Christmas 2011
Happy Holidays!
We’re celebrating milestones: being a three-generation
household for a year, paying off our mortgage, adding two countries to our
list of places visited, and becoming younger from chasing a lively
almost-five year old.
Cathy—a single mom and back to work
Cathy
returned to work for the LAPD in March, accepting a training sergeant
position at the Topanga station. Two facial plastic surgeries are complete
and she’s looking pretty good.
Cathy’s been able to keep up with work, parenting, working out, swimming, and reconnecting with old friends from high school and college, and (selfishly) I love having another cook in the house! The Valencia house sale has been stymied by the banking industry slow-down, but we’re optimistic 2012 will be different, and she and Kirk will be able to move on with their separate lives.
Tori—livening up our household
Tori started pre-school in Newbury Park. Two mornings she
is picked up by the little yellow school bus for her special ed. pre-school,
and three mornings she has “car school” where one of us takes her to the
regular preschool. She enjoys Spanish, drama, and dancing at school in
addition to other pre-K activities, and has made the backyard here her
personal Wonderland.
Jenny—traveling and taking courses
Jenny has enjoyed having time to be Aunt Jenny to the four
nieces and nephews, take pottery and German classes, and expand her cultural
horizons through trips to the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, OR, and the
Indio, CA, Stagecoach Country Music Festival, which she and Cathy attended.
There may be a rat race (i.e., job) in 2012 for her, but for the moment she’s enjoying life and making the most of having time off work.
Brian and Marion—trilingual kids?
Brian and Marion somehow manage to stay sane with three little ones running
around, and Marion is on schedule to complete her Graphic Design degree this
month. What a relief that will be. Brian continues at Adobe, and gets in a
little weekend soccer and quality time with the Kinder.
We look forward to a bit of post-Christmas madness when they arrive Boxing Day. The six managed a summer trip to Germany. Due to the efforts of, and their affection for, home helper Lucía, the twins respond equally to milk, Milch, and leche.
David—becoming Experianced
David’s efforts in promoting Geoffrey Arone’s
SafetyWeb.com over the past
year culminated in its being acquired by the credit-reporting company
Experian in May. Although he now has to endure an occasional 50-mile commute
from Santa Monica to Irvine, he’s able to work from home part of the time
stays and overnight in Irvine 2-3 nights a week.
As an Experian employee, David is gaining new experiences and stable remuneration. His day-to-day work involves promoting Experian's websites like CreditReport.com via search engine optimization (SEO) strategies and executing Facebook advertising campaigns.
Larry—computers and travel
Larry continues the Mr-Fixit gig for various family
members, friends, and the church to keep the computers running. At
church
he’s “the IT guy,” able to manage most of their tech problems, big and
small.
Solo travel included a trip to Chicago to help his sister Sue set up and network a computer and a trip to Detroit to do some genealogical research and visit Comerica Stadium, Greenfield Village, and what is not yet a historical site, his childhood Royal Oak home.
Mary—retirement still not in sight
Teaching at CSUN keeps me busy, although with the cutbacks there are fewer classes for us part-timers. There are increases in class size and difficulties for the students in trying to get their classes each semester. As long as I can manage the commute and the workload, it’s good for me. I do enjoy the students and like what I’m doing.
Mary Cherry Burke (1921-2011)
This was
an emotional summer with the passing of my mom in August, two weeks before
her 90th birthday. Her life was long and interesting, and it was sad that
the last four years were spent in so much physical pain. I felt privileged
to be with her on her last day, and her passing was as peaceful as she would
have wished.
We miss her sharp wit and her amazing memory of just about everyone who ever crossed her path, and daily we all think of how she would have responded to particular events. My dad is doing well, keeping busy, missing her a lot, Old Soldier that he is. He did a superb job keeping her comfortable at home as long as possible with good caretakers during the day.
Countries 48 (Larry) and 46 (Mary)
Our summer travels included Tuscany, San Marino, and
Croatia.
We rendezvoused with my sister Teresa and husband John in Florence, where a picturesque old hotel provided a good base for a few days before we continued on to our rental villa La Fonte in Certaldo, an hour south by train.
With John doing the driving but aided by an indispensable GPS, we navigated the roads to Pisa, San Gimignano, Siena, Volterra, and the Chianti region. Our La Fonte digs were comfortable and convenient as our base of operations for our week of car travel in Tuscany.
When Teresa and John headed back to the U.S., Larry and I
took a train from Florence to Rimini and a bus into the mountainous
principality of San Marino. We walked the hills and explored the medieval
towers on the town’s heights. After a bus ride back to Rimini and a train
trip to Ancona, we were at the ferry terminal for an overnight Adriatic
crossing. Dinner on board was enlivened by conversations with a couple young
Russian pilots and their wives about conditions in their country.
Our first view of Split, Croatia, early the next morning surprised me. I had thought it would look like cities in northern Europe, but it’s very Mediterranean—palm trees, white-washed buildings, and blue water. During our few days in Croatia we walked the alleys within Diocletian’s Palace, took a bus to Trogir, and traveled by ferry to Supetar on Brač island.
The crop report? Pumpkins aplenty!
We spent the rest of the summer enjoying our garden and
helping Tori plant vegetables she likes. The great success was the pumpkin
patch, yielding 16 good-sized pumpkins, made into jack-o’-lanterns, pumpkin
bread, pie, soup, and her favorite, roasted pumpkin seeds. Now we’re
monitoring the last of the cherry tomatoes and the new little carrot
seedlings, as well as the snow peas and blueberries. All provide balanced
nutrition for a five-year old, not to mention fresh air and exercise—an
unbeatable combination!
Enjoy the holidays!