Our BBQ is on the most perfect night of the year! Unless you're Clarence Clemons

I have the greatest group of friends. We planned our BBQ for two weeks and at last we had it at Tamanend Park in Southampton PA.

I've come home smelling of charcoal and S'mores.

We arrived when it was light - 5 pm - and left when it was dark - before 10.

We stood out on the soft grass and looked up at the constellations. There's the big dipper, someone said.

Jim just bought a new house. He's waiting to move in. I told him I was gonna read my poem called A House is Like a Beautiful Face.

His house is one-third of an acre and out in the country. I'd emailed him a story I wrote about my own quest to find a house called Spanish Arches. It's been rejected by about 10 different publications but you know what? I think it's fantastic.

Here's ToddVark who brought the wood. He even had tiny lil twigs so we could roast marshmallows on them.

That fire was so hot you had to stand far away from it when you stuck your marshmallow in the fireplace.

You wait till it catches fire and then you take the burning marshmallow out and let it burn till it's crisp on the outside and creamy on the inside. You put it on already-prepared gram cracker halves and a bar of Hershey's chocolate.

I only had two.

The amazing Chris! From Indianapolis, his dad always took him to the Indy 500. He went earlier this year and watched w/amazement as a rookie took the lead the whole way.

But then Chris couldn't see the track b/c of a blind spot and next thing he knows Dan Wheldon wins the race. Rookie Hildebrand had crashed into the wall and his broken-down car was going so fast he finished second.

Chris just returned from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs where his 16-yo son is a cadet!

Loved this cluster of trees and wild grasses. Turns out the tree bore fruit. Crabapples.

Ya think these is crabapples?

The crabapple tree's view of Our Gang.

Noam, are my healthy hot dogs ready? I'm starving. I buy the no-nitrate kind in the freezer at Giant. They're chicken dogs, uncured. Look, you smother them w/ mustard and relish and who's the wiser. Not me.

This is only one-tenth of what I ate. And now I'm getting up from my laptop for my dessert. A bowl of cashews.



Everything good is happening for The Trace. She's one interview away from a great job.

Clare brought potatoes and had Noam roast them on the grill. Takes a long time to cook but man were they good. I dipped mine in some sour cream dip Chris brought.

Jeff is a guy who gives advice to everyone. Could he be the next Dear Abby?

I took him to be Jewish but he's actually half and half. Italian.

Are you Jewish, he asked me. You don't look Jewish.

Well, then why did you ask me?

He sells things at flea markets.

Columbus? I asked.

That's too far, he said and named other fleas. I'm quite familiar with most of em. My ex Simon Bolivar would buy stuff at fleas and sell em on eBay.

His goods are in his car.

Jeff does know a thing or two about eating. A former chef, he made up the hamburger patties which had egg and onions.

Someone else brought bison burgers. I so wanted to try em but I was already stuffed.


Horseshoes or Rings. In August after my back surgery I'll be able to join in.

Hard to see but Ellen was roasting a marshmallow. She really liked those marshmallows and hasn't an ounce of fat on her.

Ellen lost her husband on June 5 to a progressive neurological disease similar to ALS. Gene was VP of the a local NY Transport Workers Union.

Linda came late since she was at a Bible Study Class. I can't figger out what she sees in God or Jesus Christ but they give her life meaning.

My life took on meaning when I figgered out there ain't no god, despite Job's well-reasoned diatribe, but they didn't know about DNA and genomes back then.

She brot a flashlite so she could read her fine poem about August. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

One woman was lamenting. Is it time to leave already? It feels like I just got here.

That's life, I said. Everything has a beginning, a middle and an end. Except if you're the Bondis, some Catholic friends of mine, who believe the Afterlife is a place you party forever and ever.

I am not a fan of the Afterlife. I think death gives our life meaning.

Watch for the moon rising, I said when I left. It should rise late at nite. It's big and beautiful.



And then you come home and check the Times and find out Clarence Clemons, the saxaphone sideman from Bruce's E-Street Band has died at 69 from complications of a stroke.