New Entertainment

In our search for a new tv series to watch, Hal and I have finally stumbled on 30 Rock. We started watching them instantly on Netflix and after watching 6 episodes at one time, we have now finished season one and the first three episodes of season 2. Once we finish that season, we can catch up online with season 3. This is one series that is best seen from the beginning. I started watching it a month or so ago, but I think I'll enjoy new episodes more now that I understand what's going on.

Happy wedding day to my niece, Jenny and her fiance, James!

Orffing and Socializing

Today was the day for Claremont music teachers to get inspired for the new year! I am a member of the American Orff Schulwerk Society where I have borrowing privileges for the video library. I thought that if I borrowed three videos, I should share them with friends, so this is what we did. Jody offered her house, we brought salads to share and watched some truly inspirational teaching. We will definitely have to do this again sometime!

Good Day to be Outside

As soon as Liesl left, the weather in Claremont decided to be wonderful. It's sunny and in the 60s today. Therefore, my neighbor kids are out in the front yard. They are not playing with Christmas toys, however. Keeping them totally occupied is a pile of wood scraps (like blocks) and some wood glue. Samantha is in 3rd grade, and the twins, Owen and Elliot, are four.

Reading Up a Storm

Liesl and I now share a favorite author, Haruki Murakami. I first read Kafka on the Shore and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle earlier this year. Yesterday I stared A Wild Sheep Chase which I finished just now. It's hard to define Murakami's style, although I like to say it has magical realism. Other critics say "postmodern" and "fantasy", although it is not the type of fantasy one might associate with alternative universes or dragons.

I took this picture with Photo Booth - a Mac application that Hal gave me a few days ago.

Another Book

Because I enjoyed Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake so much, I was excited to find her newest book, Unaccustomed Earth, on the library bookshelf last week. Although I prefer novels to short stories, I particularly enjoyed these, especially with Lahiri's writing style. Although, I do wonder sometimes if she knows of any people who have mostly happy relationships.

Boxing Day

Yay for the sun today! After a very wet, gray Christmas, the storm moved on, and we were treated with a beautiful view of the snow-covered mountains. Hal, Liesl and I took a walk up to the Botanical Gardens this afternoon. We each had a camera and had fun practicing with our macros.

Christmas in Claremont

Christmas Dinner


Skyping Claire and Kelsey


Liesl and her new backpacking pack

Christmas Eve Hike

It was supposed to rain all day today, but the storm seems to have slowed down, so we took advantage of the weather and took the 5-mile loop at the Claremont Wilderness Park. Here we are at the summit. We wish Claire could have popped over for the holiday....

More pictures are here.

Memory Lane

Liesl and I have been reminiscing today. First we watched The Grinch and Charlie Brown's Christmas (Rudolph is tomorrow), then we went through some of her old school work. She wanted me to scan some of the funnier stories, and here is one where she nearly predicts her future. If she had known about neuroscience in first grade, perhaps her teaching topic would have included neurons.

Readin' Time

Being home on winter break means I get more time to read. The rainy day gave me even more reason to curl up and finish Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood - my first Atwood novel. My mom brought me this book at Thanksgiving and said that her book club had plenty to discuss about this book. This dystopian novel is dark and is said to be the sequel to her Handmaid's Tale which used to be required reading for Harvey Mudd freshmen.

Family Portrait

Here is our most recent family portrait. Claire is in her room in London, and Hal, Liesl and I are in the small box in the lower left-hand corner of the screen. (Actually, we are in my study.)

This morning was the performance of Handel's Messiah in church (I played viola).

This afternoon is quiet time at home, especially quiet when Liesl went visiting Sarah and Gaby for a few hours.

Saturday before Christmas

On today's agenda:

• Morning rehearsal for tomorrow's church performance of The Messiah
• Errands with Liesl and Hal (including the 99-cent store)
• Playing music with Liesl - piano and string duets
• Eating Pad Thai that Hal will make for dinner
• Watching some Project Runway
• A little yard work
• Visiting JoAnn
  

All Happiness

Last night my Vista Beginning Strings and Orchestra performed at the annual Winter Sing. Look at all these happy faces. I am happy because I am on vacation! I am also happy because Liesl made it here last night, and now the holidays can begin!

JibJabbin' Elves

I just created an elf dance at JibJab.  I used pictures of Hal, Liesl, Claire and me from when we were about 9 years old.

Chemistry Study Break

When you put a group of chemistry students in a room during finals with cookies and frosting, these are some of their creations.

It's that time of year

Children are very hard to teach this time of year. That is all.

Facebook

I like to change my profile picture on Facebook occasionally. A photo from 1975 received more comments than any other photo I've posted. My sweet cousin, Lisa, told me that I look like an angel in that one. (Ha!) My friend, Dick, color-edited it and removed a line that was going through my head.

I decided that I needed an updated version of that photo, so Hal took the other one yesterday before I went to play in the orchestra concert. In the new photo, I am holding a viola, not a violin. But the organ is the same!

Journey to Bethlehem

Every year our church has a "Journey to Bethlehem". Various church members (many, many children) portray various roles, including angels and shepherds. The Baby Jesus is usually the child born closest to October 1st. This year we have twins - Emma and Ethan. A little conundrum. So, this year we told the story of Elizabeth and her son, John. One of the baby's mothers was Elizabeth who carried Emma up the aisle as John, and the other mother portrayed Mary with Ethan as Jesus.

The video clip shows our children's choir - the Carillon Choir.

I'll Take a Pass

Trolling on our merry way this morning for our Saturday constitutional to Starbucks, we waved to JoAnn in her kitchen window as she was baking, baking, baking. On the way home we noticed a familiar face on her doorstep. Here they are, together.

Christmas Newsletter 2008

Reflection

Since October I have been filling a spot for a few months on the Board of Mission and Social Action at church. Tonight we have a meeting, and I am in charge of an opening devotion. Of course, I have put off finding a pearl of wisdom until this morning, but I think I found something. It is from the book Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith by Diana Butler Bass.

As we look ahead to Lenten programs at church, we may be discussing this book on Thursday nights. Today I just skimmed it, but I think it will provide the basis of good discussion for how we might move forward in our church, or how our visioning process of the past several years might be realized.

Sunrise, Sunset

Last year about this time, I posted in my evanstonsabbatical blog about the small amount of daylight at this time of year. Here in Claremont today, the sun rose at 6:45 and set at 4:41. That's about 10 hours of daylight, about 1 more hour than Evanston, IL had today. Though I do not ever wish time away, I WILL be glad when the 21st rolls around and we can start lengthening the daylight hours again.

30 Years...

Here is the HMC Chemistry Dept. at the Panda Inn. Tonight we celebrated Bill's 30 years of service to the school. The food was very good and the conversation lively. My fortune said that good luck would come my way at the next full moon. (Does that mean I won't see students then? They are always little rascals during the full moon.)

'Tis the Season

It's the time of year to get my beginning strings at Vista into gear for their first performance - Jingle Bells at our Winter Sing next week. We will play it twice - once with pizzicato (plucking), once with the bow. They are a little nervous, but they'll do great. There is safety in numbers, and we have 19 beginners!

Second Sunday of Advent

It's December, and Advent, so Sundays seem to fill up with activities very quickly. First thing on my agenda today was giving blood for a friend of mine who is going through treatment and surgery for mutiple myeloma. However, the donation person said that since I had been to Belize this year, I was unable to donate right now. I'll have to wait until I've been back in the states for one year.

Second Sunday of Advent means Advent Workshop at church - a place to go make crafts for Christmas. I volunteered to man a table, and I was assigned the treat cans.


Last on the agenda was a string quartet concert given by my friends, the Lemonwood Quartet. This is the group I played substitute viola for this summer. In the concert, Chris (first violin) put together a powerpoint slideshow to help illuminate the various musical themes. She used photos from her trip to Austria, and I found the whole experience quit enjoyable.

Sweat Equity

Hal and I spent an hour this morning battling photosynthesis. It may win yet, but the war is not over. Here are the before and after pictures of tearing down the dead honeysuckle. We need a few more weeks to complete the project since we only have one green recycling bin.

See the full green bin and Hal working on pruning the Santa Rosa plum tree. I asked him to make it shorter so we have a better chance of reaching the plums next June. It's good to have one tall person in the family (and a ladder, too).

Friday deserves some cuteness

I heard about this on an NPR podcast this week. Check out this adorable puppy cam. If the puppies are sleeping or outside (and the web cam is off), you can click on some of the past footage. Very cute!

Book Club Book

Burro Genius is a memoir by Victor Villasenor about growing up on a ranch near Oceanside, California in the 1950s. There are several things about this book that I hope we discuss at book club next week. One is the intertwining of the Indian beliefs of Victor's grandmother and Catholicism. Another is what lessons you learn from your family about life.

Photo on the Web

Last night I heard a message from the Botanical Garden on my answering machine. Ann in visitor services found this blog and saw the pictures I had posted from last week's visit. They would like to post this particular photo on the new version of their website (forthcoming). Scroll down and click on the second comment on last Friday's entry.

A Happy Sound

Today I made the kindergarteners giggle with glee. I played the Trepak from Nutcracker, and in the accented parts, we splayed open our hands as though flicking paint on the wall. They were enjoying that so much that we added a little jump when we did that.

Click and Enjoy

I have been listening to "This I Believe" on NPR, and last week's was my most favorite one. It's called "Singing: The Key to a Long Life."

Sunset tonight

Comfort Book

Ahhhhh. What a pure pleasure and comfort to read the latest book in Alexander McCall Smith's Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. I don't read these books for the plot so much as I read them for the characters and their common sensibilities. Charming and delightful.

Fall in the Garden

Hal's idea of fun is to get up really early on a vacation day and go umpire girls fastpitch softball all day long. Today my idea of fun was to walk through the Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden and take pictures. Check out more pictures at my Picasa Site (these are for you, Rosemary!).

Peppernuts, Part 3!

Today was the time-consuming peppernut day. My mom and I started baking these spice cookies around 3:00 and were finished just after 6:00. I pulled the frozen snakes out of the freezer two at a time and cut them into small pieces, then Mom placed them on the cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes and slide the next cookie sheet into the oven. Now they have to sit out overnight to dry, and then tomorrow they go in tins and sit for several weeks to season. You can't really taste all the spices (and especially the anise) until they are good and hard.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A lovely Thanksgiving today. My mom and dad are here, and we were joined by Dick and Kathy Olson for a relaxing and fun time. This is our first Thanksgiving without either daughter at home, which is a little strange, but we managed!

Orchestra Happiness

My little orchestra at Vista has 6 players, the smallest group I've ever had. Last week I decided that my two beginning cellists at Vista were ready to join us, especially since the music has mostly open strings for them. They came to rehearsal today and did great, with smiles on their faces. I also bragged about them to the rest of the orchestra telling them that I chose Sarah and Grace since they were some of my beginners who actually practice!

We will be ready to play for the Winter Sing next month - yay!

Milestone

Yesterday was Hal's birthday! We had sandwiches from Saca's, Greek Salad and Cheery Pie. My folks arrived from Colorado in time to share with us.

p.s. yes, the cherry pie WAS cheery! (thanks, Rosemary... ; ) )

When the Weather is News

I was surprised to look at my blog just now and see that it reports a temperature of 38. It is not that cold! Weather.com says that it's 65, and I can believe that. But the exciting thing is that we may actually get rain tomorrow night!

Thanksgiving Sunday

Today is a busy, fun day. We had our annual Thanksgiving dinner at church after the service which was delicious, as usual.

This afternoon Hal and I put in some sweat equity into the yard. I was designated "wood nymph" (which meant that I raked leaves), and Hal was the "planter guy" who moved some of the manzanita plants from the parkway across to the front yard, and replaced them with tall grasses.  With the new gutters, we are all ready for the rain which may come this week.

We also had a lovely 90-minute skype with Claire. She loves London and is having a marvelous time. Today she went to one of the Tate Museums.

Now we are getting ready to go to book club to discuss Ann Patchett's Run. Since it is set in Boston, we are bringing clam chowder. Now that the weather is cooler, soup is good.

Peppernuts, Part 2

This afternoon I was ready for the second stage of peppernut production. I took the dough out of the frig (to make room for Thanksgiving....) and rolled spoonfuls on a floured countertop, placing the "snakes" onto waxed paper in layers. Now they are resting and freezing in the freezer, waiting for baking day.

Gutters

We are now ready for the rainy season (should it decide to come) with our snazzy new green gutters!

Genealogy Find

My friend, Kathy, is big into genealogy, and today she came over to show me some stuff on the internet. With her help, I was able to dig up the WW I draft registration card of my mother's grandfather. Here it is!

My childhood hero

Here I am with Peter Yarrow. That's right, from Peter, Paul and Mary. He was in Claremont singing and signing books. All I have to say is that he is as warm and wonderful in person as you might expect him to be. After this photo I got a big kiss on my cheek!

Fall Harvest

These are probably all the persimmons we'll get this year from our tree. There are a few more on the branches, but they're being used as bird food.

Good news

I received a package of information today about Claire's spring semester in Arezzo, Italy at the Accademia dell'Arte. Amidst all the forms (health, roommates, etc) are the dates of her spring break. The great news is that her break will coincide with the week we plan on visiting her in mid-March! That makes our plans to visit her about 100 times more exciting!

Also, you MUST see the video of my cousin's 6-year-old daughter on her blog.  Drama Queen!

Summer Weekend in November

Temps are in the upper 80s and low 90s this weekend, and the fires are burning all around, but it's pretty calm and clear here in Claremont. We are in desperate need of rain here.

I have been trying to imagine a tile backsplash in our kitchen, not quite sure what I wanted. Until yesterday. Hal and I went to see Bill and Sandy's new tile work in their kitchen, and I love their backsplash (seen here). I think this is what we want in ours!