Music Room Rug

Vista del Valle Elementary School is eyeing this rug in the 10X13' size for the music room. Ley Yeager, the principal, has opened an account for donations in order to purchase this. With shipping, it comes to $750. If you feel so moved, please make a tax-deductible donation in any amount. Make your check out to Vista del Valle Elementary School, and put Music Rug donation in the memo. Send the check to

Vista del Valle Elementary School

550 Vista Drive

Claremont, CA 91711

With this rug, students' note reading will take on a new dimension as they will be able to step on lines or in spaces to feel exactly where the notes go. They will learn about clefs, note durations, rests and other symbols, from Kindergarten through Sixth Grade. Kindergarteners will have a special space to sit. 3rd graders learning recorder and 4th-6th graders playing strings will play games to enhance their musical skills.

Not only that, but the dull, brown carpet will now be replaced by bright colors. With the budget cuts to education, something like this would never get purchased without help from many, many people. Vista is a Title One school which means that about 2/3 of our students receive free or reduced lunch and breakfast. Because our school is small - around 300 students, our PFA cannot raise the amount of funds that other schools in Claremont can.

Thank you for considering this great cause!

The Last Supper

It has been our tradition to go out to eat the night before either one of our daughters went off to a new semester in college. This is the first semester in 7 years where no one is an undergrad. However, Claire leaves tomorrow to move to Boston to seek her fortune, or at least enough to pay the rent and other bills, so we decided to go to dinner anyway.

We used to go to China Star, but the food got so bad that we started going to different places. Tonight's choice was our old Mexican food standby - Los Jarritos. I had a chile relleno burrito for the first time, and I'll have to say I really liked it!

You can read my music blog to learn about my viola audition today....

Baseball Trade?

So now that Manny Ramierez is leaving the Dodgers for the White Sox, my wish is to have Juan Pierre come back to the Dodgers from the Sox. But I don't think that is going to happen.

Pillars of the Earth

A few years ago, we read Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth, nearly 1,000 pages of an epic saga concerning the building of a cathedral in medieval England. The story gripped me (although I had to skim through the violent passages which were pretty graphic). Now a miniseries on Starz, 7 of 8 episodes have not only aired on tv, but are available to stream on Netflix.

One good thing about being able to watch this series is to remember what happened throughout the story. As usual, the book has many more details, but it seems that the character of the story rings true to me in the miniseries. Next weekend we will watch the final episode and that will help me remember how it ended.

Summer Ending - Sort Of

We've had some pretty hot weather this week after a deliciously cool summer. When it gets this hot, we get clouds like this over the mountains. This shot was taken at El Roble Intermediate School just before the last day of summer string camp.

Here are my summer string camp students - 14 in all from 5th-8th grade. Yesterday we performed the 6 pieces we have been working on for the past two weeks. The students were great, as all my string students are - easy to work with and fun to be around. School starts next week!

Retreat Planning

Last Friday, before it got so dang hot (it was 86 already by 9 a.m. today), a group of five women from church went on a little fact-finding mission. We are planning a women's retreat for January at the Glen Ivy Center. We strolled the grounds, examined the lodging and meeting rooms, and ended up with a fabulous salad luncheon in the dining room. This place is so restful and comfortable that none of us wanted to leave. It is going to be a wonderful time.

Another Blog to Follow

Today I draw your attention to a new blog I have listed in my "Blogs I Follow" on the left-hand side of this blog. God, Christ, and Other Mythological Beings: A Guide for the Befuddled started August 15 by my father, a retired religion professor.

Since retirement, Dad has been writing comic novels (check out his other website), but lately he has been thinking about the profession that fed, housed, and clothed our family for many years. Hence the website and a new, nonfiction book. His blog has a tab with his bio, for more information.

Gold Level

So. I rather like Starbucks coffee. It's been easy to support the chain since our daughter has worked there for 2 years. So, when we found out that you get some benefits from registering your card with them (free syrups and soy, free drink on your birthday), I registered a card in 2008. Since each purchase counts as one transaction, Hal got his own card so we'd each get credit for our own drinks.

Well. Starbucks came out with this "Gold Card" and to get it, you only need to buy 30 drinks on your registered card. Then you can get a free drink after every 15 purchases. I started complaining a bit about how if you get a card at some local coffee shop, you get a free drink after every 10 purchases, and that the gold card doesn't even come with a free drink.

My card actually came a few weeks ago (Hal's came yesterday) and it comes with your name and "cardmember since" date printed on it. It looks nice. But I have to stop complaining since it does actually come with a free drink coupon underneath the card.

Of Mice and Men

After a hot day yesterday, it was cool enough to have our book club potluck and discussion outside on our patio. Hal chose the book, Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, partly because he is a big Steinbeck fan, but also because he tried to outdo Bill by choosing the shortest book he could find. Bill likes his books short (not necessarily easy, though), and this one weighed in at 107 pages.

The discussion was thoughtful, and I think everyone liked the book, even if we had a variety of interpretations. One thing we noted was how much this novella sets up like a play. The action happens in four places, Steinbeck uses no inner dialogue with plenty of spoken dialogue.

Hal and I even watched the most recent movie after we finished reading it. I thought that this adaptation was very good. John Malkovich plays Lennie, Gary Sinise plays George and directs the film.

Millennium Triology - Part 2

A little light vacation indulgence. After reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, I delved into the second book of Stieg Larsson's triology, The Girl Who Played with Fire during our east coast trip. Equally violent as the first book, as well as introducing quite a few characters that I couldn't keep straight, the plot is basically a good mystery whose two main characters I enjoy reading about. I've had friends enjoy this book more than the third one, and some who've liked the third one better. I'll just have to read the next one to see for myself.