High Kicker

George Hoffman is a college friend and fellow music major. George was also (many years ago!) a member of our wedding party. As long as I can remember, George has been fascinated with carousel horses and, at some point, he started hand-carving and painting miniature carousel horses--they are exquisite in their craftsmanship and detail.

This "high kicker," as George calls it, was a totally unexpected gift. Quoting from the card, "Santa is sending along in this package a 1" scale, Charles Parker inspired carousel horse. Hand carved and hand painted in Japan oils, this high kicker comes to you with joy and happiness."

The horse is about eight inches long, from tail to hoof. And, as you can see in the pictures, it is a beautiful work of art.

Thank you, George. Thank you very much.

New Kitchen

Okay well it really isn't that "new," but slightly remodeled. We purchased this hoosier back in the spring and it has finally been refinished and moved into the kitchen. When we purchased it, it was white with a blue table and blue sides. It had apparently been used by an elderly couple who had painted it, then sold to the person we purchased it from. They had never gotten around to refinishing it. After several trip to PA (a garage and drive way made the process easier despite the drive) we scrapped it down and repainted it white. During this we discovered that our model is called the "snow white" and the orange and green table are the original colors. We suspect that it was probably all green, based on the layers that came off.

With the edition of the new smaller wire shelves the kitchen feels much lager, and more functional.

November 7 & 8, 2009

We went to NY to visit Max, Daphne and their parents. As an added bonus, we got to see Amanda and David on Saturday night and again on Sunday afternoon.

It was a perfect grandparent weekend: We got to see Daphne learn to crawl and also watched as she had her first solid food (but got to leave before the food came out the other end).

Max has tunnel vision

Halloween in the Bronx

October 18, 2009

Global warming?

One of THE moments

http://spaceshiftreturn.blogspot.com/2009/10/moment-confirming-loveliness-of-having.html
http://spaceshiftreturn.blogspot.com/2009/10/moment-confirming-loveliness-of-having.html

A Beautiful Weekend

I had a meeting last Thursday in Whitefield, NH. The meeting was held at one of those magnificent turn-of-the-century hotels--the hotel was completely renovated just a few years ago. Sue and I took the opportunity to spend the night at the hotel and then, the following morning, drove on to the cabin for the weekend.

While we had the sad task of closing the cabin for the winter, it was a beautiful time to be in Maine. The picture above is a view of Mt. Washington at sunset, taken from our porch. The pictures below show the view from near our dock and two pictures taken at the golf course. It doesn't get much better than this!

Splash!

new pics of daphne (and family....)

the girl's growing - that's for sure! and she sure is feisty. favorite toy 4 feet away? No problem! daphne just log rolls until she gets to it! she's currently full of giggles and coos. it's pretty darned cute. and, she enjoys grabbing her mom's face, which entertains max to no end.