MUSICAL: Jane of Sullivan's Island

Dear Family and Family Stalkers, 

It is my pleasure to introduce to you the slightly revised and updated:

JANE OF SULLIVAN'S ISLAND

Available for purchase on Blurb as an iBook ($1.99) or Softcover ($22.95)!

Me and Steve

 Oh, hello.  That's just me and Steve Martin. 

(photo by LAUREN SLUSHER!)

I took these two in Lauren's apartment (that's her on the right) and as you might imagine my yesterday was amazing.  Steve Martin played the banjo with the Steep Canyon Rangers and if you want that same experience in your living room turn on the Jimmy Fallon show tonight.  He'll be there!

Ok, it won't be exactly the same.  You can stand next to the TV and take a picture with him if you really want to though.

Did you know he was nominated for a Grammy for best Bluegrass album?  Cool.

How did it happen?  Well, Lauren invited me as her guest for the evening and I accepted and took the bus home early from DC (where I was visiting Amanda).  Steve (that's right. first name basis.) had seen a video of Beirut and Brazilian Girls that had been filmed in her apartment and wanted the same vibe.  So, there we have it.  AMAZING!

My Computer Desktop

Thought I would share what is on my work computers right now (sort of courtesy of John showing me Interfacelift.com as a good place to get desktop stuff)

Who can name all three bridges in the picture (yes, there are 3!)

Clairebo's room in Nürnberg (a before/after photoshow)...

Before, I was using the kitchen door as a coat hanger...

 This is (discluding skis, ski boots, and a fan) all stuff you can fit into a rental Mercedes Vito (van), looking through the fan you can even use the rearview mirror!

And this is me being so good at unpacking! If you want to hear my story, maybe I'll upload some of my chat with the infamous Amy Grant ;) Also, in conclusion, despite the fact that I look pretty much 100% Selby, I am OBVIOUSLY Williamson as well <3<3<3

Isabelle has a Birthday!

Have you seen this child? If so, wish her a Happy Birthday!

Since Isabelle does such a great job posting pictures, it is always a challenge to come up with something new. However, here she is a few years ago at the "other" Chriskindlmarkt in Chicago. With her schwester.


How cute is this?


HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISABELLE!

Should this go under Flight of the Selbies?

Blog 1 Buenos Aires

We arrived in Buenos Aires about 8 in the evening after an American Airlines flight from CHS to MIA and then an Aerolineas Argentina flight from Miami to EZE, the international airport in Buenos Aires (there’s a domestic airport in another location – you’ll hear more about that later). There was supposed to be someone meeting us, but we didn’t see our name on any sign. After about a half hour which included an unsuccessful attempt to use the only ATM in the vicinity (it was broken), we decided we had to go it on our own. So we picked out a reliable looking taxi stand and paid a fare to downtown. As we were waiting for the driver to show up and take us to his cab, Lynda found our real ride, Dr. Juan Verde. We told him we had already booked a cab. He gave a little frown, asked where, then went over to the stand and made the guy give us our money back. We were happy, but that interaction did seem … interesting.

On the way into town, he asked if we still wanted to go to dinner with the group (we had been scheduled to do that). It was after 9 pm, so we said no, probably not. But then somehow on the way we changed our minds and decided to go. It was the right decision and our first glimpse into what kind of hours we would be keeping in Buenos Aires. We went to a nice little restaurant near Puerto Madero, met all our hosts, had dinner, and discovered that Malbec is now going to be Lynda’s “go to” red wine for all occasions! We also discovered that this would be the earliest night we would go to sleep for the whole week. But probably best of all, a few of the women wanted to take Lynda around town and made plans to pick her up at 10 a.m. the next morning.

The Novotel hotel was excellent and we checked in and went to bed. A few notes: How much Spanish were we using? A lot! And we were rusty. There is English spoken a little most places, but not so much as in some other foreign countries. Note 2: We had forgotten how long the days are at that latitude in the summer, which it is down here. That’s one reason we stayed up so late every night. It would get dark about 10 p.m. We went to bed a little after midnight that first night. And so began our week of burning the candle at both ends.

Blog 2

The meeting started at 8 a.m. Breakfast was included, so we went there first, then I checked in to the meeting. The meeting was in Spanish as the official idiom, with simultaneous translation. You would check out headphones for whichever translation you wanted depending on whether the speaker was speaking in english or spanish. There were two people sitting in a little closed in box in the room who were doing the translating. Interestingly, one of them, a slightly older man, would go into extended coughing spells (15-20 sec!) every so often, but amazingly never when he was translating. You could hear him coughing through the walls of their little box, however.

Buenos Aires is a city where everyone still dresses up for everything (the folks in BA are called Portenos) which made Lynda happy because I was always wearing a tie. The meeting was good. I used the translator thingy the first time and then just listened to the Spanish speakers as a chance to improve my Spanish. I will say it frequently, but it is amazing to me how much we had to use our Spanish. i thought we would do it for fun and practice, but it was really required most of the time.

Lynda had a good time with her new friends and that was to become a recurring habit for the next 3 days. They went to the cemetery and Eva Peron's tomb among other things that day. but I will let her fill in the details. Now for some pictures. The main street, Avenida 9 de Julio (not to be confused with 25 de Mayo or 12 de Octubre) is the widest street in the world. At one point coming in to town we counted 9 lanes of cars going in our direction and that didn't include a separate two lanes off to the side. Don't for a moment think this means that there were 9 lanes lined out on the road. Nope! Everybody just squeezed in where they could.


It's taking a while for images to upload, even from our roost in the Condor Lounge (in the Buenos Aires aeropuerto courtesy of aerolineas Argentina), so you will have to do with mostly text for now and more pictures to follow.

Birthday Mom

To the lady we call Mere:

Many happy returns on this, your day of birth.  We love you with all our hearts and appreciate everything you have done for us in our happy lives. 

We turn not older with years, but newer every day.
- Emily Dickinson

Mere always has her iPhone handy! 

XOXO

The Buzz

To all dear readers of the Selby blog. Rumor has it that there is a new blog starting - selbystories.blogspot.com - At this point it is unclear exactly what will be happening there, but it appears a story will develop. We have just received word that there has been an initial posting. An source that asked to remain anonymous suggested that this could be a multiple author work with no pre-planning. What does that mean? Didn't we all learn in high school english to write an outline, then a rough draft, then re-draft, etc. This isn't a tennis game where one person hits the ball over the net to any place on the court and then the other player has to react! ......... Is it?

Skyliners

Since Selbies seem to like this kind of thing...



I Believe I can Fly ( flight of the frenchies). Trailer from sebastien montaz-rosset on Vimeo.

Pre-Oktoberfest

Oh how lazy we have been since our return from Deutschland. And we have so much to share. So let's get right to it. Our first week in Munich had to do with an Interventional Radiology meeting of course, but Lynda and I stayed in a hotel by the English Garden so we spent much time there. The first day we discovered the Chinesescherturm (Chinese Tower) which, aside from the Chinese Tower, was just another wonderful big beer garden.
After quenching our thirst with the local brew, we were walking out when a 20-something German girl asked me, auf Deutsch, if we could machen ein foto for her and her friends. I took the camera, held it up, and was surprised to find my wife in the viewfinder hugging the people at the table. Small world story alert! It turned out that the girl had been an exchange student with a fellow Interventionalist from Miami and then had taken this opportunity to reunite. So .... we sat down and had noch eins! (another beer)


Our other big adventure there was watching people float down the streams running through the garden. Without too much back story, the English Garden WAS designed by an Englishman who made the streams, Chinese Tower, a Greek thingy on a hill, etc to remind him of ... home? Anyway the Germans love the garden (many love to doff their clothes- no pics of that). So since it was a very warm day, people took to floating down the stream. At the place where the stream came out from under the ground, there was a large standing wave and guys surfed on it constantly.

Below that people started jumping in and floating down.

We did other things in our first go around in Munich, but our English Garden adventures are enough for now. Next up, Oktoberfest!

CLAIRE = EMPLOYED!

Greetings from the Control Board!

Claire has a job!  I repeat, Claire has a job!

What this means for Christmas I do not know, but Claire has a job!

She will be working here: Glanz und Gloria

Spooky Scary!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

The Doc's back in...

...in case you were wondering or have a case or want a cuppa ;)

Amsterdam: Selbies + Earlies = FUN!

Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Is it poor form to add to someone else's post? But for those other readers, can any of you spot the young Brandon (and Claire) in the above picture and see what they have grown in to? (Could there be an Isabelle and John in there also??)

Our first Dutch beers of the trip, with awesome Earlies, Brandon & Elizabeth!

Dear all,

if you've never done a pub crawl of München-Amsterdam-Oktoberfest... your liver is probably all the better for it. Regardless of health issues, however, it is FUN. We also may soon be instating an "Afternoon Beer" segment to this blog, in response to Isabug's "Morning Coffee."

Here is a smattering of what we did in Amsterdam since the only blog so far from this trip has come from somebody in NYC (thanks, bug)! I can't wait for Dad any longer.
What's he doing anyway? a JOB or something??? ;)

Enjoying the complimentary Heinekens from the mini fridge, sitting in front of the B&B!

Going on 37 years!

Going on 5 years!

These pictures were all taken in the "Mauro Mansion", which we would recommend to any and everybody when staying in Amsterdam (who aren't already sleeping on the air mattress/cloud at B&E's).

Bad Bears Everwheres!

Proost!

...and so are cats in Amsterdam! They say if the place you're eating doesn't have a cat, leave. For the record, there was always a cat where we were.

...and then there was cheese... lekker...

Brandon and Elizabeth really were the perfect hosts. Always up for another beer or wine and a good ol' bike ride! In addition, they showed us this dog video... for which we are endlessly thankful (yeah?)... we can't thank them enough. Besides hanging out with them, we visited the Church in the Attic and the Anne Frank House. Mom and I had actually visited the Anne Frank house before when we came on a day trip with Bene, but it was just as moving to see a second time. Really... we recommend everything we did. There was nothing bad (except that one day I actually chose a coffee over a beer in the late afternoon because I'd drank so much already... embarrassing.) I&D... go visit B&E or maybe stay at the B&B (Mauro) for a hotel with a history to make you giggle. And rent a mac bike!!!

back in the spring

Parents,

Remember when your sweet kids came to visit and brought some film with them? Results:

Amsterdam

This photo just arrived in my inbox. Brandon, Claire and Dad with bikes and beer in Amsterdam. Looks like a perfect day to me!

John!

Happy Birthday John!
Yes, John is drei und zwanzig today. So in the Selby tradition, we are placing a bunch of random pictures of the young man. enjoy and wish him well. We love you John!

Happy Birthday, David!

Everyone knows he is a virtuoso guitar player, but David is a man of many talents. Surfer, mountain climber, we could go on and on. But today we just celebrate him being a nice guy and are so happy he is part of our family too.
And we all know who loved David most (well, after Isabelle) - Grandma

So, at the risk of sounding like a Hallmark card or inspirational poster, you have plenty of adventures left to have. Go get 'em!

We were married today!

Well, today quite a while ago. 37 years to be exact. So, I bring you some old pictures of us. First, dressed up!

Lynda can have big eyes, too!

Mammoth Cave Gift Shop. Why? Well, it was a nice picture.

Like the pipe?!

A tale of two Chucks.

Like it says, Christmas 1974, the year we were married. Photo (and window paintings) by Grandma.

Hi, Beka!

And our perennial favorite!

Happy Anniversary Lovely Lynda!