Beards!

I participated in a beard competition on Decvemebr 20m 2011, at the Silverlake Library.

Last week, my colleague, Jill Sullivan told me she had seem a video of a beard competition and she thought she had seen me.

She had!

Here’s the video – I am around the 1:20 mark (I think)

News about the Greene/Carenbauer/Kuglen reunion in Wheeling!

SAVE THESE DATES the first Greene-Carenbauer-Kuglen family reunion.

Location:  Wheeling, West Virginia

Date:  August 15-16-17  (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) 2012

Different activities will be featured each day.

On Wednesday we will have a tour of historical places of significance to our family

led by Christine Carenbauer Hamm.

That night we are planning to meet at the Mclure Restaurant for dinner –  separate

checks .

Thursday we will all attend the opening of the “Family Ties” exhibit by our cousins,

Ellen,Hazera, Michael Carenbauer and his wife, Laura, as well as Tess Carenbauer, George’s daughter.

Friday will be an all day picnic at Ogelby Park.  It will be held at the Caddy Camp

which features an indoor air-conditioned facility and an outdoor bar-b-que area as

well.

As part of the gathering, we’d like to tell stories, sing songs and reminisce, which can take many forms  – If you have a talent that you would like to share that day please contact me

Kathy Uberti at kwuberti@cox.net or Teresa Greene at<ptoplak@embarqmail.com.

Teresa has reserved a block of rooms for us at the McClureHotel located in Wheeling.

It is reserved under the name of Greene Family Reunion.  The special room rate

is:$82.00/2 doubles and $92/king for August 15-19.

I will send out formal invitations and rsvp return cards by the end of January.

I hope to see all of you this summer!

Take care,

your cousin,

Kathy Uberti

San Diego Christmas

Christmas is almost gone – hooray!  I have descended on Mom and Dick for a couple of days, and Christmas Eve nearly everyone gathered at Terry and Chris’s house for a party and celebration.  In addition to a bunch of San Diego Kuglens, Chris’s sister Kathleen also came for a bit.  There was karaoke singing of Christmas carols for a while, then the girls got involved and were singing Mariah Carey, Justin Beiber, Taylor Swift, Beyonce and every teen pop star imaginable.  I bothered 14 year old Samantha about college choices (because I believe it’s never too young to start planning for college).  We have moved beyond and formal gift exchange, but the highlight of the evening was Mom’s gift to her 3 daughters, KK, Terry and Maribeth.  I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves:

Here are the hosts, Chris, Terry and Amanda Aaron:

Here are some photos of Mike Uberti with some of his female cousins:

 The girls are Oly, Samantha and Jackie

Maribeth with her daughters Nathalie and Joy

Lory and KK

Here’s a picture of Mom with the beard.

Since we are having FANTASTIC weather this Christmas, I met one of my best friends from high school, Pat Devlin, at Mission Beach.  We hung out for a few hours, went wading up to our knees in the Pacific Ocean and swore repeatedly what a beautiful day this was.  I was determined to get a photo in a bathing suit, so prepare yourselves!

One of my best friends, Pat Devlin

MERRY CHRISTMAS

here’s what happened to me this fall. . . .

OK, I was overwhelmed with the work of being a school teacher – too many meetings that went nowhere, too many commands instead of collaborations, too many students, too many essays, too many district interim assessments, too many early mornings, too many late nights. . . but finally I have two weeks off!

On Monday, October 24 I went to LA Valley College and swam my 2500 yards.  I finished around 8 pm, the night was warm, and as I walked out of the locker room I said out loud “I feel great!”

I got in my Ford Fusion, turned left from Coldwater Canyon onto Magnolia heading east.  At Bluebell and Magnolia some dude turned left in front of me and I couldn’t stop.  I hit the dude.  The airbag engaged, I snapped backward and forward and in an instant my car was trashed.

So I began the process of totaling the Fusion and looking for another car.  I finally settled on a Ford Focus, which I am adjusting to slowly.  The best thing about it is that it is new.  Ad it is easy to park.  I bought the car on Veteran’s Day, November 11 – and I still haven’t put 1000 miles on the car.  If I hadn’t driven to San Diego at Thanksgiving, I’d have around 700 miles on the car.

I get free Sirius radio for 6 months and it has Bluetooth, so I can talk on the phone while driving – but I can’t figure it out.   I have something to work of for the Christmas break.  I think I can also get directions – what is it – GPS?

I drove the Focus to San Diego for Thanksgiving – Mom had a party at the new house.  Here are some pictures:

This is Zach, Oly and Jackie Kuglen and Joy – Maribeth will probably get mad at me since you can’t see Joy’s face, but I think this a cute picture .

Here’s one of Mom playing the piano with Samantha:

And here are pictures of Mike Uberti with his dad, Bill, and Amanda Aaron with her dad, Chris:

I don’t know why, but I decided to grow out my magnificent red appendage – the beard.  The last time I trimmed it was on July 15, right before the trip to New England.  This is 6 months growth, folks!

This is me in New Hampshire about a week after the last trim.

Here I am as of 2 days ago:

It’s getting long.  I have entered a beard contest at the Silverlake Library on Wednesday, December 20.  My barber and the barber in the chair next to him assured me that I would win the contest, but I am entering into uncharted territory - the world of facial hair competition is cut throat from what I understand.  Joel Stein, who is a columnist from TIME Magazine is the “celebrity judge,” so I am really hoping to get mentioned in his column.

But that won’t happen.

Here I am wit Mom and Mike the day after Thanksgiving in her back yard.

September 2012 Kuglen Family Reunion

SAVE THE DATE
Kuglen Family Reunion
Date: Sept 1 or 2 on Labor day Weekend 2012
Where: Doheny Beach CA
Time: 10 am – dusk

More details will follow including hotels in the area to stay in over the weekend for out of towners

We plan on getting a caterer for the main foods and then we can all bring the snack
food and coolers with what beverages you might want to drink.

Please share the news with your family and put this date on the calendar – more info
will follow

Thanks Tara

Vacations

Some people, like me, go to Amherst, MA and learn about Emily Dickinson and hang out with Christine Hamm.

Other people like Denis Greene, and his son John, wrestle alligators and hold tarantulas.

Here is the photo of John Greene, age 6, who took a reptile and insect handling
class this summer.

Grandma Biz and I were on hand to observe John taking a deep breath then holding
lizards, turtles, snakes, and a tarantula that was larger than his hand.

The unintended consequence of fostering this exploration into the animal kingdom
was John saying “after that, I am not afraid of anything”.

I attempted to mitigate the future risk taking associated with not being afraid
of anything by explaining that these were not poisonous, and that one ought to
be very afraid of anything that could inflict a deadly bite. John’s response was
a near perfect quote from John Wayne, “Ok then, I won’t pick up a poisonous
snake, but on regular snakes and spiders I might be afraid, but I will do it
anyway.”
Of course I pushed it further, imagining that he was ready for a life lesson and
explained that true courage is not the brute force of comic book heroes but the
firm resolve of virtue and reason. His response was “I am hungry for some
lunch.”

Here is Denis wrestling an alligator.

When my friends The Coles took my godson, Owen, back to Boston to matriculate at Emerson College, they had a chance to take in a Red Sox game at Fenway Park.

Enjoy Labor Day!

End of summer??

Summer is over!  I started back to school on August 15 – I just began my third week!  Teresa Toplak sent a picture of her daughter, Eva, on her first day of school in Las Vegas.  According to Eva it was “the best day ever!”

Eva’s second cousin, Erich Hamm, sent a picture of his daughter, Eva Moran Hamm

Last Friday was Grandpa Greene’s birthday – it was also his great granddaughter, Jackie’s birthday.  Jackie is named for Grandpa Greene’s son, Jack, who is Eva Toplak’s grandfather and Erich’s Great Uncle.

Jackie – notice a family resemblance?

Finally as summer ends for me, I have to thank Christine for opening her home to me  when I visited New England in July.  I had a fantastic time – Christine and Leroy were so generous with their time; I had a blast!  Chris is…well…indescribable.  She redefines fun, hostess, and cousin.  I have had a great time getting to know her, I am so glad that she was open to meeting me and that she was so open with Aunt Mary Eleanore’s archives – we had a great talking about THE GREENES and discovering some of strengths of our family.  Christine defines my summer of 2011.

I also had the opportunity to hang out with Tess Carenbauer – Tess is da bomb!  (I think you can tell we are related)

Here is a random picture of the flume in New Hampshire with Chris, Tess, and Leroy.  Leroy is “old school” awesome.

Finally, I had the chance to wade in Walden Pond, so as I begin another year of teaching American Literature to eager 16 year olds I am READY to give them my enthusiasm and experience of a few of America’s essential writers.

Other Summer Activities

I’ve heard from several folks over the past few weeks, and a few of you have sent some of your plans for the rest of the summer break (unfortunately, mine is over as of August 8 – back to work!).  I thought I would take the content of a couple of them and post them here, since they give some information that looks like everyone else might like to know.

From Charlotte:

Sam,

It is so nice that you are enjoying the Amherst experience. You are making Bom Bom proud. Love hearing about your adventures.

Amherst is so close to Boston.  Summer is always so hectic.

We are going to a wedding Sat in Marlborough and then racing back to DC on Sunday. No time for sojourns to Amherst.

We would love to see you though and hear of your adventures.

I am frantically seeking an apt in San Mateo and working with a realtor. I will fly out on 8/27 and start work on 9/6. It will be great to be on the west coast again with family.

Charlotte

From Denis:

we are leaving Saturday for our big family vacation for 2 weeks

we saved up all year for this, it will cost the same as 3 days at Disneyland

1. take the girls to camp chief Ouray in the rocky mountains for their first

overnight camping experience

2. John and Denis are signed up for an alligator wrestling class at Colorado

gators

3. visit Biz in Pagosa Springs where we plan to take a jeep trail to the

Pagosa Peak mountain lake at 12000 ft and camp out

4. pick up girls from camp and head to Yellowstone, to seek out the mythical

volcanic vent in Yellowstone lake in which you can cook your fish while

still on the hook after catching it in the lake (Biz told me about doing

this in a volcanic vent in Iceland) we are renting an rv to drive and camp

through the park

5. head to the sand dunes at St Anthony Idaho, home of Napoleon Dynamite, to

take the family up the 700′ dunes in our 5 seat dune buggy

6. white water rafting on the Snake River

7. family reunion with jenny’s family in Colorado

8. home, and take a couple days off to recover

Here is a great Emily Dickinson poem that I experienced LIVE in New Hampshire:

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,

One clover, and a bee,

And Revery.

The revery alone will do,

If bees are few.

I hope everyone is having as great a summer as I!

Greene Summer

A couple of weeks ago I published a few pictures of Kuglens at the beach.  Since I have been visiting Christine in New Hampshire, we have found a bunch of heretofore unseen (at least to us) pictures of Greenes in various summer fun, including a place called Put in Bay, in Lake Eire outside of Toledo, Ohio and near Detroit.  Who knew?

The photo album has been a real find, because with the exception of Christine and George, none of the Greene grandchildren ever knew our Grandpa Greene – so Christine and I have been excited to find pictures that show him and Grandma Greene enjoying themselves, along with pictures of Mary Eleanore, Jack and a very young Michael and Joan.

So, here are Greenes on (mostly summer)vacation!

Grandpa Greene

Grandma Greene after a big catch

Here’s a photo of Grandpa Greene with a young Mary Eleanore and Jack on the beach at Niagra Falls.

Here’s a picture of everyone after swimming – where I don’t know.

Grandpa is in the middle

Here are Grandpa, Grandma and  Joan on the ferry to Put in Bay, OhioChristine and I both really like this picture.  It is both contemporary and nostalgic all at once. Grandpa  is in the middle.

Grandpa Greene is the man in the middle - who are the other two men?