he did it!

This past weekend went by so fast and there was so much going on that I decided not to even try to record it moment-by-moment. Now I've been back home for a couple of days and it's time to sort it all out.

Thursday evening we had dinner with Andrew; Mr. C, Cait, Andrew and I sat down to a delicious dinner of Indian fare; lamb curry, creamed spinach, chicken tandoori, rice, and big bottles of Indian beer. They definitely have a knack for brewing and bottling!

Friday afternoon was the Claremont Colleges baccalaureate honoring the graduates of all six of the colleges: Pomona, Scripps, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, Claremont McKenna, and the Claremont Graduate School. Beautiful music, inspiring words. We walked from the Garrison Theater on the Scripps campus over to a lavish buffet reception at the Claremont dining complex.

I took this photo only because my sister graduated from Scripps. She loved the place. It's a lovely, serene campus with beautiful old buildings, lots of shade trees and quiet walkways. But so is Pomona, my mother's alma mater. I'm hoping Emily chooses to go to one of the Claremonts. Keep it in the family, you know.


We went back to the hotel for some reading and relaxing before heading out to a dinner party hosted by the parents of one of Andrew's roommates, Alex Bargmann from Pelham, New York. The dinner was held at Rosa's in Ontario. A lovely Italian place with superb food, efficient service, handsome setting.

The place was jumping with a joyous mob of soon-to-be-grads, their parents, grandparents (that would be us), aunts (Cait), brothers and sisters (Em). Great looking young men and women, eager to get on with it. Along with us at our table was this absolutely adorable classmate of Andrew's, Reed Hogan from Milwaukee. He actually looked like Prince Harry, red hair and all.

And I finally have a very nice photo of granddaughter Emily. Next commencement in the family will be hers, next June, from Thacher School in Ojai. We're making hotel reservations NOW.

Andrew's girlfriend Cara wasn't there that evening. We would have to wait and meet her on Saturday at commencement or at the reception her parents were throwing at yet another delightful restaurant, Walter's in Claremont.

But before that we had commencement. It was held under a big tent on a playing field. Unfortunately it was cold and windy Saturday afternoon, with occasional flashes of sunshine. I do not have the full load of the photos that were taken; they are scattered around among the various camera-toting family members, but Alex did send me this one, taken after the ceremony at the college's reception. I still find it remarkable that the tiny little boy I first met and fell madly in love with when he was just four days old is now a tall, charming college graduate. I must have blinked somewhere along the way.

Can you find the proud grandmother?

Then it was on to the reception hosted by Cara's parents. Again, lots of good-looking kids, ready to take on the world. Cara will do it in Mountain View, working for Google. Andrew will do it in San Francisco, looking for a job! But before that the two of them will drive from Claremont to Chicago for a family visit, then fly off to Berlin for two or three weeks of travel; also going to Amsterdam and Prague. Nice. Then it will be home to start what's known as real life.

Home on Sunday to rain and cold. I'm not used to this. I actually put flannel sheets on our bed this morning. Expecting more rain and cold tonight with some clearing tomorrow and some sunshine later in the week. Right now the Heavenly Bamboo is scratching against the windows as the north wind rips through.