I caught up with Dan walk­ing his favorite black poo­dle “Zach” on a clear and chilly late after­noon. Dan, as you know is Pres­i­dent and one of the founders of SRI at Home. We spoke briefly about his hopes that SRI would grow to more houses and that he would see more vol­un­teers in 2010.

He seemed dis­traught that the foot­ball sea­son was over with out a ring for his beloved Patri­ots but today was “Truck Day” (equip­ment truck leav­ing Fen­way for Florida) and that soon he would be out on the water fol­low­ing his grand­daugh­ter in her Opti sail boat.

We chat­ted about his vol­un­teerism with SRI, the monthly trips with soup for the fish­er­man on the wharfs of Galilee and tak­ing sup­plies weekly to the North Kingstown food pantry.

He told me about his degree in Eco­nom­ics from Trin­ity Col­lege and his almost minor in The­ol­ogy. He said he prays a lot for money. He seemed to have a slight limp as we ambled through snow cov­ered streets. “An old foot­ball injury from fresh­man col­lege foot­ball” he said, “but a suc­cess­ful knee replace­ment has me back play­ing ten­nis twice a week.”

As we parted, we both hoped that the ground hog was wrong and agreed that Al Gore is a myth. He left me with a recipe for a Har­vey Wall­banger cake. “If I can make it, any­one can,” he opined, as he turned and walked out of sight, smack­ing his lips.

Har­vey Wall­banger Cake:
1 pkg. orange cake mix
1 3–3/4 oz instant French Vanilla pud­ding mix
4 eggs
½ c. orange juice
½ c Gal­liano
2 Tbsp. Vodka

Glaze:
1 c. con­fec­tion­ers sugar
1 Tbsp. orange juice
1 Tbsp. Gal­liano
1 tsp. Vodka
Stir together to smooth.

Com­bine cake ingre­di­ents in large bowl of elec­tric mixer. Beat on low for l min., then on medium for 5 min. Pour into greased bundt or angel cake pan. Bake at 350 for 45 min. Cool for 10 min. Remove from pan and pour on glaze.