Bicycling to work in Beijing

Every day I bicycle between my apartment on the east side of the University of Forestry to the nano center. Here are some pictures.

Beijing opening ceremony rehearsal

Some of the shots are very blurry, but it was the best I could do under the circumstances.

Look at the slideshow here.

Kathleen Lang's Peru-Ecuador trip (11 May - 3 June 2008)

From: Picasa Web Albums [mailto:picasawebalbums-noreply@google.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2008 10:32 AM
To: klang38@verizon.net
Subject: Invitation to view kathleen's Picasa Web Album - May-Jun 2008 OAT Peru Ecuador Selected files 16 Jul 2008

You are invited to view kathleen's photo album: May-Jun 2008 OAT Peru Ecuador Selected files 16 Jul 2008 May-Jun 2008 OAT Peru Ecuador Selected files 16 Jul 2008 May 10, 2008 by kathleen 11 May 2008 to 03 Jun 2008 OAT Peru Ecuador View Album Play slideshow

Mike & Jessica Wedding Pics

-----Original Message-----
From: Dave McCarthy [mailto:mccarthy2020@comcast.net]
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2008 2:51 PM
To: Kathleen Lang
Cc: Andrew D. McCarthy; Michael T. McCarthy; 'Katharine McCarthy'; 'Maureen Diamond'; 'Beth McCarthy & Jim Alt'; 'Michael McCarthy'
Subject: Photos from Mike & Jessie's wedding - June 20, 2008

Dear All -

Here's a link to a selection of about 70 photos of the ceremony held in Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia at about 5 PM. The day was sunny & warm with a nice breeze to keep it pleasant. In all, there were 11 people in the wedding party: the 4 McCarthy's (Yachai, Mike, Andy & me) and 7 from the Kuhns family (Jessica, Her mother Reggie, her grandmother (Nana), brother Alex, Sister Abbie, Brother-in-law Scott & Reggie's husband, Ron).

They received many smiles, greetings and congratulations from others in the park. It was a simple (Quaker) ceremony with Jessie and Mike exchanging vows and all of us adding our thoughts, wishes and impressions - very sweet!

Please pass this on to everyone in the family and I'll post it in the McCarthy Clan blog as well.

Love,

David

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jessiepk/sets/72157606138497894

We Are Grateful to Kitty

I am grateful for the magical mix that is Kitty Mum - wit without harshness;
care and love without smothering; a solid ration of daily life irreverence,
yet prayerful for those of us who need it; political skepticism, though
hopeful for something better; a wry smile; exceptional smarts while exuding
humility; steel and gentleness; sweet and tart.

In other words, the ageless perfection that is KittyMum - a woman for all seasons.

Happy 90th birthday!!!

Teaching us to swim at Pine Waters.

How to run fast (to dodge the flicking dishcloth).

How to fearlessly slay garter snakes.

I think a healthy fear of alligators is one of the 90 reasons I love KittyMum, especially given my current geographical location.

Also she has been a great testament that one can age gracefully, and be graceful through many different ages.

Her sandwich creations. We would pull every imaginable sandwich filling/spread out of the fridge to see what she would put together.

How to paint my fingernails and to appreciate brightly colored nails.

To appreciate the smell of coffee and English muffins.

Instructions in the rules of etiquette.

To appreciate skinny dipping

For sharing the secret handshake and how to make owl and Eskimo and butterfly kisses.

To appreciate the tradition of reading.

For allowing me to share the 3rd floor bedroom with her.

For KittyMum's ability to create a level of anxiety with the waggle of a single, painted fingernail.

For driving without seat belts.

For being my first Catholic mentor.

For making each grandchild feel most important.

For making witches with peanuts in ice cream sundaes.

For conserving water—no long showers.

For warning us about the big, bad pipsissiwa (sp?) just outside the door.

For wearing bright lipstick.

For piano music wafting through the farmhouse.

For cackling like a witch.

For creating “drunken” raisins with Poppop.

For imbuing us with the rapture of good food ingredients.

For her gardening methods using mulch. Mother was a follower of Ruth Stout, known to garden in the nude. Ruth Stout lived into her 90s. One of her books was Gardening Without Work: For the Aging, the Busy, and the Indolent.

For her ideas on nutrition. While we ate our lunch of tomato or chicken noodle soup, with toasted cheese sandwiches, KittyMum consumed Gayelord Hauser’s 5 wonder foods: yogurt, brewer’s yeast, powdered skim milk, wheat germ, and especially blackstrap molasses. Mother added buttermilk. I remember her copy of Look Younger; Live Longer.

Thomas's Graduation

Here are shots from the events of May 17, 2008. (http://picasaweb.google.com/MistyLaners/TPMGrad)
The day began early in Wayland with breakfast at 38 East Plain Street. Amy and tribe were visiting for Amy's XX reunion at Middlesex. Jon and Tiffany joined with their crew.
Later that morning, after the skies cleared and while the winds were blowing to dry things off, the ceremonies got underway. This was the 100th anniversary of the graduation of Robert Goddard, considered the father of American rocketry.
The invocation and benediction were, well, memorable. One of the honorary degrees was presented to Woody Flowers, an MIT professor of mechanical engineering who is renowned for his "Introduction to Design" course. He started with that course as a teaching assistant while a grad student. It required students to build a working machine and he intorduced a "friendly" competition among the machines. This evolved to the building of robots to perform specific tasks and was the beginning of robot contests now staged aroun d the world.
The speaker was Jeff Immelt, the chairman and CEO of GE. He was looking forward to the contributions the many newly-hired WPI grads would be making to GE as it continues to adjust and address emerging needs in the world.

Trilliums at Tryon

Here are some photos from Tryon Creek State Park, when the trilliums bloomed.

Backstage at Aida

Here are some shots of me getting into my makeup and costume.