We're Traveling

Eric and I spent Monday through Wednesday in Pasadena. I had to pack all my clothes and a few sundries to take me through the next 8 weeks and 2 years of traveling and living. Adrian was moving things into the car and trying to adapt to future needs of other people's suitcases. Since this was pretty boring to Eric, I gave him one of my puzzles. Do I know my boy? Adrian slept at his friend's house; bless him for adjusting his life totally for the needs of my life at the moment. It's only been a few days, but I miss his sweet self, even though I am having a wonderful time.

We drove north on Thursday to spend a week at Karen and Peter's house at Albany by San Francisco. We listened to a mystery, still not finished. Eric is very clever, he read a book while I listened to the tape. That man has total concentration. It was a nice drive. If any of you ever want to drive north on I-5, please do that on Monday through Thursday.

Karen and I decided to get a massage at the Claremont Hotel and Spa next Wednesday. Karen was supposed to make reservations, but decided it was easier to go there. So we spent a lovely afternoon there having lunch and making reservations. The Claremont is at the top of a hill overlooking Berkeley and San Francisco Bay. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoy my family. It will be a lot of fun when Adrian and I finally move to Albany.

Eric went to a baseball game with his son, Mark, that night. Those Giants. They walked in the winning run and then the Padres scored 3 more runs on ridiculous plays. I'm sure Mark was devastated, but they had fabulous seats at that stadium so I think the joy was in the trip, not the results.

We had brunch with Kevin and Natalie and then watched Maggie's dance recital. OMG, can that child be cuter? She danced to the Chipmunks singing the Witch Doctor song. Perfect at home and unsure of herself in front of her adoring fans. It's all good. Fremont has an interesting dance program for all ages. We had seniors tap dancing, young adults doing Bollywood and belly dances, pre-teens with their hip-hop and kidlets tapping their hearts out. And it was short. Could anything be better? Bless the Fremont Parks and Recreation department. It was a perfect day.

Cathie and Tyler are Married

It was a beautiful weekend in San Diego. Perfect for a wedding. And the wedding was perfect. Of course, I didn't get pictures of most of the people I wanted to, but there are a few in this Photo Album. I'm hoping to steal some from other places. (note: Mark and Trina took great pictures, even of the newlyweds. Please check them out. They are now in this album.)

Cathie was absolutely gorgeous. Tyler was in long pants. This I understand is strange because he lives in shorts, even in Ohio. He looks good in long pants. Will this be a trend? They look very happy together. The ceremony was joyous and reverant, conducted by the minister at the church where Tyler is also in the ministry.

Oh, who are those people? On the left: Nese is married to my nephew Bill; then Adrian; my two brothers, Jeff and Eric; and Eric's daughter Tara. On the right are: Nese's dad, Sezgen (spelled wrong, I'm sure); her mother, Elizabeth; me; Adrian; Peter; Karen; Aidan, Nese's brother; and Katie, Aidan's friend. We met these wonderful people at Bill and Nese's wedding. What a joy and surprise to see them, AND to be sitting with them. I'm planning to visit Rhode Island to see them when I move back to VA.

We had dinner with Mark, Trina, Campbells and my car full at a Brazilian restaurant on Saturday night. The wedding was on Sunday. On Monday morning we had breakfast with Jeff and Sandi, Karen and Peter, Tara and Eric, Mark and Trina, and, of course, Adrian. It was good to see everyone in a quieter setting. Weddings are always so active. Family is always good. That makes for a memorable Memorial Day weekend.

It is a Small World After All

Faust in Copenhagen is about the physicists who changed how we view the most basic structure of all things, the atom. This was one of the finalists for The Times Book Prize this year. Because I have an interest and no talent in physics, I love this type of book that will explain the most difficult topics in a clear, layman's vocabulary. This does get a little tough at times, but it generally made sense to me.

More than the physics is the men who theoretically broke down the atom. They were very collaborative and met in many places throughout their lives. One of those places was at Niels Bohr's place near Copenhagen. Each year, young physicists would put on a skit at the end of the visit. One year, they adapted Goethe's Faust to represent the best known of the current scientists. These are a few very clever men. And one woman. Pshew.

Karen and I got to meet the author of the book, Gino Segre. I told him I was reading the book then, at the end of April. It is now the end of May and I finally finished this book. Not because it was difficult, but because it was on paper and not digital. I have brought it to the wedding to finish. Eric saw it and saw the name Segre. Eric got his PhD from Berkeley in Mechanical Engineering. One of his professors was Emilio Segre. Emilio was Gino's uncle and is mentioned in the book.

See. It is a small world after all. And now Eric will get the book to read and it should only take him a couple of days. First, he understands all this stuff much better than I do, and he prefers paper.

O ma gosh e

The weather was amazing today. I've been admiring the beautiful Jacaranda that I can see when I sit in my rocker with my laptop on my . . . lap. I love this time of year because Pasadena and South Pasadena are filled with these beautiful purple clouds.

Then, all of sudden, massive thunder ripped through the apartment. Ripped. It was so loud and sustained that the lightening must have hit close by. We had a little mini-flood pouring down the alley beyond the last apartment. Crazyness. I was so lucky to be in my rocker and not at work. The guys without window offices had no idea of the cool things happening outside.

And in seconds, the rain was gone. Or gonish enough for me to drive to a restaurant by the office to have dinner with my friends. This was a tempura Omakase. Omakase, as I understand it, means the chef cooks what he wants and what is fresh that day. And you just have to sit there and eat it. Sigh. It was wonderful. We had: sashimi of tuna, halibut and yellowtail with delicious greens; asparagus tempura; squid; oyster tempura with salmon caviar; kobacha squash; mackeral; sole with salad; soup; pickles; rice; okra tempura (yuck); broccoli; lotus root; a crab claw; non-tempura'ed grapes and cantaloupe and green tea ice cream. And lots of green tea. The chef prepares a different batter for each dish. We could use the regular tempura dipping sauce or lemon and a green tea salt. It was fantastaic to have the chef focused on just the four of us.

Here we are. Cary, Per, Peg and Alexander. It was an amazing dinner with amazing guys. They are so entertaining. Honestly, we were all talking all over each other about everything in the world. Everything. Thank you, guys. This was absolutely the best good-bye ever. The best.

The God Ganesh

I got this beautiful statue when I was in Bangalore. I tried to attach him to my dashboard, but he was a rolly-polly thing, especially when Adrian was driving. He would lodge himself under the seat and I lost sight of him for a few months. Now he is sitting on museum putty and he hasn't budged yet.

My apartment is on the right. My brother Eric will be here late Friday night and then we three will go down to San Diego. My niece, Cathie, is getting married. Be prepared for more pictures of brides, etc. Then the real traveling begins. Ramesh, our driver in Bangalore, always had Ganesh on his dashboard. I'm sure he was there to insure a safe trip. Now he will watch over our trip.

More Light Summer Reading

I've been trying to read or finish reading some of my more serious books, but that is so hard to do when the weather is hot. Yea, the weather wimp strikes again. Instead, I've read this new Inspector Lynley book, Careless in Red. I haven't read any others in this series, but I have seen the BBC series about the Chief Inspector and his Sargeant. I liked it. It seemed overly long the subject, a lot of un-necessary red herrings and subplots. But it was nice to read about these characters that I've only seen up to this point.

Authors give very precise descriptions of their main characters, of course, and actors don't always look like they should. Lynley is much taller than he appears on my television. Havers seems to be more of a physical mess than she is on the show. That's the only interesting thing about the book. Not quite a beach book, but not The Black Swan, either.

I told Adrian that I am reading The Black Swan. I've been pretty interested in this theory of induction. I think that's what Adrian called it. He just gasped and said that is so old school. Sort of like Sea Change. Once the concept is out there, everyone uses the new bit of jargon. He's sick of it already. I don't normally read The Economist or other similar websites. None of my food or travel blogs talk about Black Swans, so this is new to me. Now that he's disparaged the subject I'm finding it hard to read the book. The guy sounds a little snooty. He was okay before. I guess perception is everything. But I will finish it.

Visiting Friends

I've been spending the last couple of weeks visiting with people who I probably will never see again. Probably. As my adventure looms closer, I realize that the path ahead is filled with uncertainty. So maybe I will see them again.

I visited with my friends, The Margaret Derivatives. We were supposed to have dinner together - Peggy, Maggie and Peggy - but the Maggie part was sick. Peggy and I had a great time together. She has been suffering through my stupid humor since I first hounded her for using WordPerfect in a Word world. I'd always find that blue screen up when I was visiting her boss, the VP of HR. Who cares that she liked that program better. Standards are standards, at least in the IT world. Peggy also "worked the buses" with Karen and me at the Book Awards. She's a lovely woman and I will miss her.

I did get to have lunch with Maggie the following week. What a lot of fun. First, she is seriously goofy; second, she is sooooooo Republican. And she thinks about why she is. It isn't just 'because' all her friends are. When we are not with Peggy, we talk politics. Surprisingly, we agree on a few things. On other things, we are a world apart. She sees no dog for her in this current fight, er election. MacCain is too liberal and the other guys ! ! ! I would be okay with any of the three although MacCain would be my last choice. I no longer trust Republicans to do anything right. This flag is for her. I won't wear it on my lapel. Heck, I don't have lapels.


Then, on the other side of the spectrum, I cooked dinner for my old boss Bill and his wife, Jaine. The meal was successful and the company was wonderful. I knew that I would like Jaine a lot when I sat next to her at the book club. We are two women who read obscure books about language. She read the French one and I read the English one. What a lot of fun that evening was. And they are considerably more liberal than Ms. Maggie. It's all interesting, left and right. Everyone I've talked to is looking forward to getting someone new into The White House.

Sunday was supposed to be a final meeting with the confabees of retirees from IT. I planned the event for Sunday evening at a place that was sort of mid-way for the group. That was Long Beach. This Sunday, was, unbeknownst to anyone, Pride Day in Long Beach. Not a word about this in The Times, yesterday or today. I know that Jackson and I could not get close to the restaurant I'd chosen. I eventually turned around and had dinner with another friend, Bob's Big Boy.


Bob's has turned into Noodle World. I never noticed before that his statue is against the far wall. Sorry for how tiny this picture is, but I love the old Bob's look in a room full of Asians. I was for sure the only white woman in the room. I'd never thought about that before. Adrian and I go there periodically. Not every week, but sometimes. The guy at the front recognized me and seated me immediately in this very crowded room. Funny. If you can't dine with friends, dine at a friend's house.

Happy Birthday, Karen

Today is Karen's birthday. World's Best Sister. World's Best Mother. World's Best Grandmother. We are all thankful for this day that you were born.

Now THIS is Light, Summer Reading

Some of us know how to do light summer reading. One dear niece is reading every depressing book in the library. I am reading lightness itself. What could be more fun than winning the lottery? Lottery is about a barely not retarded young man who wins the lottery. It's like every person's fantasy. You don't really need the money because your expectations about what life will give you are pretty low. It's not that you don't deserve the moon, but you can't see how it will fit into your room.

It was great. The fat girl barrista is the most beautiful girl in the world. The old Agent Oranged 'Nam vet is a font of wisdom and security. This is the prototype for light, enjoyable summer reading. It allows you to dream about "what if" while allowing you to be perfectly happy that you don't have to decide what to do with all this new found wealth. Very satisfying.

I thought I'd written about David Rosenfelt's book, Open and Shut. But I guess not. Now I've read his second book in the series, First Degree. More light summer reading. These books are read with a wry, distainful voice. The protagonist is a New Jersey lawyer. In the first book, he comes into money, solves an old crime, showers love on his dog and friends. The mystery is resolved in an interesting way and that's all you can really ask for in a book like this. I liked it. I think I may have already read the third book a while ago, so I'll probably lay off these for a while. It was kind of interesting to learn how he got his money and who they guy is with the dog rescue shelter. These books explain all that. Maybe if you want a real mystery, you should read the third book first.

I had a last lunch with my friends at The Times today. Per said that I did the unforgiveable for a blogger - my camera's battery was dead. No pictures of all these good friends and no chance to see them again. The battery is charging so I will be able to get shots of the retirees who will be attending this Sunday's last (for me) confab. More pictures to remember faces and places that are already burned into my memory. Overkill.

Friends

My college room mate, Maureen, was down from Seattle this week, visiting her sister. We've known each other for so long and it is always years between visits. I've always thought that we just leave off where we were before and it's like we've never been apart. But that isn't true. So many things have gone on in our separate lives that is silly to think that. Maureen's husband, Jim, died a few years ago. Since then she has had to sell their business, their old house and move to a new home.

She has gone through a lot of changes on the surface of her life, but I did find that she is just the same person. So, I guess it's like we've never been apart. Which is a good thing, because I will be visiting with her for a many days in June. She is at the fulcrum of my move East. Eric and I will be traveling north to Vancouver and then Karen and I will be traveling east from Seattle. Maureen and I will either get to recount all that has happened in the past few years, or enjoy each other's company now. I bet it will be the latter.

Clif and I went to visit our stock broker on Friday. You won't believe all the stuff that will happen in December when I finally cut all ties to The Times. Forms to fill out, checks flying through the mail. Winnie has helped many former Times employees through this transition. I keep doing stupid things with my money, but she keeps this ship upright. She even knew about a bit of money that I would be getting that I'd completely forgotten about. So there is The Times' pension, which she will never see because it is an annuity. Then we had an ESOP at one point. She'll get that to invest. Once upon a time, I think before 401K's, we had PSI, Past Service Insentive. Who knew? Who remembers this stuff? That money will go to Winnie. And finally is our new Zellishous Cash Balance plan. I can't believe I have money in that.

His folks decided that they would no longer put anything into our 401K's, no matching at all. Instead, they would put money into the Cash Balance Plan. This is all on paper stuff, I'm sure. No real money leaves their pockets. I guess I got some last year as I was leaving. Zell bought the tribune company the day I left. Pretty coincidental, if you ask me. I don't think I could stand all their shinannagans.

I wonder what my old pal, H.L. Mencken, would say about all that. He was a pretty pro-business guy. Not much for the common man. I'd enjoyed the other Mencken book, so I decided to learn more by reading Disturber of the Peace by William Manchester. That was pretty dumb. The woman who wrote the other book used this book as a reference. And I do mean used. I knew all the stories. Nothing new was revealed. Boy, that was really stupid. What I should have read was something that Mencken wrote. He did a 3 part autobiography, but I bet she used those as references, too. Manchester probably did as well. I guess my Mencken days are over. One interesting note is that The Baltimore Sun still uses a type face called Mencken. Per told me that. Our friend, Manny, has to recreate the typeface so it can be put into the consolidated news editing system. Cool.

I LOVE the Internet

I was catching up on my favorite blogs this morning when Adrian walked in and said this guy said, on the blog that he likes to read, that something was as slow as dinosaurs mating. Dammit, I can't hear anything without wanting to know more. How did dinosaurs mate? Adrian, didn't that book we read when you were ten say that dinosaurs were like birds?

Um, yes.

Hum, how do birds mate? I've always been a little unclear on that. So I tapped into Google search "how do birds mate?" And I got the answer. In seconds. I also got this really funny description:

• Well first the male invites the female out for dinner and a movie. Upon arrival to the females house the male surprises the female with flowers and a bottle of good wine. At dinner (drive thru at a fast food resteraunt) the male gives the song bird a couple of shells to play a romantic tune. He then invites the female to dance. The male gets close enuf to rub itself against the female ruffling her feathers. The female senses the action by the male and reciprocates the advances. At the movie (drive in theater of coarse) the male puts its wing around the female grabbing her breast. She is in high heavens (so is he). after a romantic movie the 2 lovebirds retreat back to his neighbors house through a hole he made in the crown molding of the owners expensive mansion he and his wife built about 2 or 3 years ago. While the family tries to sleep the 2 lovebirds nesstle into the attic of the poor souls house and make woopie for hours on end. This is how birds mate

I made that font size really small because last time I pasted in someone else's words, it confused a reader. No, I did not write that. Then I copied all these images by asking Google for bird pictures, etc. No wonder people in India can do our jobs. I didn't even have to leave my chair to get information, humor, and still photography. What more could a lazy girl ask for?