Andy's Year End Musical

Andy's school year ended with a musical in which he (and his other 3ish year-old classmates) were mimes -- no speaking parts but lots of hand movements and singing. I, of course, was his biggest fan.

Fly fishing on the Yakima River

We took advantage of our new semi-retirement status and headed to Ellensburg for a day of fly fishing on the Yakima River with a guide from Worley Bugger fly shop. It was an absolutely glorious day which started at 9 a.m. and ended at 7 p.m. We fished all day with a stop on the banks of the river for a lunch of barbeque steak, corn on the cobb and salad. We fished holes, from the banks, boat, and river. Tom caught a lot of fish -- white fish, trout... It is catch and release on the river now and so none of them were taken, but it was fun to see that with a little more experience, I too could have caught a few.

Tall Tails

Andy has for some time been fixated on tails. At any given time, he is either a lion or a bear and in order to "realistically" be one of these ferocious animals he needs to have a tail. For some odd reason, Andy insists on using socks as tails. Moreover, he's only happy when he enlists me in his play as a lion or a bear. Ergo, I must also stick a sock in my pants. More than once, their mother (my daughter) has stopped me from walking out of the house with my "tail" -- "you may want to leave your, ahem, tail here," she'll say gently. Just as often, I will find one of Andy's socks still stuffed into my pants at the end of the day. As you can imagine, Andy's drawer must contain many lonely socks in need of a match.

The other day Andy talked me into, once again, going to the Zoo. When we entered the Zoomazium (a great indoor playground for kids) he voiced his mounting concern that he didn't have a tail. So we asked the kind attendants and they provided a piece of beige paper, scissors, and tape and he proceeded to draw his tail and happily (even relieved) wore it for the rest of the day.

Attached are some photos from Cherise's website. In an effort to keep all socks in their proper place in drawers or on little feet, she made a slew of various animal tails (and purchased a few ears). Apparently, even little Sylvia must now be outfitted with the mandatory tail and even donned a pair of non-mandatory ears while at play in Andy's room.

Busy, Fun Two Weeks With Peter

Andy dances to the rhythm on Tito's feet. He's going to miss his Tito. So will we.





Whenever Pete's here, we eat well. He cooked a spectacular dinner, which included: Barbeque Prawns stuffed with Italian parsley and mined garlic; skewered chicken soaked in a mild cumin, pimento sauce and grilled; squid, grilled eggplant, peppers and tomato sauce over baked polenta; lentils cooked with apple smoked bacon and topped with a balsamic vinegar reduction; carrots swimming in olive oil with diced garlic; and roasted beets with balsamic vinegar. Topped off with some really wonderful Spanish, Portugese and Argentine wines. Sylvia even got into the act and ate itsy-bitsy pieces.


































Mixed weather makes for a beautiful sunset.






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Sylvia can now ride the horse (below left)
Primo seats at the Mariner's game courtesy Gregg (right)
There goes the bottle! (below left)
Whose Tito's favorite girl? (below right)
Fishing, forget the fishing, bring on the gin! Men on an outing. (below right)





We had some very fun family time with Peter, who just spend two weeks vacation with us. It was great to have him here for a little longer than usual, but still, he was busy the who time and we still didn't get everything done we wanted to. Here are some photos from the past two weeks.

Seattle International Film Festival 2008

Peter and I managed to get to a great documentary by Alex Gibney, who Peter had met in Philadelphia because Pete's been involved in the University of Philadelphia's film festival, has taught film, and is good friends with Niccola who is head of UPENN's film studies department. In any case, this particular film -- Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson -- is well worth seeing. I'm glad to have been part of a time when people questioned their leaders and demanded answers. But then I believe in political and social activism.

Yesterday, Tom, Peter, and I attended the tribute to Sir Ben Kingsley, and viewed his newest work, Elegy, which stars both he and Penelope Cruz. The movie is based on a Philip Roth book about a professor having a fling with a woman 30 years his junior and was so so. But afterward, Kingsley was interviewed on stage for over an hour and he was wonderful -- gentle, kind, intelligent. They showed a chronological montage of clips from his movies and then discussed each period of his career.

At the end of the talk a tall, thin, exotic woman swept passed me and was later identified as his wife -- 30 years his junior, a very tall Brazilian beauty, and ex-waitress he met and married last year, his fourth marriage and one of a string of beautiful wives. My image of Kingsley just didn't match this reality. But it certainly did seem a lot like his character in the movie. In any case, he is a great actor and I have just ordered several of his movies from Netflix, including War, Inc., Sexy Beasts, and The Wackness.

I also plan to see Werner Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World and just ordered several of his films from Netflix (can't remember all of them) but I would highly recommend Fitzcarraldo one of the most remarkable films and also the Making of Fitzcarraldo which is also amazing.

SIFF runs through June 15 and Peter has circled a few more must sees. I plan to. SIFF tickets can be purchased on line at www.siff.net.

The Four Amigos

When Pete's in town he always manages to spend quality time with his high school (junior high school, and elementary school) buddies -- Gregg, Adam, and Rob. We joined them at a Mariner's baseball game followed by a barbeque at Adam and Whitney's home afterward. The weather was warm and muggy. We felt honored that they invited Tom and I and enjoyed just being there.

Tito's in town, Folklife Festival, Grand Start to Summer

Strangely, I reversed the sequence of events -- scroll down to the bottom of this post and work your way up to make sense of it.

After Andy tried his hand at break dancing (he has the moves) we all rested on the lawn while listening to a blue grass band. Good day for all!

After the fountain we headed to the amphitheater to enjoy lunch as we listened to a great youth group play marimbas and the Raging Grannies with their really funny songs against the war, bailing out banks, and other current issues. I think I've found my calling -- where do I sign up.
Peter and Shawn even got a dance in with Andy and Sylvia.



Pete is in town and we've been having great family fun. Andy loves his Tito and enjoyed dragging him into the fountain at Seattle Center during the Folklife Festival. The day was warm, sunny, and beautiful. The crowd mellow. (We later heard that someone was shot in an altercation but we were long gone by then.) Andy got completely wet, Sylvia complained at the first drop of water that hit her arm. So we safely watched from a distance.