Progress

We have a frame, roof and walls! We have two sides painted. It's starting to look normal. Been a long road.

I came up here on Tuesday and stopped to see Grandma for lunch (and a short nap). Been keeping myself busy around the house mostly, but last night went to see Tom Paxton play at the Guthrie Center. He had
some choice things to say about Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and company.

Mary's back to work and has a week under her belt. Students start on Monday. She'll be teaching students from four grades. Lots of planning. Joe has gone back to work for Chemonics and has a trip to the Mideast planned. We spoke with Annie a few times and she has lots of job prospects and is looking at taking Chinese classes. Margaret continues to work long hours.

We saw Peter at Grandma's. Janet and Johanna were out getting ready for their big trip to San Diego.

Up here the nights are cool and the days gloriously sunny and temperate. Days pass quickly, probably because they're shorter!

Been a fun summer for baseball (for me and Reds fans). What would I do with this Iphone if I wasn't following baseball?

Hope you all are thriving. Love.

Annie's in China

And we're home. We hustled home in order to see Annie off. After the airport check-in problem of having a 90 day visa and no ticket leaving China within that period, we're glad we did come back. But we got an e-mail yesterday morning saying she had arrived, exhausted.

It was a few days of drama as Joe heard from AID that they won't be hiring until 2011. He had hoped to start in November. Then Margaret's office was evacuated after an electrical fire and explosion yesterday morning. We think it was connected with a big storm in the morning. She has a day off today.

We got home Sunday evening after a straight-through drive from Dundee. Happy to report that all is well there. We went to Bill and Jen's for an evening on their pontoon boat and a glimpse of their new puppies (like Mac and Sandy).

The highlight for one of us was a visit to Wrigley Field and spectacular seats a few rows from the Cincinnati on deck circle. The Reds tries hard to give the game away on the 9th but pulled out a squeaker. Thank you Andrew!

We drove up to Pittsfield yesterday and stopped in to see Grandma. We had lunch and then pushed off for an easy drive in comparison with what we've been used to the last couple of weeks.

Lots of progress on the house but we'll save photos for later. This one is at Mi Rancho in Silver Spring for Annie's farewell. Love!

Summer reading

Stopped on the way back to read my favorite book at Carleton College. Did you know they have a children's book collection in the library? We did and it has a plaque with Grandma's name on it.

Scenic views

Or more scary driving. This photo from the Going to the Sky road in Glacier park. Thanks to federal stimulus money they are repairing the road. Unfortunately for me they weren't hiring. My dream job is to spend every day on the side of a cliff in an excavator.

We spent one night in the park, getting the last campsite available, after getting shut out the day before.

We bought bear spray and went to a bear ranger talk before going on a hike guided by a park ranger who also had bear spray. She was worried Mary was going to spray her. We saw a chipmunk that didn't stand a
chance.

The Move (The Sequel)

Saturday was Johanna's moving day, and all four of us pitched in.  We put some of Johanna's stuff into storage, picked up some stuff out of storage, picked up a large rental truck with a very bouncy suspension, packed up stuff at home, drove into the city, packed up all of her stuff in the old apartment, drove three blocks to the new apartment, and with no small help from her new roommate (who, we are all ecstatic to report, is normal, as these things go).  Sean came downtown to help out, thank, you.  The weather wasn't bad, warm but not hot or humid.  Kudos to Johanna for being all organized and packed and ready to go.  The new apartment is roomy, quiet – and having a normal roommate helps.  However, the apartment is a fifth floor walk-up, which made things a little tough.  We all were tired by the time it was over, but anything for that Gothic Horror Story on Orchard Street to end.  The new roommate is Kirsten Solberg, whom Johanna roomed with in London and who was also an intern at McCarter a couple years ago.  Did I mention she is normal?

119 Ludlow Street, Apt 5R
New York, NY 10002