Dad's 90th birthday

Miriam asked about the party—it actually went really well, smooth, hardly a hitch. I love this photo of Mom & Dad, afterward, looking through the giant mylar balloons that "spell" my Dad's age. (Yup, they can be a lot of fun sometimes.)

A lot of Dad's friends gave wonderful speeches, and as it worked out, there were a few from all different eras of his life—from folks who met Dad in the late 1930s, to someone who just met him two years ago. There were people from different countries and continents, and some friends sang a song they'd written many years ago during their work together.... It was a reminder of all the best things about him & about growing up with them....

I spoke too, talked about how grateful I am for how he encouraged my curiosity and fascination with everything in the world, and how important that has been to who I am and who I want to be... I described how many kids I meet who have had curiosity and fascination beaten out of them by parents who tell them "stop asking so many questions!". Another longtime friend of the folks also described her memories of how, whenever I had a question about anything, Dad always stopped whatever he was doing, and, starting at the very beginning, answered the WHOLE question. My Mom followed this up with a story about how, when I was four, she had jury duty, and when I asked my Dad what "jury duty" was, he answered—starting with the Magna Carta.

Loopy also spoke, actually just about the most moving speech that was given; later on the phone, my Mom told a friend, "[Loopy] reduced everyone to tears.....in a good way of course!" Loopy talked about Dad's big heart and his great sense of humor...two things that remain intact in spite of everything.

Incidentally I put a whole buncha new pix on Flickr tonight, some from this trip and some from last spring, so check 'em out if you're bored/procrastinating (of course you're bored/procrastinating; why else would you be reading this?)