2021-09-10 20:18
Leo is now 2 years, 3 months old. He is so much fun and just cuter than cute! I just need to make sure these photos and videos are saved forever, so here they are! Here’s Leo sing… Read More
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Musings of a defiantly menopausal bab baby-boomer
2021-04-14 21:12
A few weeks ago, I was interviewed for the International Day of Provenance Research which highlights the social and academic relevance of provenance research on an international scale. In th… Read More
2021-02-24 17:43
March 3rd. A week from today. That’s the day that my currently healthy boobs will take leave of my body. I’m still in disbelief that I’m about to do this, and I have the… Read More
2020-12-22 22:02
2020 can’t end soon enough. What an absolutely craptastic year it’s been, ending in another solitary holiday for Tom and me. Fortunately, all four of our children are happily pa… Read More
2020-11-28 17:17
Anyone who knows us knows that Thanksgiving is our favorite holiday. It’s rare that we have fewer than 15 or 20 guests (a bunch of them as houseguests for the whole week!) and we cook… Read More
2020-09-09 23:47
Look what I came upon as I reviewed video conversations I had with my father during the years before he died, when he was finally willing to talk about his experiences as a half-Jew (a… Read More
2020-08-20 20:52
Back in late 2017, when we decided to scrap the idea of building in Suncadia and instead decided to move to Gig Harbor, we bought a house that kept coming up on Tom's Redfin searches, but ne… Read More
2020-07-04 18:08
In our family, if it happened once and it was fun, it will forevermore be considered a TRADITION. Heading south to Quincy, California for a week on Danny's prospecting claims is now one of o… Read More
2020-03-09 00:21
My mother's death in 2004 of ovarian cancer still seems like yesterday - when it doesn't seem like a lifetime ago.A few months after after mom died, I talked to her oncologist about a recent… Read More
2019-10-14 16:49
Dear Dad,I was always afraid of disappointing you and now, more than two years after your death, I’m paralyzed by it. I should be done with this book about your life by now and in… Read More
2019-09-23 17:39
I wrote this post in 2010. My father didn't want me to publish it at that time, for the same reason he didn't want to publish the two books he'd written about his life as a half-Jew in Germa… Read More
2019-09-17 00:10
Mom died in 2004. Dad died in 2017. Only today, during the first snowstorm of the season, in the wilderness above Lake Tahoe that they both so loved, were their ashes given back to the earth… Read More
2019-07-18 01:09
June 14, 2019 will forever be remembered in our family - both for a very happy event and for a very scary event. Our first grandson, Leo, was born that morning at Swedish Hosp… Read More
2019-07-15 03:05
He’s here! Our first grandchild, Leo Thomas-Rex Markus, announced himself to the world with what can only be described a grand entrance. At 8:30 on the evening of June 13th, I got… Read More
2019-05-27 01:52
Elisabeth is officially a “primigravida” (advanced maternal age) mom today - her 35th birthday! To celebrate this, we (her “advanced parental age” parents) came to Ca… Read More
2019-05-19 22:04
Elisabeth and Danny’s baby - our first grandchild! - is due to make his appearance in about a month, and yesterday was the official maternity photo session. Location: our home in… Read More
2019-05-18 02:14
Joseph Hauber painted this portrait of his sister, Sophia, in 1828. She was part of my grandfather’s collection and this painting always hung in my childhood home. Today, more than a y… Read More
2019-03-09 04:02
When we last visited Tom’s prostate cancer experience, we were deep in the process of researching treatment options. For the past four years, Tom had been a participant in the Un… Read More
2019-01-21 23:56
I’m going to be a GRANDMOTHER (“Omi”) and Tom’s going to be a GRANDFATHER (“Papa”) to a little boy, coming in June!Thank you, Danny and Elisabeth! Read More
2019-01-12 20:23
When we were looking for a place to retire, and a home to retire to, Tom and I each had our own wish lists and must-haves. Top on my list was that the inside of any house we bought (or buil… Read More
2018-11-09 03:56
Four years ago, during the summer of 2014, I was forced to ponder the possibility of life without Tom when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. (I blogged about it previously here and here… Read More
2018-11-04 03:02
I came home from this weekend’s Write in the Harbor conference determined to start writing again. I don’t mean Facebook post writing; I mean sweat-it-out-straight-from-the-he… Read More
2018-11-02 22:56
Our new son-in-law, Danny, is a fanatical devoted gold prospector. Would you believe that he pulled the gold for these wedding rings out of the ground? Danny owns a few mining claims i… Read More
2018-10-28 17:10
I got a call a few hours ago from a woman named Anna in Germany who, it turns out, is the granddaughter of my father’s favorite nanny, nicknamed “Halle.” My father spoke l… Read More
2018-10-28 01:10
This post is long overdue. They all are these days, but this one is especially overdue because Danny and Elisabeth are barely even newlyweds anymore, having been married for, like, EVER. O… Read More
2018-08-29 14:27
In the spring of 2016, the vet told us that Shasta had two potentially lethal conditions - thrombocytopenia (a blood/platelet disorder)and degenerative myelopathy (weakness and pos… Read More
2018-08-27 18:55
The last time I blogged was on April 7th, as we were packing up our Woodinville house, preparing to move to our dream home in Gig Harbor. The closing had been delayed and we were beginning t… Read More
2018-04-07 16:34
About 10 years ago, when I was looking to clear up some storage space in the garage, Tom and I put what I remember as “a few” of our kids’ favorite outgrown toys in the att… Read More
2018-03-19 02:03
Sometimes life just leaves you shaking your head. Still dealing with jet-lag after my amazing trip to Germany, I found myself wide awake and on my computer at 3 AM on Saturday, March… Read More
2018-02-28 23:13
Dear Opa, I assume that, had we ever met, I would have called you Opa. In my imagination, I’ve even called you Opapa, having decided that you and I had an extra special connection, fo… Read More
2018-02-24 07:27
Let me just begin by saying that I’m at a loss for words to describe our first full day in Chemnitz. Jet-lag and sheer overwhelm prevent me from being as eloquent as I would like, so a… Read More
2018-02-23 03:21
When you never even leave an airport terminal, as was the case for us in Frankfurt, you end up with photos like this as your only memento. We flew from San Francisco to Frankfurt, to Be… Read More
2018-02-22 16:46
I might as well be that four-year-old who asks incessantly, “How many more sleeps until we go on our trip?” and when that last sleep comes, excitement-induced insomnia hits. &hell…Read More
2018-02-21 04:01
Last year in the very wee hours of the morning of February 21st, a phone call woke me up to tell me that my father had just died. This year in the very wee hours of the morning of February… Read More
2018-02-19 04:02
For three reasons, this chair has been my home for the past few days. First, I have been positively immersed in the past, first reading letters between my grandmother, Irmgard and her mo… Read More
2018-02-15 18:46
In six days I’ll be headed to Chemnitz to join the city and my extended family in honoring my grandfather, Carl, and my father, Thomas at the opening of an art exhibit in their name an… Read More
2018-02-07 00:41
I’ve decided to incorporate Dad’s prolific written works into whatever book I write. Dad wrote two books about his childhood, but throughout his life he also kept daily diaries… Read More
2018-02-02 23:30
On March 5, 1945, as air raid sirens enveloped the city of Chemnitz, my grandfather, who was surprised to find himself at home instead of on a transport to Theresienstadt with the few other… Read More
2018-01-24 23:23
I’ve been feeling a bit lost lately. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I’m now an orphan. Even at 61, “orphan” is how it feels. I just plain miss my mommy and d… Read More
2017-08-13 16:23
“Hi, all of you. parents and descendants --- NOW where are you going to emigrate to?? In 1938, ("Krystal Night", November 8) my (Jewish) father told us to keep the lights off, and… Read More
2017-08-11 04:00
Tom and I met again tonight with Rick Jones, our architect. It was a short meeting. Wanna know why? Because he gave us everything we asked for and we were thrilled, with NO complaints or req… Read More
2017-07-31 04:48
…the one I have started so many times since he collapsed at 3:15 AM on the morning of February 21st, almost six months ago. The one I just can’t seem to ever finish. For most o… Read More
2017-07-28 19:03
Last weekend, a few weeks after we received the survey results from Encompass Engineering & Surveying and after meeting again with our architect, Rick Jones, we returned to Suncadia. W… Read More
2017-07-27 20:44
This Decker & Son grand piano, built in 1903, has been in our family since before I can remember. The piano, purchased by my parents in 1958, has graced our family living rooms in Ber… Read More
2017-07-14 21:34
This is really happening! Our survey results came in two weeks ago. Two things are quickly apparent: 1.) This lot is DEEP, and much of it – more than we expected - is compr… Read More
2017-06-28 00:04
We bought two of them at Costco (only $299 each!). It pretty much marked a final commitment to actually do this thing! They’re boxed and covered at the side of our current house, no… Read More
2017-06-17 16:22
We closed on our Suncadia lot on Friday. On Monday, we hired an architect. Never let it be said that we “sat on our lot”! Actually, I was living in two distinct worlds when the… Read More
2017-06-15 03:57
A little more than two years ago, I wrote this post called “A Suncadia Future.” In that post, I swooned about Suncadia, our new discovery in the Cascades, predicting that we&rsqu&hell…Read More
2017-06-14 20:01
It’s been almost a year since I last wrote. Now I want to chronicle the building of our dream home at Suncadia. But first… test! Is this thing on?!This is our approximate view… Read More
2016-08-31 11:49
You know how you hear about those people who notice something odd on their skin and ignore it, waiting months – or even years – to have it looked at by a dermatologist? Well, tha… Read More
2016-07-04 14:51
Let’s begin with a bit of ancestry and history. In 1969, my mother’s nephew, Dieter, visited us in Berkeley. My mother had been fairly close to Dieter, her sister’s child… Read More
2016-06-04 16:03
(My father as he arrived in New York from Germany, April, 1952.) Long-time readers of my blog will remember my father from this post, in which he shared some of his experiences and docume… Read More
2016-04-26 04:49
Zillow has a feature called Make Me Move whereby homeowners can pretend-list their property just to get an idea as to its marketability. With this hot Seattle market, Tom’s retirement… Read More
2016-02-10 23:33
Two weeks ago I stopped by Homeward Pet to donate a cat bed – because, you know, even though we spend a small fortune on exquisite cat beds, they actually prefer BOXES. Duh. (Oh… Read More
2016-01-29 19:20
Last year, when we planned our trip to Costa Rica, the idea was that we would begin our trip at La Carolina Lodge, a rustic working farm deep in the rainforest, and end it at the very luxuri… Read More
2016-01-29 17:10
After the first four jam-packed days in the hot, humid jungle of Costa Rica, we headed west to the hot, dry beaches. Our first beach stop would be Playa Azul. While we expected there to… Read More
2016-01-29 05:08
We have been to Hawaii many times, loving it each time more than the last. In the past few years, though, our kids -- all of whom are more well-traveled than Tom or me -- have urged us to ge… Read More
2016-01-14 04:04
I'll probably be doing some blogging from Costa Rica via my iPhone 6Plus next week, so I thought I'd try things out from home so I could make any changes before we go. So let's just pre… Read More
2015-12-10 18:10
I've given up on Windows Live Writer.I didn't mean to give up on it; I meant to uninstall and reinstall it, in an effort to get it to work again. But now that I dumped it, I'm given error me… Read More
2015-12-06 05:03
It's been almost a year since we first heard about Suncadia. Last February, at the Seattle Home Show, we learned that this "Suncadia" place we'd heard about in passing for many years, isn't… Read More
2015-11-29 05:45
Kat's German Shepard, Zoe, turned one today. A year ago today, she weighed about two pounds - which is at least a hundred pounds less than she weighs now. She is one BIG pup! Since I turn … Read More
2015-11-22 18:15
I can't post from Live Writer anymore (sob!) and I can't seem to fix the issue, in spite of endless hours of research, lots of finger-crossing, password and setting changes, etc. So it looks… Read More
2015-08-05 01:40
Last summer, just a week or so before Tom's cancer scare, we bought a cute little travel trailer.It seemed like the perfect size for two empty nesters and two Golden Retrievers, who would sl… Read More
2015-05-10 13:40
We are in escrow!Behold, our next home, here:What? You don't see a home? Tom sure does! He has it all designed in his head - complete with a babbling brook and waterfall (he says this one w… Read More
2015-04-28 23:31
Most of us don't really ponder the concepts of aging and the passage of time until they thrust themselves forcefully upon us. I haven't been able to escape the reality of aging lately… Read More
2015-04-22 23:17
Calling all Woodinville historians -- or wanna-be Woodinville historians! I have a mystery that needs solving!200th Avenue NE is gone!It's on the map......but in actuality, it's nowhere to b… Read More
2015-04-20 05:00
When Tom and I attended the Seattle Home Show a few months ago, our intent was to explore builders for the house we planned to build on Bainbridge Island or in Poulsbo when Tom retires in a… Read More
2015-04-15 02:50
Remember when (yes, you will want to click that link) I asked you to remember when (and, yeah, click that one too) I insisted that we’re finished with major projects around the house?… Read More
2015-04-15 02:50
(Thinking that we might be on a long, tough road, and that I could share my experiences with other wives of prostate cancer patients, I began to write a book last month. That book will, fort… Read More
2015-04-15 02:43
Seventy years ago last month, in March, 1945, my grandfather, Carl Heumann, was killed when an Allied bomb directly hit his house in Chemnitz, Germany. The story is told that he died becau… Read More
2015-02-18 22:04
I should have kept a running list, because I know I've thought to myself numerous times throughout this trip, 'Oh we'll, lesson learned!" I'll try to remember some of them as we sit in… Read More
2014-10-10 21:59
Last February I got an e-mail from a woman who said she had found me via this post on my blog. Julia identified herself as a Provenance Researcher in Vienna, Austria. I had no… Read More
2014-08-05 23:43
The news is just about the best we could have hoped for: Tom has early prostate cancer, stage 1, Gleason score 6, very likely confined to the prostate. When I told Elisabeth, I said, &ldqu&hell…Read More
2014-08-04 06:08
In two days we’ll get the results of Tom’s biopsy. It’s been an excruciatingly long month and at times I felt like I couldn’t breathe. But since last Tuesday, w… Read More
2014-07-26 14:38
Sorry, that’s the shortest post title I can come up with because, since July 4th nothing has been normal, and racing, scary thoughts have been part of that. My plan was to not say any… Read More
2014-06-30 04:52
All my life, I have hidden my hands. Just don't look at them. Please, just don't ever look at them. I feel this way about my hands for two reasons. One is within my… Read More
2014-06-25 20:42
Last Saturday evening, four nights ago, Boo joined me as I read a book on the bed of our new travel trailer as it was parked in our driveway. I remember saying jokingly to Boo, … Read More
2014-06-19 23:31
About five years ago, I joined Facebook. Coincidentally (NOT!), about five years ago I stopped blogging with any real consistency. Because Facebook is so easy, it’s been ha… Read More
2014-05-29 00:22
I'm too tired to write much, but I have lots of pictures to post!We left Budapest this morning on a seven-hour train ride to Prague. Yes, all of us together in one compartment. We rode… Read More
2014-05-29 00:22
I feel a bit like an intruder in this town. Not I, personally, as much as I, from 2014. It just seems to me that Prague arrived unwillingly into the 21st century.As usual, we split the… Read More
2014-05-29 00:22
Our plan for the day was to visit the Jewish Quarter, then walk across the Charles Bridge by day and then visit the Communist Era Museum.When traveling, things never quite go as planned.&nbs&hell…Read More
2014-05-21 02:05
We’re back – and finally I can post to my blog from something other than my iPhone! What an ordeal THAT was! I could post only photos taken with my phone and all copy… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
So let's say that I had only this Chromebook, my iPhone, and a wi-fi connection (as will likely be the case) next month in Europe. Can I post photos from both Google Drive (where I'll… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
For a few months now, I’ve been pondering what to do with this once active and thriving, but now quiet and neglected blog. Should I just start writing again – sometimes a q… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
I’ve posted more than a few times about our traditional German sauerbraten dinners. (Mmmmmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about it!) Yesterday, though, I decided to delve… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
My mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer on April 11, 2000. On April 11, 2004, exactly four years later, she died. I still miss her every day. In 1993 I had a hysterectomy due to l… Read More
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