Mummers in the Park

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I had a lot of computer work to get done yesterday morning and the storm did give way to beautiful weather, so Saul took the girls to our giant playground where the township building, swimming pool, basketball courts, etc. are located, about a ten-minute drive from our house. The playground is one of the best around. In some ways, I feel a little guilty about it. Most of the neighbors on our small cul-de-sac were involved in the actual construction of the playground during the first summer after we moved in. At the time, we were constructing our own deck and after days of digging post holes, making runs from the lumber yards, and sawing and screwing boards together in 90-degree heat, we wanted nothing to do with an additional evening construction project. Our kids were in college and high school, so we were not really invested in getting the project done and we missed a bonding opportunity with our new neighbors. When we finally saw the results of their labor, along with the labor of many others from all over the area, we were immensely impressed. Now, for several years, we have reaped the fruits of their labor by taking our grandchildren there to play.

They returned at lunch time and afterwards, we packed them off to bed for a nap. Mom is still very tired from the pneumonia but seems a little stronger and livelier with each day that passes, especially because the girls are here. I napped in the afternoon, too. Saul had noticed in a local paper that the park would be hosting concerts on Wednesday evenings through the summer, and the first one was last evening. After dinner, we packed up some folding chairs and a blanket and spent a delightful evening sitting on the grass and listening to a group of six mummers play the old standbys while the kids frolicked and strutted in front of the bandstand.

When the concert ended, we headed off down the road to Freddy Hill Farms, a wonderful local ice cream emporium, a relic from the past where the air outside smells of manure and the ice cream is made and sold right there. Izzy calls it "The Cow Shop" because there is a life-size black and white cow perched on the roof at the entrance. Yesterday, she was very curious if it was a real cow. When told that it was not real, she wanted to know if it had once been alive and now was a dead cow. She was satisfied when we explained it was a fake cow. If anything, kids today know what the word "fake" means. One of the unique aspects of Freddy Hill Farms is that you pay for your ice cream by weight so that it is possible to get 4-year-old-size ice cream cones. Both girls chose M&M embedded cones. Izzy had chocolate and Sami had cookies and cream. I had a waffle cone with Moose Tracks and Rocky Mountain Raspberry. Saul had a cup of chocolate and coffee. We arrived there at the perfect time because as we sat down at a table to eat, a huge line of people came in behind us. On the way over, we passed North Penn High School's field where the graduation ceremonies were in full swing.

I used my sugar rush to spend several more hours on the computer after we put the girls to bed. Every night, Saul tells them a different "Schmuel" bedtime story. This began last summer when they were staying here. Schmuel, or in English, Samuel, is Saul's real Israeli name. When his family arrived in the United States in 1959, his American aunt, Tante Honey, gave him the American name, Saul. This was because his father's Hebrew name was Simcha, meaning happy. Simcha became Samuel. Children are named only for the deceased in Judaism, so Saul could not also be Samuel. Anyway, last summer he began to tell them stories from his childhood in Israel in the third person. They know that he is talking about himself, but when he slips, they object and insist that he refer to himself as Schmuel. Yesterday's story was about his adventures with his bicycle. Today's story was about strawberries. He has not been at a loss yet to come up with a new adventure.

Today was another beautiful day and they spent another few hours at the playground while I finished the first draft of my publication. Again, after lunch, we napped, but after dinner the girls seemed tired anyway so we stayed in and they went to bed without any fuss. We brought an old bookcase down from the attic for their room, now that Jessica has carried away the large Xerox machine that was taking up space in there for my business, and which I am now sending to Ari. Books and videos had been lying all over the place and this evening, they were finally put away.

Erica called a few days ago to see if the family (Adele, Larry, Brenna and Ava--Danny is working) could come over for dinner tomorrow because she had scheduled a family portrait with Mom this weekend and needed time to do her hair. Erica was a licensed beautician several years ago (she gave it up) and she has been doing Mom's hair ever since Mom gave up driving. When I finish this, it is back to the kitchen to finish up some dishes for tomorrow evening.  We are looking forward to being guests at Beth's company picnic at Camp America on Sunday. We had a wonderful time last year. I hope this gorgeous weather will hold out a few more days. Poor Saul! He has a colonoscopy scheduled for Monday and won't be able to eat all that delicious free food!

City by the Bay

Hello all, this is Ari guest-blogging on Marilyfe from my small but beautiful hotel room at The Palace in San Francisco. It's a beautiful old hotel that was built in 1875, and reminds me a bit of The Willard in DC. Near the lobby is one of the most beautiful rooms I have ever seen, which I understand has been dubbed one of the most beautiful rooms in the world. Decide for yourself:


As some of you know, I claim some of the credit for the original creation of this blog, so I'm excited to see that it has started to gather a small, but loyal readership. The blog itself can have up to 100 contributors, so I strongly encourage anyone else out there in Mariland to step up to the plate and fill us all in on what you're up to at any given moment, or any other random musings you might have.

So I'd been working on pulling together a big presentation for the last week and a half or so for our team to give at a meeting with several of the law firms involved in a mammoth antitrust suit. Last Friday evening, as we were putting the finishing touches on the PowerPoint, my bosses Neal and Dan made the decision that it would be a good idea for me to join them along with my colleague Tom, so I immediately set out making travel arrangements to arrive in SF on Monday afternoon, with the meeting set to take place all day Tuesday, and then to return on Wednesday. BTW--the four of us make up what is currently the entire company besides our Office Manager, Janice.

It was a bit of a whirlwind, considering that I had committed to be in Philly this past weekend to help out with the arrangements for the event at MBIEE. Needless to say it was pulled off without a hitch and enjoyed by all who attended--despite the family drama of my grandmother Evelyn being checked into Abington Hospital with pneumonia Saturday night. I'll leave it to my mom to fill you in on the details.

So after a late Sunday night return to DC and some adept packing (I've become quite the expert these last few years), I set out on the Metro to National Airport Monday morning. Standing in the TSA line, as I was trying to consolidate all personal electronic and metal containing objects into my bag--for reasons still unclear to me (I was never good at Physics)--it suddenly flew out of my hands and several feet into the air, landing laptop edge-first on the stone floor. It may seem like I'm exaggerating, but it landed with such force that the zipper pull on the front pocket of the bag broke off, and the woman in front of me yelped in fear. After passing security and composing myself I rushed to my gate to sit down and THANK GOD everything still worked despite an unsightly dent to the casing...


Two flights packed like a sardine and a disappointing but productive working lunch in the Phoenix airport later, I was in a familiar place--flying over the beautiful Bay Area on approach to SFO. It's been an arduous two years of exile for me since I moved back east, and I found myself thinking back wistfully on the days when a picturesque landing at SFO or San Jose left me with a certain degree of pride and satisfaction that this was where I called home.

To make matters worse, after days of roasting in 90+ degree/90%+ humidity in Philly and DC, I stepped out into one of those stereotypical cloudless, 75 degree-with-a-slight-cool-breeze California days. I remember the first time my parents came to visit me out in CA, when we stepped outside into the short-term parking lot at SFO, my mother remarked about how the air smelled and tasted better. For the first time in my life, I smelled and tasted the difference myself.

Since it was about 4PM, and I wasn't meeting my colleagues for dinner until 7:30, I decided to take advantage of the BART line they extended out to SFO and had a nice ride to the Financial District.

Dinner was at Tadich Grill, apparently the oldest restaurant in the city (est. 1849). The service was "eh" and the food was OK. I think some of the waiters have been working there since it opened. We "circled the wagons" and discussed some last minute updates before I headed back exhausted and fell asleep around 11PM.

To make a long story short (too late), our meeting went wonderfully. The four of us played off each other perfectly without stepping on each other. This rarely happens, as each of us is generally accustomed to being the smartest person in the room. :)

I got the opportunity to lead a few segments of the day, and to be a major contributor to the general discourse. It sounds stupid, but it feels good to be under 30 and to sit at a conference table with senior partners from several huge international law firms while they listen intently, ask intelligent questions, and commend you on your work. It was a great affirmation of my decision to leave the law firm "support staff" environment and move into the consulting field.

Dan and Neal both pulled me aside at various points of the day to let me know how happy they were that I joined them (both for the meeting and in general). I get the impression (as does Tom) that they are both pleasantly surprised at what I've been able to bring to the table for the company--and I'm trying not to take their surprise too personally. :)

I had emailed my old boss from WSGR, Matt, who is now with another big SF firm to see if he was free to catch up over dinner, but he emailed me back to say he had already made other plans. He mentioned, though, that he had read my latest article in Law Technology News, and was pretty impressed with the content. Since it had to do with Lit Support/Legal Assistant management issues, he had forwarded it on to his own firm management for them to read.

Dan immediately left to do some work at a client site in Finland over the next few days, and the three of us met shortly later to have a delicious dinner at The Slanted Door in the Ferry Building. Tom and I saw Neal off in a cab to SFO for his red-eye home, and then I took Tom on what I dubbed a "death march" tour of a few choice places in SF. We walked through the Financial District up to Chinatown, down part of Grant Street through to North Beach, then back around the north side of Telegraph Hill back out to The Embarcadero to Pier 39. Things got a bit too touristy for both of us as we started approaching Fisherman's Wharf, so we immediately hopped in a cab back to the Hyatt, where he's staying and caught the end of Game 4 of the NBA Finals over a couple of bottles of Pacifico Clara (my favorite Mexican beer).

With a tremendous sense of self-satisfaction, I headed back up Market Street to the Palace to sit back, relax and blog a bit. Tomorrow it's back to DC (First Class this time!). We've got the next 3 weeks to put together a fairly significant piece for the case, so things could get a little crazy. But seriously--my work life has been a bit crazy for years now and everything always seems to work out better than fine.

Whirlwind Weekend

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The title today is both literal and figurative. I was afraid to sit at my computer any earlier because of the violent weather that has been going on for some time, but for the last hour,  the thunder that I am hearing seems to be quite distant, so I decided to brave being electrocuted at the keyboard.

The air-conditioning story is one I am happy to relate. We had purchased a whole-house appliance insurance through our mortgage company when the one-year warranty on our new heating/air-conditioning unit expired last year.  In lieu of paying the exorbitant fees we had been paying to ensure speedy repair in case our heating or air-conditioning broke down, we opted for a policy that costs approximately $40 per month and covers all our appliances. The company can be reached 24/7 and was very responsive. When their recommended serviceman could not get to us immediately, they allowed us to choose our own serviceman. Saul found the company we used through Craig's List. On Friday morning, the serviceman called at 10:30 to reassure us that he would arrive at 11:00 a.m. as he had promised. He showed up on time and luckily for us, discovered the leak in the system within minutes, and was able to repair it within an hour. He was polite, knowledgeable, and efficient. The contract requires us to pay a $60 deductible. The job cost $763.00, mostly because the freon which had leaked out of the system costs $21.00 per pound. We needed 19 pounds to replace that which had leaked out. Our air-conditioning was operating beautifully within 2 hours.

Saul and I made dinner, which was fresh-baked challah, strawberry soup, hydroponic lettuce with Russian dressing, vegetable lasagna, homemade blintzes and chocolate chip cookies. Jessica arrived with the girls by 5:30 p.m. and we were all pleasantly surprised that she made such good time traveling here on a Friday afternoon. Larry and Beth joined us and we had a wonderful and cool dinner.

Saturday we skipped going to synagogue services. We were all exhausted from the excitement of getting everything ready for the girls to come for the summer and we were going to be at synagogue every other day. We slept late and Beth joined us for a late lunch at 2:00 p.m. of leftover lasagna, etc. Ari arrived from DC at little after that. We decided to take the girls to the swim club late in the afternoon to avoid the crowds. Ari stayed behind with Mom to catch up with some work before leaving for San Francisco on business on Monday. We did not take Mom with us because the temperatures were in the upper 90s. As it turned out, we were very glad we didn't. She slept most of the afternoon and Ari did not even see her.

When we returned and we were having pizza for dinner, we went to get Mom from her room and found that she was extremely ill and refusing to eat. I managed to get some ginger tea with honey into her and then a glass of orange juice thinking she was having a sugar low from not eating. She seemed to feel a little better after the liquids, but when I called my sister, Adele, she said that Mom had been telling her all week that she didn't feel very well. We decided to take Mom to the hospital to be checked out because she is 86. Adele came over and it took the two of us and a phone call from our brother to convince her to cooperate. Jess put the girls to bed, Saul brought the car to the door and we left in two cars so that Adele could drive herself home from the hospital. Mom was moaning in the car on the way there. They took her after only a few minutes in the busy emergency room. By 12:30 a.m. we were all surprised to find out that she has pneumonia. After that, we sent Adele home and waited to see mom put into a room. By 2:00 a.m., we gave up and went home. They said they might assign her in the next five minutes or that it might take hours. She insisted that she would be okay and that we get some sleep. That finally happened around 3:00 a.m. In the morning we worked it out so that I got there at 9:30 a.m. with Ari to give her breakfast, Ken and Randi relieved me at 11:00 a.m. and Adele and Aunt Ruth relieved them at 1:00 p.m. Mom was happy with her nurses in the evening, so the first day went okay.

When Ari and I returned home, we all began packing up the food for the Rap for Israel Party. Beth came over to help and we were loaded and ready to go by 2:30 p.m. right on schedule. Ari  and I went to Produce Junction where we bought beautiful blue and white flowers for the tables--hydrangea, mini carnations, baby's breath, and some deep blue composite flowers I have never seen before. We also bought red and green seedless grapes, apricots, and bananas. Then, we went across the street and bought lots of ice. It was another day of temperatures in the high 90's.

When Ari and I arrived at the synagogue, the preparations were in full swing. Jess, Beth and Saul had almost completed laying out all the food beautifully. Ari said that he overheard some Israelis at the party saying it was the most varied array of authentic Israeli food they had seen in one place in the United States. It turned out to be just the right amount of food even though the crowd was bigger than expected (about 85). We had a blast dancing Israeli-style with the kids to the music by Rak-Dan, and a few people had well-prepared themselves to perform a "Rap for Israel." The sign of a good party--people hung around past the announced ending time until the Rabbi had to announce that it was time to begin the Shavuot service. Jess left with the kids, and Ari drove back to DC. Saul and I with the help of the caretaker, Sam, and some other congregants cleared everything away, rearranged the tables for the 45 who stayed, and laid out dinner on the buffet  tables. After dinner, we participated in a study session in which Rabbi Addison provided some readings from the Zohar that helped us form a philosophical connection between Israel as a physical and spiritual State and the Torah as a balancing factor enabling humankind to reach a more perfected and Godly universe. I know this sounds rather obscure, but you had to have been there. I have tried to boil down a two-hour discussion into a few words.

We arrived home around 11:00 p.m., again exhausted, but pleased with the happiness our efforts had created. When I spoke with Mom early the next morning, she insisted she was leaving the hospital no matter what the doctors said. Within a few hours, she had been worn down by the shots, tests, bad food, unfamiliar medications given at all hours, and interrupted sleep. I had Saul and Jess drop me off there on their way to services. She was more rational by the time I arrived and we were both thrilled when the doctor agreed that she could go home with antibiotics in pill form. We talked for a few hours until Saul and Jess came after services to pick us up. We had lunch together at home, napped briefly, and I cleaned up the mess left by the hectic weekend. The kids fell asleep watching movies in our bed after dinner and we moved them into their own and went to sleep relatively early.

This morning, we went to services, which included Yizkor today, leaving Mom behind to rest. The girls were beautiful and well-behaved and I was so proud that they obviously know their prayers and are comfortable performing them on the bima. We rushed home to Mom, who was okay, and had lunch. Mid-afternoon, Jessica finished packing and left for Baltimore. We all napped and after dinner, we took the girls to ride on the carousel at Plymouth Meeting Mall and bought them a soft pretzel to share on the ride home. The last mile of the journey home was a bit scary as the weather became suddenly violent and huge trees were tossing around in the wind. Most of my trees in pots on the deck have been blown over, but I will not deal with the mess until morning. The worst seems to be over for now. I hope the temperature has dropped to something reasonable.

When I checked my email this evening, the new Legal Technology News had arrived electronically bearing the second article that Ari has now had published. The article is the second one under "Features" and is titled, "Transforming Roles." He had to quit his job at the end of December with one of the largest law firms in the world in order to have the first one published, so we are all  extremely pleased and excited to see the second article in print. He loves the new job he began in March and they are extremely supportive of his writing efforts. He will be flying back from San Francisco tomorrow morning.

I think I had better sign off now. The girls get up very early in the morning and I can't wait for all the fun to begin if only I can muster the energy to keep up with them.

Family Networking

I decided to get some blogging time in this morning as I probably won't get another chance to write until Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. Jessica is bringing the girls with all their stuff for the summer today, I need to prepare Shabbat dinner for this evening, and food for the next few days as we go through the holiday of Shavuot, which begins Sunday evening. My friend, Laura, came over first thing yesterday morning and we wrapped up her publication for the Springfield Township School District early. I spent a few more hours on a different publication and then Saul and I ran out to IKEA to pick up small non-stick frying pans and some other small items to make the blintzes yesterday evening for dinner before our Shavuot study session. We had to rush right back to meet the air-conditioning guy who discovered that there was a leak somewhere in our new system. He is supposed to come at 11 a.m. this morning to actually repair the system. I hope he is reliable, as it is supposed to go up into the 90's this weekend.

When he left, I wrapped up my work on the computer and Saul and I went out to pick up a few more items at Assi market that I could not find at IKEA. One was a good, cheap knife, and the other a pastry brush for brushing butter on the blintzes. The pastry brush looked a little iffy to me because it was stitched onto the wooden handle, but Saul convinced me it would be better than the usual type I use. He was right. I am going back to buy another one for me as soon as I get the chance. I just hope the bristles aren't pig. The entire package is written in Chinese except for the words, "Made in Japan."

We met Jerry and Betty Weiss at Pumpernick's for a quick sandwich at 4:30 p.m., came home, loaded the car, and went to the synagogue to prepare a large quantity of Israeli salad and over 100 blintzes. I was concerned because I had hoped to make 150 and had lots of filling left over. Jerry just called me as I was writing this to say he figured out that the reason we did not have as many crepes (or bletlach as they are known in Yiddish) as I had calculated was because the frying pans from IKEA were a half inch larger than the ones I usually use. I hadn't thought of that. We were joined by another member, Stan Brooks, who showed up for a meeting that had been cancelled and wound up cutting up onions for the salad. The whole process took about 3 hours and we were home and in bed by 11 p.m.

Now as to the family networking thing, I wrote an email to my first cousin, Jaine, yesterday. Jaine is one of Aunt Ruth's daughters. She is a professor at Macalester College in Minnesota. Her kids are Jacob and Chloe. In the last few days, Aunt Ruth has been forwarding Jaine's emails to us because Jacob, who is evidently a superlative jazz pianist, has won a number of awards, graduated from high school, and is going off to Stanford in the fall. Along with the emails have been photos of the family at Jacob's graduation. Living in Minnesota as they do, they are quite isolated from the rest of the family who are mostly all within driving distance of each other. We usually only get to see them at flight-worthy family occasions and those are few and far between, so we have never heard Jacob's music and haven't seen him in several years.

When I looked at his photo two days ago, I could not get over his resemblance to Uncle Jack, my mother's brother, who died nine years ago. As a matter of fact, Jack's name was really Jacob also. I wrote to Jaine to tell her the following story:

"When I looked at your beautiful graduation photos, I was struck by the incredible resemblance of Jacob to Uncle Jack. Almost thirty years ago, we made a surprise party for Uncle Jack's fiftieth birthday. We found an old photo of him graduating from Cooke Junior High School in Logan. Because Saul taught there, and had a connection with a photographer who was doing the school's yearbook, he took the photo in to have it enlarged for the party. The photographer took a look at it and told Saul that he still had the negative as the original photo had been his work. That is the photo I thought about when I looked at Jacob's photo yesterday. I don't know where to put my hands on that photo today as the party took place thirty years ago, but I would like to try to track it down if I get a chance."

Jaine immediately wrote back a warm and welcoming note expressing excitement over the opportunity to connect with the family in this way and hoping that someone will be able to turn up that enlargement, or at least the original. Uncle Jack's red hair had faded to a reddish shade of brown by the time he was in his twenties and I came to know him as a child. As I was speaking to Aunt Ruth about the resemblance (she also did not remember him as a redhead), I recalled a distinct memory from my past. We lived as an extended family in our row house in Logan--our grandparents, their five children (until they each married and moved out), my parents, and their three children. Aunt Ruth was the baby of the five with Uncle Jack a year older. The two of them had attended the same elementary and junior high schools the three of us attended. My sixth grade teacher at David Bell Birney Elementary School was Miss McVicker. I remember going to her at the beginning of the school year and telling her that she had also been my uncle's sixth grade teacher. When I told her his name, she said she remembered him well, a red-haired boy. I was sure at the time that she was mistaking him for someone else, but when I returned home and reported to Uncle Jack what she had said, he laughed and said that, indeed, he had been a red-haired boy.

So those of you in the family who knew Uncle Jack, what do you think of the resemblance? When I get some time in the future, I will go through my mother's old photos and see what I can turn up. In the meantime, I am just delighted to have this forum to keep the family connected.

Balance

View of Interior of Harris

View from Our Table at Harris'

Downed Old Tree Near the Convention Center in DC

At the writer's group on Monday, I was finally able to purchase the newly-published first memoir of our teacher/facilitator, Linda C. Wisniewski, directly from her. She gets an additional profit from it if I purchase it from her rather than the publisher. I awoke very early on Tuesday morning and began to read it and was stunned to find my own name printed in the acknowledgments along with the other members of our writers group. For a writer, seeing your name in print is probably akin to seeing your name up in lights on a marquis for an actor.

The book, published by Pearlsong Press, is titled, "Off Kilter" and is billed as "A woman's journey to peace with scoliosis, her mother, and her Polish heritage." The last two days have been extremely busy and filled with fun as well as work, so I found it impossible to finish reading it until this afternoon. I thought it provided incredible insight into the processes that shape who we are as children, who we become as adults, and what we can do to become the people that we want to be, sometimes despite the weight of our genes and our background that work to throw us off balance. Linda was diagnosed with scoliosis, a curvature of the spine, at age 13. The condition not only causes her physical pain and emotional distress, but actually does physically affect her balance. She uses the condition as a metaphor for her transformation from an oppressed and emotionally-scarred child, afraid to speak up for herself, to a more contented, worldly, and self-sufficient woman.

For me, the book also provided insight into a world that is totally unfamiliar to my experience growing up as a secular Jew in a Jewish neighborhood in a big city. I love books that take me to places I could never experience in real life, and her writing unflinchingly about her strengths and weaknesses, as well as those of her family and community, is a great act of courage. She has said in class that once the book was out in print for all to see, it takes on a valid life of its own, open to others' interpretation, and sometimes not what she intended at all. Now that I have begun this process of blogging, I know what she means. Anyone can read your most intimate musings and may not interpret them as you meant them. I hope I am choosing my words wisely!

The theme of the search for balance in one's life reminded me of Rabbi Addison's first book, which I read many years ago, about the Enneagram, a Kabbalistic model for understanding the relationship between the body and soul. I found the first section of his book quite esoteric and beyond my grasp, but in the back sections I discovered a new understanding of and a new way of perceiving personality traits. Until that time, I had seen certain personality characteristics as virtues or shortcomings. I learned that almost any characteristic, no matter how virtuous, taken to extreme, can be a shortcoming. A person who is humble and self-effacing can be too humble and self-effacing. A person who is confident can become over-confident and pompous. Even a person who is upbeat and perky all the time can be a real pain. On the flip side, a person who is compulsive can be a great organizer. There is a fine line between someone who is bossy and someone who is a great leader. In order to move through this world in an emotionally satisfying way, it is necessary strive for balance. The object is to be able to assess yourself honestly and fight the urge to do what is comfortable, familiar, or repetitive if it puts you off balance. Rabbi Addison has practical suggestions for how to counterbalance overblown tendencies we have to act in certain ways. Linda has examined herself, her spirituality and specifically, her mother, carefully, and found her own path to overcoming her imbalances. I think we all should be aware of our predispositions, both genetic and bred, and strive for a balance, not overcompensating, but tempering and adjusting our actions to be sensitive to others.

Yesterday, after working all morning on the computer, we picked up Ralph and Ann Marie at 2:15 p.m. and had a relaxing and enjoyable two-hour drive to the Eastern shore of Maryland to a restaurant called Harris's. It is a dockside restaurant, usually known only to boaters, which we are not. Saul and I discovered it on one of our meandering trips between DC and home when Ari was an undergrad at George Washington University. For the most part, the weather was beautiful and we sat for several hours overlooking the Chesapeake Bay watching laid-back fishermen angling and mallard ducks floating lazily by the large wall of windows at which we dined. We stopped at a large outlet mall on the way back, went off to our separate favorite stores for 20 minutes, regrouped, and bought ourselves ice cream cones to be eaten in the car as the rain began to dampen our road back home. After dropping off our friends, we arrived home about 11:30 p.m., exhausted, but happy and relaxed.

All my work had come in yesterday afternoon and was waiting for me early this morning. I was able to get a lot done, but have been playing catch up all day not knowing what to do first. This evening, an enormous storm came through, forcing us to shut down our computers. As soon as it began to let up, we ran out to Costco and Giant to get the rest of our supplies for the Rap for Israel event on Sunday as well as the dinner preceding our study session for Shavuot which begins Sunday evening. The stores are only five minutes away, but so much flooding had occurred that there were police cars closing off flooded roads in almost all directions. Ari experienced the same swiftly moving and violent storms in DC. On his way home from work, he snapped photos of a large downed tree. He made it home without getting wet, but just in time. 

Women's Writers Group

I had not attended a writers group class in quite some time, probably since February or March. I called Roxy, who introduced me to the group, and decided to meet her there this morning even though it required leaving Saul to his own devices at home. He had plenty to keep him busy as we have been compiling a long list of minor jobs that needed to be done around the house once vacation began. I checked my email before I left and printed out two of my blogs on paper--I Never Caught the Brass Ring, and Oak Leaves and Heather.

Printing out these logs onto paper to carry in to class was a bit disturbing to me on several levels. For one, seeing the article on paper with no "moving parts" or photos made it seem dry and static, instead of kinetic. I also have tried to be very conscientious about only printing out that which absolutely has to be printed these days in order to be ecological. I also discovered when I began attending and reading my work aloud that I became nervous and overemotional about things I had written in a very dispassionate and analytical way. In other words, I think I have taken to blogging like a duck to water and I am having a hard time going back. The class is wonderfully supportive, helpful and friendly and I enjoy it immensely, but I am finding myself torn between exploring this new medium and wanting to relate to my class in all the traditional ways that a support group is reinforcing. Most of the women in this class are middle-aged or older and have a deep mistrust of their computers. All who were there today expressed an interest in seeing my blog and I will be sending them the link this evening. I hope they will begin to explore the possibilities out there in cyberspace like I have begun to do. I think that as younger generations are trained to become more and more savvy about communicating and finding information this way, as they become socially conscious about the use of our resources, and impatient with the delay that comes with committing ink to paper, the wave of future publishing will be out there in the ether of electronic communication. Yes, I grew up loving my books and spending cherished hours browsing in my cozy neighborhood library curled up in a worn leather chair, light filtering through the two-story windows. Although those libraries still exist now, I think they may face gradual extinction in the future as the generation with fond memories like mine ages and new generations fail to understand their function.

Yesterday's blog included a You Tube video of my granddaughter, Sami, reciting a French poem in a competition held at Barnes & Noble in Baltimore. The sound was a bit garbled, so I offer here the link to the printed poem. When I Googled the title and author, I was pleased to find an adorable animated graphic atop the poetry (another one of those kinetic additions that doesn't translate well to paper). For those who don't speak French, the translation will have to wait yet another day until I have time to locate one. My own French is definitely not that good and Sami has already gone to bed as has her mother.

Saul did not have to spend his time alone as Larry showed up for a visit while Roxy and I were having lunch at Wegman's. Once we start to converse, it is like time stands still for us. Two hours flew by in an instant.

When I arrived home this afternoon, I spent an hour catching up with some business and then Larry, Saul and I spent a few hours discussing politics, the economy, and whether to buy a new computer for Saul and which one would be most efficacious. We also discussed the National Geographic-sponsored voyage that Larry and Ted will be making to the Galapagos Islands in the fall. Larry traveled to Antarctica several months ago. I would have loved to take that trip, but I am positively green with envy over this one. I guess I will have to live vicariously through his photos and stories and be satisfied with those for the time being. Maybe someday in the not-too-distant future Saul and I will have the resources to make the trip as well.

When Beth came home from work, I prepared some dinner for Mom who was tired, and then the four of us went out to a buffet. I guess we are trying to squeeze carefree fun into our child-free week. We adore having the grandkids for the summer. They may limit our lifestyle somewhat and add extra responsibility, but the joy that results is definitely worth the trouble!

Summer Vacation Begins in Baltimore

Photo of Izzy's "bubbles" at Sushi Ya

When Saul arrived home on Thursday afternoon, we packed our suitcases (last minute packers that we are) and began our journey down to Baltimore to watch Sami recite her French poem for the competition at Barnes & Noble. She won third place for her class. The sound is not that good, and Jessica promised she would get me the actual text of the poetry with a translation, but that will have to be in a future blog.

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While I was at Barnes & Noble, I checked on the book Jake Matlin recommended in his comment on my blog about ants. I discovered that the book is $108 and is 796 pages long! It is an actual textbook about ants. Silly me. I thought it would be something allegorical like Kafka's Metamorphosis or ironic like Woody Allen's Antz. What course did you take that required reading a book like that, Jake? You did warn me it would be a little esoteric. Do you still own it? And, can I borrow it?

Ari left work a little early on Thursday so he could meet us in Baltimore and attend. We celebrated Sami's award with a delicious dinner at their favorite sushi restaurant, Sushi Ya, where Izzy is known as the "bubble girl" for her love of caviar.

Ari drove us back to his condo afterwards. Saul and I drove him to work on Friday morning and then went back to his condo. He was too busy to leave early on Friday, so just the two of us drove his car to Baltimore for a delicious Shabbat dinner courtesy of Alex. Because of the volume of traffic and the number of accidents along the way, the drive took us two and a half hours. We might have gotten there sooner if we had driven from home. In ordinary traffic, it takes from 45 minutes to hour. The menu was three kinds of grilled fish, grouper, tuna, and salmon. The tuna was peppercorn coated in a delicious sauce and the other two were marinated and also in a delicious sauce. Alex never uses recipes, but his sauces, dressings and marinades are all wonderfully complex and unique. The salad contained grilled shiitakes, mango, avocado, cucumber, pepper, and tomatoes. He said there was a secret ingredient in the delectable mashed potatoes. Dessert was two pies Jessica had bought at Trader Joe's--key lime and strawberry rhubarb with whipped cream and fresh blackberries. We also ate the other half of last Friday's watermelon that I had brought along, which was still wonderful. We were joined for dinner by Alex's sister, Naomi, and his assistants Abby and Paige.

We drove back to Washington with leftovers for Ari, arriving about 10 p.m. Saturday morning, Ari helped me with the NY Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle and we finished it in an hour. It contained the names of all the actors who have played James Bond. I would never have known George Lazenby, who only played Bond once before they brought back Sean Connery, but Ari knew. The theme was "Spy Glass," which turned out to be a martini glass that was depicted by connecting the circled boxes (you know, "shaken, but not stirred"). We ate out both breakfast and dinner and took a walk along the harbor in Georgetown. We also went to see the new Indiana Jones movie. We found it to be really enjoyable and funny, if a bit disjointed and, of course, unbelievable. The horror in this one is ants. Who knew?

This morning, after Jess went shopping with us at Seven-Mile Market (a glatt-kosher supermarket) for the food for the Rap for Israel Celebration next Sunday, she drove to DC to attend the Israel Celebration on the National Mall with Ari, Alex and the kids. There certainly are a lot of celebrations this year because of Israel's 60th anniversary. I think she decided to go this morning because the weather was so beautiful. I am assuming I will get the photos and post them within a few days. Saul and I would have joined them, but we needed to be back home to attend Eden's first birthday party. We awoke at 6:30 a.m. this morning to get everything done, so by the time the party was over, we were exhausted and took a late nap, finally back home in our own bed.