Spring '26
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
This spring has been mostly cold, which I love. Many things happened from mid-March to the end of April. Sarah was back for one week of spring break. Grace held a cocktail birthday party that benefited No Kid Hungry and Direct Relief. We raised $3925 from this event. Passover dinner at our place, Sarah's intercollegiate national championship, and Sarah at the Sublime concert at Red Rocks.
Sarah's Life
Sarah was back home on spring break.
Intercollegiate National Championship in Utah
CU Boulder made it to the nationals this year. Sarah was thrilled to be at this event among many amazing skaters from around the country. After an 8-9 hour drive from Boulder to Salt Lake City, they were tired but ready for the competitions the next day. What an amazing experience; congratulations to all the members of CU Boulder for making it this far.
Go Buffs!
Concerts at school and Red Rocks
Sarah attended a concert at school and at the Red Rocks. Red Rocks was one of her
bucket list items to do in Colorado. This one featured Sublime.
School concert
Red Rocks Concert
Friend's band at local bar
Grace's Birthday Cocktail Party
David made all the cocktails for Grace's birthday party to benefit Direct Relief and No Kid Hungry She raised $3925, thanks to friends and family who joined her for this special event. Chelsey and Edric Guo kindly let us use their beautiful apartment at Barcarat Residence.
Grace's birthday dinner at The Modern
A week after the cocktail benefit, on March 26th, we got together with Grace and Paul to celebrate her birthday at the Modern, a restaurant at MOMA. The space, the food, and the service were great!
Passover Dinner on April 1st
Passover fell on Wednesday, April 1st, this year. We invited a group of friends to our house for a Passover dinner. David made matzo ball soup, brisket, and potato kugel, and I made flourless chocolate cake. Dawit and Kurt brought a seven-layer cake. Senina made us a bouquet of spring flowers. Alex brought a few bottles of champagne and wine. Grace and Paul brought sparkling rosé. We had a great time with amazing food and the great company of friends.
Girls Night Out with Grace and her friends at Santi
Grace invited me to join her and her girlfriends for dinner and drinks at Santi Restaurant at 11 E 53rd Street. We got seated on the second floor of the restaurant for family and big group dining. We had so much fun talking about our lives and kids; we didn't realize that we were there for over 3 1/2 hours.
Dawit and Kurt Spring Dinner
We went to Dawit and Kurt's place for a spring dinner to celebrate after Easter had passed and to welcome spring.
Blooming Spring
Spring flowers are everywhere in New York City. The cold weather made the spring flowers last much longer.
Jake and Delaney were engaged and will get married on August 8th this year.
Flowers are blooming and falling; cherry blossoms lasted only a week because of the wind and the rain. I love all the pink petals on the ground. The weather was really nice to go out for a run or walk with David and Benjamin. Robin came to NYC, and we had a dinner with Dawit, Kurt, Andrew, and Kathy.
Florida Trip
Spring also brought sad news with David's dad passing on March 28th. We were very sad that we didn't get to say goodbye to him, but we went to Florida for his celebration of life.
The weather in Florida in spring was really nice, not too hot and not too cold. We arrived on Thursday and spent time preparing for the celebration of life event on Saturday. There were many friends who came by. to remember Howard Bluberg.
A Celebration of life on Saturday April 25th, 2026
A Celebration of Life
Howard Bluberg
January 6, 1940-March 28th, 2026
I met David's parents in 1991. His mom, Elaine, is a very nice and kind person with a soft and slow-spoken voice, and his dad, Howie, was so friendly and always smiling and very energetic. I felt like they were my own parents. Howie was generous and caring. He always went to great lengths to get food from special restaurants and shops even though he had to drive for over an hour. He would ask us if we want to eat anything special and what we want from Rockland Bakery. He would take care of our dog Mendel when we were away on vacation. When we got back, the dog would have gained a few pounds from the grilled steak Howey made. Mendel would jump out of our car window when we got to their parking lot to greet Howie.
For Howie, growing up in the Bronx made him tough. He had a true New Yorker way of speaking. If you got him on a good day, he would tell you his stories, which sounded like scenes from old gangster movies. He had an interesting life as the first generation of immigrants from Poland and drove a yellow taxi; he must have met and seen many interesting things. All his close friends were cab drivers. He looked like Fonzie from Happy Days when he was young, but I think he was much better-looking. When we went through the old pictures of him, I thought how happy he was in his 20s. He was a young man who just started his family. Got married, had 2 kids, and later 3 grandchildren. He loved to BBQ for us; that was his specialty. He loved food and grocery shopping. We always got a big pack of toilet papers, paper towels, Ziploc bags, and other household necessities every time we visited them on the weekend. In the morning he would go get bagels and lox and pickled herring from the best place in town. He would call and ask what kind of bagels we like. After breakfast he would drive over an hour to Rockland Bakery to get a 7-layer cake for himself, rainbow cookies for David, and a loaf of soft pumpernickel bread with raisins for me. I missed that so much when they moved away to Florida in 2007. We went to visit them with Sarah. Sarah loved swimming at the pool in their development. Howie would grill David a steak, salmon for Elaine, and burgers for me and Sarah. We knew it was the morning when we heard him heating up coffee in the microwave. He went off to work early in the morning. At 3-4pm he would come home and start the grill, and he would fall asleep on the couch with either old Western movies or WWII movies in the background. He was a dedicated husband who truly loved his wife. I remembered a bouquet of red roses and a box of chocolate for Elaine every Valentine's Day. He never forgot to show his love for her; the way he cared about Elaine was so touching. Even until the end, he didn't want her to go through a hardship; he'd rather suffer silently, and he passed peacefully. May he rest in peace. As a Buddhist, I believe in reincarnation. I hope we will meet again in our next cycle of life. But now let us have a moment to remember him and the impression he left.
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