Sunday at Franklins

Hey, so today (this afternoon) a bunch of us were at the Franklins' for a little talk by Erik Panikian about the eucharist ( views of Torrance et al) and food and chat. Mostly is was the "college" Sunday School folks. It was great to see people there (we were: the Franklin's of course, TerryNelsons, Terry sisters, Ruberos, Aaron S and Aaron B, S & S Broyles, Leah & Scott (the Steiger folks) and Baird and me. Too bad it rained all morning so it was too wet to hold the event outside but we got to enjoy Glen's garden a bit afterwards.

This AM I went and dug up the plants in the sidewalk boarder garden at Fairview. It was raining (good for the plants/bad for me). This eve Baird and I went to get them and bring them home. I dropped a bunch off at Glen's though (a big clump of hosta, all the day lilies, the iris, the perennial geraniums and 2 astilbes.) Hopefully he will get to plant them soon b/c they are not planted to withstand a long delay.

So in less than 2 weeks Jess and Ben will be home! Yipee!!! Tomorrow AM I go fill out paper work for an apartment. Hopefully it will go thru so that can be all settled.

Ya never know.........

So, ya never know what's going to happen next. Today we moved the stuff OUT of Jess and Ben's new rental house (we had moved a van full in already and were planning to move more IN today). So why OUT, you ask? Well, they had an arrangement with the home owner, an elderly lady, whose "needs" apparently have changed since May and she no longer wanted to "share" the living room, dining room and kitchen, as agreed on the lease, and.... things got real sketchy. So, when the opportunity came to "agree" to nullify the lease, Ben and Jess said : "Get us out of it and get our money back!" Which I did. Meanhwile, I had thought I was cleaning the place for Ben and Jess but it turns out instead I had voluteered about 30 hours to help an elderly lady clean her place for the next boarders. Oh well, I guess if someone in her situation had asked me if I could possibly help them clean up after messy former tennants in prep for new ones, I probably would have said, yes, ... even if it wasn't my kids moving in.

I AM going tomorrow AM, though, and taking my plants back (that is kind of a pain but she is not a gardener and would let them die so....)

Everyone seems relieved more than anything else, and thankful to not find this "issue" out after moving everything in and school had begun. But there are a few unanswered things now...like..where will they live in 2 weeks?? Hmmmmmmmmm........

Baird and I looked at another place for Ben and Jess today....a townhouse condo, lots of room, nice location... so we'll see if they "get accepted." Above, is the view from the patio of the POSSIBLE new place....

Man 'o man...the rental market is really competitive here, especially right now with school beginning in a month!! I called 18 places to find one we would even consider liveable and that was still available.

So, here's hoping and praying this one works out somehow!! I'll let ya know.

Hummin' Along in Shute-Ho

Not much new here I guess. I've just been hummin' along. I have been putting some time into getting Ben and Jess's new rental house ready for their return in a couple of weeks. The elderly lady who owns it had a pretty big project there after the last renters left and so I have been helping clean etc. Aaron also tore out a "wet wall" in the kitchen for her, exposing yucky mildew and a leak from the upstairs bathroom. The leak now is apparently repaired & it is drying out. Aaron will replace the wall next week.

Today is Ben's 22 BD. He and Jess entered the 24 Hour Film Challenge at the Milwukee Art Museum. Their film was chosen as one of the one's to be screened tonight so they are over there for his BD. Quite a fun and unusual BD! I can't wait to see the film. I think we'll get a projector and have a screening here at the house when they get home.

Baird went to NYC Tues-Weds. He visited his friend Matt, met a couple of artists, did some photography and filming. Cool stuff. Ask him when you see him :-) That's it from here......

TerryNelson shindig

Had a great time at the TerryNelson shindig tonight! It was fun to blend some worlds and introduce a few people to each other, as well as meet some new folks. Tom Fisher and wife Clara Jo were there (my God's Politics, Laos connection) and I introduced them to Ian (and at my urging they had recently met Chris as well). Then, I met the Steiger Ministry couple, Leah and Scott. She went to Amherst High and ...Yale Divinity and he is doing his PhD on Barth. They are members at Grace and are doing some cool stuff around the Valley. They met a bunch of us folks and the Fishers for the first time. Loeschers were there and I got to talk to them about Laos (now they know I am on the Board) and introduced them to Fishers and the Steiger folks. Ron was on the original Laos board, for years and Leah;s mom is on the Board now... so that was cool. Anneli's Dad was there too and Aaron and he talked about film and Baird and he talked about maps and such. Looks like Baird will be getting some cool maps on CD from him. Everyone was asking about Jess and Ben and look forward to them coming home :-). That includes Josh and Carrie and Andrew who were there too! The gathering was a very interesting coming together of several Christian realms and was quite exciting for me .....a glimpse of things to come perhaps??????

The Connecticut Trip Earlier Today

Little Alison (almost 3) my grand niece (?) was a lot of fun to have around. She is very talkative and creative. Lindsay and Steve were also there today.

Baird & Lewis

Baird & Lewis had a good time talking computer talk, & about Ancient Rome and various languages Lewis is studying on his own these days.

Nana and Lewis

The party today was a celebration of Lewis's completion of the 2 year program at The Porter & Chester Institute ( in computer tech) and Nana's 82 Birthday. Here the 2 of them are.

Nana's Childhood Home

Photos from our Connecticut Trip

These photos are of the house where Nana grew up in Winsted,CT and which her parents owned from the early 1900's until her mother died, when I was a child (early 1960's). They raised their 10 kids here, through the Depression and all. Nana also lived here while my dad was in WWII, in the Philippines, with her mother and my brother (then a toddler), and Nana's sister and her baby. The house fell into disrepair in recent years but recently someone bought it and is renovating it.

Off for the Day

Woke up at 6:15 AM to one of our cell phones beeping due to a low battery UGH! Oh well,I needed to get up by 7AM anyway.
B and I are headed out to the Berkshires to pick up Nana B and then down to CT to Linda's for Nana B's 82 BD party and Lewis's graduation celebration, too. Then back up to NoHo for the TerryNelson open house...BIG day. Lots of driving..but at least the car has good AC. Maybe there will be some time to blog and post photos tonight...if not..then tomorrow. Have a fine day everyone!

Phoenix Nixed

Hey, so I am glad that Jess and Ben nixed Phoenix and went to Whitewater. Yeah, it's been hot in WI but I heard this story on WRNX today and Googled it...here's what I found on the web about the Phoenix heat this week alone:

From Phoenix, AZ
The Valley's deadly heat wave continued to claim more lives as the metropolitan area recorded yet another scorching high on Thursday. The latest deaths occurred Wednesday night when a transient was found dead in Phoenix and a 97-year-old Mesa man died in his bedroom. However, the monsoon season finally has arrived and officials hope it will put an end to the number of heat-related deaths, mostly among the homeless, that began Saturday and ratcheted up every day until Thursday.

Still, day after day of such extreme heat takes a cumulative toll on the body and the damage can't be undone overnight, said Jeff Taylor of the Phoenix Rescue Mission, which has opened its campus during the day to give refuge to the homeless.
"When you're out in the heat, once you're thirsty, you can't catch up. Your body needs time to come back," Taylor said. "It's going to be at least another couple of days. They're in bad shape."

No new deaths were reported Thursday. But, by then, 20 people in the Valley - 14 of them homeless - had died from the heat. In all of last year in Maricopa County, 21 people died from heat exposure.

Thursday's high was an above-average 111 degrees that nearly eclipsed the record 112 set in 1927. Today's high is expected to reach 108, capping more than a week of searing temperatures that prompted heat advisories and excessive-heat warnings. At night, temperatures haven't dipped below the low 90s.

BeDe Backgrounds

Tonight I wanted to paint, so I painted about 30 BeDe cards with background colors: gold, blue and /or orange in swirls and dots or blotted with saran wrap or smudged with paper towels. Nice start. Now...what to make of them...hmmmmmm...another day...time to rest now.

Cool Running Hot Summer

cool running=decent movie
a family favorite.
hot summer + nights
= Scott on common
+ shark tales
with fishB8?
no way-
night sessions
run cool
in hot lot
at east gate
of academy of MA

Back From Visiting

I am now back from visiting Nana and Connie. Aaron came with me this trip. It was Aaron's first time to the nursing home, where Connie now resides. Connie seems a bit more "with it" and a bit less depressed than he was at the hospital over the last month. But, his spinal abcess contiunes to cause too much pain for him to sit or walk so he has now been confined to bed for over 2 months. He's lost quite a bit of weight. His kids have looked into a homeopathic medicine that is derived from oregano. It is a lotion, drops and pill combination 3 times per day (with meals). They started him on it today. Might as well try it; traditional western medicine seems to have no real hopes for getting rid of that nasty abcess. Nana seems pretty good. She, Aaron and I all went out to Paul's Restaurant for dinner. Her 82 birthday is this coming Friday, 7/22/05. I need to call my sibs and seeif we can all go over and tkae her to dinner or something.
That's the update form Shute-ho for today.

Saturday: Fairview Work Day

So today turned out to be a work day at Jess and Ben's new house in Amherst. We are trying to get it looking a bit more appealing before they come home. :-) Baird and I headed down there mid morning with the intention of spending a couple of hours doing the much needed lawn and yard work . After a few fiasco situations...such as the lawn mower leaking gas all over the driveway....we did get the yard pretty well cleaned up. Baird mowed (with a neighbor's mower in the end) and weed wacked while I dug up grass, planted about 3 dozen little day lilies (dug from my garden at home early this AM) and raked. The neighbor LOVED the new look of the place. That was encouraging. I called the landlady in CT and talked to her about the lawn mower and told her we cleaned up, planted some flowers, etc. She seemed delighted to have people who acutally care about the place. In the end, we got home in time to make dinner and crash. Now we are listening to the band Garbage, on the TV. Interesting........

Time Stamp

Ok...at Ben's request I have re-set my time stamp to America-New York (instead of just EST, which kept switching back to pacific for some odd reason). Let's see if it stays put this time :-)

Views from Madison Wisconsin

Jess and Ben on the plaza in Madison that overlooks Manona Lake. Convention Center/patio design was by Frank Lloyd Wright but was built fairly recently.

On Friday we went over to Milwaukee and checked out the Historic Third Ward, cool shops and ate at a great Milwaukee Ale House on the canal. This is a view of the canal walkway near the Ale House.

This shows some of the gold leafing detail on the Thai Pavilion.

This is the Thai Pavillion and garden at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison. The Thai government donated this to the University who in turn, asked the botanical gardens to place it there. Nine Thai artisans came to erect it. It took them 3 weeks to put it together (origianly it was made in Thailand and was disassembled to ship it). It is covered in intricate patterns of gold leaf.... amazing!

This is another part of the Olbrich Gardens. It is the reflecting pool.

On Saturday afternoon we went to Spring Green, WI and had a 2 hour tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's home there, Taliesin. This is just one small part, at the entry way and entry garden. It is over 25,000 sqare feet...huge, sprawling and very unique. The original building goes back to 1911. He was way ahead of his time in many ways. He was also quite eccentric....that's putting it mildly.

Many famous people were entertained at this home. He also owned about 5000 of the surrounding acres (his family was from this town). The Taliesin foundation curently owns about 500 acres. It is very beautiful.

This is a side view of Taliesin and shows the bird walk that FLW built for his wife.

Capitol Building in Madison

This is the state capitol building in Madison. It was art fair weekend July 8-10, so all the artist booths were lining the wide walkways and road up to the capitol. Art booths also went all the way around the capitol building. It was amazing!

Greetings from Whitewater

Here we are....in Whitewater WI. It is great seeing Jet and Beno again after 5 weeks. They are touring us around their Summer 2005 home away from home. On Thursday, when we arrived in Chicago, Baird and I got in our Avis mobile (a brand new Grand Am) and went into Oak Park. It was really fun to walk around that neighborhood and see the Frank Lloyd Wright Houses, as well as many wonderfully renvoated non FLW, Victorians.

Once we got to Whitewater, we had dinner: delicious grilled brat. and corn on the cob with Jess and Ben on the deck of her professor's houe, where they/we are now house sitting. Then we did a tour of Whitewater. This place is a pretty neat little town (pop around 14,000) Great park on the lake in town.

Then, yesterday, Friday we relaxd in the AM while Jess & Ben worked and ate another great meal on the deck here: grilled salmon (the real stuff!), ceasar salar and fresh aspargras...hmmmmm..

After a brief swim in the pool, we drove off to Milwaukee. It is much nicer than I expected; lots of urban renewal of old factories and warehouses in the Historic Third District. There is a huge Summerfest going on right now...largest festival in the country. We did not go into the lakeside park where it is held but there were tons of people headed there. We checked out shops: a large antique place, a huge paper store, a tile, kithchen & bath design store and a large furniture store that seemed like it was right out of Met Home magazine..... Then we ate at the Milwaukee Ale House, on the deck, overlooking the canal. The canal area has been all done over recently with a boardwalk and garden areas. Very nice!

So, today is Saturday and soon we are off to Madison (Farmer's Market) and then to Taliesin for our afternooon tour. Yipee!!!

Lots of photos....but no time right now to put them on the blog. Later........

Off to the Wilds of WI

In about 6 hours we will be packing the car and headed for the airport. I'm hoping the long term parking stuff all goes OK..it is a new feature to our traveling.. and it will be early, early AM at Bradley.... but the web and phone message both say 24hour service so...here's hoping. If not,our car may be abandoned at the nearby McDonalds and we may hitch hike to the terminal...or something.

Can't believe the departure day is finally here...I must go finish the laundry and pack...and perhaps sleep a couple of hours????

Off to the land of cows, cheese, Frank Lloyd Wright and...for the time being: Jet and Beno. :-0

33 hours 'til departure

In about 33 hours Baird and I will leave Bradley Airport for Chicago and then drive to Whitewater!! Yipee! The weather looks good, tho hot.... sunny or partly cloudy and 80-87 degrees... for the days we will be there. I think we will be glad for the use of a pool most days!

News from Dalton is that Connie was moved back to the same nursing home he was in last month, only this time he is on the second floor with people who need more care, like himself. His overall condition has not changed much -- still a lot of pain if he moves much and some days he's pretty groggy and disoriented. Other days he's a little clearer. Nana seems OK...pretty sad tho.... not sure what to do next. After our trip to WI, I will begin pursuing the emergency housing status and see where that leads.

Well, time to do some dreaded paper work and look over the packing situation.

ttfn.........

Sarah and Alec's Wedding

Yesterday, Saturday, July 2, 2005, was Sarah and Alec Nelson's wedding. The event was held at the 88 acre estate of her aunt and uncle in the northeast corner of CT (the quiet corner). The location rivals Martha's place.... it was beautiful. Both the ceremony and reception were wonderful. It was difficult to capture the essence in photos but I took quite a few anyway and will put a few on this blog. If you didn't receive a link to snapfish via email, and would like to receive it, just let me know. There are no photos of the fireworks tho...I hadn't mastered that skill on my new digital yet.

Panama Baird

Panama Baird
Originally uploaded by csoules.

Baird as an ice cold sith outside his Panama City casino

Carol & Baird 7/2/05

Carol & Baird 7/2/05
Originally uploaded by csoules.

Here we are... the handsome couple :-)

Carol & Alec

Carol & Alec
Originally uploaded by csoules.

Alec & I having a bit of fun. I bought these black polka dot sunglasses to wear, because it was Alec's wedding.... it seemed fitting. Everyone loved them.

The property

The property
Originally uploaded by csoules.

View of the pond from the top of the hill where the house and "barns" are. The wedding took place off to the left near a large tree.The fireworks were later set off from the stone wall below.

Bride's mother's toast

Bride's mother's toast
Originally uploaded by csoules.

Toast time at Alice's Barn, where the cake was and later the dancing.

Sarah & Alec: First Dance

Sarah & Alec: First Dance
Originally uploaded by csoules.

Sarah and Alec dance together in Alice's barn - one of several outbuildings that were used during the day.

Brother of the groom: Chris aka Gooby

Brother of the groom: Chris aka Gooby
Originally uploaded by csoules.

Chris cuts loose :-)

Anneli & Aaron

Anneli & Aaron
Originally uploaded by csoules.

Full Tilt played and Anneli and Aaron were among the many who enjoyed dancing.

Whoa! It's Sunday AM already!!

Just got back from Alec and Sarh Nelson's wedding in the quiet corner of CT. Very nice gig at a place that rivals Martha Stewarts! More tomorrow on my blog...plus lots of photos.

got to sleep now.... zzzzzzzzzzz

NYC Trip

Yesterday, June 29, 2005, Baird and I went to NYC with Dave Thom and Baird's niece, Andrea Schmidt. Baird, Dave and I went to hear an author speak at the Colony Club: Lauren Winner. She was speaking as part of a program called Socrates in the City. We left Amherst in the early AM and spent a few hours in SoHo and Greenwich Village. These first photos are art related shots. I took over 70 shots altogether and will post more another time. But..this will get you started.