a grand day

I watched the grandkids yesterday. Josh & Ben most of the day, then David & Jake from late afternoon till about 9:30. All four overlapped for a while and I tried to get them to sit for a civilized photo. Everybody else's grandchildren comply -- but this crew? Like herding cats. As soon as they see a camera, they start clowning so this was about as good as it got. Jake in back, David, Josh, & Ben in front. Offstage, Hilary laughing in spite of herself at her sons and nephews. One more picture: Jake, who turned four in October, signed into some kid game site on my laptop by typing in his screen name and password(!). Hand on mouse as he played, the intense look of concentration was too much for me to resist. ((Ignore fabric spilling off shelves and onto floor in background, please).

I'm taking a blog break just now from sewing down the facings I referred to in the last post. The sewing is a nice change of pace. I had a title brainstorm tonight and was so happy! Normally I have a terrible time naming my pieces; Helene and Rachel have named several of them for me and I am always trolling for suggestions. But tonight, as I looked at my two new ones, I realized that they were fraternal twins. Their shared name popped into my head and I'm done. Isn't it nice when that happens?

Tomorrow we head into NY to stay with our friends Rosalie & Arthur, who have a pied à terre on the east side. Marty and I have spent every New Year's Eve with them for the 25 years we have been married -- sometimes dinner at home, other times dinner out and a movie locally or in the City. Decades ago we used to go to a Broadway or off-b'way show; in those days nobody went to the theatre New Year's Eve so tickets were plentiful and cheap. No more. We'd rather spend $$$$ on a good meal. The last few years we've gone to a little neighborhood (East side Manhattan) French restaurant that is always lovely, intimate, and with good food. Tomorrow, we plan to go down to the Bowery to the New Museum (yes, it's new) and then stay downtown for dinner and a movie, not necessarily in that order. Monday the Metropolitan Museum is open - so we'll see what we feel like doing.

One more tidbit and then back to the facings. My son Jeremy was in New Orleans a few days ago on biz. He flew home Friday night.Behind him in first class, Kevin Bacon and Kiera Sedgwick, who had been there hammering for Habitat in the 9th ward. Coincidentally, Claire Fenton and her daughter had been at the same house on Thursday and saw them at work. (Claire, where's that picture you snapped??) I won't go into Jeremy's long description of how they got onto the plane, of how the were dressed (causually) or what they discussed as they sat behind him - but he got a kick out of being in such proximity on a small plane (only 8 seats in first class). And he left them to their privacy.

I'm not sure I'll have WI-FI over the weekend - so if not, I'll take lots of pictures and post on Tuesday when we get back. A happy, healthy to all of you.