More holidays

Cinqo de Mayo; Passover, Easter and Mothers Day!   I can't take all the excitement!

In honor of Cinqo de Mayo (today), we plan on having fajitas, and I got my haircut by a Latina yesterday, which is, sad to say, the only time these days I get to practice my Spanish.  

In honor of Passover, we went to our first seders this year, one at a friend's home and the other at the Episcopal Church.  Both were very special and filled with overdue learning moments.  I had to provide some food for the latter one, including gefiltefish.  We learned we were not big fans.

In honor of Easter, we went north and weathered our last snow storm of the year.  Margaret and Dan (and D) joined us for the occasion.  The Easter bunny found us three times: at our under-construction home, at Sunday mass (!!) and at the Red Lion Inn, where we had a special dinner, evoking memories of dinners and brunches at the Harvest in Pomfret.  Those memories were spurred by the Bloody Marys consumed!

In honor of Mothers Day, we have big plans, that we don't want to give away since it's this Sunday.  But they do include heading north to Hightstown for Saturday evening.

Speaking of Mothers, I stopped by to see Grandma last week, minutes ahead of David and Paula, and then Peter.  The Fairport crew was down for a couple of days which included some work in New York and taking in a play called "Million Dollar Quartet" a play about Elvis, Johnny Cash and others at a recording studio.  Sounds like fun.

We spent lots of time in front of TV, next to radio, reading newspapers and checking on the Internet these past few days, trying to get as much info as possible on Sunday's raid into Pakistan.  Joe texted me well past my bedtime Sunday night telling me to turn on the TV which I did and stayed up as long as I could.  We saw lots of comments on Facebook and elsewhere which we liked, including Janet's evoking of the Wizard of Oz song (Ding, dong...) which Steven Colbert must have read since he used it the following night.  We also liked a friend's quote of Mark Twain:  "I've never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure."   But, once we came to our senses, we liked this one which was posted by a Facebook friend who was an intern and a graduate of Wesleyan: http://www.revelife.com/746839071/the-death-of-osama-bin-laden-and-the-christian-reaction/

Other news:  Joe finished his final exams last night and is heading to Jordan this Sunday for a week of work.  Margaret has found a new place to live, down closer to her workplace.  Annie is starting a Hamilton alumni chapter in Beijing!

We got a full read-out from John and Marilyn of their trip to China, and saw a lot of photos (but not all of them!)  The trip sounded fascinating; after India, they remarked especially on how clean everything was in China.  They gave us lots of tips on what we should try to do when we go there.  (Got to get my visas done!)

We were also following Jeffrey and Melodie's trip to Florida on Facebook (social networking again?)  Their goal was to see the shuttle launch (what a great idea) but unfortunately, as we all know, due to mechanical problems, the launch has been delayed.  I hope the delay meant they had time for "South of the Border" on the way back.

We did also talk to the folks out in Dundee a few times, but for the life of me I can't remember the news.  Must have been Seinfeld-type conversations - wonderful.

I'm sure there's much more, like baseball and spring flowers and house renovations, but it's a beautiful day, and the weeds in the flower beds are calling me.

Saludos, abrazos y besos from down here!

Spring break

Mary's on spring break, so we hopped in the car and drove south.  Or we crawled, for the first three hours.  It was a Saturday for crying out loud.  Once the traffic started moving, the rain and, as we found out later, the tornadoes came.  We had gone to spend the weekend in Chapel Hill NC with Charlie and Annie, friends from, you guessed it, the Peace Corps.  We made it, and once there, the sun came out and we could see it getting greener while we were sitting out on their back porch.

While there, we met up with a couple they knew from Northampton Mass, one of whom teaches at UMass.  We went for a long bike ride, which ended conveniently at a local (and crowded) ice cream stand.  (It was Sunday during Lent, and our minister said that Sundays are feast days while the rest of Lent is a fasting time.)  

We found ourselves in some culture shock situations, being in the South.  The hardest was the accent of the people who could understand us, but when they launched into a 12-minute response for a simple comment or question, we did not understand them as we would smile and beat a retreat to the car.  Reading a book now about the Civil War, where there's a quote:  "North, East and West are simply directions; South is a state of mind."

I saw Grandma on Friday, when I drove back from a few days of work on the upstairs in the old part of the house in Pittsfield.  She is patiently awaiting a wheelchair, as she feels she can no longer get around on her electric cart due to her eyesight.  She has a couple of friends who are bringing food and mail, and then when she gets the chair, she'll be able to get out easier.  We have now set aside July 28, 29 and 30 as the dates for her birthday reunion in Pittsfield.

Today was a banner day, as we sent three different e-mails to Annie.  She has updated her blog, and changed its name and it has all kinds of new bells and whistles:  http://3rdculturekidbetweenworlds.wordpress.com/.  Speaking of China, John and Marilyn are back from their two week trip there.  We will hear more about it when we go up this weekend, but it sounds like they had a terrific time there.

Margaret has closed the deal on a new apartment which is near her work.  Sounds really nice, and is close enough that she can come home during lunch to walk her dog!  Dee will be happy.  She started her new job working on teacher exchanges.  She joined us last night at a Passover seder with friends who had been with us in South Africa and live close by.  A special night with a family with many connections. 

Joe is busy, busy.  He has been accepted at Tufts, and is seriously considering a move north in the fall.  He is looking at exams coming up at the same time he has to finish a project proposal for work.

Closing out, we understand a young man from Dundee is back in DC for a class trip!  And, happy birthday to Peter!

Love from down here.

March went out like a lion

It's cold, but there are daffodils.  It even snowed a little today.

Lots of news, beginning with the Dundee clan trip east to see Grandma.  We caught up with them in the middle of their visit, after they had spent a couple of nights at Meadow Lakes and a meal or two with Peter and Janet.  Andrew and Daniel had gone to a lacrosse game with Peter, but they didn't cheer hard enough as Princeton lost in a come from behind game against some team from Connecticut.  We all went to dinner at Capuano's, and once again the meal did not disappoint, nor did the company!!

Mary and I stayed at Peter and Janet's, but a miscommunication saw us leave before Peter could return with breakfast!  A rain check?  We were there long enough for a standing ovation from Dasha, which is how she greets her most favorite visitors.

We headed back to Meadow Lakes in the am and hung out.  Mary and Lur went for a long walk to counter the Dunkin Donuts and hot dog lunch!  Some of us don't need anything to counter that healthy food.  Daniel is into his IPod with tons of apps, including some which distort photos, making people look old and fat.  Very funny, but I don't need an app to make me look old and fat.  In any case, it was nice to see everyone, and David called while we were there!

I had been in Pittsfield and came south, while Mary drove up from MD.  Up there, I did the minimum amount of work, met with the contractor and went skiing!  Johnny persevered, and got me to the top of the mountain, and even harder down the mountain on skis.  In my view, mountains are mountains and they're high and steep.  I did make it down with some good encouragement and then even went back up for more.  There is lots of progress on the house, including dry wall, and a sump pump when the basement flooded a couple of times.  Better now then later.

In the travel department, John and Marilyn left for China, but their travel companions had to back out at the last minute when one of them had a medical issue.  Kathleen is about to head off for Tanzania where she'll spend three months working at an AIDS and drug rehab clinic.  Margaret is back from New Orleans where she had a great time escorting a group of Iraqi English professors to a convention.  She is right now on a train back to DC after meeting another group of Iraqis in New York, but before they arrived, she did have a chance to catch up with Johanna.  I am pretty sure they shared dog stories.

In the health department, Grandma has been having a hard time with her eyesight, and is ready to make new arrangements for getting around Meadow Lakes as she is having trouble steering her cart.  

And in the education department, Joe was readmitted to Tufts, so he has another tough decision to make.  And I was admitted to the UMass history program.  I am headed up there tomorrow for an orientation program on Monday.  

I had spent the month of March here in Maryland, going to a retirement seminar, which was on the whole useful.  One concrete result was I started another blog, to take a step toward my new reincarnation as a historian.  I took a message from David Brooks in his talk, saying "Fake it before you make it."  My blog can be found here:  http://timecapsulepilot.wordpress.com/

The next two months will be important in finishing the house in Pittsfield, in time for a July get-together.  Keeping my fingers crossed.

The other finger crossing exercise is about baseball, as the season started this week.  Lots of hope and promise!  

That's all from down here.  Love!!  

On the verge of spring

Happy birthday David!  And belated happy March birthdays to Daniel and Lur.  It's our favorite month - we have the windows open here, the first flowers are blooming and the buds are starting to give the empty branches some added form.  Granted this may not be the case for friends in Illinois or Rochester or Pittsfield, but it's coming.  Hang in there!

Our big news is we bit the bullet and made reservations for China!  End of June.  Now all we have to do is get our visas, rob a bank to pay for the tickets and then learn Chinese before June.  Not impossible.  This time we will approach travel a little differently and do a modicum of research about what to do there before we go.  Luckily, Annie is doing a little for us, and John and Marilyn are also heading to China at the end of the month, to advance and scout out for us.  

This month, I have been attending a retirement course, which means getting up every day and commuting down to Northern Virginia for the day.  I miss retirement.  But, apparently I wasn't doing the whole retirement thing right, so I had to go back to school to learn how to retire.  Not exactly, but the previous times they offered the course, I backed out and this was my last chance.  It has mostly  been helpful and both opened up prospects and narrowed my focus a little.  Speaking of focus, I learned that the University of Massachusetts has made a big mistake and accepted me as a graduate student in their Public History Program. 

And, we learned that Sean was accepted into Rutgers Law School, the first of the schools he heard from.  Congratulations!

Margaret called last night from New Orleans where she is taking care of a group of Iraqi university English teachers, who are here attending the TESOL convention (teaching English to speakers of other languages.)  She loves New Orleans, but worries that it is too risque for this group of Muslims.  She comes home next Friday.

Earlier in the week, we met up with Joe and his friend Tamara for a book signing by David Brooks, the NYT columnist who has written a book about emotional intelligence called the Social Animal.  It was at a famous lefty bookstore called Politics and Prose, and Brooks, a moderate conservative, admitted he was in the wrong crowd, saying he knew people came not so much "to hear him speak, but to listen to themselves."  He was funnier and more insightful than he usually is in his columns and on the News Hour, and was well-receSpring ived.  

Spring also means the end of hibernating, meaning we have even been a little social.  We hosted a couple of Canadian Embassy colleagues who were on their way back after spending a month in Florida.  And we've had dinners with friends from Peru and Arlington, Charlie came up from NC, and this week a colleague from Mexico is staying with us.    

We haven't seen the Pittsfield house since early March, but understand they have put up the sheetrock inside.  I'll drive up this weekend to check it out (and write checks) and maybe even paint a little, if I don't break my leg on my second day of skiing!  

Well, that's all for now.  Hope you all are well.  Love from down here.  

We made it!

To March.  The temperature is going to hit 60 degrees in Maryland today, and flowers are pushing through the garden.  But when I left Pittsfield a week ago, temps had been in the teens and the snow fall was wet and heavy.  I wonder why I have decided to stay down here for most of the month of March.  Actually, I will be taking a class, and we have a pretty regular list of visitors, which is always nice.

A lot has happened since I last wrote.  Seared in our memory was our attempt to get to Ottawa over Presidents' Day Weekend.  The weather (again) had called for light snow tapering off mid-day.  John and Marilyn and I were to drive to Syracuse to pick up Mary who was flying in and then proceed on to our old haunts.  Half way there, we were forced off the Thruway by white-out conditions, and Mary's flight was canceled.  With the benefit of cell phones and mobile weather apps, we saw it wasn't going to get better so we turned around, Mary got her flight changed to Albany and we returned to Pittsfield.  And, while we didn't skate on the canal, we did get a taste of winter with skiing and snow!

On the way back to Albany to drop off Mary for her return flight, we got a call from David who was in ...... Albany!  So we had a nice dinner together in a downtown haunt where David seemed to know all the customers and the bartender!  Hmm.  (Just kidding)

In the mail this week came invitations!  To a wedding!  (Actually, elegant hold-the-date bookmarks!)  October 16 it is!  Congratulations Jeff and Melodie!

Grandma seems to have recovered from her bout with pneumonia.  Enough to go down to eat in the cafeteria, which is where we went last Saturday for a cheese steak and a cheesecake.  Grandma was more sensible with a salad.  She had an eye doctor's appointment that Peter said showed stability, not deterioration.

Annie has started her new job, at Burston-Marsellers, and she sounds happy and excited and eager to learn so much. (She modeled her anti-pollution mask last week on Skype; there's another one on her blog: http://3rdculturekidinthe3rdworld.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/beyond-index).  Joe has moved to a new place, a nice apartment in downtown DC where he can walk to work and to school.  He has mid-terms this week.  Good luck.  And Margaret starts a three week trip to Amman Jordan and then to New Orleans on Monday.  She'll be in Jordan for Mardi Gras and in Louisiana for Lent.  (Shouldn't it be the other way around?)  

Work on our house in Pittsfield continues fast and furious.  While my work consists mostly of writing checks, I did do a little painting and dry wall taping/sanding last week.  It's a dirty, dusty place, but our heat bills fell by over $100 the first month we got insulation, and stopped heating Berkshire County!  And we found out we definitely need a cat.  Or two.  

Mary has been busy at school and keeping up with visitors, including two from Ottawa who spent a couple of days with us on their way back from a month in Florida.  It will be 2 degrees up there this week.

Here, maybe a bike ride, today.  That's progress.  Love from down here.

 

It had to happen

All birthdays must end.  The build-up is great; the day is wonderful, culminating in cake and ice cream.  And then it's over.  No more pampering; phone calls or e-mails.  And this year was no exception to any of that.  It was wonderful.  Why can't they last a whole month?  Thanks so much for all the notes and Facebook entries and calls and presents and pampering.

I had to hustle back to Washington in order to take full advantage of all the festivities.  I had only been in Pittsfield for a couple of nights, as Peter convinced me to stay in Hightstown and go to a Princeton-Penn basketball game.  Good thing.  First because they needed all the cheering they could get to win in overtime.  And, it snowed and the wind blew so much in Pittsfield, I'm sure it would have been a hard drive up and an even harder time getting into the house that night. So I had the warmth of comfort of Meadow Lakes instead.  Thanks Grandma.  She, by the way is slowly recovering from her pneumonia, but is very cautious about pushing too hard.

The next day it took me an hour and half to shovel two weeks of snow for a walk around to the front of the house.  The mailbox was all but covered up.  But there's progress; it's hard to believe the workers are out there in the cold and the snow.  And it's not all work, as I joined John and Marilyn for a dinner at a new Indian restaurant in town.  Nice.

Joe and Margaret joined us for the festivities Saturday night - meatloaf!!  Joe is busy, at work and at school.  He found a new place where he will move in April.  Margaret is also busy, studying for the GREs and getting ready for trips to New Orleans and possibly overseas with a group of Iraqi teachers.  

We spoke with Annie on Sunday and got an e-mail from her today, that she started her new job.  She had lots of stories from her trip to Shanghai and from Chinese New Year.  But you'll have to go to her blog to see the video for yourselves (3rdculturekidinthe3rdworld).  Wow.

We heard news from Dundee, which included a happy Super Bowl Sunday (remember that?) and season ending basketball games for Danny and Claire.  We also heard Claire is beginning to get mailings from colleges.  Claire, you're growing up!

David calls every now and then, usually in the middle of a blizzard after a 6am meeting in Syracuse.  I think he has a dog sled instead of a car to get him back and forth in that part of the world; a dog sled with bluetooth anyway.

Did everyone have a great Valentine's Day?  Did you know that spring training starts this week?  The days are getting longer and that means, even though it's the middle of February, we are seeing warmer days, at least here (it was -15 in Pittsfield last Friday morning.)

Love from down here.  

Groundhog Day

And if Pennsylvania got hit like Chicago, or Rochester, or Massachusetts, then I don't think Punxatawny Phil the groundhog even came out of his hole.  The weather, or the threat of it, made me rethink my trip up north this week.  As it turns out, I probably could have made it, but why chance it, if you don't have to?

It would have been good to see Grandma who has caught pneumonia, for the first time in a year and a half, or more.  Each time we call she says she is better, but we can still hear the tired-ness and rasp in her voice.  Peter went over to see her last weekend.  David and Paula were supposed to go down last week, but with snow and sickness they headed back to more snow in Rochester.  

I hope to go up and see Grandma tomorrow.  

Last week was a week of weather as well.  Mary worked only one day.  Wednesday the weather came in rain and sleet.  People all around lost their power, but we were fortunate.  Only until Thursday, when we lost our power and heat.  It didn't come back on until Saturday at noon, and we recorded a 48-degree temperature inside the house.  My best guess is there were at least two factors behind this.  First, I happened to be cleaning out a box of memorabilia and came upon an "award" Grandma and Pop had given me in 1973 when the power went out in Wilton for four days, and then there was a fire in the chimney!  I found that document about 30 minutes before we lost power.  Then on Sunday, we read the beatitudes in church, and I figured that we did not qualify as blessed since we had not suffered enough.  So we got to suffer a little.  A real little.

What else is new?  We went to movies to stay warm - Barney's version (very good) -- and to Dunkin Donuts and Barnes and Noble.  Joe has moved out, to get closer to his work and school, down in DC where he is housesitting for a friend.  Margaret has started her GRE classes, and we think Annie has started her Chinese New Years trip to Shanghai.

We spoke with Andrew and David and the talk was mostly of weather.  Must be winter.   Love from down here.  Stay warm!