A Letter to my Soccer Team

PD#5,

If perhaps the team staged an abduction in front of reliable
witnesses, I could make a Wednesday night practice. I'm in room 203
of the Computing Commons from 6-9pm. I'll wear a purple wig to
greenlight the operation. Watch out for Marko Manalovic. He was a
member of the Stasi in East Germany and will likely resist any attempt
to remove me from the premises. He is also skilled in psy-ops and can
write a proposal argument in MLA format better than most graduate
students.

We should rendezvous in the Sidebar Cafe in the law school. I know a
barrister with a meth habit who can let us use his Prius in exchange
for three packs of Sudafed. Clayton, you're responsible for the
Sudafed.

The standard list of equipment applies: two weapons per man: the
gas-retarded blowback semi auto GBs we got from the hooker in Vegas,
and the Russian Kashtan AEK-919's I got on Craigslist; the black
ski-masks; 200m of Black Solid Braid Polypropylene Multi-Fiiament
Rope; grappling hooks; a copy of Neruda's Twenty Love Poems and a Song
of Despair; 30 pieces of Hubba Bubba Bubble Gum (Krai, this one's on
you); and a bottle of club soda for me.

With the right timing, we can be out of there by 18:42 and at the
field by 18:58. This gives us two minutes, but I don't want any
mistakes like last time. I'm looking at you Keniston!

Oh, and if this is successful, I'll need to borrow some shinguards.

Bear Bath

Bear Bath
Originally uploaded by cieuxautres.

A picture remarkably similar to this made the Desert Democratic paper a couple of days ago. SkyGirl and some friends went to the Stuff-a-Bear factory and make stuffed bears to donate to the Children's Hospital. Of course, they also found time to make some for themselves. The bear SkyGirl has is the one she ended up keeping. SkyGirl named him...oh wait, the blog is now incognito, so I should give him a pseudonym...SkyGirl named him Lion.

She's giving Lion a bath under the air jets, blowing off all his fuzz. He later got a cowboy hat, and after we got home, stickers all over his body.

This past weekend, the whole family went up into the high country to visit a farm. The farmer purchased the farm back in the 70s, and it started out as a commune of sorts. But most of the hippie-ish members couldn't handle the absolute remoteness and the hard work necessary to keep it running. Except for the man who initiated the project, they had all left by the third year. Now he runs it mostly as an education center and retreat. People come by and study herbal medicines and wilderness survival. He sells some food when he has extra, and he has a small mail-order business dealing in herbal remedies.

To say the farm is remote doesn't really do it justice. We had a two hour drive from the desert city into the Lone Ranger National Forest. A 15 minute drive up a forest service road to a private ranch where we parked our little civic and waited for transportation. Then the farmer took us the last eight miles up a road that was more cattle path than anything. Even though we were up in elevation, the land was still rugged and dry. We crossed a number of washes that are impassable when it rains. One storm in the 90s kept vehicles out for 5 months. They hiked the 10 miles down to the store and back when they needed supplies. The views were amazing as we climbed steep, rutted tracks into the mountain. Besides the 40 acre ranch where we parked, his 13 acres near the top are the only private parcels in the area. Everything else is federal land.

While there we took a tour of the farm. We saw the masonary building that in another eight years or so should finally become the three story, split-level farm house. We saw the creek and the cistern that make up the water supply. SkyGirl got to pet a turkey and help gather eggs from the chickens. We ate fresh fruit and nuts taken right from the trees, and we had a huge meal made up of primarily of vegatable picked that day.

Almost all the power came from solar panels, with some additional gas and propane generators to handle high demand and such intensive machines like the water pump and the mill. The walk in cooler uses no electricity most of the year. They open it at night to allow the cool air in, and then close it in the morning, keeping their dry goods and perishables unspoiled.

In the music vein

Today SkyGirl and I went to Symphony Hall for a children's concert by the (it seems unnecessary to say it) symphony. This was one of those ready-made field trips for the schools, but the homeschoolers have carved out a nice section for themselves and we squeezed in with those kids and parents. SkyGirl and I watched as the legions of uniform-wearing kids marched into the hall, and then we followed, kids almost outnumbered by parents.

SkyGirl was entranced by the hall, not just the huge space, but the couple of thousand people all sitting and looking up at the instruments. She kept chattering, "SkyGirl hear music?" and "Everybody watching!" She pointed out the violins and drums and tuba--all of which she can imitate--and the dog lying on the floor next to a violinist (animal assist, though not in the performance, but wouldn't that be cool).

After a couple of songs, SkyGirl started imitating the conductor, and by the end, I swear she could swing with the beat.

imaginary piano

imaginary piano, originally uploaded by cieuxautres.

SkyGirl working through scales in her head. She likes pretending to play piano, both on a real piano and anywhere a flat surface surfaces.

We've been pretty busy here in our other skies. With the Doctor's new business taking up all of our free time, and my three courses minimizing that free time, we have little time for blogging.

We've been given the green light on the absolutely delicious space for the new venture. In fact, I'm sitting in the cafe just across the way from the building (taking a short break from grading papers). She'll be two blocks away from the main library, city hall, the contempoary art museum and the courts for when I manage to do something something stupid. We had some dicey moments convincing the property owner we were worth the risk, but he seems to like the Doctor (and holds a thinly disguised contempt for me, I think) and is risking a bit more to get her in there. He likes cats, and I think he really likes the idea of having a vet in one of his buildings.