Fullness of summer

June was wet and even cool; July has been dry and now hot.  Today we broke down and turned on the air conditioning.  And we finally got some rain to turn our lawn back to green.
 
Right now, Annie is in Boston, Joe on the other coast in San Francisco; and Margaret's here.  We celebrated Mary's birthday Friday at a Thai restaurant in Bethesda.  Here's a hint at birthdays at this time of life.  Mary got a book about healthy eating, a cushion for her back and a GPS to help her find her way around. She's laughing because of the greeting on the cake.  
 
Annie went to up in Boston looking for a place to live.  She thinks she found a place in Nadick, and she's coming back tonight. 
 
We hear Peter and Janet are out in Vancouver.  Johanna, Sean and Amanda went over today to have brunch with Grandma.  And Grandma said that Johanna is moving to the city, having found an apartment near Littley Italy.  New Yorkers!
 
Last week, David and Paula came down to Hightstown to visit Grandma.  I had made arrangements to go up Friday night, and maybe go fishing on Saturday morning.  I even got fishing licenses for us.  Unfortunately, after three hours of driving (the normal time it takes to get to Hightstown) I had only gotten through the Baltimore tunnel and ran right into yet another traffic jam.  So I turned around and came home.  Oh well.  Sounds like everyone had fun, with a big (early) birthday dinner for Grandma.  Jeff and Melodie had driven up Saturday.
 
We couldn't drive up, since we had tickets to King Lear, courtesy of Joe and a Christmas present to Mary.  It was a great play, a complicated story, and well staged. 
 
John went out to Denver this past week, to attend the announcement of the Denver Biennial of the Americas which will take place next year.  The organizers were prominent in the Obama campaign, and have envisioned a seven week, world's fair type of program full of exhibits, conferences and performances.  Everything revolves around innovation for social change.  Needless to say, I was stuck in the slow lane trying to make sense of what was going on.
 
This weekend we're heading back to Pittsfield; Mary will spend three weeks up north, and I'll be coming back to work.
 
Hope you're all well.  Love from down here.
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China Slideshow

Here's a photo of Annie in front of the Summer Palace.

It's been a long time

And we have excuses for not writing.  But that's what they are - excuses.
 
Yesterday was Annie's birthday and we celebrated in grand style - with an ice cream cake!  Annie came back from China and showed us tons of photos and videos from there.  She has promised to put together a slide show or something for the letter.  Joe and Margaret came up for dinner.
 
Annie is getting ready to move, and part of the move was her getting a new car.  So we headed off to Carmax on Saturday and settled on a good winter driving car, a few years old, but it looked safe and warm for the cold weather.
 
We talked to Grandma who filled us in on her eye and teeth issues from last week.  She had teeth pulled and eyes check and it looks like she might be a candidate for laser surgery.  She mentioned David and Paula were coming to Hightstown this week.
 
Grandma and John fell into an interesting debate over Michael Jackson.  We both agreed that there was entirely too much media coverage, but we disagreed on his musical talents.  Grandma didn't buy the argument that he still had the biggest selling album of all time.  Where do you all stand on this issue?
 
Since we last wrote, though, we had a vacation, with a long drive and two weeks away.  We went to Pittsfield and got a little work done on the house, with a disappointing meeting with the contractor.  We also went to Boston, New Hampshire and Maine and checked in on various friends from various slices of our lives.  We went to a movie ("Up") and a baseball game, had a birthday dinner at John and Marilyn's; we saw a moose and a weird recluse's mansion in Maine, and we got rained on.  Everyone was talking about the rain.
 
It was also Andrew's birthday, and he told us about his long weekend at Green Lake, about Claire and Daniel at basketball camps.
 
The sad news of the last few weeks was our kitty, who developed a tumor.  She stayed with Margaret while we were gone, and when we came back it was evident that she too much suffering and we said goodby to her this week.  She was th emost sociable cat in the world, and had a happy, adventurous life adjusting quickly to new environs.      
 
We actually have legitimate excuses for no photos.  John lost his camera and we can't find Mary's.  Our old camera has no batteries.  So while Joe took photos of Annie's birthday with his phone, we haven't gotten copies yet.
 
So, almost halfway through July.  Love from down here!