Back from Denver

Hi All! We have recovered enough to let everyone know we are home. We left on Holy Thursday at 11:30 PM to escape the foot of snow that really came. A little rain a few times, but we cruised on thru to Denver by 7PM Friday. Got there earlier than anyone expected, so we had to help clean their house! We had lots of great hikes, 2 rounds of golf, a visit to Pat Lavin in Silverthorne for dinner, a day at Copper Mountain Lodge for Jay and Bridget to ski and snowboard, some shopping, hot tubbing, and a great Easter dinner. We also got some good rest and movie watching. Excellent vacation-I would highly recommend the accomodations. We left around 1oAM on Friday and decided to blast on thru and got home around 4:30 AM. We had the dogs with us, so hotelling it is a bit harder. Lucy and Liz loved being able to go outside alone and Lucy promptly took over Lincoln's bed. He didn't bother her, so Liz joined her. By the end, Lincoln decided to reclaim his space and Lucy joined him. It was fun to watch all those guys work things out. Ruby was pretty sure she didn't want those beagles in her house and Michele said she didn't wag her tail until they left. So, we are back at work and school and looking forward to the next adventure. Bridget has a New Scholar's weekend at the Evans House next weekend after spending this one in LaCrosse with Future Business Leaders of America competition. Getting used to empty nest! Enjoyed Domi's news, Freya's movie and all the tales of Arizona and Baraboo. Have a great week! Susan

Tucson time to end.........

Hi everyone,

This will be our last message from Tucson and it is written on a breezy afternoon with temps in the high 70's after a lot of bright clear days of mid 80's.

Took advantage of this by making an early trip to Madera Canyon today. Saw a lot of humming birds at a place where a resort has a big bird feeding area before I began a hike in the canyon along a rushing stream (thanks to snow that fell on Santa Rita peaks as late as two weeks ago). Mom drove the car down the road to the next parking lot where I ended my 45/50 minute hike. Saw a few warblers. Back at our RV park about 12:30 PM after some final shopping. A very worthwhile 70 mile trek.

Will conclude our packing and load up this evening and plan to start in the morning about 6AM after breakfast and putting what is left in the refrigerator in our ice chests. Have already reserved a room at the Air Force Inn at Kirkland AFB in Albuquerque.

Ann and Ed headed for East Dubuque this AM. We went to mass with them at the San Xavier de Bac mission yesterday at 8 AM and then had breakfast at a Mexican Steakhouse which had "million" item Mexican menu which we enjoyed.

We made a whirlwind trip to Phoenix on Saturday to visit with Cooper and David. We had planned to connect about 4 PM. Just as we found their hotel at 3 PM, David reached us on the cell phone to say they had just checked in. In a few minutes we were off together to have our meal together at Sweet Tomatoes salad, soup, pasta and dessert buffet. We were there more than an hour visiting and making return trips for additional tempting food items!! We headed south again about 6PM having learned on the the way north that there was a construction detour for I-10. We managed that and got back "home" about 9PM enjoyed the desert sunset without having to look into the setting sun--as we have frequently on many of the day trips we have taken. We really enjoyed the visit and think Cooper and David got full benefit from the buffet choices! Hope they are having a productive day today as they visit the school.

Domino. Thanks for sharing all you excitement and adventures. You surely will love Siena! We spent much of a day there on our last visit to Italy and had lunch in the big central city piazza where they have the great summer horse races. We think Rick Steves highlights this community competition in one of his Public Television shows. Perhaps you could find it at the Vassar Library. Rome and Venice will be great as well and we hope you get to Florence--your grandpa's favorite city of all the world he has seen! Maybe you will see the NJ O'Connells somewhere there as the last we heard, Italy was in their sights, too.

Have checked the week's weather forecast for Albuquerque, Arvada, North Platte and Omaha and see little precip expected and few temps below 50. Looks good for David and Cooper tomorrow as they fly home via Denver on Frontier. Assuming that the other traveling familes are now safely home.

Hope that we will be bringing spring home with us for all of you in WI and the east and that Casey, Matt and Freya will have found it in Idaho.

Love and prayers, Gma and Gpa

It starts as a zit...then it eats your face!

Second semester is more than halfway over. Weird.
Let’s see, where to start?
Classes:
Italian: It’s gotten a little better, actually. I’m kind of enjoying it again. And I’ve decided to go on the summer abroad trip to Siena. I can’t wait! It’s 5 weeks of intensive Italian study, but since it’s all I’ll be focusing on I think it’ll be better than class, which I have to balance with a zillion other things. I’m so excited! We get to take trips to Rome and Venice, too!
Geography: I love this class. We just finished our Cultural Geography unit, which was really amazing. It’s definitely the geography I’m most interested in. Now we’re on Political Geography, which is also interesting. And I got an A on my midterm, so I’m happy.
Stagecraft: Stagecraft was only half a semester, so it’s actually over now. I kinda miss it, but it’s nice to have the extra time. It was a pass or fail class, and I passed, so that’s wonderful (not that I was worried about not passing). Once I finish my other drama class this semester I’ll have all the prereqs I need to get into the 200-level classes.
Theater Making: I’ve never been in a class that promotes b.s.ing until now. Basically, you can take any aspect of any project and interpret it in any way. As long as you have a basis for your claim, it is valid. It’s kind of scary when you put on a project, because you know it’s going to get dissected by everyone in the class, but it’s also very eye-opening to see how even tiny, seemingly insignificant details can lead to long debates about their significance in the theme of the project. Makes you think long and hard about what you’re trying to convey and how it will come off to the audience.
Philosophy: Well. We’ve moved on to real issues and the class hasn’t gotten any more interesting. I really, really do not enjoy this class. It’s disappointing, because I was really looking forward to it. When we break up into small groups and have discussions, it’s great and we talk about really interesting, but the full-class discussions don’t really happen. It’s weird. I can’t really figure it out. I’m counting down the days until it’s over. But I just got a good grade on my midterm paper, which I was not entirely happy with as I was writing it, so that’s good.
Spring Break:
I spent the first week in Philadelphia with Andi, my best friend here, and her family. It was so much fun! We saw her high school perform Les Mis. Their production was AMAZING! It really made me miss all my high school friends, though. I did get to meet a bunch of Andi’s friends, which was great. I am also slowly turning Andi into a nerd, which I’m enjoying. And I think she is, too. For example, she’d only ever seen Star Wars Episode I, which we all know doesn’t count. So I made her watch the fourth one. And then we went into Philly to the Franklin Institute to see the Star Wars exhibit. It was incredible. We saw Luke’s original sandspeeder, a whole bunch of costumes, and an original Yoda puppet. And we got to take a simulated ride in the Millenium Falcon in Light Speed. I was Chewbacca, Andi was Han Solo. I was freaking out, it was so cool!
Then we walked downtown to shop on South Street. We ate a place that served Vegetarian Cheese Steaks, so I ordered one, of course. It was disgusting, which was not exactly surprising, but it was disappointing.
I also forced Andi to watch The Fellowship of the Ring, and half of The Two Towers, because she’d never seen any Lord of the Rings, and it should surprise no one that I felt the need to remedy that. She loved them, so sometime when we’re both free (so probably never…) we’re going to finish the trilogy. I told you I was making her a nerd.
I spent one day down in Washington DC because Andi and her family were going to NYC. I got a ride down with my friend Chris, and then he and I hung out with Janelle, who’s a family friend. It was my first visit to DC and it’s a beautiful city! Janelle took us to a lot of the monuments. Then Chris left to visit friends of his, and Janelle and I went to dinner with Janelle’s boyfriend. I’ve heard a lot about him, so it was good to finally meet him. I stayed overnight at Janelle’s and took a train back to Philly the next day.
I took a train back home on Saturday, and arrived in WI Sunday evening. It’s a long trip. It’s not a terrible way to travel, but it’s not great, either.
I was home for Capri’s birthday, which was perfect. I can’t believe she’s 11! And I got to meet Nemo’s girlfriend! It was an exciting day!
I spent the rest of the week sleeping and hanging out with friends. We celebrated Easter early so that I could participate before getting on my train Saturday night to get back to Vassar by Sunday evening.
The train ride back was again long. But I made a friend. And got no homework done. So it was good and bad.
Extracurriculars:
Fencing: Is over. I miss it, but it’s freed up a LOT of time. So I’m kind of able to have a life again. And I’m definitely planning on doing it again next year. Hopefully still as a saber fencer, but I might get switched to epee. Not entirely sure how I feel about that, I’ve grown to love saber, but I like epee, so I’m not too worried.
Drama: I’m in a student theater show called “Women at 4 O’clock.” It’s a really bizarre show, but really fun and the cast is great! I play an aristocrat, a robot with a cat’s head, a passed out drunk girl, and, my personal favorite, a crazy bag-lady. It’s going to be hilarious. We perform in exactly a week tho, eek!
Also, there is a rumor going around campus that next semester the department is doing “Rent.” I’m almost positive it is accurate. I will die of delight.
Choir/Voice: Both are going well. I don’t think I’m going to do choir next year, tho. I love it, but I need more time, and I refuse to drop anything else. My voice lessons are amazing. I love my teacher, and I really feel like they’re helping. I’m having to unlearn a lot of things tho, which is always really frustrating. Oh well, better to relearn them correctly than damage my voice.
Quidditch: Middlebury came to Vassar on Wednesday for a rematch. We ended up playing three scrimmage games and then two real Vassar vs. Middlebury games, and it was a blast!!!! Vassar lost both games, but we performed MUCH better than at the World Cup. My friend Pablo actually caught the snitch in the first game. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. We were ecstatic! And both Andi and I scored, so the day was definitely a success.
Actually, one of the best experiences of the day was just the sheer number of people who showed up. We had quite a crowd. It was especially gratifying since I was in charge of advertising. And we had kids show up! Some of them played in the scrimmages, and then they were put in charge of scoring during the actual games.
I can’t wait for the world cup next year!

Another note from Tucson--3/28/08

Good morning,

Want to let you all know that we had a call from Casey yesterday.

She reported that they would be heading toward home today and hoped to visit the Aquarium at Monterey en route. Freya was well enough the morning they intended to depart for them to start the trip as planned and she has been pretty much OK while they were away.

We did get Casey's personal cell phone number.
Call us if you would like it; we won't publish it here.

Doing laundry this morning. Still awaiting a call from David as to whether it will be convenient for them to have us meet them for a quick visit in Phoenix tomorrow afternoon.

Plan to have breakfast with Ann and Ed after mass on Sunday. They are starting home on Monday, 3/31. We'll be heading for Arvada on Tuesday, 4/1--no foolin'

Love and prayers for safe travel for all those who will be moving around!! Mom and Dad

Happy after Easter and Spring

Hi from SUNNY Tucson!

Just back from a 3 hour round trip drive to Kitt Peak Observatory. Lots of changes since we made the trip when we were in Tucson in 1971 during Easter vacation.

Glad we had phone visits with all of you except Matt over the weekend. Thanks to those who made an attempt to locate either Matt or Casey's
cell #'s. I did try the one Michele had, but might not be good. It wasn't. The man who answered said he had been getting a lot of wrong numbers and he had only recently signed up for service.

We were concerned that Freya was ill and they
might not have started as Casey had hoped (in a blog item some of you had not read) they would on Saturday morning. We were reluctant to call their work cell #'s, so hope if they go to the blog, we can have an entry which will let us all know whether they are safely in Santa Barbara with a healthy Freya. Would guess that neither virus or germ could survive all that bath activity.

Hope that the suggestion we sent to David at Kohler this morning will permit us to spend some time with him and Cooper as they begin the school visit in Phoenix this coming weekend.
Their DO list will keep them busy.

Our Easter weekend was busy. Went to the Thursday evening Eucharist at the nearest church, Our Lady of Fatima. On Friday morning, we went to Sabino Canyon to take the tour bus ride up as far as they can go--road repair for August 2006 monsoon flood damage still underway--and walked most of the way back to the VC. Very crowded with families with kids on Spring Break. Not many birds. Drove back to Our Lady of Fatima for the Good Friday service at 3:00 PM. Only a grocery trip on Saturday before going to the evening Easter Vigil service at another new church in a different direction from our RV park. Found a reverent service with a well prepared choir at Holy Trinity with SRO congregation. Sunday morning we drove south t0 a church in Sahuarita, St. Martin de Porres, and met Ann and Ed there for a 9AM
mariachi mass. We went out to breakfast and then they came here for the rest of the day and we had our ham dinner here, with quite a number of "fixins" with our limited pantry!!
Ate on our little open air deck. No bugs here!!
Made some plans for hiking and birding at an
area we haven't gone to yet this year later this week.

Glad that the O'CLongs had such a break in the weathers for their drive. Have received the cell phone data which Jay carefully arranged for us.
Thanks, Jay. Our service has been good and service is better in some of the remote areas this year. Know that things are going to be fun in Arvada.

Pleased, too, that this last snow wasn't the really heavy stuff for Maura, Mark--and the RO'C's to deal with.

Domino's spring break travels and anticipation for the extended time in Italy seems to be a flurry of excitement. What will a second, third, etc. year at Vassar be like?? Capri's two birthday parties which included having Domino at home and the introduction to Nemo's friend Stephani
had to have been special, too. All of us will appreciate Mark really being ready to entertain at Christmas 2008.

Hope we can get to enjoy Charlie's drum performance before the end of the school year and hear the details of Ellis's mission trip. Will Finn become another Calvin??

Declan's Rutger's decision really sounds like a winner. Having the number of successful audition/interviews must have made the choice difficult.

Maura you touched on so many topics one doesn't know where to comment. Hope we won't have to wait too long before we see Stephen and
Alex again to learn more about their future plans. Sorry Tim wasn't up to the Ringling tour.
Apparently the movie work in WI is getting more attention than the Great Lakes water compact!

Praying that all the family members who will be traveling in the coming days will have safe driving. Our plans call from departure from here early on 4/1 with a stop in Albuquerque that night and then on to Arvada for a day's stop before heading east on Friday and to be back in Big Bend late Saturday, 4/5. The Vandermillens will be leaving here on 4/1, too.

Thanks to all you contributors!! Love and prayers, Mom and Dad

Hi, I've just r tried to catch up on all for a coupla months. We are quiet and uneventful here. Over 8 new inches of snow yesteryday and more now. Alex was sent home early as Wally world was dead- folks couldn't make it up the steep incline into the parking lot. At least when I spent 3+ hours shoveling and wrestling with the snow blower, it was bright and warm , didn't need jacket or gloves. Snow was lovely soft powder, and perfect for doggy soccer. We spent lots of time playing. Both of them guard and dribble well, but its no fun if I don't steal it and boot it out for a long pass. Watching lots of March madness instead of God movies.And mush-ers.

Turn off Jeffry Hunter, Mark, and switch to Iditarod on Versus ( Bike/ Tour de France channel).

Sounds like all the kids are making progress on college/school plans ( ITALY!) Sorry, girls, no Johnny Depp. They spent several days last week filming in Columbus and near Lancaster. All we saw was a brief , head down frontal shot and a back shot on local news. Columbus has been eating it up tho. CCheck the NBC15 Madison site for a bit more. B'oo lost out altogether. They did the local extras casting that awful snowstorm day in Madison. several MATC film kids got in. Some news snippets of the extras in period hair and costumes. Local car collectors had fun.

SStephen spent his spring break in Milw with Maureen, is working on prep for a huge test and got one of two program assistant positions for next year. He'll be doing court ordered alcohol and other drug evaluations and reports. Alex is preparing for long jury duty- he's part of a Sauk County panel being picked for a nasty Wood County trial for a week-long sequestered stay up there. Hopes he gets picked, but our local Public Defender office is doing the standard background check stuff and "Mom's a lawyer- for us" is along side his name.

Tim is having a long tough winter. Rarely even gets outside. The heirs of the Charles Ringling Mansion, the big yellow house kitty-corner from us, held a neighborhood open house this week to lobby for a zoning change for some $$ flow uses for the home. I got to see the inside for the first time, and heard about the friendly ghost. As much as Tim has always wanted to tour the house, he didn't make it. There's a library with fabulous stained glass windows and cabinet doors, with yellow roses , with a huge full wall repeat of that theme on the main stair landing windows. Gorgeous. Killer butler's pantry.

I have some very ugly jury trials coming up and another county has added me to their judge appointment list. But we got a chilling e-mail from the state office- all the money they had won to avoid another budget shortfall is gone because of the budget crisis. At some point in 2009 they will ,again, just stop paying us. We are the only group of independent contractors who face this. Our local office was going to get another full time staff attorney, but that too has been cancelled.

Gliff is now getting out of the wire cage regularly and sneaking into our bedroom in the middle of the night. When Tim wired the door shut, Gliff bypassed it: he managed to unclip the entire front panel, pull it into his cage, and squeeze around it. Then there is this "the Grudge" black blob flowing across the bedroom floor....

We are enjoying the warm weather news, the Freya stuff, it is so cool to be able to hear her voice! and all the children's (okay- the young adults' ) plans. Bros- I keep missing Progect Runway but caught the finale this am- FIERCE. I get to re-read some nasty police reports before i wrap it up.

Happy Easter and think spring. Before the 8+ inches hit, I had tulips coming up!

Lazy Easter

Hi all,

I'm working in the basement today (knowing that I'm due to host next Christmas is motivating me to finish all this damn trim work), and I have some cheesy old Hollywood Technicolor life of Jesus movie on tv in the background to set the mood -- HOLY CRAP, THEY JUST CHOPPED OFF THE HEAD OF JOHN THE BAPTIST!!!!!

Anyway... We've had a wonderful week here, with Domino home, Capri celebrating her 11th birthday, and Nemo bringing his girlfriend Stephani home to meet everyone for the first time.

It's official now that Domino will be going to Italy for 5 weeks this summer to study... Italy! Vassar is covering about 80% of the costs, so it's a pretty sweet deal all around.

Capri had a very nice birthday, complete with the best ice cream cake in the world, from Mullins in Watertown... and she got a new Raleigh 21-speed mountain bike that Nemo and I snagged at Bike-0-Rama in Madison a few weeks ago. We've taken it out for only one ride so far, but she seems to like having a bike that fits her for a change, and she's even figuring out how to use the gears!

Nemo's girlfriend is really nice, and seemed pretty comfortable with everyone. She and Domi really hit it off, since she's a musical theater fan, just like Domino. I think we'll be seeing a lot more of her. Wednesday I took the kids out to Madison to see a wonderful movie called "Be Kind, Rewind," and Nemo and Stephi joined us for a very fun night out.

I've been seeing a woman who's a film professor at UW-Madison--sort of more than friends but not quite dating--we had actually dated a little a few years ago, and she just contacted me about a month ago asking if I'd like to get reacquainted. Anyway, she's been talking me into pursuing a screenwriting teaching job at the University. She says they have no courses that give the students any idea what it's really like to deal with the Hollywood system, and since I seem to be having a pretty successful streak going, she thinks I'd have an easy time persuading the dept. chair to give me a try. We spent some time this weekend working on my curriculum vitae, which I realized is just like a resume only you can do a LOT more bragging. Very fun!

Dave, because of a really bizarre Post Office screw-up, the copies of the script got sent back to me, so I had to resend them... They should get to Annie, Willie, Daryl and Woody this coming week, and then we'll see what we see... I'll keep you posted.

Okay, back to the Jesus movie. This is the one where Jesus is played by Jeffrey Hunter, the guy who was the first captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise. The Romans are getting antsy, and I think there's trouble brewing...

Maybe later they'll show the other Hollywood Technicolor Easter movie, the one where John Wayne plays the Roman centurion who looks up as the sky darkens on Good Friday and says "Surely, this man was the Son of God," and yet, somehow, he still sounds like the Marshall in some old west town...

Happy Easter everyone!

We Hope to Be Traveling

Greetings! We hope to leave for spring break and visit my aunt in Santa Barbara tomorrow. However, Freya woke up this morning with a fever and sinus congestion, and her preschool teacher told me that the flu is going around...the flu is accompanied by vomiting. So we don't know for sure what we'll do; we're just going to monitor her tonight and if she's still reasonably okay tomorrow, we'll load up and head for our first stop--Reno. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

In the meantime, here's the latest installment in the Freya YouTube collection:


Love,
Casey, Matt & Freya

snowing cows and dogs in sheboygan

Holy Cows this type face is huge!.  Hi all.  Happy Easter.  We're enjoying our weekly snow dump up in Sheboygan.  It never ends!  I almost rode the scooter to work this week it was so nice and roads are back top normal and then this morning-El Kabong!  Oh well.

Everyone is good up here.  Finn talked his way into getting signed up for Karate a couple of weeks ago and already has a fierce kick picture on a pocket flashlight- merchandizing already!

Ellis is getting funding together for a mission trip to Southern Illinois with a pack of his buddies that have joined a youth group at a local YCC church.  The pastor is a man of the cloth by day and a bike racer on the weekends.  Good combo.

Charlie is continuing to drum line up a storm and works Temptations-like steps into all his routines.  The triple tom guys seem to all be goof balls- so he feels right at home.

Cooper is having trouble finding factory work but may have something on the grounds crew at Whistling Straits. He'll hear this week.

Susan is downstairs finishing up taxes.  I'm loafing and plan to take a nap later.

Mom & Dad- Cooper and I will be coming out to Phoenix next Saturday the 29th in the am.  We're staying at a Clarendon downtown the first night, but haven't booked anything beyond that.  We have a bunch of housing and public transportation logistics to check out on Saturday.  He'll need to figure out where the coffee shops and music stores are!  Monday we'll be at the school all day and maybe Tuesday morning as well.  We leave Tuesday afternoon.

Would you want to try to do something on Sunday?   We have a Pontiac Pipsqueak so will be mobile, but would like to spend most of our time investigating Phoenix.  The last two school trips we've taken have been all drive and very short visits, and as long as he is now committed to this one, I want him to get comfortable with the local lay of the land as much as possible. Would you want to drive up and meet us up there on Sunday?   or somewhere in between?

Maura & Tim- has Johnny Depp made it to Baraboo yet?  I think he's in Oshkosh today.

Hope Denver easter is good for M&D and O"C longs- happy trails!

Matt & Casey great picyutres of the egg hunt and please mention to Frey That I love those flavored tootsie roll things jut in case she overloads.  Casey thanks for the re-link.  I had to start over woth the new e-mail address.  

K&L- how's it going?  Lyn I saw a Polish National Bike team jersey the other day I wanted to get for you but it only came in men's sizes.

Mark- How's American Ice going?  Have you talked to Darryl (sp?) Hanna yet about her bio french fry el Camino?

Happy Egg Hunting!

Happy St. Pat's everyone. Jay and I got invited to my friend Barbara Murray's house yesterday for corned beef and cabbage. We brought some Smithwick's and Guinness and everyone enjoyed themselves. Her husband is Scottish, but he pretended to be Irish for the day. I watched people on the news this morning drinking beer at Mo's Irish Pub downtown at 6AM! Sounded and looked awful to me. I'd at least wait till noon.

Thanks for the darling Freya pictures, Matt and Casey. She is growing up so fast as I am sure you are feeling!

All is well here as we try to enjoy Colin's visit and get ready to head for Denver on Friday. Michele assures me she has enough Easter candy, but I'm never sure we'll be well fed out there. Hope everyone has a great Easter. Love, Susan

Glad this HUNTER had Game Warden assistance!!

Thanks for these great pictures!

Love and prayers, Grandma and Grandpa

Freya's First Egg Hunt

We took Freya to the "Easter Eggstravaganza" at the Boise Zoo today. It was Freya's first egg hunt ever!

I present to you, Our Morning in Photos:

Here is Freya right at the beginning. She's at the top of the 0-2 age group, so while she was one of the older children there, she was still pretty small. She had no idea what to do, though we had spent several minutes coaching her prior to the start of the egg hunt.



Daddy had to give her a little instruction.



And then he had to demonstrate.



But then something clicked.



She started to get the hang of it.



And then she was off to the races!



As with everything else Freya does, she then wanted to start doing it "by h'sef."



And she emerged victorious from the fray!



She and Daddy are ready to make it an annual event. (Though I think Freya might choose to make it a daily event, now that she realizes there is candy involved.) Mommy votes for annual.

North Dakota Wind

Hi all,

Glad to read so many good reports from AZ. Sounds like the weather and birds and Ann & Ed are all working out well :)

I was just at a "Renewable Energy Summit" in downtown Milwaukee today (sometimes my job can be pretty fun...) and I ended up having lunch with a couple of guys who work in the wind energy industry. I mentioned the North Dakota property and the possibility of selling wind rights to some energy company, and they gave me some good pointers:

1: Find out if there are any major transmission lines in the area. Energy companies won't want to put up wind turbines if there are no power lines in the area they can use to get the electricity to customers. If there are no lines, put some up. I'm looking at you, Mom.

2: Ask the local government if any energy companies have made inquiries about building wind farms in the area. There may already be interested energy companies sniffing around the neighborhood, trying to take us local yokels for a ride.

3: Try to get the neighbors interested in offering a group deal to interested energy companies. The bigger the area available to them, the more interested the energy companies will be. Mom, if you haven't gone around and introduced yourself to the neighbors, shame on you! Time for a potluck!

Hope this helps :)

Mark

Sunday 3/9 AZ report

Good evening,

Hope you are all oriented to DST. We don't leap forward in AZ, so stay on MST.

Congrats to Tim on having his Nader letter selected as on OpEd selection. Sure that many of us will be interested in any feedback it prompts. While don't have a daily paper here, we have the various news channels and haven't caught sight of any Nader press. With all the other candidate news, perhaps his candidacy just won't elicit much media coverage.

Went to mass this morning at the San Xavier del Bac "White Dove of the Desert" mission church. In all the times we've visited this is the first time we attended mass. There was a good crowd, many probably there for an all day Tohono O'odham (formerly Papago) Native American celebration, which we didn't plan to attend. We had been part of one at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument a number of years ago, so went "home" for breakfast--a distance of about 9 miles.

After breakfast we drove north to Saguaro West NP for a hike to see the spring flowers. All reports are that they are and are to be the best since 1998 because of winter rains. Saw a lot of flowers after a stop at the VC to view a new video on the park. Not too many birds that time of day, but a great hour hike.

Mid afternoon we headed for Ann and Ed's "home" in Green Valley to
have dinner with them. Took a ABC salad and two pies--rhubarb/strawberry and apple. Had some wine and pre-prandials on their patio with a great view of the late afternoon sun on the Santa Rita Mountains the home of Madera Canyon.

Focus going great. Averaging over 30 mpg since we left home, so the
freeway speeds must have cleaned out all the gunk! Gas prices all less than when we left home--2.97 today with one stop in NM about 2.88.

More from AZ

Some quick items:

If any of you tried to reach us yesterday afternoon, wde are sorry we missed the calls. We were at Patagonia Lake SP and the reception there is not good. Some birds; great weather and hiking.

We are trying to keep the phone on and with us at all times because our "house" does not have a land line phone.

Domino, don't lose heart. The Pack will be back!

Mark, we were at Saguaro East NP and didn't ask any dumb ???!

Susan, sorry about you job diappointments. Hang in there. We
will be praying for success soon.

Busy with laundry this morning at a nice washer/dryer room in the park community building which is about a 3 minute walk--so have been going back and forth between courses.

Met Ann and Ed at Madera Canyon on Monday and had some good hiking and birding around a picnic lunch. Stopped at their house for a few minutes before driving the 25 miles back to our
park. On Wednesday we went back to their house in Green Valley and went with them to Nogales where we had lunch with them a
a mexican restaurant they usually go to with some of their friends.
Another nice day.

Spoke with David a few minutes ago. He and Cooper will be coming to Phoenix the weekend after Easter, so we will prepare
plans to try to gegt togegther.

Time to go to return to the drying effort. Love and prayers, Mom and Dad

A Cheesehead's Struggle to Cope

#4. Brett Favre. Retired.

I am in shock.

I feel like my childhood is over. (Ok, yes, I'm 18, my childhood IS over, but you know what I mean).

Favre has been the Packer's QB since as long as my family's been watching football. I admit that I used to HATE football, and by extension Brett Favre, but I've become quite the fan(atic) over the years, in part because Favre is so much fun to watch!

Favre was my first celebrity crush. I still hero-worship him.

The Packers just aren't gonna be the same. Oh, they'll still be my team, I still love them, but things are gonna be SO different!!!

I'm kinda totally freaked out. The world is a bleak, unfriendly place right now. Where is the cheery green-and-gold #4 to light the way?

Next year is gonna be rough.

Billy Joe Toliver, anyone?

A quick note from AZ

Safe and sound in our March home at Western Way RV Resort.

A neighbor helped me get set up with a wireless connection this evening, so here goes!

Weather great. Three great driving days.

Spent yesterday with the Vandermillens at Madera Canyon. Some birds. Good hiking. Picnic lunch--under sunny blue skies. Stopped at their March
rental house for a few minutes before returning to
Tucson.

Will read what Casey and Susan wrote tomorrow; saw the monkey picture and will both enjoy it carefully tomorrow. Grandma has already gone to bed.


More in a day or two. Love and prayers, Gma & Gpa

How well I remember those ear infection days! Sorry to hear that Freya got two for one! Hopefully she is better already. I am glad to hear she has left the comb behind. The monkey looked awfully cute around Finn's neck and we all remember Sweet Pea.

By now you probably have heard Wisconsin's big news. It far outshadows the primary elections in this area. I haven't had a chance to get Jay's take on it, but I think he was ready for Brett to retire. I tried to find some election coverage, found the news on Channel 12, but its a feature show "Farewell to Favre". Not what I was looking for.

I didn't get the jobs I was interviewing for and found out last week. There are jobs posted on line all the time, so I will continue my search and get some outside advice on how to punch up my resume so it doesn't look so slanted toward Mental Health. I am underutilized in this job, so I should have some time to get more organized.

We are starting to have a few moments of warmth and sunshine, helping us to believe that spring may come. I hope that the golf courses are open in Denver around Easter and that there is snow in the mountains.

Congrats to Declan on your many opportunites. Its nice to have choices and I am sure you will make the right one.

Well, I have a few chores to finish before the rest of clan gets home. Colin will be home this weekend to work the Golf Show for Alpine and then home again on the 15th for a week. We will leave him home alone while we go to Denver so he has to find his way back to Madison. Thanks for another book tip, Casey, and enjoy Santa Barbara. Sounds wonderful right now! Mark, I enjoyed the Butterfly and the Bell Jar alot and Jay is enjoying "Who Moved my Cheese?" I am getting ready to dig into Rick Steve's books on Europe. More later, Love, Susan

All Right, Already!

Mark, it's not that we don't love you--but I'm tired of looking at that Antarctica post! Speaking of cold climes, Matt and I both highly recommend the book, "The Terror" by Dan Somebody (I just went to look at the author's name and can't find the book on our shelf). It is a fictionalized account of the Franklin Expedition to find the Northwest Passage in the 1840s. The real expedition disappeared and many, many rescue expeditions tried to find it but ultimately found very little clue to its passing. The Terror presents this author's somewhat mystical view of what got 'em out there on the ice. Anyway, literature aside, things are going pretty well in Idaho. Unless you're Freya, that is. She's had a bit of a cold for the last few days, but kind of crashed yesterday afternoon and slept for a really long time and woke up with a fever. This morning she had dried fluid around her ear and we took her in to the pediatrician who diagnosed her with a double ear infection. Poor kidlet. She's on antibiotics now and hopefully they'll knock the crud out. We're getting ready for a spring break trip to Santa Barbara. My grandmother lived in that area for 40 years, and my Aunt Sandy is still there. I'm really looking forward to seeing her and enjoying the Danish food from the nearby tourist trap/burg of Solvang. Anyone else here ever ate an aebleskiver? I can't recommend them enough! They're a round Danish pancake and sooo tasty. Matt is working on the next edition of the game warden magazine. I'm just doing the usual thing at work--nothing too exciting to report there. The job I keep talking about applying for still hasn't come out for applications yet, so I haven't got any news on that front to share. As Matt mentioned, Susan & Finn's monkey has been a huge hit with Freya. She sleeps with it every night and has taken it on a few outings, including to the zoo yesterday. I'm very glad something has replaced the fifty-nine cent Walgreens black plastic comb she'd been sleeping with (I am not making this up). The monkey is much more cuddly. Here's a picture of her relaxed with it--sorry it is a little fuzzy. Love to all! Casey, Matt and Freya