All of the above are captured in this collection of pictures. Enjoy.

Merry just got quoted in O (Oprah Winfrey’s magazine), in a little piece on How to Help a Friend Who’s in an Abusive Relationship. It’s actually a nice example of the genre: a real problem, an articulate survivor, someone to provide a professional angle, and simple, concrete, practical advice.
(And although the article didn’t include contact information, it already seems to be generating some referrals.)

My son-in-law Mark is now blogging. Welcome!

I took Tommy back to his parents yesterday evening. It was odd: we’ve had him stay over for one night at a time, but after four days you start to find yourself slipping into a routine. It also brings back memories from 30 years ago: lots of fun, but so much work! At this age (13 months) kids are simply engines for converting food into energy, growth and waste products; your mission is simply to keep up.
Anyway, here are a few more photos for the extended family.

Our grandson Tommy is staying with us for a few days. I picked up up from his home in Lynn on Monday morning, and he stayed overnight with us last night. This morning I took him back to Lynn for the Fourth of July block party on the street where he lives. The original plan was that I should leave him there and pick him up again tomorrow, but after a last-minute replan we decided that I should bring him back to Brookline for a few more days.
For a one year old, he has an impressive attention span. His favourite toy (here) is a shape-sorter box, and he’ll happily play with it for almost an hour without getting distracted.

There’s a quirky little game I’ve been playing with Tommy ever since… well, practically ever since he was born. Whenever he and I are together, I make a point of reciting Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky to him at least once a day. We’re probably up to 50 repetitions by now. At first there was no particular reaction; just what you’d expect when an infant hears a rhythmic chant in a bass register. Gradually he started to recognize and respond, and by the time he was eight or nine months old the almost-whispered poem would cause him to enter a near-trance state. (Hypnosis? Who knows. Not intentional, that’s for sure.)
Today I have only to begin “‘Twas brillig”, and he stops whatever he’s doing and gazes at me with a conspiratorial smile, anticipating the drama of “One, two! One, two! And through and through, the vorpal blade went snicker-snack!”, and the big hug that accompanies “O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”.
I wonder what he’ll make of it in a few years….

What a difference a year makes!

When last I blogged, the family was cautiously considering the nutritional value of ginger ale (flat), saltines, jello, and chicken soup (risky). However a general, if slow, trend of recovery was evident, and on Monday I went with Kate, Mark and Tommy down to Monterey harbour. It was windy, chilly, and intermittently rainy, but we put a brave face on it. After lunch, we drove up to Carmel Valley Village to visit my brother-in-law (also Geoff) at the garage he runs, and then explored the area above the village which we used to visit frequently. (Still as beautiful as ever.) [Click Tommy for some pictures.]
On Tuesday we drove up to Berkeley to visit Chris and his wife, see their exquisite Hearst-era apartment, and explore the campus of CDSP. After dinner at a kosher vegan Italian restaurant (only in Berkeley!), we drove across the Bay Bridge and down to SFO. I dropped everyone off at the Hyatt Regency, turned in the rental van (verdict: functional, but uncomfortable), and returned to the hotel via the airport shuttle.
And today we flew home. When we left for California last week, we were aware that we were heading into a Pacific coastal storm and leaving behind beautiful spring-like weather in New England. It was something of a shock, therefore, to see the “weather at destination” displayed as “snow showers, high 36”. Ah, well. Unlike the outbound flight, the return trip was mostly uneventful, even though Tommy didn’t really relax until we were landing at Boston. (In geek-speak, he fell asleep as we crossed MILT at 170 knots and 3,000 feet, fully established on the ILS approach for runway 4 right.)
And when we got home, I found that I’d received the first piece of (snail-)mail addressed to my new business! But that’s a different subject.

On Thursday morning the five of us flew from Boston to San Francisco. Tommy had his own seat, with a car seat strapped into it, so he got the window! The flight was fairly uneventful for the first 4 hours; then Tommy threw up onto himself and me. Half an hour later, he threw up all over Kate. We tentatively attributed this to the fact that it was his first flight.
At SFO we picked up a minivan, and headed south towards Carmel. Tommy was still sick. We arrived by mid-afternoon, and had an early dinner and hit the sack. The following afternoon, Chris arrived, by which point Merry and Kate were both feeling unwell. At this stage it all gets complicated, messy, and hard to remember. All five of us were affected; late that evening there was a run to the local E.R. for diagnostic tests and a litre of saline drip; Chris also drove over to the all-night pharmacy to fill some prescriptions. And as each of us got rid of the virulent GI bug, we slept… for hours and hours.
By comparison, the other events – like the near-collapse of the ceiling in a guest unit bathroom, or hunting all over Salinas for an Amtrak bus – were unimportant.
More coherent blogging will be resumed when circumstances permit….

I found myself in the back seat of the car yesterday, next to my grandson Tommy in his car seat. And I had my Treo 650, so I took a few low-res pictures. Enjoy.

This time last year we were waiting for the big winter storm. This year (in the Boston area, anyway), it’s “Winter? What winter?” 55F, sunny, breezy…. (OK, occasionally more than breezy.)
Also looking back at my posts from last year, I never did get to see Aliens of the Deep. I guess I should pick up the DVD.
And that week I was also waxing lyrical about the T-shirts from JiNX. Of course, back then I didn’t have a grandson to indulge… Anyway, I just bought him the perfect thing for a 7-month old hacker….