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