friday. At nine years old, Kaiser acted more like a one-year-old puppy than a stately middle-aged dog. Kaiser enjoyed his large collection of squeaky toys and loved, as you see in the photo above, to play tug-o-war with any playmate. Until recently, Kaiser's favorite squeaky toy had Pam's soothing voice in the stuffed animal. She always gave the toy to Kaiser when she and Fred went on holiday so he wouldn't get too lonely. Though we don't know the full story behind the demise of this squeaky toy, we suspect that Kaiser simply loved it to death. Kaiser's best friend Bo-Bo the Cat loved the big puppy--they fought like proverbial cats and dogs during the daytime hours, but each night they cuddled up with one another.  Best friends to the last day. Today, we celebrate a wonderful companion and a member of the family. Here's to Kaiser.    

Alex's House from CAD 

(Computer Aided Drafting)

Both Alex and Peter designed houses in Mr. Phil Merrill's CAD class. I haven't seen Peter's yet. 

Thanks to Dr. Jim Bennett for helping me twist this photo around. Nice work, Professor!

Our Neighbors' Home 

(click photos to enlarge)

Our friends Gayle and Kate and their four furry kids live a couple of houses away. Here's a picture of their home in the shadow of the Longfellow Mountains after a recent snowstorm. We've traded a couple of dessert gatherings over the past few weeks as well try to defeat the winter blahs.

Hi Kate! Hi Gayle!

Peter's New Sweetheart

Our TV is lonely these days as Peter has traded her in for his sleek new MacBook Pro. Indeed, he has set new records for staring at a screen... he does occasionally come up for food and drink. 

After School Snack

Alex's after-school snack is literally anything that gets in the way of his mouth. 

Here, oatmeal, yogurt, peanut butter, and Ritz Crackers... with designs on the knife. 

After School Snack

Peter is now hooked on bagels, peanut butter, and bananas as an afternoon snack. 

Go figure. 

Celebrating

Rich received word this week from the University System's Board of Trustees of his promotion to associate professor with tenure. 

Here, he's celebrating with a bottle of water (yes, he'll do better later) on the back deck of our home after an hour's long cross-country ski at Black Mountain.   

Off to a Lasagna dinner at Myles' house

Alex and his friend Hannah pose before heading up to a lasagna dinner prepared by Myles' mom Nancy. Then, the crew of friends will head off to the high school for the March Madness dance. 

Peter's meeting his friend Alysha at the dance... once again, Peter is hiding at the Venskus' home. (Really, Connie and Ben took the boys for the week. Rich was supposed to be away in Texas visiting his favorite sister Barbara, but a cold that he couldn't pass on to her prohibited him from making the trip.) 

Rich bet Peter $1.00 that he wouldn't remember to ask Alex to take a picture of him at the dance. Peter wouldn't take the bet--he knows himself too well! :-)  

See, we still like each other

Rumors have been that Rich is counting the months, days, and hours (3 months, 8 days, 14 hours) before the boys head home. Not so! It's a lie! Peter's absent from the photo because he's over at Aunt Connie's and Uncle Ben's hiding from Rich. ;-) 

Two Million Meters...almost

Rich rowed right to the edge of two million meters last week. He stopped at what he thought was the magic mark, and... well, as you can see he miscalculated by 89 meters. An oddity of this Concept II rower (or something he has yet to figure out--heck, he's only spent 200 hours on the machine) is that once you stop rowing on a particular day, the LogCard doesn't add more meters. Now, of course it must, but Rich is NOT a numbers guy. Anyway, the next day he hit 2,000,000---you'll just have to trust us. 

No school! Biggest storm of the year!

Last night's storm dropped a ton of snow in the mountains of Western Maine. No school in Rumford or at the University, so we're celebrating that special feeling of the gift of a "Snow day!" 

The piles of snow around the driveway are now getting very high. Today's shoveling will be a formidable workout and reminds Rich once again of his "two good reasons for hosting exchange students":

SHOVELING SNOW!     

We don't blog, but we're still here! signed Alex & Peter

The past ten days---maybe two weeks...three weeks?---Alex and Peter have been in charge of the Blog. We hope you've enjoyed their various entries.... (Just kidding, of course. Michael, that's a small jab–only small.) 

The picture above is Saturday afternoon just after the guys skied Black Mountain of Maine for five hours. They said it was the best skiing of the winter. Afterwards, Alex took a 40 minute nap on the dining room table and Peter caught up on Facebook. 

This week has been winter break for Maine public schools. Peter headed off to Presque Isle, Maine for the Class B State Ski Championships. Presque Isle is about 6 hours north from Rumford. You may read about the State Ski Meet on Maine High School Skiing's website: http://www.mainehighschoolskiing.com/  Peter had a great time in northern Maine and enjoyed the skiing. 

Alex battled a cold for most of the week. He headed to Portland with Rich for a university business meeting on Monday and Tuesday. They had a gourmet pizza dinner at FlatBread Pizza with Kate Kennedy and her husband, Nate.  Kate is a novelist from Cape Elizabeth and she directs a division of the Maine Writing Project in Portland. 

A second big snowstorm of the vacation week is set for Sunday. Homework and house cleaning will complement the shoveling! 

That's what's happening in Rumford these days. 

Dinner at The Breton's Home

One of the gifts of this year for Alex, Peter, and Rich has been getting to know Gloria and David Breton. Five years retired as volunteers and host parents of Youth For Understanding kids in Connecticut, the Bretons volunteered to take on "The Kent Family" for the 2008-2009. Our monthly meetings have been easy-going, fun affairs. 

On this cold, snowy Friday evening, Gloria fixed up a feast. Our starters were scrumptious stuffed mushrooms followed by an incredible mixed salad. The main course of lasagna enticed us into too many extra helpings! But there was more: a lemon pie (A REAL LEMON PIE!) with a side of thick chocolate chip cookies. The evening was filled with wide-ranging talk and laughter, as Gloria and David, two host-parenting pro's made us feel right at home.  Here's to Gloria & David!  

Shoveling the Camp Roofs at Weld

(Click on photos to enlarge)

During snowy Maine winters the roofs of the camps in Weld get thick with snow. This day, Alex and Rich headed over to do the chore. Alex fitted up with snowshoes and Rich on his cross-country skis, the two trekked down the mile-long camp road to Burt's Point. As you can see, Alex became quite good on his snowshoes.   

No problem!

Three feet of snow on a camp roof? The question is, Where are Ryan and Tyler when you need them?

During...

About 15 minutes into the shoveling, what looked to be a simple job clearly turned out to be that four letter word: W-O-R-K. But Alex was game...

Just about finished

About an hour later, the job is nearly complete.

Soft landing

After the shoveling, the small reward was jumping off the roof into waist high snow. 

Snowbound chairs at the Little House

Weld Mountains 

in Wintertime

Heading home...

After a long afternoon of shoveling, Alex makes the mile-long hike up the camp road to a turkey and cheese sandwich and a Diet Mountain Dew. 

Peter's Ski Race at Black Mountain of Maine

The Giant Slalom course was set on the steep trail at Black Mountain of Maine for the annual Mountain Valley Invitational Alpine Race. 

This photo is of Peter after his second run of Giant Slalom at the Mountain Valley Invitational ski race. He improved his time by 3 seconds in this second run. The afternoon race is a slalom--gates are set closer together. As you'll see, we had a brilliant day for this race---temperatures in the 20s with a deep blue sky overhead. Peter's ski racing ability is improving with each race he enters. And the snow this year has been perfect. 

Peter flying over the headwall at Black Mountain of Maine

Peter at mid-course. 

Tucking to the finish gate....

Inauguration Day 2009