Early Christmas Celebration

Because we are heading to Italy a week ahead of Christmas, we had an early Christmas celebration with Cherise, Shawn, Andy and Sylvia, complete with presents and Linzertorte. It felt every bit like Christmas day. In fact, I went to the Market and it felt strange that everyone was carrying on as if it WASN'T Christmas day. We'll really miss seeing them but feel pretty priviledged to live close every other day of the year. Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. This is my last entry at this blog spot. From now on catch our adventures on www.themeanderingfork.blogspot.com.

Ciao.

Day at the Science Center

I took Andy and Sylvia to the Seattle Center for the day. We started off with lunch and met up with Rob, Beth and Ben with whom we lunch. It was great to catch up with the two and see their growing toddler. Andy actually was able to run the train in the snow village they put up every year in the food circus. Next we headed over to the Science Center to catch a 3-D movie, Santa vs. Snowman. I was prepared to dislike it but with our 3-D glasses on it was really fun -- snow flakes falling on our heads, reindeer careening over us, presents whirling about. Unfortunately, or fortunately maybe, when the lights went out Sylvia put her head down on my shoulder and went to sleep. She slept through the entire movie. Andy still didn't want to go in the dinosaur room, even though he kept insisting he did, so we played in the toddler appropriate play area. Andy is an old hand here -- we've been so many times. But all of this is still relatively new to Sylvia who spent a great deal of time mastering the stair steps and slide, and "driving" the car and helicopter.

Thanksgiving in the city of our founding fathers

We spent Thanksgiving week in Philadelphia. We've spent many Thanksgivings there, in Center City, and being in the historical city of our founders, combined with the 18th century houses, Independence Hall and other historic buildings, the City Tavern, the horse carriages, the large city park squares...all make it an ideal place to spend the holiday. Sure, a friend of a friend of my son's was in the hospital from gun shot wounds after a 2:00 a.m. botched armed robbery on their street corner (a seemingly peaceful neighborhood we also visited) but the City of Brotherly Love has always lived up to its reputation where we are concerned.

We started off with dinner at a terrific French bistro, Creperie Beau Monde, followed by Peter's cabaret (www.cabaretredlight.com) at the restaurant's upstairs stage, Le Cabaret Francais L'Etage, where we were reunited with lots of Peter's friends and a racy night of songs, music and skits.

The next day we joined Peter at a music studio where he recorded several songs on his accordian for a Broadway (?) musical. Spent an afternoon walking around the beautiful Halvorford college grounds while Peter taught a class. Went to an opera by Peter's students at Curtis School of Music, Don Giovani, that was so superb I couldn't believe these were all college students.

We stayed in a wonderful suite with a kitchen bigger than ours, a living room, and bedroom full of antiques (Oasis Room, Philadelphia Bella Vista B&B, 752 South 10th Street, www.philadelphiabellavistabnb.com) 2 blocks to the Italian market and our favorite fresh torrone maker and bakery, Isgros, over 100 years in continuous operation with many of the women working behind the counter there for almost as long!)and 2 blocks to Philadelphia's Magic Gardens, a wonder of imagination in mosaic (www.philadelphiasmagicgardens.org). I cooked a complete meal in kitchen's small stove and only set off the alarm once, though we were lucky not to set it off more times as the stove chugged out smoke.

We visited Peter's new studio for launching his million projects, center for his graphic design business, art projects, and band and performing troupe rehearsals housed in a fantastic, large space hidden in an old dairy factory.

We breakfasted at Carman's Country Kitchen, a wonderful breakfast in a tiny diner made my a saucy Carman who considers "special requests" an insult. Having been warned, I barely whispered my request for bacon cooked hard, but added "only if that's okay." I had the unlikely combination of a sweet corn, kale and smoked Gouda omelet that was really incredible. Tom had waffles topped with cooked, mashed carrots and Peter French toast with beets and raspberries on top. Carman doesn't have a website but she has an army of loyal fans. So if you go to Philly, get there early; there's only four tables.

We were then joined by Peter Neu and his girlfriend Allie who drove down from Manhattan. Esther, Peter and neighbor Ginny made a traditional turkey dinner we all enjoyed. Before dinner we had visited the city's oldest inn, the City Tavern (est. 1773) where our founding fathers lodged,imbided, dined and held meetings, while working on our nation's founding. There we also imbided in traditional drinks of the time -- Wassail, spiked apple cider, and beer from the original recipes of Washington, Jefferson and others.

Finally, on our last day in town we ate at Parc, the wonderful French restaurant on Rittenhouse Square (really, you would swear you were in Paris). The best moment of the entire trip -- Peter gifted me with an antique violin and case that he had purchased for me in Prague this summer and saved to give me until our last hours in Philadelphia. It was more than I ever expected. Glad to say, the violin and we had an uneventful and relaxing trip back to Seattle. Now for the lessons.

Photos of our trip follow. More information on Phillie food at my new food blog, The Meandering Fork (www.themeanderingfork.blogspot.com).

Hail to the Chief

This is the time. This is the person. President Obama.

After a grueling campaign and a spate of nerves today, I was happy for an early, landslide victory for Obama.

Hope.

'Nuff said

BARacK for OBAMA

Jaeger, who lives in our condo complex along with his very wise human family members -- Grace and Cliff -- wears his allegiance proudly. Jaeger, we're with you -- barking all the way to the voting booth.

The race, the case, a hope for grace.

Conservative columnist and author, Peggy Noonan wrote of her support for Barack Obama in today's WSJ, Opinion (November 1-2, 2008) for president. This is some of what she said:

The case for Barack Obama, in broad strokes: He has within him the possibility to change the direction and tone of American foreign policy, which need changing; his rise will serve as a practical rebuke to the past five years, which need rebuking; his victory would provide a fresh start in a nation in which a fresh start would come as a national relief.

We witnessed from him this year something unique in American politics: He took down a political machine without raising his voice. A great moment: When the press was hitting hard on the pregnancy of Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter, he did not respond wit ha politically shrewd "I have no comment," or "We shouldn't judge." Instead he said, "My mother had me when she was 18," which shamed the press and others into silence. He showed grace when he didn't have to.

She goes on to set the scene of a colleague whose 10-year-old duaghter walked in the room to see "Obama Wins" and "Alabama" on the TV screen. The girl said, "Daddy, we saw a documentary on Martin Luther King Day in school. That's where they used the hoses." The year was 1963, the hoses used against civil rights demonstrators. Says Noonan,

This means nothing? This means a great deal.

I might have to read her new book about grace in American politics.

'Nuff said.

This truly is a frightening Halloween

Despite my effort to ignore the economy, every day brings new, outrageous information about how capitalism has been hijacked to benefit the few at the expense of the many. In today's WSJ (Banks Owe Billions to Executives, Ellen E. Schultz, October 31, 2008), Schultz says:

"...overlooked in these efforts [to reign in executive bonuses and pay for banks that have received taxpayer handouts in the billions] is the total size of debts that financial firms receiving taxpayer assistance previously incurred to their executives, which at some firms exceed what they owe in pensions to their entire work force."

The practice of deferred pay to executives is good for executives, "who delay taxes and see their deferred-pay accounts grow, sometimes aided by matching contributions."

When did not paying taxes while receiving money from other tax payers become patriotic?

She goes on,
"Obligations for executive pay are large for a number of reasons. Even as companies have complained about the cost of retiree benefits, they have been awarding larger pay and pensions to executives. At Goldman, for example, the $11.8 billion obligation primarily for deferred executive compensation dwarfed the liability for its broad-based pension plan for all employees. That was just $399 million, and fully funded with set-aside assets."

'Nuff said.

McCain to continue Bush's "kleptocracy"?

Syndicated columnist David Sirota's column today (Here's hoping "White House Cribs" never makes onto the air", Seattle Times, October 27, 2008), talks about the redistribution of wealth during Bush's tenure saying that

"President Bush gave to those making more than $342,000 a year began dramatically shifting the overall tax burden from the rich onto the rest of us. Meanwhile, because of lobbyist-crafted loopholes, most corporations pay zero federal income taxes.." The result -- "When counting all taxes (income, payroll, property, etc.), billionaires and Big Businesses often pay lower effective tax rates than their employees." He goes on to say, "In the age of Halliburton fraud and ExxonMobile subsidies, our government spends $93 billion a year on corporate welfare. (For comparison, that's roughly three times what it spends on a traditional welfare program like food stamps.)"

For the entire article go to http://action.credomobile.com/commentary/index.xml

Both fly, one's a bug -- trick or treat on the Waterfront

Some pictures of Andy from past Halloweens as an aviator and a fireman followed by this year's costumes.



Yesterday's weather was picture perfect for a day trick or treating on the Waterfront. With Sylvia, aka Butterfly, and Andy, aka Superman, we flitted and flew on the candy trail concluding with fun-filled festivities at the Aquarium. Out of the ordinary -- the diver in the tank was costumed, the jelly-fish tank was made into a boat, there was a door to "no where" on the octopus tank (and the octopus was looking unusually scary in keeping with the Halloween theme), the pirates showed up looking very "piratey" and the festivities were upped a notch with the great kid band, the Recess Monkeys. These guys are great! Andy rocked with the other costume bedecked munchkins and I ferried two very tired kids home.

Palin's not qualified say Alaskan women

Friend Kathy sent me this link. It is an interview with two Alaskan women on Sarah Palin. It's honest and enlightening.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/alaskans-get-it.html

Photos of Sid's Metal Work

In a previous blog I talked about Sid's new porch railing that he hand-crafted but I didn't have any pictures. Well, I finally did get some photos today and here they are. Pretty impressive.

Sing, sing, sing, sing....

Niece Michelle spearheaded a day in the recording studio featuring several Christmas songs with cugine as backup singers. We had terrific fun and we didn't sound all that bad either. Look for the CD release sometime around Christmas.

That was then, this is now.

Since 2005, when this editorial appeared, I have pinned it up in my office. Never has it been more relevant than right now. Especially when you consider John McCain's nine houses (so many he doesn't even know how many he has he says and please, let's not even get into the thirteen cars he has, so many he doesn't know that three are foreign having claimed he only buys American), but the fact that Dick Fuld, head of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. got $35 million in stock in 2007, only part of the $484 million he's collected since 2000, testified to the House Oversight Committee that the financial meltdown hurts him as much as it hurts us.

"Oh really? Is he offering to give severance to the Lehman secretaries left jobless? Is he going to let any of them who can't make their mortgage payments stay with him in at his mansion in Greenwich, Conn., his oceanfront estate in Florida, his ski chalet in Idaho, or his Manhattan apartment? says Margaret Carlson, syndicated columnist in today's Seattle Times editorial section (McCain as Captain Queeg; Obama as Presidential, October 12, 2008).

As she writes,

"...there's an awakening to what the non-elites did for the elites in the name of getting government off our backs. They created more elites, at least by income. There's a huge pay gap. Foreclosures are running at a record pace. Retirement savings have lost $2 trillion in value, while those who got us into this mess are still dining at Le Cirque and weekending in the Hamptons."

'Nuff said.

What We Do All Day While Mom, Dad and Andy Are Away

I babysat for Sylvia while her nanny Karen was away and we had three action-packed days. What fun.

Watching grandpa sew, hanging out, trying to get into Nonna's makeup.




Climbing up stairs and sliding down saying Eeeeeeee, playing in Andy's room -- dolls, house, crawling through tunnels (not shown), and reading books.






Swinging at the playground. Coloring, re-arranging furniture, and dancing in dad's office.