Isn't Nature Wonderful

A couple wildlife photos from the Smokies. These were both taken in the old settler's village at Cade's Cove.

Be sure to click on the pic of the copperhead to see its evil eye. And, yes, the shiny lizard was eating the fly... 

Mark

Clingman's Dome

Hi all,

I think I told most of y'all about the shocking sight of good old Clingman's Dome when we were in the Smokies earlier this month, but I keep forgetting to post the pics. Here they are. Prety sad, eh?

Mark

back to normal

hello everyone--that video is blackmail material. the conversations and laughter behind her little voice are also pretty funny. what a great laugh!
as dad reported, we got home monday at about 10. we had a hotel adventure in north platte NE. stopped at one place that allowed dogs--it was in the coupon book, susan. it was mom and pop. we opened our room door and it smelled like a convention of cats had been there. so, i argued with the clerk who didn't believe me and sent his wife for a "smell". she called back, and said yes there is a slight odor. when the dogs walk out of the motel room, we know something is wrong.
then we went to the other newer one, 11 at night. david pulls into the front door. the hotel van comes up behind him honking its horn, and yelling at david to move his car. the guy continued to honk, david moved, and then came and got me and said no way. so we left. the last words we heard from the driver were "go back to colorado where you came from." by then , we were so rattled we kept going. by ogollala we were ready to take on another nebraska motel owner! so, we stayed there with no incident. got up and had a 3 hr drive monday. stopped and got david's computer at work, had breakfast at the nearby village inn, and went home. we may never stay in nebraska again.
anyway, i took tuesday off and worked around the house, and then went back to work on wednesday. david started work on monday morning, as soon as we were back in cell phone range.
this weekend, david took the camper and dirtbike over to taylor park, north of gunnison, to ride. so i'm enjoying cool denver.--walkiing the dogs and doing chores. next weekend we are meeting david's brother norman and wife in sante fe for labor day weekend. that will be fun. norman's multiple myloma has pulled him out of remission, and he starts some more chemo after we have our long weekend.
we had such a good time in WI, and want to thank everyone for their hospitality, generosity, tolerance of 2 goofy dogs, and 2 goofy adults for that matter! we always have so much fun with you all--so many great stories and get togethers. this was particularly fun cuz we got to lie to mom so much! i loved that!
thanks to bridget for her bed, scout for her backyward, david for his great song, mark for finding the words for freyas hit, all you wisconsinites for organizning the logistics of all this, and to dad -- for having everything that david needed to put in three toilets! i do believe you guys set a record for the least number of trips to home depot! but you did have 2 tools that he doesn't have, which soon will be findng a place on his tool bench. so thanks for that too.
we love you guys, and thank god that we have such a wonderful family.

i had my last kringle yesterday morning.....

take care everyone--love M, D, L, and R

Jet Lag

Greetings from exotic Poughkeepsie! I am back safe and sound, though missing both Siena and Fort Atkinson.
The last week in Siena was a frenzy of work. We had a final project, which consisted of a 5-7 minute oral presentation in Italian on any topic we wanted, due Thursday, and our exam was Friday. Yikes. The project was much more stressful than the exam. 5-7 minutes is a lot of dialogue to have memorized. I chose to research St. Catherine, the patron Saint of both Siena and Italy. I discovered that she’d never learned to write so I decided to do a monologue of her life. It was the longest monologue I have ever attempted to memorize, and it was in Italian… sometimes I’m not very smart… so every day after school I practiced for hours. I pretty much didn’t leave my room from Monday to Wednesday, which was a shame considering it was my last week. But it ended up being worth it because the monologue went incredibly well and my professor loved it. She actually asked me for a copy of the text to keep. I have yet to see my grade, but I’m thinking it’s good… Then Thursday night I needed a break, so I wandered around Siena with Claudia and Dronile. We got lost, but it’s okay because we saw parts of Siena we’d never seen before and it was very pretty. We ended up eating at a little restaurant we’d never seen before, and it was quite good. Then I went back to my room and studied for the exam. I think the exam went well. I’m hoping, anyway. At any rate, it’s over and I’m done thinking about it.
Friday afternoon Gabi and I wandered around buying all the final things we had neglected to buy for five weeks. And a shopkeeper asked us if we were Italian! YES! Friday night we meant to all hang out, but everyone was exhausted and ended up falling asleep really early.
Saturday was Palio! Have I explained Palio at all? My apologies if I haven’t, it’s basically a huge horse race. Siena is broken up into 17 Contrade, and 10 compete in the Palio. Which 10 compete depends on who competed last year and a random draw, etc. There are two Palios, one in July and one in August. August is the bigger, technically more important, one. Almost every Contrada has an enemy Contrada, who they will prevent from winning at any cost. Our dorm was located in the Contrada della Chiocciola (the snail), so that’s who we should have been rooting for. Unfortunately, Chiocciola wasn’t running. Their enemy, Tortuca (the tortoise), was. So obviously we couldn’t root for them. Some of us ended up rooting for Pantera (panther), one for Drago (dragon), I think one for Nicchio (shell), and some, including myself, rooted for Torre (the tower, but represented by an elephant). The race itself takes place in the piazza. The horses run three laps. It’s over in just about 2 minutes.
We got to the Piazza at about 3:30pm. The race starts at 7. By 5, the piazza was packed. Then the parade started. It’s about a million people dressed in medieval clothing twirling flags and beating drums and riding in carts pulled by oxen and lasts until about 7. Then the main event begins. By the time the Palio actually started (after about 6 false starts), the Piazza was so crowded I could hardly see a thing. I swear tall people were popping out of the ground. It was a little frustrating. But I saw enough of the race for it to be really fun! Bruco (the caterpillar) won! Which was good and bad, good because it wasn’t Tortuca, and no one in our group got bragging rights, but bad because it wasn’t Torre.
After the Palio, while parties raged outside (the entire city pretty much gets reeling drunk. Even though Chiocciola didn’t run, they were partying like they had won just because Tortuca hadn’t.) we went and slept. Boring, I know, but necessary.
Sunday we packed. Depressing. Then Gabi and I went out and finally took pictures of ourselves in cool doors, which we’d meant to do since the first week and never had. It was hilarious! Gabi has all those pictures, though, because my camera ran out of batteries. I got Pippo Pippo gelato one last time. Then we went back to the dorm to work on the presents the class gave to Pazit, Guzzi, Lucia, Dudu, and Carlotta. We had dinner all together at Due Porte (or Du Porta as the Canadians call it), which is where we ate the first night in Siena. It was fun, but kinda sad. And Pazit was out of control! Oh man. Then we got gelato and sat in the Piazza one last time. I planned on going back to the dorm to sleep, but, due to circumstances beyond my control, I ended up getting very little sleep.
Being at the airport was very sad. We had to say goodbye to Edoardo and Carlotta  and Gabi, because she was going to Ecuador on a separate flight. The flight itself was ok, tho. I sat next to Serena and we kicked butt at a couple crossword puzzles. And slept. That was good. When we landed, most people either got picked up by their parents or caught flights home. Claudia and I, however, took the familiar bus-to-train to Poughkeepsie. I am very, very lucky that Claudia was traveling with me, because when we arrived at Vassar at 10:30pm, the ROC, where I was supposed to get my key, was closed. Claudia was staying with friends, though, and they were wonderful enough to let me crash their house. And give me a ride back to Vassar the next day. So I’m in my room right now, and very much looking forward to the arrival of my roommate later today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so sorry that i couldn't be at your party! It sounds like it was a blast! I was thinking of all of you! I would have written sooner, but I didn't want to ruin the surprise....

Heard from Michele last night that she and David had made it home safely as well so that was good news. The Freya video tops all! I had missed the original performance, so this was a real treat. She was the star of the show. Sorry, Grandma!

We all returned to work and our chores yesterday. Colin felt sick on Sunday and Bridget was down yesterday, but they are back on track taking care of the last minute stuff. We had a nice dinner on the deck last night enjoying the water skiing show. Jay finished the brakes on the Escort and is starting on the red convertible, so is making progress there. We have a load of stuff being taken away today, so my car may be able to return to the garage.

We had a great time seeing everyone and hosting the big event. It will be harder to get everyone together, as we can tell already, but to get so many of us together at one time is quite a feat. And to have us all so healthy and happy is also wonderful. Thanks to everyone for the efforts to get here and for all your help getting it together.

Well, off to work for me! I am sure this week will go quickly with all of our last minute stuff! Hope everyone has a good week. Love, Susan

The Moment You've All Been Waiting For

We're back in Idaho, safe and sound. We left Big Bend this morning at about 4:45, made it 5 minutes out of town, and realized we'd left one of our carry-on bags in the living room. We about-faced and discovered Dad had already taken off with it to intercept us at the airport. We found each other and were reunited with the bag, and then we were off. The flights were uneventful and we made it home and had a good nap. I'm still exhausted!

Thanks to everyone for such a great trip and visit time, and especially to those who offered up your homes for us to share!

Without further ado, here's Freya rocking the stage at Potter's Lake with that Sheena Easton classic, "Morning Train":



Love,
Casey, Matt & Freya

I Cavalli Della Contrada Della Chiocciola

Well, I thought I’d take pity on you all and write now, because otherwise you’d have to wait until after Palio, and that would be the world’s longest note. Also, I must tell you that it’s refreshing to be writing in English, so I don’t have to think for five minutes before every verb to make sure it’s in the right tense. Having said that, (ßlook! A passato gerundio!) I will begin the actual interesting part of this message:

First things first, after the posting of a couple threatening (tho entirely untrue) notes around the dorm threatening room searches if the missing clothes didn’t reappear, Gabi’s clothes magically turned up behind the washing machine (where we’d checked at least three times when we first realized the clothes were gone). So she has her clothes back and we have all just gotten used to having drying clothes strewn about our rooms, which gets a little soggy, but keeps them safe.

Also, the test I was afraid of? It went just as badly as I thought. But I’m over it, and I did much, much better on the one we just took, so it’s all good.

Ok, so on to the really good stuff: VENICE!!!!

We arrived in Venice at around three in the afternoon and took a watertaxi to our hotel. Everyone says Venice stinks, but I honestly never really found it smelly. It’s possible that I was just so overwhelmed visually the whole time that my nose stopped functioning in order to allow my eyes more sensory perception. (ßI am obviously in need of sleep. That sentence is absurd. Oh well, I’m going to leave it. Deal.) Anyhoo, the hotel was not quite as snazzy as the one in Rome, but it was very pretty, and Gabi and I got to room together, which was great! The first day we didn’t have anything planned until 6ish, and Gabi and I were exhausted, so we started watching some ridiculous Italian priest-as-detective show called “Matteo” I think. It was hilarious, and also was about the Palio! Unfortunately, we both accidentally fell asleep and only woke up when Edoardo called us to see where we were because everyone was waiting for us in the lobby. Oops. But I’m actually really glad that I was still half-asleep, because Guzzi had arranged a surprise Gondola ride for us, and in my dazed state, I really thought I was dreaming the whole time. It was absolutely a dream come true. I just… I’m still having a hard time realizing that it absolutely really, truly happened. Oh, and our gondola was the prettiest. It had red upholstery so the big seat looked like a heart and there were golden seahorses on the side and *sigh* I love Venice! I absolutely have to visit it again before it sinks.

The next day we had a tour of the piazza and Saint Mark’s in the morning. The piazza was slightly claustrophobic, and I think I prefer Piazza del Campo in Siena, but it was lovely. Tho covered in pigeons. Really tame pigeons. One caught my head with its wing as it targeted tourists with bread. At one point Zack and I, just because we’re cool, went running through a HUGE flock of pigeons and set them all flapping (or waddling..) away. They were surprisingly resistant to taking off, tho, and we had to sort of shuffle through them, which made the whole exercise even more ridiculous than it already was. Going in to Saint Mark’s was interesting. No one had warned us that we had to have knees and shoulders covered again, so there were some interesting hoodie-skirts that inevitably came untied half-way through the tour and had to be hurriedly re-adjusted. The church itself was really beautiful, but the poor thing just couldn’t compare to the Sistine chapel or St. Peter’s.

Yes, I did just spend more time talking about pigeons than about a famous building.

Then we toured the Doge’s palace. It’s sad, but the thing I remember most is the unbearable heat. We saw some cool things, the huge globes, the dungeons, the largest room in the world without columns supporting the roof, and the paintings in said room, including portraits of all the Doges, except the one who was a traitor, and the stairs where they used to have public executions so the heads would roll down the stairs, awesome, huh?

After the tour we saw a demonstration of how they make things out of murano glass. Way cool! I wish I could make a horse out of a glob of molten glass! Crazy. I also wish I could have bought some of the dishes or clocks, but I feel like getting them home would have been impossible.

We had the rest of the day free, so Gabi and I went shopping! It was great, because we wandered off the beaten track and ended up finding all these cool little shops that were cheaper than the stuff on the main tourist drag. I think my favorite place was this little hole-in-the-wall antique store. The owners were incredibly nice, and there was some beautiful stuff. I didn’t buy anything, but Gabi got a beautiful locket ring and an old coin and I think something else. We really wanted to buy cameos, which we later realized we should have done there because they were authentic and about half as expensive as everywhere else, but by the time we realized that, the place was closed. Sad. My other favorite store was the one with the wallets and the nicest old lady worker/owner! She was absolutely the sweetest lady ever. Oh man, I bought so many souvenirs! And if I ever have lots of extra cash to blow (key word “if”), I want to go back to Venice to spend it. After having spent most of it on my family, of course…..

The next day was free until we had to leave, and we intended to go to the Peggy Guggenheim museum, but we got sidetracked by roughly 4000 stores that we hadn’t seen the day before and ended up just barely making it back to the hotel on time.

Did I mention that I taught 3 people to play euchre? I taught 3 people to play euchre. They’re totally hooked, which makes me very happy!

We got back to Siena Sunday evening and basically unpacked and did homework.

Last Monday is hardly worth mentioning, I studied for 9 and a half hours, it was boring. But necessary.

Tuesday we had a test. It was hard, but I did better on it that any of the others, so that’s good. Then we had a Palio expert give a lecture to teach us the intricacies of Palio. I won’t bore you with them, but it was really fascinating! And essential to the fabric of society in Siena. I am absurdly excited for Palio! Oh yeah, then we visited a museum of one of the contrade, and that was mostly fun. The highlight being the adorable old bald man with the huge mustache. Seriously, I wish it wouldn’t have been incredibly weird to take a picture of this man, he was always smiling and just absolutely adorable. Hehe.

Wednesday we toured the main government building. There were three really cool frescos, one being what “good” government looks like, one being the results of “good” government, and the last being “bad” government and it’s results. It’s a little oversimplified, but I feel like George Bush could probably use the visuals, he might understand it better… ;)

Thursday we had a workshop on traditional music and dance. It was incredible. The woman had an AMAZING voice! And we learned the tarantella!!! It’s a really hilarious, fun, and easy dance! I made the unfortunate discovery, however, that I am more sketchy doing the guy’s part than Zack is, and that’s just not okay… later Thursday we all got together in the garden and drank and went to a great little club here in Siena. It was really fun until, well, some people drank a little too much and, suffice to say that I was holding up hair for the rest of the night. Not my own, however.

Needless to say, waking up for class on Friday was great! Haha.

This weekend has been very quiet. I spent all of Saturday sleeping, watching the Olympics, playing volleyball and doing gymnastics in the garden, and working on my final project. It was actually quite fun.

Yesterday I worked on my project all day. Yuck.

Then I spent all of today working on my project. Guess what I’m doing tomorrow?

A few random end things: I have two new favorite candies, Happy Hippo and Choco Rhino. They’re delicious and adorable, what more could you ask for? Plus, there’s a Happy Hippo gelato called Pippo Pippo that’s also delicious and makes me very happy.

Favre ≠ a New York Jet. What is this crap?! Not okay.

And, next time I write will probably be from Poughkeepsie!