Libras: Some of my favorite people . . .

I've never been big on horoscopes. But this one for the month of February is just too much to be ignored:
Libra Sep 23-Oct 22
Deep winter huh, Libra? This is it: dark, cold. Why bother leaving your apartment, right? I honestly can't say you should. Look. I love making happy predicitions about the future, but I just can't lie to you. Stay inside, snuggle up to your lover/TV/mug of diet coke. Build a fort out of cushions, catch up on your correspondence, spy on a neighbor. Whatever you do, please use your inside voice.

How's that for advice from the stars? And I am not making this up. I copied it all word for word out of a magazine--all the way from Deep winter . . . to . . . inside voice. So if you know a Libra right now who is not living in the deep snow send him/her immediately to Flagstaff.
Don't worry. I have 11 more horoscopes here just as weird as the one above. Watch out. Your future could be unwinding any day right here in the blogosphere.

30 inches???

I heard Flagstaff got 30 inches of snow, That's nothing. Our snow goes all the way to the tops of the mountains! Big mountains. I will post pictures tomorrow.

SNOW!!!

Yes indeed. It snowed in Rio Rico. Luckily I got up early or I would have missed it. It melted off everything but the mountains by 8:00 in the morning. But, it was very nice--especially since there is never enough to shovel!

Another Saturday

Well, it has been a week since I visited this blog. So let's see. Monday we drove to Phoenix, checked into a hotel and spent the afternoon going over papers and files that we needed to be very familiar with for a hearing on Tuesday with a federal judge. Tuesday morning we went downtown to the VA regional office and went to a very formal hearing. We were sworn in, the entire hearing was taped, the judge was from Washington DC. We had a DAV representative who acted just like our lawyer. It was really quite interesting.
And why did we do all of this?? Because six years ago Mike filed a claim for disability based on an injury to his knee while in Vietnam. And since the VA has a total of 24 months to satisfactorily resolve any claim ours was extremely out of compliance--on their part, not ours.
Anyway, this was an interesting experience. And we still don't know the resolution. It will probably be 3 months at least before we know anything more.
The best thing about the day was that we got to see Charlie and have lunch. We were planning to spend Tuesday night at his house, but we got in to the hearing before our appointed time and so finished much earlier than expected. We took Charlie to our favorite gourmet place near his work--McDonalds. We thought of going to Denny's for the free breakfast, but the line around the building and down the sidewalk discouraged us.
Wednesday Mike rested and I moved furniture. It seems to be my current hobby. But I am slowly getting things where and how I want them
Thursday we went to the Tubac art festival. Lots of walking. Lots of art. Beautiful weather. What more could we ask for???
No I have lost a day somewhere. Friday we went to Tubac. Ditto all of above. Then we went to Tumacacori mission and stopped at the Santa Cruz Chile Company. Just stepping in the door is healthy. The air is pungent with the smells of 100's of different chilis all packaged and ready to go. But I only bought dried cilantro. It's like dried parsley, but tons better flavor.
Then, Friday night our friends from Mata Ortiz--Jeromino Boyd and Jorge Quintana came down and spent the night. They are selling beautiful things at the Art Festival and will be here for 2 nights. Always fun. So, Mike is resting and I am getting ready to go putter about. Have a wonderful day. As always. . . .

Things I love about Brooklyn

1. You can walk nearly anywhere
2. Walking to church
3. Walking to the subway
4. Walking to the Deli
5. Walking to Nola and Ta's school
6. Walking back home with the girls
Yes, walking is a big part of what I like in New York.
7. You can find great food just around the corner
8. I mean just about any corner
9. There is water everywhere.
10. I like being by the New York harbor
11. and the East River, and the ocean and. . .
And
12. I like the taxi drivers. They are like a huge united nations contingency that seems to actually like the US and they all love NYC
12. And every one I met was friendly

On the other hand I hate hate hate:
1. The freezing cold weather in the winter
2. The price of an ice cream sundae at the Regis Hotel
(Yes, we paid $60.00 for 4 icecream desserts. And the ice cream scoops were not the size of baseballs as we had been led to believe. They were the size of ping pong balls)
But the atmosphere was elegant and snooty--which list should that be on??

But mostly I love seeing our kids: Ariane, Alon, Morris, Seung Hee, and Steven. And especially I love seeing Nola and Talia.
Which overall makes NYC a pretty wonderful place!

Home again, home again, jigitty, jig

Hey, that's not how you cut the cake!!

The handsome groom. . .

Seung Hee in her Korean wedding dress

Morris's new family in their apartment in Queens. Everytime I said smile they all laughed. Hmm. . . .do you think smile could have another meaning in Korean???

Thanks Alon for most of the pictures!! Here is the happy couple with parents and brother Jake.

We have been home for 3 days. And I am finally sitting down to blog. Morris and Seung Hee's wedding was beautiful. Everyone was happy and had fun--thanks to Steven!!

We met most of the people that Mo works with. We met professor's who had both Mor and Seung Hee in their classes. We heard that they were wonderful, fabulous, incredible. We already knew that!

Seung Hee wore a dress designed and made by one of her bridesmaids who was/is a student at Parson's school of design. Her dress looked like a gorgeous flower with petals cascading down to the ground.

Then, at the reception she wore a traditional Korean wedding outfit. It was so beautiful. We ate Korean food. The entrees never stopped coming. Such a meal you can hardly imagine. Finally when the happy couple walked up to the Roosevelt hotel, Mo in his tux, with his traditional Korean bride, the staff immediately comp'ed them a suite for the night!

Seung Hee's mom and brother were great. Despite any language barrier we had lots of fun as you may notice in the pictures that I posted on Picassaweb. Jake designs interactive games. He has to be fun, right?

Ari and Alon were absolutely incredible. We invaded like barbarians entering Rome. Mike and I, Megan, Maren, Graham, Elysee, often Steven, Melia, and Taryn all camped in their home, coming and going on different schedules, disrupting life. . . .but life went on. Nola and Talia went to school, Ari ran the business, Alon and Steven worked; and all the while they made us feel welcome and happy.

We nearly missed our flight coming home. But Southwest was great. If only they flew into NYC instead of Long Island. Their airport is in Islyp, but they pronounce it Iceland. Freezing! Thanks to Alon's driving and his persuasive personality they let us on the flight even tho we arrived 15 minutes before take off with luggage to check and no computer check in.

Now that we're home things seem pretty quiet. We were planning to go to California to celebrate my sister Merrilyn's birthday next Friday. But, Merrilyn decided they couldn't manage such a crowd. Since we had just spent a week in the thick of it we totally understand!!

Happy Birthday tomorrow to Becky. Time keeps on slipping, slipping into the future. Lucky thing too. We aren't ready for it to stop! Well. Monday we'll be in Phoenix for a hearing with the Veteran's Administration. Always something.

Have a nice weekend. We will too!

Leavin' on a jet plane

Big head, Great brain

Well tomorrow is the day. We are heading into the mouth of the beast, or should I say the cold in New York City. Lucky this isn't a Pace Picante ad. Somebody would get strung up.

I am getting excited. Mo is getting married. So, we're goin' to the chapel and he's gonna get married.

Let's see, what other old song titles can I work into this? We are all packed, with more than 12 hours to spare. A first for me I think. Of course since I was getting ready to go on a trip I also decided to completely clean out the garage this week. I should post a picture. But I didn't take a before picture. Bummer.

I could take a picture of our newly inventoried and organized food supply. Nah. I think I'll save the picture taking for New York. Can't wait!!