I’m now a married man!

On June 20th, my longterm partner, Frank McNamara, and I got our wedding license and were married at the Clerk-Recorder’s Office in Oakland, CA.  We had 4 friends in attendance (Mary Anne Reno, Marvin Burrows, Frank Howell, Robb Crowder) and 2 relatives were also able to attend (my sister Anne Marangoni and her son, David Michael Marangoni Simonsen).  Our friends Marvin Burrows and Frank Howell also employed the services of a professional photographer.  (I have to get back to Marvin and see if he’s gotten the photos yet!)

Anne and David had to leave right after the ceremony to return to Pebble Beach, but the rest of us went to a vegetarian restaurant nearby to celebrate the wedding. 

Marvin had brought his own digital camera and took a few photos of the ceremony and the dinner afterward.  I’ve sent them as attachments in e-mail to family and friends on the Internet.

My World and Welcome to It

Hello, Visitor:

 Thank you for visiting.  I am a librarian in the San Francisco Bay Area, residing in Alameda County.  I live with my partner of 32 years, Frank, who is retired.  We are the “parents” of a feisty, spoiled, orange cat named Rufus. 

 Frank is a fan of classic American films and Perry Mason.  If “Tom Jones” happens to be on, he’ll watch it until it finishes.  Perhaps he just has a thing for the young Albert Finney.   He also likes sudoku puzzles and trying his luck at poker.

I tend to keep Netflix diversified in its offerings.  If you like discussing modern Scandinavian and Central European cinema, this might be a good blog to visit.  I also like discussing linguistics and international politics.

As part of ongoing training at my place of work, we are trying to follow the “7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners”. 

 Habit 1:  Begin with the end in mind. When I need to learn a new skill, I look for whatever books or online information I can find on the topic, and then I pick the brains of co-workers who may already be comfortable with this particular skill, program or topic. 

 Habit 7:  Teach / mentor others.   I have sometimes been surprised at how much fun I have had with teaching.  I did volunteer teaching for 2 years when I lived in San Francisco, helping new immigrants from what was then the Soviet Union with English grammar and conversation, and they in turn helped me with Russian conversation.  I did remunerated tutoring in German for two young women who wanted to live in Berlin for 2 months during the time that David Bowie was residing there, and who wanted to dive headfirst into the punk rock scene there.

If you find any topics above to be of interest, please leave me a comment. 

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