Hello! I hear you're over the flu and like your job a lot -- great news. We had a very fun Thanksgiving vacation here in S.F. Mom made a great Thanksgiving dinner for our family, Ron Migdal, Marsha Fine and our best friends, the Bibliowicz family from Columbia, whose son Gabriel is Noah's constant companion from Hebrew School and Claire Lilienthal. The pumpkin pie and stuffing were especially good.
On Friday I got up at 4 a.m. (my usual time to wake up) and went to Best Buy and Office Depot where the old Sears used to be to buy things for Black Friday. I got the new laptop I saw advertised, a video game for Noah, and a camera. The person I was standing in line next to had purchased a "netbook" (small laptop) and some earbuds that were 70% off, so afterwards I went back and bought those too. The netbook -- earbud combination is wonderful. I read the lives of composers in the evening, and when the author speaks about a great piece I don't know I go to Youtube and listen to it on the netbook; the music sounds terrific with good earbuds. So we're continuing to mount up to cyber heaven.
Friday night was a reunion and Friday night service for Camp Tawonga, and Rivka saw the boy she likes, Ben, for the first time since camp. Unfortunately she didn't go up and say hello to him; he was talking with a friend. Maybe she's a little shy.
On Saturday we went to the Scandia Family Fun Fair in Fairfield with the Bibliowiczes, and had a fine time. They have gocarts to race with, lazer tag, miniature golf, and boats with squirt guns attached. Naturally the kids enjoyed it, and I liked racing the carts that go pretty fast -- you have to turn your whole body around to make the sharp turns on the course.
Yesterday we went to the annual Dickens Fair for the first time. The people who had the original idea for the Renaissance Faire many years ago (remember it?) have been putting on this one every Christmas time, and since Noah loves the Renaissance Faire (under new management), we thought he'd like this and learn some history about Victorian times in London. Many people walk around in Victorian costumes -- quite elaborate, as soldiers, drunks, fine ladies -- and there are many stages with plays of all kinds. The best were dancing demonstrations of cotillions, waltzes, etc. by dancers in costume, and my favorite an opera house with a performance of the Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan and other opera arias. I just love opera singing, so I was in heaven. It's happening to Neal Bertram too -- he's completely given himself over to music, like me. Must have to do with aging.
I heard it was 70 degrees last week in N.Y. Enjoy the nice weather, and take care! Sidney