Rob left today

Rob has been here for a week and we've really enjoyed his being around.  It's been a quiet visit, as Rob arrived with a cold and needed some recuperation time (but he's a really nice guy and didn't leave it with us).  We've been out to choose our Christmas tree, we've played board games, and we had a lovely time as Deanne joined us for a few days.  He left this afternoon (the really unfair photo at the right shows him at the checkin kiosk in Cedar Rapids) and we hope he's having a good flight home as I write.  His freelancing seems to be going well and he's valued by the group he works with.  He is taking home some homemade butter cookies from a family recipe and with instructions to share them with Trista when he gets home.  He leaves a few traces like this toothpase tube that shows he inherited some of his father's cheapness!

First snow of the season

Last night Judy got an extra birthday gift -- the first snow of the season.  It's not a really heavy snow, but it came down slowly without a lot of wind so it sits lightly on every branch in the woods.  It's also a nice gift for our son Rob, who has always visited early in the year when we had lots of snow and he was able to go sledding.  Maybe we'll get in a run or two before he goes home!While the westher is beautiful, and while we really enjoyed seeing our daughter Deanne over the holiday weekend, we're glad she went home early yesterday and we're looking forward to seeing her again soon for Christmas.

Family Thanksgiving

We have so many things to be thankful for that one day just isn't enough time; every day Judy and I tell each other how fortunate we are.  But for Thanksgiving day, we had even more reasons to be thankful.  Deanne was with us from Chicago, Rob was with us from Sacramento, and Rick was with us ... from across town.  We weren't sure just how many people we'd have for dinner, though, so we had a 22 pound turkey for five people.  But it was a lovely day, from seeing an eagle flying over the house to cooking (Judy), carving (Steve), eating (the Young People), to pie and a movie.  We hope your day was wonderful too.

Amana artisans studio tour today

There was a tour of artisans' studios in the Amana Colonies this weekend, and Rick went with us today to look around. It was a lovely warm not-quite-fall day, and a great excuse to be out. There were a number of places on the tour, but -- this being the Amanas -- some of them weren't open on Sundays. We ended up visiting a glass studio (mostly layered glass), a tinsmith who was both making new objects and re-creating antique pieces, a broom and basket shop that had some wonderful art baskets, and a coppersmith who mostly made oversized insects and frogs-with-martini-glasses. I really didn't get it on that last one...

At the broom and basket shop we found this hard-working fellow connected to a windmill that kept him going. There was a large woodpile out behind the basket show, so he must have put in a very productive summer. Wind power for the worker, firewood for winter -- sounds like a localized solution to energy problems to me!

Anniversary

Today is our third anniversary -- and the first one that we've celebrated at home. Eurographics used to give us a reason to be in Europe, and our first two anniversaries were in Budapest and Prague. But home is good, very good.
The picture, taken this morning, is a very special anniversary plant that blooms each year around our anniversary time. Our friends Sousan Karimi and Mahesh Dodani sent us this lovely orchid as a wedding present. We keep it in the kitchen window, and each fall it sends out several flower stalks.

Coconut cream pie

This one's for Deanne, who loves coconut cream pie...

While we were in the Ozarks, we went into Branson one day and found a tea room that advertised "Coconut Gream Pie". We went in and saw that the coconut cream pie looked really good, so when we ordered we asked them to hold five pieces for us. The picture shows the table with the pieces of pie, and they were even better than they looked. Yummy! Deanne, we wish you'd been with us...As for my brothers going into a tea room, those are stories that stay within the family ;^}

Family weekend in the Ozarks

Last weekend we drove down to Table Rock Lake to have a visit with my siblings and their spouses. Driving down was interesting and we had to backtrack a couple of times to find the right roads. We loved the cultural ambience of the Ozarks, and one of our backtracks came when we missed a turn while admiring the local architecture.We very much enjoyed seeing everyone and catching up, and everyone was very glad to meet Judy. Here's the gang:Left to right: me, Phil and Marlene, Judy, Beth and Bob, and Andy. Phil, Andy, and Beth are my siblings, in decreasing age order. While there, we had to go to Silver Dollar City because it was one of our father's favorite places. They were having a bluegrass festival so we saw this Cajun group perform (bluegrass? Cajun? you figure it out...)Another day we rented a boat and went out for an afternoon on Table Rock Lake. We found some familiar waterbirds, like Ducks, out for a swim. We had seen a similar species in Washington DC, but their coloration was a little different.And here's a shot of the four siblings plus Judy out on the lake.

Rick's been visiting

Our son Rick on Steve's side has been here for the last week. He will be moving to Iowa in a couple of weeks, so he was looking for a job and an apartment. He found a nice apartment at a decent price, and he got some job leads but nothing firm yet. And he got a good dose of late winter weather, with snow, ice, and a thaw, all in a week. He even got some experience in driving on snow and ice. We certainly enjoyed his visit, and we're looking forward to soon being able to see him much more often!

Deanne's Teaching

Deanne Brown, our daughter on Judy's side, was with the Joffrey ballet company for ten years. She now is studying physical therapy and teaching dance when her studies permit. She's had several interesting teaching gigs, including teaching ballet to the Celine Dion dancers in Las Vegas. But last week she started a truly remarkable teaching assignment -- teaching ballet to Maria Tallchief's granddaughter. It's sort of like teaching Mario Andretti's grandson to drive. Congratulations, Deanne!

Let it snow...

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...


After our January thaw, it wasn't clear that we'd have snow for Rob to enjoy while he's here. Yesterday's photo shows that we certainly didn't have any then. But it snowed last night, not the big winter storm that was forecast but a couple of inches of nice, light powder -- and it got a lot colder. Rob and I went out walking this afternoon on the path behind the house (the one shown in the January thaw photos) and were out perhaps a half hour, walking about a mile but looking at tracks in the snow (rabbit, deer, people, dogs), the way the snow was blowing, and everything. It felt pretty cold, especially for a current Californian. If you look closely, you can see Rob's glasses behind the Cunningham tartan scarf...

Visiting Dignitary

Rob is visiting us here this week. He brought a bit of freelance work that occupied him most of the first day he was here, but today we got out to downtown Iowa City to have lunch at the Hamburg Inn #2 and stop by Prairie Lights Bookstore, two basic Iowa institutions. It's a local tradition that visiting dignitaries stop by the Hamburg Inn, so I insisted on having lunch there.

Flight delays

Ah, yes. the joys of an airport served by commuter airlines. Over 20 years flying out of Modesto, and now out of Cedar Rapids...

Rob came in this evening to visit for a few days. The day was sunny and EVERY flight from Chicago to Cedar Rapids was on time today -- except for the last one, the one that he was on. As CID goes it wasn't too bad, but it was about a half hour late. So he had a classical tradeoff: he took a bump from a flight that was on time and came in on the late flight, but he got a free ticket for his trouble. I think he found the tradeoff worthwhile, and we're glad he's here, even late.