Easter 2010

We were off to the Marin (CA) headlands, specifically to the Tiburon Yacht Club, yesterday to celebrate Easter with Jenny's Irish-Catholic paternal family side. 54 worthy souls showed up, on a sodden rainy blustery day out on a spit in San Francisco Bay. Beautifully stormy, and the kids made the Easter Egg hunt a piece of cake even in the downpour (1.1 inches of rain in 3 hours). Volleyball, crochet, and sack races all got scrubbed, but the conviviality and love flowed like always. Meredith surprised a few cousins with news that her twin girls (now 3 years old) will have a baby joining them in August; Tommy Dowley brought a lovely girl to the party -- a diver on the Berkeley diving team (whose major is PHYSICS, hooray!). The hit of the day for at least one attendee was the platter of barbequed oysters -- scrumptious!!!

springtime in Menlo Park

A shot of our backyard last week, a teaser so to speak.

The rock walls are about half done, but I got enough of them in place to plant some tulips, daffodils and ranunculus, which you can see blooming here. It has been a nice spring, with plenty of gentle rain so far... and the heifers look pregnant in the pasture

Life is good at our house, although moving the twelve yards of dirt that I had delivered last weekend, along with six tons of rock, was a little daunting

springtime

well, a lot going on in the garden right now.... First, all the daffodils are trying to outdo each other -- Ice Follies and Fortune competing a week later with Rijnveld's Early Sensation, just outside our bathroom door. And now, a hundred Christmas Dream tulips have just bloomed in their midst. On the side yard, Grape Muscari and Hyacinth have repeated from last year, joined by a half dozen Formosa azaleas in front of some Duc de Rohan azaleas and Redbird azaleas.

And then, four new climbing roses, for the lattice arch we brought from New Hampshire -- a Climbing Sombreiul, Eden, Full Moon Rising, and Climbing Colette. Two pinks and two 'whites'

Should be nice, to go with the 1,200 bedding plants so far this spring....

Olympic time

Cindy and Charlie got to go to Vancouver, NBC put them up at the Four Seasons and got them great tickets (front row) for (GET AHOLD OF THIS):

a. Ohno's 1000 meter Short track race (he took 2nd)

b. Lysacek's long program for gold in men's figure skating

c. Lindsay Vonn's gold in the Downhill skiing

d. Shawn Lewis' silver in the 1000 m speed skating

e. the Swedish ice hockey victory on Friday (with brother Warren)

f. the Finnish ice hockey victory on Friday (also w Warren)

Why?  

Well, Charlie's company, MobiTV, just happened to produce the great App for the i-Phone called NBC, available via AT*T.  1.4 million downloads the first day....  It is a WAY COOL app, you've probably seen it on TV with the skater on the Samsung phone while the guy walks around the plaza

where has the time gone?

My gosh, the last post was at Christmas time, and now Valentine's Day has come and gone.
And a hectic time it has been! Punctuated by some wonderful happenings, a few of which might be worth mention.

First, IMPORTANT NEWS FLASH -- we celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary on February 4, which sets an all-time record for each of us, even more so because we are (a) still together, and (b) still in love with each other.

We celebrated by going to the Stanford women's basketball game (where they won, in an awesome display), and then the next night trying Marche, a highly touted French restaurant in Menlo Park (the touts were right!).

We celebrated Valentine's Day two ways -- (a) with tickets for Michael Buble, pronounced B00-blay or something like that, in April; and (b) with a party for a 15 year old beagle Todd, owned by Ian Gilchrist, one of our crazy neighbors from the old Woodside environs (Preston Road...).

I called my 'big sister' Sharon last evening to get caught up on all their goings-on; the big event in their life is that they are anticipating a little boy in April -- their first great-grandchild. WOW!

Quick note, doesn't begin to convey how frenetic things feel. But for now, peace and love!

Christmas

We were invited to Seattle for Xmas by my son Warren and his lovely bride Laura. Three sunny days greeted us, and we toured the greater area, including Everett, Bellevue, Redmond, and the Kirkland waterfront. Laura showed us her building on the Boeing campus, and we saw three new Dreamliners (of the seven currently built). Wonderful time...
We went by Coroware, and got an issue of Linux Journal with our Corobot on the cover. Played with the two robots and also with the Vidyo immersive collaboration tool. Great fun.
The highlight, aside from Sanibel the wonder dog Boston Terrier, was the 1000 piece puzzle celebrating 100 years of major league baseball. Took us two nights and a day to solve it!
They wing their way to Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris tomorrow, celebrating Laura's 30th birthday. We were so fortunate to be with them for the holidays

Thanksgiving

Thanks indeed, for life and friends and family

We drove down to Cindy's, stopping at my sister Sharon's home (which gave Jenny a chance to meet my 'new' sister and her husband).  We had a delightful several hours with them; all finding that life somehow gives every one of us a chance to deal with adversity.  It just seems so obvious that no one escapes trials and tribulations; the whole secret of enjoying life is in how you deal with those challenges rather than in avoiding them.  

The next night we were playing a word game at Cindy's, with her step-son Dylan and his new bride, who happens to be an Aussie.  Well, one word was frivolous, and she politely inquired, "what does that mean?" and her new husband, as quick-witted and wry as his dad, quipped, "that means 'without frivol'."  I mean, like we were all convulsed with laughter, which may say something (I agree now) about both the hour and the libations that we had enjoyed.

May your life be filled with 'frivol' and 'love'