mere cat

The Christmas Post

Probably should try to get a Christmas post up while it’s still Christmas... I hope you had a great holiday; here are a few random notes and pictures from ours.

It didn’t look like we were going to be able to have a traditional celebration with the entire family under one roof at the same time, but things kind of fell into place at the last second by the expedient of moving Christmas up two days to Saturday. We hosted dinner at our place for 9 people and built the menu around a spiral-cut ham from Niman Ranch. To help cast a warm glow over the proceedings, Anne’s sister brought along the “Happy Holiday Hearth” DVD, which features video of a crackling fire as well as classic Christmas music. You could almost feel the heat coming from the iMac.

A week earlier, I helped decorate our Fraser fir and gave a prominent position to my newest ornament from Flax Art Design, a Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex. (I already have the Leica R8 ornament.) Collecting classic cameras has never been cheaper!

I had to work a cat picture in here somewhere, of course. Here’s Julius in mid-yawn. Isn’t he kyoot?

Christmas eve and Christmas day were spent visiting friends. Here’s the dinner table from tonight’s party while everyone was still in the next room cheering the Eagles on to victory over Dallas. Even though they had an early lead, I doubted they could win. They’ll just never be the same team without Iverson.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

A Litany of Woe

December is the cruelest month. What a month it’s been so far. Let’s start with the prosaic annoyances, the petty inconveniences. I dropped my PowerBook (it’s dented, but works fine), I got a flat tire (and the spare was flat, too), and last night we discovered a leak in the water line coming in from the street (nothing a few thousand dollars can’t fix). But all that’s nothing, really.

Tragedy struck two bloggers I read regularly. Amy Wohl lost her husband in early December. Michael’s partner suffered a stroke, although he is recovering. The shocker was the sudden death of Star Foster. I never met Star, but I always enjoyed reading her blog, Sarcasmo’s Corner. There’s an email in my out box with a link to something silly I wanted to share with her that I was about to send. Much more about her life and many accomplishments at Philly Future. I will miss her very much. So much sad news.

Closer to home, my beloved sister-in-law died a week ago after a long fight with cancer. After Thanksgiving she started to decline and was unconscious for most of her final week. Fortunately (if that’s the right word), we were all with her when she passed away. Hundreds came to her memorial service on Monday. She touched so many lives in such a positive way and was an unforgettable person. Later that day, about thirty of us took a long walk down Forbidden Drive along the Wissahickon she loved so much. We were quite a sight, all those people dressed in black.

Posting will resume someday...

Shiroi Hana

After writing about our visit to Pod back in April, I got some sushi restaurant recommendations from Yoko and Marisa. Despite being chopstick-impaired and otherwise ignorant in the ways of the sushi bar, I decided that for my birthday dinner I would try one of these places. I picked Shiroi Hana, because it’s the easiest for me to get to, and because I have walked past it a million times, always choosing Frank Clements Tavern next door instead.