The best of times...

(l. to r.) Cheryl, me, Jennifer, and (seated) mom.

My sister Cheryl (Avery's mom), invited us to a fundraising dinner in Boston last week, to benefit my niece's heart transplant surgeon, Dr. Francis Fynn Thompson. Dr. Fynn Thompson returns to his native Ghana at least once a year (but preferably twice) to do life-saving open heart surgeries on children there. More importantly, the team that travels there is teaching the medical staff there so that they will be able to continue his work and have a cardiac surgery program of their own in Ghana.

The evening was wonderful. We laughed and talked with Avery's doctors and nurses, ate some wonderful food, and contributed to an amazing cause.

And speaking of my niece, Avery has been up and walking - on her own - in the hospital garden. She is progressing wonderfully and we believe she is on the path to going home in the near future.

Sisters...

My sisters and I got together for my dad's birthday on Saturday night. I cannot say enough good things about my sisters. We all have busy lives now, so we don't get together as often as we'd like, but when we do, it's the most comfortable of relationships, where we know each other so well that there is no effort at all involved in being together. They are smart, funny, energetic and just really good people.

It was a rather typical family gathering - a delicious dinner, a fabulous dirty martini (okay two) made by my sister Cheryl , my sister Jennifer making sure that everything runs smoothly, a little meltdown from my 3-year-old-niece, who has been battling all of the usual plagues of daycare, and quiet conversations as the evening wound down. I had also meant to stop on my way into town to take a picture of the Catskill mountains a little beyond peak for leaf peepers but still a breathtaking backdrop to my home town, but when approached the turn for dad's, I was anxious to get there, as I always am, and didn't take the moment to stop. I should have, because by the time I visit again, the mountains will be bare, or snow-capped. One of these years, I will actually slow down and take it in.