We left Maine on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend so we could drive from Newton to Mamaroneck on Monday. My mom was east for a wedding in Baltimore and went to visit her sister on Monday. Last summer she was talking about coming to Maine for a week or so at the end of this …
Author Archives: deanb
Maine visitors
Millie, Joel, their daughter Gena, and Gena’s three kids were at our house in Maine for the week after the 4th of July. Arlene stayed up there with them for the week and I went back to Newton to work. Unfortunately there were several rainy days that week so the boys didn’t get outside as …
July 4 baking
We went over to Sue and Richard’s for 4th of July cookout. The weather was very threatening so we ended up eating indoors, but I did tend the grill outside on their deck. Their cookout menu always includes grilled kielbasa, which I like very much and never get any other time. Sue asked me to …
Garden catching up
Firstly, here was my raised-bed garden maybe as long as a month ago Those taller plants along the right rear edge are radishes about to go to seed. Here they are ready to wash and eat. Man, those were strong radishes!:
Dubya is smarter than you think
One of the things that football coaches, basketball coaches, and baseball managers always remind their teams is not to underestimate their opponents. The Democrats have forgotten that for the last six years. Just because a guy won’t pronounce “nuclear” in a standard way, they think he’s dumb. It’s not so. I heard a commentator on …
July 4 wildlife sighting
We went to Sue and Richard’s (in Newton) for a fourth of July cookout. I was tapped to make pies, a blueberry pie and a lime chiffon pie, for dessert. The menu always features grilled kielbasa, which I never get any other time. It was a little too rainy to eat outside, though I was …
Quote from Chabon
I’ve been reading Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union and loving it. So you can see how the guy writes, here’s the backstory of some of the characters, WWII refugees resettled in the imaginary Jewish homeland in Alaska: On the heels of Jews from Germany and Austria, the Shemets family was dumped with their fellow …
Igor’s party
We had a goodbye lunch for a coworker who’s leaving (by now ten days ago, must have been June 21) and took a picture of the whole crew. Left to right, Dick, Ken, Danae, Michael, Esther, Matt, Igor (guest of honor), Aaron, me, Jon, Jacob: Picture taken at Taam China, a strictly kosher restaurant in …
Liz’s party
We went to New Jersey last weekend to an 80th birthday party for Arlene’s mother’s second cousin Elizabeth. Elizabeth and her sister have been vegetarians since they were kids. Their father ran a vegetarian hotel in Florida long long ago but died before the girls were college age. Elizabeth’s sister Becky lived with Arlene’s mother’s …
reading Chabon
So having finished Pullman’s His Dark Materials series, I’m now reading Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemans’ Union and loving it. Once upon a time there was an ad campaign, maybe only on billboards in the New York City subways, featuring a very diverse collection of people saying “You don’t have to be Jewish to love …