Aunt Mary
My aunt Mary passed away on November 8th after suffering a stroke in early October. She was 96 years old, so I guess she was nearly retirement age the first time I met her, but she always seemed to have such a youthful outlook. She loved to travel and had wonderful souvenirs from all over the world; saris from Varanasi, weird little cookies from Japan that seemed to never get stale, lace from Belgium, things like that. As a former art professor with a special interest in textiles, she kept a house full of things that fascinated my little girl self. Spinning wheels, drop spindles, and looms, and she taught me how to use them all. I remember one visit when we dyed wool usi

Happy Birthday, GrandDaddy!
Today is the 88th anniversary of the birth of one of my favorite people.  For the last 6 years now I’ve been thinking how lucky I was to discover so much later than most people, that there really was that one person out there made just for me, and I finally found her.  And shortly after doing so, I met the people responsible for making her.  I’m speakin

Three Months Old
Little Ginny Bean turned 3 months old today, and to celebrate we went into Rockwell (an area of Makati, which is itself a subset of Metropolitan Manila) to visit Dra. Pia Lorenzo, her paediatrician.  Final verdict is Ginny is very healthy and happy, and nearly on the money development-wise; we got her weight immediately up to the 50th percentile after the admonition of “too skinny” way back in September, and she’s hewing right to the 50th P line ever since.  She’s a little taller than average, at 25 inches today, and she’s got a big ol’ head, like her Daddy.  Hopefully, she’ll grow in to it.  It’s a beautiful head though, as

BOO!
Ginny's First Halloween! There’s Ginny in her first ever Halloween costume, sent by her grandmother! She celebrated by sleeping her longest sleep ever, 10 1/2 hours from 8:05 pm – 6:35 am!  Coincidentally (or not), another typhoon was passing through; she really seems to sleep well when these storms are happening.  Maybe the darkness helps, maybe the additional white noise helps, I don’t know.  The fact that the darn things always hap

19.5 degrees North x 99 degrees West; AKA Ciudad de Mexico!
We’ve been given our Forward Assignment!!  I know, yes, it’s quite early – we have another year here in Manila, they just do the assignments a year in advance of your exit – so for Junior Officers, who do 2-year tours, you learn at the halfway point where you’re going next.  Anyway -   The picture above is Ciudad de Mexico, or Mexico City, or the Federal D