xmascard 17: credits, comments, ani and bob news for
2017
- Notes:
Well, that Fake News is the best characterization of the year seems
undisputable---fake news and everything connected to it, centered around the
Faker-in-Chief, leader of the "free world". Things are looking like an
extended Scrooge Christmas, that is, the Scrooge before he had his epiphany
and turned into a generous rich guy. No such luck with the real life Scrooges.
They insulate themselves into their own little world of denial about
responsibility to their fellow human beings. And the US Tax bill is the
biggest Christmas gift/theft they have ever cooked up for themselves in modern
history---screw all the Tiny Tim's of the land! [For those who need a plot
refresher of Dicken's A Christmas Carol:
wiki.] Or in the
words of Marie Antoinette: "Let them eat cake!"
The competing theme of
the year is of course sexual harassment, but we already did that with Bill
Clinton in 1998: "OOPS...Santa got caught in a
compromising position this year ..." Our omniscient phrase "But
kids still think he can deliver the goods and just don't get what all the fuss
is about" perfectly describes the Republican Party of 2017.
- Sketches:
More self-plagiarism from previous cards. "No fly"
reindeer from 2001. Repurposed North Pole
surveilance from 2002.
- Window envelope tradition:
This year again the window
envelope teased the recipient about its contents, another tradition that
usually accompanies our current domestic destination
love stamp.
- Personal News:
Sad developments for too many older folks in our lives. In January we
learned by chance of the
active end of life decision by our friend Laura in Rome way back in
August 2016 only days after we said goodbye, not knowing how final it would be.
In February a week after we gathered for her 90th birthday in our family
home built 65 years ago by my dad Ted, my mom
Maureen passed away from
progressive aphasia that over about 4 years had gradually reduced her
ability to communicate what was inside her mind, though leaving her memory
intact until the end when she was reduced to a zombie-like state. Meanwhile
months before our feisty Rome landlady born in the same year as my mom had
some kind of cerebral event which reduced her to bed or a few hours a day in
a wheelchair, able to speak but not knowing what to say. Some facebook video
calls kept us connected until our 5 week stay together next door in June.
Valentina takes care of her 24/7, what an angel. Then Ani's dad
Barkev, suffering
mild dementia, was forced to the hospital by undiagnosed Parkinson's. He
transferred to the Fair Acres nursing facility where his disease progressed
rapidly, and he went out without any last goodbyes since he was unresponsive
for the last week of his 20 day hospice period. It happened only minutes
after Ani and I had visited him on the Sunday night of her birthday. The
same day my mom's second husband
Chet
died peacefully in his sleep at 93. Meanwhile Ani's Connecticut cousin
Vicky had lost her battle with cancer in July just as we flew back from
Rome, and we drove up for the funeral the next day. Then in early December
Lorraine lost her second battle against cancer, wounding seriously our
Villanova Math
Dept.
We only spent 5
weeks together in Rome this summer, in part because of Barkev's precarious
health situation, and for Colby and Jenna's mid July wedding we could not
miss. A happy occasion in Burlington, VT.
The annual xmas card
production ran into technical difficulties. After decades of doing labels on
the department copier/printer with no problems, bob forgot the 2-sided
default this year and when the 18 pages of labels started coming out 2
sided, he pulled the paper drawer to stop, but that led to paper jams
everywhere, and melted a label onto the printing drum, on the weekend. It
took a hour of fighting with the machine to clear it but it needed service.
When printing from LaTeX to PDF to have FedEx print the labels, the output
was vertically shifted, so bob went home and fought with PCTeX to adjust
this factor, and returned. The first two pages looked okay, but at the
moment of truth, starting on page 3, it turned out insufficient for 4 and 5
line addresses. More fighting with PCTeX, but our cheap Dell b&w
laserprinter cartridge needed replacement and instead of ordering a 60
dollar cartridge, we tried a 15 buck one, that did not fit, so had to be
returned, leaving us with no printer at home. We went out and bought a 60
buck HP All-In-One. We did the labels ourselves. Then more fighting with MS
Word for the 80 label per page return address labels. In the end bob had to
edit individually each of the 80 labels to remove the autoboldface first
line that came with the new downloaded template for the Avery 8167 labels,
needed since boldface lengthened the line and the printer complained.
Finally everything done after Christmas.
- Photos:
page 2:
the best dress at Colby and Brenna's July wedding, dress and matching pocketbook from AbitArt Roma.
Villanova January Holiday Party
Ani lusts for lobster roll in NYC in February.
NYC tourism
April family photo
June Roman terrace, home away from home.
Piazza Santa Cecilia, Rome.
bob in the window.
rome tourism.
Naples tourism.
Love Street, Napoli.
Formia departure.
Ponza port.
Ponza port again.
Cheesecake Party July 2017, cake cutting ritual.
July wedding pose.
August chorak teamwork.
November 2017 Mendel Award Dinner, before.
November 2017 Mendel Award Dinner, during.
- More bonus photos and sketches:
For photos of our summers 2009--2017 in Italy, check out our
collection of
Facebook uploaded
Italy summer photos
(Warning: too many food shots) and for all bob's Facebook
food posts without the politics, check out our
Facebook food master index.
NEW!
Finally,
the dr bob doodling art on-line exhibit has arrived, showcasing 50
years of creative inspiration, displayed with annotated thumbnails of nearly
every whimsical little sketch bob has done during his adult (or almost
adult) lifetime. If you are a fan of his annual holiday greeting card work (see the
xmas
card gallery), don't wait to check out the
dr bob sketchbook gallery.
- Remembrances:
It is always hard to lose those close to us, but the same is true of all
those lives lost here and abroad to senseless violence; each of them has a
story and their own families who miss them, when there are survivors.
- Financials:
The color of the paper this year was ?? As usual Lynne at
Villanova Fed-Ex oversaw the work. This annual enterprise was sent out to about 550 recipients all over the world
again with nice Love stamps to the domestic crowd (49 cents), Global
Green Succulent (cactus!)stamp
to destinations abroad ($1.15 ouch! even to Canada now).
The dr bob negative profit corporation bookkeeping: a loss of about 500
bucks to plant a few smiles around the world, for a net gain not measurable
in dollars, serving to keep in touch with so many people who have entered
our lives over the years as we stumble through life.
- Postscript:
please email us to stay in touch at
aniandbob@drbobenterprises.com, we promise to reply!