Pic of the Week

Hailey started middle school this week equiped with her own cell phone and very neat locker.

Nantucket '09

'Sconset bike path via Polpis Road - we both went that route and came home that route.
Don't you recognize me?


Surfside

Liddy sunning herself

Are those oysters for me?

at the White Elephant for dinner --

We had lots of nice meals including a new restaurant called "Town" next to our sushi place.

Also the "Brotherhood of Thieves" has a new and improved menu and seating capacity. We went there the first night when John and Carol were still there.

Robert and ML arriving on the ferry after an all-night drive from Baltimore.


Sushi time on Sunday night

Yummo!

ML and Robert on the Polpis Road bike path to 'Sconset

Clan before the Browns departed for Boston on Aug 17

"Helena" moseying down to our house in NC via UPS.

Santa Fe Trip: Aug 3-9

The Santa Fe Opera was wonderful, both in venue and performances. The first night we were there we could see lightning to the southeast as shown in this photo of the stage. The ceiling only covers the stage and the audience. It is open to the sides. We saw wonderful sunsets while there as well.

This is Natalie Dessay as "Violetta" in Verdi's La Traviata. She was totally fabulous in her red wigs. We got a backstage tour of the opera house including the wig and costume rooms. I saw all the wigs- each hair strand individually placed in a net. They like to use Asian hair because it hasn't been treated before. In the costume room was a red-headed Barbie doll with a replica of this costume. Practice makes perfect I guess. Natalie (wearing her high-heeled pink boots) jumped all over the stage set which was lots of blocks in a variety of shapes and angles. The opera is based on La Dame aux Camelias by Alexander Dumas the Younger about the life of the courtesan Marguerite Gautier

We also saw Gluck's Alceste, Donizetti's Elixir of Love, Mozart's Don Giovanni, and a world premiere of Moravec's The Letter which was based on W. Somerset Maugham's 1927 play that was also a wonderful Betty Davis film. In addition to Natalie Dessay, we saw Patricia Racette (in The Letter) and Christine Brewer (in Alceste). Dimitri Pittas made a wonderful "Nemorino" in Elixir which was set in post-war Italy (~1947) as a peasant auto mechanic who falls in love with the educated olive grove owner, "Adina", played by Jennifer Black. It was a very cute production. We enjoyed Alceste the best, however, mostly because we upgraded our seats from the back to the second row. It also had wonderful costumes and dancing by the "Divinites de Styx" who kept trying to drag the mythical Greek Queen to Hades who volunteered to die in place of her husband. Louis Meachem played a somewhat mean "Don Giovanni" who failed to seduce any of his targets on the last day of his life. The singers (none of which I had ever heard of) were all quite good but the banquet scene was in effective and the production lacked sparkle in its black and red sets and costumes which all seemed to come from different time periods.

Each morning we had a 3-hour lecture about the upcoming evening's opera by Ron Grinage who is a pianist that does the SFO's electronic libretto system (English (or Spanish) translations on the back of the seat in front of each audience member). He was very informative and interesting. There were also pre-performance lectures at the opera house which were very entertaining as well. In the afternoon we went on excursions like tours of the backstage, Santa Fe museums, etc. This was all arranged through Elderhostel and included about 24 partipants from all over America. Everyone was very nice and one wrote a blog which you can read http://blog.onopera.com/. The rest of the time we either ate or slept.

We went to the Georgia O'Keefe Museum which included a nice film about her life and many of her paintings. This is Jimson Weed, 1932 which was returned from loan to the White House for many years.

Pedernal, 1941 Scenery around Santa Fe

Finally, this is a painting by Forrest Moses that was illustrating the 2009 SFO poster. Turns out the artist is a fraternity brother and classmate of Moody's, so I left our card and he called us. We went to his art show at a gallery in town and talked old times with him. His art is rather fascinating but mucho expensivo (like $70,000).

The plane rides were fine but we are glad to be home with our pups who had a great time at Companion Camp.

Pics of the Week come from ML's summer album

Robert's neice

Yearbook pics

Check out "yearbook" pics of me through the ages.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30391598&l=bdebc792a4&id=1286094931

Hailey's swim meet video

Please check out this video of Hailey's 100m backstroke meet. Truely awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atYKFg6c6jA&feature=player_embedded

Trip to New Bern July 20-23

The trip began with a stop at the Ava Gardner Museum in Smithfield which was right on the way. It's a small museum with a brief biofilm and movie posters and dresses. She had corgis for pets. Some of my fav movies of hers include Mogambo, On the Beach, and Night of the Iguana. She was married to Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw, and Frank Sinatra. But I knew all that becasue Mother used to tell me of her husbands frequently.

We visited Tryon Palace in New Bern which was the mansion of the colonial govenor of NC. Tyron only stayed 13 months in NC because it was too hot and humid. He took a transfer to New York where he stayed through the Revolutionay War.

The pentagonal outhouse was fascinating as it had 5 seats in it all with the back cornor in the center of the little house. But you would have to pass by someone to get the the next whole. Otherwise it was very private.

Here's a pic of Moody, Bill, and Melva in the garden. Bill and Melva were staying there all week so we horned in for a few nights so we could sightsee together. We stayed at the Harmony House Inn B&B which was right in the historic district. We went to a lot of nice restaurants and even traveled to Beauford on Wednesday and had lunch on a second floor porch that overlooked the inlet and some wild ponies. Only took 2.5 hours to drive home today.