Merry Christmas to all!!

Love,
Vinny, Beth, Sawyer, and Pandora

In a time when “Does Macy’s tell Gimbels?” was a popular phrase about keeping secrets from competitors, Lena Luftig must have appeared to be a secret agent.

She had already given birth to three children — daughters Dorothy and Mickey and son Sam — when she began to apply the lessons she had learned at Spencer’s Business College after attending Bayonne High School.

First, she worked for Hearn’s Department Store on Fifth Avenue at 14th Street. Seven years later, she popped up at Bloomingdale’s in Manhattan before moving on to Stern’s two years later.

But for Luftig — who on Oct. 10 celebrated a century of life with her children, grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren at a party at The View in Piermont — it was just the start of a long and varied working life.

Pretty nice article about a woman who’s seen more in her life than most of us have or ever will. In fact, for the last two years at each of her birthday parties, there has been a list of things that have happened since she was born. Beth and I were talking about the part where they mention the price of things from 1910 and I asked, “I wonder what the gas prices were like in 1910,” and she looked at me like I was nuts and said, “Who knows; they didn’t have cars!” My head almost exploded. Of course I knew that, but when she said it, that’s when 100 years really came into perspective for me.

100 years is a long time.

Happy birthday grandma!

When I was first turned on to White Walls, the stuff there reminded me of her collection (extensive as it was), and she even had a piece very similar to the one below (only it wasn’t as colorful; it was blue with white enamel on it).

White Walls has some great original hand made artwork, and while it’s easy to dismiss, there really isn’t anything as unique or interesting as a one of a kind glass piece. The prices at White Walls are $100 lower than the list price at the moment for all the pieces they have available, so if you’ve ever wanted to own a unique conversation piece to spice up your decor a bit, this might be the time to take the plunge.

Oh, and don’t forget. This stuff is all hand-made, so when you do get yours, it will be unique and no one will ever get the exact same piece again. When the Joneses decide they want to keep up with you, they’ll have to settle for something else!

This year I lost a very close friend. Yes, she was a cat, and yes some of you are already looking around trying to find the nearest thing to punch me in the face with, but she was my everyday companion. I loved Patches more than I’ve ever loved an animal in my life. It was very hard for me (and it still is, actually) dealing with her not being here. Pandora and Sawyer are great cats, and I’m very lucky to have them, but I still miss Patches.

Every year, when we would set up the tree, Patches would get involved. If you watch this video from a couple of years ago, you can see Patches inspecting my work setting up the tree (about 1:40 in).

She was constantly sniffing around the tree, grabbing ornaments, and cowering in fear at the red garland. There’s no way I would’ve been able to put a tree up this year without missing her tremendously, so I avoided it. I know in the box of ornaments, there’s one with her picture in it called “Kitty’s first Christmas.” I think if I saw that one, I would’ve needed counseling.

To some people they’re only cats, but to the people who love and care for them, they’re family. I’ll be fine next year, but this year? Sorry. Just not in the mood.

Sawyer is a lazy pussycat!

Patches used to sleep in this carrier all the time, but not Pandora. After Patches died, Pandora started hanging around all the places Patches used to stay, including her “house” as we called this carrier. I felt really bad for her at first, but then I realized that Beth and I were doing it too. We would habitually look in places where Patches used to stay. It’s gonna be a long time before that stops.

This is Sawyer, our new kitty, stretching out the old toesies. He’s a lazy pussycat and a total moosh.

When he does mug for the camera, though, he is a real beauty.

For full-sized versions of the Sawyer shots, check out my Picasa account.