long time, no update.

ages ago, we went to manhattan to see the gates with j&s. it was cold, snow on the ground. basically, as you can see, what we've got is 7800 orange (christo claims they're "saffron" but, um, who is he kidding?) square arches with orange material hanging from them. each gate cost nearly $3000. it was cold, but hey, what's a walk through tangerine gates without some snow and cold? we passed martha plimpton near the castle, and paid $25 to park the car. not at the same time. i had a reuben at a deli, and bought some fancy french chocolate at la maison du chocolat on madison avenue. you have now heard it all.

two weeks ago, we went to england for michael's funeral. we flew over with s&k, karl's brother and sister-in-law, arriving tuesday morning. the funeral was wednesday morning at 11. the funeral director, a local man name of butcher (karl's dad says mike would have loved that) came by the house with the cars. the bunch of us, karl's immediate family plus two aunts and an uncle and their familes, plus grandma and granddad, got into the cars and headed to st. cuthbert's anglican church in sheffield.

when we got there, michael was carried into the church by his dad, his two brothers, and his three uncles. the church was full. we were sat down in the front row; i didn't really feel like it was my place, since i wasn't part of michael's family. and there were certainly plenty of his friends there who knew him better than i did. but i suppose i was there in the front row for karl.

i'd never been to a funeral service in a church before. all the funerals i've been to have been held in the chapel of the funeral home. there were prayers and hymns and a sermon, given by the vicar who had christened michael's children. michael's dad read a touching statement about michael and how he lived, how his friends were a testament to the kind of person he was, how his relationship with becky and his daughters had given him purpose, how much he is missed.

after the service, the procession went to the cemetary. unlike in the funerals i've been to before, the grave was not covered up, and the coffin was lowered into the ground while we watched. several at a time, people threw a handful of dirt on the coffin.

we went from the cemetary to a local pub for the funeral tea. there was food, and people ordered drinks and talked. sometimes about michael, sometimes not. i met some of michael's friends, all of whom are nice. we stayed at the pub for hours, til 9:30 at night.

the rest of the week was spent hanging around karl's parent's house. we had isabel for a night, and she entertained us, as always. we brought her with us for a nice mediteranean dinner where she was mostly good, if active, except for a short tantrum when i stopped letting her climb all over me. but for a two year-old, she was very well behaved.

on saturday night, before heading up for bed, karl's dad asked s when he wanted to be at the airport the next day for our 1pm departure. s said 10am. i would've thought he was kidding, if he ever kidded. 10am? 3 hours before departure? 3 HOURS? really? i was agog. AGOG i tell you. who goes to the airport 3 hours before departure? an appropriate answer to the question of "when do you want to be at the airport" would have been "oh, i don't know. karl, what do you think? 2 hours maybe? or is that too early?" but no. mister anal retentive has to be there 3 HOURS before. karl's dad made a brief attempt at sanity and asked if we really needed to be there that early, and s answered "that's what we've done the last couple of times." that's what we've done the last couple of times??? THAT'S his reason? i wanted to wring his neck. but, of course, i restrained myself. barely. and the next morning at 8:30, we all set out for the manchester airport, 90 minutes away. we got there at 10, yes we did, and we sat in the cafe having cups of tea for 2 hours and 20 minutes, because YEAH, THAT WAS NECESSARY.

as soon as we got back, karl and i had to tackle the Car Issue. remember my car? the 87 honda accord? well, it's due for inspection this month, and it's not going to pass. to pass, it would need significant body work, to repair rust damage. and i for one and not willing to do significant body work on an 18 year-old car. so, we need to buy a new car. well, new to us.

we've been spending every evening looking at car ads in the paper, looking for that elusive mid-90s japanese make 4-door manual transmission car. for $3000. yeah, i know. not bloody likely. failure after failure, evenings spent looking at perfect-on-paper civics that turn out to have major engine issues or odometer rollbacks, and days spent having dealership salesmen give us the hard sell on financing something 3x as expensive as we want, finally made us raise our price by $500. and we found it.

the new borogovesmobile is a 95 honda accord, 143K miles, manual trans, perfect glossy paint. we'll ignore the few rips in the ceiling fabric, and the slight grinding noise it makes while accelerating in low gears. i mean, it has pick-up! and air conditioning that works! and a defroster that works! and headlights that work even when not on bright! and water still beads up on it when it rains! whoo!

i think i'll go look out the front window at it Right Now.