michael the archangel

Today all of San Miguel has a fiesta in honor of its namesake. There are giant creepy puppets and these acrobats who climb a a pole erected in the Jardin and then fly down to the ground. My!

90

With all of her descendants

women of the hour

Rosio goes shopping on her new moto

Erin guards mom's rest

Today is the big day: Mom turns 90, and all her descendants are descending on her. We (and Rosio) decided it would be best to warn her a week in advance, and mom said, "Thank goodness—I would have had a heart attack!" Still it is a lot of excitement. Hope she gets her siesta this afternoon. Partay begins at 5:00.

the mexico meetup

The first part of the party met up in the Dallas airport at the gate to Queretero. Then we met up with the rest at the airport in Queretero. An hour's ride later, we were in San Miguel de Allende on the almost eve of both my mother's birthday and the San Miguel celebration, held near concurrently. The other two parties will meet us here in the little mountain town considered one of the most beautiful and hospitable in the world.

backyard action

Slack line

Slack time

master of all he surveys

Skibo is the name of  a castle in Scotland that Andrew Carnegie bought and mde into a private golf club. It is also the name of this place that Johnny has bought in Rhode Island. No, we won't tell you where it is. It is a secret spot, surrounded by old growth rhododendrons and mountain laurel, ponds and woods and WASPs. A mile from the beach. If you are interested in renting, give me a holler. 

turning 6

Complete with a great grandmother, three grandmothers and a grandfather, an uncle, parents, brother, cousins and a friends, Camilla celebrated her sixth with butterfly cake, a slackline and pin-the-tail-on- the-rhinoceros

getting off

So John and Pam closed on their new place—a kind of waspy lodge-in-the-woods scene on the mainland with old money credentials. But the day they closed they showed up like Okies (left, waiting for the ferry). Still, their money was accepted and they moved in a lot of stuff. All their friends and relations came to check the place out, and they looked pretty waspy too (below).

Ira, Chris, John, Ned

september 13, 2010

Family: The saga begins.

just glenn

Glenn, with Claudia Glenn

Camilla and Isaac imitate the portrait.

There is one favored spot for portraits in the NYC apartment, aka the Dowling Intercontinental. One is in front of the portrait of my great great (I believe) aunt Claudia Glenn. (Glenn, correct me if I'm wrong here). Partly it's the light, and partly it's the portrait which appears to be an enigmatic mix of photograph and paint.
   Of all the people who have posed here, I see the strongest resemblance to Glenn (above), whose great great aunt this also must be. I get tangled up in family relationships, but she's my first cousin—ergo? However, the "Faces" ID program on iPhoto identifies the portrait as Camilla in every picture. Maybe age related.

fillerup

I thought this was called a leaf hopper, but apparently it's called a katydid or bush cricket, though its Latin name is Tettigoniidae, which apparently means "leaf hopper," though the bug commonly known as leafhopper belongs to a different classification entirely. Go figure. It is polygamous, meaning two males successively mate with a female, with the first one more likely to donate his genes to offspring. The males make a helluva racket with their mating calls unless they turn off their engines. So fillerup and shutup.

a coney island of the mind

Souvenir photo with Ed bought from vendor

 Two boys from Brooklyn. Labor Day weekend. Coney Island. Peter wanted to revisit his old haunts. He grew up in Brooklyn and went to school in Coney Island. He about danced off the subway, heading directly to the original Nathan's (100 years old!) for a hot dog. Then to the Cyclone rollercoaster of Woody Allen fame, which looked to me to be a hundred years old also and of questionable safety. Then to the bumper cars, where they only had each other to bump into at midday. Everyone else was at the beach or outside in the sunshine. We finished off at an Uzbec restaurant in Brighton Beach, but left before the belly dancers. . .

On his office wall, Peter (left)  has an old photo of himself with his son on the Cyclone

and away she goes!

Leaving the house

Arriving at school

Meeting the others

chinese takaway

I gave her too much warning. Two days. And so she had time to make two kinds of pickles, buy edamame and make most of my favorite dishes—including eggs and tomatoes, congee, tofu gan  and I don't know what else. Moreover, she sent me home with the remains of the evening, plus a special box of tea, clothing for Isaac and a case of Heineken for Ed and Jamie. A very good sister.