Saturday, November 6, 2004 - Mom's memorial and the sculpture garden.

It was a beautiful day in early November. The autumn leaves seemed to have held their color longer than usual and were still radiant...

We got together for Mom's yearly memorial as we do every year on the first Saturday in November. We each recite a little poem or tell a little story...Mom was the absolute best. The most fun, interesting, open-minded, beautiful person ever. Of course we miss her, but this is never a sad, mournful day. She just could never inspire anything negative, ever. Halim, June, Jordan, me, Cat, Colly and Dad. Nick took the photo.

After the memorial, and lunch at the Hilltop, we went to an amazing place. The Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Garden. Here Jord, Lori, Halim and June stroll through the magnificent foliage and diverse plantings.

Nick loves the ladies...especially naked ones. This is Rodin's Eva. She does not look like she's enjoying his attention.

This Max Ernst sculpture is a perfect place to relax and enjoy the scenery. It's an adorable piece too.

Nick and I pose with Jordy in front of this undulating piece by French artist Jean Dubuffet. One of my favs.

I love Calder...here I am under one of his little horsies.

Chinese carp - goldfish - swim placidly in the central lake.

Here Colly relaxes in a gazebo near the reflecting pool.

Ok...um this DELIGHTFUL sculpture is personage by Joan Miro. It's one of the more ...popular...sculptures in the garden, for obvious reasons.

Sunday, October 31, 2005 - Halloween!

We live in a wonderful Halloween neighborhood full of Victorian houses. This year we had just returned from Europe so we didn't have our usual big party. Just a few of my best buds to help with the candy distribution. It was a beautiful, warm night though so we just sat on the porch drinking wine and looking at all the great costumes.

Sunday morning I decorated the house. Everything was ready by the time the first visitors arrived.

The cat-in-the-hat and tigger...The costumes are cute but these felines are gonna have to work...

Jord and Lori did an excellent job giving out candy...we get...like 900 trick-or-treaters so it's not easy.

For three solid hours it's non stop...and everyone gets into it, men, women, children...even the family dogs.

Nick and Cath supervise the action...with Mr. Skeleton on the porch swing.

Finally...Nick put on his wig, so I agreed to pose with him. He wasn't too happy about it as you can see. If you're wondering, Nick was a mousketeer and I was a Victorian Zombie in mourning garb...not everyone got that.

Our street has lots of Victorian Houses, many have parties, like this one across the street.

...here I am again, the victorian mourning zombie in front of our neighbor's beautiful japanese maple.

Isn't this cute...the cat-in-the-hat spawned a little bitty cat-in-the-hat. Awwww.

Not to be outdone, Lori found a grrrrrrreat tiger boyfriend.

...and this was the best, the stand up dracula I put in the window. Several little trick-or-treaters were...traumatised. Happy Halloween!

Yes! finely got my Athens/Paris photos posted. They're now on two seperate sites. One is for Athens, and all Greece related random stuff. It's called Greece...My Way. The other is for Paris and all France related sundry items. It's called France...My Way.
Please check them out....now and often. Thanks.

Still working on this...I'm thinking of making a separate blog for my Athens/Paris photos...I suppose I'll link it up to this one...Anyway everything should be up-to-date by the end of the week...I hope. In the meantime I made this primitive little montage. It symbolizes my recent travels. And the fact that I was so disappointed with the election results that I briefly considered emigrating...to France, or to Greece, or to Outer Mongolia. (What?.. I hear Ulaan Baatar is a really happening place) Anyway, in the end I realized that I like this country too much and will therefore remain here, committed to struggling alongside the nearly 50% of the population that share my views of an open, enlightened, tolerant society... Ok, I'm done. Till later. PS. Nick, though by no means a Bush supporter, got all mad and indignant when I referred to our newly reelected(?)leader as a monkey-faced "MF". He said it demonstrated my lack of maturity and limited vocabulary. I thought about it, and in retrospect I apologize to both monkeys and MFs for the unflattering association. There. Now I'm really done. For now. Update: He made me change the "real" word into "MF" for this blog. Damn.

No seriously, despite appearances to the contrary, I'm really working on updating this blog.

I know I've been back for a week...

...I've just been really busy, and it takes lots of time to edit and post photos, so yes, I'm working on it. Just not quite there yet. I hope to have my Athens/Paris photos up by mid week, plus some Halloween stuff as well. Till then...OXooX