Eight

This is handy, because it's helping me keep track of the date. For example, today is the eighth.

Here I am, diligently practicing. Conversely, perhaps my practicing was so noteworthy that a picture was required?

In the summers we used to go to Sag Harbor.
Check out the bathing suit with the built-in floaties. I remember being amused when Tommy had to wear it too.

I had a picture of Saggy, the box turtle we adopted there, around here somewhere, but it has been buried beneath the weight of history (aka the millions of pictures I've been going through) so I can't find it right now. I'm pretty sure that kind of turtle is endangered and illegal to have as a pet now. Also: salmonella. Oh, here he is. Or she. One never knows, with box turtles.
My mom's writing partner's family lived nearby, so we saw them a lot. Leigh is just a few weeks apart from me in age, so that was theoretically nice. We fought. All. the. time.


We went to daycamp there for a few years.
Crazy t-shirt day. Crazy! I think that's that same hat.
I was a big Mets fan. I had lots of baseball cards and plans to play in the majors as an adult.


Here are those plans in action.


By this time we had Vanna White. I am missing her right now, given the Sienna's subpar turning radius. The driver was like three inches from the front of the car so you could basically pivot. The two foot long gear shift was also fun. Many years down the road I managed to blow out the transmission, despite it being manual.

There's a whole album from the renovations when we moved to Cayuga Heights. I'll spare you. We moved the very day Tommy was born and lived in the attic for a while after that. I remember that as being sort of fun, but I imagine the people tending the two children plus newborn during the renovations might disagree.


And hey! Look who showed up!

Anyone else find this eerie? Compared to the two children around here right now?



Ollie's losing it so that's it for tonight, but tomorrow we'll be treated to some winter sports.

Seven

This seems to be the age I got my mitts on the camera. It was a little different in those days because you had to buy film and pay to get the pictures developed. Actually now that I'm looking through all my albums it's only been about five years since I switched to digital. Sharp looking bunch, aren't they?

This is the index Snow Village house. Little did we know how they multiply. Snow Village today has maxed out the mantle, annexed a bookcase, and is eying the rug in its endless thirst for real estate.

I took skating lessons for a bunch of years. I was never so good at the spinning and the jumping and the whatnot, but I liked it.

I also took piano lessons for a number of years and also was not particularly good at it. I did not, however, like it.
I guess we hung out at the baseball hall of fame a lot.

This is the last year we lived in the Eastwood Ave house. Here are some shots from around there.


I still have most of these animals.

I wish I had these Oscar slippers right now.





I lied about the summer, I think I'll do that tomorrow. Also up tomorrow: an interloper.

Six

The official title of this month is now Kate: A Retrospective: The First Thirty Years.

Dinosaurs of a different sort. I managed to get out alive.

At six I graduated from structures to legos. Then we got lego logo. We were the only non-educational institution to own it. You could write programs on early computers to control moving lego parts, like a carousel. Nerds.

The baseball hall of fame. Note the new tiger shirt and the Schwabs everywhere.

We spent a lot of time on this chair.

This is at the McDonald's in Liberty with the giant play area, halfway down to Long Island.


We lived in Palo Alto the second half of my first grade year.

This is Wuffles, the class bear. I recall intense competition to be able to take him home for the night.

This is at North Star, in Lake Tahoe, at the beginning of my accomplished skiing career. I am now retired, although I have not yet settled on a TV announcing contract.


I got to announce one of the songs at the school concert. The theme was, I hope, cowboys. Anyone want to hear Ghost Riders in the Sky?


Various California adventures.




That's me in the duck.

I fancied this headband for many months.

And I think we're all caught up. Up tomorrow: age seven (there's a pattern!); summering.