Study on Sargent's "Poppies"

New Paintings by October

Best Song Ever?

Esh sent me the following:

"Best song, possibly ever?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at_f98qOGY0 "
"

First Checking Account

Esh got his first solo checking account today! He has had a debit card linked to an account shared by Gravity and me so he could purchase gas this summer; but he now has his own set of accounts. he was not able to get a credit card because he is not 18 but this is another big jump for him. This fall when he becomes a grader in the physics department, his pay can be directly deposited into this account! These are exciting days....

Orientation

October and Esh attended New Student Orientation (NSO) for the past two days at UVA. Esh was able to register for classes and he is planning on taking 19 credits next fall spread between six classes. These classes will consist of two math (one graduate level), two physics junior level classes, one anthropology/linguistics class and one language class. Esh got all of the classes that he wanted!

Esh spent the night but October came home as C'ville is only 75 miles from home (plus she has such a fun car). According to October, the parents' first day sessions were all in an auditorium where the rows of seats were so close together it was difficult if you had knee caps. She decided not to return the second day, and instead went to art galleries along Ivy Road. After registering for classes on the second day, Esh read a book for four hours until it was time to check-out.

Swamp On Fire

We are filled with smoke again. The Great Dismal Swamp in both VA and NC is on fire. Supposedly, the fire is deep in the ground and only a tropical storm or hurricane will give us enough rain to extinguish the fire. It stinks outside and apparently will all summer!

Myst to Riven to Exile. The saga continues...

Yes. We finished Riven. And we got to die! -- more than once. It took a while but we did it. But being the brainy wits we are, we were able, by using cyber linking books, to save Catherine and Atrus also. "The end has yet to be written."

Now to the post. The next in line is Exile. We have not started the game but we have started Drooling (not drooling and walking in to walls -- that's Spawn.).

October and I were thinking of starting last night while Esh saw Get Smart with friends but ended up watching Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix. Great books and movies.

Exile next...that seems appropriate. "As I fell through that starry fissure..."

River Weekend

Esh had a great time at the River. Six kids were there; two girls and four boys. Esh was the youngest, the two girls were about 19 and the boys were 20 and 21. Water skiing was cut short because the stinging nettles were out early this year. One even got up in one of the girl's shorts and stung her fairly badly. They watched movies, played card games including poker and did tons of talking. Esh came home tired but feeling good. Three kids were from TJ high and three were from Clover Hill High. Most are UVA students but Esh thought one boy attends William and Mary.

Gravity and I played Riven almost all day today. So now the question is, how do we get to the rotating dome out on the island?

Hmmmm.....

Gravity and I pulled out ladders and washed the windows. I scaled the ladders and did the actual washing while Gravity did the heavy work of moving the ladders from window to window. I also cleaned off the tree crap that had collected on the screen porch roof which is relatively flat.

Got inside to admire our work and the windows still looked a bit dirty. then I realized, now we have to do the inside! Ah, a project for tomorrow and a couple of day this week!

Esh At The River

Esh will be spending the weekend with friends at the Potomac River. Should be tons of fun!

While he is gone for the weekend, Gravity and I will do stuff around here. We might wash the outside windows. I will undoubtedly work more on my painting. Maybe we will go see the new Indiana Jones movie. Play Scrabble....

Flooded Bridges

Remember the bridge collapse in Minnesota? Hopefully, in the Midwest where there has been such bad flooding, they are checking all of the bridges as the waters recede. The extra pressure on the structures from the rushing high waters will be significant.

Riven

We are now doing the sequel to Myst called Riven. It is amazing; and again, none of us have done it in years. Great time to be had by all!

Myst

We just finished playing Myst and loved us. As it is an older game, it would not install on our newer PCs so we hooked Esh's tower to the TV and ran with it! None of us had played it in years and it was great to do it all again. So now...onto the next game.

Tim Russert

We will miss him. Several Sunday mornings all three of have enjoyed "Meet The Press" while munching cinnamon twists. Farewell, Tim Russert.

Smoke

We are getting smoke from North Carolina forest fires all the way up here; and it is thick and acrid. The air quality here has been Orange for the past couple of days which is very unusual for here. Unpleasant!

(Actually, this may have been the source of Gravity's headache yesterday!)

While The Son Is Away...

Esh is with the stupendous six at one of their houses from 2 to 9 today. It might be nice if I could write that while the son is away, mom and dad play, but... Poor Gravity has an awful headache and is soaking in the tub. He didn't even feel up to dinner. Hopefully, it will get much better soon.

Search Us

We are showing up on the various search engines! I got both of our family blogs to show up. What total fun.

Heat

It has been so hot here that the concrete roads are exploding and crumbling.

Monk's New Doctor

Monk has a new doctor played by Hector Elizondo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector_Elizondo

Monk is on right now on USA HD. It is the episode where Dr. Kroger decides to retire because he thinks one of his patients committed suicide. Monk and another patient are stalking Dr. Kroger at Kroger's house. Dr. Kroger has infinite patience! Great show!

Guardians of the Realm

We have several guardians for different purposes. Shown are some pictures. Dottie (dog) guards the house, people and plants. She is grounded and exudes stabilty. The China Man exudes peace and harmony, Saint Francis is the protector of all animals on the earth, Tiki man wards off evil spitits and adds fun to our woods and the eagle (Aquila) is an indian spirit and is wisdom and freedom.

The Pantry Is Safe Now

Wow. It was disgusting. With mall of the driving, etc. over the past couple of years, the pantry had been neglected. it finally go to the point nothing more would go in it. So today, while the tremendous six are here, Gravity and I cleaned the pantry. Under a stack of can we found the treat -- an exploded can of tomatoes. Totally gross! Black mold everywhere. Maybe we should clean the pantry more often. Didn't take a picture as it was just too.....

Go Green

The Hulk took "go green" very seriously.

The Saint

We finished Foyle's War and have now moved on to an old, old series, called The Saint. Fun to see the old "land boat" cars, old style hairdos, rotary phones (forget about "the brick" -- it was not even invented yet), even telephone booths! Roger Moore, as Simon Templar, is great as an expert jewel thief turned mystery solver.

The Heat Is Here

Today is muggy and already warm and it is only 8:50 in the morning. For the next several days, the temperature predictions are all over 90. Summer is to start a couple of weeks from now but it seems to be starting early.

Tornado

A tornado touched down in a neighborhood a few minutes ago where a lot of our friends live. We will be on the phone soon calling them to make sure they are okay. I don't think we have ever had a spring with this many tornadoes; they are not common to VA.
---------------------
More house fires from lightning again, too. Those of you living on cleared lots, plant some BIG trees!

Alton Brown

Tonight we (yes, all three of us) watched a great show on the Food Channel called "Good Eats". The chef (and much more) is Alton Brown and he is fabulous! The show was on puff pastry and pate a choux (pastry used for eclairs --yum yum -- and puff pastries). Brown covered all aspects of puff pastry and p.a.c.and with a great sense of humor. Watch the show if you can; you will learn tons.

Lightning

Every spring there are stories on the news about lightning strikes starting fires. And when they have pictures of the houses, they are always those that do not have surrounding trees. Trees give us so much.

Old Fashioned Fun

We do it about once a year, but I could not remember posting about it; then I realized that our blog is less than a year old! Every June. we hand wash the cars. No, it is not for sentimental reasons or even money-savings reasons. Sap. We have primarily hickories and they produce very little sap. But we have an oak right where we park. We love the tree. It has a specially twisted trunk that is wonderful so we can not cut it down. But it produces sap every spring. Electric car washes get some of the sap off, but by June, there is enough on all of the cars that we must hand wash them. Today was the perfect day; great temperatures and few mosquitoes. So now all four cars (one is in storage) are sparkling in the sun; until tomorrow morning when the sap sprinkles will be back.

P.S. The same oak produces tent caterpillars, too!

Related Meals

I have been in the mood for German food lately so I bought bratwurst and sauerkraut yesterday. Today for lunch they got cooked up. I had bratwurst and sauerkraut. Gravity had bratwurst but coleslaw instead of sauerkraut. Esh, who does not like either sauerkraut or coleslaw or bratwurst, had hot dogs.

३.३% Unemployment

It was on the news last night that our unemployment rate is only 3.3%. Bravo for us. That is probably why things are worse for others living in different parts of the US. Houses are selling more slowly but they are selling and not at reduced prices. VA is beautiful in many ways.

Upstairs Library

Little by little we are finally getting the rooms upstairs in better shape. Today, we finished Esh's room and mostly finished the upstairs library. The upstairs library will be great when there are sleepovers. Gravity can let the dogs out and then go back up to the upstairs library with the dogs. We will put a small coffee maker in Esh's bathroom. When the boys wake up one by one then they can go to the downstairs library so the others can sleep in the family room.

Greek Festival

We are celebrating the Greek Festival here. Last night's dinner was soulvaki, gyros, baklava. My favorite is the yahni. Yum, yum yum,

Written in History

We take many things these days as wonderful creations. But in the history books, they will be a footnote. For example, 200 years from now,

The advent of recording and storage devices reached its zenith with ...[1]....



[1] For a period of about 25 years in the latter 1900's there existed an item called a Cassette Tape. This item was used for storing songs, voices and the like. The existence was so short it is hardly worth mentioning
but is included here for completeness.

Foyle's War

The BBC show called Foyle's War is a real gem. It takes place in WW2 England in a town called Hastings. Detective Foyle investigates all kinds of crimes while the country is in the midst of war. The acting is superb as are the plot developments and characterizations. Watch the show if ou can. We are watching the series on DVD and it is very rewarding, rich TV program.

One God, One Wife

Can you believe this whole polygamist thing in Texas? When the adults get on TV they demonstrate the literacy level of six year olds. The educational level of all of the children needs to be tested to make sure that the children are being educated at the appropriate level. Cults like this Later Day Saints sect or extremist Muslim groups are so dangerous, especially to children. The compound should be shut down and the building razed. Polygamy is illegal in the US -- only one wife allowed. But of course, we are talking about Texas.........

Un-Hinging Stonehenge

The last National Geographic magazine had a wonoderful article on Stonehenge and AOL had one this evening. I love archaeology, especially when it is shrouded in mystery.

The show Stonehenge Decoded airs on the National Geographic channel Sunday June 1 at 9, Mon Jun 2 at midnight, Thur Jun 5 at 9, Fri jun 6 at midnight, sun jun 8 at 4PM, Thu Jun 12 at 5 PM.

Enjoy the mystery!

Gas

An interesting thing was pointed out one the news. Since the 1960s car engines have been designed to be more and more efficient. Some cars now even get 30+ mpg. Yet, we consume more gas as we drive so much more.

Taxes

We just got finished paying $3024.52 in local property taxes and the county officials just announced that there will be an increase! What a %$&#! And we will pay again in December. Maybe that is why death and taxes are put in the same sentence when discussing the unavoidable.

Stimulus Check

We got our tax refund and our stimulus checks so we are able to pay the taxes on the cars and the house! Hooray! And the gas I put in my car two days ago was over $4 per gallon. Whaaaaa... Such is life.

Silence

The silence in the house is delicious. Gravity and I both noticed it and enjoyed it. Poor Esh has a crackled, strained voice from all of the talking over so many hours, too. Let the silence sink in and invade!

Yum

Gravity Well During Grad Party

Grad Party Final Evening

Grad Party Lunch

Grad Party Breakfast

75 pieces of bacon and 24 Pillsbury cinnamon twists; OJ and coffee, Need I say more?

Grad Party 2 Nighttime

Bed at 3 AM and awake 7 hours later.

Grad Party In Progress

Dogs and Teen Boys

I haven't mentioned the dogs in connection with the dogs before. Usually when the boys arrive, the dogs are in their room. Then we let them out. After a few minutes of barking, they usually settle down on the coaches and sleep....except for our one stray who must be predominantly a herding dog. Every time one of the boys leaves the table she gets all upset -- how could they be separating from being so nicely organized (herded) around the table! Blasphemy! Right now, they have moved from the dining room to the library so she is circling around on the first floor and has been doing it for a good twenty minutes. What a little darling. Thank you Pearl for keeping the unruly teens so well organized! :-)
-------------------------------
Added at 9:22 PM

I just noticed that sweet Pearl's ears and top of her head are in the very bottom right corner of the picture in the post above!

------------------------------

Added nitght of 5/25

Here is a nice photo of Pearl with one of the boys she kept telling to sit down every time he got up.

Benefits of Teens

So we have all of these guys here right now -- the stupendous six -- and they will be here for about 34 hours. Some can not spend the night due to other obligations, but off and on they will all be here for roughly 34 hours. But it is great. They are old enough that Gravity and I can ignore them! We bought the food but they can fix most of it and serve it to themselves. Two of them can drive so if they need more, they can go out and buy more! In fact, we plan on having them buy Kentucky Fry for all of us tomorrow evening. Ahhh...the benefits to having independent teens.

We Are Public

All of our blogs have gone public for searches so hence no comments allowed.