Ahhhhhh. Central Park. At the north end of "The Mall" is the Naumburg Bandshell. In the winter you can have the stage to yourself, as Jami and her friend have done.

And in the summer, you can spend an evening listening to an orchestra, such as the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Carolyn went for a quick walk and just happened onto this performance.

For the record, the tall tan building in the middle of this picture is our apartment building. Two thoughts come to mind: There are no windows looking out to Central Park, and climbing the stairs from sidewalk level to the roof is great exercise (almost too great).

Someone in the Church real estate department had the amazing idea of knocking big windows into the upper apartments and then raising the rent REAL high!

So, our famous rooftop view has been turned into a construction site.

The results? Our missionary friends, the LaFleurs, are the first benefactors of this plan. Here's their new view of midtown Manhattan from their 37th floor apartment. Amazing!

The LaFleurs now just sit and watch the city, the lightning displays, and the fireworks in Central Park. We think their low-cost, subsidized apartment is about to be exchanged for a lower floor apartment.

Did I mention how fun it is to climb 524 stairs? My initial time was 13+ minutes. When Sam came to visit, he straightened out my thinking and now I do it in 8 min 44 secs. I'm incapacitated at the end, but Sam is unsympathetic. (I suggested that Sam improve over my time, so he just ran up in 4 min 20 secs -- curses!!)

Lane developed a skin problem wherein his face began to look like that of a teenager. He called it leprosy but the doctor called it a real serious case of rosacea. On the day we went to get his blood drawn, we discovered the residential entrance to the Time Warner Towers at Columbus Circle.

Now that the big event at Carnegie Hall is over, we are settling down in the office to more routine matters. We still love the work, are fascinated with the people who live here or those who come into town, and enjoy doing all we can to support our Director, Ahmad Corbitt. Did we mention that President Uchtdorf, his wife and grandsons took a vacation here in NYC last week? It was fun to meet him and shake his hand. One last thing. We so miss our friends the Shumways, who were released a couple of weeks ago. They are back in SLC now.
Our love to all our friends and family.
Lane & Carolyn