DrMark's World Travels - Ecuador

I guess his nostalgia for Worcester folk sent him there...

Christine Walking

Happy 66th Anniversary

Happy Anniversary Nana and Grandpa!!!

Of course, that was a pic from Christine's belated birthday celebration.

I couldn't attend the dinner at the Webster House last week even though Vanda sent out the invite with 1.5 days notice (probably a record). We don't have any pics from that dinner yet (the film is likely at CVS). Supposedly there is another celebration Saturday, July 21st in the afternoon. Expect an email sometime Friday night.

Speaking of which, see if you can find the "mistake" in this email Auntie sent out.

The big day is this Thursday, July 12, and we are taking Nanna & Grandpa to our favorite restaurant (& theirs too)...the Webster House for dinner at 7PM on this Friday night the 13th July.

So if anyone can join us, please send me a return email or call me. We'll also celebrate at a cookout here on Saturday July 21 probably late afternoon.

Hope all goes well with all of you & that our youngest, Madison Taylor, is giving his (oh so tired) parents a little more sleeping time. Cute baby picture!

Love Vanda

Did you see it? It should be "her (oh so tired) parents"!!!

I'll bet CathyF saw it. This was obviously fresh off the Marcy/Macie blunder as well.

So here are the updates.

First, Christine is now walking. Most of the aunts and uncles already know this, but her rotten second cousins all no-showed for her birthday party: DrMark, KevinM, Joey, Sarah, (LizL got a pass, though I heard she was in the area). Apparently all of them had something better to do. They all predictably wait until the last minute and then send regrets. Not to mention, they all couldn't make the first planned party either - so in sum, they were "O for 8". Going to the Cape or going to Maine? What horrible excuses. You guys go there all the time. One day you'll all have one year olds. Think about that. It wasn't just Christine that y'all blew off, it was all your aunts, uncles, and grand parents as well.

So what to do? Can we divorce blood-related cousins? I am not sure, though Massachusetts really does have some "liberal" marriage laws on the books. The poor little girl is going to be literate soon, she'll read this blog and wonder why y'all blew off her party. LittleJohn was disappointed too. He vowed to at least boycott DrMark's civil union party - whenever that eventually is.

Speaking of DrMark, he is about to move into his new bachelor pad. They keep delaying the closing of his condo in Cambridge.

TimL's company is about to be acquired and he'll reap a windfall. Our fingers are crossed until the check is cashed.

KevinM's company is going public. For you economically illiterate members of the family, that is quite a big deal. I am sure he'll be pretty busy over the next few months. (I can't wait to short the stock).

UJ has been enjoying his vacation. No, he didn't actually go anywhere - Helena left for Michigan to spend time with her new granddaughter Madison. UJ has been out boozing, probably every single night. He returned a call late one night and was flat-out wasted. I don't think he was quite as bad as he was at MoMerk's wedding, but let's just say that he was definitely "overserved".

The word from Phoenix is that Maggie and Ryan are going to name their daughter Conchita, after one of Ryan's favorite employee's. (Thanks to UJ for that inside info.) They had to go to a backup name because CathyF apparently stole "Madison" from them.

MoMerk, ToMerk, Brendan, Colin, and Devin will be up in the frigid northeast in about two weeks or so. I am planning to take my kids down to see them at the Cape for a day. It'll be a short drive for us since we be in our new house (rental) in Cohasset.



It might be a tad smaller than our place now but it has a phenomenal kitchen, a phenomenal backyard, and it's in the area that we think we want to eventually buy in. The fact is, we hate Massachusetts so much, if we don't like it out in that Hingham/Cohasset area, we will be moving back to NY next year.

Now who is going to help us move?

So What Is A Pack Rat?

Because this blog has a age-wise diverse readership, I have to type the following instruction:

This is a video below, not a weird picture. Make sure your volume is on and click it to play.



I far as I am concerned, in this progressive modern era, hoarding junk should be made the eighth Deadly Sin.

I recently asked DrMark if he was going to "throw out" any of his stuff before he moves into his new bachelor pad. His reply,

"No. Haha. I can't. I have the pack rat gene."

Can You guess the famous faces?

Maureen had her brushes with fame last night. I won tickets on the radio to a red carpet movie premiere. Can't tell you the name of the movie since it might give one of the pictures away. I have a feeling you will guess the movie. Can you guess the celebrity she is next to in each shot?

Driver's Ed

Are you supposed to park next to the curb or on it?

Whose car is that anyway? Who's the family Taurus driver?

I thought those were only rental cars.

Indelible Gunk!!!

(click the pic to enlarge)

John, have you tried sulphuric acid on that garbage can?

Hola from Puerto Rico!

Inez and I just got back from a Puerto Rican vacation/wedding. It went swimmingly well.

The GrandparentsL watched our brood and now need a vacation of their own!

Anne's New Mutts

Even though I banned future "pet pics", people keep defiantly sending them to me.

Go ahead DrMark, send me some pics of your new gerbil litter. I am in a very charitable mood these days so I may post them for you.

Now for those of you more interested in HUMAN family members, here's a video of Christine.

Macie Pics Have Arrived

What a little angel!!!

Macie was born 6 pounds 15 ounces and 20.5 inches long.

Name Correction

Katie's baby girl is named Macie, not "Marcy".

That's the thing about people in Massachusetts. They don't pronounce R's that they are supposed to, meanwhile they add R's in where they don't belong. (Thank you Vanda!)

Of course the proud(?) parents haven't helped; still no pics or even an email with the details spelled out.

By Popular Demand....More MaddyTay

Oh, wait....That last pic is of Christine. Here it is from last June right at the bottom of this page.

Gee Maggie and Ryan, I wonder what NanaL will wear when she first visits your baby!!!

MaddyTay

Stork Lands in Michigan

A baby girl was born to the F's, Cathy and Dan, by C-section today. Baby MadisonTaylor and parents are doing well.

She weighed in at 7 lbs 4 ounces.

They must have changed the name from "Meadow" at the last minute...

How should we consolidate the little angel's name on the blog, MaddyTay? MadTay?

Congrats to all parties.

The cheap grandparents are driving out tomorrow (roundtrip 1300 miles).

Katie Births A Girl

But we all knew a girl was coming (remember, she "found out").

I believe the name is Marcy Elizabeth and she came in just under 7 pounds.

We'll have to wait for a pic and more details.

Who would dare have a baby on this already holy day of June 4th? There isn't any room on the calendar!!!

Congrats and all the best.

SPECIAL DAY

Today is Dan's birthday, so it's a good day to tell him how much fun the blog is and how we all appreciate his hard work. I'd even post his picture if I could figure out how.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLOGMEISTER!

Starting off young?

Came home early from work the other day to see what Devin was doing. And we wonder why he is always smiling.

Fetus Update

Hi Dan,

I hope you and the family are enjoying the nice long weekend. I wanted to share some news and maybe you can put it on the blog. I had an ultrasound on Friday and we found out that we are having a baby GIRL! Everything looks great; Mark and I are really excited!

Just thought I would share, I don't have the ultrasound pics online, but they pretty much all look the same anyway, ha.

Have a great weekend.

:) Liz


Hah! It never fails. The impatient shall be deprived of sons...

Inez didn't check her first and got LittleJohn (whose foot is pictured above). She found out for kid #2 and got a girl (DrMark, her name is Christine. She'd love to meet you!)

CathyF found out and was granted "Meadow".

MaggieS was also impatient and is having a girl.

MoMerk never checked the gender and was rewarded with three boys.

El Doctor Marco

DrMark sent a note about his most recent vacation.



But my spanish still sucks!!
Just a quick note from Quito. I'm back from the Amazon without any anaconda or piranha encounters and it was far from the rough experience I was expecting. A bit humid and warm (not hot at all), very few misquitos, no head on a stick cannibalistic locals and unfortunately very little advancement in my spanish speaking skills. But a wonderful time with great food, good weather and a wonderful helpful staff... we (9 of us.. 2 docs, the 1 NP leading the group and 6 other volunteers for the medical mission stayed at the yuturi lodge www.yuturilodge.com --I believe-- for 5 nights in the amazon, did 3 days of clinic ( a couple malaria cases and 1 leishmaniasis but that's it for tropical medicine other than what we see in america minus no hypertension or diabetes at all!!) did a couple of amazon walks and canoe rides (saw howler monkeys, toucans, "stinky turkeys", iguanas, congo and leaf cutter ants, and many birds, butterflies, humingbirds, etc plus had the experience of swinging like tarzan from a vine - no it did not break under my weight - eating live ants off the vine (tastes like chicken..... actually lemon in a freaky sort of I won't try that again sort of way), and all and all had a great time. After a 1 night stay at a 12000ft natural spring spa kicking back, i'm back in quito, waiting for maura and have 2 days before the galapagos and other side trips in ecuador. Taking tons of pictures, have plenty of stories, and hope to talk to you all soon...
south america es muy bonita and very easy to do!!!
hope all is well
love,
mark

Baby W-A Update

KatiaWA sent these nice pics in.

I wonder if aunthood will inspire Louise towards maternity...

Other news from the W clan is that Dave and Sheila are moving to the St. Petersburg area - so they will be (temporarily) near Anne and Wayne's place.

Trash Can Update

Baby F Update

The inside word is that young girl will be named Meadow Contessa F

Sorry Folks

I have been real busy. Inez and I just bid on a house in Hingham - the seller essentially gave us the bird.

Y'all see why we need more contributers? When I am on injured reserve, this blog withers. Here are a few videos that I had laying around.









I captioned that last video, "The Ugliest Shirt in the Galaxy".

There's a ton of family stuff going on. Liz is pregnant. KatieWA and CathyF are due with their babies in a few weeks. Ryan has set a record for most baby books read by a prospective father. Also DrMark bought a condo. And for purposes of illustration I would like to provide historical context for his timing.



(Click that chart to enlarge. All of you first time home buyers need to be aware of this graphic.)

If you look to the upper right of that chart, that is DrMark's entry point. In fact, his purchase made Inez and I even more nervous about buying a home. Because of him, we made a really cheap bid and consequently stirred the seller's middle finger to action.

Would you believe that it's the first time anyone has ever given me the middle finger?

TIME TO CATCH UP WITH FAMILY NEWS

My biggest challenge was trying to sign up with the new Google to post to the blog, but Dan will most likely still be called on to post my pictures. First, our lovely Jen has a new job. She is spending a lot of time travelling but this time looking for kids shoes and not furniture. Our lovely Sarah is looking for a home with Pete. If there is ever a lull in conversation at a family gathering mention this to Dad/Grandpa. Just don't do it at my family dinners or you will never get invited back.
We all got to meet Devin at Easter. He is so cute and even tempered. The Easter Bunny arrived and Brendan made sure he was safely in his fathers arms. Lizzie, both Marks, Sarah, the N.J. gang and the "aunties" and the guys all had a great time at Vanda's.
All these kids at Vanda's reminded us that we will have 3 more in a few months. Maggie and Cathy came home for a shower hosted by Inez. It was wonderful but I never got a decent picture of anyone, especially the guests of honor.
Wayne and I spent a few days in the Caico Islands.

Pics from the baby shower

March 17th

March 18th

March 19th