papa nick's day

dude... that's a sweet tractor-mower.

hey, mister...

and here's a little story to catch everyone up...

there once was a little guy called nick, formally known as mark, bif ironcomb etc., but due to his greek features he earned the traditional name and still wears it to this day.

as a young dude he hanged out with his brotha, steve, a.k.a., uncle baked bean, auntie roberta, and auntie tina. they played on boats, in the backyard of cactus circle, at the buena park mall, at knot's berry farm when it was still a farm, and all over orange county when they were still growing oranges.

he also went to the zoo with his beautiful greek-irish momma, elaine a.k.a., penny.

and sometimes he disguised himself as a frontiersman. who didn't?!

this gentle soul is my papa nick. it's his birthday and i hope he's having a smokin' bbq or something groovey going on in his backyard. here we are at a party he threw for me before n and i officially moved to california so i could meet all of his superfriends including this smart, little poodle. if you are ever in the bay area in the middle of winter, my dad, like n's in so. cal., will be one of the few gentlemen wearing shorts. them california boys sure are hearty.

my dad is a wonderful friend, father, artist, genius, writer, eclectic music and movie connoisseur, comedian, and creature... to know him is to love him.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DADDY NICK!!!

WE SURE LOVE AND MISS YOU!!!!

CHEERS!!!!

theodora:(greek) GIFT OF GOD

FASTER THAN A SPEEDING BULLET, STRONGER THAN A VW BUG... it's a bird! it's a plane! NO, it's the fee bird! and it's her big, fat 28th birthday today so if you know her give her a big,fat hug or phone call!

for those of you who don't know, our little bird, has toned down her shreddage at trestles and is navigating the high seas of the merciless, saddleback pre-nursing program. n and i were in the intensive, pre-english major program there which included eating lots of bratwurst and earning extra credit for getting a bloodtest. needless to say, fee is working a lot harder. payback for all those hilarious surf stories she entertained us with as we procastinated in our studies.

fee has been such a blessing to us. below are some photos when she lived with us in washington. she came to take care of n while i was teaching full time. it was the year after we were married and n was not doing well. she was his full time nurse and friend.

bro and sis. nathanael means "gift of God" in Hebrew. both are renewed... "a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew... but Christ is all, and in all." Romans 3:11

my sister, too!!! fee is an amazing gift of God to us. she is SO full of LIFE!!!! we love her!!!

here she is with her momma when she came to visit at christmas. what a beautiful heritage.

"You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. And such confidence we have in Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God." 2 Corinthians 3:3-5

WE LOVE YOU, FEE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

DERYK, WE HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN YOU!!! THIS VERSE GOES FOR YOU, TOO! HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOU WONDERFUL MAN OF GOD!!! WE SURE LOVE YOU.

una boda en el campo

hil and i just got back from our first wedding in new mexico. our friend karen got married under an oak tree by a little spot called indian creek somewhere in the vast pecos wilderness.

it was a western theme.

we hiked to a meadow for the ceremony. of course hil and i were overdressed californians in our linen pants and sandals. everyone wore cowboy boots and jeans. duh. we walked past karen's and chip's horses on the way to the hay-baled sanctuary. the newlyweds are going camping, horseback riding and hiking all week for their honeymoon and anyone is invited.pretty sweeeeeeetttt!

we waited around for an hour and a half for the wedding to start. and i was uptight about being late. bienvenidos a nuevo mexico.

the ceremony was followed by a barn dance at frankie's casanova BBQ in downtown pecos. we (I) ate bbq slathered chicken and beans and salad and bread- now i'm really crabby.i wanted to buy a hagen daz icecream on a stick with nuts at the agora market on the way home, but cho wouldn't let me cuz she said i'd be worse off.

chip's dad is slick. i think he owns part of the mountain or something. if you look this cool you deserve a mountain.

peace out, gringos.

gardens, glorieta, gunner!

a few weeks back hil, gerry, and i went cruising on canyon road where loads of art is lined up in old adobe structures. above is a lovely garden and courtyard behind one of the casitas. and here is a sample of some artwork...


i took n out on our first walk outside of the hood since he broke his back. we went to glorieta which is a few miles down the highway. he didn't really like it cuz there was lots of horse poop and his shoulder hurt. it's definitely being together that counts. now his foot is messed up and we are limited to the driveway again so we would love continued prayer for that. thanks!

this is gunner. he lives at a nearby farm and escapes to our house every chance he gets. and of course i greet him with lots of affection and singing of "gunnysongs." n will not let him in the house and his owner doesn't like him to even coming over to the porch. they have both admitted to jealousy so that's that. fee said our relationship is "creepily special." do you think that's very nice?

gunny, gunny crocket, king of the wild frontier...

oogie's bible study

hi people, it's wally. i've been trying to improve myself with some meditation and prayer. sometimes i fall asleep at bible study. please don't judge me. it's really hard work around here.

what you lookin' at!?!

copper canyon, NEW mexico

when i told people i was going to copper canyon over the weekend they thought i was loco. as everyone knows that's in chihuahua, mexico. well, i didn't know that. but nobody seems to know about copper canyon, NEW mexico. yes, it really exists. see for yourself, pedro.

the plan was for hilary and johnny to go on a hike through the college where i work, but jd's hip was out of commission and we were just glad he made it to see us that week. thanks for the prayers those of you who were on it. we decided i would replace jd for the hike, but thankfully he and hils still had their first weekend away together since august. on sunday i picked up my neigbor gerry (who pioneered her way to NM from new jersey) and we headed to abiquiu (abb-ih-cue) 50 miles north of santa fe. below is the chama river flowing behind the b & b where hils and jd were staying.

this is georgia o'keefe country. she lived down the road and up the road and painted all over the place.

here is annie, a little norwich terrier who lives at the b & b, las parras de abiquiu. she's after a lizard. she's so pretty.

here we are on the "moderate" hike with our extremely relaxed guide kirt (in the hat), a local geolist and adjunct professor at the college who enjoys stopping at sheer cliffsides to point out ancient rock formations. there is hils in the white shirt with her hands on her back. she was clinging to kirt's backpack on the way down as our group scrambled down loose sheet rock and clung to old junipers. after surviving we suggested he advertise this as a "challenging" hike.

there is the pedernal in the distance- the vista that drew all those artists, writers, dreamers, and cowgirl wannabes like us out to the romantic west.

speaking of cowgirls... here are me and gerry.

lovely view of the hidden canyon that no one seems to knows about. kirt taught us all about local geology. the red and yellow colors are from oxidized iron, not copper.

i'm a pretty quick learner. especially with my fly half-way down. nice.

we stopped at ghost ranch on the way back to SF. this was owned by all sorts of pioneers, including ms. o'keefe and now it belongs to the presbyterian church. you can attend all sorts of fun classes like discovering spiritual connections through pueblo pottery and self-expression through quilting and ofcourse, golf in the high desert: seeking the hole in one and the holy one. need a good retreat? come to the land of enchantment, baby!

here today, gone to mora

here are grandma bamma and her wonderful husband, grandpa marty, at orlando's (uncle alfred's son) house overlooking part of the mora valley, where my grandma grew up. here are some shots from the day of uncle freddy's funeral.

grandma bamma, aunt deni, and my mom at uncle freddy's funeral reception. we convened at the VFW, one of his hang outs.

grandpa marty, or mar-tay, as fee likes to call him, and tio paul, my grandma's uncle. they call him marteen en mora.

grandma bamma (i couldn't call her grandma when i was little so the name bamma has stuck) with her tia adelina.

aunt deni and uncle big mike. they drove from so. cal. to mora in 11 hours. true truckers. thanks to them for bringing my mom, a piece of medical equipment for N, and stella roo.

my grandma's nephews from portland, rick, don, and bob. her sister flora could not make it to the funeral.

uncle alfed's grandson, ted.

tio paul, tio adelina and me. we got to speak lots of espanol.

my mom and her cousin jennifer, a.k.a. aunt jennifer, at guadalupe cafe in santa fe.

my mom's cousin, orlando, uncle freddy's son, on his beautiful property in the mountains of mora.

franco and stella.

ty, a good family friend, with the yellow submarine.

roybals and then some outside of orlando's chevron station. there was a great picture of uncle freddy milking a cow posted on one of gas pumps. how mora will miss him...