Home Sweet Home

It's 8:56, and I am back from a two-day conference in Springfield. The girls are sleeping, the cats are sleeping, and Jeff is reading a book. It's quiet except for the occasional whoops of excitement from Modoc Field (K.U. is having their homecoming game). I'm relaxing on the couch. Life is good.
-- Amy

Read this now

The Savvy, The Extreme, and the Idealist

Fwd: Re: Please Forward!!!!!

Hi all,

Are you tired of getting messages like this that contain no facts? Me
too. Here is a link to a column by George Will, one of the most
conservative and level headed syndicated columnists in the country.

The column starts with a comparison between John McCain and the Queen
of Hearts from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland".

I found it very interesting.

I cam upon this column through The Savvy, The Extreme & The Idealist
blog.

Happy Trails.

-Jeff

P.S. Send this to all of your friends and your wildest wishes will come true.

First day of School

Well, Zoe is off to her her first day of school.



We got her all dressed, Zia all dressed, everyone's hair in a quail-tail, packed up the school supplies, took the checkbook to pay for hot lunch, then walked over to Roosevelt Elementary.



All the kids were lining up outside. Mrs. Williams's class stood closest to the entry gate. We got Zoe squared away.




She marched off with her classmates and Zia and I came home. I didn't know whether I would cry or throw-up all the way home (luckily, there was not throwing-up).

I'm so proud.

-Jeff

What a nerd! I'm going to blog about another blog post: I am now officially a Community Blogger for OregonLive.com, the Oregonian's website.

Check out my first post here.

-Jeff

Science Camp, Day 3

Today was self portrait day for Zoe. They drew chalk drawings outside (picture coming tomorrow) as well as a pencil drawing and a marker drawing. Note the chin in the picture on the left, and the full set of teeth (missing two) and all the fingers in the drawing on the right.

After, we played in ScienceWorks for about 45 minutes. She rode the exercise bicycle to power a train.

She played with the ball tower (I would like to play with this, but there are strict height rules).

She played with bubbles, though the bubble mix wasn't perfect today: they popped too quickly.

She pulled herself up in the chair (illustrating block and tackles) (blocks and tackles?)

Then we had some lunch before heading back to Nana's. Then Costco and the Library.

While Zoe was at camp, I rode from Ashland to Central Point on the wonderful Bear Creek Greenway. There is only one road crossing (at a light at Barnett Rd. in Medford) in the whole twenty miles. The path is in pretty good shape, baring a few roots poking up the pavement. All in all a great ride.

Day 2, Science Camp

Today, Zoe and I got up at 6:40am ("I'm done sleeping, dad"). At 8:15, we took off, stopped by Les Schwab to drop off a tire for repair (had to be replaced).

Zoe drew a picture of Meowmee (Mimi's cat) (legs and tail to follow), and drew and painted pictures of flowers.

After I dropped off Zoe, I put the bike together and headed up Dead Indian Memorial Road.


I only stopped once, right near the bottom to adjust my rear derailleur. It was hard and long. DIMR has been a goal for a long time. Also, I saw a rattlesnake.

Here are two pictures from yesterday:










-Jeff

First day of Science Camp

Today was the first day of Science Camp for Zoe, Our Big Colorful World, at ScienceWorks in Ashland.

From Zoe:

First I made a kitty out of markers. The other kids were good at watercolors. We drawed outside, a landscape. We painted. We painted our landscape. Then we had snacks. Lots of other kids had different things. We put our snacks away.

I think that they also played with some of the exhibits. At noon, I picked her up and we went to eat.

Meanwhile:

I had planned to simply tootle around Ashland, but those plans were put on hold as Zoe had thrown up in the car on the way over (we had a discussion about how next time, Zoe could say that she wasn't feeling well and I would pull the car over to let her vomit outside). I swung by Bi-Mart and bought some clean-up supplies. I scrubbed and scrapped, then doused everything with anti-stink liquid. It worked pretty well, but I still have to scrub the seat and floor one more time.

After I felt that the best job I could do was done, I parked back at ScienceWorks and hopped on the bike and went to Cycle Sport bicycle shop to get a new pair of tires that Hutch's failed to get in in time for us to leave. I'm not bitter, really, I'm not.

I rode over to Litha Park to have a drink of Lithia water, then up to the end of the road (at least where the dirt starts).

I then found the Bear Creek Greenway and headed north. I decided to ride until my mileage reached 10. Well, I am glad that I did because I saw an otter! I had a hard time wrapping my mind around what I was seeing as it ran right across the bike path!

For lunch, we went to the Standing Stone Brewpub and sat at a table for two. Zoe had turkey dogs and I had the buffalo burger.

Goals

I just ran with the girls. We went for 34 minutes; that's a ten minute walk to warm up, then 3 x 4 minute runs and one 3 minute run for a total of 15 minutes. That is almost quadruple the time that I was running four weeks ago! Knock on wood, my foot may be healing up.

When I run well, then I start to dream. So, here are my goals, exercise-wise anyway:

1. Continue to build back my running form, slowly.

2. Lose 5lbs. by the end of June, and fifteen by the end of the summer. Target weight: 150lbs.

3. Train for the Pioneer Run 5k. Goal time: 19 minutes, a 47 second lifetime PR.

4. Following the 5k, start a marathon training plan.

5. Run the Eugene Marathon (which should be) the first weekend in May.

A Hike at the Wingwatchers Trail

This morning, Zoe, Zia and I walked (and ran a bit) downtown to hike along the Wingwatchers Trail that traverses part of the west side of Lake Euwana.

We saw many birds, including both Clark's and western grebes, a Forster's tern, yellow-headed blackbirds, among many others.

We also saw ten western pond turtles, sunning themselves on various logs in three different ponds. The girls were very excited to get to the "turtle pond" and kept asking me, "Is this the turtle pond? What about this one?"

The weather was nice, warmish with a little breeze, and a good walk was had by all.

Howl in April

If you are ever taking the Isaac Asimov's SuperQuiz on the Seattle Times website (which we do every week or so, because we are nerds), sometimes you will come across a question that involves a poet. And then you will use Google and Wikipedia to clarify the answer and your guesses. And then you will discover...

...that you can read sections from T. S. Eliot's The Wasteland interspersed with excerpts from Allen Ginsberg's Howl and it will sound as if a single, angry poet was writing.

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers. I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night, What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, You cannot say, or guess, for you know only A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, And the dry stone no sound of water. ...etc. Drink a glass of wine or two and try it yourself with a loved one. They are both beautiful, long, angry poems, and have a shockingly similar meter (at least in their first sections). Really, someone should do a performance art piece with the two of them read together. Perhaps a third or a fourth poem as well? What else fits? Why did I not take more classes in college so I would know this? -A

Poor Fergus

Here is our poor stupid cat who gets into too many fights. Then the vet
has to shave his head and put in drain tubes.

He is pretty tired, but feeling better than last night.

Snowing!?

C'mon! April 29th and it is snowing all day!?

Even I am tired of snow.

Pippen

Here is our new cat Pippen. He and Fergus are starting to get along.
This morning, they ate side-by-side, and there was hardly any growling
or hissing.

Tooth Fairy

The tooth fairy brought Zoe three quarters, two dimes and five pennies.

Also, the tooth fairy told me that (more than likely) her tooth came out naturally, and had nothing to do with the chin bonk.

Lost Tooth!

Zoe lost her first tooth today. We are not quite sure how it happened.
I noticed that it was missing when we were eating lunch, taking
pictures of her sandwich sculptures. I found it under a chair in the
living room.

She bonked her chin on the end table yesterday, and I suspect that that
loosened it up, or maybe it came out right then. It looks fine and she
doesn't have any pain.

Winter Pictures

Hi all,

I thought that I would quickly post some pictures of all the snow and
ice that we have been having. Yesterday it warmed up and turned much of
the snow to slush: driving was a challenge, to say the least.

Sometimes...

This is exactly how I feel. Zoe and Zia are playing the piano. We are
listening to the radio on the computer, I am thinking about
woodworking, and cooking, and good news, no one (so far) has gone
crazy. Someday it will be quiet again.

-J

Trial post picture

This has been seen before by some of you. But, if you click on the photo, you can print it at Leo's (our local camera shop) and have it sent t you.

-J

Tweak

Dear god!

Please come over and have an espresso: I tweaked the blog to be more espresso colored (It isn't perfect, but we are working on it).

Mmmm espresso.

Happy New Year and New Blog!

Happy 2008 everyone!

We changed the template for this blog, and have added a new blog called Read read read at hsjazzreads.blogspot.com (see the link in the sidebar as well). It is going to serve as a book list for what we read this year, with some mini-reviews. The three of us that read chapter books (Zia doesn't quite have the patience yet) will be posting when we finish books.

Also, if the comics are too small, click on them to enlarge. If they are still too small, email us and we will try to get out something bigger.