Hey! You call that snow? We'll show ya snow. Had an icicle hanging down from the second floor that shook the house when it fell. I haven't figured out posting photos or having my camera powered up for the festivities so no Sheboygan photos from us- maybe Susan/ mom/ dad will post?At least Scout and her fashionable ruff?

I kept thesecouple of weeks pretty clear so I'm almost caught up from the unplanned down week. We had awonderful time on Christmas day. Fabulous food, the completed kitchen with beautiful new counters, totally funky telephone and a heated commode seat! The kids are all so fun to be around ( CAL is suddenly tall with long ringlets, Declan, Cooper and Alex have assorted facial hair, the young ladies are young ladies and Finn is going into archetechture, has already re created the Empire StateBuilding) And the music! The guys go downstairs and the house rocks. We all should be working on identifying Buckethead. Ask Cooper. Great gifts, amny of us will be enjoying Three Cups of Tea. Matt was my Santa and the oak leaf mirror is lovely. Finn will be investigating crime scenes and we are very glad that the great tradition of reading, aloud and in bed or otherwise, continues thru the family.

Mark has confirmed that Neil Gaiman (Sandman, Coraline, Stardust, Mirrormask) really does live in Wisconsin and has chatted with him. We came home to a local news story that Baraboo is in the running for some location shots for an upcoming Johnny Dep movie- yes girls, he would really be here, at the bank and Courthouse, places previously glimpsed in the masterpiece I Love Trouble. Big hit then was that I kept watching Lyle Lovett watch his then wife working. Mr. Nolte and Ms. Roberts just kept walking down the same sidewalk segment, but Mr. Lovett hung out in the bars.

Johnny DEpp tho! Something like "Public Enemy"? Mark? Gangsters inthe '30s/'40s? Bank robbery theme.Late news has much more detail! Woooooo- John Dillinger! DeNiro is exec producer? Universal Pictures. Yup. I could find reasons to hang out and watch Mr. Depp. Yes girls, you can come up and camp out in the living room so that you can hang out and watch filmimg too.

Mom: Sweeny Todd, Edward Scissorhands, the weird updated Willie Wonka, Finding Neverland, Pirates of the Caribbean and posters in Domi's room. Definitely "A" List. And who does the news guy interview? "I don't keep up with modern film" Yup, we all live under rocks in small towns. Lady clearly had no clue who the guy was talking about. I was on the Square, cudda talked to me, cudda given Mark a plug. Hmm, lady in suit with briefcase, upscale older shopper. Lets go with the dulllard. Wouldn't have been any fun for the Madison viewers if he interviewwd somebody who could run down the guys body of work would it now/ Mark help me out tho- he is in a (Robert Rodriguez?) scary thing as a detective with his eyes destryed/ ? Title? Once upon a time in Mexico?

No court stuff tomorrow so I'm staying up late and playing on the blog. So good to see everyone, listen to the kids who are all blossoming so beautifully and just generaly th ank you all for being so pleasantly and creatively abnormal people. Nice to kick back and spend time with happy , interesting folks.

Or we could have been mauled by a tiger or hunting down the freed cougars (2, at the Manitowoc Zoo). Creepy- now the thought is that the victims may have taunted the tiger- the tiger would be smart enuf to identify specific people? I may never go to another zoo. Now i really am babbling.

Nite Nite.





Watching major snow in Denver, sad news about Ms. BHutto,

Thanks, Santas!

We wanted to check in and say a big "Thank You!" to our Santas!

Freya's Santa was Stephen, and he got her some wonderful new books (thank you--seriously--thank you) by Todd Parr and then this really neat floor puzzle. It is a farm scene, and the pieces are all about the size of Freya's head. We've put it together in the kitchen, in the living room, the bedroom, etc. She's nuts about it. Great choices!

Matt's Santa was David Sorensen, who got him a very cool wall clock. It is made from that fused glass--is it called "dichromatic" or something like that? Anyway, it has swirls of color against a dark background and neat squiggly-looking hands. We've hung it over the pantry door in our kitchen where it goes great with our colorful wall.

Susan O'C-Long was my Santa, and she got me a gift certificate to a local massage place. I am so appreciative of this, especially since I am in the market for a new massage person and there are a number of massage therapists there to choose from. I hope to get in shortly after the new year and enjoy it!

Thank you very much to all--we missed you yesterday and enjoyed getting to talk to everyone. Much love,

Casey, Matt & Freya

Happy Holidays!

We don't have anything as cute as little Freya watching snow. You could barely see her under all those layers! We went from 47 rainy degrees in the middle of the night to 18 degrees when we got up. Our sump pumps were running, sprung a leak in the tube and made a small flood in the basement. After spending the day on Saturday moving office furniture, we weren't too happy with one more mess, but it cleaned up easily. We had more snow than we expected today, lots of wind and blizzard like conditions at times, and ice where the inches of snow and rain had been yesterday, so no furniture moving occurred. Instead we enjoyed a visit with Magda, Declan and Kevin in Big Bend. Amazingly, we haven't seen Mom and Dad since they got back, so we looked at their pictures. Colin and Bridget were working in the ski shop at Alpine, and came home about 3. Colin is so thrilled not to have to study that he has been glued to his video game, Halo for alot of the past 24 hours. I was doing very well with my Xmas cards until the beginning of last week and now I can't remember who I sent them them to besides the ones who sent them to us. I knew I should keep a list, but I re-focussed on getting my work Xmas stuff organized and lost track. Some people will be hearing from us around New Years or later.

Bridget got her official confirmation letter that she is an Evans Scholar on Saturday. They wasted no time, which is great. She probably will just accept it and not pursue any of the other opportunities. I think that Grinnell and Whitewater really intrigued her, but the desire was always to go to Madison.

I had a great phone visit with Michele on Saturday before their family Xmas dinner. David had received his package from Jay and is trying to figure out what it is. Casey has a pretty good idea of what hers is, unfortunately, but it was hard to disguise it. Well, I am going to join Bridget in watching a movie. Looking forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday! Love, Susan

Holiday Weekend

Happy almost Christmas, everyone! We got a little snow here in Boise last night, and the weatherman (locally known as "The Mustache") says we've got about an 80% chance for a white Christmas. Yay!

Freya helped Matt shovel some snow this morning. Unfortunately, our camera ran out of memory before we could get very far into a video, but here's what it looked like for about 35 seconds of our morning:



Also unfortunately, Little Miss has a case of pinkeye and seems to be fighting a cold. So I'm not sure that we'll have a very exciting rest of our day, but we'll try to help her get better before Tuesday. We'll be heading over to my brother John's house to get together with my side of the family and enjoy a big dinner together. We'll be thinking of all of you and wishing we were all together again.

Love,
Casey, Matt & Freya

Almost ready, now, for Christmas on 12/21/07

Hi to everyone!!

Hope this will be timely enough for all of you to be able to read before Christmas!

Our week began with 2 very nice experiences. On Monday evening, we joined Mark to enjoy Capril playing her cello in the Ft. Atkinson Schools' 5th grade

orchestra and the following evening Capri's "Scrooge"

was resounding success! She got a great indication of audience appreciation. It was a dapper, top hatted success all around!!

Glad to have had a short visit with Domino after Capri's performance and it is evident that she is even more excited about her Vassar life than when we saw her in

September.

Thanks to Mark for sharing his "picketing' experience.

Liked the sign messages!!

Congratulations to Bridget's Evan's Scholarship success. Presume this means that she and Colin must have broken par! Probably a family record.

Everyone has to be grateful that Maura's determination to do her duty on a bad driving day did not result in significant injury. Know it means a set back, but pleased to learn that so much concern and

interest was generated in the Baraboo community. All of us benefitted from her blog entry which she had time to compose while recuperating. The photo provided a vivid "MODIFIER" to her remarks.

Really appreciated Freya's Jingle Bell dance! It is great to watch as it happened, after it comes jerkily along thru our dial up! Think we heard her say "Do it again, Daddy" !! With all the thoughtful gift hints for this whirling girl, perhaps she will soon be ready for the

Encylopedia Brittanica. Way to go Freya.

Thanks for the Arvada Thanksgiving group photo. Know we'll have more first hand reports on those goings on from Lyn, Kevin, Magdalena and Declan in the coming days.

HAVING TROUBLE TODAY KEEPING THE DESIRED FONT AND SIZE. STOPPING AND STARTING AGAIN AFTER GOING TO "DRAFT' IS A PUZZLE.

SPOKE BRIEFLY TO DOMINO ABOUT THE HER FENCING. LEARNED THAT SHE HAD NOT BROUGHT ANY 'WEAPONS' WITH HER THIS TRIP, BUT LEARNED THAT THEY HAVE SPECIAL PACKING CASES/BOXES FOR STORAGE AS BAGGAGE ON FLIGHTS.

SO, WE WON'T BE ABLE ASK HER FOR A SHADOW FENCING DEMONSTRATION.

WILL COMPLETE AND POST AFTER OBSERVING THAT THE O'CONNELL-LONG BACK PORCH PICTURE GIVES AND INDICATION THAT YOU SOMETIME CAN STOP AND GET TOGETHER. OUR COMMENDATIONS TO THE PHOTOGRAPHER. NOT ONE OF YOU LOOKS LIKE YOU HURRIED BACK AFTER SETTING A TIMER!

THANKS TO DAVID FOR THE MENU UPDATE. WE WILL TRY TO TALK TO HIM TONIGHT TO LET HIS KNOW WHAT WE WILL TRY TO BRING. WE'LL TRY TO PUT IT IN AN E-MAIL, TOO SO WE CAN HELP ELIMINATE DUPLICATIONS.

THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE. MORE BLOG SAVVY IS NEEDED HERE.

LOVE AND PRAYERS--------

GRANDMA JEANNE AND GRANDPA GENE

Backboards

Thank good- ness the back- board was just precau- tionary in your case! I love the detail that you only saw pants and shoes of the people who stopped to help... How long will you be on your back watching old SNL reruns?

Speaking of, I was in Chicago yesterday for the Writers Guild picketing in front of the Disney Store on Michigan Ave. and old SNL guy Tim Kazurinsky was in the picket line, leading a chant of "Four More Cents! Four More Cents!" When you're picketing with writers, there's a lot of pressure to come up with a clever sign. I think I did all right, but my favorite was one that simply said: "We Write. They Wrong." My goal was to win one heart and one mind for the day, but it was complicated by my friend Kevin Peterka's sign getting caught in the wind and bonking a passerby on the head... If I won a heart and mind, he lost one of each right there.

Anyway, in dressing for the day, I realized I actually do have a great new pair of long johns from last year that I plumb forgot about.... so I'm cancelling my request for long undies from my secret santa :)

Four More Cents!
Four More Cents!

Mark-will the writer's strike ever end? Watching ancient SNL stuff. Nowhere near as good as Freya rocking out (she was really making me dizzy), Scrooge, the mad fencer who is really a sabre dancer? and the long awaited Evans interview invite! All very good news. AND New Jersey ended the death penalty today.

Tim has kept everyone up to date. Thank you for all the good wishes. Tim's using the photo for his new wallpaper. I am still flashing thru it, don't need to see the photo much. For whomever has my name for Christmas, I 'd like a new car.

Ford Escape Hybrid, 4WD, seat warmer, sync system, tomtom or Garmin, moonroof, 6 CD player. Yikes, the last thing we needed with yet another state slowdown in payouts. Clients and co-workers have been wonderful and reset eveything. I really liked my Focus and Ford isn't making the station wagon model any more. Tim needs a project so he will look for a replacment vehicle.

Years of yoga turned out to be most useful-to the firemen's/EMT's dismay, I stood on my head and lifted myself out of the seatbelt on my own power as soon as they got the door openand the back board in place. The car is really crunched. Very reasuring tho to have so many people I know there digging me out and getting me to the hospital. Our alder lives just a door down and has made it a personal goal to have first class emergency response folks and equipment and it really showed. I was only a mile east of town on 33. Fire and ambo got there in minutes and two witnesses stopped immediately, called it in and talked to me til the EMTs arrived. I hope their names are in the accivdent report, so I can thank them, 'cause all I saw was trousers and feet.

FYI- its great to have a celll phone for emergencies, but you have to push the call button after punching in 911. If you don't push that button, nothing happens. And, FYI, its hard to read 9 , 1, and 1 when hanging upside down from one's seatbelt. I wear my phone on a lanyard around my neck- I would never have been able to get my purse and fish it out.

Spent lots of time thinking of Kevin and Mark while riding around on a backboard.

Mom, I forgot to tell you, you would be proud, I was wearing clean underwear. Which was cut off. Whomever has my name, that's okay, I'll get my own new underwear. Thank you folks for the wish list info.

Cool, the old SNL has Pavarotti doing Adeste Fideles. What lungs that man had. Nice way to end the day. 'Nite.

Scrooged!!!

Capri was all set to play Ebenezer S. today for her 5th grade play, but we were blind-sided by the weather...

No word yet if or when the play might be rescheduled, but at least I have a picture of how she looks in costume. Enjoy...

(You must imagine that she would not actually be grinning as Scrooge)

If Freya can do it....

...so can I.

I could use some nice new long johns. Seriously. And I'm with Freya on the 'No Dora' thing.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

Grandma has asked us twice now to get her information about what Freya would like for Christmas. Sorry, Grandma. Hopefully this post will give "her person" some ideas.

Freya likes reading stories the best of all things. Recent favorites include "Stellaluna" and the Spot books by Eric Hill...though I think she's got most all of those now. We all really enjoy Todd Parr's books for the bright colors and nice message. "Otto Goes to Camp" is one she does not have, as well as "Do's and Don'ts" and "The Mommy Book."

Freya also loves music. She watches oodles of YouTube videos and likes Laurie Berkner and Justin Roberts, a couple of popular kids singers.

She wears 24 months clothes. Let's see...what else? Oh, we are trying like crazy to avoid licensed characters, so please, no Disney, no Dora, no Pooh stuff. She also enjoys doing puzzles and is now doing some with about 12 pieces. She loves to dance and is pretty good at pretending.

I hope this helps!

Christmas schedule??

Hi all,

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted here (or even looked in) but Freya's dizzying Christmas dancing was worth coming back for! (How did she keep from falling over at the end??)

I had an interesting trip this week. I went to LA on Sunday, then came back Tuesday through Detroit, but Northwest couldn't get us in to Mitchell Field because of the snow. They rerouted us to Grand Rapids, MI, where we almost collided on landing with another rerouted plane, then we got to stay at a lovely hotel in Grand Rapids for the night. The next morning they still wouldn't let us take off for Milwaukee, then they announced that they would be flying us back to Detroit to find us another plane back to Milwaukee! That's when I lost it. I called the work travel agent, who found me a car from Hertz, and I got up in the plane and said "I'm driving back to Milwaukee! If anyone wants to car pool, I'd be happy to share the ride!" Only one guy took me up on it--I had expected to be fighting people off with a stick! Anyway, we made it to Milwaukee in 4 hours, and planes still didn't seem to be landing at Mitchell Field!

I'm wondering how Christmas plans are shaping up? I'll have the kids the weekend of the 22nd and 23rd, although Nemo works on the 23rd. His shift is supposed to start at 1, but he can push it back to 4 or so, but that still kind of cooks the day for us. So, Saturday would be better for us... it all comes down to what the New Jersey folks are up for!

Next Tuesday Capri debuts as Scrooge in her school's production of A Christmas Carol! Can't wait!

Love to all,

Mark

Pre Goodbye Thanksgiving Weekend

It only took 11 days for me to do this.

En Garde. Ready? Fence!

I fenced in my first fencing tournament yesterday. I can’t say I was entirely excited by the prospect at first because not only did we have to leave Vassar at 4:45am, but we were fencing against some really incredibly hard schools: Princeton, Penn State (the National Champs), NYU, UNC, and Harvard (last year’s National Champs), and I had to be ready to sub in for any of the three weapons, foil, saber, or epee, but predominantly epee. I’ve fenced foil for about three months in a class setting, saber for about two months training to compete, and epee for three days. Eek.
For the majority of the tournament Danielle (the other female sub) and I just watched. We very much enjoyed watching people on other teams do odd/stupid things and came up with a list of “Very Important Fencing Questions,” almost none of which actually have anything to do with fencing and have a lot to do with the strange mannerisms/ridiculous arguments of other fencers.
While we were facing UNC, I think, Jacinthe, one of the starting epeeists got a metal splinter in her hand from her blade. She had to go to the trainer and I had to fence her last bout. I had already decided that my goals for the day were to have fun and to score one touch (you need five to win the bout) against one opponent. I thought that was fairly realistic. And honestly, that would have made me perfectly happy. In my first ever epee bout, however, I scored two touches! Yay!
Jacinthe came back after my bout and fenced again, so I went back to observing. But Emmy, another starting epeeist, had a concert to be in at 8pm back at Vassar, so she left at 3pm, meaning I had to fence six bouts, three against Harvard and three against Princeton.
I won two of my three bouts versus Harvard! I lost to the Swedish National Champ (I think that’s who Sophie said she was…), but I was fine with that, especially since I scored two touches on her, and one of the girls I beat has been fencing for at least seven years!!! Olé! My favorite conversation of the day took place right after my second bout (where I beat the girl who’s fenced for 7 years)/right before my third (where I lost to the Swedish Champ) with the man directing the bouts,
Director: How long have you been fencing?
Me: Well, I’ve been doing epee for three days…
Dir: Really?! So you normally fence foil? (foil is much more similar to epee than saber is)
Me: No, I’m usually a saber fencer.
Dir: Oh! Well how many years have you been fencing saber?
Me: Um, two months…
Dir: What?! Wow, so I guess you’re just naturally athletic!
It’s okay, you can laugh. I certainly did.
The epee squad ended up beating Harvard! Sophie won two of her bouts as well, and Jacinthe won one. It was so much fun!
Then we fenced Princeton, and I got decimated. I scored two touches each in two of my bouts, and none at all in the third. Ah well.
It was a really great day/experience! I can’t wait for more tournaments! But I almost think I want to switch from saber to epee, because I love that there’s no right-of-way, and I really enjoyed fencing with it. I think I’m going to stick with saber until I’ve fenced with it in a competition, and then decide which I really like better.
I’ll leave you with number seven on the “Very Important Fencing Questions” list:
7. Is there an easier way to go to the bathroom in all of your equipment?

Festive Idaho

It has been quite the festive day around our place. My dad came over for a while this morning and Freya put on an early Christmas show. We're expecting a call from the USO as soon as this video is seen by the right people--she'll be entertaining the troops in Finland by Christmas, I expect! I'll be like Divine/John Travolta's character in "Hairspray," holding out for all the best contract perks--like free girdles.



Once she'd woken from her nap, we went to CostCo and picked up our photo Christmas cards (thanks to Uncle Kevin for one of the pictures we used), and then headed to Lowe's to get our Christmas tree. It's a beauty and Freya seems to really like having it in the house.

We had a wonderful time in Colorado with the Aleksandrowicz-O'Connells and David & Michele. We were sitting down to dinner tonight and Matt remarked, "This time last week, we were all feasting at Buca di Bepa." We did lots of good shopping, hung out at home and enjoyed really nice family time, and everyone had a safe trip. Can't ask for more than that!

We're thinking of Grandma and Grandpa and hoping they are enjoying Provence. Sending lots of good thoughts to Bridget in the hopes that the pain from her wisdom teeth removal gets better soon.
Love to all!
Casey, Matt and Freya

Hi Everyone-We hope you all had a great Thankgiving and travel home. I took Colin back earlier today after a relaxing weekend. We got some work done on our move but overall, it was relaxing. We missed seeing the Sheboygan folks, but Colin never got up till noon on Thursday, so we would have had a hard time getting up there on time. He appeared to be catching up on sleep for the whole semester. We also experimented with doing a Christmas picture today and I am trying to learn how to transfer the digital pictures and move them around. I have already posted a picture to the blog, but I keep trying to add to my skills. The kids were really pretty patient as we used four cameras. Back to work tomorrow-ick, but Xmas is around the corner. Have a great week, everyone. Love, Susan

MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR1111

Very grateful here all God's blessings for our family in this and every year.... Presently most grateful for the great work our family did for us with the leaves last Sunday, and to Mark and Calvin for their efforts the Sunday before. A real blessing.

Just back from Susan and Jay's where we enjoyed a wonderful dinner with the four of them and had a nice visit. The meal was perfect in every respect!!

Glad that we have had phone contact with all the rest of you as you had your special gatherings. Pleased that those flying reached their destinations OK; Mark did have a late wait for Domino, but while they didn't get back to Ft. until late, she was able to report to work for 'pie baking' yesterday...............

Just helped Mom stand on the bathroom scale while I handed her her suitcase to see if it is less than 50#--it is.

Our bus leaves for O'Hare at 12;50 from the station near Mitchell Field where we can leave the car. Our flight leaves at 5:40 PM. Our connecting flight to Lyon leaves 4 hours after we are due in Paris, so making the that should not be a problem. Susan has the air schedule and the phone number for the cruise boat and the hotel we will be the last 3 nights in Provence. Home on 12/4.

Had about 1 1/2" of snow on the deck this morning.
First significant amount of the winter and temps around 25. Had some sun today, so the driveway didn't have to be swept and while I pushed it off the deck, the remants had pretty well melted by tonight. Guess it will be a clear, cold day tomorrow.

Had a Cooper's Hawk miss a meal earlier this week while we were having lunch. He perched on the deck for a few minutes to contemplate his next dive, so we had a good look. Jay reported today that they had a similar visit a few days ago.

Time to look over the check off list again!!

God bless you all. Love and prayers, Mom and Dad

What?! The Snitch just slapped that seeker!

Last weekend I participated in the 1st EVER intercollegiate Quidditch World Cup (Muggle Style). It was the most fun/hilarious experience of my life!
Ok, for those of you who don’t know, I’ll give you a brief overview of the rules of Muggle Quidditch:
1. As in true Quidditch, there are 3 chasers, 2 beaters, 1 keeper and 1 seeker on a team.
2. The 3 chasers have to get the Quaffle (a somewhat deflated soccer ball) through the goals (3 hoolahoops painted gold and mounted on 2x4s). Each goal is worth 10 points.
3. The 2 beaters throw the 3 Bludgers (red dodge balls) at other players. If you are hit by a Bludger you must run back around your own central goalpost. If you are holding a ball when you get bludged, you must drop the ball.
4. The keeper guards the goals.
5. The seeker tries to catch the Snitch (a person, dressed all in yellow, with a yellow sock with a ball in it hanging out of their belt. You catch the Snitch when you get the sock out of its belt). The Snitch is worth an additional 30 points and may run anywhere on campus as long as it returns to the Quidditch pitch every 5-10 minutes.
6. Game play ends ONLY when the Snitch is captured.
7. All players, except the Snitch, must accomplish their objectives with a broom between their legs at all times.
Yes, I know that it sounds like the most ridiculous/insane sport ever. It is. And that’s exactly why it’s such a blast! You realize 5 seconds into the first practice that if you care at all about what other people think of you, you will not be able to play the game because running with a broom between your legs is the most ludicrous looking thing in the world. At the same time, that’s kind of nice, because you immediately weed out everyone who isn’t truly dedicated.
Middlebury College in Vermont started the game, at least they started it here in the States, I guess there are some European teams and we’re trying to get in contact with them because we really want to have an international World Cup. But anyway, last Sunday Middlebury hosted the third ever Quidditch Cup, and Vassar became the first ever traveling Quidditch team. It was quite the event! I have pictures, but my friend has my camera right now. I’ll be sure to post them as soon as I can!
Middlebury has 12 Quidditch teams, and they all played off agaist eachother. Vassar, being the only other college there, automatically made it to the final round, so before that we just hung out and watched. Wow. Middlebury takes its Quidditch seriously. The team that we ended up facing was named “The Mollywobbles” which is quite clever. Our team is the “Butterbeer Brewers” (Vassar’s mascot is the Brewers, it makes me feel right at home :) ).
Oh my god. We got slaughtered in the match. The final score was something like 90-0. Ouch. But I play beater, and my personal goal was to bludge one person, and I had three or four important bludges in a row, plus other random bludges, so I was happy. Actually, our whole team walked away ecstatic, because we’d literally been practicing for 3 weeks and Middlebury’s been practicing for 3 years, and The Mollywobbles won the Cup last year, too. Plus, our team is made up of entirely freshmen, and their team is mostly upperclassmen and they’re ALL rugby players! And they play Quidditch like they play rugby. We were getting tackled left and right. It was hilarious. And really, 90 points is not that bad. They were actually impressed with our defense. And next year we’lll be much more prepared!
We’re trying to get more colleges at the World Cup next year. Ideally we’d be able to get the European teams here. But, more realistically, Sarah Lawrence is starting a team, so I think they’ll be there! I really can’t wait!

Disclaimer

I didn't type any of that.

K

No Comment?

Ms. O'Connell-Melka, or is it Melka-O'Connell, or is there no hyphen?- can you tell US about the case that is receiving so much national attention? Frankly, I do all my news-gathering here on the blog.

The headlines!

Lucky Domi Misses the Broadway Strike!

New Jerseyans Travel to Colorado for Thanksgiving!

Wisconsinites Almost Miss Thanksgiving by taking Barge trip!

Major Clinic Downsizes!

Puppies Are Way More Fun Than News!

The Red Bull in Vegas stays in Vegas!

This just in on the wire: Major presidential candidate joins asbestos law suit!


Now, about that Tiger video? We are sooo looking for new "content" here that we'd like the link.

XOXO

K

Real news next time!

WoW! I just raCED THRU three months of BLOG, pix, vids and updates. CNN called right after my last entry. The news producers all sound miffed that I don't want to play. Apparently they don't get that reaction much. I get to talk to audiences all day long every day for people whose lives, livelihoods, liberty, etc, depend on it. But 1rst I listen. The media don't seem much interested in the listening part, from the spin this little storey is getting.

HOW BOUT THEM PACKERS? Working in the living room is way more fun when the Pack is putting on the shows we've had this season. Its really scary- I (sometimes) even know whats going on! S&J, that sounds serendipitous for you. I had no idea what you two have gone thru running a business and multiple offices and staff. I'm barely managing one little corner of the couch and one grouchy insubordinat "employe". Consolidating at one office s ounds good.

D&S, it cannot be 25 years. There's a Death Cab for Cutie song I hear alot that makes me think of you (Alex keeps my car supplied with music, he thinks Fuggazi is/are good driving material). Young family is driving home from a wedding in the song, one line is about their little boy "with cake in his hair" and I see Stephen under the fruit cart at your wedding, with pineapple in his hair.

M&C, see? SEE? All you do is play on the floor and try to keep up with the energy level. Your jobs continue to sound fun and fulfilling, but Freya looks like she is the most fun. Isn't it fun to play with all the cool little toys and read the cool little books? Grover looks like he has mellowed a lot and adjusted to the bemused big brother role. The girl is going to want to slap mom-and dad- for the potty vid. The lion costume is great. I think you need to start training her for next year tho so she hits more than 1 house. Got to exploit the cute factor at LOTs of houses.

M&D, wow you are so BZ. Diversity makes the career cool, but teaching and traveling on the job is fabulous. Our dogs are slow on the daylight savings time switch too but they finally have stopped howling at 4:30 am- our poor neighbors. It was kinda cute the first time Glif started hollering "OUT! OUT!" but the humor wears thin at 4:30 am. Seamus still hasn't mastered his first word, but he makes up for it by giving me a morning kiss every day.

Domi and Magda, your notes are wonderful! A 38 yr old pen pal might be fun and I am really intrigued by coed bathrooms/showers. Thank God we all grew up sharing bathrooms. But... wouldn't it be thoughtful to have maybe mentioned this at maybe orientation? Classes, sports, plays all sound great. I like the 3 Ariels- All I remember of the Tempest is Ariel and my favorite character Caliban. Wish we could come see it. Magda, we are still trying to get the concert to work. And, I expect both Alex and Stephen often have days when the want to slap their mother.

Mark, I don't know anybody with a spare few million kicking around but I am asking. That is fantastic news.

The evening political discussion shows are on , deconstructing Rudy , McCain laughing at "How do we beat the bitch?"from it takes one to know one supporter, (after his 95 yr old mother said something anti LDS on national news, Hillary trying to find the most politic position on alien driver's licenses and the State Departmenrt Blackwater investigator who doesn't know his brother is ON THE BOARD of Blackwater? We get another whole year of this! I think I want to vote for Michele Obama. Or Elizabeth Edwards. They'd make a good ticket wouldn't they?

Thank you, to each of you, for taking the time to write about the real world- the places, the people, the sights, the events, so we can all share them. I had the best day walking around New York City, and the best first week at Vassar and the most beautiful drive home along those gorgeous Idaho rivers, and the most fun first trick or treat and book reading (Hey everybody, if Mom hasn't already told you the Freya/plastic glass story, ASK! Too funny. And another strong-willed woman in the family! She has already mastered passive-aggressive.), pithy golfing from the sand and a really odd Nemo picture, cute, but really odd, Nemo!

Breath of fresh air. I'll bet that everyone of you get that waterboarding is torture. And I'll bet eveyone of you would state so categorically if asked. Some of you ( I won't name names, but you know who you are) would even have been as brave as the FORMER Justice department guy who tried it out to render an unequivacal opinion: it is. And if we played international contract bridge, I bet we'd tell the other competitors WE weren't responsible for Bush either! The US Bridge Federation will suspend the team for a year! The top US team!

Time to feed the puppies. It doesn't matter what happened in the presidential race, what Paris or Britney did today, why the OJ judge is a justice of the peace and has a pony tail, or what one of my wackier clients did today, they just grin and bounce around and do tricks for cookies. Limited repertoir- Glif says out and eats cages, Seamus lies down. Not when we tell him to lie down. Seamus has mastered the concept of the inclined plane- drop a toy on Tim's ramp and it rolls away, drop it on the flat turn around area and it just sits there, rolling is much preferred. But that's not exactly a trick. Its more like physics Physics 101, but farther in physics that I ever got.

The big sexual assault trial I was stressing over was a win in under 1 hour. It should have been acquittal, but the prosecutor had no option but to take it to trial.
The jury thanked us. The notoriously cranky judge, given to turning purple during public temper tantrums, stopped us before we left, to commend us on professionalism and civility (we were nice to all the witnesses, our own and each other's, and we were nice to each other!) Only lawyers would have a written ethics rule to be civil to one another. And the other folks in the courtroom. They had to write it down. Recently. Its a rule. We had to have it written down for us. Any wonder the profession ranks right up there with used car sales and is the butt of millions of jokes?

Time to feed the puppies. Nite.

Sorry for long silence, haven't even looked at this since Kassi died.
I have inadvertantly had more than my 15 minutes of fame- IF iwanted it. MSNBC, a national radio talk show on Radio America, Fox's Hannity and Colms, and today, Fox 's Michael Kingsley are doing units on one of my Columbia County cases. I have uniformly responded that I do not comment on any case, I respect the privacy of my clients..

They have all gotten it all wrong, but it certainly has been interesting listening/watching national news folks talking 'bout the prosecutor and me. Apparantly I handled the case correctly. Imagine that. All that free marketing I am sacrificing. The prosecutor is getting hate emails.

I really am writing as I would like folks to post Christmas wish lists please, for yourselves, partners, kidlets. Please? I am coming up short on inspired ideas!

Off to Adams County.

Waiting for the last leaf to fall in Big Bend

The leaves are still green on a couple of the maples, so we continue to work on them daily. The leaf vacuum/mulcher we share with S & J failed to start and the repair man said the engine died. Agreed to have him replace engine. Got a call that a replacement was not available, so we're working on another remedy.

So, we have been hauling leaves to village compost pile and picking up others in our mower with a grass catching bag--an old faithful!! Staying about even!
Mark and Calvin came on Sunday afternoon, 11/11 to assist this old veteran. They helped remove excess ivy on the east side of the house, raked and help load bags and big buckets for transport. Really appreciated the help.

M &C also helped us get the extension ladder down into the well pit behind the deck, so we could shut off the back yard water system. Extra hands made it easier. Mark had forgotten about the pit and Calvin was amazed by it. Both climbed down for a look/see. We leave the ladder in there so we can turn on the system in the spring.

Know that Susan and Jay have had to make some hard choices and will hope that the downsizing will make their lives less complicated. Praying that these adjustments will be accomplished without any hitches.

Hope Michele will be able to find her desk and in-basket and get to the things which are waiting after
all her teaching and positive interactions she has described! The Washington trip surely seems to have been a very exciting adventure.

Glad that she and Susan were able to find time to share on the blog.

Envy those lucky pheasant hunters! Reminded of the fall of 1941 when we (Dad, Don, Bob and I) had great success in the cornfields. My mom even prepared a big pheasant dinner for a number of my classmates for my 16th birthday celebration.

Enjoyed the details of Domino's exploratory trip to New York City -- some Holden Caufield overtones??
Sorry we were not able to hear her choral group on the web--able to find the picture of the concert hall--but no music. Mark told us of Kevin's mentoring and guidance he provided Domino for getting promptly to Newark for her TKXing trip. Great to have relative in the 'know' in the right places!!

Made a trip to Inversness, IL last Friday as an extension of a prescription pick up at Great Lakes hospital. Had an afternoon visit with Mary and Bill Ward, high school classmates. Bill is badly
crippled with arthritis, so is homebound and must have home health care assistants come daily to help.
Enjoyed our visit and know they appreciated the effort it represents. The direct trip home is abou 70 miles and the drive in the evening rush hour from the palatine ares thru Fox Lake etc to Wilmot is a challenge with early sunset.

Enjoyed the Freya picture at the farm and the Lion costume video along with the descriptions of the happenings provided by Casey and Matt. While she still seems to be phone shy, we are glad to hear some of the things/words she is saying in the background both on the phone and in the videos.

Know that the e-mail traffic is affected by all of us being so busy, so we are pleased that there has been
a number of worthwhile phone visits in the recent weeks.

Grandma is watching for some possible costume items for Capri who is playing Scrooge in the school version of the Christmas Carol. Sent along a garment with Mark on Sunday which she might be able to use as an night shirt. Don't know yet the dates for the production.

Did some calculating last evening on how may Euros we need to get before we head for France. The tour
company provides a suggested list of "tips" which helps. We can order Euros now at Citizens Bank, so an extra Milwaukee trip is eliminated.

My world travel watch expired this summer, so I have been searching for a replacement. Found a gem in the Campmor catalog--an "atomic" Timex which uses the Ft. Collins radio signal for daily time checks and it has
time zone adjustments which also pick up signals in Europe. The screen display is big and it came with a heavy duty metal band--all aluminum colored. The box was marked $49.95, but it was only 19.95 plus shipping. A real bargain, so I recommend it, if any one has need for a rugged watch. End of commercial!

Grandma began this week with giving blood at 8:15 AM on Monday. We have Big Bend-Vernon Seniors today at 1 PM and serve at a Waukesha meal program this evening. On Friday, we are volunteering to serve at the Irish booth at the Milwaukee International Folk Fair which is now held at State Fair Park.

Have had sunny bright 60 +/- degree days since Saturday so in addition to all the outside work, we were able to winterize the RV. Nice to do it in shorts/shirtsleeves when there isn't a warning of a sharp, hard freeze due in hours.

Appreciated the invitation from Susan and David for
Thanksgiving Dinner, but we feel we want to have a restful day before we head for Milwaukee on Friday AM to catch the bus to O'Hare.

Do hope that when we get back, there will be a date when we can hear Charlie's drum line performance. Still waiting, too, for a blog report from Ellis on his peace demonstration participation in Chicago!!


We will send our Milwaukee parking and flight information in an e-mail next week. This will be our
22nd trip across the Atlantic since '75 and we will have landed at 20 different airports with 2 stops at Amsterdam and Madrid.

Had a special bird watch event this week, too. While we were eating lunch on Monday, there was a thump against a window--not uncommon as birds come and go to the suet or feeders. But this time when we looked up a Cooper's Hawk had landed on the trellis top on the east side of the deck and remained there for about 3 minutes; probably wondering why he missed his prey. So a frightened bird must have hit the window. Memorable.

Looking forward to being 82 tomorrow!!

I keep forgetting to tell Michele that there are two people from Littleton, CO and one from Arvada on our trip roster. No one else from WI. (This last word from
Grandma).

Love and prayers,

Grandma and Grandpa

Hi Everyone-Nice to hear from all the posters from the last couple of weeks. Looks like everyone is busy, though, since they have been somewhat sporadic.

After months of trying to figure out what to do with our business, our therapist of 18 years decided to retire to take care of her husband and mother. We didn't want to close the doors on her, but she provided us with an answer. We will be closing the ET office by the end of the year, and will consolidate in Delavan. We have two part-timers out there and Jay just completed his tax preparation course, so he will be doing that a couple days a week, and running the clinic the other days. We have barely been breaking even for a few months, so we knew we needed to do something. I am pretty convinced that the Aurora's of the world are the only entities that can run mental heatlh clinics because they make enough money on other things that they can cover their costs. Small places like ours can't do that, so its been working harder and making less and less for years. Its time and its OK.

We hope Colin is coming back from Las Vegas tonight. He was out there playing golf for the weekend compliments of Red Bull. He has probably consumed alot of it in the past few years.

We had a nice quiet weekend getting stuff done around here. All of the lake stuff is finally done and we're waiting for the leaves to finish falling. I finished painting B's bathroom and Susan R-O will be proud of me. The walls are turquoise with brown, gray and cream accents. Its pretty modern looking and quite bold.

Looking forward to seeing some of you in the coming weeks. Susan

fall in CO

good morning everyone--it is 5:30, and one of my goals this week while i am baching it is to write a blog entry. ruby was jumping on the bed at 4:30 this morning, so i got up and took them out. their internal clocks do not adjust to DLSavings.
david is spending this week in akaska SD again with his 15 work buddies and their clients, shooting pheasant. so he celebrated his 56th birthday in SD.
september and october have been very busy for me at work. i taught a 2 day class with my 3 coutnerparts in special uses in the RO in sept--for about 15 district rangers. it went very well--but we invented it and put together 2 days worth or powerpoints, lectures, and exercises.
then in october we taught a week of special uses 101/202 for about 65 people from the region. again, we updated a national class that was about 4 years old, and spent the last 6 months getting ready for this class. it went very well--and folks were very happy with being there--and learning. we actually have lots of fun doing it. we give them playdo and farm animals and other plastic toys to keep their little hands busy during the week. and we are pretty casual and do lots of joking. since i am basically a ham at heart, i always enjoy telling jokes in front of an audience. that is usually my biggest goal during the week--is to make them laugh at least several times a day!
as soon as we finished that class on friday at noon, we hopped in the camper and drove to akaska for opening day for pheasants. davids 2 brothers were there, and tavis came over from cody. we had a wonderful time, and everyone got their birds. i got to go to the craft fair in selby, and then on sunday the 3 "girls" that were there made pheasant feather wreaths. lori david's neice had brought all the stuff, and even though i am horribly un-crafty, i made 2 and they are actually quite nice. got lots of glue scattered around the kitchen though.
got back here late monday, and i went back to work to recover from about 6 weeks of paying no attention to my real work because we were getting ready to teach.
then on friday, i flew to seattle to meet up with cindy tencick (my old boss from cascade) marianna bilbao, and another of our friends jane cropp from idaho. we met there cuz cindy just got a new staff officer job on the mt. baker snoqualamie NF in everett WA. they have a new house, and lots of new places to explore. she and tim moved from dillon MT--the original cow town-so it is very similar to the switch we made 7 1/2 yrs ago from mccall to denver. we had a great, relaxing time. the reason to meet up was to celebrate 3 out of 4 of our 50th birthdays. jane turns 50 next year--so she was just a bit early!
we went to san juan island on saturday morning, spent the day hiking and relaxing. stayed in a great bed and breakfast (which is for sale, and looked inviting for semi-retirement)! then got up sunday, went to visit the sculpture garden which is beautiful, and took the noon ferry back to seattle. we had 2 clear days to see mt. baker and mt. rainer, and then some clouds on sunday and monday when we all left. i was home safe and sound eating dinner by about 5:30 on monday. we all had a great time and didn't skip a beatt for not having seen all of us together for many years.
i now have to get ready for work--but i'll add a little bit more later.
love--michele, david and link and ruby.

message to nemo

HI, NEMO, Grandpa found the picture for me, and it is very good--the best we have seen of you. Was it taken in Ireland, and what were you standing beside? The leaves are finally falling, and your Grandpa spends part of each day trying to keep up with them. He actually did some today and took them down to the village park for composting, Our compost pile is about full.

Glad that you enjoyed the contents of the package I'll try to do it again sometime. love, Grandma

Nemo invites everyone to take a look at his new picture...

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd266/DBAvs33/035.jpg

Choir Concert

Hello everyone, i have a concert tomorrow with the Vassr College Mixed Choir that is going to be webcast. the concert starts at 8pm my time, so 7pm for most of you. if you are interested in watching, it's going to be about an hour long and you can access it here: . if you can't watch it as it happens but want to see it, from what i understand it is going to be available to watch for two months.
enjoy!
Domino

First Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween, everyone! Freya had a big day today, which included dressing up in her costume at school, having a Halloween party, and trick-or-treating the little old lady who lives across from the school. Her teachers reported that she wasn't very into the trick-or-treating, and I actually had to spend about 15 minutes talking her into dressing in her costume tonight.

Ultimately, she conceded and we went across the street to her former caregiver's house. She scored a bag of Whoppers, and then let us know in her subtle way that she was done with it for the night. We came back home, checked out the haul, and have been handing out candy to kids who come to our door for the last while. She enjoys that quite a bit more.

You can see the results of her haul on YouTube.

Punkin

Freya and I went on our first school field trip today; the Montessori kids headed out to a local pumpkin patch. We got to take a hay ride, color a picture, go through a straw bale maze and then pick our own pumpkin. Matt is stuck in the backcountry on an extended patrol with the other officers, and I know he'll be sorry to have missed it.

Pottery Cups

I’ve been on break all week, and it’s nice to have free time, but almost all of my friends went home, so I’ve had slightly more free time than is generally fun. I’m not complaining, though, because it really has been great to catch up on sleep and I’ve met some new people, which is always cool.
I just finished my midterms last week, and had some projects and papers due, and I think all of that went ok. I hope so at any rate. It’s kind of amazing how quickly this semester is going, though. They just posted the schedule of classes for next semester. Yikes!
By far the most exciting thing going on of late, however, was my visit to NYC yesterday! My friend Kylie (who I had talked to over facebook a lot, but only actually met this week) and I caught the 8:51am train down to the city. We had absolutely no plans. I had called Andy Lonsdale to see if he was free, but that was iffy, so we were basically just planning on wandering around. Arrived at Grand Central Station at around 10:20 and called Andy again. He said he’d be free for lunch if we wanted to get up to the corner of Broadway and 72nd at 12:30, which we were totally game for. We walked the 4 blocks from Grand Central to Times Square and hung out there for a bit. The Manhattan School of Music was having a concert that was quite enjoyable, so we listened to that for a little while. Then we wandered a bit more, went into M&M world, which is both hysterical and rather alarming. There is more M&M themed crap in that store than I think I could have imagined. Ridiculous.
We learned quickly that having the camera out was a VERY bad idea, so I have very few pictures of the day, which is a shame. But every time I took it out, someone else approached us trying to sell us things. We got into a semi-long discussion with a guy trying to sell us tickets to a sight-seeing bus, which we turned down by saying that we were meeting a friend. However, in my haste to get away from the guy, I was almost hit by a taxi, so that was exciting. We were fleeced by some guy who was giving out “free” demo CDs and then insisted on a $10 donation. He was REALLY smooth. The conversation went something like this:
Franchise (that’s his rapper name, I don’t know his real one): Hello ladies, I’d like to give you a free copy of my CD.
*I’m taking a picture and not paying any attention*
Kylie: um…
F: It’s got 24 tracks and it’s completely free, I’m just trying to build up a fan base.
K: uh…
F: here, take one. And even though your friend isn’t paying any attention, she gets one too.
Me: huh?
F: I’ll just autograph these, what’re your names?
K: Kylie.
Me: Domino.
F: Domino? That’s an awesome name! Well, Kylie’s a cool name, to, but Domino. Wow! Now remember, you can visit my website, and please contact me. I respond to all emails from females.
The rest of the conversation is unimportant, basically it was all demanding money, which we gave him cuz I’m no good at saying no to peoples’ faces. But Kylie and I were pretty sure that was the WORST pickup line either of us had ever heard—at least it was until a little later in the day when we got an even more awful one, but I’ll get to that. Anyway, we walked the 30-or-so blocks up to 72nd, met up with Andy and went to lunch. We got delicious paninis and coldstone for dessert. Yum! We ate in Central Park, which was very neat. And Andy pointed out Strawberry Fields and the bridge they used in Spiderman. At around 2:15, Andy had to go to rehearsal, but he invited us to come see Twelfth Night because he was doing lights for it and could get us in for free. We were interested, especially because he pointed out the building it was in and it was GORGEOUS! And apparently Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie live on the top floor, but that’s inconsequential. However, the show didn’t start until 8pm, and we had nothing to do until then. Andy recommended trying to get Student Rush tickets to a Broadway show, and we’d seen a sign for The Little Mermaid earlier, so we walked back to check it out. Little Mermaid doesn’t start until November, and our second choice, Chicago, was sold out, so we were pretty sure we weren’t going to get lucky anywhere. But we stopped by the box office for Spring Awakening and they still had Student Rush tickets, so we bought them! They weren’t great seats, but the tickets were $26 instead if $55, so we weren’t complaining!
But again, the show didn’t start until 8pm, and it was only about 3:30pm, and we were tired because we’d gotten up early and we’d already walked about 100 blocks. So we went and sat down on the steps outside some hotel off Broadway. We were talking and relaxing when all of the sudden this guy, who is wearing a Tour-Bus-Ticket-Seller uniform approached us. Kylie and I gave each other the “oh boy, here we go again” eye-roll, but the guy surprised us. Instead of trying to sell us tickets, this is what transpired:
Ticket Man: I saw you before, didn’t I?
Me: um, maybe?
TM: were you up on 42nd? Going away from Grand Central?
Me: yes…
TM: yeah! And I saw you and tried to sell you tickets!
Me: (recognizing the gold tooth) oh, yeah.
TM: yeah! You and your friend. (spotting Kylie) you! You wouldn’t speak to me, but (addressing me) you did.
Me: yeah, that was us.
TM: I’m good with faces. I remember two pale-skinned women, that was you. I don’t like the word “white,” I try not to profile anyone so I say pale-skinned. Well, what would you rather I called you?
Me: um, I’ve never really thought about it. I don’t mind white, though. I don’t find that offensive or anything.
TM: where are you from?
Me: Wisconsin.
TM: oh yeah! I remember one of you saying you were from Wisconsin! You want a pen pal?
Me: um…… you know, I’m really terrible at writing people back….
TM: how old are you ladies?
Me: 18
Kylie: 18
TM: 18?! Damn, I thought you were older. You’re awful big for your age. I’m 38. you sure you don’t want a pen pal?
At that point, thankfully, a representative of the hotel came out and asked the man to leave. Kylie and I took that as our cue to leave, also, but went the direction opposite from the one the ticket man went. And yes, that’s the worse pickup line: “I’m 38. are you sure you don’t want a pen pal?” oh dear.
It was only about 4pm still, so we decided to walk back to Central Park. We hung in the park and people-watched until almost 6pm, when we decided to head back towards Times Square and eat. We had pizza, because everyone talks about New York pizza, and it was good, but nothing spectacular. Our dessert, however, was AMAZING! We went to the Roxy Deli and got chocolate mousse cake. Holy cow. Delicious.
After that, we went and stood in line until they opened the house for Spring Awakening. The show was stunning. I’m in love with it. I REALLY want the soundtrack! So I think I’m gonna order it online as soon as my debit card comes, cuz I just finally opened a bank account this week. All the kids in the show were incredible. And I’m very jealous because most of the cast is 18 or younger. Supposedly they’re recasting soon and you can’t be over 18 to audition. I REALLY want to try out, but it’s rock music, and that doesn’t really work out for me. But I’m SOOO jealous of that cast!!!! Seriously, if any of you ever have the chance to see it, do! It was soooo good!!! Ah!!!!!!!!! I wanna see it again! I love student discounts!
So, that made it totally worth it to stay over break. But now I should really go start all the homework I’ve been putting off all week. Yuck.

Our traveling OCTOBERFEST!!

Our best to all-----------

Not having a Journal Sentinel which would have covered the WIAA Golf, we checked the website for the results we were excited about, but have now seen them. Congrats, Bridget, on your success. Glad, too, for not only the phone report of the results but for the human interest slant Susan has provided in the blog.

Thanks, too, to Casey, Kevin and Domino for their BLOG contributions which we've found in these days since we returned safely. Enjoyed the 'sideways' video of Freya and the two regatta pix Kevin provided. Have to agree that the Aquacar stood out from among the 700 shells! Our photo efforts seem to emphasize the
crowdedness of the day, but we still haven't displayed them on the computer screen.

Grandma has reached all of you, except Michele, since we have returned and intends to do that today, maybe.
She is napping now before we go out to a retired military officers' dinner.

Lots of favorable memories from our busy week away.
Driving weather was great, but hot, for the 2 days each way. Focus ran well and mileage was over 30 mph.
Had two fine home prepared pasta meals at the A-O'C's on Thursday and Sunday, along with an interesting carry-out from El Grecos on Friday. Big event in NJ was going out to listen to Declan's group play a broad variety of their own compostions at a local club on Friday night. One of the regulars foursome was not with them so the remaining three alternated on different instruments to highlight their skills. A class act!!

Saturday morning found us following Lyn (driving) and Kevin for about tow hours from SO to Shelton, CT. This was a swift 'follow the leader' trip over the river (Hudson) and thru the woods (CT Merritt Parkway) where we found we had to go to remote parking and shuttle back to the Indian Well SP
regatta action central area. Our picnic lunch had to be improvised when we were unable to take the cooler on the shuttle, but it worked out well. We were able to see and visit briefly with Magdalena before and after her race and observe her crew put the shell in the water and row away toward the starting line. K & L assisted us in recognizing her boat move quickly by
our location, about midpoint on the three mile course. With competition having begun at 9 AM and continuing until 5 PM, new races began every few minutes so there were crews rowing smoothly past us almost constantly. Competitors, from high school age to seniors, gave attendees a great look at many fit, strong and healthy individauls. Impressive. We met a number of Magdalena crew and school mates and the crew coach.
A great day and we are thankful that we were able to join L and K to be part of it.

It took us a little more than an hour to get to our motel in Danbury and we found a Mexican franchise place nearby for supper. Up, early we located a church for mass and
departed soon after for Poughkeepsie and Vassar. We
located the campus about 10 and after a couple of calls
we found Domino in front of her dorm. Our visit began with a stop at her dorm room; then she took us on a walking tour of the areas where she has most of her classes and takes her meals. In the early afternoon, she directed us to a "diner" which was near campus and where she had her birthday dinner a few days before. It was a good choice and we enjoyed our meal. As Domino had rehearsal at 3 PM for 'The Tempest' we took her back to her dorm so that she would have a little time to get ready and we headed south.

Back in South Orange before dark, Lyn and Kevin were busy preparing dinner and we did some repacking and
loading part of our gear in the Focus. A busy Sunday!

Declan had a school holiday on Monday, Kevin thought he might (and learned later that he did) and Lyn had a staff day without students. So she was gone shortly after 7:30.
We pulled out about 8 and a coffee stop about mid morning and a lunch stop with later and were back at our
stopping spot where we had been on the eastbound leg,
Youngstown Airport Air Force Reserve base. Another warm day.

Tuesday was cooler with some cloud cover and a little rain and we made good time until we got off the Skyway and found the Dan Ryan clogged. It took us over a half hour to get to the loop and then there were construction delays on the Edens. WE got home about 5 --10 hours +/-.

Again, lots of email, US Mail and the blogs to check.
Pretty much unpacked, laundered and back on track
by Friday.

Thursday, 10/11, wd drove to Madison to meet Charleen and Bob and have lunch with them and some other friends to celebrate Bob's 79th birthday.

Yestereday we went to Holy Assumption Church in West Allis for Topsy Gregory's memorial mass. Had a chance to talk briefly with a number of the children. Katy asked about Kevin and we told her of seeing you and going to the regatta to see Magdalena. She introduced us to her husband who had once been a crew member, but we didn't learn where. They live in Seattle. A nice affair with a good homily and a nice eulogy by a nephew.

On Wednesday night we will be with Capri and Calvin while Mark is away overnight for business in Detroit.
Looking forward to seeing them.

Mom's therapy for some muscle problems around her
left rotator cuff seems to have helped her to feel much better.

I need to sign off to change cloths to go to the dinner mentioned above. Don't know why the font changed, but this should be OK.

Thanks, L & K for you hospitality. Will try to get a note off to you this week.

Love and prayers for you all,

Grandma and Grandpa

Happy Saturday!

Congratulations, Bridge! Great work! I hit a hole in one once while playing putt-putt golf. The one time I actually hit a bucket of golf balls, I whacked a seagull out floating in the water, so I figured that was probably going to be the pinnacle of my entire golfing career and I just hung up the clubs at that point.

Not much to report here in Boise. Matt worked a very early shift this morning with "Stuffy the Wonder Deer," aka Fish & Game's deer decoy. They got some dullards to come shoot it, and when the game wardens all popped out of the brush, the shooter got so excited that he accidentally shot a hole in the floor of his buddy's truck. I'll bet he's embarassed.

It is a beautiful fall day. We've done a little work in the backyard and Matt just completed what is probably the final mow of the season. Still no hard frost in our forecast, so we're hoping the tomato plants can limp along for a while yet and maybe we'll get an actual harvest. Maybe. Speaking of tomatoes, I smoked some last weekend. (No, not like that.) All I did was cut romas in half, scooped out the seeds, and put them skin up on the smoker for a few hours. They are GREAT. They'd be wonderful on an antipasto tray or on pizza. I'm going to make smoked tomato & potato chowder with bacon for dinner tonight.

Wish you were here!
Love,
Casey, Matt & Freya

Competition

Congratulations Bridget! I know that there must have been lots of very competitive players. You did really well!

Magda had her first regatta of the season and rowed well with her crew, beating their perennial rivals Trinity College and the 2nd varsity boat from Mt. Holyoke. She was really happy with their performance. It was a beautiful day. We carried in a picnic with Grandpa G and Grandma J, found an amazing table almost on the river and had a great day.

I have attached photos which illustrate the only problem at the regatta. One team launched a blatantly illegal boat! It was like a Nascar Shake and Bake!

By now some of you know that Bridget finished 10th at the State Meet. That was her goal, so she was happy. She shot an 84 the first day and and 88 the second. On her first nine she was shooting even par until the 9th hole, when she hit one out of bounds, then three putted for a nine. She had been playing with the top 3 girls and then got put with higher scorers for the second day. They were pretty erratic so there were lots of delays for finding lost balls for the other kids. She lost her focus, got mad, lost her confidence and shot mostly bogeys to end with a 45. We were all worried that if she didn't snap out of it, she would do badly on the second nine. We all tried to get her to look at what was happening, but she was pretty unreachable. Colin had joined us by that point and even he couldn't get to her. They had a break in play and she was able to eat some lunch and change her attitude, so she was able to go back out and play confidently. By then the wind had become a huge factor, so all the girls scored higher, but she finished well with a 43. Her goal was to try to shoot under 80 in competition but that didn't happen.

It was really hot on Sunday and Monday which made it harder on everyone. We had a brief period of rain on Monday and then it cooled off for Tuesday. We were all so tired every night from walking all those miles up and down the hills that we hit the hay pretty early. It was pretty exciting, too. The #1 girl that Bridget played with on Monday shot a 69, which is phenomenal. She hit out of a very deep sand trap and the ball went into the cup for a birdie. Fun to watch and a very nice girl.

So, we are back to normal again. Bridget and I got to a yoga class tonight and its been awhile and we were pretty sore from all the walking. I am sure we will be sorer tomorrow. Colin is coming home this weekend which will be fun. We saw him a couple times when he could tear himself away from his classes and he was pretty envious that Bridget got to State and he never did. There were coaches from alot of schools walking around watching the girls play. Several of them talked to us about Bridget, but who knows where that will go.

We heard that Mom and Dad enjoyed the East Coast trip and the chance to see grandchildren. We are glad that everyone is doing so well. Have a few more things to do tonight, but wanted to share all the details. Love to everyone, Susan

Freya

What a nice way to start my morning! She is growing up so fast and of course appears to be very smart and totally adorable! Thanks for sending the video Casey. Pictures are great, but the videos really capture alot more.

We're home for a couple days trying to catch up before heading to Madison for three days. We were all complaining about feeling pretty overwhelmed with everything that's going on. The forecast is for rain on Monday and Tuesday which we hope isn't true. Jay took the boat out yesterday, boo hoo, and the weather is going to be great this weekend, but things are going to be very crazy and probably cold by the time we get a chance to get at it again. We can still go out in the paddle boat if we get time.

Good luck with your campaign, Casey. I am sure you will do a great job.
Glad you will be able to go to Denver at Thanksgiving. We will probably be asleep if things keep up.

Thanks for the update, Domi. It sure sounds like you are at home at Vassar. That is great to hear.

Off to the salt mine! Susan

More YouTube Stardom

You'll get a crick in your neck, as I cannot seem to get the video to stay rotated when I upload it, but here's the latest of Freya. She's showing a lot of interest in her potty lately, so I'm guessing potty training may not be too far away. She has gone from just wanting to sit on her potty with her clothes on, to now wanting to take off her pants and diaper and then sitting on the potty.

Sorry for the video being on its side.
Here's the video.

You slapped your mother?!?!

Hey all,
Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve done an update; my life has been completely crazy. Since I’ve last written my Director’s Workshop has performed (it’s on youtube, you can watch it here if you want: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SkBV4CWMjA&feature=PlayList&p=65993DFE251EF6DE&index=8), and I’m already rehearsing for The Tempest.
I’m 18 now, YAY!!!! Not that it feels that different, tho I did go out and buy a lottery ticket and I won $1. WOOHOO!!!! It was exhilarating. And my birthday was incredibly fun! Very, very busy, but a bunch of my friends and I went out to dinner and it was delicious and very enjoyable. A great quote from the night went like this:
Bianca: Have you ever had those conversations where you just want to slap your mother?
*stunned silence*
Me: Um, even if I had, that's not really something most people would admit to. But it's hilarious and I'm totally putting it in my quote book!
Andi: OH! I did that one summer, and it was one of the most amazing, important decisions of my life!
Me: You slapped your mother?!?!?!?!
....No, she meant she started a quote book. But it reminded me of "You shoot Asian children?!?!" and I laughed.
I got some great presents, too, like a digital camera, a beautiful necklace, and a beta fish from my friends. They named it “Yahtzee”, which I think is quite clever and funny.
My mom visited for the weekend, which was really fun! And she brought me 4 pounds of Wisconsin cheese that my friends and I are enjoying very much. I’ve gotten to introduce a lot of people to their first Wisconsin cheese, and they are all appropriately impressed. It has made me realize just how much I know about cheese, and how completely useless that is unless you REALLY want to label yourself as the crazy hick Midwesterner.
Speaking of labels, “coasties” are called “hipsters” here, which I found interesting. However, because I am not always the brightest person in the world, while talking to someone FROM the East Coast (tho not a true “coastie”) who was explaining the term to me I said “oh, so a coastie?” and she was, mockingly, offended. Still, prolly not a good term to whip out….
I have tons of homework all the time, for example I have 1 final project, 2 papers, and at least one test next week. And that’s pretty regular. Which is why I haven’t written in a while.
I guess the only other really exciting thing to report is that I may join the Varsity Fencing Team. I really want to, but it’s a huge time commitment and I’d like to be able to eat, sleep, and study sometimes… the coach has already offered an option where I’d only come to practice twice a week, instead of the four times that is usually required, but even that conflicts with choir and/or work. So I’m not really sure what I’m gonna do.
I miss you all!!!
Domino

A little Octoberfest for Gma&Gpa in the next week

Happy Fall to all of you-----

Must begin by thanking Casey and Matt for sending their news and the great picture of Freya and the
"kitchens" we had seen her greet when we went to the
farm with them. So pleased, too, with the report on Freya's progress at Montessori school. It was good to have the phone visit with Matt with additional details.
Glad he, Casey and Freya will have a nice Thanksgiving
break in Arvada. Good luck, Casey, on your job pursuit.

Bridget called late this afternoon from Green Bay where she had just completed the regional golf meet. She finished in second place and gained a spot in the state tourney which will be played next weekend
in Madison. It was an exciting call for all of us , we
believe!

We are off in the morning for some more "grand-daughter" experiences. Praying that there will be perfect weather on the Housatonic River near New Haven, CT where we hope to be able to see Magdalena
row in a big regatta. Should be with Lyn, Kevin and
Declan by Thursday evening and then drive with them
early Saturday to the regatta. There won't be much opportunity to visit with Magdalena because she will
be involved, but Kevin believes we will have some time to see her before her 2 PM event if not afterward.

Saturday night we will drive to a motel in Danbury, CT which is fairly close to Domino at Vassar in Poughkeep-sie. Her schedule is open enough that we can spend some time with her before she has a play rehearsal--
probably, "The Tempest". We are looking forward to
being with both of these young women in their
surroundings!

Sunday evening should find us back in South Orange.
We will have to start home on Monday as Grandma is
involved with a series of physical therapy sessions for
some left shoulder discomfort, and the fifth is on Wednesday morning, 10/10. She is already feeling
relief, so does want to conclude the treatment as soon
as possible.

I was in Baraboo last week for a retired educators' meeting and had a visit at Melkas for a few minutes with them and learned some of the details of Alex's job at Christmas Mountain where he with the Time Share program. Learned from David in a call that Charile now has an important spot with a school drum group.
Kevin told us last night that we might be able to hear Declan with a music group on Friday night. Colin did well enough in a golf event that his team won a trip to play in another golf activity in Las Vegas. So this
blog submissiom isn't just about granddaughters!

Grateful, too, for the recent blog additions by Michele and Susan. There have been calls from both of them this week, too.

The Thanksgiving get-together for those of you who will be in Arvada will be something for which we can all be especially thankful!!

Grandma has already told some of you what we have arranged to do on the day after Thanksgiving. It is to be a trip to France for about 13 days where we will have a 9 day river cruise on the Rhone from Lyon to Arles (about 250 miles) and then a 3 night extension at a hotel in Aix-en-Provence where we will do some local touring, as there will be at various city stops along the river. We will fly round trip on Air France from O'Hare to Paris; a flight on then to Lyon. Returning we will fly back to Paris from Marseilles early enough on 12/4 to be back in Chicago that afternoon. This package is provided by the same company we were with 2 years ago, Grand Circle Tours.

Love and prayers, Grandma and Grandpa