There is no "u" in Lara

Which would have been a screamingly funny line to deliver in the circumstances just passim. Or screaming, at least. I confess I was too chicken (or experienced with the results from previous displays of "humor") to actually express the observation. Perhaps one day the lady herself (for such she has grown to become) will read these pages and appreciate the possibilities my hesitance saved us all from.

Just returned from a two-day trip to the Dallas area. I am proud to announce that the no-longer-Miss Brown is, as I write these words, winging her way in the company of her new husband towards Barcelona, Espania and a week-long seaborne tour of the most touristy venues the western Med currently has on offer. I further have it on reliable authority that I am going to require larger digs in a year or three if I expect to hold up my end of the grand-fatherly responsibilities within the familias. Not sure what the kitties will think of all of that or, come the day, the kinder. Apparently we all are going to find out sometime in the late Spring of 2010 if himself expects to maintain his manly public reputation. I wish to place in the public record that I aver this to be an expression of feminine prescience - guns are for shooting, not jumping, he said.

One final observation; do you know how, when you first see some object of great art, that sensation you experience of "Yes, that's right. This is as it should be." can occur in the viewer? Even though there are numerous other examples also present that do the same thing, for that moment you have trouble accepting that the portrayed circumstance could possibly exist any other way. Seeing my daughter and son-in-law together instills that set of emotions very strongly in me. Indeed, that may have been the most common theme of the day, that at least in this swirl of life, things are finally as they were always meant to be. I like to think that I encouraged her to think for herself as she grew into adulthood; if the non-traditional nature of the proceedings now completed are any example, I succeeded beyond my wildest imaginings.

I feel much greater confidence as I face back towards the future. She has done well, and will do more as the dawns accumulate.