The ideal New Year's party

For New Year's we have been invited to Small's Hotel on Small's Island in Bolotomy Bay, Babbington, Long Island. We will drive down in the Studebaker and bring along clam cakes--although bringing clam anything to Babbington is a bit redundant.

If you don't know Small's, you can read about it in this book:


But be warned: once you step into Babbington, as chronicled by Eric Kraft, you will find yourself devouring everything he has written.

Here is Eric's page in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Kraft

And here's his website: http://www.erickraft.com

And here's the party page on Facebook: New Year's Eve at Small's Hotel

Brainiac with the kids for Christmas

We spent Christmas at a rented house on the shores of Seneca Lake in New York state with the children and grandchildren. One of the games available was Brainiac, as you can see here.

and here...

and here...

It was a great location, with lots of bedrooms upstairs and lots of open space to be family together in. The lake was very pretty when rain and fog were not obscuring it, and a howling wind one night was comforting in that it bothered the house not at all.

First snow

Some snow has finally arrived: just enough to mess around with the commute, not enough to build much of a snowperson with.

We were looking the other night at some soapstone carvings we collected while we lived in the Arctic, and remembering the conditions under which the carvers worked. They were head to foot in dust, sitting in little "heated" work tents not far from their houses, each with a little rosebud of non-dusty lips where the cigarettes went in and out.

And then today I had an email exchange with someone who wanted me to read a part in her new play. She is off to Vienna tomorrow for the first time since 1956. The big difference on this trip is that she will not be homeless or starving, she said.

So I guess sitting at a table with lights and heat, connected to the Internet and with plenty of things to learn and jobs to apply for, is not the worst situation I could find myself in.