The pictures are of me in the basement of Edgar Allan Poe's house in Philadelphia where he wrote "The Black Cat" and of my sons in the front of the canoe before the wind and current blew us further downstream.

The Christmas in July newsletter is posted here. It may be amended later, but this is what I have now.



Christmas in July 2006


We had a mild winter and a lovely spring and now we are paying for it all with summer heat. Don’t get me wrong; I’m glad my heating bills were less than they could have been, and I really enjoyed waiting until mid-June to turn on the air conditioning, but I don’t like that part of the year when the heat and moisture plaster your shirt to your body in the time it takes to walk out to the car. While I can take pride in having lived in times and places where there was no A/C these days make me glad I live in this time and this place.

Our two older children survived the first year of high school and middle school, and strangely enough, so did we.

It has been the year for travel. In the late summer I made good on my promise to take us to New England during the hot weather, and we went up to Rhode Island, Maine, and then to Boston for a family wedding (Nancy’s cousin). In early fall Nancy and I went to Asheville, NC to a wonderful B&B in Biltmore Village, and took the horseback tour of the Biltmore Estate. The next weekend we went to Providence, RI to see New England again.

One of the highlights of the year was going to New York in October to see Spamalot! on Broadway. This was somewhat of a pilgrimage, as we have all of the Monty Python films and TV shows on DVD, and my kids love it as much as Nancy and I do. Seeing Tim Curry and David Hyde-Pierce on stage was wonderful, and I wonder how we understood anything as we were laughing so hard the whole time. We were able to see our friends Brendan and Tiffany and had great pizza in Brooklyn.

We went to West Virginia for Christmas, and it is strange to see how much my home town has changed. The changes are better than I would have predicted.

In February we took a day trip to Washington DC, and saw the exhibit on Polio at the Museum of American History. There was a picture of Nancy’s uncle, Frederick Robbins (Nathan’s middle name is Frederick, after him), who along with Drs. Enders and Weller discovered how to grow polio virus in culture, enabling the development of the polio vaccine. The three men won the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology in 1954 for their breakthrough discovery. After that we went the long way home and went out near Dulles where we saw the new Smithsonian Air and Space Museum where they have all the big planes- the Concorde, the Enola Gay, the Space Shuttle Enterprise (which never actually went into space but was dropped off of a 747), and many very cool aircraft and spacecraft. If you’re in the area it’s worth it to see them, but there’s not much else in the area. We went out there to see my parents, who had flown in to Dulles and were staying the night in the area before they drove home to West Virginia.

During Spring Break for Nathan he and Nancy went down to Florida to visit Suzanne, Jon, and Jack Clements. They came back longing to return to Florida. Later in April Nancy went down to Cancun with her friend, Janet Whitaker. They had a great time, and somehow when she returned my boys and I had not destroyed the house.

The rest of May we stayed put, and Nancy’s family came out for her birthday. It was great to see them all, and once again I was reminded how good it is for my sons to see their cousins.

June was spectacular. Nancy and I headed off to Spain together, while our sons went to the Outer Banks with my parents. We went to Madrid, Toledo, Granada, Seville, and Cordoba, with a day trip to Gibraltar. We drove up the Rock- no mean feat, parallel parking on a 30 degree incline in a diesel minivan with manual transmission. We saw the “rock apes”- actually Barbary macaques- and a juvenile one climbed up the wall and through the bars on the window at the restaurant. He (or she) climbed onto our table, and when he saw we weren’t going to shoo him away he grabbed a packet of mayonnaise from our basket. Then the barman did shoo him away, and he glared at us and closed the window, muttering “hmmph, el Mono.”

I have wanted to go to Spain since high school and I finally got to fulfill that dream. It was just like I felt it would be, except I didn’t know the road signs would be so confusing. The best food things for me were the Chocolate con Churros at La Olla de Chocolate (the Chocolate Pot) in Madrid and the croquetas at Las Cuevas de Luis Candelas, which is in the Arco de Cuchilleros below the Plaza Mayor in Madrid. We liked Toledo the best of all the cities, and the best hotel was the Parador San Francisco at the Alhambra palace in Granada. Also we learned that when a country’s team is playing in the World Cup there are no available taxicabs, which gave us a better understanding of the city bus system in Cordoba than we ever wanted.

This July-to-July cycle has ended up with Nancy and the boys taking a trip with our friend Janet Whitaker and daughter Alison out West, to see the Great Salt Lake, Yellowstone, the Badlands, Little Big Horn, Mount Rushmore, and other sights. Yes they saw a bear in Yellowstone, and no he did not try to get their pic-a-nic basket.

Nancy continues to be active at our Quaker meeting. She has volunteered with the local Hospice organization, and is the bereavement person for the Meeting. She continues to sing with the Easton Choral Arts Society, and was elected to the Board of Directors.

Jacob has been active in several plays with the Tread Avon Players, one of the local community theater groups. He has done sound and lights for several shows this past year, and we are quite proud he has found a niche with a group of theater people, especially as one of the youngest in the group. He has also honed his skills at video games, and at asking for new game systems. He may never forgive Nintendo for naming their new system the Nintendo Wii. He has decided to keep calling it the Revolution. Jacob survived a season on the Easton High School wrestling team, and I am so proud of his determination to stick with it, when it was clearly not his thing. I got to see him pin an opponent, and it was great to see his excitement. He maintains the website for the Quaker meeting. He can be reached at grapenutz378@gmail.com. He has been known as Grape Nuts since the first week of high school.

Sam has eased well into middle school. The year has been remarkably uneventful, and we are proud of how much he has improved on his saxophone. He is eagerly awaiting the Eragon movie, which is due in theaters December 15. Sam continues to make friends and charm teachers without trying. Someday he will learn how charming he really is, and we will all be in trouble.

Nathan is eight, and fortunately gets to still be eight. While he has had wonderful progress in piano and done very well in school this year, his main accomplishments seem to be playing outside until dark and bringing “treasures” back from the hill behind our house.

As for myself, I completed my two-year term as Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the end of June. The biggest news is the coming of another Obstetrician in our group in August, which will put me back to every third night and every third weekend call. I managed to get my boat fixed and we have had some good times on the water (finally). I have given a few homebrew demonstrations to friends, and one of them mentioned me to some people who want to put in a brewpub in St. Michael’s. I hope he was only kidding. I have been writing more, but mainly I look forward to living a more humane life with my family that deserves to see me around more (whether that be positive or not). Oh, I also have a blog, which may be found at http://trout-in-the-milk.blogspot.com. I’ll try to post this to the blog if I can.

Best Holiday Wishes to you, our friends, family, and acquaintances. We hope to hear from you- that’s why we do this in July. No one ever answers in December. I will attach a few pictures, but not too many to make it hard to e-mail.

Much love,

Mike, Nancy, Jacob, Samuel, and Nathan Mullen

Give-us-food looks from Dennis, Rosie, Ani, and Chessie




ADDENDUM

Chocolate con churros

Chocolate a la taza

2 cups milk
6 oz Baker’s Bittersweet Chocolate
1 Tbsp corn starch

Heat milk in microwave until hot (this will vary). Chop chocolate into chunks to facilitate melting. Put milk and chocolate into heavy bottomed saucepan and heat until melted while stirring constantly with a whisk. Whisk in corn starch. Simmer for two minutes or until thickened. Off heat and serve in cups.

Churros

1 cup water
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs
Fat for deep-fat frying
Granulated sugar

In saucepan, bring water, sugar, and salt to boiling. Remove from heat. Stir in flour, all at once, and beat until smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until mixture is smooth. Spoon batter into pastry bag fitted with large star point. Pipe 6 inch strips into deep fat at 375 degrees. Fry churros, a few at a time, for 3-4 minutes or until golden brown, turning as necessary. Drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with granulated sugar, or not. Makes 12.

Dunk in chocolate a la taza, and repeat until gone.