8/6/08

Hi fam--- just thought I'd catch you up on some Mom news and hope I get a couple e-mails in reply. Mir and I have talked, but Jules is thin on news and Babbo must be awfully busy-- I have listened to the sublime CD three times and LOVE it-- I LOVE how great it LOOKS too!! Karen reported you had sent one to them and maybe they listened to it last weekend before Davey returned to Qatar--but maybe not....this weekend is the big move for Chris--out of Boston, back to Pittsburgh. I was thinking this morning how all of that has meshed nicely with Miriam's needing a place to stash stuff and to inherit some furniture/stuff for her apt.

THe Scottie tile is up in my kitchen, and the Greyfriars Bobby card is on the bulletin board over my desk. Thank you SO much!!!

Laura has been out of town for a full week and we are struggling to figure out how our working relationship will actually WORK, so meantime, I have decided to have more of an non-Laura-focused life. ( ha, you all say, but it is true)

Two weekends ago Lily and I went to Newark, OH, where there are some of the oldest and biggest earthworks of prehistoric peoples in the US-- we climbed around on the one that has public access--the other, more magnificent one is actually an f---ing golf course-- so public can only look at it from afar-- we are talking circles fully 1500 feet in diameter with walls rising 50 feet above the bottom of the moat on the inside of one-- the other, at the golf course, is two very large structures--one a circle that from above looks like a balloon with a neck-- where the neck of the balloon is, there is a barrier mound whose purpose has never been determined, but some time ago, someone figured out that the orientation of the neck is to where the moon rises in midsummer. The other structure is called an octagon-- it is about two city blocks long and one and half wide -- the octogon part comes from the fact that the long sides are made up of two parts that are pushed slightly outwards at the middle of each long side- like as if you made a rectangle with matchsticks--two to a short side and four to a long side and just pushed out the ends of the match sticks at the middle of each side -- it makes eight sides, but not in the usual shape of an octagon. The purpose of that one is not known--- These earthworks were part of a complex that was FOUR MILES SQUARE originally-- or at least the remains mapped in 1837 were still 4 miles square. They were built around 2,-000 years ago!!!!

(((OMIGOD I JUST DISCOVERED A WONDERFUL THING!!! i ACCIDENTALLY ERASED ALL OF THE ABOVE AND HAVE NEVER FIGURED OUT HOW TO RETRIEVE IT--THEN THOUGHT THERE MUST BE A KEYBOARD COMMAND FOR UNDO TYPING==AND THERE WAS!!!!! WHew!!!)))

In the white man's usual wonderful respect for native cultures, there was a GD canal built RIGHT THROUGH the mounds that made long roadways into these earthworks in the mid 1800's--and now most are gone --first into farms, then into suburbs. Friday Lily and I were walking along a gorgeous trail along the Olentangy River, (known to students as the Olendingy) and there was a huge sort of serpent mound at the edge of the park between a neighborhood and the playing fields-- not labelled, but once you see them, they are unmistakable.

There is something awful to me about how little attention these get--they are as magnificent as any prehistoric structures we've ever clambered over anywhere---I am on a mission to see as many of them as possible. Lily loves that ,too!!

And speaking of Lily. -- LILY SWAM!!! She wades right out into streams and rivers--no plunging like spaniels do, but she LOVES water--and when she slipped off a rock the other day, she actually swam a little ways back to where she could stand in the water...Housetraining is coming along-- almost always outside==but she doesn't yet ask---I have to be sure to run her out.

She is SO full of puppy energy-- playing is a serious undertaking. The house is a total mess of toys-- plastic bottles ( they crackle nicely) big plastic cups ( ditto) , shoes, her gorilla from Julie, rope toys, a lobster hook ( from a lobster claw she found in Maine) etc.-- she will NOT eat dog treats of any kind. Her best treat is Baby's cat food-- the wet stuff-- and if I am not fast, instead of standing in the kitchen to eat it, where she will get yelled at and spanked, she now grabs the bowl and runs into the dining room or outside-- little so and so. She is VERY leggy now ( I know, I know--pictures-- soon--this week-- I promise) -- and looks like a colt that is half grown-- she has little size-- just legs-- and the cutest little goatee you ever saw!! NOt much poodle as yet-- still looks pretty Pom--but it is coming-- she is shedding baby hair like crazy-- I am hoping she will be sort of curly like "Tunia was.

Last weekend we went to Pittsburgh-- Karen LOVES Lily ( but Chris says no dog with Poo or Doodle in the name!!) so we have good time there. Karen and I saw two movies -- Inconvenient Truth and Lady in the Water(which is weird, but interesting if you give yourself over to it) -- and ate lunches out and Davey cooked dinner. He was pressed to convert the computers in the house before Chris returned--and I got a cast off Mac Tower and all component parts-- G 4 with updated hard drive. I got a new table for it and it is now my doctoral work computer only. YAY!!

This weekend I went to the Ohio State Fair--nothing like what I remember the Wis.State Fair as being-- a major event in my childhood years--but fun-- there were lots of shows of various kinds-- rodeo, dogs ( Babbo there was a two-year old Basset female who was a demo dog in the obedience show!!!!), comic, bands, cloggers-- the latter were the doing in of me. I sat there looking at these mostly out of shape senior citizens in too-tight navy shorts and T-shirts from their club who clog in white shoes to blues music--- many had serious CRS issues--never quite in step--and I was GRATEFUL that my daughters were not there next to me or we would all have wet our pants. It was just CLASSIC midwest--the whole scene.

I dragged up and down the midway past fast food that would kill off healthy elephants-- fried everything in giant sized portions-- and gave in only for kettle popped popcorn ( I have lost 7 pounds in two weeks and am not about to interrupt that!!) -- but I was really beat-- it wasn't too hot, but my right leg is killing me--( I pulled a hamstring skating in Providence after Julie left town and it has been getting worse instead of better-- I have an appointment Tuesday to get a referral to PT. ) Anyway, the fair was nice-- the only thing I bought was a super deal on ........OXYCLEAN!! Girls, you may not know or remember that state fairs are one of the prime sites for hawkers like you see on infomercials-- and they always offer a " right now at the fair only" deals-- so I got Miriam laundry supplies for a year!!

Doctoral work was my goal for August and I have made excellent progress on sorting out sources I had lumped in crates when I moved so I can finish revising my long paper on phonological skills and submit that and then write two others. Now I have my bibliographic program on the new Mac, I can accumulate my library on the computer-- without that I am unable to manage the sources--and when I transferred the library from my jump drive, where it was living from when Miriam took it off Julie's old I-book, which I gave her, it synched immediately with my program. YAYY!!. Also, I told Mir, I was asked to present a research overview of LD/ESOL at a research conference in Sacramento in December--that will be an excellent goal for getting a huge lit review done for my dissertation and/or one of my qualifiying papers. I will submit the paper I did for my Texas research project for credit as well, so things are really moving-- and now that Julie is done with school, and I can pay for my own courses, I can put in for independent studies.

I had hoped to have a contract in Texas in early September, but that isn't going to happen, so I will probably come to Boston several days early both to see people and to help you , Mir, with any thing you need related to moving in. I think I will ask Bennetts if I can stay there, as I will have Lily with me. I then go to VA to do some PowerPath training on the 11th or 12th--unless they change the dates, which is possible. Lisa (from Providence) is coming with me to that training, and will bring her dog, too, so we will find a motel that is pet-friendly.

I am also making a few moves to get politically involved-- will do some passive campaigning on Tuesday (wearing a T-shirt, handing out pamphlets) and may do more. Our block is having a block party on the 28th, and I am doing petition signing for that so we can close the street-- and making apple tarts for the neighbors-- my apple trees are an endless supply of apples-- and the peaches may also be worth eating.

Reading and movies are taking up a major part of my summer-- I finally finished Dorothy Dunnett's King Hereafter-- which is the story of MacBeth-- GREAT history-- then read About a Boy and Light on Snow ( Anita Shreve) in short order--both very good-- the latter gripping, though simple in its story.
I just started Wonder Boys, by Michael Chabon. All thanks to Julie's great bookshelves!!

Movies-- I just watched Memoirs of a Geisha--which I LOVED-- and Capote, which I loved, too--Whatshisname was fantastic-- also saw junk-- Prime--which was terrible, Red Eye, also terrible, and Flight plan-- scary but shallow. Re-watched AirForce One-- stupid movie --but I love Harrison Ford reminding us what a real president is supposed to be like....I am doing Blockbuster on line-- which I hate-- movies come so slowly-- how is it with Netflicks-- do more than three come at a time?? By the time I watch mine and send them back, more have not come. Drives me nuts. I complained to Blockbuster and they sent me a coupon to rent for 2.99 but I am already paying the online service-- probably will ditch it. I saw Wordplay--but I told you all that-- don't miss it-- it is fabulous. I think I will go see Night Listener in the theater--- looks great- and Toni Collette's other new one-- Little Miss Sunshine.

So Babbo-- how are the tenants? Long term, you hope?? and music?? Your present has not come yet== Amazon screwed me yet again-- so will need to get my money refunded and try again. two out of three tries on Amazon-- order is recorded but never comes.

jules-- tell us how your job is --where, doing what??? and any other junk about the apartment, or SD or anything-- I miss you all a LOT.

Family notes: Aunt Reba turns 70 on Tuesday-- mail card to Betsy's address if you want----139 Buckboard Rd, Tijeras NM 87059--- Uncle Bill turns 70 on the 18th (2814 Euclid AVe, Alb. NM 87106) -- I heard Drew and George are both coming in for that. Robert Lovrien is 39 on the 18th, too-- many family birthdays this month--Janet Sue ( jr.) and Sumiko and Abigail, too--

Much LOVE-- and WRITE BACK__ ( my computer system all of a sudden is screening the porno spam I used to get-- now I get hardly any mail--who'd have thought I'd miss the junk???)) Mom