It's been weeks since I had time to write. We've had lots of visitors, I went to a conference in Memphis and then more visitors, so I haven't written and haven't even knitted much.
The first group of visitors were families that we knew from when we taught in Brazil. We've gotten together every year or two since the first of us left Brazil. It's so fun to get together with all of them, see how much the kids have grown and pick up where we left off like no time has passed at all. Here are the kids at the local ice cream store. We had ten kids and eight adults and lots of fun in the lake.
I then went to Oxford, Mississippi for a couple of days to visit a friend whom I've taught with in Prague. Visited Rowan Oak (Faulkner's home) and Ole Miss, saw where the first presidential debates will take place between Obama and McCain, attended a reading at a local bookstore by John Grisham's Writer in Residence for 2007-2008, Jack Pendarvis, met an actress who doesn't seem to remember many of the locals' names despite having lived there two years, saw the movie, "We are Wizards," which desperately needed to be edited more, and ate some great Southern cooking. Attended the Laptop Institute in Memphis, Tennessee where I heard lots of great speakers and did a little hour-long presentation on research and laptops. My friend always calls it the "Lap-dance Institute," but I won't go into the one wild
night we had at the end of the conference.
Got home and then had my husband's family up at the lake the next day. They stayed several days and we enjoyed tubing, skiing, fishing, and toasting marshmallows. My in-laws even took the kids one night and the three couples got to go out to eat and have normal conversation, although even that is getting easier now that the kids are older and better able to entertain themselves. Everyone gives my mother-in-law a hard time about her family photos, which she insists on each year. There's only one photogenic family in the bunch (and we're not the one), so the rest of us sort of suffer through and end up looking like the poor relations when the Christmas card comes out, but it is fun to have the photos in the end. Here is the annual "self-timer" photo so everyone is there.
Knitting note: I'm on my last little panel for the curtain (at least with the yarn I have). I think I will need to buy more. Not sure I'll have this done before we leave as that is less than two weeks away. My husband was relaxing out at the dock last night when the beaver cruised by. He said that that brazen beaver came within feet of him, sort of gave him the triple stink eye and kept going. Asked if he was carrying a beaver stick for my second curtain rod, but hubby said no. Thought maybe hubby could have wrestled the beaver for it.
At the laptop institute I didn't knit. Saw two knitters, though. One woman was knitting a blue baby something but didn't have time to ask about it as my friend, who was presenting next, couldn't find the right sized dongle for her computer and needed my help. There was also a man knitting. My friend remembers him from when she attended two years ago.
The first group of visitors were families that we knew from when we taught in Brazil. We've gotten together every year or two since the first of us left Brazil. It's so fun to get together with all of them, see how much the kids have grown and pick up where we left off like no time has passed at all. Here are the kids at the local ice cream store. We had ten kids and eight adults and lots of fun in the lake.
I then went to Oxford, Mississippi for a couple of days to visit a friend whom I've taught with in Prague. Visited Rowan Oak (Faulkner's home) and Ole Miss, saw where the first presidential debates will take place between Obama and McCain, attended a reading at a local bookstore by John Grisham's Writer in Residence for 2007-2008, Jack Pendarvis, met an actress who doesn't seem to remember many of the locals' names despite having lived there two years, saw the movie, "We are Wizards," which desperately needed to be edited more, and ate some great Southern cooking. Attended the Laptop Institute in Memphis, Tennessee where I heard lots of great speakers and did a little hour-long presentation on research and laptops. My friend always calls it the "Lap-dance Institute," but I won't go into the one wild
night we had at the end of the conference.Got home and then had my husband's family up at the lake the next day. They stayed several days and we enjoyed tubing, skiing, fishing, and toasting marshmallows. My in-laws even took the kids one night and the three couples got to go out to eat and have normal conversation, although even that is getting easier now that the kids are older and better able to entertain themselves. Everyone gives my mother-in-law a hard time about her family photos, which she insists on each year. There's only one photogenic family in the bunch (and we're not the one), so the rest of us sort of suffer through and end up looking like the poor relations when the Christmas card comes out, but it is fun to have the photos in the end. Here is the annual "self-timer" photo so everyone is there.
Knitting note: I'm on my last little panel for the curtain (at least with the yarn I have). I think I will need to buy more. Not sure I'll have this done before we leave as that is less than two weeks away. My husband was relaxing out at the dock last night when the beaver cruised by. He said that that brazen beaver came within feet of him, sort of gave him the triple stink eye and kept going. Asked if he was carrying a beaver stick for my second curtain rod, but hubby said no. Thought maybe hubby could have wrestled the beaver for it.At the laptop institute I didn't knit. Saw two knitters, though. One woman was knitting a blue baby something but didn't have time to ask about it as my friend, who was presenting next, couldn't find the right sized dongle for her computer and needed my help. There was also a man knitting. My friend remembers him from when she attended two years ago.
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