Weekend update

June 21st, 1992 at around 10 am in the morning is when Britt and I said our vows of "We will all verily abide by the Will of God". So Wednesday we celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary. Here are a few images of the early years. Also, congratulations to Dad and Janet who celebrated their 30th anniversary on Monday. Speaking of marriages, our loveable and cuddly Uncle Salad (Joshua) got married this past Saturday in Peru to Cynthia. Congratulations to you both and huge welcome-to-the-family to you Cynthia! We need pictures and details as soon as you can get them to us!!!! Aman had a yittle graduation ceremony on Wednesday. He now is officially in kindergarden and will start at Shutesbury elementary with Isaiah in Sept. We just ended a nice weekend with an exciting hike up Mt. Tom with the Brandons. We started out seeing a black bear right in the beginning and ended up in the rain thoroughly soaked, mosquito-bitten but happy. Tomorrow the boys start their summer camp and it's back to work for Britt and I.

Hammered Followed by a Slow Rise

Well, I got shut down, beat down and just plain pounded by this flu. So much so that I had to take 2nd and 3rd days of work off sick and then I dragged myself in the last two days but those were painful. Last week was a little better. Britt managed to get this also but it only lasted a day or so with her. Isaiah went to his friend Aiden's birthday party at rollerskating rink. He'd never been on inline skates before but jumped right in and was zipping around within minutes. He then went back to Aiden's house for his first sleep over. He didn't bat and eye at any of it, had a great time and convinced us to go back to interskate with Aman the next day which we did and Isaiah showed off some more and Aman learned. Another week of work mainly taking classes and filling out forms etc. but at the end of the second week... my first paycheck.... woooo hoooo!!!! Britt let me drive down to New York to hang with Dad for father's day. I got a slammin 4-5 hours with Jamal aka uncle chocolate and we sat up and talked til wee hours of the morning. Slow mellow morning with pancakes and fresh strawberries from Janet's organic garden. Then I took Dad up to Poughkeepsie to do his peace vigil. He organized this event where they stand on the busiest corner known in the area (right below the mall) and hold up peace banners and signs. They have been doing it regularly every week for almost 4 years! Amazing stuff. He called me chicken for not standing there with him but I was late in meeting Anna and ran off... Lunch with Anna was great, little chichi cafe near Vassar college with great coffee and breakfast all day... Then I picked Dad up and we drove up to Minnewaska state forest and did a ~10 mi bike ride. We saw a great timber rattle snake and other cute critters. I almost ran into a deer in the path as we biked along and we rescued a cute snapping turtle from destruction on the highway. We visited grandma and the went and said some prayers at grandpa's grave. I ended the day by picking up Anna and going to see Puge's band Juneteenth in New Paltz. What a show!... Jamal plays guitar, Pugie writes great songs and they are alot of fun live. I hustled back up to Massachusetts for a quick lunch at the Montague book mill and then a romp at Lake Wyola which is just down the street from our house. Back at the house the kids had hidden father's day cards for me and made me find them. A wonderful father's day capped off by the fact that this flu/cold is 99.6% beaten and I am starting to feel myself again.

When it rains it pours (and we aren't talking salt)

Did I mention flowers before??? Well, here pose Mason and Colin in front of one of 4 fantastic flowering bushes (Alfie told me the name of the bush but I forgot) in the front of our house (one on each side of the two doors...). The past week's summary? Hmm... well... we took Al to the hospital with chest pains and trouble breathing 2 Thursdays ago. 3-4 days in the hospital and many tests showed progression of the cancer and shook us all a bit. Even though he now needs oxygen to continue functioning normally, he is back at the house and more or less stabilized back into the wonderful, loveable Al we all know. Lise and Ann came in from Chicago and Elena flew in today. Irene was visiting when the crisis happened and has also been here helping us through this... We have been busy of course in the usual Alschuler family fashion of having meetings where making lists, giggling, crying, planning, and hugging are the wonderful norm. In the midst of it all four Ruhes came down with horrible achy/flemy/sneezy bichos (bugs). I have a warm box of tissues next to the keyboard as I type this to the soft wailing rythm of Bjork from a collection given to me by the famous uncle chocolate (thanks again Jamal). So it has been an extremely full week which is culminating tonight by updating the blog and paying bills. I start work on monday and have a whole bunch of forms I need to fill out before that and then there's always laundry. Wow... Here's a few more images from the week+: The get well picture that Aman drew for Isaiah (he got sick first) and the thank you card that Isaiah made for Aman(notice what he calls Aman in the center of pic). Mason and Aman "relaxing" in the bath (the reality was that they spent a little over and hour making flatulence sounds with cups and water and giggling loudly). The rocky outcrop where we stopped on a hike with Oma before we all got sick. And... I could not resist... guess who? (I don't even recognize myself as a yittle dude but Dad says that's me)