Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Our 35th Anniversary


(Life has been busy so I'm catching up with September happenings. Life goes on, too, as our beloved Oom Hans passed on, we celebrated Sam's 25th birthday - as well as our wedding anniversary.)

September 11 has gotten a bad rap since 2001, but it will always be a day of celebration for Tom and me and Richard and Nancy. 9/11/71 was Tom's and my wedding day in Redondo Beach and R&N's wedding day in Manning Park, Montecito. Since meeting in Isla Vista after returning from our respective honeymoons in San Francisco, we've gotten together for anniversary celebrations whenever possible.

This year, after enjoying the champagne and cheese Richard & Nancy brought to our house, we had a fabulous dinner at Herzog Wine Cellars' restaurant, Tierra Sur. We enjoyed two wonderful bottles of 2002 Herzog Special Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley (it was so sweet of Masio to treat us to one of them!). We enjoyed appetizers of Beef Carpaccio with marinated baby artichokes, fried capers and balsamic syrup, and Chorizo lamb sausage, and black olive piadina, flat bread with watercress and cherry tomato salad with zahtar dressing. These were followed by our beautifully presented and very delicious Wood grilled rib-eye steak with Onion gratin with almond bread crumbs and Cabernet green peppercorn sauce; Roasted baby lamb chop with kibbeh, bulghur and lamb meat balls with mint tomato sauce; Pan seared ono with lemon roasted asparagus, fried red thumb fingerling potatoes and taramasalata. Dessert? Yup, since our food was truly Kosher, it was not as heavy as it might have been and we were able to save room for equally delicious and satisfying desserts and after-dinner drinks :-)

My Uncle Hans (May 25, 1921 - September 8, 2006)

I'll have to put something better on our website later on, but until then, let this be my tribute to an incredible man with a great sense of humor.

Published in the San Diego Union-Tribune on 9/17/2006:

NEYNDORFF, HANS

On Friday, September 8, 2006, we lost our beloved father and husband after a brief illness. Hans Neyndorff was born on May 25, 1921 in Surabaya, Indonesia. In 1942 he was taken prisoner by the invading Japanese and put to work on the Burma-Siam Railroad. In 1948 he was appointed controller of East Java. He was appointed military prosecutor in the Royal Dutch Army in 1949. After Indonesia won its independence, he emigrated to the Netherlands with is family, where he studied law and economics at the University of Leden and graduated with a doctorate degree in 1952. From 1954 to 1957 he served as Public Relations Officer and Economic Researcher for the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. Sponsored by Trinity Presbyterian Church of Spring Valley, he and his family left the Netherlands and arrived in San Diego on February 19, 1957. He served on the faculty at San Diego State University from 1962 to 1983 as Research Librarian and as Professor of Economics and Western Civilization. He is survived by his wife Hertha of 60 years, sons Mark and Luke, daughter Charmaine and grandson Tim. Memorial Services will be held on Saturday, September 23rd, at 1 p.m. at the La Mesa First United Methodist Church, 4690 Palm Avenue, La Mesa, California. Please sign the guest book at obituaries.uniontrib.com