THIS MAY BE YOUR LAST CHANCE!

Nearly two years ago I totally surprised my Park Ranger buddy by walking with her into the Barajas airport in Madrid, Spain and having 55 of our family and friends yell "Happy Birthday Cathy" in the middle of the terminal.

She was so shocked at the noise and the flashes from cameras she turned around and looked behind her to see who the famous person must be behind us. She was so totally caught off guard she actually did not recognize a single one of our group for about 30 seconds and then when she did, she couldn't figure out what some of our friends were doing in Spain.

Why am I writing about this now? Because I had too many emails to do so I decided to browse old bookmarked websites and I came upon a website that is closing down on March 31st. On that website is a photoshow of the next three days of solid partying in Spain with our family and friends from Denmark, the UK, Spain and the USA. Our friends Jerry and Mary Hitpas took the photos and made it into a DVD and it can be seen, accompanied by there very creative music background by clicking RIGHT HERE.

And if you would like to read about our great time and see some more photos of that blowout, including some wonderful photos of my best friend Mike and me dancing together in our chic and sophisticated way, go to Andrea's Posting of the festivities HERE.

Man we had fun!

HUMOR FOR HEALTH-PART TWO

Monday of this week I wrote about the joke telling session at the Chopra seminar we were at last week. Click HERE if you didn't see it and want a good laugh.

This is another one someone shared with the group:

There was a drop dead gorgeous Chocolate Lab Retriever named Fifi.

There were three male dogs that were head over heels in lust with her.

She told them she would run away with the dog that could use the words Liver and Cheese in a sentence that declared how much they wanted her.

The first dog, a Rotweiler, said "I eat liver and cheese every day so I can be strong and protect you."

She laughed and said no thanks.

The second dog, a German Shepherd, said "When I am around you all I can think of is liver and cheese."

She replied "You're outta here".

But the third dog, a Mexican Chihuahua, ran away with her heart when his turn came and he turned to the other two big dogs and said "Leever alone, Cheese Mine".

MY MOM AND HER BROKEN NECK

Above-Mom relaxing in the hammock on our patio during her visit for her 90th birthday party and below, that evening before the celebration began. So much has changed in three years.


I have not felt like writing about my Mom because, frankly, it is so painful. However, several of the people that read my Blog have asked me about her and told me that they are praying for her so I thought I would bring them up to date.

Candidly, she is doing horrible. About two weeks ago she was in a chair in her room and although she is supposed to ask for help in getting up from bed or the chair, it is likely hard to always remember that when for 93 years you have just gotten up. So that is what she did.

And she fell. And broke her neck.

She went to the hospital and they said it was a miracle she didn't become a quadriplegic. She has two fractures at the top of her spine.

There were three choices for treatment:

1. Surgery. This was out of the question due to her age and frail condition. They said she would not make it with the anesthesia.
2. A Halo. This was out of the question because they anchor it by screwing it into the skull which means she would have to be under anesthesia so for the same reason above, they cannot do that.
3. Give her a special collar and hope it heals over time. That is what they did.

The risk is if these fractures move, she can become totally paralyzed.

Since going back to the home she has done nothing but suffer. She cannot take pain medication and never has been able to. She wants the end to come daily. As it hard as it is for me to say this, for her sake, and to end the suffering, we all want that to happen also.

My brother, my hero, goes to see her daily. He sends a detailed email report to all of our family here in the US and in Europe. I open it every day hoping for good news but it is almost always bad. She is struggling and she is a woman who has been a fighter all her life, has never complained about anything, has always been optimistic and now she just wants it over. She holds her rosary and prays. Praying I am certain that today is her last.

Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Grover

THE TSA-OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

Today I walked into O'Hare, the worlds' second busiest airport and there was not a single customer at the counter of either Delta or American. I walked through security and I was the only passenger. The economic meltdown was clearly visible today.

So I took off my shoes, my belt, put my cell phone and PDA inside my shoes, put my Fly Clear card in my shoe (odd as it sounds, it sets off the alarm), took my PC out and put it in a bin, sent my four items thru the scanner and announced to the guy that I was going to beep when I walk through since I have a metal knee.

They wanded me with their secondary screening nonsense and then I went to get my bags. One of the bags was a very small bag that is 12 inches high and 3 inches wide. I know that as I just borrowed a ruler at the Delta Crown Room to measure it.

The man looked at me and said "Do you have a watermelon in this bag?"

I swear. I know you think I am making this crap up. I said "No, you couldn't get 1/8th of a watermelon in that bag."

He replied "It looks just like a large watermelon".

I said "You mean it is large, round and heavy"?

"Yes"

I said "But the bag is not heavy (it probably weighs a pound)"

He said: "Well, I am going to have to look because it looks like a watermelon to me"

So he looks, pulls out a banana I had bought (for $1.65 which is absurd) at the Hyatt.

He gets this I told you so look on your face and says "See, it was a fruit. It is a banana."

I thanked him, packed it up, walked away thinking that if we fired every TSA person, disbanded the whole concept and took the money and gave it to people who need it we would all be a lot better off. And I travel ALL THE TIME and I would be fine with it because these guys cannot possibly be protecting us.

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY TO FINN

One year ago today, I was in a village on the Bangladesh border working with Freedom from Hunger while my third grandson, the first for daughter Andrea and her husband Lee, was just about to come into the world in a hospital in in a suburb of London called Tooting, United Kingdom.

I wrote about it here that day and to see the contrast on that posting between baby Finn, safe and secure in a Western European hospital versus the kids (that you can see here) that we were working with in the state of Bihar reminds me once again of how blessed all of us here in America and the European Union are, even in the midst of this current economic crisis.

Later that day, when I returned from that village to my hotel room in Calcutta about 8pm on Sunday, February 10th (2:30 pm London time) I had a text message from both Cathy and Andrea saying that Finn had arrived. It was a moment of sheer joy for me that he had arrived safe and sound and a moment of sadness that I was half a world away.

But a week later I was in their flat in Wimbledon getting to hold my new grandson for the very first time.

And look at him now, just two days ago right before his first birthday! It is so hard to believe as he shakes water all over his face and head laughing all the time.


His Mama Andrea started a weekly posting on her Blog of Finn with his Blue Bear for the first year of his life. The first week she posted this photo where Blue Bears Head was as big as Finn's.

And again, for her final weekly post, look at the difference as he pushes Blue Bear around the driveway outside of his house two days ago.


And so to you, my now Toddler Finn, Happy Birthday. I got up a little before 5am today to post this since I have to fly to Chicago for a meeting this morning. But on my way to the airport I will stop by and give you a birthday hug, make you laugh and you will make me laugh and then this Saturday we will have your first birthday party. I love you. Papi.

PS-As I sit at the airport waiting to get on my flight I decided to log in and add this photo of Finn and me this morning when I stopped by to see the Birthday Boy!

HUMOR FOR GOOD HEALTH

We spent five days last week at a Journey Into Healing put on by Deepak Chopra and his partner at The Chopra Center, David Simon as well as a number of other wonderful speakers and experts.

It started at 6:30 every morning and ended at 7 or so every night (with some going later). There was Yoga first thing every morning, then two group meditations (awesome) during the day, all Ayurveda cuisine (some of the best meals we have ever had) and a full day chock full of lectures and discussions on mind, body and spiritual health. It was just magnificent.

On the first day they told all of us to think about our best joke and they would call on some folks later on in the week to share them with the group. Given that it was a group of enlightened adults, there were no limits in terms of what kind of jokes were told.

So last Saturday, as a demonstration in the power of laughter to relax and heal, many of the attendees told their favorite joke. We all laughed until we cried for about 30minutes or so.

And this is one of my favorite jokes that I heard:

Three ducks walk in a bar and the first duck asks for a beer. The bartender says "We don't normally serve ducks here. What is your name? " The first duck answers "My name is Huey and you need to serve me a beer as I am exhausted from being in and out of puddles all day today".

The bartender decides it is okay, opens a beer and turns to the second duck and says "What is your name?" The duck answers "My name is Dewey and I need a beer as I am exhausted from being in and out of puddles all day today".

So the bartender opens him a beer, turns to the third duck and says "And you must be Louie?"

And the third duck says "No, my name is Puddles"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WES!

Our grandson Wes turned three on January 17th. Unfortunately, he was with the rest of the family at the funeral of Cathy’s Mom so this last weekend, after returning from our long cross country journey, we flew to DC to celebrate with Wes.

We arrived Friday afternoon and DC was recovering from an ice storm. Unfortunately, as Cris was getting ready to come pick us up, Landon slipped on the ice and you can see the result below.





This is one tough kid. He got up, put some ice on it and came to the airport to meet us and never complained all weekend about it. His only concern was what the kids would say at school on Monday and Cris told him to say that he got whacked with a dragon’s tail and that made him feel better. He tried it out on one of his friends over the weekend and he was quite impressed with the story.

On Friday night we took Cris out for her upcoming special birthday. We were two weeks late celebrating Wes’ birthday and two weeks early celebrating Cris’ birthday as that will occur while she is in Atlanta for Finn’s first birthday and his baptism.

We took her to Villa Mozart in Fairfax and it was an absolutely fabulous meal.

Saturday Grover bought Papusas for lunch and then the grandparents took the boys to a Clay Pottery place so they could make paint some plates for their Mom for her birthday. In Wes' case, he had more paint on him than on the plate (and on me) but we all had fun. That was followed by a mini-party with some friends back at the house.

Wes loved the train whistle I bought him in that weird town of Cerrillos, New Mexico I wrote about



Then Grover, Cris, the boys and we went to Layalina, a Syrian-Lebanese restaurant that is one of our family’s favorite. We ate Baba Gannoug, Kibbeh, a couple different kinds of Hommos Bel Flayfley, Chicken Shawarma, Pomegranate Hommos, Beef Arayis, Macarona Bel Shawarma and tons of warm pita bread washed down with a young Tempranillo wine from Spain.

Here are a couple of photos from the restaurant (yes that is a kid’s sticker on my sweater):




The photo below is Grover trying to explain to Wes that the Baklava with a candle on it really is sort of like a birthday cake. Wes was skeptical.



On Sunday we had bagels for breakfast and played with the boys until noon and then flew back to Atlanta. It was a great birthday celebration for Wes.

NEW ORLEANS AND BACK TO ATLANTA

We arrived in New Orleans and had a great two days there. It was a wonderful way to finish up our trip across the country.

As soon as we got in we drove over to Marrero (a New Orleans suburb) to the home of Gary and Jean Benard who we have known for many years. Gary is Janice Newton's (who most of you who read this know) brother. For those that don't know who Janice is, she is the wife of my best friend Mike, who you may recall from the photos of him dancing with me on this New Years Eve post.

Gary and Jean had prepared a fabulous meal in traditional New Orleans style and we were so glad to see they Curtis (another brother) and Tosha (Gary and Jean's daughter) also came. The only person we missed was Tina (sister) who had to work that day.

We had about six appetizers and then wonderful Crawfish Etoufé, some fabulous Cornish game hen and the best rabbit I have ever eaten. Accompanied by red wine, fantastic company, 3 hours of conversation and both bread pudding and flan for dessert, we thought we had driven to heaven instead of Marrero. When we lived in New Orleans so many years ago there was a best selling guide to New Orleans restaurants and the writer used the term "Platonic" to describe the food at only the top restaurants like Galatoire's, Arnaud's and a few others. The word never made sense to me given the normal definition of platonic, but I can tell you, this lunch we had at the Benard's was platonic.

In life you get to know many people, especially if you have moved to different cities 12 times as we have. So we are blessed with many good friends all over. But there are a very few that become like family and we feel like we are almost part of the family that was feeding us this wonderful meal. Thanks Gary and Jean (they read the Blog some times).

Below are two photos of us during that meal. We may look a little heavier than photos from earlier in the week.

The first photo below was taken by you know who (hint-park ranger)

From left to right Gary, Tosha, Curtis, Jean and me.

The next photo I took. On the right end is that Smoldering Beauty the Park Ranger, who having followed me across the country, I decided to keep.

After lunch we went and checked into The Windsor Court Hotel XXX and they gave us this great suite because our friend Harvey Sigelbaum, who knows almost everyone in the world, knew the people there and called them and asked for a favor. To tell you how well Harvey knows almost everyone, below are two photographs of Harvey and the doorman (David) and Harvey and the Guest Relations Manager (Jacque) at this hotel.




That night we went to one of New Orleans' hot restaurants named Restaurant August on Tchoupitoulas Street. What is really funny is out of the millions of restaurants in the world, today, as I write about it here today, in today’s Financial Times of London I read a review on this restaurant. That is too freaky.

And while it was good the night we went, we had been spoiled by Jean and Gary and it was nowhere near as good as our lunch.

The next day we went wandering around the French Quarter and down Bourbon Street which hasn't changed much since we lived there long ago. It is still seedy and tawdry and smells like vomit and urine but not much has changed.

At 11:30 we walked into the Bon Ton Cafe where I used to often eat lunch with Mike (as in Mike my dancing partner) and where we used to go for dinner with friends often. Since we were in New Orleans last Monday we went there for lunch since they have been serving Red Beans and Rice there since the early 1900's every Monday.

Man was it good. Red Beans and Rice cooked in ham hocks and served with a long slice of smoked sausage, topped with Tabasco sauce and the juice sopped up with fresh New Orleans French bread. But I had to have their famous bread putting even though I was stuffed. It was good, but Jean Benard's was much, much better.

Then we went out to see the place that we rented when we lived there-it is called a Shotgun in New Orleans because it was long and narrow and was like a double barreled shotgun since there were two of these in each building .

We rode out a hurricane in 1974 in this house, lying on the top floor away from the glass windows, with 3 year old Grover under us as much of New Orleans evacuated to the West and we waited too long to decide and they closed the Causeway. When we looked across the street and saw a fishing boat of our neighbors be lifted up off the ground and fly past our window we knew we were in trouble.

But when we lived there the doors were not Blue.



We also went out to the Ninth Ward, the Lakefront and St. Bernard to see how the rebuilding was coming from Katrina after three and a half years and a jillion dollars. Suffice it to say, it is, simply, very sad as you can see from the photos below. The church which will likely never have another service here broke my heart.







We stopped at a Border's to get another book on tape as we were almost done with the book on Afghanistan and as I walked out of the end of one aisle to the main aisle I stopped suddenly as I almost bumped into a man walking by. I looked up and it was James Carville. I was so glad that I didn't bump into him as he and I do not exactly share the same values in politics or in how to interact with others.

The final night of our trip and our last night in New Orleans we went to La Boca, an Argentinean Restaurant in the warehouse district. I urge you to click on the link to see the photos of the steaks.

This is the best Argentinean food I have had outside of Argentina and I have been blessed to have spent some substantial time in Argentina. It was just fantastic and a wonderful end to this long trip.

The next day we left New Orleans at 5:40 am after getting some Starbucks when they opened at 5:30. And we headed out. Nine hours later, having finished the book on Afghanistan and started listening to a book about the women in FDR's life, we arrived back in Atlanta, 2,987 miles after leaving Phoenix. For two people that don't like to drive, we sure covered a lot of miles.

And it was nice to be home (even if for only two full days).