Held Prisoner in Hampton Roads

Easter . . .

. . . a long way from home.

But first, Easter trivia - and mathematics. In western Christianity, Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox.

It came early this year - on March 23. In fact, it only missed the earliest possible date by one day. March 23, the earliest possible Easter, happened in 1818 and won't repeat until 2285 . The latest possible Easter fell on April 25, 1943, and won't repeat until 2038. A late Easter - April 24 - will occur in 2011.

If you want to witness all the earliest and latest dates, hang around. The Easter cycle repeats every 5,700,000 years.

All that notwithstanding, since 2002, Mrs. Bulldog and I have been somewhere between 1,100 and 1,400 miles from our immediate families (children and grandchildren.) We see them all on the occasional vacation or holiday, but not as often as we would like.

In order to keep things semi-normal - which is about as good as you can reasonably expect with this crew, :o) we always trot out the Royal Doulton china and the Waterford crystal and have a formal holiday dinner. Today, it was sugar-cured ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, grandma's green salad (only the family understands this) and chocolate cake.

Later, there will be Kolache . . . yay - one of the many joys of marrying a Bohunk girl. For those who don't know, that's a bread made with sweet dough, filled like a jelly-roll with a sugary mixture of ground poppy seeds and raisins.

Oh, and before anyone gets insulted by "Bohunk," it's how my Slovak father-in-law referred to himself and his friends. If it was good enough for Andy, it's good enough for me.