A long long time ago in a galaxy far far away....

We had a visit from the Dark side this weekend. Darth-Gus was accompanied by Princess-Mary and Chuck-Solo. The force was very strong with Princess-Mary and Chuck-Solo and they kept Darth-Gus on his best behavior. It was fun to spend time with all three of you!

Attack of the killer stink bug!!!!

This is my first post. This is from moving g-ma Perry and my mom visiting.

Paris

Ate dessert everyday, sometimes twice.
Fresh pea soup with spider crab and caviar.

Steak Tartare
The foot of the tower we went up.
Pomme souffle which I had at Jules Verne.
Parking problem solved.

We had dinner at Jules Verne which is on the second level. I was not so sure about

it as the elevator car tilted as we went up and I wondered if I was going to enjoy being at that height while trying to eat and take in the city as the lights came on. It was an amazing experience though. The food was perfect, of course I took pictures like the giant rube that I am.
There are more beautiful clothing stores in Paris than I have ever seen in my life. The 3 people I was with are all non-shoppers or I should say they take no joy in browsing. Get a load of the striped jacket.
We had a wonderful day with Jake and Francois. We really enjoyed being able to hear whats going on in their lives and getting to know Francois a little better. We walked all over the place talking the whole time. Francois had steak tartare for dinner which was somewhat amazing to us,but no biggie to him.

Home Again

We are back from a wonderful trip to France. You see here the correct ratio used in taking photos there, one of a person and three of food. More later.

The Graduate 2008

William Brown Simpson II graduated from high schoool yesterday. He composed and sang a song for the assembled throng and received two scholarships for college. Tomorrow he's heading for Spain for three weeks to walk El Camino de Santiago with his buddy Andrew. It was a big day, our only regret being that Sara and Dave were absent.

Visitors

Bill, Laura and Elizabeth came to visit last weekend. It was good to see them. They attended Will's graduation Candlelight Service on Friday night, which was marked by numerous technical difficulties. The next day we took a walk on the beach with Gus. We all had fun with Elizabeth, including Gus, who stayed cool and did not bite her.

HAPPY PADRE'S DAY

Hope all you pappys had a fine day today. Here's my pride and joy a couple days ago and today.

East Coast 2008

I'm sorry to say that my camera was not used nearly as much as I had hoped during our visit to New England last week. Upon uploading I realized the only photos I took was of Dave and Dad posing in front of the L.L. Bean boot in Freeport. As you can clearly see, they were quite excited about their purchases and the opportunity to model them for me. Shopping with these two is quite an experience--considering Dave is just as cheap as my dad. They spent an entire hour in the camping section balking at the price of water bottles, freeze dried food and containers made especially for your shampoo, conditioner and body lotions.

All in all we had a nice time in Maine and Mass., visiting with many family members and we were able to celebrate Will's graduation from high school. Way to go, Bud! We are so proud of you. Have a great time in Spain!

A poem by Philip Appleman

O Karma, Dharma, pudding and pie,

gimme a break before I die:

grant me wisdom, will,& wit,

purity, probity, pluck, & grit.

Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, kind,

gimme great abs & a steel trap mind,

and forgive, Ye Gods, some humble advice-

these little blessings would suffice

to beget an earthly paradise:

make the bad people good-

and the good people nice;

and before our world goes over the brink,

teach the believers how to think.

Random shots for Aunt Margaret

Francois' mom Christiane, Jake+Nora

François+cousin Arnaud
us
Jake in Morvan
our tomatoes
Roman forum
François and godson Clément

us again


Noyers sur Serein in Burgundy


Our tomatoes again, rue Legendre









Our dear cat Chonchon, presently on sabbatical chez Christiane


Arc en ciel over our apt (how appropriate)

dear aunty Elise's poodle
Publier le message

Another Poppy

Latest and last poppy
My friend Sandy and her granddaughter Annalena, Carly's daughter
Hope the roughneck ballerina

Grandpa and Hunter try out the new Adirondack chairs
Susan and Hopie through the roses.

I wish some other Simpsons would put some news on the blog. I miss the lively offerings we used to have. I am going away for awhile and perhaps will have an interesting tale or two upon my return,but otherwise I will keep putting photos of my grandchildren and flowers and other people's grands that you don't even know. Au revoir

June 2 Hunter and Hope

Its hard to get a picture of Hope without her big square mouth open. She thinks thats how you are supposed to smile for the camera. She has a tremendous amount of energy, always moving and yellin.
Hunt pretends to drink my Gypsey Moth caterpillar collection jar. We were entertaining bids on how much it would be to get you to actually eat the contents but no takers. NO I'm not actually collecting them, just picking them off my roses and everywhere else. I've never seen them this bad.
In a rare moment of stillness Hope listens to the story of the ancient food in my Mom's freezer. Maybe another blog entry.

Gorgeous

I want a skirt made out of poppy petals

Fine tissue flowing like silk around my knees

Stamen and pistil, which is which?

Purple black and dusty hidden secret

Pods release, ruffled beauty

Gone by noon.