Into book form!

Wow, I'm not sure if this is the epitome of familial navel gazing or the next best thing to having your own publisher, but Robbie found the Blogbook site the other day and I'm really psyched about it.

We were talking recently about how I journal about our family and post photos, but it's in an ephemeral medium. We were wishing we could convert it into some format we could keep but didn't want to have to work out all the details in Quark or some other program. Enter the Blogbook company! They connect to your blog, 'slurp' the content (Oh dear, what a regrettable choice of words) and once it's all into the program you can choose whatever format you'd like and voila! order your book to be delivered to your door.

The modern world is such a wonder sometimes. Now if I could just get my jetpack already! ;-)

A Studio Study

During our trip to Illinois we stopped to visit with my Dad, Ed, and his wife, Gale. My dad has worked for most of his adult life as a sculptor and my siblings and I would often hang out after school at his studio when we were young. Robbie and Riley both wanted to see his workplace, so he took us to see it.

His studio is functional before anything else, but it's also charming, sentimental and funny. Dad's Navy days and life in submarines are evident in his no-nonsense style of organization; there is nothing out of place and neither excess nor waste, but there's a lot of history there too. Hopefully these pictures will give a sense of the place.

Come on in!

After the initial design and maquette, a cut list is laid out on graph paper.

A component, cut from a large sheet of steel, hangs suspended by the crane.

Dad illustrating to Robbie where one side will attach.




Fasteners used when transporting completed works.




Grinding disks.



One of the shrine-like arrangements which are integrated among the practical elements.

Riley climbing the crane.

Our trip to Illinois

At long last, here are some photos from our recent trip to visit my family in Illinois! We had a great time and Riley managed the long drive really well, so we give it a double thumbs up.

Who's the King of the Hotel Lobby?
Riley!

A group family photo at my mom's house including all siblings and their respective families and significants.

The grandkids: Aaron, Riley, Abbey and Simon

My brother Scott and his girlfriend Dawn

My sister Reggie

I think you'll all recognize this person ;-)

Who knew how much entertainment value hand weights would hold for the youngsters. It's a wonder they could lift their arms at all the next day!

Abbey and Riley wearing bowler hats and playing a video game after dining with the family at a restaurant in Bloomington.

Robbie and Riley taking a rest while strolling around downtown Bloomington.

The Midwestern skyline is filled with hundreds of windmills. It's AMAZING. A point of reference regarding the scale of these things: The small, rectangular spot at the base of the closest windmill is a staircase leading up to a full sized door. Each individual blade is so long that it must be carried on an oversized tractor-trailer bed. Sadly we were not permitted to walk close enough to stand beneath a windmill, but even from the road it was super cool to see. Hooray for renewable energy!!

Power, power, power! All Free! With no pollution!
Windmills extend to the horizon.

Abbey riding in the car was a humongous hit.

A group photo including my dad, Ed, his wife Gale (top row, far right) my siblings and their families and my sister's husbands family.

After all the riding in the car and civilized visiting, a visit to the playground was in order.

While we visited with my dad and Gale Riley made fast friends with their sweet dog Guido.

Cuddling! Tooooo cute.
Riley misses Guido.



And finally, the Kay Banjo! I've been wanting to learn to play old-time style banjo and have been keeping my eyes open for an open-back banjo. (which has a plunky sound versus the plinky sound of a closed-back bluegrass style banjo) While we were in Bloomington we found a fabulous Kay banjo and Robbie got it for me as a birthday present. As you can see I'm not the only one interested in it. ;-) Are we the only ones who thought Kay was no longer producing instruments?

Fun and Games

Just a quick post--we're getting ready to go to Illinois, but I wanted to post some photos before we leave.

Check out this fabulous Chutes and Ladders game I found for $2.50 at the antique store. It's from '56 and has really great graphics.

Galoshes, boxers and mud. What a fine outfit!

Now why have *I* never thought of mopping in roller skates?!

We got a DVD player to use in the car and wow, is it ever a hit!

We took Riley to see his favorite movie, Willy Wonka, at the Alabama Theater. Can you imagine a better introduction to seeing movies on the big screen? You can see the humidity hanging in the air--it's definitely summer in the deep south.

The Alabama Theater is a grand old 'movie palace' from the 20's.
It's absolutely gorgeous inside and out.

This modest little room is the antechamber outside the restrooms. Wow!

What a shame.

Riley and I went on a stroller walk today, which in itself is remarkable, given that it's been many months since he'd tolerate sitting in the stroller, preferring instead to walk. Anyone who's 'walked' with a toddler knows that you don't do much walking. The adult gets to stand there tapping her foot while the toddler turns over every rock within reach to see if there are any interesting creatures underneath. It takes a hour to get up the block.

But anyway, today I suggested a stroller walk and he said sure, so off we went. While we were out we passed our nifty local business district and stopped to get an orange juice at the coffee shop. On our way back to the stroller we spied a lovely toy wooden sailboat in the antique store which was quite reasonably priced, so we got it. It's in fabulous shape and seems to me, given my utter ignorance of sailboats, quite well made. We brought it home and after some lunch and some minor adjustments to the boat we were off to sail it at Avondale park, the only place I know of in the city with a body of water.

We'd only been to Avondale park one time before, but today was a total wash. The park has a rich history, with fabulous stone work, a lovely rose garden and, of course, a pond (not to mention an elaborate stone amphitheater built into the side of a steep, boulder strewn hill) but the neighborhood on one side of the park has fallen on hard times and the beautiful park has an unsavory element to it now. While I'd have loved for Riley to have been free to trot where he chose and wade in to the water to play with his boat, that wasn't an option, so the whole trip ended up frustrating for both of us. I kept one eye on the young men talking loudly by the playground equipment and the other on Riley, who seemed determined to get into the water despite the fact that it was anything but clean. We had to nix the outing early and come home for a shower.

What a shame to see such a beautiful, extraordinary place like that given over to ne'er do wells. Robbie and I agreed that we need to scratch Avondale park off the list and find another place else for Riley to sail his little boat.

Look at this little beauty!

In Riley's mind the sensible thing to do was to wade in.
We need a pond with no glass in it.

A new week has begun

Robbie's gone out of town for the next two days. He doesn't have to travel much, especially compared to the amount his dad had to travel when Robbie was young, but it's still an adjustment each time he leaves. We miss him.

The light on Riley's shelf in his room. The shadows and reflections are really something.

Riley decided to make a mask out of a box.
This is The Grouchy side.

The Happy side.

Gratuitous cuteness

Recently Robbie and I have been cracking UP at the outfits that Riley puts together. Most of the time he doesn't really care what he wears, but on occasion he'll express a strong preference and yesterday I think he really outdid himself. He and Robbie were going to Home Depot and Riley decided he needed to wear his baseball outfit, bug rain boots and work gloves! And Thomas sunglasses, of course. ;-)

Wow, what a get-up!

We've crossed a new milestone: he's allowed to sit at my secretary and carefully look at my stuff. I'm not entirely comfortable with the arrangement, but he is very careful and puts everything back as he found it, so I guess it's alright. :-/

In entirely other news, Robbie and Riley saw a lost Australian Shepherd dog when they were at Home Depot yesterday. This morning we heard it was still there at closing time last night, so Riley and I went to find it today, but had no luck. We'll try again later. The folks who've seen it say it looks like it's waiting for someone to come back. :-( We don't need a dog, but we can't stand by when there's an innocent animal in need. At least we could help it find it's owner if it's lost, or if it needs a home we could find out what to do about that. Poor little creature.

New photos

We had some friends over on the 4th for homemade ice cream (peach!) and pot luck dinner and Riley had fun romping with his little pals. We got a bit of rain that afternoon, but that didn't dampen our fun a bit--the kids had a great time!

A bit of respite from the romping and rollicking.

On Saturday we received a clock that Robbie bought to replace one which we'd had high hopes for, but which has critical flaws in the chiming mechanism. The new clock is nearly identical to our original and is in excellent condition, considering that it's 90 something years old. At our house you will now hear, on the quarter, half and full hour, a beautiful, resonant chime. The quarter and half hours are brief chimes, but at the hour it plays a lovely Westminster melody.

I was always of the impression that the resonance of grandfather clocks came from the size of the cabinet, but I understand now that it's the way the chime rods are connected to the sound board of the clock which gives it the full sound. It's extremely cozy sounding.

Original clock on the left, new clock on the right.

Dad and Lad making repairs and adjustments.

And finally, how in the world have I made it this long and never read The Lorax by Dr Seuss? We borrowed it from the library and Robbie and I are both blown away by how timely the message is to our current ecological troubles. Greed, so-called 'progress', pollution, decimation of habitats, etc. Dr Seuss was trying to warn kids that we'll pay for our trashy ways back in the early '70's, but here we are still wrecking and ruining like there's no tomorrow. Sigh.

The fifth already!?

Wait, wasn't it just spring?

I don't know if it feels the same to you all, but for me it seems that once the 4th of July has come and gone the summer's nearly over. It's kind of hard to believe I'd even suggest that given that the heat has not *even* begun to hit its stride here in the south east, but I'm already hearing hints of when kids start back to school again. Weird. Was it my kid perspective or did summers last longer when I was young?