Mom & Dad 26th Anniversary

Here's a picture of Mom and me near the occasion of our 26th anniversary. Actually, we were going to Zach Thomure's wedding to Nikki. Doesn't Mom look good in the black dress?? We were invited to the wedding reception at Dixon, but later we went to Appleby's for some appetizers. On our anniversary earlier this week, I grilled steaks and had dinner ready for Mom when she came home from teaching at Sauk. Zach and Abby helped us make the dinner perfect! Abby made the tastiest French Silk pie (that went fast! -- Mom posted the recipe on a chocolate thread in her BallyK forum and got rave reviews), and Zach helped Dad grill the steak so that it tender and juicy. The best steak we've had in awhile!

Nothing much has been happening up here at Mile High, I've been working again and crossing my fingers for my application to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

I managed to find my self in a car accident last week. Seriously, brand new car and I'm stopping for a red light and someone turns left right in front of me. It was nearly a 6 car pileup, thankfully it wasn't and the damage to the Mustang was minimal although rendering it un-driveable. I think I've been in a rental for longer than I've had to Mustang. Thankfully, the insurance company took liability for the accident right away and even had me fax the bill for my rental car so they could pay it. I was pretty close to freaking out about the whole situation, Clint told me to take a chill pill.

I've gone through almost everything here, I have alot of stuff. Moving back to Illinois is gonna be a hassle, although I have the help of a few friends...I'm gonna have to rent a truck/trailer in order to get everything moved.
Nothing much more this week except waiting for the car to get fixed. Went to a haunted corn maze with a group of friends up north in Greeley tonight, was actually kinda cool. I've managed to catch bronchitis again, yay me! I'll be glad when this mass of sickness is over:P

Christmas

Nate has officially turned in leave for Christmas. It hasn'tn been approved yet, but assuming it does get approved and assuming we can still find affordable airfare by the time it gets approved, I was wondering if there are any important dates/events/other goings on that we should try to fit into our schedule. Nate has mentioned Grandma Thelma's birthday for example. I know it's a bit early to be thinking about all this, but I think a "tentative schedule" of sorts would be the best way to keep conflict to a minimum (namely with my family) and I want to make sure we all get to spend plenty of time together. I'll keep everyone posted on the latest.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Twenty six years! Hooray!

How To Get In Contact With Me/Christmas List

I guess I am fairly hard to reach aside from email. I am rarely, if ever, in my room longer than three minutes at a time until 10:00 on a weeknight.

However, on the weekend I usually study in my room for about an hour. This is the hour inbetween everything else; the Anime Club doesn't meet until 8:00, the library is closed, and I'm done practicing. So between 6:30 PM and 7:30 PM on Saturday I am usually in my room if anyone wants to give me a call (Mom and Dad try to reach every week and FAIL miserably)

The other part of this post is disgustingly materialistic and I always feel vaguely guilty about doing it, but here is my Christmas list courtesy of Amazon.com. Understand I need none of this and if you throw stuff at me that I've never heard of, awesome. But if you're stumped, here's some hints.

These are only suggestions. I love classical music (Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, etc.), all sorts of books, and anything you think I might enjoy.

brrr

It's getting cold over here. We're expecting hi's in the low 40's and lo's in the high 20's this weekend. Brrrr. That's about how cold it normally gets here in January.

Meanwhile, we haven't been doing too much. Nate mostly works on his classes, Caedmon works on making messes, and I've been working on crafts/family history. We hired a babysitter and went out to dinner for our anniversary on Wednesday, but otherwise things are pretty normal. Caedmon and I are going to Ramstein for shopping/lunch @ Chili's today with one of my friends. I guess I should get ready so we can leave her in about 30 min. :-p

In Which I Move One Step Closer To Geekhood.

I have joined the Anime Club. (waits for Elena to choke back vomit)

This indeed makes me far more of a geek, but really, all St. John's guys are geeks. The girls are fairly normal; just a bit more philisophically minded. But the guys....no hope for us. We have our frat boys, never fear, but our frat boys.....love Verdi and Mozart's....operas. Yeah. You can imagine.

We make jokes about non-Euclidean geometry, reference Plato's dialogues in obscure, humorous ways, and dress up as Moses sophmore year for an Ark Party at the top of Camino de Monte Sol. Are we geeks? I leave that up to you.

But to return to anime. Abby and Zach have already been infected - most notably with Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. Elena of course hates it :( but probably because she's never seen good anime. Probably Pokemon and DragonBall Z. Good anime "Takes you to a place where you are intellectually very uncomfortable and explores that issue", according to the head of the Anime Club (who oddly enough is my economics study group tutor)

I have been blessed that I have only seen good anime. Bredon is mostly to thank for that - a handful of Miyazaki movies, Lain, Akira, and most recently, Millennium Actress.

Part of why I like good anime is because of culture shock. The Japanese treatment of familiar Western themes of love, romance, honor, and virtue are handled is such a different way than I am normally accustomed to understanding them.

Another reason is perhaps a sense of nonresolution. Many anime movies end on the cinimatic equivilant of a C minor diminished seventh chord. (ask Dad to play that on the piano) Not every issue in human life fully resolves and anime reflects this.

Lastly, and most importantly for me, good anime is a beautiful art form. Everything ties itself together in a magnificent display of Japanese culture, history, and worldview.

Go ahead. Don't knock it till you've tried it. (this may or may not apply to Mom and Dad who probably do not care for Japanese animation)

Do you ever have a day like this?

I Am Deprived

So there are computer labs at St. John's. Obviously. But the Internet, while decent for web research, email, and browsing, will not permit one to watch Youtube videos - the bandwidth is too small.

Why is this a problem, you may ask? Normally it wouldn't be. But the greatest interpreter of Chopin and Schubert I have ever heard (Krystian Zimerman, a Pole) is on Youtube and I do not own any of his recordings. I have never heard anyone play the Schubert Impromptus or the Chopin Ballades with more grace, poise, and musical sensitivity. His Ballade No.2 in F major is an exquisite jewel.

In addition, the finest Scarlatti interpreter, Ivo Pogorelich ( Czech Republic) is also on Youtube. His Scarlatti is the cleanest, finest, and effortless playing I have ever heard. Hearing him play, you could imagine that Scarlatti intended that his sonatas be performed on a nine-foot Steinway.

So; two fine artists, both of whom are removed from me.

And I am deprived.

Because I'm the Mom

Surely some of you will recognize some familiar phrases here.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=19601620

Back in Thornton, CO

I discovered that not having anything to do can get pretty boring, so I went and got my job back at The Home Depot yesterday, so that'll keep me busy until I figure out what I'm doing with school.

Here's a few pictures from the Star Wars exhibit in Chicago. I forgot my actual camera, so my camera phone will have to do.

About our blog Title

Why exactly is our family blog called Widdershins? I looked thru the blog for the answer and didn't find one.

some photos

We've all been a bit under the weather this weekend, but it's been a good time to catch up on managing my photos. So here are a few new ones (I think). They were all taken in Wiesbaden.

BradtheDad finally gets in the game

Well, I thought it's overdue for me to be joining in the fun, so here goes. Geoff has been visiting us for the past few days, but he left early Sunday morning in his brand new Mustang. And the GT Mustang is still sittin' in yours truly's driveway, so I didn't have to turn in my man card just yet! Geoff, whether by accident or design remains unclear, also left behind a few refreshments for dear old dad, which were procured in Ireland. Here's a picture of Geoff with his Mom in front of his new Mustang.

Here's another one of the dad with the GT. I guess he'll get to drive it to work a time or two more. Eat your heart out Timothy!

Welcome Back, Geoffrey

We have enjoyed having Geoff in and out this week (you know Geoff, doesn't stay in one place too long!). More pics will follow. He is off back to Denver today.

Mom's New Look

Well, what do you think? I haven't done anything different with my hair in most of your lifetimes....

Mon

it runs in the family

It has been a somewhat eventful weekend in our household. We decided that for our anniversary present we would get a new laptop, this way I could still access a computer (a hub for many of my interests/obsessions from photography to knitting) and Nate could work on his school assignments and whatnot. So yesterday I went out and found us a nice little cheap-but-efficient Compaq. Today, Nate had a glass sitting next to our old Gateway notebook and sure enough Caedmon took the liberty of knocking over right onto the computer. After 5 very stressful hours of letting it air out in front of a fan we are glad to report that it is still operational and Nate was able to recover his nearly completed 15page paper on the Civil War. Still, I couldn't help but remember an earlier post regarding a cellphone/being hard on technology and think that maybe it runs in the family. :-p

Favorite Children's Books

Dad has promised (or threatened?) to get himself onto this blog and post this question but I will jumpstart him by asking you the burning question: What were your favorite childhood books? I think Dad would like to compile a list for a buddy with young'uns. What would you recommend for the age 3-5 crowd and why?