Silver Bells: Twenty-Five Years of Marriage

A friend I've known through the SCA for over 30 years posted this on Facebook yesterday:

Homework assignment

I have a homework assignment (due today - how's that for late).

I need to have people list what they think a loving relationship (read committed relationship) needs to be successful.

My response probably got to her too late for her class, but here's what I wrote:

Tomorrow is my 25th Anniversary. I can tell you some of the things that have definitely helped me and Keith ("Gunwaldt," to some of those here):

generosity

patience

courtesy (we've always said "please" and "thank you")

If each person gives 50%, it won't work.
Each has to aim to give 80-100%

Today I'm going to be scanning, uploading and entering notes and images from our wedding 25 years ago. SandraDodd.com/wedding

That's Bad. No, that's good!

I have been accused of being someone who's never frustrated, or who never shares frustrations. I figured I'd share.

The wind is howling, and an outside trashcan had blown over, the inside bag fastened around the rim with encircling electrical tape) was out like a balloon and flapping loudly, so I decided to just bring it into the house until later. I bumped it on the door twice (it's 6:30 and people are sleeping) and felt bad about the noise, but the dog didn't come. My dog is getting old.

I wanted to make tea, but the sink is too full of dishes to get to the water. I could use water from the Britta-filter pitcher, but it's nearly empty, which isn't right; it doesn't work well that way, but someone else couldn't get to the sink last night, I guess.

The dishwasher is totally full of clean dishes (better than dirty), and the counter is too full to easily process the clean stuff.

At 5:30 when he was leaving for work, I asked Keith to pull the hot tub plug and put the hose to drain on one of the Arizona Cypress trees, before I knew how totally COLD it is outside, and windy, and the thought of messing with water to clean the tub is daunting.

Years back when I was in my 20's, all this could've been enough reason for me to hunt the dog down and wake her up just to make sure she's alive and well, to be really angry with every single person who hasn't done dishes, to tell Keith his idea about taping the bag to the outside trashcan is stupid, and to bang dishes around kinda hoping it would disturb some of those lazy people sleeping. I could have worked myself into a martyrly froth and cried self-righteous tears.

Now with decades of practice and maturity, I can write a self-righteous blog post instead.

Here's what's good about the imperfect morning:

There's no snow or rain with that wind, and our roof is stable and our windows don't rattle. Not a luxury house, but a serviceable, warm and solid house, at least where people are sleeping.

If the dog is old, at least she's asleep somewhere and is better off sleeping than having me make her feel guilty for not being up just because I'm up. She's got to sleep sometime. (If the dog has died in her sleep, no hurry for me to know; we don't have little kids who would be traumatized by being the discoverer. And I don't think she's dead, I'm just reporting my thoughts.)

It's trash day, Keith put the rolling dumpster and the recycling out last night. Good. Marty parked his jeep in the driveway instead of on the road; trash-day requirement; good.

I can drink V-8 juice instead of having tea. Good. Tea later.

My dishwasher works AND my sink drains, and we have hot water. There's no pressing deadline for getting those dishes done.

Also in the "good" column:
Keith is well enough to go to work, and even to take the motorcycle instead of the car. That makes him happy.
Holly had a long day yesterday, at a Teleflora workshop her #2 job paid for. She had fun; each participant got flowers to keep, and she stopped by and gave hers to a friend who broke his back in a car accident a couple of weeks ago; she's sleeping.
Marty had a long weekend housesitting, working, fighter practice, more working, and he's home asleep.
Brett-the-boyfriend had a weekend of working, computer failure, computer shopping and set-up, long WoW raid on new computer, guild problems, and he's sleeping.
I could be sleeping if I wanted to be (if I could sleep at will), because I don't have young children anymore. I'm healthy and walking well, which I might not appreciate as much as I do with memories of a broken leg once and a broken ankle another time, and I'm glad I have a hot tub that needs cleaning, and that needs to drain over 400 gallons of water; good for my trees!


There will be days in my future that involve worse than inconvenience and frustration, but rather than imagine those clearly, I'm trying to see the day I'm in now clearly. It's not so bad at all.

Here are recent images of the state of some of the plants in my yard. Hollyhocks, onions, a strawberry plant blooming, mulberry tree budding, vinca blooming and mint (not in that order).

Cat & Computer

I didn't notice Shadow, our skittish black cat, on the back of the couch when I sat down. She usually bolts when people come near, but she stayed and is letting me use her as a headrest.. She didn't leave during flash photos, either. Wow.

Nobody's awake but me. Marty stayed elsewhere. Keith was planning to go to the mountains to help clean up a camping site, but it snowed there yesterday and it will be too muddy, even if the snow melted.

Last night Holly and I saw Mama Mia from great seats, two seats over from Triaria and Samuel (Terry and whatever Samuel's real name is; maybe Sam ), and that was fun. The tickets were a gift from Holly's Brett. It was a very fun show, and we chatted with all our neighbors during intermission, speculating about what the holes are in the floor in the renovated theatre (Popejoy Hall). New seats, removeable covers on holes in the floor we figured finally (but not as excitingly) were ventilation/cooling. Holly bought a t-shirt, and I got her a lapel pin by donating to a fund for Broadway actors with HIV/AIDS.

Today my only plan is to work on web pages. That might not seem exciting to some people, but it is to me!

The lyrics game word today is "Pirate," and there are photos of Kirby and Marty dressed as pirates, and again years later, bigger boys, still dressing as pirates. Above that is Ashlee, Marty's girlfriend. There's Cyril Ritchard doing Hook's Waltz from Peter Pan (if you can see Youtube videos from where you are), and then there's one of the characters that created much of the pirate costuming ever after, Long John Silver (this one by Orr, in the 1930's, but there are other well-known illustrations), and then the singingest musical pirates ever: Ruth, Frederick and The Pirate King (portrayed here by Angela Lansbury, Rex Smith and Kevin Kline).

Ice & Fire

These little videos are from Friday morning (this morning, since I haven't gone to sleep, but "yesterday morning" to those who will read it after they wake up). Me, my back yard, stuff.



When I said "hot stove" I meant "hot tub," but there right there was a hot stove, so it wasn't "a mistake," but it wasn't the truth I meant to tell. :-)

TV art from Diana Jenner

Sent from Diana today, image named "Venice Beach":


The e-mail heading was: Subject: Cool TV art
and Diana wrote "Thought you'd like to stash this somewhere - a visual mantra :) "

I figured I'd stash it here where others can share it.


Tonight on TV I watched Ian McKellen play King Lear. That play is still baffling and depressing to me, but I watched it like taking medicine. I watched it dutifully, hoping it would make me a better literature-loving person, and a better Shakespeare-knower. It still didn't make much sense. But I still have a warm bed and a nice husband, and my children are honest with me and love me, so I don't mind that King Lear is still a crazy story.

I'm a guest blogger today

I want a hat like that:

Or maybe I need the helmet on the piñata.

I am a guest blogger today on a conservative blog. I'm glad to have been asked, but I don't think unschooling ideas will help the readers of that blog have a good day.

http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/2009/03/homeschooling-styles-unschooling.html

I'm the first of a series that will include Mary Hood on Relaxed Homeschooling, and other people about classical and Charlotte Mason. The blog owner writes about eclectic unschooling already, on her blog. I suppose there might be other styles described, eventually.

The emphases and some of the paragraph breaks are by the editor/blog owner. I sent it straight. I kinda like the artsiness of larger font size and italics and all, but they weren't my choices.

Note on the picture and comment up top here. Kirby had a favorite book when he was little, called "I Want a Hat Like That!" with Grover (from Sesame Street) wearing different hats and imagining himself to be different things (astronaut, cowboy, artist...) That's Marty, in the photo, at my birthday party a couple of years ago.

Four upcoming events, and two are in New Mexico!

I've spoken at conferences for a long time, and announced them in various places, but this is the first time I have a batch and HALF of them are in New Mexico! Very cool.

Here they are in order: Albuquerque, London, San Diego and Santa Fe

Here are some details (more details on some than others):

The UnConvention (unschooling will be just one part of this small conference) Late May or early June, 2009 Albuquerque, New Mexico Organizer: Lee Stranahan

London Unschooling Conference July 25, 2009 London, England Organizer: Rosie Speno

Good Vibrations Unschooling Conference September 10-13, 2009 San Diego, California Organizer: Flo Gascon

Sandra's Unschooling Symposium in Santa Fe January 6-8, 2010 Santa Fe, New Mexico Organizer: Sandra Dodd

"The Airways at 18"

I dissed Frank and offered to give him a shot at my opinions, but that was before I saw what I would have to work with. I could just concede that Frank's entitled to his overly-negative opinion of songs I like. And he can kick my butt verbally so I shouldn't have gotten into it. This list isn't good. I'm going to look for another one and then maybe just comment on some of both. This one's more like an essay test than a decent simple meme.

I didn't find a better list so I'll have to wade into this one. Frank, you win.

1. You've Got A Friend - James Taylor

Now here's the deal, I see. I wasn't listening to the radio. I was listening to albums. I had "Tapestry" by Carole King. I liked the song James Taylor's way too, but my Beatles fanatacism had caused me to think songwriters should own their own songs. I was also attached to John Hartford's banjo-accompanied version of "Gentle on my Mind" over the over-produced Glen Campbell hit.

2. Joy To The World - Three Dog Night

I had seen Three Dog Night in a gym in Santa Fe, when they were just about to get famous. That concert was lightly attended, but they were GREAT. I saw them again in 1971 in the now-gone Albuquerque Civic Auditorium. The crowd was too big, they couldn't hear themselves, the harmonies were off, girls were throwing underwear... no wonder they tore that building down later. Maybe it was 1970 when I saw them there.

3. Brown Sugar - Rolling Stones

I do love their "Made in the Shade" album, but it hadn't come out in 1971. And I wasn't listening to the radio much. I was playing Renaissance recorder music, and learning ever more English ballads.

4. Stairway To Heaven - Led Zeppelin

I didn't like slow stoner stuff much. I preferred acoustic stuff to electric, partly, perhaps, because I had recently broken up with my second-in-a-row lead-guitarist boyfriend and wanted to steer clear of things that reminded me of electric guitars and guys (never thought about that until today, but it's undoubtedly a factor).

5. Imagine - John Lennon

Yeah. It was inspiring, and I was susceptible, but I was also cranky with John Lennon for his self-absorption and for breaking up the Beatles.

6. Behind Blue Eyes - the Who

I wasn't paying attention. I heard it but it seemed like "guy music" to me. I listened to Tommy sometimes, but though I could have analytically identified what was great about The Who, the emotion wasn't there for me.

7. What's Going On - Marvin Gaye
8. Proud Mary - Ike and Tina Turner

I used to listen to KOMA out of Oklahoma City late at night in earlier years to hear motown and soul stuff, but by 1971 I was all acoustic guitars and lyrics and harmonies, and I wasn't much caring about these guys then, though I liked Tina Turner's solo stuff later.

9. Friends - Elton John

Never heard it, but I was listening to the album "Elton John" a lot, and that wasn't on it.

10. Maggie May - Rod Stewart

Rod Stewart's voice pains me, and I didn't want to look at him, and that song bugged me. Still, it's imprinted in my brain and I let it be there.

11. Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me) - The Temptations

I can listen to those guys painlessly. The song was there. I heard it and sometimes I still hear it. Wallpaperish.

12. Hot Pants - James Brown

Don't recall.

13. Love Her Madly - Doors

I wasn't a big Doors fan, but that one was decent.

14. Wild Horses - Rolling Stones

I WAS a big Stones fan, but this song is too slow to have been recorded. I don't like slow. I don't like draggy.

15. She's A Lady - Tom Jones

Eh. Mild irritation; I'd change the station but not yell about it. Tom Jones had a nice voice, but I didn't like the music he liked.

16. Black Magic Woman - Santana

In retrospect, this is my favorite song on this list. At the time, it would've been top five but not top. It has stood the test of time. I got no instructions with this to know whether retrospect is a good -spect. (The other night Holly was talking to me about the Beatles, and said retrospect was the only spect she had. )

17. River Deep-Mountain High - Supremes & Four Tops

Missed it, though I had liked both groups in earlier years.

18. Oye Como Va - Santana

I just knew it out of the corner of my ear then. Now it's a Donkey Konga song.

19. Revival (Love Is Everywhere) - The Allman Brothers Band

Didn't hear any Allman Brothers until I started hanging around with Keith six or seven years later.

20. Colour My World - Chicago

Too slow; too "arranged," though that arpeggio thing was interesting; it had flute, which always got my attention.

21. Truckin' - Grateful Dead

It was what it was. Stoner soundtrack. I was listening.

22. Immigrant Song - Led Zeppelin

Another accepted-in-retrospect thing. At the time I didn't want to hear them yelling at me.

23. Mr. Bojangles - Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

This is the stuff I was interested in then. Folky stuff. It had lots of lyrics, and I still like lyrics and harmonies more than anything else about music. And it had a guitar part I could play, and a cool chord progression.

24. Respect Yourself - The Staple Singers
25. Family Affair - Sly and the Family Stone

Missed them both. I liked the wilder Sly and the Family Stone stuff, the hippified stuff.

In 1971 I was listening to Crosby, Stills & Nash; Joni Mitchell; Carole King; Judy Collins; Cat Stevens; Jesus Christ, Superstar; Mason Williams; The Band; Arlo Guthrie; John Lennon (even though I was disappointed in him as a human being), but I was moving quickly toward more stuff like Julian Bream and Peter Pears (thanks in part to Dev Singh, who was my boyfriend then and knew lots of kinds of music I didn't know). The summer I turned 18 was not a good time in my life (except for letters from Dev, home in New Jersey for the summer), and that's probably why there's no sparkle in this accounting. I was still mostly hooked on The Beatles and Donovan, for my "oldies" listening. Buffalo Springfield and The Hollies. Eric Clapton and whomever all.

Mid-March Madness

Bo's art is finished and at the Random page.

Tomorrow I'm hosting an online chat about ideas, quotes and affirmations that help unschoolers be more the way they'd like to be. SandraDodd.com/chats/affirmations

Holly has two jobs now—a flower shop on Mondays (she worked seven hours on Monday) and Zumiez. Tonight she's at karaoke. I don't see her as much as I used to!

Marty is housesitting for a friend, and so I won't see him much for a few days.

I've worked in the yard a lot lately, but it's not the sort of thing that shows much. Rearranging of piles of branches, compost piles, wood, dirt... Keith knows, and I know, and my legs know and my hands are sore.

I've worked on webpages, and on plans for a symposium in Santa Fe in January, and done lots of laundry and listened to lots of music. I made a big pot of stroganoff and had friends over to eat, and made a pineapple upside down cake and sent 2/3 of it home with Bo to share with his basketball-playing buddies.

Keith is off at singing practice. I'm heating the hot tub for him. After many people in and out today, I'm home alone and it's cool and quiet and dark. Very, very nice. Now to read the e-mail I was too busy to read today!

New art in progress

Bo King is making a new elevator for the random-links page. He doesn't mind me sharing the draft bits he left here. There are some notes if you click those.

I sent a tumbleweed to Florida

http://familyrun.ning.com/profile/HeatherGreek

I'll come back and add a photo of it when it was here, and some comments, but for now, people might be able to go there and see the photos of it in Florida, IN the house, on the mantle. Yikes!

Contest Reminder, photo of monkeyplatter

I have a few entries and would love to have more by March 15. The things people see in those photos of monkeyplatters will likely go onto real kids' plates before long, and for years to come!

http://aboutunschooling.blogspot.com/2009/02/food-freedom-chat-and-contest.html

For prizes, I'm figuring first place gets to pick from a copy of Moving a Puddle, a set of Thinking Sticks, a Learn Nothing Day notebook, a bunch of morningglory seeds or mint plants (mailed ready for you to plant when it's warm enough where you are, or in a pot inside). Second place picks next, third place picks then, and I sell the other two things at prices exorbitant enough to cover the cost of the chatroom this month! (Also, I'm open to requests for chat times and topics. The next scheduled one is not until March 25.

Very tired, Holly, and three-things thing

Having a two-day conference in one day is very, very tiring. Now I know. I was exhausted. I've slept a LOT since dinner Saturday. It was a good conference, though (HENA, in Tempe) and Kirby Dodd was there! And getting to hug and smell he-who-was-once-my-only-baby is energizing.

It's Tuesday and I still don't feel recovered. Holly has a new job. Now she has two jobs. One is half job (unexpected) and half learning a craft (which is what I requested, and offered to pay for). So I offered to pay a flower shop near us to let her work there, or to train her. I gave them links to some of her online artsiness, and asked whether she could somehow hang out and maybe help with the Mother's Day/prom season. I didn't hear for a few days, and then just heard "I'll get back with you." On our way to Phoenix I talked to Keith and he said the owner had called, very enthusiastic. He told her to call on Monday, even though she had wanted to call us on the road.

So yesterday she called me, and then talked to Holly a while, and we walked over for a tour and Q&A session, and then back to take Holly's paperwork and copies of two forms of ID, and she'll be working for money on Monday afternoons, and going in to help and learn a few other times each week, at two different flower shops! One has a designer who's American and trained for a month (plus lots of on-the-job experience), and the other shop has an English designer who trained for a year. Both are willing to show Holly some of what they know, in exchange for her assistance. WOW! More than I expected.

She still is working at Zumiez, too. She's there right now. And then there's another possibility:

When we were in the Phoenix area, we went to visit an unschooling family that needs live-in help. They're thinking it might be helpful to have an unschooler rather than the professionals but not-unschoolers they've had. Holly is under consideration for that. It would start in June and go six months. How do I feel about my youngest possibly moving away? Depends whether I'm being selfish or not. Unselfishly, I see it as a great opportunity for her to learn and to stretch her wings. Selfishly? I might be cheated out of the last few months of her being 17, and when she comes home she'll be 18, and all "nanny nanny boo boo." (Oh, did I mention that my selfish feelings are all about my childish feelings?)

If she does go to Arizona for six months, it would be after the spring floral rush season, and Zumiez might want her back for Christmas rush, if she were to want to come home instead of staying there. (All if/if iffy on that situation.)

But enough about Holly. Here's some more about me! (Meme-thing from Frank, who got it from Ronnie:)

THREE NAMES I GO BY
1. SandraDodd (like it's all one word, since Kirby was little)
2. AElflaed of Duckford
3. Mom

THREE JOBS I HAVE HAD IN MY LIFE
1. English teacher
2. Office manager and trainer of data input people in ancient days
3. CEO/ED of a non-profit organization

THREE PLACES I HAVE LIVED
1. Fort Worth, Texas
2. Española, New Mexico
3. Albuquerque, New Mexico

THREE TV SHOWS THAT I WATCH
1. Desperate Housewives
2. Eli Stone (I hope I get to watch some more of that)
3. CBS Sunday Morning

THREE PLACES I HAVE BEEN
1. Bonfield, Ontario, Canada
2. England (mostly Cambridge and Kirk Ella)
3. Juarez, Mexico

THREE PLACES I WANT TO GO
1. San Francisco, with Holly maybe (she hasn't been; I have)
2. England again, in July, and maybe more if I get the chance!
3. Austin to see the house Kirby has moved into

THREE OF MY FAVORITE FOODS
1. potatoes
2. chicken
3. green chile chicken enchilada, egg over-easy on top

THINGS I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO
1. going to London in July
2. going to San Diego in September
3. the Symposium on Unschooling in Santa Fe in January (this is the first public mention of it)

THREE PETS THAT YOU HAVE OWNED
1. Rat (Biggie)
2. Dog (Awshoo, and others later)
3. Cats (Sam and Pippin, and others later)

THREE FAVORITE BANDS/ ARTISTS
1. The Beatles
2. Weird Al
3. Flight of the Conchords

THREE FAVORITE TEAMS TO WATCH (The teams I watch most frequently, not necessarily my favorite sports or teams per se)
1. Skating pairs (each pair's a team, I guess)
2. American Idol last ten or so (kind of a team, by that point; a cutthroat last-man-standing team)
3. Dallas Cowboys (I don't watch them much, but when I watch I think "Jeff thinks this is wonderful" and I try to understand why)

THREE FAVORITE DRINKS
1. Tea (hot or iced)
2. Dr Pepper
3. Chocolate milk made with Hershey's syrup and whole milk. Not skimmed down; not storebought chocolate milk.

If I get to visit Frank someday, I'd like to taste "Hot malt Ovaltine with a generous slug of Bailey's topped with a healthy goop of marshmallow cream."

If alcoholic drinks was the real question:
1. Margarita with more orange base than other citrus
2. a regular margarita
3. Bailey's

Memory (I think...)

Lately there have been discussions hither and yon about how to learn, how to remember, what's worth remembering and what isn't, how some people remember things and how others do and what might cause the differences. To paraphrase Hamlet, when he was standing in a hole full of memories:

Now get you to my lady’s chamber, and tell her, let her remember an inch thick, to this favour she must come.

This came in the e-mail a minute ago:

An elderly couple had dinner at another couple's house, and after eating, the wives left the table and went into the kitchen. The two gentlemen were talking, and one said, 'Last night we went out to a new restaurant and it was really great. I would recommend it very highly.'

The other man said, 'What is the name of the restaurant?'

The first man thought and thought and finally said, 'What is the name of that flower you give to someone you love? You know... The one that's red and has thorns.'

'Do you mean a rose?'

'Yes, that's the one,' replied the man. He then turned towards the kitchen and yelled, 'Rose, what's the name of that restaurant we went to last night?'

Office-HumorUK.co

"Where I'm From"

A mad/lib type meme from this template after reading Madeline's poem first.

I am from guitars, from Jello instant pudding and a yellow kitchen.

I am from the old adobe house at the lower end of Petra Lane...brown, rounded, cool to the touch.

I am from the apple trees, lilacs and rocks; the alfalfa, irises and sunsets.

I am from singing and talking, from Mary Lou Hathcock and Yates and Adams.

I am from the planting and the sharing.

From "We love you" and "Get your nose out of that book."

I am from hymn singing and no bad-words, from "women don't cut their hair," and "only savages poke holes in their bodies."

I'm from Texas and Texans (though I was by some fluke born in Georgia), from biscuits and gravy.

From the cotton picker's daughter who cared for her younger brothers in the shade of the wagon, the fried potatoes taken to school for lunch, and the fifteen year old Rotan boy who went to San Francisco to work in the shipyards early in WWII, and rode his motorcycle home to get his parents' signatures, to enlist at seventeen.

I am from cigar boxes and shoeboxes of saved papers with images of faces and words remembered and forgotten.

---

Okay. that was depressing.

It's not where I am now!

Bears and life and stuff

This is a photo of the inside of a "cubby" (cloth fort) at Tammy's house in Australia.



I was adding this and some other cubbies at SandraDodd.com/youngchildren and Holly mentioned the middle bear was like Kirby's bear. I think she's right:



In the past week I've thought about England every day, for hours if it were all counted together. I'm quietly excited about getting to be there in July. This will be my third trip to England and sometimes I wish I had figured out a way, years ago, to just go there and stay there.

Yesterday morning, though, in the midst of a headful of England, I walked out on the deck to feed the birds, and I smelled the air and I felt the sunshine and I thought there is no better place to be than New Mexico at this moment. And that is my problem. I love where I live. If that's the worst problem I ever have, WONDERFUL!

Kirby is moving this week, from an apartment with one roommate to a house with that roommate and two others. They've been packing things up and cleaning. The real move is Wednesday and Thursday, his days off. Friday he flies to Phoenix to be picked up by the Sorooshians. I ride out with Holly and Brett to have dinner with Brett's grandmother and then go to the hotel and see Kirby, Pam and Rosie.


Keith's mom has tumors on bones and other places, has gone through three courses of chemotherapy and decided no more. But this week she's having her right arm amputated, whether below or above the shoulder they won't know until they see. The bone just broke itself—a tumor just ate thought the bone. They put a plate in a few months back, but the bone on either side of that just went away.

Keith's back ruptured or bled out or hemorrhaged (I don't know the word for it—a pool of redness showed under the skin about the size of the palm of my hand, stayed red instead of turning bruise colors, and after a week or so turned to blisters). it happened when he was camping in Arizona on President's Birthday weekend. Instead of going to an emergency room he came home and went to the nearby clinic, figuring they could get him in for an MRI and a specialist. Things have dragged slowly on. He's in pain almost all the time, but he's crazily strong and has a high pain threshhold, so what would have taken another person down just slowed him up and put him into the kind of pain most other people want to be made unconscious about. After being with Keith for 30 years, I'm used to his reaction to injury. It's odd, but he can still move when others wouldn't be able to. He says "ouch" when others would black out.

Holly read in MySpace comments of people she worked with that all the Zumiez employees in New Mexico had been fired and replaced. It wasn't true, but there was truth in part. At the store where she works, six were fired and four were retained (one of whom was a very new hire). Holly was kept. So she's been working more than she had wanted to, and will need to reschedule a routine appointment with the doctor Monday. If we weren't going to the HENA conference, they would likely want her to work two or three of those days next weekend.

I read that someone wanted a tumbleweed, in Florida. I had a cardboard box I couldn't decide whether to keep or flatten. A tumbleweed came into our neighbor's yard and was right half in our front yard, and I picked it up thinking I'd shove it in the hot tub's wood-stove, and thought *maybe* it would fit in that box. It does. It's a little tight, but that might (might) keep it in better shape for the journey.

My nephew Elijah spent the night because he came to town to see a Mystic Roots show and left us copies of his CD.