I will be taking a couple of days off blogging, but this is surely the most important entry of the week.  All of my friends, and regular readers of this space know about my friend Sabine, Bine for short.  You know what a tough time she had this spring at Virginia Tech.  You know that her inimitable style and always positive attitude have gotten her, and indeed our entire group of friends, through the best and the worst of times.  She is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise polluted world.  She approaches everything she does with passion and fervor, and is the glue that bonds us all together.  Marcelo put it better than I could in an email to her this morning:

What you may not know however, is that she is my wife!  Yes, it’s true.  We were married in a small civil ceremony in Italy on August 19, 2000.  The ceremony was officiated by the great great grandniece of the Red Baron.  Her name was Baroness Andrea Von Richthofen.  Mick was the maid of honor, Miggl the best man and Eva the flower girl.  Now, some background:

I met Sabine at the aforementioned Marcelo’s house in Piracicaba Brazil in 1997.  That Christmas many people had converged at the “Casa Diversi”; both friends of Marcelo and friends of his sister Adriana.  Many of us did not know each other, but we all soon became great friends, and began our tradition of traveling together for every New Year’s.  I was “homeless” at the time, traveling the world with my job, all expenses paid.  One day, we were all sitting by the pool in the backyard eating mangoes as they fell off the trees, and I was telling this assembled group of new friends my life story.  At the end, Sabine said, “Honey, I should marry you.  What a great life!”  To which I responded, “Honey, the only way I would ever marry you, is if we were in Florence Italy, at San Miniato at sunset, overlooking the Ponte Vecchio!”  We all laughed.

Wouldn’t you know it, that three years later, we all found ourselves in Florence, Italy at San Miniato at sunset, overlooking the Ponte Vecchio.  Our friends had bought some truly rinky dink rings on that same famous bridge earlier that day, and as the sun sank into the horizon, we said our vows.

LOL, so there you have it.  The story of my phony wedding in Italy.  This year Sabine, the two timing tramp, got engaged to Alan.  In all honesty though, I can’t say that I’ve been entirely faithful in this marriage.   So here’s to you Bine, on your birthday.  I wish I could be there with you to celebrate.  I know that you will have a wonderful day.  You always do. GLY!!!

And now for the obligatory embarrassing pictures I’ve taken of you over these past 10 wonderful years darling! (And some not so embarrassing this time…just to show how wonderful you are!)

The early years

The Bavarian Princess and Cesar

After 2 years in Virginia you’ve become a true redneck!

What’s up Doc?

That’s certainly not me doing the writing!

Partying with the Vikings

Another drink please!

Peace brother!

Caught again

Muahhhhhh

LOST again!!!!!!!!!!!

Treating your husband they way a wife should treat her man

Just one of the guys

I will love you, until my dying day….come what may

Feeling a bit sad

GLY!!

Just happy to be in LA

Pajamas & beer

Too much beer!

Dream car

One of my favorites of us

Your true character, and a smile that could light Christmas

Here’s a more up-tempo version of “our” song, for your party today

Recently I received a call from someone I met only once briefly 8 months ago but have spoken to via phone or text message dozens of times since then.  (To protect this person’s anonymity, I’ll call them “Pat” ),   Yet every time we tried  to meet again, Pat flaked on me.  VERY L.A.  So yesterday Pat calls with a friend to say they are “in the neighborhood” and have a present for me. ?? I go outside to find that Pat had brought me homemade cornbread and a slice of pineapple pie.  How random is that?  Am I missing something??  It was good to see Pat though, I must admit, and the cornbread and pie were quite tasty.

Then today I was at Koo Koo Roo for lunch.  At the table behind me sat a man in his mid 50′s I’d say, wearing overalls, with a ponytail and headphones that were attached to a portable DVD player watching Star Trek.  In the opposite corner of the same restaurant sat Linda Hunt, Academy Award Winner for Best Supporting Actress in 1982 for “The Year of Living Dangerously” with Mel Gibson (I hope she’s not Jewish).  Outside the restaurant a cute dog was sniffing everyone for food.  I put some of my chicken in a cup and asked the person at the table near the dog if it was his and if I could give him some chicken.  He looked up at me as if I had interrupted a proposal to his boyfriend and sneered “If it doesn’t have bones!”  He might as well have followed it with an Endora snap!  (OK, I’m dating myself.)

Sometimes it’s so bizarre living in La La land.

I received a life changing message today.  Something I’ve been waiting 15 years for.  Thank goodness for MySpace:

…”On a serious note……….I can’t remember if I ever really said it……but I am truly, truly sorry for everything that happened…you did so much for me and how did I repay you…well…I truly truly apologize…”

That meant the world to me.

Some dear Brazilian friends of mine have a son and daughter who I haven’t seen since 2001.  This is a picture I took of their son at Lake Michigan in Chicago on Labor Day weekend 2001, the Saturday before 9/11:

It’s always been one of my favorite pictures.  He’s such a doll.  It’s amazing how much they grow up in 6 years though.  My friends just returned from Ubatuba Brazil (where you might remember our gang spent New Year’s a couple of years ago), and this is what that cute “little” boy looks like now.  Gosh I feel old!  I LOVE these photos though!

 And accoring to his Dad, the above shot will be what he looks like in 5 more years   By the way here’s Dad on a “business” trip last week.  Sorry ladies (and gentlemen), he married!  Thanks Luis.  Abracos! –Carey

We just got back from the Hollywood Bowl.  It was a great night…except for one thing.  My beautiful new camera is gone.  I don’t even feel like talking about it now…it will just make me sad.  Luckily Seth brought his camera, so I was at least able to take a few photos with that.  Here are a few of my favorites.  To see the rest, skip down below.  Good night!

This morning I’m having breakfast on my patio and I hear this loud horrible boom.  I look across the street and this is what I saw.  I ran and got my camera.  I wish I’d gotten the video of this dumb wench getting out of her car and looking up at the garage wondering what happened.  It was if she had no concept of what she’d just done.  She was tilting her head, like a dog tilts his head when you ask if he wants to go for a walk.  LOL.  After getting unstuck, she drove away…but I had my camera set on high resolution, so I have her license plate clear as day.  Damn women drivers!!

The building was FUGLY anyway.  Maybe they’ll repaint it.  It’s filled with vapid commercial actresses who are always letting their dogs shit in my yard and not picking it up.  I wish she have done more structural damage!

So, Mika Brzezinski, on MSNBC, had a histrionic, possibly staged freakout during which she refused to lead with the Paris Hilton story, called her producer out (by name) for scheduling it atop her newscast, and even tried to burn the paper with the Hilton copy. Staged or not, does she have a point?  Read and see more…

Tonight we went to the famed Hollywood Bowl to see the “Singalong Sound of Music“.  The show was sold out and there were 18,000 people there.   The “pre show parade” started at 6:00 and featured hundreds of people dressed as characters, songs or things from the movie!  I was thinking of putting a nun habit on my head (with a soccer ball of course…see below) and having a pack of cigarettes rolled up in my shirt sleeve, and saying I was “A problem like Maria”.    The kid who ended up winning the costume contest was dressed as “How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand”.  The costume was brilliant, and he won a trip to the Mexican Riviera!

If you haven’t ever been to the “sing-along” version of the Sound of Music; they basically play the movie, and all the songs are subtitled.  Everyone sings, and sometimes acts out.  You’re given a “goodie bag” with sprigs of edelweiss and other assorted Sound of Music memorabilia.

The Hollywood Bowl is such a magical place to be in the summer.  It’s nestled within the Hollywood Hills, just outside a major freeway, but when you’re there it’s like you’re in the middle of nowhere.  It’s so quiet and the acoustics are excellent.  It’s one of the largest natural amphitheaters in the world.  It’s been around since 1922 and has hosted everyone from The Beatles and Rolling Stones to Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland.  I wonder what my pictures would have looked like in 1922??

Here are the rest of the pictures in living color.

Song of the day