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We just got home from our trip to Yosemite - tired, happy and filthy!

Read another Book

The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander

This novel takes place in Buenos Aires in the 1970s during Argentina's "dirty war." While I thought that parts of the book were interesting, I felt that it was uneven and skimmed the parts that just went on and on about the same thing.

Hal made it home from the Gordon Conference (science camp) in Rhode Island last night, and today we are packing up the tent trailer for our summer pilgrimage to Mecca, i.e. Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite.

Pictures to follow upon our return!

Book Cover

My mom has been working on writing her autobiography, and I told her that I would design the cover for her. So this is it. These are three of the parsonages where she lived in Nebraska and Kansas. So, when you're done with this book, Mom, what will your next project be?

Rabbit and Rogue

Last night Claire and I went to Orange Co. with her friend Kelsey and Kelsey's mom to see the American Ballet Theater perform Twyla Tharp's Rabbit and Rogue, a new dance set to music by Danny Elfman. I was glad to know that the dance would be accompanied by a live orchestra (the Pacific Symphony) rather than pre-recorded music. I had to say that during Rabbit and Rogue I was distracted by listening to the music, trying to figure out what Elfman was up to.

Skyspace

JoAnn and I went over to Pomona College yesterday evening to watch the Turrell Skyspace change colors under the twilight sky. Today I made a little video of pictures I took as the colors morphed with music that I am working on. Then I created a youtube account and uploaded my first video to the web! Click here to watch the 25-second video.

Summertime fun

This morning I used Photoshop Elements to play with some melted crayon art I did years ago at family camp. Here's what I came up with:

Monday Night in the Park

I forgot to take my camera, but I went to the Concert in the Park tonight. You will just have to imagine it. The band playing was The Answer - a cover band for all the good old classic rock. It was pretty cool how they project music videos of various songs (from YMCA to Hard Day's Night and Sweet Home Alabama) and play along, sounding pretty much just like the original band. They also had some pyrotechnics.

I enjoyed the show with JoAnn and the Archibald-Woodwards. The people sitting in front of us did not enjoy us talking and gave us the evil eye, but I didn't notice them until they left and JoAnn made a comment. Hey, it's a concert in the park, and it's Claremont's social time!

Life in Claremont on an August Sunday

Sunday morning at the Farmer's Market. There was a hawk in my neighbor's yard, again. Big George is the new horse statue at Harrison and Indian Hill Blvd.

Off to Rhode Island

Here's Hal getting on MetroLink just 15 minutes ago. He's riding to downtown LA, then catching the FlyAway bus to LAX where he'll jump a red-eye to Chicago, change planes and land in Providence, RI. Claire and I sent him off to a Gordon Conference, kind of like camp for scientists. He'll be home on Friday night.

I'm getting hungry

Although I had a hard time with the beginning of the book and the parts of the book where Gilbert's drama queen of indecision dominates the prose, I did enjoy reading about Italy, India and Indonesia (especially the food). Also enjoyable were the nuggets of wisdom from the various people Gilbert encountered during her year of healing.