A Big Week and Weekend for the Raffs

We are having a most wonderful week filled with many simchas (Jewish for blessings!)

We celebrated my 59th birthday this week, our 32nd wedding anniversary, our dog Willow's one year birthday and we'll soon be celebrating our BIG wedding coming up this Memorial Day weekend.

The first photo shows Laura's wonderful family from Boston and Texas who arrived midweek to help assemble hotel guest welcome baskets and help with transporting flowers, vases, table decorations, etc. to and from our house here in Milford to the Ann Arbor venue for the wedding events.

The second photo shows us after our "one" of our celebration dinners this week. We had just taken everyone out to dinner to Cinco Lagos (Five Lakes) restaurant and had come back home to relax and visit with our most recent wedding guest arrivals -- Genie (our stem cell donor) and Meryl (our Israeli family) arrive most recently.

We have to quiz Meryl every time she comes to visit us. How many grandchildren? How "old" is the youngest one you still have at home? (20 grandchildren from her five married children and age 15 is the youngest of her "still at home" children.)

I will be updating this blog very soon because we will have wedding pictures to share.

Until then....

Haiku:

Time to be present

Many simchas and blessings

Take time to savor each one.

A Trip to Washington, DC

The top photo is a giant moth or butterfly in the butterfly exhibit at the Museum of Natural History in DC where you could walk into an enclosed space and let the butterflies land on you and walk on you then fly on to the next fower. Those with bright colors on -- like Gil in his pink salmon shirr -- got bombarded by flapping wings.

Gil and I were in Washington, DC earlier in the month for a Nuclear Medicine conference he was speaking to. We were also lucky enough to have dinner one of the two nights we were there with his old boyhood friends from Brooklyn. Storied were regaled. Embarrassing moments were shared. "Well, we were a lot younger then." was heard all around.

Gil is sitting next to Smithsonian Institution's Castle in a little "pocket park" that I insist we visit each time we are in DC. It is called the Mary Livingston Ripley Garden and I like that so much of it is at waist level so there's not so much bending down and squinting to see the names of the plants.

Our wedding is coming up in 11 days and the plans are coming together. My next blog entry will give the details and capture in photos the "work parties" to make everything ready for the big weekend. I think the rain is going to stop and let us have a beautiful sunny weekend for the event.

Haiku

Love interests hang

on the most fragile of threads

Barely within reach.

A Scottsdale Wedding

Oh, what fun we had! Six of us flew in from Albuquerque for our friend, Judy's, wedding in Scottsdale. A quick 72 hours but we knew how to take advantage of the short amount of time we had to re-bond with each other, witness the marriage and celebrate our friend's good fortune at finding love with her new partner, David. Can you feel the joy in our expressions?

Of course, the Raffs have another wedding coming up. Adam and Laura in less than six weeks will be committing to their own vows. RSVPs are coming in, travel plans arranged and the excitement of the upcoming day is mounting.

Family from as far away as Israel will be here to celebrate the happy couple's union! Can't wait.

Had a rather wintry day today but hope it's the last blast of cold air until next year. I really want to get the garden ready for our wedding guests who need to see the house and yard in bloom!

Gil and I continue to attend meditation retreats in Michigan when we can. It has been an enriching experience in our lives and our relationships -- for one another and for our family which is spread far and wide.

Haiku:

In all of the world

the union of a marriage

makes all things seem right.

Academic pursuits

This paper has been 5 years in the making from the time the research was conceived. From conception to parturition has been longer than an elephant. I don't know about whales. It was a rough delivery. Just after the study was done, I checked into the hospital with acute leukemia. My co-authors quickly went to work doing the analysis and submitting the first version of the MS in November 2009. Some of you might be surprised that it took until last night for the 6th revision to accepted. But those of you in academic pursuits won't be surprised.

Gil

Link to Time of the Twin pdf

Here is a link to a zip file containing a PDF of the book. There book is revised and the file is much smaller.

https://files.me.com/raff4258/rzorqg

Gil

Shared Joy

With a lot of trepidation Marika checked her medical college admission test results this morning and found she got a score of 35. That is more than enough to get her into Med School. I won't embarrass her too much by going on about how hard she studied. We are all very thankful.

Proud papa

In the Time of the Twin

I decided it was time to launch this baby into the universe. Where it will go I can't say. I created these photos and writing over the past 10 years and then abruptly decided they go together.

Karen is doing her usual admirable job of composing the book and we hope to have it in print soon, courtesy of an online self publishing site that allows you to make really elegant books.

I composed this draft version myself and am happy if you want to download it and use the photos and words as you see fit. Here is the URL for the download. You have to cut and paste it into your browser and go.

https://files.me.com/raff4258/wcyyd2

The book is 55 pages, 28 of which are photos, so it's 27 megabytes altogether. If you have a fast connection that is 2-3 minutes but if not be patient.

All the best

Gil