DC Trip

We had a great 4-day 5 night trip to Washington DC. We stayed in Arlington VA just across the river and had easy access to Reagan Airport and the metro via the hotel shuttle. Mt. Vernon, Old Town Alexandria, Capital visit to chambers, National Gallery of art, Museum of American History, Air & Space Museum, Washington, WWII, Vietnam, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Jefferson Monuments, Georgetown, and the Naval history museum.

Great weather and the tail end of the cherry blossoms!

HAWK vs PIGEON

In Washington DC. just after we got off the metro at the George Washington University stop, we sat down to check our map. A large hawk swooped down and pinned a pigeon to the sidewalk. A few minutes later it flew up into a tree carrying the pigeon, and then flew off to enjoy a meal I suppose. That was the extent of any urban violence we witnessed.

Terrific Trip to Tennessee

Joel plays alto sax in his junior recital, accompanied by Michael. He also played one piece on soprano sax. Wonderful music, superbly played.
Caleb Hall, also a junior music major, shared the recital with Joel. The final number featured both of them, along with three other friends, in a jazz combo.
Joel's saxophone professor, Dr. Brenda Moye. She told us how much she likes working with Joel and how she really looks up to him. :)
The next evening, after Michael and Joel were done with classes and rehearsals, we drove to Chattanooga to a disc golf course called "The Sinks". The guys played until after dark, barely able to see the final holes.

Everyone scored a birdie on this hole. Amazing!

The weather was beautiful so Tom, Carol, and Austin drove about a half hour to the Cherokee National Forest and found a hiking trail. Austin's experimenting with his new camera.

Lee University Jazz Ensemble in concert. Michael on piano, Joel on lead tenor.

With professor/mentor/jazz musician extraordinaire Alan Wyatt. He and his wife, who also is on the Lee music faculty, invited all of us for dinner at their home.

Pigeons in Chicago

Since we are talking about wildlife, I thought I'd show off the pigeons that have built/are building a nest on our porch. Scare the daylights out of me each time I step outside... not beautiful pictures, but neither are the birds.

In other news it sounds like Anders and I are going to be spending our summer in Antioch up on the family compound. We've been working over at his grandparents remodeling his late Aunt Evelyn's apartment the past few months. Everything is about done except the kitchen at this point. Our plan is to try to live there, Anders has already started a garden to feed a small army. I have applied to work at a nearby YMCA camp with his sister Lissy, hopefully they will accept me. If not there are always children that need a nanny. More news as we figure it out!

Chickadees in Tennessee

Here are some pictures of the next-door Chickadees in TN!

easter jazz

Joel and I played usually play jazz with some cats (just kidding, no one actually uses that word anymore) on Thursday night. This past Thursday, we were at a faculty member's house where they were hosting a student function. We were going to play at the student union like we usually do, but we decided there would probably be no one there. So we went to where the people were. Here are a couple of photos from our photog friend. If you cant see the photos, you can visit the photographers website: http://shashankji.tumblr.com/archive/2010/4

Swim Season

Darren had a great high school swim season. He focused on the 200 and 500 Freestyle events this year and finished up going to High School Sections where he had a 6th place overall in the 200 and 3rd in the 500 - breaking through the 5:00 minute barrier to swim his personal best 4:58.63 in finals. He missed qualifying for the state meet by just .5 sec.

our boys

Finley's a really happy baby with some wild hair...he's learned to crawl, so that mean's making the house baby proof again. Keegan likes the computer games...even Freeverse solitaire...welcome another lefty!

Michael Land, guest recitalist at JC

Here he is in action. Five of us from Prentice Landing were there to enjoy Michael's recital at Jamestown College last Thursday. He played a challenging program very well, and the audience, including college students and faculty, Grandma's friends, relatives from Kulm, and various other music lovers, was impressed. A favorite moment for some in the crowd was when Michael "pounded" on the piano for the percussive effect indicated by composer Piazolla in his "Tango Suite". Some reported that piano professor Dr. William Wojnar (not able to be present) would have been very concerned for the beloved Steinway.

A reception was provided by Grandma Edie, and Austin and Jeff poured the lemonade and water. Wow, those things they are learning in college!
After his brilliant performance, Michael had a big hug for his hairdresser. She hasn't had much practice doing ponytails on her children's hair, but the "do" seemed to hold up for the occasion.

BIGLOO MEETS THE BIG THAW

Well, the large pile of snow in our back yard is but a hollow shell of it's former greatness.

Other than a few hold-outs in the shadows on the north side of houses, the snow is about gone in Bloomington. Over 50 last Saturday and 60+ today.

I was tempted to sit in it for a photo, but it's pretty soggy in there.

New stairway

My latest home project was to replace our stairway to the basement. We'd remodeled the kitchen at the top of stairs and basement below, but the steps themselves were a sorry sight. And once I had everything ripped up, why not add some beadboard to the walls and a boot nook just inside the door? We also reconfigured the landing from a precarious wedge shaped step to a full landing. Here's some before and after pics. Of course Keegan enjoyed "helping" and we even found some coal under the old stairway.

hawaii

Anders and I finally got to go to Hawaii for our belated honeymoon. It was excellent to get away from winter for a week in February! We spent a significant amount of time hiking, at the beach, at the pool, and eating fresh fish!

One of the non-highlights was the non-tsunami. We had to spend the day evacuated to a local baseball field where we anticipated a 2 centimeter "wave". I was mostly glad that the island wasn't wiped out and we got to enjoy the rest of our time there.

We didn't take very many pictures but here are a few:
Tree Tunnel Road: a 3 mile road completely lined by Eucalyptus trees- making a tree tunnel
Hiking Wiamea Canyon at Koke'e state park
Anders and I at the Botanical Garden, where they grow every house plant you have ever seen

silly boy

This is a silly video of Julie and Keegan singing something ad lib...or is it dramatic poetry reading? Apparently, creative minds think alike. Believe it or not, he really has quite an understandable vocabulary. Just turned 3 this month.

VIKINGS! #1 YEAH BABY

I can't tell you how excited I am that the Vikings are going to be playing this Sunday in the Super Bowl. The above picture was taken right after the Vikings kicked the winning field goal at the end of regulation. What a thrilling game...........................



Okay, this is what we actually looked like after the Vikings tore our hearts out:



We're done mourning now though. Back to the real world. Joel will be cutting his mullet soon. He's become the sight to see on campus. He really ha

new job + new apartment = not sure yet

It has been a busy week for us. My friend Rox got me a job at a software company called Infor. They do descriptive things like "technology solutions" so I am still waiting to find out what kind of place it is. I have a temporary position doing some kind of data-entry full time. Rox has been working there for a few months, and the report is that it is really boring but it's a job and it pays decent. I think I start later this week, although I will be going in tomorrow to do some paperwork.
I will start working downtown so we decided we needed to be closer and moved back to the city. We're living a few blocks away from North Park, so the same neighborhood we've always lived in, more or less. We found a very spacious 1 bedroom apartment that is only a 3 month sublease. Because I don't know how long my job will last this will be a good option. So we are unpacking all of our wedding gifts for the first time (hooray) and figuring out the ins and outs of a new place. Anders will continue to do some building work for his uncle in addition to working on remodeling part of his grandparents house.

Interesting things so far:
-I think that our kitchen cabinets were put in in the 1950s. They are metal and really funky and the drawers need some WD40.
-We live a block away from a 24-hour Mexican bakery. This means they make fresh bread every hour, and it's 10cents a loaf. mmmmmmmm it smells so good in there.
-Previous owner left her couch for us, it is the ugliest southwestern couch imaginable.

Waterskiing Music

This is part of my experiment with online music marketing. Most of you have heard the BLST Anthem that Jeff wrote last summer. I uploaded it to the music site iTunes where it can be purchased ffor $.99. Admittedly this is not going to appeal to a mass-market audience, but for $10 upfront cost I got it on iTunes and we'll see where it goes.

I am posting on some of the busier water ski online forums to see if I can generate interest and some downloads. Maybe even generate some income? (70% of sales go to the artist) Posting a link to Blogger was one of the options with this audio preview so I am trying that.

I've gotten some downloads or at least a listen and comment from a few pro waterskiers and the editor of WaterSki magazine. It is a pretty small community really ...and I have my connections.

Eskimos