Day 2: Williamsburg

Parlor dancing at the Wythe House

Group at the Magazine


Playing a colonial game

Sketching at the Governor's Palace lawn

Day 1: Jamestown

We visited Jamestown Settlement, the Glasshouse and Historic Jamestowne.

With our guide Hugh outside a Powhatan hut

Inside the hut


Aboard the Susan Constant

Memorial to John Smith

Something to do with Rev. Hunt, a figure G was familiar with because of a book she'd read

Class Trip

G and I just got back from a week-long class trip to Virginia. It was a dense itinerary, so we got to do a lot. Lots of walking, lots of fun.

We stayed at the 4-H camp in Jamestown

G's bunk

The camp was on the James River

Click, Clack, Moo

G and some of her classmates presented a "Readers' Theatre" at the local library during Preschool Story Time today. They performed Click, Clack, Moo, Cows That Type, a story about some cows and chickens who demand electric blankets from a farmer by composing messages on a typewriter. Afterward they helped their audience make paper plate farm animals. Even if they hadn't had a blast, it got them out of school for two hours!



Narrator G with assorted disgruntled cows, chickens & ducks and the farmer

Girls & Women in Science

G, her science teacher and I attended Beloit College's "Girls & Women in Science" camp. It is a conference to encourage sixth grade girls to pursue science studies, show parents how to support them and provide teachers innovative ways to bring science to the classroom. The Beloit student organizers and presenters did a really nice job and it was a fun and informative two days.


Group shot!


G participates in the "Mayan Treasures" lab

Mrs. Meler & G at the poster presentation

Class of 2018?

Rvr Frnt Prprty w/Vue

Anyone interested in acquiring some river front property? Thanks to all the snow and rain, the local river has overrun its banks, headed into the adjacent marsh and joined our flooded marsh. A few more inches and it will come over the road ... then we'll be able to canoe into the neighbor's cow pasture!

The tree line on the horizon abuts the river, so it gives you an idea of how flooded everything is here

The Freshmaker

For her birthday, G got a tube that facilitates the Mentos-and-Diet-Coke stunt. We tried Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi. The Diet Pepsi worked better, most likely because the tube was screwed on tighter.

Blueberry Hill

My dad bought three blueberry plants, so Dan & G helped him plant them while we were there.

Other ActiWiities

We took the Wii along so that G & my parents could play with it. My mom Wii-bowled from her wheelchair (sorry, no photographic evidence of that!). My dad and G played several games, though tennis seemed to be their favorite.




Mike & G playing Wii tennis

Cake 4

Mini Chocolate Chip Cheesecakes

Wall of Sound

When I wasn't watching Cash Cab, I was downloading as many of my brother's non-essential CDs into iTunes as I could. (You can only imagine what the essential collection at his house looks like ...)



Sam Phillips anyone?

Packer Backers

Birthday Girl

Cash Cab

Don't ask me what rock I've been living under, but I'd never heard of the game show Cash Cab. My parents watch it, and I got totally hooked on it. (Fortunately for me, there was a Cash Cab marathon on one day). I may have to spend my next vacation in NYC, hailing cabs at Union Station or Columbia, so that the years and years of trivia stored in my head can finally be worth something!



Dan reenacting Cash Cab for me during a period of withdrawal

Spring Break

We spent G's 10-day Spring Break in PA with my folks. (We left a day early in order to get ahead of a winter storm ... turned out to be a good idea, since it dumped a foot of snow here.) While it was cooler there than we would have liked, there were flowers, green grass, budding trees and mostly blue skies.



The nice weather allowed G to stroll around the neighborhood with Nana & Pop-Pop

Equinox

It's not just the First Day of Spring ... it's the First Day of Bubbles!

Maike's favorite pastime

Early Birthday

G turns 12 over Spring Break, so she had a little birthday party with three friends today. Dan & I took them to paint pottery and then to dinner at Noodles & Co., a group favorite.

Painting pottery

The gang at Noodles (before the hot chili sauce and Rice Krispie treat experiment began)

Cake 3

Snickerdoodle Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting (for Grandpa's birthday)

Wii-Ha!

We've been trying to buy a Wii since the week after Christmas. We (foolishly, erroneously) thought that they'd be easy to get once the holidays were over. Finally yesterday, despite Daylight Savings Time and the fact that Dan was out of town, G & I went to stand in line in the cold before Best Buy opened to see if we could get one of the "minimum of 15" advertised in the Sunday flyer. (I keep reading that Wiis are big with senior citizens, but the only other people there matched the demographic of the Star Trek Convention I attended in 1994.) Fortunately the manager at the store was a decent sort ... as people lined up he'd come out and hand out tickets for a unit to be claimed before noon, so you could go and do something else until the store opened. We got ticket 12, which G took as A Sign, since she was getting it for her 12th birthday. I couldn't figure out how to hook it up, so we had to wait for Dan to get home this evening. G & I played tennis, bowling and boxing. What a blast! We are already planning the add-ons!

Spring ... Sprung?

We've had more than 80 inches of snow this winter and days on end of subzero temperatures. Despite cold weather, intermittant snow flurries and lots of the white stuff still around today, G & I saw three examples of what my dad proclaims the true harbinger of spring ... the dead skunk in the middle of the road. Sorry for those poor little critters, but hopeful that spring really is nigh!

Book 'Em

Today was G's school's Third Annual Scholastic Book Fair and Read-a-thon. The kids really look forward to this event because they get to dress in pjs, bring bean bags/sleeping bags/chairs and spend the whole day reading. Plus they can browse and buy books. I co-chair this with another mom, and while it's a lot of work, it's worth it. We raised enough money to buy a Promethean Interactive Board for the school and our library is going to get more than $500 in free books. Thanks to all of G's sponsors!

G browses the book fair

Reading one of the 10 books she purchased

Cake 2

G looks forward to March because it's a big birthday month here, and therefore filled with opportunities to make cakes.

Dan turned something north of 40 today. We made his favorite, Swiss steak, and had a little party with his dad. I got him a book that answers his fall-back question: WWMD? (What Would MacGyver Do?) Then he and G went to the pool to do a few laps.

Making a Deeply Chocolate Almond Cake

Adding the Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Birthday boy & pal

Cake 1

Maike turned nine this weekend. As the Swiss say, "Three years a young dog, three years a good dog, three years an old dog, and everything else is a gift from God."

Alpo Prime Rib Chophouse cake with Medium Milk Bone frosting

Birthday pup & pal

lolcats

It escapes me when, but G and I discovered the Web site "lolcats" (see link to the right). For those of you not familiar with it, people make up captions in broken English for pictures of cats and other animals. There are running gags about cats in search of cheeseburgers, monorail cats, the Ceiling Cat, a walrus with a missing bucket and smart-aleck sharks, just to name a few. G and I find them highly amusing and check the site every couple of days; the humor is lost on Dan, who does not find strange syntax and spelling funny. We haven't posted to the site yet, but G has come up with a few that she'd like to. A sampling:

Laptop

Wish I'd had one to ease the agita of homework ...

Never Too Late

My dad has always been big on reunions and keeping up with people. The Internet has allowed him to get in touch with friends he's lost touch with, even if it has been 30 or 40 years. He's told me several times that "it's never too late." I was fortunate this week when Cindy, a high school friend whose wedding I was in, found me, serendipitously aided by someone we both didn't connect each other with (see Don Version 2.0 at right). Now I know Dad is absolutely right. It's only too late if you miss your chance.

"Swim" Party

G's swim team had a sledding party this afternoon. Almost too many daredevil stunts for my heart to handle, but everyone had a great time and no one ended up in the ER.

Sometimes the downhill trip was a success ...


... and sometimes it wasn't!

D takes a group down

D & G race a swim mom down the hill

Snow Train

Guess who organized this ...

Eclipse

Last night at 7:30 p.m. it was a beautiful, clear night for viewing the total lunar eclipse. It was also minus 3 degrees! Luckily for us, the moon came up directly east of our picture window, so we had front row seats without having to go outside and freeze our noogies off.

G uses binoculars to watch the lunar eclipse from her Papasan

Cupid's Wish