An American and a French wife with an Irish pub in a luxe ski resort in the French Alps….what tremendous fun.

Terrific photos, thanks!

Mary- “It is their only childhood” so true, and they are adorable, bright girls.

BB is so adorable, looks very contented. I love cats. Love this talking cat vid that’s been seen by 15M….I showed to my cat…he loved it too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3U0udLH974

I just think it is a lot of fun to have a gorgeous, smart, youthful, fit First Lady….and to see what she’ll do. My mother said she’ll get a stylist to help sort it all out….she has too much to think about. In the meantime, the GOP has sent an attorney to inventory and take back some of Palin’s purchased clothes. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/06/gop-lawyer-dispatched-to_n_1418…

Bush’s dog Barney is having a bad day. He snarled at a photographer and bit a Reuter’s reporter. Perhaps he got wind that another First Dog is taking his place. http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/11/bush_dog_barney_… Scottish Terriers are cute but very terroritorial. We had a friend in Santa Barbara that had one, Harry Truman, who used to beat up my Sheltie, Ladd, everytime he ventured past HT’s part of the beach in front of their house.

Agyness—Exactly! A romantic thought. Oh you cheered me up, don’t you now have a heavy heart!

Thanks, ladies. Everyone in our family says it’s still unreal, the last person you’d think would. He was definitely a one woman man. Most the time am fine, takes time. EKA, Annecy is really beautiful. Lucky you to go there for a wedding lunch, how lovely. Is your nephew in the ski business in Les Gets? My son was just in Annecy again for a long visit, and looking for a place, and with relatives in Nancy on way back to Amsterdam. He is returning to Annecy in Dec. I need to get a road map to figure out how far that is from Aix-en-Provence or Villefranche-sur-mer….the only two places am thinking of relocating to, although do have friends in Paris, and there’s a very active expat community, so maybe Île Saint-Louis….or the 7th for 6 months would be fun and then go south. Wouldn’t it be fun if we were all siting around a pool in Aix with wine? Lots to do.

Too cute, I want one!

Phyllis, Didn’t know the origins of naming the dog Lucy, didn’t think of that song but that makes sense, he liked all those tunes. Made me smile to think of it. Picture yourself in a boat on a river, With tangerine trees and marmalade skies. Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly, A girl with kaleidoscope eyes. Cellophane flowers of yellow and green, Towering over your head. Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes, And she’s gone. Lucy in the sky with diamonds, Lucy in the sky with diamonds, Lucy in the sky with diamonds, Ah… Ah… Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain, Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies. Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers, That grow so incredibly high. Newspaper taxis appear on the shore, Waiting to take you away. Climb in the back with your head in the clouds, And you’re gone. Picture yourself on a train in a station, With plasticine porters with looking glass ties. Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile, The girl with kaleidoscope eyes.

I anyone’s interested….FaceBook already has a group dedicated to repealing this. Just join FaceBook and the the group: “Repeal the CA Ban on Marriage Equality - 2010” I only know because am always being sent group invites….but the group will grow quickly, there’s 100M on FB.

Great pix of Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s new CoS. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

I agree with both Carol L and Susan B. Caroline has long been involved in education in NYC, but that is too much of an organization. I don’t see her as a detail wonk. Her grandfather, uncle, and aunt were Ambassadors (to England, France and Ireland) and that is what makes sense. If to the UN she’d be right near her base of operations and the UN/world body would have the perfect symbol of how this administration intends to operate. I agree, UN Ambassador, that’s the biggest educational platform of all.

Everything to him, including his idenity was his family and providing a beautiful home. He had to live on water, have his dog, his two boys that he loved so much, and go sailing/water skiiing as many days as possible, his office was over his garage and he had a dock, ski boat and sailboat below the property that was very woodsy. He was always very organized, making work efficient as possible so he could spend time with his boys. He was ultra responsible from childhood, everything he touched was a success (my other brother too) and he was a really sweet person. My mother was always crazy about him, his wife never had to work. His one son had just graduated from college, the other was in his last year, his wife got an attorney and a boyfriend and a divorce. Everyone told him to get an attorney but he wanted to be the good guy so she’d appreciate that and come back. He paid cash for a house for her in the area and gave her way over a million in cash, $100K a year alimony, and $40K for their son’s tuition, she moved the man into the house. My brother’s dog died, the market turned, he became depressed. A longtime close woman friend said he was absolutely heartbroken about the breakup of his 25 year marriage. He said in his email not to look for blame, he was a happy person with a great life, how much he loved everyone and that he just couldn’t sustain the gas to go on. He paid all his bills, boxed up and cleaned the house, sent us all the email and went out by the lake. He’d gone to see our parents very ebulient, witty, he was quiet but when he said something everyone listened because he was really very funny, he always had a bright smile on his face, he always had very white teeth and sky blue eyes. My mother is the only one who said he’s charming as ever but something is wrong. She said she thought she should go up there, rent a place to be near him. I thought he’d never do anything because of his boys. He had a huge support system and didn’t use it because in his mind he worked his whole life for one thing and when that was gone he wasn’t able to switch gears. My son went into a cafe in Amsterdam and ELO’s “Mr Blue Sky” was playing when he walked in and he said he instantly remembered how much my brother loved that song and bought my son the album. He said all the thoughtful things my brother did for him that I didn’t ever know about, so typical. I relistened to that song, so much like my brother and could see all the times when we did things together, always laughing. We owned lake property together on another lake, and so many great times. He threw away so much. It’s just so unbelievable. My son is also a lake person, when he was in California on a project a few years ago, he was in Lake Tahoe every weekend skiing and had said before my brother died he was arranging his work so he could move permanently to Lac d’Annecy on the Swiss border….that since his uncle died he doesn’t want to live in cities anymore he’s lived in San Francisco, Boston, Paris, Amsterdam his adult life and he said the rest in going to be on a mountain lake. He’s quiet and nature/home loving like my brother. The morning we all knew, my sister who is a psychologist screamed, “That b****” killed my brother.” I have a picture of us together at the reception after my second wedding, big smiles, glasses of champagne lifted to the camera, he got married that year too, we thought our lives were the California dream. His email was thoughtful, loving, no self pity, but he did say he never thought it would end like this. None of us could ever imagine that it would, it still seems impossible to believe. I’m here at the beach and he is in the ocean and nothing will ever bring him back. I’d imagined a very different future. He said over and over he’s so sorry, and please not to hate him, that he always could get over obstacles, but this time he just couldn’t sustain the steam. Poor brother, he made the one really terrible decision of his life. I just hope he’s somewhere really good…and with his retriever, Lucy, on a lake.

Religious-right nutjobs like Chuck Colson stated Prop 8 was more important than the presidency and evil/Nazi Blackwater billionaire, Erik Prince, supplied the money to defeat it. http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/106102/the_man_behind_proposition_8/