Marcos and me (Key Biscayne, FL, March, 2011)

I'm spending all my time at the Sony Ericsson open in Key Biscayne these days. Here I am, swiped off TV, helping the ever-popular Marcos Baghdatis with my sage advice (he lost anyway). That's my pretty awesome reserved seat!

The Mutz Family (Lincoln, NE, unknown date, probably late 1930s)

This picture fills in three important family members who I haven't had pictures of before: Elizabeth's maternal grandparents, and her uncle Ster. Now, finally, photos here have shown all of Elizabeth's and my 8 grandparents, and all 14 of our aunts and uncles. Shown below are Sterling Mutz and his wife Jessie Clarke Mutz in the front, and their daughter Jessica and son Ster in the back.

I never met either Sterling or Jessie Mutz, both had died before I met Elizabeth (and Elizabeth never met her grandmother). I did meet briefly Sterling's second wife, "Grammy Ginn". Ster we both knew well. He was an engineer with Cushman, the golf cart company, and I remember his helping me reconnect a lifter rod in the engine of our second car; we used baling wire. Amazingly, that engine repair held for the long remaining life of that car. Ster died young. He was a volunteer fireman, and was killed in a head-on collision, rushing to a fire. The person whose house burned down was racing out to get help, passed on a hill, and collided with Ster. Ster was married to Aunt Mary, who died two years ago.

Besides capturing all the missing family members, I really love this as a photo. Something about the composition, the poses and the way it is such a period piece strike me. I recommend clicking on it, and then clicking on the photo that comes up in the browser, to see the full version. The painting over the fireplace is of Jessica. It was done by a noted local artist, and she had that painting until she died.

Uncle David, Photographer (probably Estes Park, Colorado, probably early 1960s)

There was a previous photo of Uncle David posted a couple of years ago, but this one captures more the person Elizabeth and I knew in the 1960s and 70s. He lived in Little Italy (on Sullivan St.) in Manhattan, and Elizabeth worked with him at the Equitable. He had a lot of hobbies that he took seriously, and photography was one of them. These pictures were probably taken in Estes Park, Colorado. There have been a few photos already posted from there, since Elizabeth's father's family often vacationed there.

The only picture previously posted of Dorothy Good, Elizabeth's grandmother (for whom Dora is named), didn't give a real sense of what she looked like. But here is a picture of her taken, I think, at the same time as the above, undoubtedly by Uncle David. Next to Elizabeth's grandmother is Elizabeth's grandfather, and their son (and thus David's brother), Tony, is in the back.

A Kodak Bowling Team (Rochester, NY; 1975)

Besides Kodak, Rochester is also the home of Bausch + Lomb. That's all I'm sayin'.

Ari As Usual (Miami Beach, FL, Feb 2011)

I got a new phone today, much to my delight (and, nearly as much, to Ari's). So another excuse for him to smile, as if he needs one.

First picture, literally right out of the box:

Ari rides the Miami Metromover (Miami, FL, Feb 2011)

Ari's biggest interests seem to be trains and construction. I had been building up a ride on the Metromover, and was afraid it would disappoint, but it was great.

The Metromover is Miami treasure, not well-understood nor used by most residents. It is a small, driverless train, on rubber wheels, that goes all through Miami's central city area, usually about 30 feet up in the air. It is free, and cars--the size of typical airport interterminal train cars--come every few minutes. Unless you really study it (as I did, since I often took the train to school at MDC) the route is unfathomable, and you often see people wandering around befuddled.

Henry came with us, and we went through every stop except the school board stop (which was the one stop beyond where we got on), even the stop that's inside a building.

Henry's photo.

This is one of the old-style cars, where you could actually sit in
the front window.   (Henry's photo)

Henry's photo

Elizabeth's photo

Henry's photo

Ari at Maurice Gibb Park (Miami Beach, FL, Feb, 2011)

Ari is visiting while Dave & Allison vacation.