Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Suddenly...


...or so it seems, everyone is the same height in group pics.

Grandpa R and Grandma C are on their way to OH, and we made them road trip snacks and filled them in on our summers.









_

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Them Dems

At a debate watch party today, they seated us on the dais because they'd run out of space.  Peek Big A and Nu at the back of the picture!

I joked to Big A that it reminded me of High Table practice...  When I was at Oxford, I attended Wolfson, which prides itself on its egalitarian hall and an absence of hierarchical seating, but back when I was at Exeter, high table was indeed a thing.

Anyway, Nu paid careful attention to everything, since L has generously said she will vote for whomever Nu suggests. This is the lovely L's way of offering a voice to Nu's generation who will--after all--be the ones dealing with the climate change policies of the next administration.

_

Monday, July 29, 2019

Greece Love

Picked up Madeline Miller's Song of Achilles at Sam and Eddie's last week and it's giving me pleasurable nostalgia about my trip to Greece earlier this year. Especially that first day in Athens climbing the Acropolis all windblown, stumbling upon the completely deserted woods to the north of the temple, feeling I had slipped back through millennia, and then a late and leisurely lunch at the museum within view of the Parthenon and still swooning.

I'm so glad for that trip--I'm reading now without that pang that previously accompanied any mention of Greece.

(And yes, the Miller really does remind me of those Mary Renaults I used to devour and mid-century Mary Stewart must bear responsibility for my Greece love too.)



-

Saturday, July 27, 2019

On a Road Trip for Two


Big A and At are both working tonight, and Nu and I didn't see the point of rushing home. 


So we took a few detours: First the Dayton Art Institute (DAI) with its impressive collection of contemporary work with Grandma S and Grandpa J, and then a stop at the Neil Armstrong Museum (NAM), to appreciate that giant leap for humankind. 




Nu loved the DAI, of course and my phone is full of pictures of artwork she means to revisit; but I suspect she was a bit underwhelmed with the NAM. I am such a sucker for soaring music and emotional biographical details, but I'll admit it was a bit dated despite its inclusion of the "Hidden Figures" mathematicians in the timeline. At one point, I was going to dig out my Aldi quarter so we could feed the machine that would tell us our weight on earth, the moon, and Saturn--when Nu stopped me--"Mama, it's ok, I'm sure we can google it" quoth she, and truer words were never spoken.


But look what a good sport my love is!






_

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Here We Go Again


I took this picture just after I dropped Nu off at "The Owl Logs" and turned around for one quick picture yesterday.

I had a ton of stuff planned for this week: writing dates, hangs outs, planning a party in our old house with S, and on and on.... But I haven't been in this town by myself ever. And everywhere there are reminders of the babies when they were babies--schools, childcare, parks... and aaaaarrrgghh. I can't stand it.



A ton of super-emo texts to Big A last night and I'm headed back to Lansing today where I can baby the puppies and At and Big A (whose Boss Day it is!).

I-75, here we go again...

_

Monday, July 22, 2019

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Baby Birds


These wild turkeys and turkey chicks have been wandering through the place every morning. Turkey parents seem way more relaxed than duckling parents, FWIW.

Out on the front porch, I was surprised that a hanging basket was faring so poorly until I saw a parent bird transfer a wiggly worm from its beak to its baby's, and their nest is right in that planter!  I've seen this scene on film so many time, but never from two feet away... I don't think?



And in other baby bird news, Nu and I will road-trip over to Yellow Springs all by ourselves, spend the night at MIL's. Then Nu's off to Eco-Camp for the rest of the week, and I will be doing all the YS things with old friends...

_

Thursday, July 04, 2019

Electrifying


All electric, 
capable of getting me to work 
and back on a single charge.  

This morning, 
even before the first cup of tea, 
I went to peek at this hardworking baby.
_

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Wine and Shine


In all our years together, we'd never been to a winery. I just thought we weren't those folks, you know?

We're more into cocktails, and that--between Big A's work and my no low tolerance--tends to be infrequent. But our visit to Mari was lovely, as were the views and our sense of doing something we hadn't done before together.




Monday, June 24, 2019

Traverse-Greece


The sheltering arms of the land around the bay, and the rippled water reminded me of Greece. The light didn't quite get to that blazing point, but it was still an uplift.

We left the balcony drapes off all day, so the view was our witness too.








_

Sunday, June 23, 2019

Unnecessary

Everything about this was gratuitous. We were going to be gone for just two nights, and we were literally two hours away--but heading to Traverse City with just Big A felt like a huge deal. His work has been particularly understaffed and consequently he's been overworked--perhaps that's why?

Particularly de trop was my jumble of vacation clothes, and reads, and the jaunty straw hat I left out in my closet all week... and the the little somersault of pure joy my spirits did every time I saw this reminder of our imminent mini-vacation.


_

Saturday, June 15, 2019

Panic to Pride

It was a verrrrry leisurely morning and after putting away the breakfast dishes, I was going to put away the cash I got from Big A (I never withdraw cash, dunno why, and Big A had a bunch to give to the kids as they finish summer jobs around the house).

So I was going to put away the cash in my wallet... except I couldn't find my wallet in my purse or any of the other plausible places I looked for it. At first no one believed me because I'm super careful... until my rising panicky squeaks convinced them. I realized the last time I had used my card was at Aldi... on Wednesday.

Then I alternated between mild self-congratulation at not having spent money for over 48 hours, and panic at having to replace all the cards and ID stuff. I called Aldi to see if I had left it there, but the call went to some central Aldi location, because apparently they don't take phone calls at the store. Ok.

By this time, everyone was looking for my wallet and turning up old ones and asking if that was the one, I went and put on pants so someone could take me to the store (I had no DL). And then! Big A found the wallet in the door of the car. Hallelujah. Testify!

After that, I took a relaxing shower and got everyone to Riverfront Park for the Pride parade. My friend MD, who runs a local queer teen group, had asked for help 'protecting' the teens from hecklers--but there weren't any, so I just hung out with all my beautiful babies.


-

Thursday, May 30, 2019

Some Books

MIL's book (illustrations by her, words by SIL when she was six) is out in print. I love it and we ordered a bunch to give to friends with kids. LMK, if you'd like a copy!











_

Sunday, April 14, 2019

New Beginnings

Need a fresh start in the middle of April?

The little sibs at Hawk Island. #SaturdayHikingClub

_

Saturday, April 06, 2019

Monday, March 25, 2019

Plans Are Getting Better

To think that I couldn't wait to start using my 2019 planner, and here I am almost a quarter of the way in, having barely used it. Worse: nearly all of my sabbatical term is over, and I haven't done any of the important stuff I meant to do.

I re-started the planner with all five colors of ink today--I feel so much more intentional and focused when I can confirm at a glance that the various modalities of life are in (chromatic) balance. And I reconfigured the to-do list to make it more realistic given how little time remains between now and getting stuff ready for the spring term.

It may be that it is the prep work that drags the most. And that's where I spent most of my time today--I enjoy being poetry editor--and today was about prepping the selected poems for Dropbox and publication; I love being the advisor to the feminist house--and I spent hours making sure the application materials for next year reached the relevant channels and vetting and worrying about applications; I love teaching in the classroom--and so much of today was re-reading materials and organizing the e-reader (okay this last thing was fun).

Also fun: The Spotify playlist I curated for our class.

_

Monday, March 11, 2019

Gifts From Afar

So the flowers we sent my parents  were delivered, and they're just as lovely as they looked in the catalogue...





The cake? We're all still giggling at the writing on this:



_

Saturday, March 09, 2019

A Picture of Ice and Sun




On our hike today, L pointed out that while the river was finally thawed and flowing, you could still see how high the snow had been from the rings of ice around the tree trunks.

#RedCedar






_

Monday, March 04, 2019

Happy Birthday to me!


We went all the way out to Ann Arbor for brunch...  it was delicious, decadent, and worth it.

This was yesterday, actually. I have a difficult work meeting today--more on that tomorrow, and At said he couldn't miss his evening class to do a birthday dinner tonight. L says I should be proud of him for not wanting to miss class (I'm trying!!).




_

a day to be proud...

1) of my WGS students who set up 25 wonderful interactive booths to discuss subjects as varied as the female gaze in films, non-binary erasu...