Happy Birthday, Toby!

Happy birthday, Toby!

We celebrate your birth, and we are happy you are in our lives!

Looking forward to Thai Chicken Soup tonight...

...and Cottonwood Hot Springs in two weeks...

...for the 2nd Annual Jimmy/Toby Birthday Bash.

Here's a pic from the 1st Annual.

This picture? Just because I like it!

Happy Birthday, Jimmy

Happy birthday to our dearest son, Jimmy.

You may be seeing one of these tonight!

Birthdays are always time to celebrate with family...
...and to celebrate with friends (here in
Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain)...
...and with sisters (here in Japan)...
Yom Huledet Sameach!

More family and more friends celebrating Jimmy's birthday here in the Centennial State.

Just had to include this picture because of the smile on his face, which exudes happiness.

All of this celebration of Jimmy's birthday shows how much he is loved and how much we have all been blessed by his birth and presence in our lives.

2010 2009 2007

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Happy birthday, Mom!

Inside, the card says:

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO —

your prayers, your words, your example —
and every moment you've selflessly given to our family

You are appreciated, celebrated...and loved.

Have a Wonderful Birthday!

We were so excited that you were able to visit again this summer. Here are some pictures from your birthday party, which was either nine months late or three months early!

You have everyone's birthday memorized, so you were surprised when you saw the birthday cake. Whose birthday is it, anyway?

Oh, it's my birthday cake!

Speech! What a summer it was, with so many family and frends visiting.

Happy Birthday, Mom, and may you celebrate many more!
2010

Happy Birthday, Ellie!

We love you.

Here are a few nostalgic pictures.

With Grandma A.

With Aunt Margaret

Unknown Birthday.

Negishi, with Bonnie.

Negishi with siblings.

And Ellie now, with her boys (3 of them).

With her guy.

Tanti Auguri

お誕生日おめでとう

2010 2009 2008 2007

Pest Control

I just finished reading (or rather listening to) Bob Fitzhugh’s zany “thriller” Pest Control. I would describe it as a cross between Shakespeare’s “Comedy of Errors” and the Abbott and Costello routine “Who’s on First.” The characters constantly misunderstand one another’s meanings, causing a simple exterminator unwittingly to get involved in the dangerous business of contract killing. Fitzhugh loves to play with words and phrases, especially exploring the variety of idioms used to describe identical situations in various languages and cultures. He also describes various insects and their cousins in excruciating detail, making this book a delight to etymologists and entomologists alike! The Last Word Audio book is expertly narrated by Colby Elliott, whom we had the pleasure of meeting recently.

Synopsis on amazon.com

PROFESSIONAL EXTERMINATOR
FIFTEEN YEARS FIELD EXPERIENCE!
GONE PRIVATE WITH LETHAL NEW
CONCEPT! NO PEST LEFT ALIVE!

Bob Dillon just can't get a break. A down-on-his-luck exterminator, all he wants is his own truck with a giant fiberglass bug on top--and success with his radical new, environmentally friendly pest killing technique. So Bob decides to advertise.
Unfortunately, one of his flyers falls into the wrong hands. Marcel in Paris needs an assassin to handle a million dollar assignment, and he figures that Bob Dillon's his man. Through no fault--or participation--of his own, an unwitting bug-killer from Queens has become a major player in the shady world of contract murder. And now he's running for his life through the wormiest sections of the Big Apple--one step ahead of a Bolivian terminator, a homicidal transvestite dwarf, meat-headed CIA agents, cabbies packing serious heat...and the world's greatest hit man, who might just turn out to be the best friend Bob's got.

Availability/Reviews on audible.com.

From Library Journal
Fired from his job with a pest control company in Queens, New York, Bob Dillon starts his own business using his environmentally friendly technique: hybrid killer insects that eat cockroaches. Meanwhile, Marcel, a broker who contracts for assassins, is looking for a reliable newcomer to complete a million-dollar hit. He advertises and Bob responds, neither understanding the nature of the other's "exterminating" business. Very shortly thereafter, ten of the most dangerous hitpersons in the world descend on Queens, which is pretty dangerous itself and more than up to the challenge. Broadly satiric, extremely funny, and tailor-made for film (rights have already been sold to Warner Brothers), this is not exactly demanding reading, but it is fun and likely to be popular. A reasonable purchase for most public libraries. Edwin B. Burgess, U.S. Army Combined Research Lib., Fort Leavenworth, Va. Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

9th Annual Central City Opera Weekend—2011

This year we saw two of the Central City Opera's offerings, Bizet's "Carmen" and Handel's "Amadigi di Gaula."

The "Carmen" presented this year was quite different from what we had seen at the opening of the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in Denver in 2005. It was very good, very entertaining, just different, and that is one of the things that makes the Central City Opera productions so much fun. They are not afraid to do things differently, to try new things, to perform operas that are not often performed. It keeps us coming back year after year!

"Amadigi di Gaula" was different from most operas we have seen. A Baroque Opera, it focused more on the music than the story. It also made use of the countertenor voice. The lead in this opera was sung by South African countertenor, Christopher Ainslie, making his Central City and North American debut. The musical score allowed the performers to demonstrate their virtuosity on many levels. For lovers of Handel, it was a feast. From the opening chord and every note thereafter, it was unmistakably Handel.

I love this quote from the 2011 Opera Insider, "Amadigi di Gaula is a Baroque 'magic opera' based on a Renaissance story about a Medieval knight. It is also an Italian opera written by a German composer for an English audience, based on a French play, based on a Spanish book." I might add, "and performed in a mountain gambling town's nearly sesquicentenarian opera house for an American audience."

Friday night we arrived in town, and after checking into the Inn, we shared our traditional dinner at the Ameristar's Centennial Buffet (one day, I'll have to take a picture, but we're always so intent on eating that I forget). For Saturday lunch, we wandered Central City and came upon a place called Stella's, in an alley near the Teller House. Inside, it looked enchanting, but the service was not good, and we do not recommend it.

Saturday, we had our traditional dinner at the Kevin Taylor restaurant operating out of the Face Bar at the Teller House. They may lose us next year, however, as the portions had grown smaller, the prices higher, and they did not serve Truffle Fries, which is one of the items we especially liked on their menu.

Sunday, we like to stop at Millies, an old-fashioned family restaurant above the Easy Street Casino in Central City. They have a fairly extensive menu, fast, courteous service, and reasonable prices.

Cheese Fries at Millie's (in our defense, four of us shared this culinary luxury). 

And of course we stayed at our favorite B&B, the

Chase Creek Inn.

Here we are, preparing to enjoy one of Karen's marvelous breakfasts.

Yum.

A nice cup of java before breakfast.

The relaxing porch with rocking chairs is one of the many attractions of the Chase Creek Inn Bed & Breakfast that keep us coming back year after year. Hummingbirds buzz around the feeders to quietly keep us company.

I like to tell people our favorite B&B, the Chase Creek Inn, is around the corner from all the hustle and bustle of the casinos (it's behind and around the corner from Bullwhackers in Blackhawk). Here's a view off the back porch.

Another attraction of the B&B for me is Chase Creek itself. The babbling brook, the chortling creek, the gurgling stream can always be heard. As we drift off to sleep, we can hear the pleasant sound of the creek in the background.

Click on the video with speakers on to hear Chase Creek's pleasing tune. 

This weekend is a highlight of our year. This was the 9th annual weekend relaxing in the mountains of Colorado, enjoying a lovely weekend of fellowship with friends, drinking in the fresh air, walking around the quaint towns of Blackhawk and Central City, as well as the Chase Creek neighbohood, and enjoying wonderful musical entertainment at the Central City Opera House.

Former Weekends:

2010, 2009, 2008, 2007

25,000

Fifty-nine!

Birthdays make me reflective. We humans love to commemorate big landmarks, e.g. the Market hits another 1,000 level (10,000, 11,000, 12,000, etc.), the mercury hits triple digits, a batter gets his 3,000th hit, a pitcher 300 wins, or we mark another decade of life (30, 40, 50, 60). When I hit 30, my wife made me a cake in the shape of a hill to mark my approaching decrepitude (over the hill, you see). At 40, my favorite Skipper, Capt B, gathered my family and co-workers in the conference room with cake and balloons to mark the occasion. At 50, I realized that the best thing about being over each hill was that another lay in the distance. How many more hills I climb is out of my hands. That I keep climbing my best is not.

I have not yet reached 60, but at 59 I realize that I ought to be thankful not only for living another decade but for another year, another day—in fact, for every new breath. Every breath is a gift from the One who first breathed life into the first lump of clay to bring it to life. In the same way, miracles happen every day. They consist not only in the parting of the Sea or the manna in the wilderness or the resurrection from the dead. The creation itself is a miracle. The birth of a child (or grandchild), the ability to earn a living, the rejuvenation of sleep, the nutrition of food, the list is never-ending. These are everyday miracles in the physical realm.

Love is a miracle: that we love others; that others love us. Kindness is miraculous: that people perform acts of kindness without ulterior motive. Comprehension is a miraculous gift from above. As Abraham Joshua Heschel put it, "even the very act of thinking baffles our thinking, just as every intelligible fact is, by virtue of its being a fact, drunk with baffling aloofness...What fills us with radical amazement is not the relations in which everything is embedded but the fact that even the minimum of perception is a maximum of enigma. The most incomprehensible fact is the fact that we comprehend at all." These are but a few of the miracles in the emotional and intellectual realms.

So, here are just a few of the miracles from my birthday. I opened my eyes at 6:00 a.m., something I have taken for granted my entire life and for which I am learning to be consciously grateful. After completing a circuit to bring artificial light into the room, I twisted a handle to start water flowing so that I could wash the phiz and brush the teeth. In addition to electricity itself being a miracle, ours was out until our electrician and a helpful Xcel repairman brought it back to life. Shower, shave, mirror, shave cream, after shave, everywhere I turned a miracle of technology.

I also ingested three tiny tablets to keep my blood pressure and cholesterol in check before dressing and walking (ambulation—miracle) to the shed to grab my golf clubs, which had been carefully crafted to make my shots straighter oftener when I hit the balls that were designed for maximum distance. Tossing the clubs in the trunk, I turned a little key in a switch and my powerful horseless carriage roared to life.

Arriving at the driving range, I joined my good friends: a coworker; my employer, my cousin’s husband, who is like a brother to me; and his son, my cousin-nephew. Green grass, sunshine, fresh air, good shots, bad shots, joy, frustration, conversation, a typical round of golf. So many miracles. Were I to list them all, this could go on forever.

Then when I turned on my computer, the electronic impulses representing 1s and 0s became intelligible English words, as the birthday greetings started pouring in from around the country and the world, close to a hundred from friends and family. So many everyday miracles went into making this possible, I won’t even try to list them, but the miracle of the love and appreciation of others, and the communication skills to express these sentiments to one another, touched my heart all day long. That is not to mention the friends, family, coworkers who wished me a happy birthday in person, all miracles of human communication, kindness, expressiveness and interaction.

Having reached the exalted age of 59, am I to feel old? I don’t. Oh, I’m not saying I don’t have aches and pains. Sometimes, as some comedian said, my aches and pains have aches and pains. But I don’t feel old. I more and more identify with my mother-in-law, who used to say she would get confused by the woman looking back at her in the mirror because she felt like a 16-year-old girl. I feel more like 25 or 30 (and male), but I now know what she means.

Tomorrow will have its challenges, to be sure, and I will face them as optimistically and as confidently as when I was 30, 40, and 50, and I shall try to be more aware of the myriad miracles surrounding me every day as I walk through this life for another breath, another day, another decade, gratefully.

A 4th of July Seder

Prager University has put together a marvelous, brief program to remind us what the 4th of July is all about and why we celebrate it. Here's what they say about it:
"Welcome to our 4th of July Declaration!"

"We have modeled this Declaration on the best known commemoration of a historical event in the world — the Jewish Passover meal. It has successfully kept the memory of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt alive for over 3000 years."

"As Americans we need to reconnect with our Founding Fathers. We need to rediscover the meaning of our country's creation. And we need to do it every year. That is the reason for ritual — to enable us to remember. Without ritual, the memory fades. And without memory, life — whether of the individual or of a nation – loses its meaning."

"If you follow this simple ceremony, this holiday will not just be another barbecue. It will be the meaningful day it was meant to be: a celebration of the birth of our exceptional country, the United States of America."


To find out what materials you'll need and to download a copy of the Declaration of Independence, check out the entire program here.