Jinsong and Shaik in Beijing

Here is a photo of my colleague, Shaik, with my former student, Jinsong!

Opera! Opera! Opera!

Now that the opera season is over, I have a life again. Here are pictures from Norma,

Backstage at Norma

The Flying Dutchman,

Backstage at the Flying Dutchman

and The Merry Widow.

Backstage at The Merry Widow

Portland Japanese Garden

We visited the Japanese Garden with my Aunt Marguerite and her companion Michael Walsh. They now live in Vancouver, across the river. Marguerite's husband was my mom's baby brother, Joe.

May 2007 Japanese Garden

Pictures from this summer

More photos from this summer.

Our family in 2006

Snow!

Take a look at the web album (click on the picture).

January Snowstorm

LOOONNNNNGGGG overdue!

I took this photo last May when Lynne and I visited Reading on our way to Boston for Kate's graduation. I've been meaning to share it ever since! I don't know what I'll do if I ever drive by 352 Penn Street and don't see these tiles.

housekeeping

Some of you may have noticed the layout of this blog has changed slightly. This is because Blogger decided to move my account over to the new Blogger Beta. Since I am the "owner" of this blog, the blog moved over to the new system as well.

In order for all of you to post here again, you will have to migrate your Blogger accounts to the new system. I am sorry, this was unavoidable. I implore some of my tech-savvy cousins to aid their parents in this process.

If anyone is unable to move an existing account over to the new blogger system, email me (my address is diamond@subtend.net) and I'll send you a new invitation. Actually, that goes for anyone who wants to post here but doesn't currently have an account (Tom? Margaret? Anyone?).

Mom's (Mom-mom Tree) Recipe for Cheesecake

Oley Valley Farms Pig Roast (Sept 30, 2006)

-----Original Message-----
From: Dave McCarthy [mailto:mccarthy2020@comcast.net]
Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006 1:32 PM
To: Mary McCarthy; Betsy; Maureen McCarthy
Cc: David J. McCarthy; Greg Diamond; Kate; Mike McCarthy; Katharine
McCarthy; Erica Alt; Amy and Socrates Zapata; Jon and Tiffany Lang; Greg
Diamond; kate diamond; Jim Diamond; Beth and Jim Alt; Kathleen Lang
Subject: OLEY VALLEY FARMS - PIG ROAST (9-30-2006)

Dear Family -

Here are some pictures from the Klines' annual pig roast. They invited around 250 (friends, neighbors, relatives & employees) and about 150 showed up, probably due to the cool, drizzly weather. Yachai, Michael, Patrice & I attended and had a wonderful time. Lots of food, drink, music, and later a bonfire and fireworks. We didn't stay for those, but Michael & Patrice did. The band was great - kind of BB King-style blues and was fronted by the talented platinum-haired singer you see in some of the pics.

Kathy - have a great trip; we look forward to your stories when you return

Love, David

Stretching Things for July 4

OK. These are "summer pictures", not really July 4. And they are from summers past. But I hope they might be interesting.


This was a picnic, celebration 2 years ago to dedicate a Holocaust memorial near the Rose Garden in Portland. Jim was part of a small group of singers on the occasion.



This is a colonial house near Uncle Michael's which I took probably 2 years ago to send to you for an earlier request for photos of US homes. Perhaps I sent it earlier. It seems like a good July 4 photo, though...?

This is the porch at Yellow House, another good July 4 destination. This was 1 year ago and the occasion was PopPop's birthday, an extended celebration. There was also cake, etc, at Old Wyomissing Rd.
And this is you know who also about 1 year ago. We drove Dad to see the rapids on the Lehigh River (I hope I have that right). Something I never knew existed in Penna. 

Happy 4th everybody

For some reason it's not a holiday out here in the Tokyo suburbs. Go figure. But that doesn't mean the day doesn't make for a fun culture lesson for the kids. So everyone, if you're the picture-taking type tonight, would you be so kind as to send some copies my way? Post them here or email them to diamond@subtend.net. Thanks.

Family Lore--Swimming Pool Stories

Too bad I don't have a digital photo of the pool to post with this note. But Greg's posting on "Greg And Sam's Adventures" yesterday brought 2 e-mail remembrances of famous tales--one note from Kitty Mum and one from Beth.

From the beginning: Greg's post on June 6

Only in Japan

Every school in this country has a concrete-lined outdoor pool. I don't know why, they just do. And since they don't cover them in the winter months, they're always foul when it comes time to use them in the summer. Ergo, I just spent all afternoon (Wednesday afternoon!) cleaning the pool with the PTA. It's now a sparkling blue. Can you picture this happening back home?


Kitty Mum's e-mail reply:

Yes. Greg. I did scrub and paint the pool; each year at the farm. No wonder I have an aching back. But I loved doing stuff like that. Now you really do know I'm strange. There was a drop box for the spring water to go through before it hit the pool; and that box had quite a collection of live stock in it after a winter of hibernation. I'd try to empty so all the drek wouldn't go into the pool. Using a siphon for that purpose. One year I inhaled too powerfully to ge the flow started and I got a good sixed, live frog in my mouth. UGH!

GOD BLESS AND LUV MUTTI

...and Beth's contribution:

Hello--mother you are doing a great job keeping up and communicating! I also remember a bleached frog from over-vigorous application of cleansing chemicals....hope that wasn't the one you later slurped!!

Greg--welcome to the club--does this mean you will soon be swimming in the pool?

love to all...Beth

And there we have it. Another great story for the family history. Love to All!!!!!!!

Peanut!

I told my father this story and promised to write it up some weeks ago.

Last term, I was teaching the first grade the English terms for family members. Many Japanese households - especially in rural areas like this one - contain grandparents and the occasional aunt and/or uncle, in addition to the nuclear family common in America. So while in another country I may have let the seven year-olds off with only having to learn "father, mother, (younger/older) sister and (younger/older) brother" that day, I tacked grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins onto this particular lesson. Now, some of you may recall that I asked for many of your photographs a few months ago. That request was to help out with this very lesson. Thank you all again for your responses, your pictures were of great aid to a classroom full of visual learners.

So anyway, after we'd covered parents, siblings, and grandparents, here I was holding this picture...



... before this group of kids...



... and loudly repeating the word "uncle!"

Now at the time I had heard once or twice before, but could not recall, that the Japanese word for "pile of turds" is unko, pronounced oohn-koh. The Japanese have a difficult time distinguishing betweem vowels like the "u" in "uncle" and their う, which sounds more like "ooh". Additionally, they don't have the consonant "l", and every syllable ends in a vowel (or occasionally "n"), so by the time the kids were done mangling the world "uncle", it did unfortunately sound a bit like unko, which they thought was hilarious. So there I was, fairly red in the face, as 9 first-graders essentially screamed "turd! turd!" at a picture of Fran.

I'm sorry, Peanut.

Saturday, May 13---Erica's Day

A bit of a challenge to keep all the graduations straight. Today is Saturday, May 13, and this is Erica's day to bask in the glow of success. Congratulations, Erica!!

I guess we should be grateful to Mary and Susan for graduating from the same school on the same date. One less variable in this busy time for the McCarthy Clan.

Again, our deepest love to Erica and congratulations on the completion of a lot of hard work!

Maureen, Jim, Kate, Greg and Samantha

3 Cheers For Greg!!

Just in time for this year's graduation season---Greg's diploma arrived in today's mail. Congratulations, Greg!!!

Kate's Graduation

I just paid for my flight (in cash - silly Japanese companies don't take credit cards) today. Here's my flight info:

5月19日（金）17:15発 東京（成田） (Depart Narita)
5月19日（金）16:40着 トロント (Land in Toronto)
5月19日（金）18:55発 トロント (Leave Toronto)
5月19日（金）20:25着 ボストン (Land in Boston)

5月22日（月）09:25発 ボストン (Depart Boston)
5月22日（月）11:05着 トロント (Toronto, Part 1)
5月22日（月）13:30発 トロント (Toronto, Part1)
5月23日（火）15:55着 東京（成田） (Land in Narita)

Happy 88, Kitty Mum!!

I know this photo was posted not too long ago---I guess I need more Kitty Mum photos when I'm in Reading next month! This was birthday 86, 2 years ago, at Mary Anne's lovely table.

Happy Birthday from all of us, I'm sure, to Kitty Mum. The most beloved matriarch I know.

Maureen

Cleo (July 1992 to April 2006)---May She Rest In Peace!

As many of you know, we had to put Cleo to sleep on Tuesday, April 4. It was clear she was glad to see us as we returned from our wonderful visit with Greg and Samantha; but it was also clear she was in a lot of pain and had declined significantly in the 2 weeks we were gone.

The first photo below is from Fall 2003, I think, in our back yard in McMinnville after Jim and I had finished some landscaping prior to putting it on the market. In the second photo, Cleo is modeling Uncle Fran's glasses during the week surrounding Greg and Sam's wedding.

She brought us SO many smiles, so many stories. The vet's office sent us a nice card, saying "The kindest decisions are often the most difficult to make." How true!

In Japan, Safe and Sound

They're here.

Snow in MA

From Kathleen, via my mother. Even more inundated than our place was a few weeks ago. Except here it was apparently an 8-year event.


Wayland. Wow, that's snowy.