it was a tired afternoon. at least for me & my brother, my husband & my bro-in-law. this is about the best i could do. the mad nun in the post below was the highlight of my photos, sadly.

dad's wine Close	the remains of leibkuchen Close	table decoration Close
little brother Close	holiday decorations Close	art incest Close

it’s been five years, what a surprise
five years, since you left this side
your face, your race, the way that you walk
i miss you, you’re beautiful, i want you to talk with me
five years…

another fall you didn’t see. this year, your first great-grandchild. half a decade, and i can still smell your house when it rains; still see you working in yard, bending at the waist yoga-style, pulling violets out of the driveway. it doesn’t hurt anymore. much. i can smile when i think of you now.

i miss you, you’re beautiful…

love you, oma.

nick’s t-10

kent island

st. johann, tirol (austria) 1936. four photos, taken by my great-grandfather.

to all you fellas who are a year older today, happy birthday! (and you know who you are - i can’t think of any women i know who celebrate today…)

no matter where you are in the world, i’m thinking about ya.

from my great-grandmother:

i don’t usually swear in this blog. at least, not in the post titles. but it’s friday morning, and i don’t want to get out of bed. and i’m ANGRY.

why don’t you want to get out of bed, my dear readers (all six of ‘em) ask.

because, i answer, due to our Fearless Leader’s wartime plans and use of stop loss as a back door draft (the better to hide the effects of this war from the general population and control public response), 3200 soldiers from fort drum (NY) have been forced to extend their tour in afghanistan by at least four months.

well, my dear readers say, that’s not good. but how does that affect you? (more…)

my cousin gave me a vosges exotic candybar gift set for christmas. (yes, for those of you saying christmas hasn’t happened yet, and aren’t you a nonpracticing jew anyway, or maybe a unitarian, no wait, you’re not anything, religious-wise, you shouldn’t be celebrating christmas to begin with! anyway, for you, my family does this pre-christmas one-person-one-gift affair where as much of the extended family as can get together does. the cousin in question drove in from chicago. that’s a helluva drive. anyway, back to the chocolate.)

wow. i’m eating two squares of the calindia bar. indian green cardamom, organic california walnuts, dried plums, venezuelan dark chocolate. (we’ll ignore the annoying marketing fad of calling prunes “dried plums” for now.) it. is. chocolate heaven. and i thought i wouldn’t like it, being that i’m not a huge cardamom fan. and they’re biiiiig squares. (standard size bar, though.)

last night i had a good conversation with my grandparents. as i ran my fingertips over the raised letters of their names on the brass plaques installed at their church, i told them what i’ve been up to. i told oma i’d flunked the bar, that she was right about my husband, and that her art supplies are being put to good use. i told granddaddy i’d accepted a federal job, but still hadn’t quite perfected the skill of dodging raindrops to avoid getting wet.

as i turned to walk away, i could’ve sworn i heard granddaddy telling me to bring an umbrella next time, so i could stay longer.

well, proud that my family decided this was a good use for part of the estate left by my grandmother. and a good day to read of it, as well.