News from Home

Being away, I miss home more than ever. I'm especially comforted by e-mails and comments from faraway friends and relatives and similarly enjoy sending news, e-mails, and postcards. (Anyone want a postcard? If so, please provide an address.)

I've done a couple things here that I might not have done had they not reminded me of friends. Near Queenstown I visited a Chinese settlement, because it seemed like something Corri Jimenez would've done. (Happy 40th, Cor.) Arrowtown is an old goldmining town, settled in the 1860s. By the 1880s many of the Chinese prospectors had moved back, and one in seven had died. A few chose to remain and make a meager leaving. Near the settlement I visited a cemetary, which is something Annie Brockett would've done. (Annie just got married to Pete in DC, and I'm sad to have missed their wedding -- congrats, kids.)

My beautiful cousin Miriam had her fourth child on October 12, 4:44 p.m.; here is Russell -- quite a cutie.


Molloy just bought a new car. Here's a picture of Joey (the dog we share) in his new backseat den. He looks a bit like he's been told to "stay."


Cheryl requested I post pictures of myself. So here is a picture of me at Michele and Richard's house. A sip of coffee, a crossword puzzle, and my two doggie companions Griffon and Buckley. Notice how seamlessly I match the dog beds.


Jamie, the best roommate "in a world" (sic), seems to be thriving amid his own menagerie. He's my cat Wishbone's temporary caretaker (we call the cat Kitty). I had written him to "give Kitty a nose-kiss for me," and he wrote back:

Whenever I think of giving nose kisses to the kitty, I
first check to see if he has a live mouse in his
mouth. the other day, I was doing whatever I was
doing, and I noticed that as I'd gone in and out of a
room several times, the kitty was paying close
attention to my sweats, which I'd left on the floor.
I picked them up, and there was a mouse hiding
underneath. Kitty was right on him, and I followed
him to your den, where he batted him twice and then
ate him in three bites! oh the crunching, the
horrible, horrible crunching!