Last night we watched the recently released on DVD Up in the Air. I have to say that we really enjoyed it - from the views of midwestern cities from the airplane, to the acting and writing, to the story (which had a few surprises). 
When we went off to Chicago for sabbatical in 2007, we gave our second car to Liesl for college graduation. Upon returning to Claremont, we decided to see if we needed a second car, and we found our solution. zipcar. When one joins zipcar through a college and pays $35/year for membership, you can rent a car for $7/hour. There are about 8 cars a 5-minute walk from our house, and while Hal was off umpiring this afternoon, I picked up a car for 1 1/2 hours to go teach a class. Perfect.
.jpg)
This morning, my paternal grandmother, Stella Wiebe, passed on at the age of 94. Growing up, we would spend several weeks in the summers visiting Gramma and Grampa in Aberdeen, Idaho. Gramma would knit us slippers every year, make the best homemade chicken noodle soup and peppernuts as well as anything she made to eat. She and Grampa owned and ran The Villager, a clothing store with western wear, and we would receive great things from that store for Christmases and birthdays. Grampa passed on when I was 13.
Here is what it looks like after they are finished. I wish they would clean up after themselves! I haven't seen as many squirrels running around our block in the past few days since the tangerines are gone.
Next Wednesday our book club will discuss Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson, translated from Norwegian. The sparse language reminds me of the film Babette's Feast (set in Denmark). Because the narration moves freely between past and present (the narrator looks back on a pivotal summer of his youth while in his older age), it is somewhat hard to follow. However, the characters are interesting enough, the language haunting enough, for me to want to go back and reread this. I might choose it for the other book club to give me the excuse to do that.
This morning one of my cute 1st graders showed me this page of music that she wrote. I was so happy that she gave it to me that I hung it up on the wall for all to see and admire.
It was a concert weekend for the Claremont Concert Orchestra at Garrison Theater. On the program: Weber's Overture to Der Freischutz, Weber's Clarinet Concerto and Beethoven's 6th Symphony. Thanks to Pat for this picture from a past concert.
