Christmas in New Hampshire

Hello All - We're back from a wonderful Christmas in New Hampshire and it's New Years Eve. We had a great time at Chuck and Lisa's, they are great hosts. We got to spend time with Andi, Misty and friends, young, a generation older (but still young compared to us) and even our generation. We got to see Lisa's Loft Studio; it was very impressive. And we got to meet Andi's boyfriend, Fraser. We got talk to Ben, Nora, Sophie and Peter on the phone Christmas Eve and Christmas day. We flew on US Airways and were very lucky, we and our luggage made it, pretty much on time both ways. The only fly in the ointment, I caught a cold Christmas night and was a bit of a grump Sunday and Monday; my apologies to all. MA and I want to wish every one a Happy New Year.

Misty, Lisa and a little bit of Andi.

sometimes annual trek is off

Hi all. I guess we will not be going to Death Valley this year. A real bummer. It seems as though i have a little problem that precludes me from being too far from home at this time. Last April I spent a couple of weeks in the hospital here with something called Temporal Arterioitis. Is simply is a virus that affect the bl0od vessels in your head. It seems as though it is comming back and i have to up the medication and it is not really comfortable so we decided to get it taken care of and then we will go somewhere for a week or so. Anyway, we are getting it taken care of and i am sure it will be ok soon. Just a little iffy right now and we do not want to be away. I guess this means we will get to spend a lot more time with our family and New years eve with Wendi and Brian and there friends... Should be lots of fun... Anyway, this is not something to get uptight about because we are handling it before it gets out of hand so sorry no pics from Death Valley but maybe some other neat place when we get to go..Again, Happy Hollidays to all and the best of the New Year... Love to all, John and Jan

Sometimes Annual Trek

Hi all. It is that time of year for Yule Tide thoughts and all of that neat stuff. Jan and I try every year to enjoy Xmas with Wendi and Brian and our grand daughters with Jans Dad and Aunt. We normally spend Xmas Eve with Jans Dad and whoever shows up and this year we will Xmas day dinner at Wendi's house. We have friends, John and Sandy Showalter who go to Death Valley ever hollidays and we try to meet them as often as we can. The plan is to do that this year if the good lords willing and creeks don't rise. When we get back Wendi has promised to show me how to put pics here so maybe we can share it with all of you. I hope all have a very merry Xmas and a happy New Year. Maybe sometime in the next couple of years we can all get together and have a family get together somewhere convinient to most of us. Take care all.
Love to all from Jan and John...

Update to Photo Album

Hello all - After a long hiatus, I've updated "Photos over the Years" album again. This bunch of photos were taken in Germany while I was in the Army. The termites that destroyed a lot of slides in 1993 damaged wiped out a lot of the slides taken during this period and damaged those I was able to save. Hence the quality of a lot of these is not too good.

Happy Holidays

Hi All,
Happy Holidays. Thanksgiving has come and gone along with the 26 pound turkey we managed to stuff into the oven. We had a wonderful day. Andi made sausage bread (her first), Mike made the stuffing (his mother's recipe), Misty made her first apple pie, Chuck made Glogg and spiced nuts. Dan, Maureen, their children, Dan's father and his wife Maggie were all with us as well and contributed some wonderful side dishes and very good company. This left me being responsible for just turkey and potatoes. It was an easy, lovely day. Though I know I raised my children to broaden their boundaries and to seek love and life where ever they may find themselves I do wish now that they would just stay home. It is always so wonderful to have them here and the goodbyes are never easy. Christmas is near though, Andi will be home again on the 18th. Mom, Dad and Misty arrive on the 22nd and we are so grateful that we will be able to share this time with family again. Happy Holidays and love to all........Lisa

Pat and Stan Nelson Celebrate Their 50th

Hello All - We spent a long weekend in Thousand Oaks, CA, attending Pat and Stan Nelson's 50th Anniversary Celebration. Ann and Lisa know them, but a lot of the rest of you don't. Pat was a sorority sister of MaryAnne's at Berkeley and MA was a bridesmaid at Pat's wedding. So, this was special. Pat and Stan's four daughters put on the celebration (with help from their husbands, of course) and it was extremely well done. We enjoyed it thoroughly.

The four Nelson girls and their 14 Children singing for Pat and Stan Nelson at their 50th Anniversary Celebration

Pat and Stan Nelson at their 50th Anniversary Celebration

Who is Toby Keith?

While we were in DC, we got a phone call from an old friend whose first words were "do you know who Toby Keith is?" Some of you do and I'm sure some don't but if you like Country Music he is at the top of the field. At any rate Toby was appearing in Tucson last Sunday. We knew it but hadn't done anything about it since we werent getting home until the night befor. Turns out that the young man who is the camara-man ofr the huge picture that appears behind Toby was a relative of our friend and we were given free tickets and a pass to meet Toby. Terry Clark opened the performance and she was so good that we didn't go to "meet and greet". We had a great time - everyone stood through nearly all of the performance. He puts on a great show - Reed said it took his ears some time to recover!

Who is Toby Keith?

MaryAnne's Project

After month's of work, MaryAnne completed the stained glass sidelight for our front door. There are over 500 pieces of cut stained glass in the sidelight. She was very grateful to get it out of her studio, which is also the guest bedroom.

Our Front Door Sidelight, MaryAnne's Project

For PRF:

Dad, check out the GigaPxl Project for amazing ultra high-definition images.

This one is also pretty awesome. .. click on it and zoom in and out.

Status Update

NaNoWriMo Word Count: 10,000
Days Without Smoking: 25
Cups of Coffee: too many
Outlook: somewhat stormy

I'll surface again in December. My work situation went from nothing to do to crazy and full of travel for a difficult client. I'll NEVER write 50,000 words by the end of the month!

For Ann - NaNoWriMo (?)

Ann-

I saw this article in the Washington Post today and thought you may be interested. Love you!

Speed Writing With One Month to Pen a Novel, a Faster Piece Is Better Than a Masterpiece
By Libby CopelandWashington Post Staff WriterSaturday, November 13, 2004; Page C01
Genius is overrated. Art ultimately comes down to discipline, to the doers and the do-nots -- the fevered few who prime their canvases and practice their chords and the rest of us who come home from work tired and fall asleep watching "Desperate Housewives."
If, as some people believe, every single person has a novel inside himself, then a lot of people have been wasting a lot of time doing a lot of things other than writing. Chris Baty, a freelance writer from Oakland, Calif., with novelist aspirations, devotes the month of November every year to helping people get those novels out. He approaches the writing process like a crash diet; his goal is to get people each to write 50,000 words in 30 days. The results may be shockingly bad, and will in all likelihood never be published, but that's not really the point, Baty says.
"Novel writing is actually great fun!" he says.
Baty has come to the District in the past few days to promote his new book, "No Plot? No Problem!," which advocates a pragmatic, populist approach to fiction writing that Baty has culled from six years running a movement he calls National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. He is drinking coffee at a cafe downtown and a keyboard is peeking out from the bag next to his chair. He has 50,000 words to churn out this month, and being on book tour, he feels, is no excuse for falling behind. This month, just like each November, he will write everywhere, in every pocket of free time, and will drink so much coffee that in all likelihood he'll lose weight. He is tall and lanky, with green eyes and red sideburns, and he wears a badge that says "Hello, my novel is . . ." -- underneath which he has scrawled "not bad."
NaNoWriMo started with 21 people and each year it grows bigger. This year there are about 40,000 people across the country and around the world attempting it, Baty says. Participation is free, though people are encouraged to make donations if they can. They register on the Web site, www.nanowrimo.org, and share thoughts and ask questions on the message boards. WriMos, as they're known, share excerpts of their work, which reveal the NaNo approach to writing: enthusiastic and over-caffeinated, and minus the benefit of revising, because the experiment's time constraints don't allow it. They are, at the very least, imaginative:
"Vaamanan would have thought after the twelve years Teira was with him, she would have learned that she couldn't escape or defy him. Yet she continued to dredge up those incessant displays of sporadic backbone."
"With glee he shook, as his tongue lolled out the ending sound of his words in a disgustingly slimy way that made you feel like a old, wet, flea-ridden dog with worms just hearing it."
This may or may not be the future of literature.
But it hardly matters if this stuff never gets read, says Baty, 31, who is nevertheless editing two of his old NaNo novels in hopes that they may be published. He says he is an advocate of the creative process, of making art in order to unleash the artistic id. The way he sees it, novel-writing can help not only aspiring writers but anyone who wants to tap into her imagination, or create a fictitious time capsule for his grandchildren, or join a competition for competition's sake. He says the 30-day deadline frees people by eliminating one of the biggest obstacles to writing: the internal editor.
"You take this sprawling, daunting, intimidating task and you basically shove it into this absolutely impossibly short timeframe, and I think that that somehow renders it manageable," Baty says. "Your inner editor is just like, 'This can't be done. I'm gonna go someplace else.' Which then leaves this raw, throbbing imagination."
At Baty's encouragement, regional groups of WriMos try to meet often for "write-ins" at coffee shops to turn "novel writing from a matter of private suffering into a matter of public celebration," he says. These events have the air of art installations. Plots fly back and forth. Characters are discussed. Names are invented. At a recent weekday evening write-in at the Dupont Circle Books-A-Million, the organizer, Rise Sheridan-Peters, a four-year WriMo, holds an old chocolate tin she has labeled "Random Plot Elements." Inside are slips of paper meant to energize lazy plots. They say things like "A bouquet of dead roses" or "A voodoo doll of your MC," for Main Character, and Sheridan-Peters hands the tin to each newcomer as they arrive.
A group of about 10 people, mostly women, have set up shop next to Sheridan-Peters and her 14-year-old daughter, who is also writing a 30-day novel. Most people have laptops. A few have pads of paper. One man keys words in slowly on his tiny combination cell phone and PDA. Most of the WriMos are over 30, and though they may harbor faint dreams of being novelists some day, they have real jobs that pay the bills. More than anything, they are devoted readers.
"I'm born to die by stepping in front of an automobile with my nose in a book," says Sheridan-Peters, 43. She says she used to drive to work from her home in Bowie, but became so involved in reading books at red lights that she decided she'd better start taking the Metro.
Sheridan-Peters keeps an online journal, but before her first NaNoWriMo in 2001, she hadn't done much fiction writing since college. Her first NaNo novel was a mystery involving a female researcher, a gang of ginseng thieves, 1920s-era washing machines and "a guy named Buddy with an adenoid problem." Soon after she began writing, she found herself bored with her novel and decided to kick-start her creative juices by unleashing a worst-case-possible fury on her female researcher character who was at the time living in the middle of Shenandoah National Forest. Soon, the character was "burned out of her camp, hiding under a spruce tree with sap in her hair, nose-to-nose with an angry skunk."
And that's when the magic started.
Sheridan-Peters says someday she may go back and edit her 2001 novel. But the process itself -- that one-month experience, and every November that has followed -- is the reward. She says after she finished that first novel, she gave it to a friend to read.
"She handed it back to me and said, 'This does not suck,' " Sheridan-Peters says. "That was all the praise I ever expected to get."
To scan the NaNoWriMo message boards is to peer into a fascinating slice of pop culture. The two most popular categories are those labeled "Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Horror" and "Romance & Erotic Fiction." Part of that, suggests Baty, has to do with the fact that sci-fi writers have taken to the Web easily. Another element may be the fact that romantic fiction is highly formulaic and therefore easy to write in a month. Because 30 days does not allow much time to research the Regency period, or the physics of space travel, the message boards are filled with all manner of requests for arcane information. There are subject lines that say, "Anyone know about forklifts and licensing?" and "incest . . . how wrong is this?" and "Habitable star systems."
One person posts this question: "Anyone know of a disease, preferably genetic, with no symptoms so long as you're medicated but will kill you within a few days if you go off your meds?"
A woman from the state of Washington writes in with the following query: "Any ideas for traits that might inspire unjustified hatred in the wife toward a blameless, gentle, hardworking man?" This sets off a firestorm of enthusiastic responses from other women, such as: "Snoring! After a while you just want to smother them with a pillow," and "My ex used to grind his teeth at night. . . . Homicidal ideation? You betcha."
Is NaNoWriMo the downfall of literature? Baty says he has often feared that professional writers would regard his experiment as "an insulting mockery of their craft," but he's never heard a professional writer say this. Instead, he says, some professional writers use NaNoWriMo to escape writer's block. After all, they're not doing away with the concept of editing. They're simply putting the editing off for as long as it takes to write rough drafts.
Of the two people who've managed to publish NaNo novels, both substantially edited their drafts after the November frenzy was over, and one was already a professional writer. His name is Jon F. Merz, a writer of supernatural thrillers. His 2001 NaNo novel, "The Destructor," pits his hero, a sort of vampire cop, against a female villain who is part vampire and part werewolf.
NaNoWriMo is "sort of the puke-it-out phase," Merz says. "Perfection -- if it's attainable -- comes later."
The other NaNo success story is Lani Diane Rich, 33, who had always dabbled in writing but never thought she stood a chance of being published before NaNoWriMo 2002. Her creation from that year, a chick-lit book called "Time Off for Good Behavior," took her 25 days, plus six weeks of editing.
"My problem was, I was always going back and editing myself before it was finished, looking for it to be perfect from the beginning," Rich says. "The great thing about WriMo is they're like, 'Write it -- write it badly -- just write it!' "
Baty says only about 17 percent of those who register for his experiment write 50,000 words. They send their finished works in via the Web site, and a computer program verifies their word count and declares them winners. It's all done on the honor system, and Baty says that to pad novels toward their 50,000-word goal, some WriMos cut contractions, replacing "don't" with "do not," and he himself has made characters hard of hearing so that dialogue would need to be repeated. Since there's no prize at the end, aside from getting one's name on the Web site, he figures it doesn't much matter if they cheat. The main point is they're writing.
Back at Books-A-Million, Sheridan-Peters taps at her laptop, then stops.
"Okay, I need the name for a kitschy erotica boutique," she says, sucking on an iced chai latte through a straw.
"Kitty Cat Dreams," suggests one woman.
Sheridan-Peters looks dissatisfied. "I'll figure something out," she says.
Already, in an attempt to jumpstart her plot, Sheridan-Peters has burned her character's Vespa. She's considered burning the character's boat, too, but hasn't done it yet. "I think it may turn out to be a murder mystery," she says. "There may be a body."
Art is so haphazard. Who can predict the wiles of a fertile imagination? Sheridan-Peters recalls how two years ago she wrote a book that came to a natural conclusion at just 42,000 words. She needed 8,000 more to "win," and she went to her husband for help.
"He looked at me and he said, 'So you should kill someone,' " she says. "And I did. I killed the protagonist's husband. And it worked beautifully."

I enjoyed hearing what Misty is reading so I thought I would share as well. Do any of you remember reading The Lonely Doll when you were kids? Mom is doing this for her reading group so I sent her my copy. Oddly enough, right after that the NY Times ran an article about how controversial the book is for this generation of mothers. There is a newly published book out about the author and what a strange life she led. Pretty fascinating reading if you grew up loving Edith and the bears as I did.

Misty may be tucked in out of the rain, but here we're having snow!! Ugh, it's early for this. I would love to be in watching movies, but it's power yoga (90 minutes @ 100 degrees) and then painting in my freezing cold studio.

Hope everyone is looking happily toward the holidays..wish we could have a big Fisher family reunion some day.......

rainy day

It's a rainy day and I can think about it getting back home and crawling under a pile of blankets on the couch, digging into some pop corn and losing myself in the new book I've picked up. It's titled, Snow, by Oham Pamuk and it's a fascinating account of man's return to his home country, Turkey, after spending 10 years exiled to Germany. A religious revolution greets him and he struggles with what his beliefs are. Although he's drunk through a majority of the book it's a really interesting account of an atheist's experience in discoverying where his faith lies. I'd be interested in hearing someone else's perspective.

I started a book group here to try and meet people. The hardest thing I've found about moving to new city and joining the "real world" is finding people to share your life with. It's always been a given - new schools where people are going through the same experiences and you have a solid ground to base your friendship off of - you can make the change and adjustment together. It's not like that anymore and I miss the company of a good friend. I'm sure having a serious boyfriend eliminates some opportunities for new people, but i'm working at it. :)

Grandpa wanted to see more blogs on this site, so I hope this suffices. I had a great dinner with them last night! I hope to see you all soon.

We're Off Again

Hi all -- Tomorrow MA and I are off, again, to the great DC metropolitan area for two weeks. I'll be doing another two week work stint. MA plans to get the Christmas shopping done. Hopefully we'll see Bernie and Kathy and Tom and Larissa while there. Misty and Andi, any chance of having a lunch or dinner with you both together? Love to all.

Ohio Is The New Florida.

And I don't want to talk about it.

I'm leaving the Electoral College score up until the counting is over.

That is all.

Hello everyone!

I hope everything is going well, especially in the election. I have been listening to NPR almost the whole day and all I hear is how the lines are so big in swing states, how an occasional fight has broken out because Republicans have been asking for ID's which is elligal, and about last minute descisions. Anyways, like Nora said, VOTE VOTE VOTE.

On a different note, the stuyvesant test is a test that 26000 people take total and only 10% (2,600) get into a mix of 6 schools (stuyvesant only accepts around 750 students) Hopefully I will get in, because it is one of the best, or the best school in the nation.

Love sophie.

greetings

Oh my gosh, I just spent an hour writing on this thing and I lost the entire posting.......ugh, it went something like this...... There is too much to reply to comment on each posting so forgive me for doing a general catch up....

Ann...keep at it, and thanks for your beautiful words. They are a gift.

Dad.......wow, cool pics. of the eclipse. I enjoyed the photo album as well. I also received the word doc you sent. Really fascinating. I have some writings from Roses I will share when I can find them.

Misty.......I love you, remember to vote

Mom...Made the soup, really good..xoxox

John, Jan and Wendi......so good to be able to feel in touch with you even in such a small way.

Sophie, Nora.......miss you, miss you, miss you, stop growing up without me

Ben.....miss you too, come see us

Andi....where are you on this thing? I love you. Vote, vote, vote, Pa. is a swing state.

Mary.......you're one of the missing too, gosh I'd love to see you, love to Meigs and Kate

About me.....OK I've just done this once tonight, so here's the condensed version. I think I can only do this like I grocery shop, fill my cart, get it done, and then forget about it for awhile. My lack of frequency on this is not indicative of my feelings. My hands hold a paint brush all day and I've decided they are meant to grasp and to shove color around, not to punch at little frustrating buttons on a keyboard. Perhaps Dad will help me download some photos at Christmas so there are some visuals of life in NH. It's a good life. I drive by our little airport every day on my way to the studio. I've been fantasizing about getting my pilot's license. How old was Roses? Do you have to see well? I have that middle age thing going on. The studio is a beautiful space to spend time in. I am almost finished cleaning out 100 years of grime. It feels wonderful. OK, I really was a little (only a little) more eloquent in the posting that I somehow lost....This will have to do. Love to this beautiful family.....

Day Ten

Two weeks my dear friend Clare died of cigarettes and alcohol. Primarily cigarettes. She was 66. She suffered brain damage from lack of oxygen. Her daughter, a lifelong friend of mine and Ben's godmother, asked me to help out with the inevitable sorting and organizing of Clare's house. As I took the train to Virginia I realized that I absolutely could not smoke while I was there. That to do so would be inconsiderate and thoughtless and just... vile. And so I didn't. I slapped on a patch and I stayed busy. We worked about 14 hours a day sorting through a lifetime of papers and... just stuff. I stayed for five days and then I came back home.

It's been harder here in my routine life. I sit in front of this computer and I want to smoke. I work on my NaNoWriMo stuff and I want to smoke. I count off the firsts. First time I stopped into the corner bodega for coffee and didn't buy a pack of cigarettes. First time I didn't smoke after sex. First time I didn't smoke after a meal with wine. First time I didn't smoke between leaving the office and getting on the subway.

I've reached the bored with not smoking stage now. Feeling proud and strong has worn off and I just feel tired of struggling with it. I'm waiting for that to pass. I'm sure it will.

Every time I find myself pacing around (my body off looking for cigarettes before my mind catches up with it), or rubbing my face and longing to light up, I think about what my friend is going through. I think about how Clare was only 66. How humiliated she must have felt to have gotten lung cancer and how stupid she must have felt. And I think about my kids and my partner and my friends. And I just... don't. I don't go to the corner store. I wait it out.

checking in

Hi everyone--

checking in to see how you are...how Sophie did on her test and if Anne's still in VA? If so, I'd love to catch up for lunch/dinner/drinks. I'm in Old Town, but am able and willing to drive anywhere to meet up.

We had a fun time last night with the trick-or-treaters and I dressed up like a christmas tree saturday night. Pretty silly but fun nonetheless.

I'm not going to brag to you New Yorkers (some of which probably don't care) about our Red Sox, I'll just say it was really thrilling and a fun, sleepless few weeks!

I'd love to hear your views and visions of what tomorrow may bring.

Love to all. Hope to see you soon.
MLT

Lunar Eclipse Photos

Hi all - I grabbed my new camera, put it in on a tripod and shot a bunch of photos of last nights lunar eclipse. I wasn't going to bother but when I found out that the next good full eclipse wouldn't be until 2015, I decided that it might be now or never. The two best are below. Hope you all enjoy.

Full Lunar Eclipse - 10/27/04

Partial Lunar Eclipse - 10/27/04

Photo Album Update

Hello All - I've updated my photo album with pictures taken, mainly around the Bay Area from 1952 to 1954.

Southwestern Soup

This is really great, quick and very easy!

1 12oz. jar salsa verde (I used Trader Joe's)
3 cups cooked chicken pieces (I used Louis Rich Southwestern)
2 15oz Great Northern beans, rinsed & drained
3 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 tsp. ground cumin

Garnish
Sour Cream green onions, chopped
Fritos to crumble

Cook salsa 2 min. over med heat. Add rest of ingred. except garnish and simmer 10-15 min. Top each bowl with dollup of sour cream, green onions and add Fritos to taste.

Enjoy!

sty test

Sty test tomorrow!
Wish Me Luck!

A Photo Album

Hello all. This is my attempt at putting a photo album together. It's going to be some of the photos I've taken over the last fifty plus years (that is the ones I think a worth seeing). Many of the best slides got destroyed by termites when we were living in Wilmington. What you see are the better ones that remain. The album will be kind of a living document; every once in a while I'll drop a few photos off and add a few. this first batch were all taken in the early 50s with a Kodak Retina II, manufactured just before WW II. Ann and Lisa have seen these photos more often than they care to remember but maybe the rest of the family will enjoy them. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the album. Love to all.

NaNoWriMo

Because I am crazy...

They convinced me. I've decided to go far, far beyond the challenge of writing this blog or even 100 words a day (which I did for 5 months in 2001 and 2002) and commit myself to writing 50,000 words between November 1 and midnight of November 30. Fortunately, the only thing that counts is quantity, so the "novel" I end up with is expected to be bad. I'll report now and then on my progress, if I make any. At the moment I am agonizing about plot.

New Photo Album

Point Lobos, by Paul R. Fisher

I have uploaded Dad's California Roadtrip photos to this album.

Back Home

Hi all - I'm back from a week's work stint in the greater DC metro area making my contribution to the security of our nation, etc., etc. Had a great dinner with Misty Wednesday evening. We got caught up on our various goings on. Had drinks and munchies with Bernie and Kathy Hughes Thursday evening. Glad to be home though. I don't enjoy solo travel anymore. It's much better to have my bride along. Love to all.

PS - Mary, where are you. Have I missed a post????

Brook and LoryAne

OK...Last one...It wouldn't be complete without a picture of the munchkins...Here's Brook & LoryAne w/Phil Vassar (country music singer) backstage at h is concert. They were in hog heaven!!!

Big Catch

My mom caught this 40# Rooser Fish on our trip!! The guys acted like they were happy for her, but deep down they were a little green...LOL Ü

Mr. Pineapple Head

Brian and I with my sinful drink on the beach!!!

Still Happy

Cute picture of my Folks....Still happy after all these years!!!

A Rare Smile

This is one of the few pictures of my Dad smiling. Most of the pictures that we have of him is with his hand in front of the camera...LOL!!! Of course the 2 for 1 Margaritas at the River Cafe in Puerto Vallarta Mexico helped out quite a bit. Ü

I hope this works....

Hi there! Thanks for the invite Ann. It's been a really really long time. Too l0ng! I'll write more it this actually goes through.

~Wendi

Hi all

Sorry I haven't commented yet, I'm still trying to clear up my email :-) Anyway this is a great way to keep in touch with family. Ann, Wendi didn't get her invitation if you could ask her again I know she would love to be part of this. I promise to read all the comments and try to do more to stay in touch with everyone. Love to all, Auntie Jan :-))

Having Problems?

If you're trying to comment or create a post and you run into difficulty you can alsways check Blogger Status.

Photo Album

I put this album together as an experiment while researching online software for Dad. At any rate you all can go and get a look at a sample of my life since moving to New York.

Dad, I stole a few of your Christmas pictures... but I'll take them out when you get them all into your own album. Oh, and... the one of me and Sophie making the Summer Pudding is the ONLY one of me I like so, PLEASE, when you do make your album leave the rest of them out!

catching up

I love the opportunity to hear what everyone is doing and perhaps get to virtually meet new people (John and Jan!) and stay in touch with all of you! I just spent the weekend up in NH for a friends wedding. Weird that I'm getting old enough to have friends getting married. It was really nice to be with my Mom though --- I really miss her! I'll post pictures when I can figure it out. Andi and I drove up and down together and she has camped out on my couch for the last couple of days---She said it wasn't so bad, so there is an open invitation to anyone who wants to come vist! (NORA, BEN, SOPHIE---and anyone who doesn't mind the living room!) We're also working to get everyone to NY for a weekend so we'll keep you posted.

Grandpa is in town so we're meeting at our favorite chinese food place tomorrow night - it's always so nice!

Like Nora I'm taking a break from writing an article...but I should get back to it. I miss you all.
Love you.

School Talk

Hi everyone! In school a ton has been going on. First we having an election amongst the school (this happens every four years) and my class was chosen to run as republicans. It is a very interesting role to take on. Among lots of things, I have had to write speeches from a republican point of veiw and get a job/ role in the party. So now I am the chair of the republican party which is exciting. The school gets very into it and assigns classes to take on the role of media ( they even video tape), special interest groups, and electoral college. My best friend is the vice president and a boy named Evan is the president for our party. Besides the election, we are studying greek mythology which is really fun. We are in the second half of Algebra 1 in math and we are studing matter in science. I am also taking french, art and gym. I am going to be doing basketball starting in December. This year is a very important year because we are applying to highschools and filling out applications and getting ready for the tests which are very hard. We have been getting a ton of homework but supposedly our teachers will give less as the year goes on. We are also doing a project where we make live sized Greek charactors out of cardboard. I am making Echo who is a really cool charactor and she represents how the Greeks though echos were made. Well I will talk later,
xoxoxo,
S

Nora at the beach

Alex, Emelia and Nora in Bridgehampton, September 2004

Summer Camp 2004

Audrey, Hillary, Sophie and Haley

Sophie and her friends outside their cabin, Pomo, getting ready to go to a dance.

Here I am..........

Hi everyone....I'm not as dumb as this makes me look........xoxoxo

A Photo Story

Hi all - I took 169 pictures during our recent road trip around California. I posted a few on this BLOG while we were on the road. I've put together a PowerPoint thing with the "best" 80 photos and 10 route maps to show where we went. It's a big file, 118 MB. Most email servers wont accept over 10 MB but for those who would like to see it, I'll be happy to cut CD-Rs and mail them to ???? Love to all.

Stained Glass Window

I am making a window for the one next to the front door. It consists of 500-600 pieces and today I finished soldering the first side and flipped it over. This may not sound like a big deal but believe me it is!!! We loved our trip and seeing relatives and old friends. It's always good to come home though.

Welcome John and Jan - Jan I haven't seen a post from you yet. I understand Lisa has been told that even I am on this blog which is designed to shame her into getting with it!

Love to all

Hi!

Hey Everyone!
My computer was infested with male porn, and no i did not go to any sites... so i couldnt get on my computer because it was being fixed. Finally after many attempts to free the computer of gay men, we went to the last resort and re-configured the whole network so now i have a new, and hopefully pornless computer! The point of this was to say i would be reading posts! :)
Love Sophie

The Fisher Face?

PRF Christmas 2003, not sure who took the photo!

This is what I'm talkin' about. Do John (scroll down) and Dad look alike or what?

Two bad I can't figure out how to get the two photos side-by-side... I'll work on that.

We're Home

I just posted two photos; John and Jan and Wendi with daughters, Brook and Laurie. forgive me if I didn't spell Brook and Laurie correctly. We left Modesto Thursday morning and drove over Tioga Pass in Yosemite and down the other side of the Sierras to Lone Pine. It was a beautiful drive. I'll post a couple of pictures of the "High Country" later. We picked a place in Lone Pine to have hamburgers for dinner only to find we had misread the resturant list and were in what is probably Lone Pine's best eatery. We both had great steaks. The resturant is called the "Merry Go Round". We recommend it to all who stop in Lone Pine. On Friday, we were going to drive through Death Valley, over to Pahrump, NV and on down to Bullhead City, AZ. We found that the main hiway out of Death Valley to Pahrump was closed for an indeterminate length of time due to flood damage. So, we drove down 395 and cut over to Barstow and took I40 to get to Bullhead City. Yesterday we drove home via Kingman, Wickenberg and Phoenix. We had a great trip but are glad to be home. Love to all.

Brook, Wendi and Laurie

John and Jan

More Fishers in the Net!

We've caught John and Jan now! John (that's Uncle John to me and uh... Great Uncle John to my kids (wait... is that right?) but I don't think we need to stand on ceremony. Anyway, John says:

"Hi all. Just ole Uncle John from Modesto. Thought i would try and see if i could figure out how to use this so i can connect a little with all the neices and nephews i have not had the opportunity to meet and see. Loved having Reed and MA here for a few days... Hoping in the near future to be traveling the US and get to see everyone. Anyway, Thanks Ann for inviting Jan and I to your Blog... hoping to keep in touch more this way...Bye bye for now....John"

It's terrible that my kids have never met you two (well, I suppose Ben has, but he was a baby). I'll try to post some photos soon, and I hope you will too.

Now we need to get Mary... and Kate and Meiggs... and Wendi... and...Lisa (invite pending but she refuses to do anything about it. Exert pressure, Misty and Andi, relentless teasing and humiliation. Whatever it takes).

Around Modesto and Oakdale

Hi Family - We're in Modesto, seeing John, Jan and family and MA's childhood friend Elyse. We went driving around the familiar haunts yesterday. The picture below is of what was a popular trysting place 50 years ago. It's up near Knight's Ferry on the Hiway from Oakdale up to Sonora, Pinecrest and over to Yosemite. Ann and Lisa have been on this Hiway many times. One might say Lovers Leap is where it all began. It was the location of our first kiss. Romantic, huh. We're going to leave tomorrow. We're planning to go over Tioga Pass and down the back side of the Sierras. Love to all.

First Kiss Many Years Ago

Lovers Leap on Hiway from Oakdale to Yosemite

Rainy Days

Hey Guys!
Here in New York it is pretty rainy and grey but i guess thats life. My unicycling club is meeting today and there is going to be a spanish film crew there. Unfortunatly, I can't go but it sounds like a lot of fun that they get to be on T.V. Who knows... maybe I will even see them on moms telivision since weird spanish channels are the only ones we get...
Love to all, Sophie

More Travels

Thursday we drove up the coast from San Francisco to Fort Bragg. Nice seacoast. Washed clothes, got car washed and had a nice fish and chips dinner at a micro-brewery. Friday we drove down through the Sonoma/Napa wine country and on to Concord to spend the night with Paula. Traffic got bad after Napa, but I, more or less, kept my cool. Then today we drove through delta to Stockton and on up through Oakdale and Sonora to Twain Harte. We're in a real neat Bed and Breakfast. Monday we'll go back down to Modesto and Oakdale.

Love to all, Grandpa

Neat B&B

Our B&B in Twain Harte above Sonora, CA

What Winery Do You Want to Visit?

In the Sonoma/Napa Valley Wine Country Driving by Familiar Vineyards.

Ivan the Terrible

Ivan as seen from the Space Station

Okay, this isn't really family-related, but I think this is an amazing photograph. You can see it at high-resolution here. Another good site is Earth Observatory, with some very cool images.

End of an ERA

Well - we went to the Mandarin tonight. Almost no one there; maybe three or four other tables. We ordered Sizzling Rice Soup to start. Instead of a bowl of soup with super hot rice that sizzled and steamed when it was dropped in the bowl, we got two serving bowls and the server dropped two little dabs of medium hot rice that kind of fizzled into the soup. It tasted good, but something was lost. We had two dishes; abalone with shitaki mushrooms and walnut prawns. they were good but nothing exceptional. The lettuce wrap is made with chicken rather than squab (we didn't have it). So, a message to the next generation after us; the food at the Mandarin is still good, but don't expect what we used to enjoy. It's tough when you find you have outlived an institution. But, the alternative is unacceptable.

love to all.............

Embarrassing Lisa into joining...

For heaven's sake, could someone (I think that's you, Misty and Andi) please work on Lisa? She could be telling us about the work she's doing on her studio! She could be giving us decorative painting tips! She needs to be here!

Chocolate Bag and more

Hi all,

Our SF trip is great - it is hot here (over 80). Ann, we tried your restaurant last night and had the chocolate bag filled with mousse, etc. for two. We agree - it was great. Going to the Mandarin tonight.

Our first dinner (or lack there 0f was a riot. We decided to eat in the hotel as we had a long day only to find it was closed on Monday. We walked to a Chinese place the hotel sent us to - the only other people there were two hookers. Couple other people walked in and got served. We had soup and waited and waited and finally got up and left.

The Hotel is neat - only 2 blocks from the old Day's Inn!

Love to all,

Mom

Commenting

You've probably noticed that you have to sign in with a user name and password to leave comments to posts. Commenting has been restricted to Blog members only to prevent "helpful and constructive criticism" (such as, damn, you were an ugly little kid!) from people we don't know and don't care about.

If you're family or a family friend viewing this Blog but not yet a member I apologize for the restriction. You can always let one of us know you're interested--your request will forwarded to me by whomever you speak to.

Hey Hey!

Thanks for inviting me Mom.

It's great to see news from all corners of the family here, and to hear about your upcoming plans to visit New York. Please don't leave me out!

I've been taking it easy in the city and just got back from a week off of work. A whole week of relaxation during which I basically slept and sat around. It was exactly what I needed.

Hope you are all well.

Ben

New blogger

Thanks for including me! I'm still trying to figure it out---if you send it to my Mom give her EXPLICIT instructions---she's technically challenged. Just got back from a trip out west and am back to work. BORED...as you can tell. I miss you all---Mom, Andi and I are trying to find time to meet in NY. We'll keep you posted. love, xoxox

A fellow "parasailing" in the surf near Half Moon Bay.

We're Off On Our Trip

Hello everybody. this is the fourth day of our two week trip and we just got into San Francisco. We were in Monterey/Carmel the last two days. Had dinner at the Sardine Factory. MA looked great and I was one of three or four men in a sport coat (all of us were middle aged or older). Got a fair number of good photos. I'll post one or two later. Today we drove up to Santa Cruz and around in the Santa Cruz mountains before coming on up the coast to SF. Ann, we're in the Carleton and it's nice. We're trying to decide where to eat tonight. Maybe we'll try a seafood place on Hyde Street. Enuf for now. More later. Love to all.

Hummingbirds

Hi All - I just put a photo of a hummingbird on the BLOG. I mean't to write something with the photo but messed-up and published it before I could wite about it. We live under one of migrating bird flyways and there is an old (two whole years older than me) gentleman who lives about 25 miles south of us and feeds the hummingbirds. During the peak season (which is just finishing) he has about 150 feeders out and feeds 10,000 to 15,000 birds a day. He goes through about 1500 pounds of sugar a year. It's great fun to go down and watch them. We have around a dozen hummers that fight over our two feeders during the season. One or two hang around during the winter. If you look carefully at the photo you'll see the bees like sugar water also. Love to all.

Hungary Hummingbird

If You think MA's Graduation Picture was Good.

This is MaryAnne 10 Years after HS Graduation

Back

I am back from Umas and had an okay time. i got to water ski and am very excited about that. Noras at volley ball camp now, and she is doing a lot of work out i hear.
sophie

Finally finished!

Sunflower, by Beth Russell

It took me about 9 months to finish this thing off. I first saw these kits in London while Jack and I were taking a break over Thanksgiving last year. I fell in love with them but didn't buy one. I should have, because I became obsessed and ended up ordering two (there is a companion to this one I have yet to start working on) by mail. Some of you will remember me working on it at Lisa's house last Christmas.

Why me

I hate computers - especially this one which seems to have severe mental problems!

Memo

Just so everyone knows... as the only administrator for this Blog (for now) I also have the ability to edit all contributions. For the mostpart I will leave them as they appear, typos and all. However, I have decided to go back and add "Recipe:" to the beginning of "Easy Heat" and "Samosas aint losas!" to make them easier to find as they disappear into the archives. At some point I will work on a way to link to all recipes (and other categories we may come up with) from the main page. It's possible to do so now, but the list would get very long over time and I need to think about how to pre-emptively solve that problem for a while.

Also, I'm looking at photo blogs right now--I'd like to create one we all belong to so that we can link to collections of prints. This blog is great for uploading a single photo, but awkward for displaying an entire collection, such as Christmas, or my recent trip from Oregon to San Francisco. Any of you wanting to learn how to upload single photos (or any image) to the blog should give me a call--I'll walk you through using Hello. It's easy, once you get the hang of it.

Finally, you can also include links to other websites in your posts. If you don't know how, let me know.

To the Country!

I am going to the country with my friend so internet may not be in reach. If it is, i will check in as much as possible to spill a little about whats going on in the country. Whoooh i get to water ski! Zoom Zoom Zoom if you see me on T.V. cus I'm so good, tape me.
xoxoxo
sophie

Recipe: Samosas ain't losas!

1 1/2 hours to prepare
25 mins to prepare

Samosas are filled with spicy potatoes and peas. Mmmmmm...

The dough:
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup yogurt
extra flour as needed

1)place flour in medium bowl. Mix in salt.
2)Make well in center, add yogurt. Mix 1st w/ spoon and then with hand.
3)Add extra flour as needed to keep dough from being sticky. Knead for 5 mins. Cover tightly and put in fridge till u are ready to assemble the pastries.

The filling:
2 large potatoes
1 tbs. butter
1 cup finly minced onion
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 tbs. freshly graded ginger (bit of advice, DO NOT USE POWDERED GINGER! TOO STRONG!)
1 tsp. mustard seeds
1 tsp. dried corriander
3/4ths tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups uncooked green peas (frozen, thawed = fine)
2 tbs. lemon juice cayenne, to taste

1) peel potatoes and chop into 1 inch peices. put in sauce-pan, cover w/ water, boil untill very soft. drain and put in medium bowl. mash and set aside.
2)melt butter in heavy skillet. add onion, garlic, ginger, mustard seeds, coriander, and salt. Saute' over medium heat till onions are quite soft. add to mashed potato along with remaining ingrediants. Mix but dont smash peas. cool for 15 mins before filling the pastries.

To assemble and bake:
1) Preheat over to 425F. generously oil a baking sheet.
2) have sm. container of flour, a fork, sm. bowl of water and a pastry brush at hand. Flour clean surface and rool one inch balls of dough in 5 inch cirlces, using rolling pin, not a barbie dolls head.
3) Place aprox. 1 1/2 tbs. filling in center of each circle and fold over like a turnover. brush inside edges with a little water. fold edges to make a hem. Crimp edges firmly with a fork ( the amusing part)
NOTE: IF STORING SAMOSAS TO BAKE LATER (sry caps) place them on a heavily floured plate of tray, dust tops with more flour and cover tightly. store in fridge untill baking time.
4)To bake: put Samosas on baking sheet ( the one u oiled idiot). brush tops w/ oil. bake 15 mins at 425F, THEN REDUCE HEAT TO 375F and bake for ten more minutes. turn the samosas over when u turn the oven down for more crispiness.
5) serve within 15 minutes of baking!

Buon Appetito!

Axis of eve

I went to the protest on Sunday and we met up with the Eves there selling underware, boxers and shirts. in the mood of a full protest i bought a pair of underware "weapond of mass seduction" and wore it over my pants. i got a lot of looks then, and a couple of comments upon the lines of " Your protesting Bush AND ur doing a great job going against his family values. Great going". After i left the march, i took the panties off immediatly. It was very fun. The march was really inspiring and the amount of people there was great.

Can Old dogs Learn New Tricks?

Hope this works. I got invited by daughter Ann to join this Web Log. At over three score years, things that my grand kids take for granted sort of baffle me at times. But, it looks like a great way for the extended family to keep in touch. After I get a little more conversant with the concept I'll try to get the family matriarch into it. Only thing, her computer hates her and tries to defy me. I'm getting closer and closer to getting her a Mac. I'd get one myself if it weren't for the fact that many (most) 0f the technical software firms no longer write for the Mac. Anyway, hello all.

confidence for the right school

today my tutor is coming, in 15 minutes to help me with those tricks that "get you the points" and how to "handle the time". i am a little nervous because with a tutor, although it takes away a level of stress, it adds a deeper one. now i worry, what if i don't get in and being tutored was all for nothing. hopefully nancy will be happy and reconize i have worked pretty hard. hopefully i will do well and get in. but it is a big step and i know its going to be hard. i am not going to hide that. so ill work my best and see what happens. so here goes! Math mania comin my way.

Hello

Well, just saying i joined this new blog, "FisherCatch". Seems like a good name and a pretty cool place.

Recipe: Easy Heat

I’m not very good about keeping the larder stocked. It’s a New York thing, I’ve decided. Or maybe it’s a living-in-a-sixth-floor-walk-up thing. Probably both. By the time I get through the work day I’m usually too tired to contemplate stopping at a grocery store and then hauling the bags upstairs, so I tend to do what too many New Yorkers do—go out for dinner. This gets old. Sometimes you just want to kick off your shoes, shrug out of the consultant clothes and refuse to move. When you get hungry you curse your own laziness and rummage through the cupboards hoping something has changed since you last took inventory. If you have dried red chili peppers, garlic, olive oil and pasta on hand you’ve got a meal in the making. Even if you only have red chili flakes, you can fake a decent dish.

Peel 4 garlic cloves and chop one of them. Heat ½ a cup of olive oil in a skillet and toss in the remaining 3 garlic cloves with 3 to 6 small dried chili peppers (you’ll have to estimate the heat of the peppers—I usually have very fierce ones on hand and use only 3). Let the garlic and peppers sizzle for about 3 minutes—the peppers should swell and blister a bit. Remove them from the oil and begin crushing them in a mortar. Add the oil they cooked in a little at a time as you crush the garlic and peppers until you have an oily paste. You can substitute about a teaspoon (or more if you like) of chili flakes.

Leaving the chili/garlic paste aside, heat another 1/4 cup of olive oil to the skillet and sauté the chopped garlic for about a minute. Add the chili/garlic paste, sauté for another few minutes and remove the skillet from the heat.

In the meantime, cook a pound of pasta (any kind). Before you drain it, reserve ½ cup of the water you cooked it in.

Put the drained pasta in a bowl and toss it with the chili/garlic mixture and as much of the reserved pasta-water as you think necessary.

Still Beautiful

Dad sent this to me last year. Thing is, Mom is more beautiful now.

Hello Everyone!

Learning to dance was easier than putting this blog together.

It's the end of August and there isn't much to write about and yet, perversely, the summer doldrums make me want to invent something to write about!

So here's to a new family project--even if it's all just me so far. No worries, I'll invite you all soon!