Two Songs

Dear Sibs (especially Agelius):

Too bad it's not still a robin so we could have it go blob, blob, blobbing along!

Now, can you tell what the second song is? Here's a clue:


We're hoping to have corn in late August when Dan comes to visit with his girlfriend Rachel.
Since Rick has not been traveling much lately, he has been quite the farmer. We've had snow peas, radishes, lettuce, and green beans. And we are bringing strawberries with us to St. Louis!

Love,
Gilly

This has been a great vacation...

...except of course for the weather - but actually, since we have accumulated so many indoor project, that's been okay!

Thanks Geoff and Sue for getting the cell phone for Mama - she LOVES it (although she calls it her mobile phone) and it sure makes me feel a lot more at ease! She calls me on it now, it's a lot easier than getting up and walking to the phone - and I'm not being facetious, since it is hard for her to get around.

I have been so worried about them in this heat, but (with a lot of nagging) they keep the a/c on and go to the grocery store at 6:30 am which is good, since Smiley has no a/c.

Thank you also, Geoff, for posting your pix - nice to see an instant review of your visit!

Looking forward to seeing you Rick and Gill - Sally your apartment looks fantastic! I hope you can start a balcony garden - year round! lucky you!

Love to all,

St. Louis Trip

My, but it was hot.

We slept OK, but during the days I didn't want to move much. But we kept pretty busy.

We spent time with the Barrios, took mom to church, went swimming, went to the city museum (I missed out on that!), visited friends, and went up the arch.

Silly me, I took almost no pictures except for in the Arch, so that's about all you get to see.

The picture of downtown is for mom, who was saying that ll you could see was trees -- in the CWE, and that you have to look *west* to see the courthouse. The picture of knees is to show how cramped the little cages are.

I think this was the first time I'd been up it since I was small. and some vertiginous pictures from above and below (I really like how you can see the feet of the arch from the top), and some of us up top, and of the arch from the metrolink station as we headed home.

We really did have a marvelous time, and mom seems to be happy with the new cell phone, so hopefully that will be useful. I put all our phone numbers and cell phone numbers on it, so don't be surprised when you see a new phone number.

Pictures from California

Well I guess I have actually been in California for about a month now. It seems like a lot less time because I have been very busy! But I figured that I should post some pictures since Aunt Kathie said that no one posted on the blog.

I have a lovely apartment now. Don't ask how much I pay in rent because you really don't want to know... but the apartment is lovely! Just to demonstrate, here's some pictures:

Wow look at those lovely bar stools! I got them at Target and now I don't need to get a kitchen table. (That is Sean's incredibly awesome Macbook Air on the counter)

And my bedroom actually has furniture! Unlike the living room...

And then to make sure that there's pictures of the WHOLE apartment, here's the bathroom. There's a washer and dryer in the closet to the left. They have this funny little musical chime when they finish the laundry.

I didn't take a picture of the balcony. You can kind of see it out the window. It's surprisingly large, but facing the street. Plus I can't furnish it until I'm done with the inside of the apartment. Maybe I can start a garden though.

I have been very busy at work. It's been pretty tough trying to adjust to the tools my team uses, because they are all different from the rest of the company and poorly defined because it is a new project. Also there is the constant fun of finding out that the version of the library you're using isn't available for Windows, or suddenly having your project specs changing without anyone updating the physical copy you've been relying on.

I've started going to a nice church in downtown Palo Alto. There's a couple of other girls my age there, so we've formed sort of a club. There's two (other) Sarahs. Last Sunday I went with one of them and my boyfriend to the nearby farmers' market and bought lots of squash. A local animal shelter had kittens there, trying to get them adopted. I resisted the urge to go home with one immediately, but I think I'm going to end up adopting one one of these days.

I'm still looking for a dance studio. The community center here has lots of acting classes and television audition tutoring, but no ballet classes above "princess preballet." There is a dance studio which has ballet classes, but they are 10-11ish during the week. My hours are pretty flexible, but I really can't see being able to work that out. I guess I'll keep looking.

Anyway, that is all from me right now. Perhaps I will post again soon with oodles of adorable kitten pictures!!!

Summer Homework

Well, who hates summer homework more than a mom?

Lucie has to do a Mark Twain essay and a current events essay and next week is MATH camp!

But still, I have some summer homework for everyone...and I'm sending e=mails as well as this blob, because I'm the only one doing any blobbing...

This was a one of Lucie's last assignments at school and we thought she wrote a beautiful poem - then she showed us the template and I had an idea for a family project: a "Where I am From" poem book.

Take a look at this template and write your own poem. Enjoy the process of it - you could write down whatever first comes to mind, or you could refine and refine until you get it right. Whichever way you work, please take it a little seriously - I've asked Geoff and Sue (and Alex, who probably wasn't listening at the moment) to do it, but also Mama and Daddy. And when Gill and Rick come, I'll hand them the hard copy too. But I'm actually hoping to make a book of all our poems to give to Daddy for his birthday, though I didn't tell Mama and Daddy that part.

You can find the original poem on line (plus other people's responses) or choose to write your own first so you don't feel as if you are laboring under the influence. I liked Lucie's so much, I'm feeling a little trepiditious and second-guessing all my ideas before I even get started.

Luckily, I don't have to convince Lucie to do this project - although getting the R man to do it might cause some major volcanic erruptions...

Enjoy the creative editing process! Ooooo, I just tried to add the pdf and it doesn't work so look at your e=mail!

love,

Agelaius