Saturday, December 26, 2009

Merry Christmas to All of You!


This Christmas, Myron got what he always wanted....his own industrial strength tool chest to hold his array of tools. LOL!!! He has now neatly stored his screwdrivers and hammer and makes weekly trips to my favorite store...Lowes! Today we went to Lowes and drooled over the power tools... next on the wish list... a circular saw... The Jack Daniels was a gift from Oma and Opa.... they know how difficult it must be for Myron to put up with me....

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve with Oma and Opa and enjoyed the thoughtful gifts we received. Skiing in Snowbird thanks to Sean and Liz, good grades thanks to Jeff and fantastic photos from Paul and Julianne.

We missed our sons but will see them soon.

Love you all.... more to come.

Anna and Myron

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Merry Christmas from North Carolina


Merry Christmas Everyone!
We put up the tree this evening... it smells like pine and cinnamon... the nut cracker sits by the fireplace and Tango music rises from the stereo. The only thing missing is the laughter of our sons and family. We miss you all so much.
Love, peace and happiness to ya'll!

Mom Anna and Papa Myron

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Tango Workshop with Brigitta Winkler


Brigitta and Jason are amazing dancers. We spent the entire weekend
taking workshop lessons and dancing in the evening. My feet are a bit sore, and we are tired but enjoyed the learning and the dancing.
Myron took this picture of me dancing with Cliff. We can only dream of dancing like Brigitta and Jason.

A Heron at the Lake Near our House


A beautiful still heron at Woodlake where we walk. We walk to the lake and then around it on the path for a 3 mile walk. We often see turtles, geese, ducks and herons.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Our Housewarming Tango Milonga


We had a fabulous evening of dancing and socializing with our friends. We enjoyed sharing our new home with all of you. Our dance floor will hold many more Milongas . Special thanks to Tim Hall who organized and provided amazing Tango Tandas... he is very gifted! Saule only left a few crumbs of the Grandma's Bourbon Pound Cake so I guess I will have to make it again!
Enjoy the pictures in the badge, though they don't capture the spirit you all brought with you.


Love
Anna and Myron

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Wouldn't miss talking to my son Paul for anything!


This morning I have been baking! I am making pumpkin and apple pies. I already made chocolate chip cookies and will make Grandma's Bourbon Pound cake... so in the midst of flour and sugar and in my yukata, my eldest son, Paul calls from Utah. So not to miss talking to him, I have the phone on the table and bend over with my floured hands behind my back in order to chat. Myron couldn't resist the moment and took a pix. All this in preparation for tonight's Milonga... but I got to talk to my dear son..... Anna

Sunday, November 15, 2009

The Deck that Sean Built.






After a week of terrific weather and then 3 days of Tropical Storm Ida, Sean completed the deck on our house. He is a terrific, skilled builder and an incredible resilient worker! The weather for the last 3 days was terrible with winds and downpour, turning the back yard into a swamp. But he continued to saw, screw, hammer and measure to build the perfect back yard get away and never let the pelting rain get him down. Then after finishing at 10:00 am in the morning he drove with all his tools back to Vermont in his trusty truck and arrived home at 3am! We thank Liz, his girlfriend, for lending him to us for this time She is a gem. Here are pix... They do not do it justice. We look forward to having barbecues, dances and get togethers. Love Anna and Myron

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Sean is building our new Deck!






Sean, my carpenter son, drove down from Vermont with his car filled to the roof with all of his tools and gadgets to stay with us for 10 days and build us our new enlarged deck on our house in Durham. The drive took him 16 hours in his truck, but he arrived safely and began work the very next day. The weather is cooperating perfectly with sunny cool mornings giving in to sunny 70's in the afternoons. Perfect deck building weather. Sean is incredibly fast, skilled and dedicated to building his Mom and Myron the best looking and stable deck! We couldn't be happier. I have been feeding him his favorite foods and Myron has been helping with the manual labor part. Myron had been filling holes, keeping the job site picked up and holding things for Sean to cut. He is becoming almost handy! I helped on Saturday, screwing with an impact drill and knee pads!! NO JOKES PLEASE!
On Sunday, Sean took a break and went to OBX to do some fishing. He returns on Monday to finish the work. Check out the lemon Meringue pie his Mom made and the Makers Mark his Mom bought for the boy! Oh and dont forget to make a comment about the laborer Myron with his wheelbarrow, shovel and sledge hammer... Everyone is invited to come and share a few drinks and laughs on our beautiful deck when it is done.
Love Anna and Myron

Salt Lake City, Paul, Jeff and Oma





I flew out to Salt Lake City with my mother who is 81. We left on a Friday and returned on Monday. We wanted to fly out to visit with Paul and Jeff since Oma had not seen them since last October.... hence an adventure.
The flight from RDU was delayed and so we missed by minutes our connection in Dallas... it was very funny to watch my mother being wheeled in a wheelchair at supersonic speed, while I tried to keep up, down the terminal and onto the sky train to find we missed the plane by mere minutes.
Keeping my cool, I immediately went to an agent and booked seats on the next flight to SLC. ( 3 hours later). So we relaxed and had dinner.
We arrived in SLC at midnight instead of 8pm, found the computer was down at the rental car desk, waited another 30 minutes to get a car and drove to our hotel where Paul and Jeff were waiting. Oma, who ordinarily is in bed way before 9pm, is finding herself awake at 2am EDT with her grandsons. We went to bed at 1am Mountain time and slept till 8am. I was still zonked from my 5 day earlier flight from Japan as well as the intestinal issue I had.. My body had no idea what it was supposed to do.
But we had a wonderful weekend with terrific weather and enjoyed the boys, the views and the city. Enjoy our pix.
Anna

OBI,



When we were in Japan, we decided to buy an antique obi of the correct colors to hang on the wall of our bedroom to complement our bed ensemble. We found an exquisite OBI that had all the exact colors. Here are pictures of the hanging OBI and a curtain to our closet....

Saturday, October 31, 2009

October was all about Traveling! Japan First



We left for Japan on Oct 1st... a very long flight and a longer time change but we had a blast.
Riku and Chikage are adorable and we had such a good time with Hiroko and Ren. We went to a Ryokan inland which was near mountains and was just breathtaking. The food and the hot springs were just the ticket after a long flight. The rest of the week we enjoyed the children immensely, great food and some sightseeing in and around Tokyo. We are now experts on the subway... the buses still have us stymied.
Enjoy our photos ... sorry they took so long but once we got back I was sick with an intestinal thing and then back to work and then to SLC with my Mom to see Paul and Jeff! Myron had to go to Philadelphia for consulting and I met him for my high school reunion in NJ and then he got a COLD! He never gets sick and I think it was all just too much traveling, planes etc! We will blog about the reunion in the next post. And this Monday, my son Sean will arrive to build our new deck on our house! I will really enjoy seeing him and enjoy staying home!
Love
Anna and Myron

Saturday, September 26, 2009

OBX in September


What a terrific weekend! The weather prediction was wrong! It said rain and clouds and it has been terrific. Sun breaking through clouds but no rain and 76 degrees with a light breeze. When we arrived on Friday night we had Dungeness Crabs... ALL YOU CAN EAT... It killed us and we were in bed before 11pm...
Saturday we took a magnificent walk up the beach road for 8.4 miles.... We figured out the calories.... for me it was 760 and for Myron it was over 880.

Awesome.

We saw some humorous signs... The Fritz Carlton is the name of a house and another sign for a memorial to a dog!


Mountain bikers weekend race... no mountains and a young teen on some weird skateboard with 2 wheels called A RIPSTICK!
Here are some pics. The ocean was wild but warm and NO SWIMMING signs were up... so we got to find some friendly hot tubs!

Our plan: a movie tonight, followed by a bit of dancin' at Kelly's and then hot tubbing before bed!

Love Anna and Myron

Monday, September 21, 2009

Eno State Park Hike




This weekend was supposed to take us to OBX... but the weather looked iffy so we settled on staying in the Triangle and doing other things like hanging curtains and putting up a full length mirror. We must be getting better at hammering, nailing and screwing because we got all the parts and pieces up without mishap. Now the guest bedrooms are totally finished and we have a full length mirror so we can see what we look like before we head out to Tango...
And ... we headed out to Tango on Saturday night and danced until 1am... fun even if we remain barely competent.

Sunday weather was delightful and we decided to hike Eno State Park. What a lovely hike in the woods! We took pics of turtles ( I just love the snapping turtles)\, a blue tailed lizard and the river itself. It was a pleasant, quiet and great hike. We got a bit sweaty, but afterwards drove to Oma and Opa's to partake in the annual Zwetschegen Kuchen ( plum cake) my mother makes around this time of year... It was delicious. Here is the recipe: http://www.recipezaar.com/Traditional-German-Plum-Cake-Zwetschgenkuchen-131910

Next weekend we will go to OBX with Oma and Opa and eat crabs at Dirty Dicks. Stay tuned.
Love
Anna and Myron

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Tarboro!





It is only 1 month shy of our anniversary and we took the gift of a B& B weekend in Tarboro NC given to us by Myron's childhood friends.

We spent a wonderful weekend at the Inn on Main Street in Tarboro, NC.

First and foremost we must reiterate that the weather in NC is sublime! As usual the days are sunny and warm with big puffy clouds and the evenings are cooler with tantalizing breezes and fragrant air.

We left around 3:30 from our new house on 22 Pinestraw Way in Durham on Friday for the 1 hour 20 minute drive to Tarboro. Driving in NC is also wonderful….. you can always predict the time to travel the distance because there is no traffic. Route 64 out to Tarboro is totally empty and newly paved. It is the road we travel when we drive to our house in Nags Head on the beach in always exactly 3 hours and 15 minutes. So we are quite familiar with the trip.

We arrived in the sleepy but major historical town of Tarboro to be greeted by our hostess with a bottle of champagne! Our dear friends added that to the already exceptional gift and we promptly did some required “porch settin’” with the bubbly and watched the world turn on white rocking chairs at this architecturally interesting turn of the century B&B.

A few souls strolled by and always raised a hand and shouted “howdy” to us on the porch. Good Southern hospitality was apparent.

Myron even waved and yelled “hello”…. Can you believe it?

We took a walk around the 14 acre historic common and were amazed at the stately oaks, elm and magnificent magnolias. Statues and monuments to the C.S.A. were evident here and there. Yes, the C.S.A is the Confederate States of America.!

We took a picture of the statue of the Confederate soldier who exemplified those who were lost during the War of Northern Aggression and discovered later from a book on Tarboro, that someone had shot the statue in the butt!!! So of course here is the picture to prove it. If you look carefully, you can see the bullet lodged in his steel butt! Of course Washington slept in Tarboro for one night on his Southern Tour.

Shortly after our walk we headed out to our first meal at ON THE SQUARE! We passed the Colonial Theatre which is being renovated and had to snap a shot of the coming attractions. What a hoot! We really felt like we were back in the 40’s with this walk down Main Street….

Nevertheless, the meal was terrific! We have had nothing better in NYC! What a discovery in the heart of agrarian Eastern North Carolina. Myron had a Pear Salad and Pork Tenderloin with a sauce he felt compelled to sop up with his bread. I had a most amazing wilted Romaine salad with goat cheese and North Carolina Black Drum with Oyster and Bread Pudding…. YUM! Black Drum is a local coastal fish that is sweet and delicate. We had Strawberry Shortcake and Chocolate Molten cake for dessert and weaved our way back to the B&B , sated to the max.

In the morning we awoke to sun streaming through the shutters and got up ready to bike, walk and discover the rest of Tarboro.

Our hostess made a terrific breakfast which we took out on the porch. Bananas Foster with Kahlua cake and a Croque Madame …. a French grilled cheese with a poached egg on top with Hollandaise…. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. The sun was shining and we were eating on a table with a white table cloth on a magnificent porch in 70 degree temperature…. The next morning we breakfasted with 2 other guests we met and had Eggs Benedict! Just amazing… as you can see!

After breakfast we got our bikes out and decided to bike around the Common and up and down the 45 small blocks of streets that were quiet and sleepy but hosted many historical homes on the National Register.

Many Victorian homes had been renovated and boasted classical color schemes and all with wrap-around porches. From our readings we discovered that the Eastern Coastal area of North Carolina is very hot and humid in the summer months. Unlike the Coast and the Piedmont area ( Raleigh) and the mountains to the West, this area is still and hot and humid in the deep summer. Porches were necessary in the pre air conditioning days as the inhabitants would sit on the porches, burn rags to keep the bugs away, and retire to bed only after the house had cooled down late at night. Every house boasted an expansive porch with white- washed rockers and porch swings. Many houses were for sale at rock bottom prices, but one has to understand that the economy had always been based on cotton, tobacco, and sweet potatoes. Things had changed. As an agrarian community, poverty and simple pleasures were more the norm.


It is important to also note that the town of Princeville, Pop. 2000, which is adjacent to Tarboro. Pop. 11,000, is a historically totally African-American town since it was incorporated by freed slaves after the Civil War. It is one of only 2 towns in the entire country that is totally populated by African Americans and governed exclusively by them as well. Tarboro itself seems equally represented by both races and all seem to be quite comfortable with living as neighbors and friends… very nice to see.


We discovered cotton fields, tobacco fields and cooperative sweet potato fields in our walk after biking and drifted down to the Tar River. Only 10 years ago, the Tar River flooded Tarboro and Princeville during Hurricane Floyd. But now it was a sleepy low muddy river where kayakers and fisherman share the stillness of the overhanging vines and the loamy banks.

We then took a drive to Greenville only 20 odd miles away. Greenville is the home of Eastern Carolina University and we wanted to check it out.. On the way back we photographed the tobacco fields which were ready for harvesting to then dry in the huge barns where sharecroppers tended the fires to dry the massive leaves. Cotton was also visible but isn’t ready to harvest until the middle of October.

When we returned to the B&B we met another couple who had arrived from Philadelphia.They were on their way to South Carolina and discovered from reading the Philadelphia Inquirer that this B& B was one to stop at…. I am sure it was the same article that Ruthie read and clipped for us.

We had dinner together at ON THE SQUARE and drank wine on the porch till late in the evening.

On Sunday morning we rose to another spectacular day and shared breakfast on the porch with our new found friends.

From a historical, weather and relaxing point of view, this was one terrific weekend.

Thank you Ruth, Howie, Mike, Hope and Neil… we enjoyed every minute.


Anna and Myron

.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Kayaking at OBX!



Myron had quite the day... we rode our bikes 9 miles, he read a beach book in a beach chair under a beach canopy. He swam and drank margaritas... and he kayaked in my ocean kayak and didn't even tip it in the surf... ( of course it was a very calm surf today!) Don't worry, I sprayed him all over with SPF 50 and kept his hat on! We topped the day off with Soft Shell Crabs cooked just right dusted with seasoned flour and sauteed in garlic and oil ( my special recipe) and a 2 mile walk on the beach.... Tonight is the meteor shower and we will watch it from the beach....
Here are 2 pix of Myron being an extreme kayaker!

Love you all
Anna

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Finally OBX after a mild adventure!



Today I have been waiting for all summer long! Today I drove the short 3 hours to the Outer Banks to our beach house for a 2 week vacation. No need to hurry this morning as we carefully packed the car and put the bikes on the bike rack... we would be there by 2pm if we left at 11.... So off we drove on the empty Rt 64 due east. No traffic as usual and we were speeding along at 75-80 chatting and looking forward to our time at the beach. We came upon a short stretch of road work and the scarified road surface had some bumps and dips. I slowed considerably, but the dips were a bit more than the bike rack could handle and POP...one strap let loose and I started to pull over and then I hit another dip and POP the other strap let loose and the bikes were hanging on by a wing and a prayer as I made an abrupt stop on barely a shoulder with deep sand because it was being worked on..... It wasn't particularly a safe place to stop but I had no choice. We got out of the car and looked at each other and said ...ok now what? So we emptied the car ( cooler, suitcases, roller blades, dry goods, wine and margarita glasses of course, my special pillow, etc etc etc.. ( ThankGod for my Vibe). Then we struggled to get the 2 bikes in the car and put all the other stuff on top of them... Well, it all fit except for the cooler. So I said... put the cooler in the passenger seat, Myron, you drive and I will pretzel myself around the cooler ( one bigggg cooler). Somehow I got into a position wrapped around the cooler and Myron started to drive... Now we had 2 hours yet to drive optimistic me said we could do it. But within 15 minutes, I was hurting all over.. My side was cramped, my feet were falling asleep, my bad shoulder was on fire and I still wanted to keep going. Oh and by the way... the cooler kept slamming into the gear shift and putting it in Neutral.... so I had to pull on the cooler crouched with my butt against the window.. a picture!!!! Myron wouldn't stand another minute and got off the highway for Tarboro hoping to find a bike shop so we could buy a new bike rack. ( Oh btw, I put the broken strapped bike rack on top of all the stuff in the car too!) We get off and find a Walmart and I unpretzel myself as Myron opens my door and I literally fall out... I run into Walmart and find one bike rack meant for children's bikes and buy it for 30.00... It is flimsy and weak but it can make it the rest of the way and I can then sit in the front seat. We take all the stuff out of the car, put the bikes on this flimsy bike rack and put all the stuff back in the car head out again. We get to our house 2 hours late..... but we head to Dirty Dicks Crab House and have a bottle of wine and Dungeness crabs and then walk the beach and all is terrific again... You got to laugh... Anna and Myron

Monday, August 3, 2009

Home Design with OBI

Hiroko gave me some OBI to use for decoration/ home design.
Now that we have space to display them in the new house, I did some OBI display research and I have displayed 3 OBI. Here are pix of 2 of them. I purchased authentic bamboo OBI hangers to display one of them.




Sunday, August 2, 2009

It Has been awhile!!!

Ok Folks.... I know it has been awhile since I have posted any news...but well... we bought a house and have been in home repair, renovation, restore and renew mode since. We bought this lovely house on 22 Pinestraw Way, Durham, NC, USA 27713 on June 24th after a nightmare of a closing debacle which I don't want to remember. It turned out to be a short sale just shy of a foreclosure... so we did well in terms of the price but constant anxiety. We were supposed to close on June 5th, but the sellers were short repayment to their 1st and 2nd mortgage... I guess they were overextended ..... Anyway "all's well that ends well" and we have a nice home on the end of a cul-de-sac in a nice neighborhood, close to work in Durham! I have painted 7 rooms! Many of the previous owner colors were dark and dreary and I required 3-4 coats to cover them!! UGH... I didn't have to go to the gym in 4 weeks working by day and painting by night, I lost 4 pounds! My Dad installed 48 knobs on kitchen and bathroom cabinets in one day!!!!! For some reason the previous owners didn't believe in knobs! Thanks to Home Depot we now have them! Myron schlepped back and forth from the apartment 3 miles away and over the last 4 weeks moved all our stuff while teaching fulltime in the summer session at NCSU! What a guy! We hired movers to move his heavy office furniture, but other than that we did it ourselves! I decorated and we are now ready for guests!

OBX starts on Aug 8th and Jim and Lynn DePaolo, friends from Vermont are going to join us there for one week and two of our sons and significant others will join us for sun, surf and fun! Today we put up 4 2" faux wood blinds and a shower rod and put books in bookshelves.

Here are pix of Myron with a bolt cutter... scary .

A few weeks ago we were in Vermont for a few days for Myron consulting and Anna visiting son and friends. Here is a pix of professional musician,Sean, playing at Cactus Cafe in Stowe, VT. He is sooooo good.... and Nita, a former student of mine from Vermont being Nita.

Anyway more pix of the house to come! Stay tuned.



Love
Anna and Myron