Monthly Archives: June 2010

How can this be? Five days have arisen, melted into one another, and vanished. We’ve seemed to have done so little— no island hopping, only a few visits to other villages, and yet, the time, she passes.  We’ve fallen into the Island Rhythm: wake up late (late-ish, about 8:30), swim, visit one of the knock-out […]

Last I posted, we were leaving Athens for the Cyclades island of Sifnos. Thus ends the reverential, historical meditation on Greece. Welcome to Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Doug, Benjamin and I barely make it back to the hotel from a barely-eaten meal at a touristy taverna and we meet up with my sister and her […]

For about two months before my trip, I had been assiduously studying Greek. There’s an excellent audio language learning company called Pimsleur which my sister Sue has been using for years, and they’re great for L.A. folk who are constantly in their cars. It works almost exclusively aurally, which means that I don’t have to […]

My sister Debbie is making candy dish fortune tellers out of paper placemats, a fitting endeavor on the way to Delfi, site of oracular prophecy. We’ve stopped at what is possibly the cleanest and most stylish way station we have ever seen, drinking limonadas and stretching our legs three quarters of the way to our […]

Why am I up at 5:45 in the morning? It’s not the jet lag, I don’t think. Last night was perfectly fine. Perhaps because the air conditioning was turned off… Dear Lord, I look at the tangle of cords and adaptors surrounding me and plugged in— computer, Flip Video camera, Canon Cybershot, Ipod, IPAD, PSP— […]

A brutal but well-timed 17 hour trip, from LAX to Heathrow London, and then on to Athens. Left in the afternoon, got to London in the morning and Greece in the evening. Time goes by in that strange airport way. Spent my time at Heathrow marveling at the Starbucks— like an American Starbucks, but not […]

* Heard of ’em? Let me elaborate, let me pontificate about these priceless archeological artifacts. You see, Lord Elgin was a British ambassador who took these ancient marbles from the Parthenon in Greece. He had them removed to the British Museum. And now the Greeks want their marbles back. These marbles were intricately carved, small spheres, […]

Son’s last day of school. Potluck party in the 2nd Grade. I signed up to bring an entree-ish dish, and thought of chicken with cashews in a carved out pineapple (no, no, Doug, it’s easy, really) but shopping for the ingredients at the grocery store Benj suddenly decided that he wanted me to make dumplings. […]

In Los Angeles, the wristband is king.  Encircled with the right color, your wrist can get you into anything. Doors will magically open for you; frowning, burly men in black with earphones snaking into their ears will step aside and let you past the metal barricades, where smiling women in sensible skirts and clipboards will direct […]