Family hurricanes?

Here's the list of names for 2006 tropical storms in the Atlantic/Caribbean/Gulf of Mexico:
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/current-names.htm

Interestingly, several of our family members are listed there. Wonder what that signifies....

The inclusion of Kirk and Leslie is interesting, too, since Kirk, a coworker of mine, and his wife, Leslie, are planning a hurricane-season vacation in Cancun.

A poem from Chloe

"hello from school"

school
unusual
megalomaniacal
miserly
evilly weird people
rainy
high spots
idiotic boys
laughter

MJ has been published!! (link updated)

You can check out a small sample of MJ's brilliant writing here:
http://www.neopets.com/art/storytell.phtml?issue=275

Look for the one by death_angel1510.

(For those who don't know, Neopets is just about the coolest Web site there is. You adopt from one to four neopets, then play games to earn neopoints. You can save your points in the bank, or spend them in thousands of user-run stores on millions of fun virtual items. It's a great place for shopaholics. Also, you can run your own store and conquer the retail mysteries of supply and demand, or build a home, or visit the trading post, or explore all the imaginative lands of Neopia. I'm quite addicted.)

BD41

We have big plans for tonight: a midnight showing of X-Men 3. Should be great fun and terribly intellectually stimulating.

This weekend, MJ is headed over to Grand Coulee with Grandma and Papa for an annual Canonica gathering. So Frank and I will have an empty nest. Should be great fun and terribly intellectually stimulating. :-)

News from Chloe: We're hearing from her MUCH more regularly now, mostly via IM conversations. It helps a lot. After a bout of homesickness, she seems to be settling in. They are playing a lot of D&D, and she seems to be enjoying that. She's started taking horseback riding lessons, learning to ride English from the English, and she's really enjoying her chemistry class. The kids are starting up a school-wide game called "Cold War," with two teams each having a secret general, lieutenants-in-the-know, other officers and "I work for a living" sergeants (like Jerry!), a whole lot of privates, and a few spies. The game organizers assign rank, so there is evidently a fair amount of bribery going on right now. There's a lot of maneuvering involved, but the primary object of the game is to figure out who the other team's general is.

I think that's about it for news this week. I wish my American readers a safe and festive Memorial Day Weekend (and everybody else a safe and festive regular weekend).

Interactive N.O. flood map

This is pretty interesting. It shows the progress of the flooding during/after Katrina. The L made by the Industrial Canal and the MRGO/ICW out to Lake Borgne is the route we ultimately took to get out of Lake Pontchartrain. Marty's and Chrissy's neighborhoods are just off the map to the left, Judy's place is north of Lake Pontchartrain. Chalmette is where Lori and Jerry grew up; their grandparents' house there was totaled.

With explanatory text but you have to click through it:
http://www.nola.com/katrina/graphics/flashflood.swf

Continuous animation, no explanatory text:
http://www.nola.com/katrina/graphics/continuous.swf

A few words from Chloe -- UPDATED 5/13

And I do mean a few!

"hello, i'm fine. having a good time. everybody is nice and all. love you."

But it's something....

5/13 UPDATE: We got another e-mail this morning! She says she's been too busy to read e-mail, but that there's a lot of "nothing" happening. And she wore out the batteries in her camera, so maybe we'll get to see photos someday.

MJ and Ollie at the Nordstroms

Here are a few photos from MJ's recent trip to deliver Ollie-the-mini to his new Nordstrom-owned digs on the Olympic Peninsula.

Ollie and MJ in the SUV

Ollie hiding from the donkeys in his new enclosure

Ollie having a walk on the beach

Random details -- with 5/11 updates!!

The name of the volleyball team is Hot Sauce. Their uniforms (t-shirts) are red.

No foal yet. This may mean bad news. They're going to do an ultrasound and see.
Update: The foal is alive! Ultrasound indicates he's got a couple more weeks to "cook."

No word from Chloe yet. This probably means good news. I'm calling her tomorrow to be sure.
Update: No one is answering the kids' phone at Summerhill, so I have left a message for and sent an e-mail to her houseparent. I also put a Howler (scolding) into snail-mail yesterday -- I know Chloe will read that!

Mezza is completely recovered from her surgery, and her hair is growing back in. Man, did I ever say that the lump was benign? Well, it was. Yay!

We are totally hooked on House, M.D. We recommend renting the DVDs for the first season and having a House marathon. Great cinema!

Beta software is the bane of my existence. (Tough day at work today.)

Frank got our fence rebuilt! It blew down in a windstorm a while back.

I miss Jaffa Cakes!! (Ah -- turns out the ones I *really* love are McVities Jaffa Cake Bars. Looks like I can get a 5-pack on eBay for about $14. Or maybe not.)

More England photos, by request

In town


Phones near Picadilly Circus


The Piazza at Covent Garden


Taken from a community garden off Charing Cross Road (click photo to enlarge)


Fortuitous timing


The Millennium Bridge, footbridge over the Thames


Chiara and the boy who wouldn't grow up, Kensington Gardens
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In the countryside


Woodbridge, the village where we did our marketing


On one of the public footpaths


Somerleyton Hall, home of Suffolk's most eligible bachelor, the right Hon. Hugh Crossley, future Earl Somerleyton


A restaurant in Leiston, near Summerhill


Sign for one of the infamous roundabouts -- you're supposed to glance at it as you go by at 60mph and figure out which branch is yours. Sorry for the blurry photo, but this is about how legible these signs are at speed anyway. :-)

Hope for Horses

Duh, sorry, I forget where I've written what.

From the beginning of our homeschooling (3 years ago), MJ has been interested in volunteering at an animal shelter. The problem has been finding one that will accept volunteers younger than 16. A few weeks back, I was doing a little surfing and came across Hope for Horses, a horse rescue organization. They have a couple of facilities in the Puget Sound area where they take in abused and neglected horses, nurse them back to health, and then try to find foster or permanent homes for them. Their volunteer data sheet didn't specify an age minimum, so MJ sent in an application. They had her in for a little interview and tour, then made her part of the team. She's been going to their Woodinville ranch twice a week for a four-hour shift. She loves it, especially since they haven't treated her as slave labor who only gets to muck out stalls. Instead, they've given her a variety of tasks and seem to recognize the variety of skills MJ brings to the organization. Pretty cool.

Volleyball victories

Last week, Frank laid down the law to his volleyball team: pass to your teammates and quit criticizing each other. A couple of girls were right pissed off -- during the game, they let balls that came to them fall at their feet, in true teenage drama queen fashion. Those girls have now apparently quit the team, and the result has been a complete transformation of the team. At their match yesterday, the remaining girls were smiling, bopping around the court, serving, passing, and returning with skill and verve, and just plain having FUN. It was really terrific to see. *And* they won all three games by a large margin. Turns out the terrible twosome had been terrorizing the team.

In other news, yesterday was the Sons of Italy charity-fundraiser spaghetti feed. MJ helped out there all day (so she missed the volleyball fun, unfortunately) and had a grand time. She and my nieces bussed tables and took tickets and were very gracious hostesses. Frank and I just went for the food and to support the cause. It makes me a little melancholy to go there, since it was at the feed two years ago that we made the connection that brought Chiara into our lives. But at least I got to see her last week, and we have every hope that she'll come for a visit this summer.

Radio silence from Summerhill. This is supposed to be a good thing -- the kids only call home when they're unhappy -- but I'm still bummed. Maybe as the novelty wears off Chloe will do a little more emailing and blogging.

With MJ involved in Italian activities, Frank and I had a date for Cinco de Mayo. We walked over to the neighborhood Mexican place and were actually able to get a table. We ate way too much and ingested a bit more tequila than we had intended -- I think the margaritas were double-strength -- but it was nice to have some couple time.

MJ is really settling in at Hope for Horses and becoming a valued member of the organization, from all appearances. In addition to her barn work, she has been helping out in the office, putting together auction packets and returning calls to potential foster parents. A recently rescued mare, Faith, is due to foal any day. (She's underweight, so they're not sure how it will go.) Not wanting to miss the action, MJ spent some extra time at the ranch last week. On Thursday, she helped them take one of the mini horses -- loaded into the cargo area of an SUV! -- to his new foster home over on the Olympic Peninsula. His new foster family? The Nordstroms. Yes, those Nordstroms. So MJ had a bit of a brush with Washington-state royalty.

And I made it through my work week, despite continuing jet lag. I have seen more sunrises in the past week than I've seen in the last 20 years. :-)

Hope all is well with all of you. Let us hear from you!
Ronnie

Chloe's first day of classes

I just talked to Chloe on the phone. She sounds like she's having a good time. Today was the first day of classes, but she only has one class on Thursdays, I guess -- art -- so she didn't have much to report. They spent the time sketching out ideas for a project where they turn an ordinary object into an animal (I think that's what it is). She says she also signed up for history and science and some "doing things" classes -- hands-on activities, I gather.

Last night, a bunch of kids slept outside in tents. They're having good weather, but it still got pretty cold during the night. She said she and Ruby (a British girl who lives in Portugal) didn't get to sleep until about 2.

Over in Class 2 -- it's sort of her homeroom -- people are making or decorating Lord of the Rings figurines, and playing Dungeons and Dragons. Silas, a 12yo British boy, is one of the dungeon masters. I met his mom, Joy, when I was there. She said that Silas talked himself hoarse on his first day at Summerhill; he'd never been at a school before where nobody told him to be quiet. :-)

And it seems like they walk into Leiston with regularity. The drinks at school are "horrible" so they walk the eight blocks or so to the market and buy juice drinks there that they can keep in their cupboards. The universal favorite -- with very good reason -- is J2O. Very delicious stuff. My favorite is apple-melon. It tends to be a bit pricey, though, so they ration it out.

Michael, a former student or part-time staffer (Chloe wasn't sure which), is building a giant spiderweb on the school grounds. They've poured concrete and set poles and will be stringing big ropes. When it's complete, all the "spiders" will be allowed to climb on it.

Anyway, she sounded good. She's picking up the accent already and making friends with all the girls. (The boys, she seems less interested in.) So I'll try to stop worrying for a couple of days. :-)

Celebrate!!!!!!!!!!

Jerry is HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Back on land in North Carolina.

:-)

:-)

:-)

He and Cori will probably go to New Orleans for a visit in early June.

Photos plus London, day 1

Well, I can't seem to get in the mood for writing up a complete trip report, so I'll just post what I wrote after our first day in London. But first, here are some pictures (hover over pictures to see descriptions, or click the photos to see larger versions):

London

Mad cows of Ufford

Summerhill

Lowestoft on the North Sea

Saturday in London

Greetings from Lower Ufford!

Well, the cottage is everything it appears to be in the listing. It's very cozy and private, nicely appointed and clean and pretty. The 800-year-old Ufford Church is just behind us, the 18th-century Dower House is in front, a pink thatched-roof place is to the left, and a rabbit-inhabited shrub-and-grass area and the large Dower House daffodil garden are to the right. Dower House is a family home; there's a swingset and trampoline in their other yard, and their dog Molly greeted us when we arrived. She's very sweet and was thrilled to see us, but she stopped short of coming into the Granary's yard. We found out later that that's training; they don't want her bothering the guests.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Our day today didn't begin at the Dower House Granary, it began in London. Or in Slough, to be exact. As I said before, the hotel there was fine. We had a nap after arriving from the airport, then went down to the hotel restaurant for dinner. The food was unexceptional, the prices something of a jolt (and I thought I'd prepared myself for London prices). We ate, then went back to our room for Laffy Taffy and Snickers bars (courtesy of Papa Tom) and an early bedtime.

This morning, Chloe popped awake at 6 a.m., so we decided to get on our way. We were packed and checked out and on the road by 7, then I had my first go at driving on England's "motorways" -- aka "freeways" or "expressways" to my American compatriots. Well, motorways are a piece of cake! No roundabouts!!!! And at 7 a.m. on a Saturday, virtually empty. The only trick was remembering that here, it's "Keep *left* except to pass." Washington state drivers would fit right in.

Chloe and I had settled on parking the car at Epping, the end of of the Central Tube (subway) line. Turns out Epping is a quaint little village well outside of town, so navigating and parking were easy. Well, there was one exception: I forgot momentarily that right turns are the turns that require caution and cut right in front of some poor guy. Fortunately, he was alert and quick on the brake pedal, so we escaped mishap. I'm hopeful that the big scare I received has drilled a lesson deep into my tiny little brain.

With that excitement over, we popped into a Shell station to buy something, anything, in order to break a 20-pound note and have change for the Tube carpark (parking lot). We settled on some fabulous "biscuits" -- Jaffa cakes, they're called -- dark-chocolate-frosted cake cookies with orange jelly filling -- and a bottle of chocolate milk. Just the sort of breakfast a growing (in the wrong direction) girl needs.
So, we parked, figured out the Tube ticket dispenser, and got right on a waiting train. The trip to town took about 40 minutes, which we spent reading and being happy, then we climbed up to street level and got our first look at London.

We started off on Oxford Street and on down Regent Street. This is an upscale shopping and business area, with lots of snazzy shop windows to look in. Of course nothing was open yet -- it was about 8:30, I think -- but we had a lovely stroll, watching all the double-decker buses go by, down to Picadilly Circus. That, too, was fairly quiet, relatively speaking, but it's still a bustling area with lots of traffic noise. We took obligatory photos in front of Helios' horses and the central monument (I'm drawing a blank on who that was dedicated to), then continued walking.
Next stop was Trafalgar Square, where we saw some more impressive statues (George IV comes to mind) and took pictures of the National Gallery. One kind of funny thing: One of the lesser statues is of George Washington, donated to Great Britain by the Commonwealth of Virginia. It seems a bit strange for Virginia to have donated a statue of a man that Brits must consider a traitor, but that's us cheeky Americans for ya.

From Trafalgar, we headed up Charing Cross Road. This was one of the highpoints of Chloe's day, because we think we found the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron. It's described in one of the Harry Potter books as being between a book store and a music store, and we found just such a place, in a rather unprepossessing little cubbyhole on the otherwise trendy street. Just the sort of spot those wily wizards would choose to throw us Muggles off.

After a stop for lunch (at 10 a.m.!) at a nice little cafe -- we both had toasted sandwiches, mine cheese and tomato, Chloe's sausage -- we went over to the Piazza at Covent Garden. Loved it! Once upon a time, this series of halls -- huge glass-roofed bays that are mostly open air but lined with enclosed shops -- was home to bustling, crowded fruit and vegetable markets. Nowadays, it's trendy shops and arts and crafts booths, but it's still bustling and crowded. The architecture of the shops is a real treat. We went into one that had archways between rooms that weren't much taller than Chloe.

I imagine Brits take it all in stride, but the age of everything here is really impressive to me. There's a pub still in operation in Covent Garden that was founded in 1623, and the famous Punch and Judy Pub was established in 1787 or so. I remarked at one point that the brick streets off the Piazza are probably older than the USA.

From Covent, we followed my sense of direction (usually a pretty risky thing) and actually ended up right where we wanted to be: on the banks of the Thames. We passed through Victoria Embankment Gardens to come out right at Cleopatra's Needle. Chloe got very excited to see that, too, because it features prominently in the second Bartimaeus book. I got very excited to discover that it's a real Egyptian obelisk, from Alexandria, a treasure that was actually a gift from Egypt, bestowed by Viceroy Mohamed Ali, no less.

We then strolled along the Thames, watching the ferry boats and the big Eye of London mega-ferris wheel while eating soft-serve ice cream cones with yummy chocolate sticks as garnish. We saw a nice monument -- dedicated to those so few who did so much for so many in the Battle of Britain -- the Old War Office and Ministry of Defence (gorgeous, huge old buildings), and arrived at Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament just in time for the noon chimes. We couldn't have timed that better had we planned it!

Westminster Bridge and Great George Street were PACKED. Can't imagine what it must be like during peak tourist season. But we shuffled our way along and went around the other side of the HoP, where we got a nice bobby to pose for a photo with Chloe in front of a triumphant (and yes, Frank, probably misrepresentative) statue of a triumphant Richard the Lion Heart. They incidentally were also posed in front of several gorgeous 30's-era cars that were all parked at the HoP for some reason.

From there, we crossed over to Westminster Abbey. Neither of us was interested enough to stand in line to go inside, so we ducked into adjacent St. Margaret's Church instead. It was lovely and grand, and the organist was practicing, and we got to SIT DOWN for a while. A very pleasant stop. Oh, and our pew was labeled "Members of Parliament" so we got to have delusions of grandeur (?) for a moment.

After our rest and some discussion, we headed up Victoria Street to Buckingham Gate and across to Buckingham Palace to visit the queen. She wasn't "at home" for us unfortunately, so we had to settle for pictures in front of the gates like everybody else. The guards with the big furry hats were too far away to appreciate the way I wanted to, though. :-(

There was one moment of drama at the Queen Victoria Memorial fountain in front of the palace. Some tourist had left his big duffle bag unattended. By the time he came back for it, the cops had cleared the immediate area and gotten on their radios for a bomb squad (I'm guessing). Silly tourist was scolded roundly then sent on his way.

Chloe and I left the palace plaza by walking around the corner along the wall of the palace gardens. It's secure enough, with spikes and barbed wire and on-high motion detectors supplementing 12 or 15 feet of brick wall, but Chloe thought the big trees next to the wall looked climb-able (with some sort of spiked assistance), and from there, she figured she could do the squirrel thing to the trees inside the garden. I think if she were queen, she'd give it a try, except she'd do it to get out of the palace without anyone knowing.

Rounding out our first day in London was a stroll under Wellington Monument (a big arch), then we returned to the Tube and rode back out to Epping and the car.

And then we found our way back to the M11 and out a couple of secondary highways to Lower Ufford. I successfully negotiated about a dozen roundabouts and made only one wrong turn (easily rectified at another roundabout), so I didn't do too badly.

The market in this teensy little village closes at 1 on Saturdays, so we haven't yet stocked up on "self-catering" supplies. That being the case, we walked down to the White Lion pub for dinner. We both had fish and chips, and it was really terrific. We learned some things:
1) Carlsburg beer is really nasty, and Stella (or is it Stellar?) is pretty good.
2) Orange pop is called "Fanta" even when it's not Fanta.
3) The fish in English fish and chips (or White Lion fish and chips, anyway) has skin on it under the batter, but we love it anyway.
4) Ketchup is ketchup. Heinz and everything.

Oh! And the other thing I learned today that I just have to share: Crocs are the best shoes ever in the whole history of shoes. I walked for, what, 7 or 8 hours today, and my feet do NOT hurt. In fact, I took an evening constitutional tonight. Pretty impressive, eh? My bright yellow feet sure do get a lot of funny looks though! That might have something to do with Chloe's bright green feet being right next to them. :-)

Note to Schuyler: Thank you for the Highway Code link! That really helped!

Arrivals

I am home safe and sound, and Chloe is happily tucked up at Summerhill. I just got mail from her, and she says she is doing great. Not many details offered yet, but she's having fun and not doing any of the panicked sobbing I was imagining as I boarded the jet at Heathrow. :-)

Right now, I'm trying to convince my body that it's time to be awake for breakfast, so I'll write more later, about our siteseeing and driving adventures, Summerhill, and England. And I'll try to pick a couple of photos to post, out of my 300 or so choices.

Cheers!