Maine

Oh, state of Maine, how we sing your praises.

We arrived in Maine on June 18th, weary and sick. Two weeks later we were on top of the world. What happened?

Well, Thomas had a great two weeks at wolf's neck farm camp. This is him there with his counselor, Ahmad.

Thomas did complain about the lazy counselors making the kids do all the chores. He says he will never become a farmer. He doesn't believe me that there is any other point to this camp other than training him for a future job. But, thanks largely to Ahmad's relentless good cheer, he had a good time anyway.

Daddoo arrived with fine wines and motorcycle t-shirts from far off lands.

Emmett models one such shirt below.

Grandpa Doug and Grandma Nancy made the scene! In a beautiful old rented house on the point-

We ate lobsters, biked around the Bowdoin campus, and took a train to Wiscasset!

On July 4th, we swam at Thomas Point Beach.

Emmett won second prize in a watermelon eating contest.




We watched fireworks in Freeport at LL Beans with Thomas' new friend from camp, Will Gleason. The Gleasons were very pleased to meet Will's exotic new Egyptian friend.





But most of all, there has been Grand Kathy, feeding us, bathing us, entertaining us, even discipling us when we need it.



As Emmett says, "grand Kathy, you are a very beautiful lady."

In NYC!

WE have been very busy traveling the continent, but we have some things to show for it: Pictures!! Here we go:

Arriving in NYC-- what a welcome--

Then we spent a divine night at the Michel's in the Bronx. It turns out Sadie likes to strip down for a party as much as we do!!!!

At that chair in the foreground, Adam was often busy writing this truly brilliant opening number for the Tony awards.

Then another long flight to Tahoe to help Aunt Emily get hitched, and meet Uncle Brian. It was a little much for Thomas, who retired with a fever to his room to watch Scooby Doo, leaving Emmett to shoulder ring bearer duties for the family. At first all this fell in turn to grandpa Peter, who manfully walked the bride, as well as bore the bearer, to the alter together.

On the day of, however, Emmett kept a close eye on other bearer Austin, and flower girls extraordinaire Elsie and Theo.

It was a beautiful event, cake incident notwithstanding.

(much credit to Aunt Deborah for the beautiful photos)

Then off to Portland for some stories with Uncle Arthur, smoke bombs, and waterfalls.

About this time, Thomas started scratching his head. Upon closer inspection, we found these!!! From Egypt!!! These are no ordinary bugs. These are super-lice, and woe unto you who catches them.

We thought seriously about just not mentioning it to anybody. But if you've snuggled with us lately-- that's what you're looking for. Happy Hunting!!!

Last thoughts

Heading home for summer holiday in the morning. We leave you with this parting shot . . .



I can't disclose at this moment why I was abaya shopping, but my friend Lucy and I had a great time trying these things on. Once you are paying attention, there is a whole language in these things-- the sleek swishy ones vs. the drab cotton, the nature of the beading-- subtle or very flashy. This one above was the silliest I saw. But I can see now how even these costumes can be adapted to express oneself-- more on this later.

See you soon dearest family! Grand Kathy-- hope we will see you at the terminal tomorrow!!

Macarena

Last weekend we went to Kompass' end of year picnic at Fagnoon- the art school just outside Cairo. Here Thomas performs a dance routine with some of his classmates--



This was actually a reprise. We got terribly lost trying to find the place, and missed the first show, so the teacher sweetly re-staged it for us. Maybe in the original Thomas wouldn't have been the only boy, but maybe he would have.

here are some more views of the Fagnoon fun:







That's not Picasso's real signature below. Somebody else wrote that. So far as we know he never went to Fagnoon. But he would have loved it!



Tomorrow we say goodbye to Grand Kathy, but only for a week. We leave ourselves for NYC on June 5th!!