OBX Summer 2010

There was fabulous weather, wonderful turquoise water, terrific people and great food and drink.
For 2 weeks we frolicked in the sand, jumped on the trampoline, ate local seafood, drank homemade margaritas, walked on the beach, kayaked on the surf, attended bonfires at night, ate ice cream and laughed a lot!!!
At first Jim and Lynne, Jeff, Cindy and Chris and Jackson, Oma and Opa, Anna and Myron and of course Evan the lifeguard enjoyed a few days together. Various departures and new people showed up off and on for the rest of the vacation. Chris and Kieran came the second week and everyone simply fell into the rhythm of warm sunshine and warm water and the relaxation of being in the sand without a care in the world.
The pictures speak for themselves. They are in a badge on the right!

Love
Anna and Myron

Midsummer Milonga

Midsummer Milonga We had a most amazing Milonga on Saturday the 23rd of July from 8pm till 2 am at our house. At least 40 people arrived and danced Tango till the wee hours. Thank you Cecil for terrific DJ'ing.
View the pictures on the right!

Blooming Roses in Chapel Hill

We took Oma and Opa to Witherspoon Rose Garden on Saturday. The roses were beautiful!
I can not wait till my garden looks like this one!
After walking around the gardens, listening to violin and piano from the gazebo, we drove to Gugelhopf Bakery and enjoyed coffee and pastries.

1902 Denzel Carousel

When I first met Myron , he told me a story, as he was and remains apt to do. He told me a wonderful story of riding the carousel at Coney Island with his Grandfather. The story went something like this:

His grandfather would take him to the old wooden carousel for a ride. They would hold onto the horses and ride the carousel around and around. Myron was perhaps 5 years old at the time. In those days, the carousel hung rings to snatch as you revolved and on the last revolution a brass ring would be suspended and the one rider who could capture the brass ring would get a free ride. The carousel was a pretty big ride for such a little kid and holding onto the horse and not falling off as it went up and down was no small feat for Myron. But his rather short grandfather, who was also on a horse, would stretch to the limit of his frame to attempt to reach the brass ring. Such daring would frighten little Myron for fear his grandfather would fall of the horse. But when the ride was done, and his grandfather had failed to capture the brass ring, Myron would ask why his grandfather would do such a dangerous thing. His reply was always thus: " Life is like a carousel and you only get one chance at it. You have to try with all your might to make it worth the ride."

The story remained with Myron and influenced his decisions in his life. I have always followed a similar philosophy. Around 3 years ago, Myron took me to Coney Island so we could ride the same carousel, but the carousel had been recently dismantled and sent to Disneyworld. So today, I took Myron to a 1902 Denzel wooden carousel that is in Burlington, NC. Though it didn't offer any brass rings, it provided us with the joy in riding a carousel and the paths of life.

I hope you like our pictures.
Love
Anna and Myron

Herb Garden

Alright... so here we are in April in NC and the weather is spectacular and my 3 bareroot roses I planted 2 weeks ago are sprouting and I think it is time to put in the herb garden.
I love herbs... fresh herbs in cooking is so much better than the dried variety. However, NC soil is virtually clay and a boxed raised garden is the way to go. I purchased a Ryobi circular saw with a laser guide...very cool, bought 3 6X6 common pine boards, some box nails and proceeded to build my box for the herb garden. I bought 6 cu feet of garden soil ( Myron and my father did the math), a bunch of herb starters and spent a few hours digging, cutting and planting. The pix tell the story.
BTW after that work, Myron said something about liking gladiolas so we purchased for a mere 9.95 a bag of 70 gladiola bulbs and proceeded to plant them! We were very ready for margaritas on the porch.
Enjoy the pix on the right in the Flash badge.
Love
Anna and Myron

Sean and Boomba at OBX

Last week Sean drove his intrepid 92 Toyota truck with 185,000 miles on it to the Outer Banks of North Carolina with his trusty dog, Boomba, at his side. Leaving Vermont early in the morning, he braved horrific Connecticut traffic and witnessed an accident immediately in front of him. Being the hero he is and wearing his brother Paul's firefighter t-shirt, he got the woman out of the smoking car and waited with her until the EMT's and police arrived. Of course he had to make statements to the police which only delayed his getting back on the road again. With that behind him, the rest of the 800 mile trip was a breeze?!?! He arrived at the beach house at 2am Friday but Boomba only gave him puppy dog eyes the entire trip. She was quite the trooper. We arrived on Friday at 6pm just in time to take Sean to Dirty Dicks for all you can eat Dungeness Crab! We all three at 6 full crab orders. Gluttons!

Sean started working on Saturday painting the ceilings and putting holes in the ceilings where the fans were to hang. We ran the beach with Boomba and viewed the devastation that the storm, Ida, caused in November. A few houses had been washed away and others hung on precariously but of course are condemned and need to come down. The private road next to our house was awash with 2 feet of sand and our neighbor was bemoaning the fact. It doesn't effect us at all because our driveway comes off the main road. About 1/2-1 mile south of us the damage was quite extensive. Apparently the erosion there is much worse than by us.

The weather was terrific. 70 with constant sunshine. A beautiful change for Sean from Vermont harsh weather. Boomba was a wonderful dog. She loved the ocean and chased the birds when we took her off the leash. She ran into the surf and I didn't know that she had webbed feet. Apparently black labs do. She was a real water dog. Myron enjoyed her as well even though if on the leash she saw a shore bird, she would rip your arm out pulling on the leash!

Sean came over to Durham on Thursday after finishing the work at the beach house and spent the night after having dinner with us and Oma and Opa. He left at 5am to head back to Vermont and had traffic issues in Washington DC but got back home at 9pm. A bit easier going back this time.

Oh btw, when Sean was wiring the fans in the attic, his foot fell asleep and it went through the ceiling. He put up the sheet rock to fix it but I will tape and mud the 3x3 section next weekend. There is always something!
Enjoy the pictures in the badge to the right.
Love you all and can't wait to get back next weekend to the beach.
Anna and Myron

Utah Winter Vacation March 2010

We had a tremendous time skiing with the boys and their girls this year at Snowbird and Brighton in Utah. All the flights from Vermont, North Carolina and Denver were on time and easy! What a change.

The pictures are in the Flickr badge to the right.
The sun was warm, the snow was plentiful, the slopes challenging, the boys and girls hysterical and the Myron only fell off the lift once!

Anna caused one flat tire on Day 1 because she saw a rock in the road that she thought was a clod of snow. Oops! blew the tire right there and then. Thanks to the fine work of Sean and Jeff, they changed the tire in 20 minutes after finding where it was and how to get it down from the bottom of the car. The manual helped.

We skied 5 days out of the 6 we were there. Our house had a hot tub and it was used it to soothe our sore muscles and drink wine after a long day on the slopes.
Paul, Jeff and Myron and I skied. Sean, Liz, Chris and Keiran snowboarded. Julianne sad to say, had to work that week but joined us in the evenings for food, drink, chatter and merriment. We shared the cooking and ate like kings. Liz made her famous fajitas, Chris his pizza and Anna her brisket and chicken parm!
The last day snowed 12 inches or so and Jeff and Keiran made this incredible snowman and entitled it the Inebriated Snowman because they couldn't get the middle and top snowball on top.
Enjoy the pictures!

Love
Anna and Myron