View from our window

A doe and her fawn feast on our blooming hostas. Bon appetit!

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15,341 days and counting

March 7, 1970

I'll bet I'm having a better day than you are

Just playin' with Joe:

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And in a couple hours, I'll be playing with Joe and Abby. How good is that?!

First soccer game

Courtesy of Oreoferret, who has lots of wonderful pictures for you.

Mother's Day, 2008

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What wonderful people!

Our friends Slavo and Lola -- who just happen to be Katka's parents -- visited recently.

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Next stop, the New York Times

There was a nice article about Mary Ellen in the local newspaper.

If this link:
TheViennaConnection
doesn't work, try this one:
http://fusedglassart.blogspot.com/

This day in history

The date
March 7, 1970

The place
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The event

Happy Birthday, Abby!

Abby turned 6 yesterday, culminating 3 days of celebration:

• Saturday: a rockin' 4-hour (4-hour!) party with current and former schoolmates.
• Sunday: more festivities at her friend Keertana's party.
• Monday a.m.: cupcakes and songs at kindergarten.
• Monday p.m.: cupcakes and songs at TigerDen.
• Monday later p.m.: hamburger and fries with grown-up friends (and cute little Sadie) at Red Robin.

Two pictures from the Saturday marathon:

• In the first, the birthday girl makes sure the cake is up to her standards
• In the second, she leads her motley crew in a raucous rendition of "Louie, Louie."

More pictures are here.

My best side

I was just browsing through a fascinating blog and noticed a picture of myself that I'm sure is much overlooked. It shouldn't be. It's one of my best pictures ever.

Click the picture to enlarge.

My wonderful daughter . . .

. . . and her wonderful husband and their wonderful daughter hung out with my wonderful wife and our wonderful friend Esther and . . .

. . . with her old dad on New Year's Eve.

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Happy name day, Katka!

We celebrated Katarina's name day yesterday. I should have blogged it then.

Všetko najlepšie k meninám, Katka!

Katka and Friend
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Power Rangers

This frightening trio of Power Rangers met to fight evil (and collect candy) on October 31.

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Halloween

I remember having a lot of trouble carving eyes and a mouth in a pumpkin when I was a kid. Obviously my descendants do not share this problem.

Click a picture for a larger view.

Update: Now that I think of it, I don't really remember carving a pumpkin as a kid. I remember doing it when my kids were little, and I remember having a devil of a time at it.

School photo

Looks like she's ready for junior high, no?

Would you believe kindergarten?
(Click the photo for a bigger view.)

If mermaids used goggles . . .

. . . they'd look like this.

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Every year at this time . . .

. . . our house turns into a flower shop. She's 60 now, believe it or not, but she'll always be 22 to me.

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Update (9/29): The celebrations ran for a week:

• Thursday the 13: Dinner at the Inn at Little Washington and a night at the Foster Harris House B&B
• Friday the 14th: A party at her friend Shari's house with other birthday girls
• Saturday the 15th: A cake at a dinner party with friends from church
• Sunday the 16th: A neighborhood block party. Is that another birthday cake I see?
• Monday the 17th: 3 couples plus Cassie and Abby drop by for a surprise dinner party.
• Tuesday the 18th: The day itself. Dinner, cake, and presents with Cassie, Abby, Roger, and Katka.
• Wednesday the 19th: A meeting of officers of the citizens' association is interrupted by someone carrying a cake and singing a familiar song.
• Thursday the 20th: A fancy dinner with John and Esther (who also turned 60 recently).

Mrs. Chaudhary comes to call

We were treated to a lovely, albeit short, visit by an old friend from Riyadh who had been visiting her daughter in North Carolina; she spent a couple nights with us before heading home to Australia. She was eager to see Cassie and her husband and daughter, and she got her wish yesterday. Fortunately, a camera was handy.

Click a picture for a larger view.

What a nice surprise!

I woke to find a notice from Yahoo:Photos telling me that it's going out of business and that if I want the pictures I stored there, I'd better get them fast. I can't remember ever hearing of Yahoo:Photos, let alone storing any pictures there, but I investigated and here's what I found (from October 2006).

(Click the slide show to see bigger pictures.)

63 and still kicking

Well, 63 anyway.

A lovely birthday yesterday, and I raked in the goodies:

• Maria cooked Indian and made a peach pie.
• A photo of the Tae Kwon Do princess from Cassie, which I share with you here.
  
• Computer files that I asked for from Roger.
• A drawing of Abby at the beach from . . . you guessed it.
  
• A polo shirt and bottle of Demänovka from Katka.

(Also from Katka, and in blatant disregard of my wishes: A gift certificate that entitles me to anything I want at Amazon for the rest of my life. Can I get you something?)

The karate princess, 5 1/2 (going on 15).

(In the original, the sand is much more subtle. Unfortuntely, it disappeared in the scan, so I had to use Gimp to add it back in.)