April Birthdays and May Visitors, 2007

April 14, 2007

Hi:

Just a quick note to say Cris and Bill got in all safe and sound about 3:30 pm. It was so awesome that their connection through Denver got cancelled so they got put on the non-stop flight. It was snowing as they drove down from Santa Fe with Ellie. This has been a bad winter in Santa Fe.

I found giant scollops on sale, so we made Cris' Asia Nora dish with the carrot-orange juice sauce and it was delicious. After dinner we watched the season finale of "Friday Night Lights." We really like this show about high school football so we hope they don't cancel it. [Apparently they didn't.]

Cris had a great week in Los Alamos of connecting with so many people at the Lab and officially talked to each division leader (3) that he would like to work for so we will see how that all comes out. On top of giving talks and trying to cheer the scientists up there he maintained a heavy social schedule as well. He took Dad out for dinner on Monday night. Sean took them out for dinner on Tuesday night. Wednesday he and Bill had dessert with Paula and Will and Selina and Thursday he wrote up notes etc. and got ready to come home.

I worked pretty hard on the recital so didn't get as many work outs in at the gym. I bought a lot of new clothes. Boy that was fun! Now I have some pants that aren't falling off. I also found 3 dresses all non-white. I used the rest of your Xmas money, Mie, for the turquoise dress, so thank you very much for the birthday present. I also got Bill several shirts but he wore his oldest rattiest black pants here again so I plan to buy him another pair of pants today and then out those old ones go. It's tough to be the Dad with such a bossy daughter-in-law.

The girls had an easy transition back into school after spring break. Susie had no flute and E didn't have much homework. She is trying to run track around her singing schedule. I hope she can do that. She needs more to do. The kids who are singing on the Mother's Day concert sound good and so that is going along.

Today we are going to the gym and then out to the mall to buy more presents for the birthday folks of April. We might try to get close to the FD Roosevelt memorial today by car so Bill and I can see it and maybe see some blossoms before the big storm from Santa Fe comes in and wrecks everything.

Hope you are well. Hope Sean and Annie and Teresa can relax after tough work weeks. I hope Kathi's version of chicken caccitore for which I read Cris' recipe over the phone came out well.

Love Mar

Birthdays in April

Sunday Bill, Marilyn and I dressed up and went to "The Daughter of the Regiment" at Kennedy Center in the afternoon matinee. Then we came back home and picked up the girls and we all went out to a fantastic restaurant, 2941. I had heard about it at word independently from two colleagues, it is ranked Top 10 or better in the DC area in our washingtonian.com web guide we use, and I wanted to treat all the April birthday people. It was better than fabulous. And yes, that is watermelon-flavored cotton candy being served as a go-away treat at the end in the picture.

We had lots of presents for Dad on his birthday, including a new Swiss Army knife to replace the one the TSA took last trip, a new light jacket for gardening in, and this great shirt. And Marilyn made home-made German chocolate cake that we used twice, once for Dad and once for her.

April 18, 2007

Hi:

I had an excellent birthday. I had to make my own salad but the kids did the dishes. I got lots of fun stuff. Besides all the clothes I bought for myself, Cris got me a spatula (I got 3, one each from the girls as well) and a salad dressing curet (I've been looking all year) and a gorgeous tablecloth and napkins. Thanks so much for the book Sean. It looks really funny. I will be happy to spend the money too! E got me a great pair of shorts for exercising and Susie got me a coffee mug that will ride around in GG and it is magnificent. Also a longer pair of exercise pants. E did not approve of the ones I bought myself. They bought the presents with their own money so that was very special. Dad is going to get me a new white couch for the studio when I go to South Carolina in July. They are suppose to have wonderful furniture and great deals on furniture in the Carolinas. Thanks Teresa and Annie for the fun phone calls.

Yesterday we went to see the really really BIG planes out at Dulles, and Bill really enjoyed that! I also rehearsed with Alex and got 2 1/2 miles in on the treadmill.

Today we are going to rehearse with the kids at 2:30 and then as soon as we get home, Bill and I must dash to get Bill down to the flower museum so Cris can pick him up for the ball game. I will run back home in time to pick up the kids for dancing. This morning I need to practice so I am not completely bad at Vicki's tomorrow.

Love Mar

[Dad and I went to the Nationals' game against the Phillies that night. We had a great time, I doing constant play-by-play for Dad and eating peanuts. We gave up bottom of the 11th, afraid we would miss the last Metro home, and the Nats won in the bottom of the 13th.]

Weekend with Teresa

That Friday night was hectic but well-planned and executed. I ran two workshops that week, and on Friday went to the JASON meeting out in Tyson's Corner with Marilyn driving me there. That evening, Marilyn took the girls and Dad to Kennedy Center where Dad treated the girls to dinner on The Terrace. They then went to a National Symphony Orchestra concert. Meanwhile, Marilyn came back across the river to downtown Arlington to the hotel where the JASON's had their reception and we did the fancy Washington power scence (well, as powerful as nerd scientists get, but still a very nice spread and Marilyn got to meet several people). When the concert was done, Marilyn and I left the party, drove over the river to the Kennedy Center, and picked up the "kids" and took them home. Then Mar and I went out to Dulles Airport, and picked up Teresa when she landed in from Chicago. Just like clockwork!

The next day I went back to the JASON meeting while Marilyn toured around DC with Bill and Teresa. We've really come to like the FDR memorial. And that is a very nice picture of Marilyn sitting next to George Mason.

Susie's Fifteenth

The next week Susie turned fifteen. More German chocolate cake, more presents, more fun.

April 30, 2007

Hi:

I had a marvelous time with my graduate school friends this weekend. I flew up very early on Saturday morning and Beth [Norton], our host, picked me up and we drove over to Terminal C to get Cynthia [Heininger, who flew in from Philly]. It was then 9 am so we cruised Boston and found a parking place and so walked around and ended up at Quincy Market. Much shopping and conversation and scones and coffees ensued. Then wonder of wonders, the restaurant my family really loves in the U.K. had just opened their first restaurant in America on Monday, so we ate at Wagamama's a Japanese noodle house. Then we shopped a little more and drove to Concord and saw Beth's church and did the tour of Emerson's house. We got to Beth's house about 6 and got settled in. We looked at old scrapbooks until the lasagna was warm. Delicious meal and lots more visiting and finally to bed late.

Sunday morning we got up early and joined Beth at church. It was great to see her work with her choir and we enjoyed the service. We are all Unitarians but she is a very important one. Not only is she music director at First Church but she is president of the board of UU Music and does lots of traveling. She is taking her choir to Transylvania again this summer.

Cyn and I went for another scone and then we met up at noon and Karen [Hager? nee Richards] drove up from her place and we had a great lunch. Went back to Beth's to visit and look at picture books and then started looking on the internet to see if we could find anyone. Cynthia did! What fun.

Then back to the airport that everning and Cris picked my up. He had a lovely dinner fixed and we watched a Grey's Anatomy out of Susie's birthday 2nd season CD's. [The family became addicted to Grey's Anatomy for a well, hopefully the grades did not suffer too much.] My voice was tired from talking so much.

Hope you all get to do the same and see old friends. It's great!

Love Marilyn

May 7,2007

Hi:

The concert dress is a typical Mar dress with a tight upper bodice and a big full skirt to cover a multitude of sins. Even E pronounced my underarms not quite so wiggley so that will have to be good enough. I finally realized that you have to lift weights 3 xs a week to make any progress on 50 plus muscles. My week was mostly taken up with working on the recital. I have been working with all of the kids and I love that. Ever since Sean starting writing Xmas plays for us to perform for the grandma's, I've loved putting on a show. There's a funny story about when Sean and I were in Petersburg Ak together. He came out and asked what on earth I was doing so late. I said the wings looked so blah for the angels, I thought I would color them. I think I was using colored pencils if you can imagine. So when I told Sean I was making different costume pieces to go with the different musical characters I'm portraying--he said Mar's coloring angel wings again. I wanted to practice with Vicki a few times this week, but she refused. She said you're ready! On with the show. Quite a departure for my usual freak out before a show. It should be a very kind audience. Who knows, Dave, Mary and Julie might make it for the last few songs. They are going to leave their luggage and my friend Martina's husband will drive out and get them. It all depends on traffic and how hard the wind is blowing people east on Saturday.

E took the choir festival trip to Hershey Amusement park. They had a great time and they all got rated Superiors or 1's except the concert band. The jazz band, orchestra, and both choirs got 1's. They took over 200 kids. It was impressive when I picked her up and the 5 huge chartered buses came lumbering up. We are going to miss a lot of aspects of these amazing school systems.

Cris made a great weekend for himself. He went to a modern museum of art on Saturday and a museum that shows mostly architecture. He said there is a green section all about how you can make your home more environment friendly. He was scared but thought I should go see it. Sunday he took a couple of friends from work up to Baltimore to see a baseball game. Susie wanted to veg with her weekend. She had her friend Amanda over Friday night and we made a big Target run Saturday afternoon. She also tricked herself into going to Fitness First with me. Her Dad bought her the Grey's Anatomy CD's and she is totally addicted. She insists not but she is really enjoying them.

I made Simple Salmon last night and we watched Ugly Betty together. We enjoyed that as well!

Hope you all have a great week.

Love Mar

May 23, 2007

Hi:

Well, it seems a long time since I sang my concert last Saturday. We did a lot of living this past week. It was a lot of fun! Dave Mary and Julie got in 20 minutes early but then sat on the runway for 45 minutes so by the time my friend's husband picked them up and got them to the school the show was over. Oh well, at least they got here safe and sound.

The concert went very well. I sort of ruined it for Cris by asking him to tape it. He flipped a switch wrong on the camcorder in the dark, so he didn't get 5 songs at the beginning until he figured out what he had done wrong. Then the rest has been recorded for posterity. The kids all sang well and it was a blast to get to sing with Elizebeth. She sang Hansel to my Witch and Maria to my Mother Superior. The audience really liked the little musical theater scenes and I loved singing them so that was a win win.

We went back to the restaurant Myanmar, the Burmese restaurant we took Teresa to. Rick and Danee Devore joined us so that was fun and there were a lot of us so we got to order a lot of fun food. Everyone slept very well that night.

Cris and Dave went out to the big air and space museum out at Dulles, while

Mary, Jules and I went into the city and met Mary's friend Barbara at the train station. She was in their wedding and I remembered her so that was cool. We wandered over past the Capitol and to the Museum of the American Indian and had a drink and ate the lunch Mary and I prepared for us. Then we toured the botanical gardens. Julie is really smart and knows the names of famous artists who had a display of his glass flowers in the outdoor garden or she could reference any mythological figure we encountered in our touring. We met up with the boys after we had had a gelato. It was delicious, almost as good as in italy. We met them at the National Gallery and then walked over to the Building museum and saw a wonderful exhibit on how to live green. Then we ended up at Gordon Biersch microbrewery and Dave and Mary treated us to a nice dinner. Cris went home to help with homework, and Barbara went to Union Station to take the train home, and the rest of us went to the Folger Shakespeare theater at the Library of Congress. We saw the Tempest. It was so wonderful. The actors were so engaging. I teared up a few times during the show. Lots of techno flourishes at the beginning for the storm and for Ariel. We got home around 10 pm and I had a sweet few minutes with my girls. I had left before they were up and it was Mother's Day. Other than missing them, great first day for our visitors!

Monday, Cris got them to the Washington Monument while I took Susie to the orthodontist. She is getting close to the end and had to have a bracket moved so it was good we could get that in. I met the visitors with the lunch and we did the memorials. The Vietnam was ruined in my opinion by an assignment for school kids. They all had to write a letter to a nebulous mom who had lost a kid in the war. It covered up all of the personal memorials families leave. These letters from the kids would say, "thanks for giving up your son to the war." It just seemed impersonal and weird. So we got none of the hush that usually falls over the crowd and not much out of my favorite memorial. Lincoln of course with the movie of Martin Luther King running in the basement was awesome. The Korean one was quite moving as well. Then we ate and then we walked to FDRoosevelt. Then I had to hoof it back to the subway. It took me 1/2 hour so I knew they had at least 2 miles to get back. They made it and went to the White House exhibit and actually saw the White House. I enjoyed seeing it yesterday when Cris and I were walking to the Renwick. I think they did some more stuff but I can't remember. I made So Simple Salmon and we all enjoyed that. Then we watched my concert and saw some of Dave and Mary's pictures on computer.

Tuesday we drove off to Mount Vernon. It was most enjoyable. We saw a lot of stuff that we didn't go to in our visit at Thanksgiving. We went to the farm and talked to one of the workers there quite awhile. She was still learning what variety of wheat Washington was raising. That was his money crop rather than tobacco. Just like our farm. We took a break and ate our lunch under the grape arbor that now had lovely shade from the leaves. Then we hit the museum for awhile and saw the movie with the snow on the audience in it. Then we had dessert at the Inn. Mary's was the only one homemade but it was still fun. We got home just in time to throw in the pecan encrusted chicken and had a nice dinner. Then we headed back on the metro to the Ford Theater. We were early, not like the run we did to get to the Tempest in time, so we enjoyed the museum downstairs. I liked "Meet John Doe" just as well if not better this time, so that was fun. Dave, Mary and Julie all enjoyed it as well.

Wednesday I had to take E to the dentist so the crew headed in by themselves. E described her appointment almost the whole way to school. She said the lady scraped at least 3 times. They managed to get Jules a Library of Congress card so she got to see the gorgeous reading room, and Dave and Mary enjoyed the tourist rooms you can do without the card. We met across from the botanical gardens and had our lunch the same place Don and Kathi and crew and I lunched one day during their spring break.

After lunch we went to air and space to see the American History part, and then Mary and I came home and picked up kids and headed down to the dance studio. Once we dropped them off, Mary and I continued to old town Alexandria and shopped at Trader Joe's. Mary liked that. We tried to go into some of the cute shops but they all closed at 7 pm so I should have done that first and the grocery store last. Dave and Julie went to the national portrait gallery and then met up with Cris. They had gotten tickets from our friend Rick to go to a Nationals baseball game. It was a good game, with the Nats scoring 4 in the bottom of the 5th in a big rally and then the bullpen shutting down the Atlanta Braves the rest of the way. Turns out to have been the start of a 12-5 record in the past couple weeks! Dave really enjoyed the great seats; it was his first major league game, and he could finally put into context all those Mariner radio broadcasts he listened to.

I had to have them out to the airport by 6:30 am so it was early. It was lots of fun to have them here. They were enthusiastic about everything, especially Julie. She seems very happy. She said the last time I saw you I was out of a job and yuk! This time I have a full time summer job and then off to Korea for a year to teach English.

Thursday, I worked on getting the house back together. I took Susie to flute and then came home and Cris drove back down and picked her up so I could go up to Strathmore and hear "Songs for a New World" by Robert Jason Brown. He is a newish musical theater composer. There were 4 singers who were top notch and the composer played the piano and conducted the band. It was thrilling. I went with Joan, a voice teacher friend from NATS.

Friday night we went to E's choral concert. It was very good and again Miss Gephardt said how much E helped the 2nd soprano section. We came home and vegged and watched some TV.

Saturday was a big day of shopping. E found her graduation dress, actually 2 dresses, one for the ceremony and one for the dance. We went to Macy's and they were having a great sale. Then we shopped for Paula and Selina's birthday gifts. We joined up with Mattie and her Mom and little sister and had sushi for lunch so it was a great trip. Then Mattie and E worked on getting ready for the party and eventually 10 girls came to our townhouse.

At one point they all dressed up in something of E's and she had done everyone's make up and they had a little parade outside. Much more mellow than the last one. Cris and I ended up having a marathon watching of Lost's. Now we are caught up so we can watch the finale with Sean this week. There was no confetti at this party, and we liked knowing where everyone was.

Sunday, Cris Suse and I exercised over at Fitness First. I had marathon woman Wendy leading class, so I got a hard workout on my arms. Very good though. Then after lunch Cris and I went into town and saw the Women's museum of art and then the Renwick, the decorative arts museum and had a coffee. The Renwick has in its grand salon a room full of Catlin's Indian portraits and western paintings, plus three giant Thomas Moran paintings of Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. It was a nice date for the two of us!! E made us dinner but she is such a perfectionist -- she thought it didn't turn out well. Hey, I didn't have to make it so I was not critical. We got a lot of chores finished that night and this week I have been busy working on the upcoming move getting all of the people in place: live movers and painters and docs and dentists once we are home.

Last night was a bit hectic for E. Susie took her flute lesson early because of Sean's coming. E was trying to finish homework, study for SOL's (Virginia state "standards of learning" tests), practice her science fair presentation again and pack for her trip to James Madison University from today until 3 pm on Friday and also pack for our subsequent trip to Williamsburg. We are literally going to pick her up and start the long slow drive in traffic down to Williamsburg. Sean will be here today at 3:30. We are very excited to see him. So more later and hope you all are doing well and happy.

Love Mar

Sean's Visit, and the Historic (and then the Fun) Triangles

Sean's Arrival

I'm hoping Sean will write a long Mom letter and I can plop those words in here. Meanwhile, I'll mention that he is still using a throwaway film camera -- some century he'll send analog hard copies and I'll scan the best ones in. Meanwhile, he and Marilyn forgot the digital camera on Thursday when they did the Washington Monument and the Memorials loop.

Well, I had a great time at the Barnes Family Organic Spa and Fitness Center. I flew out to DC last, last Wednesday and returned on Tuesday, the 30th. The flight was fine, encouraging after all the horror stories. Elizebeth was at her science competition at James Madison University, but Cris, Marilyn, Susie and I had a delicious salmon dinner. The house was beautiful, as always, and Susie let me use her room. We crashed early.

Thursday Marilyn and I did all the memorials, that big loop from the Washington Monument through to FDR that several of you have done now. We stopped first at Cris's office (the Darth Vader building) to pick up the Washington Monument tickets he'd generously stood in line for early that morning. The day was gorgeous and the view incredible. We thought of Dad who always liked to get up high and see the lay of the land when he traveled. An unexpected fun part was finding a mostly out of the way bench beside a pond and meditating before lunch. The film at the Abraham Lincoln memorial killed me, all those different people -- African Americans, women, union workers, GLBT people, peace activists making pilgrimages to this symbolic place and asking our government to truly be "of the people, by the people and for the people." I can still be very patriotic about old America.

There was a confusion about tickets for the play Marilyn and I had planned to go to Thursday night, but we were fried anyway. Even though this was mean to Elizebeth, Cris, Marilyn and I watched the two hour season finale of "Lost." It was really fun to watch it all together.

My daughter, the scientist!

Elizebeth won third place in the 7th-9th grade physics category for the Virginia Junior Academy of Science science fair! She spent three days at James Madison University up in the Shenandoah valley, and did a Powerpoint presentation of her project (she built a dynamo and induced a voltage from a rotating magnetic field and used Faraday's Law). She got a cool medal, and $20 of which she is justifiably proud.

Williamsburg

We picked her up from the returning bus about 4pm on Friday, and set out for Williamsburg. Typical bad traffic on I-95 south, but we were together and listening to a book so we didn't care (much). Got to our hotel about 8pm and Susie and I swam, trying out her SwiMP3 player in the water for the first time after I had loaded it up that morning with songs. Awesome, she said.

So on Saturday we did Williamsburg. Making bricks was the most fun, we loved the "Crystal Concert" on all glass instruments (armonium, glass hand bells, a crystal baschet, and a glass violin), and I loved the cabinetmaker as usual.

Friday, Marilyn and I did Fitness First and then took Cris shopping to Filene's Basement. He was in desperate need of some clothes that fit. My favorite was his sort of pleated skirt look pants, using his belt to hold them on. Great success there. Elizebeth's bus broke down and she was late getting back, but we all piled in Green Goddess and headed off to our hotel in Williamsburg. (You all know she won third place, right?) It was a fun drive all together with our delicious lunch and catching up and the Barnes family tradition of books on tape.

Saturday we did colonial Williamsburg, so fun with all the docents in costume and happy to demonstrate things and answer any questions. Elizebeth and Susie stomped around in the clay getting it ready to make bricks. We went to this wonderful concert on the glass armonica. You know how you can make sounds by wetting your finger and running it around the rim of a wine glass? Benjamin Franklin loved what they were doing with this in Europe, and made an actual instrument that was far more efficient than assembling a bunch of glasses. Very cool. The musician was delightful, so enthusiastic. I got to see how the printing press works and then how they bind the pages into books. I especially enjoyed the kitchen and garden of the Governor's Palace.

I sat in George's pew (we sat there for the concert that evening) at the church, and we did the Governor's Palace but liked the gardens and kitchen the best.

We did dinner at the famous Trellis Restaurant, and had Death By Chocolate (as from the cookbook my Mom had from this very restaurant!).

And I finally discovered my Scottish roots. We went into the Celtic store right before lunch, and they had a list of last names associated with the various clans. Gardner comes from the Gordon clan and we have our own tartan and everything. So Teresa and I, at least, are Scottish. Sorry for the rest of you. Dot had this great cookbook called "Death by Chocolate." It just so happens that the chef who wrote the book has a restaurant in Williamsburg, the Trellis. So Cris and Marilyn had made reservations for us. The dinner itself was magnificent, such gorgeous food. The crab cake alone was to die for. Marilyn and Cris shared their dessert and Susie had something less extreme, but Elizebeth and I? Death by Chocolate, of course. Seven layers. Beyond sinful. And it was death. We could each only eat half. I had my second half first thing the next morning in my hotel room and died again. Just maybe there can be too much of a good thing.

Jamestown

The next day we went to the new Jamestown Settlement museum. While I helped Elizebeth with her math homework, the others toured the Indian village and the ships. Then I drove the girls down to Newport News and we went to the Virginia Living Museum. We did the "Survivor Jamestown" game they had set up which was kid-like but fun for the three of us and hands-on which is better than boring museums, and then we walked around the nice wildlife exhibits. After Starbucks we went back and got Sean and Marilyn and drove home, stopping at a southern pancake restaurant for breakfast, err dinner.

Sunday Cris, Susie and Elizebeth went off to an interactive colonial experience while Marilyn and I did Jamestown. Here's my favorite thing from the Indian village. In each hill, they planted one corn, one bean and a squash. The corn grows tall, giving the bean something to climb on, and the squash covers the ground all around, making it harder for weeds to grow. Cool, huh? We went onto a replica of the Susan Constant, the largest of the three ships, which seemed very small for 71 people. We also saw the colonial village inside the fort. Watched all the movies which helped us get oriented. The museums are so interesting now. I got to learn a whole bunch of new stuff.

We also took the shuttle over to Historic Jamestown where they're doing an archeological dig and have actually discovered the foundation of the original fort. We thought of Sam. Here was my favorite part. The museum there was describing the first landing party after being at sea for five months. They used the language of one of the colonists talking about a portly fellow: "And then all his grease melted out of him and he expired, and there was nothing we could do." In the humidity, I'd been pretty much sweating like a pig the whole time, so we had a lot of fun with that, talking about how all my grease was melting out of me.

We connected back up with Cris, Susie and Elizebeth who'd had a fun day, and then headed home. I had my heart set on grits and we wanted to do breakfast, so we found Aunt Sarah's Pancake House. It was actually kind of terrible and they were out of grits, but it was funky and odd and parts of each breakfast were good. The book on tape got us safely home. I need to go to the library and check it out so I can read and find out what happened at the end.

Memorial Day - Roosevelt Island and Georgetown

The "fun triangle" trip I invented and we did on Memorial Day (four of us, not Elizebeth who had to stay home and do homework she didn't get done because of the three day science fair trip). We parked in Rosslyn, walked over to Teddy Roosevelt Island and walked around it and had a picnic up by the big memorial we had never seen.

So Monday morning, Memorial Day, Elizebeth opted to stay home and catch up for school. But the rest of us drove to the Theodore Roosevelt island park/memorial. Well, actually it's in that place in DC you can't actually get to. But Cris triumphed only to find all the parking spaces on the island taken, plus you could only park for two hours. So we parked in Roslyn, Virginia and found a walkway across the freeway and over to the island. So far so good. Cris had joked that this adventure he'd invented might require some overland hiking including rappelling up and down a bridge abutment or two. Had a most excellent hike around the island and a great lunch at the memorial itself where Teddy, one hand upraised, unfortunately looked a little like Adolph Hitler.

Then we walked across the Key Bridge to Georgetown. I think the main big building (Healy Hall) looks like a stand-in for Hogwarts. Finally, we walked over the Wisconsin Avenue and Thomas Sweets, and shared a couple of blend-ins.

That evening, we watched the Mother's Day concert and then Irish Dancing concert, and went to bed.

Part Two of the adventure involved walked across the Potomac and into Georgetown. Once again, there was a very convenient walkway, so no rappelling was necessary. We went right onto the Georgetown campus quadrangle that has this huge, old, Hogwarts style building. They're in the summer school session now, so the building was open and we got to go in. Very cool. And then, as our reward, we walked over to Thomas Sweets for blend-ins. Yum! Then back across the Potomac and over to Roslyn.

We got home and scooped up Elizebeth and all went to the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie. It was good, quite a relief after all the disappointed reviews. As a final celebration, Cris and Susie made nachos, while Marilyn, Elizebeth and I watched the rest of Marilyn's concert. I loved it. So much fun seeing Marilyn so freed up and joyous and powerful in her singing. What a wonderful mix of numbers for the audience and the inclusion of the Swanson chorus students. Elizebeth did great as a quite young Maria. And then all five of us watched the New York auditions for "So You Think You Can Dance." Again, it was so much fun, especially one black break dancer guy who really stole the show.

Sean Goes Home

Tuesday everyone else headed back to real life, but Marilyn and I took the Metro one more time to the Mall. We stopped first at the office of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. I just wanted to know if they were really real and if they had desks and stuff, or just worked out of a storefront somewhere with card tables and folding chairs. We saw just a bit of the National Art Gallery and then on to the National Building Museum to see the Green House. I got so many good ideas for environmentally friendly home improvements for the condo. I feel like I finally have some direction now, some idea of how and where to start. It was exciting to see all the clever ideas people have worldwide and the solutions they're finding. Hope.

And then off to the plane for my 5:25 flight home. As I approached my gate I cringed -- seemingly hundreds of teenagers in orange polo shirts -- the Artesia Bulldog Band. I had this sinking feeling Artesia might be in New Mexico. At least now I get why there were only two seats left on that return flight when I got my ticket. But the kids were relatively well-behaved and except for having to wait 45 minutes on the runway in Albuquerque (sound familiar, Dave and family?), the flight was fine. I was home and in bed by 10:00.

It was a great trip. I truly let my mind rest and think of new things. Susie and Elizebeth are both so beautiful, I'm sure the parental units are having some qualms. Marilyn is all glowing and energized, and Cris seems to be riding the wild DC wave quite well and having lots of fun around the edges. I loved how green everything was and the vast quantities of water. My scales are coming back now, but it was wonderful to spend a week at sea level being hydrated. Plus at least a little of my melted grease stayed off.

Wednesday I tried to do no "alking," either w-alking or t-alking. Mostly I worked on the novel all day and tried to prepare for my own reentry into the real world. It was a bit too real. In spite of how I felt all strong and invincible, Thursday and Friday crunched me back into the ground fairly quickly. But it was the beginning of month-end, after all, with not nearly enough time to get ready. I refuse to give up hope. Melissa is still with us. Starting this week, I only have to do one-third of the daily on Mondays and Tuesdays and the full daily on Fridays. Over time, that's gotta help. We'll see how the month-end reports go tomorrow.

Love,
Sean

May 31, 2007

I had the best time. It was really good to just be the kid and let you guys figure everything out and to hardly think of work at all. I got to have all new thoughts instead of the same old boring thoughts. Thank you so much to Marilyn and Cris for all the planning and scheduling and cooking and driving and wonderful meals and Death by Chocolate. Thank you to Susie for sharing your beautiful room and to Elizebeth for sleeping on the floor those nights. The hermit was most grateful. Thank you for all the new things I learned like about blenders and that you can print out your boarding pass for non-Southwest flights and magical plantar fasciitis fixers.

My VCR skipped over taping "So You Think You Can Dance" last week, so I'm really glad we all got to watch it together. It will start taping here tonight in 25 more minutes. I listened to my Celtic glass armonica CD today and it's really wonderful. He plays with other musicians and the arrangements are great and the sound is even better from the studio recording. I got to watch "Cinderella" right away, and we'll be talking about that soon, Elizebeth.

Now I'm going to send this and go back to tidying for my cleaners. Have a great Friday and then a good weekend together before the Mom heads off to Idaho.

Love,
Sean

June 3, 2007

Just a wonderful letter, Sean. Thank you so much! We had a great relaxing weekend. Friday night I made a picnic and we went to Wolf Trap and saw the Mikado. Lousy sound system, slow production, but we can say we went and we did have a great picnic on "the lawn" (really a hill more than the image of a flat lawn). Saturday we got up and rode our bikes to Starbucks. It was Susie's first solo ride out of the apartment complex so we were very happy. The girls headed back home to homework and Cris and I rode a while longer and enjoyed that. Then I worked on errands etc. and spent a huge amount of time getting my cell phone back on track -- 2 new phones and 3 visits to Verizon. Need I say more.

Today we went to the morning movies for "only" $6. Cris and I saw "Waitress" and the girls saw "Gracie." Then we shopped all day. Susie broke one of her big pieces of cash from Poohbah and they had a wonderful time getting their summer clothes. Cris also got a few more clothes that fit and I had great success the previous evening. We watched 2 DVD movies at home: "A Cool Dry Place" and "Something's Gotta Give" with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton. Lots of fun!

[Note by Cris: if you can, check the Washingtonpost.com for Monday June 4 and check out the many many long articles, the entire Business section, on teenage girls shopping at Tyson's Corner. That is our life!]

The girls finish SOLs [Standards of Learning exams] tomorrow and I head out to see Mie on Tuesday. I get home Sunday night at midnight and Rich, Diane and Megan Barnes will be here so Monday will be the trip to the city for family that only have 2 days to see DC and Baltimore.

Love to you all,
Marilyn

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