Carmen Danenberg (c. 1999)

As some of you know, my paternal grandmother passed away Thursday, February 21st at the age of 92.  This was just days before a planned family get together, so my father and aunt were able to be at her side.  Her health had been failing for several years, so my father had moved her from Florida to a home in Cheshire a while back to take better care of her.  It was nice to be able to see her whenever I was in town for the weekend.  That’s something we didn’t really have growing up, with relatives scattered all over the world.

Except for a short while when we all lived in St. Thomas, visits to see my grandparents were infrequent trips to Florida.  In grade school, this meant a trip to Disney World every two years or so.  And while we were always excited about the Magic Kingdom, these are a few of the memories that are more important to me now:

• Their houses filled with vintage Chinese furniture and artwork, Peruvian pottery, and that giant clay lamp that looked like a meteorite.
• My grandmother’s Chinese cooking and coconut pudding with prune sauce that she made in her tiny kitchen with over 50 rooster and chicken decorations.
• Playing Rummikub and Mahjong with my grandparents.
• Their kind of pissy poodle.
• Listening to old Brazilian records in the bedroom
• The heat as soon as we got out of the airport in Tampa, and the soft chlorinated water that never seemed to get the soap off.
• Lots of old pictures, the kinds with the wavy edges, and letters from Hong Kong from the 30’s and 40’s.
• Lizards!
• Everybody speaking Portuguese in the room.
• My grandparents speaking Cantonese with each other so that nobody else would understand.
• The time they visited and my grandfather bit my grandmother’s thumb in his sleep.
• My grandfather cursing "Jackass!" in his Hong Kong British accent and waving his fist at other drivers from his blue Toyota Cressida.
• My grandmother’s sense of humor and my grandfather’s improvised war stories.

My Grandparents Roy and Carmen (c. 1941)

I flew down last Tuesday for Wednesday’s funeral.  One of her longtime friends hosted a fancy lunch.  Then we headed to the cemetary where she was laid to rest by my grandfather in a tiny service.

Some people I know grew up next door to their grandparents.  I kinda wish we had the same thing.

It’s not often that you get past a security checkpoint with a Kermit the Frog invitation, but that’s exactly how Jen and I got to her retired co-worker’s Macy’s parade balloon inflation party. He lives right on the corner of 81st Street and Central Park West, one of the streets where they fill the balloons with ludicrous amounts of helium the night before the parade. Naturally, I took some pictures…

I don’t know if there’s an acceptable way to describe this.

I heart Super Grover.

Kermit the Frog has apparently been retired in favor of this commercial monstrosity!

Sponge Bob from the window(Natural History Museum in background.)

Moving on to Thursday… Our fine Thanksgiving dinner was preceded by a lovely Scrabble game between myself, my mom, and Jen. The game was noteworthy because we played tiles diagonally for the full length of the board! I’ve never seen that before.

It says, “Aoaoalhmcfjrwbw!”

I won even though Jen cheated…

No, she didn’t. It was just a funny picture. Anyway, dinner was gooooood! Then for dessert we had our traditional pumpkin and mincemeat pies. My mom carved a “turkey” in the center of the mincemeat pie. I thought it looked more like Archaeopteryx. That’s how much of a nerd I am. I had to resort to the Internet to explain. What do you think?

Pie Turkey vs. Archaeopteryx

Then we watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which I finally finished reading. I can’t believe the next movie isn’t out til July and they’re already showing the freakin’ trailer for it! I hate that.Now it’s late and we’re watching The Great Race with Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, Jack Lemmon, and Peter Falk. Well, I’m blogging and Jen’s fast asleep on the couch under a woven blankety thing.