International festival

Stephanie's elementary school usually has a late spring festival after school in May - it's the school's big fund-raiser. We've written in earlier blog entries about the work slowdown in Stephanie's school district - as the teachers have worked without a collectively bargained contract for a whole school year now - which involves teachers declining to "volunteer" for unpaid responsibilities after school hours - this would include the spring festival. Instead, the teachers and principal decided to do a festival during school hours - just for the kids and parent volunteers - not involving other family members and the whole neighborhood, as with the after-school festival. Stephanie was one of three people on the planning committee that basically turned the school into a giant centers circuit/festival booth circuit - with each classroom representing one of the countries where Stephanie and her English as a new language education colleague's kids are from plus some additional countries. Stephanie helped plan the International Festival, but her classroom - not a regular classroom - didn't actual get on the circuit. But the fair started Wednesday morning (two days before the last day of school for students) with a parade of nations and PowerPoint presentations on each country- in the gym - and Stephanie helped run those PowerPoints and guide parade participants. Then her and the other kids circled through the classrooms - where they engaged in activities like a chop stick race (see who could pick up a piece of cotton with a pair of chop sticks and move the cotton from one bowl to another (two teams - two lines of kids doing this), in the "Japan" room. I visited towards the end of the day, and Stephanie wanted me to take a picture of her Mongolian student at this, but he was way too fast for me to get his picture (it seems he's used chop sticks before). In the Caribbean room (I think this was cheating, even if it did technically cover Cuba - I don't think any of the current students are from the Caribbean), students tried doing the limbo dance (under the stick). Elsewhere, they flipped crepes (in France) (many of the crepes in the first crepe picture hit the ground, but thankfully they had a whole nother batch for kids to eat), and made people into mummies (in Egypt) (among other things). I also visited the gym and caught some of the displays/parade pieces. This engaged ENL and non-ENL students alike in the international themes of Stephanie's programs (Scholar, the school dog, even got involved, after first hesitating when he saw me), raised more money than the after-school festival (students brought in $3 each for the festival), and made the office staff happy as there were no behavior problems until the end of the day, after the festival was over. Perhaps next year - if the contract is resolved - the school and PTA will run the afterschool festival in the fall and another international festival in the spring.

Memorial Day weekends past

On this three-day weekend we've remembered not only Julian Woodall and other fallen veterans and others who served our country, but we also remember busy Memorial Days past for us (not just a year ago). Some 11 years ago we visited Stephanie's relatives in Mason, West Virginia (me for the first time). Five years ago we visited Fort Snelling and a Mississippi River island festival in the Twin Cities. Four years ago we were back in Minnesota, visiting, and then we drove along the river - doing the Grand Concourse route in reverse (where Winona, MN - pictured aobve - was one of our many stops)- and we drove from Macomb to Louisville, where - by holidays/days of the week, I started my current job four years ago this morning. Three years ago Grandma Martha and we finished packing up the Fisherman's Landing apartment and we drove Stephanie, Vincent, Frisco, and their stuff from Bradenton to Louisville. Momentous, busy weekends all.

Horton Hears a Who

Memorial Day afternoon we went to see the newish, animated movie version of the Dr. Seuss book "Horton Hears a Who," the tale of the elephant who discovers that there's Mayor Horton and a whole world of Who's within a flower - or a "speck" - in the jungle and the kangaroo and comrades who try to wipe out the little world. A somewhat veiled story of promoting tolerance/diversity - and a little questioning authority - the movie attracted mainly kids (including at least one bigger kid - our own) and their parents. We missed the beginning and I missed the music video-type segment at the end. But you don't have to miss all of it (with apologies to REO Speedwagon's Keven Cronin)- just click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N12QDWhtgqE

Memorial Day breakfast

After the weekly baths the turtles get we let the turtles each have a "night out". They get to spend 24 hours roaming the house. While we worry about Frisco and his not so tolerant attitude towards the turtles the turtles seem to like the "night out". We often have to get on our hands and knees to find them before going to bed the next night, but Frisco often actively gets involved turtle hunting. He often is very aware of where they are hiding. We caught Speckles enjoying a hearty Memorial Day breakfast that may explain some of Frisco's attitude toward the turtles.

-- Stephanie

Ice cream maker

My grandparents in Westerville used to have an old-fashioned ice cream maker. Penny remembered this when she asked for homemade ice cream for the belated wedding reception Grandpa and Grandma and my aunts threw for Penny and Serge there. We also got Vincent a kid's ice cream maker for a holiday several years ago. I guess Stephanie has been looking out for a more heavy-duty one for some time and saw one on sale for $18 at Target today. She bought it, figured out, and found a Weight Watchers recipe for nectarine ice cream. She went shopping for nectarines, sugar, and rock salt, and I got the ice. The result was more like a combination of homemade vanilla ice cream (yummy - but Splenda would be better for us - though Stephanie didn't overload it with sugar, so it's not super sweet) and frozen nectarines. All yummy! Now, Stephanie has started rooting through her cookbooks and the Internet for light ice cream maker ice cream recipes. Many of the possibilities sound tantalizing, though I'm not sure what it might do to my already rising weight. This was on top of a great dinner Stephanie made with huge split chicken breasts, grilled zucchini, and bulgur wheat. Triple yummy! Can't wait to see what she comes up with this summer (whenever we're both here)!

Paintball

Vincent's been looking for to celebrating the end of the school year (and memorializing Julian in a way) by playing paintball with a bunch of his friends (and some of their parents) at an outdoor entertainment area in Southern Indiana (they also went last April) for a while now. He's got a lot to do this week, and he woke up with a cough. But he plowed ahead (without sun block - which turned out to be an error). He was so excited to get going that when I dropped him off at a friend's family's house, his friend was still asleep. They drove in three cars to the area, and there half a dozen plus "old people" lined up against half a dozen plus kids. Paintball is like outdoor lazer tag - but not in the dark. You run around with some armor/camouflage and contraptions that turn paintballs into paint and allow you to shoot them at people. (Unlike in lazer tag) taking one hit kills (and you have to quit that game). They played in two teams - later they mixed up the "old people" and the kids - and occasionally individual people not from their group joined in - which team kills off everyone else on the other team wins. Vincent said he did "mediocre," except for one game in which he racked up a lot of kills. Unfortunately, the back of his neck got badly sunburned, and he's incurred several welts from when he took direct paintball hits at close range. Obviously, some of this is pretty violent. There are apparently some obstacles/buildings on the course which can provide "cover." When I went to pick Vincent up, his friend's parents - who we got a little acquainted with because they were hosts of a Dane and Jon, Vincent, and we and they and Vincent's friend and their Dane - Christoph? - visited some - raved about how nice Vincent is - including to his friend's 10-year-old sister. Vincent came home, took a shower, ate some dinner (more on this later), and then quickly went up to his room to go to bed. He's got a big day tomorrow - in terms of stuff he has to do - but I'm guessing he won't actually get up until after 12 noon (hopefully, I'll already be back from my vacation day to work by then). I'm hoping he'll recover, get a bunch done, and we'll still have time to do something.

Joining in/beautiful day

For the first time in our 3 1/2 year at Crescent Hill church, I served as one of the liturgists for worship, sitting up front for part of the service and leading some of the prayers. After that, our pastor preached on a passage from the Gospel of Matthew, then - as she and another liturgist read the first couple of chapters of Genesis - our new church acquaintance Claire (pictured above after the service with our Derby Eve hostess, aka Amy Winehouse) did an interpretative dance, then a dozen of us from around the sanctuary - as was pre-arranged and a little rehearsed this morning before church - joined in, acting out the final two days of Creation. (What brought everything together was our pastor reminiscing about going on her sabbatical two years ago, with the Matthew passage urging people not to worry and our pastor stressing the Sabbath passage at the end of the Creation narrative [as well as the beauty of Creation].) For the occasion, the front of the church was decked out with flowers, fruits and vegetables, and even a fish in a vase! It was beautiful outside and beautiful inside, with a beautiful service. (I mentioned Stephanie and my wedding anniversary also!) (On top of this, relatively early this morning, Frisco and I went for a walk in a Crescent Hill neighborhood not too far from church, and the neighborhood is cute, and the weather/flowers/greenery were beautiful.)

Abbey Road on the River

Two years after a visit with Vincent to this now-annual and now 4 1/2-day Beatles festival - along the Ohio River at the Belvedere elevated park and adjoining Galt House hotel - about five blocks from my office - the three of us (Vincent for a while - despite his study of the Beatles in his summer 2005 History and Sociology of Rock Music community college class) to Abbey Road on the River (today longer than with Sarah). We ran into friends and colleagues of both of ours (Steve and Angie; Mark and Laura - along with family members) and neighbor Diane and ate, took in the sights and wares, listened to a mini-lecture on the making of the Beatles' "White Album," and - most importantly - saw bands as diverse as the Steve Sizemore Group, the Fab Five, the Return, and - even - the Yellow Submorons. We also got in a nice walk and drive along the river (past the Reggae Festival).

More May flowers

Remembering Julian

A year ago this Memorial Day weekend we headed down to Tallahassee in what was originally an (as it turns out, ill-fated) effort to go to our friends Pete and Ysonde's 25-year anniversary party and high school graduation party for their oldest daughter, Erin. Although we didn't make it to that, we did get to go canoeing on the Wakulla River with other friends a year ago today (Memorial Day Saturday). What ended up being a focus of the trip was the death - the previous week - but by dates - a year ago Thursday (May 22) - on a Tuesday, I believe - of a friend of Vincent and ours from the old Hidden Villas apartment complex, where Stephanie, Vincent, and Frisco lived for two years - between living at Mom's and moving to Minnesota. Vincent hung out with a bunch of kids in the complex, but his closest friends was Jesse (a year younger, from a different school) and his family. We also became friends, with Jesse, his older brother Julian, and their parents, Jerry (who worked in the same office as my friend Andrew for the Florida Public Service Commissioner) and Meredith, whose painting of the side of our apartment building at Hidden Villas (which for a while was a big source of artistic inspiration to her - the whole area around the complex, with its lush grass and palm trees (the trash doesn't show up in her paintings/art work). Julian was a sensitive kid, worked hard to make it through the alternative public high school in Tallahassee (not unlike Vincent's current school), where my friend Melanie once taught. During his senior year, he signed up to join the Marines (which seemed an unlikely fit). But even as his mother protested the Iraq war and while he got sent off to Iraq, he seemed to thrive in the military where his colleagues apparently enjoyed having someone around who didn't fit the stereotypical military service personality. Besides video games, something that Julian had been good at (and which Vincent loved hearing about) was playing Paintball (which, more or less coincidentally, Vincent is slated to do this weekend), which apparently wasn't terrible practice for being in the military in Iraq. A week before our first trip to Tallahassee in 1 1/2 years, which we had already scheduled, we heard the news that a truck Julian had been riding in in Anbar province had been struck by an improvised explosive device, which had killed Julian. Julian, then 22 and a corporal, left his wife Melissa, who'd we met several times, then 20. For better or worse, Julian is the only person - to this date - we know who's died in Iraq. While in Tallahassee, on Thursday we went to Julian's beautiful memorial service in Tallahassee's lovely Maclay Gardens, which Stephanie and Vincent had never seen, and then to a reception and Purple Heart award ceremony, at the American Legion hall on Lake Ella, which we have all circled. Of course, a year later as Memorial Day weekend we remembered Julian, the war, his death, and the funeral more sharply again. Apparently this past Thursday, in Tallahassee, at Julian's old high school, recently moved from the old African-American Lincoln High School, in Frenchtown, where my family's first Tallahassee church once met, to an old elemtnary school, a memorial to Julian and a peace garden were dedicated (see pictures above - not taken by us, obviously, since we're in Louisville). My mother tells me there is also a controversy about an authorized video about Julian, which I don't think we've been able to find, though we did find a slide show for Julian and a colleague who died with him. As much as Julian thrived in the military, going through all of this plus seeing "No End in Sight" and even "Taxi to the Dark Side" were off to turn me more against this war.

We wish the best to Meredith, Melissa, Jerry, Jesse, and all of Julian's friends and family members.

Finals week/busy week

Vincent got to go for a 2 1/2-hour lunch on Wednesday - as part of the day before final exams - then stayed late Wednesday afternoon to study with his friens for finals. He had 4 1/2 finals over the course of Thursday and Friday (more than the one final he told me he had as late as Monday evening). Some of these were multiple-choice finals, and so in some cases he already knows his grades. Friday were three finals in the classes he's had the most trouble passing: Algebra 2, Western Civilization, and Integrated Science. He apparently has passed Western Civ, and - even though he didn't do at least one assignment and his mousetrap car (Speed Racer shoebox for it pictured above top)- he worked hard enough in the final six weeks to barely pass. Friday he met his friends for an early Mid-City Mall Asian buffet dinner and then went to see "Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull" with them. Today he is trying to arrange for some volunteering for the summer - which is to lead up to his Senior Project - at the St. Matthews branch library. Right now he's at Brown School graduation, at school at 12 noon - where he is ushering (asked to help out - in the pictures above - by Carrie, the Denmark trip sponsor, senior class sponsor, and one of Vincent's favoriate teachers) and - I suspect - reading aloud his senior tribute poem ("Go into the Night") which he finished yesterday - a "sisteen" - a poem with six stanzas, each with six lines, with each of the six lines ending with a different word (all verbs in Vincent's poem's case), the same six verbs in each stanza, but in different order every time (almost reminds me of Sudoku but with coherent meaning in between, instead of just numbers). Hopefully, Vincent will be walking next year. Among today's graduates are Sean, who direct Vincent in the 10-Minute Plays; Chris, who went with his sister to Vincent's 16th birthday party at Lazer Blaze last year during Thunder and who helped me with the juniors on the Main Street Math Walk; Brittany, whose West Side Sweet 16 party Vincent had fun at as a 9th grader; and Lucie, whose mother is Vincent's French teacher and who helped us out with the Walkathon fund-raiser - plus half a dozen more of Vincent's 10-Minute Plays colleagues. Vincent still must complete and take the final for his re-do on-line 2nd-semester Algebra 1 class, go back to talk with the librarians and do some of the volunteering this week, clean his room and pack for Denmark, get a gift for his host family. Also on the schedule this week: playing Paintball with his friends tomorrow, going on a Youth Group picnic and lock-in, helping his Mom out at her school's this year because of the work slowdown Fall Festival Wednesday, and going to two ACT review sessions with his math teacher, at school. Best wishes to him - and us - getting all of this done!

(Click on the poem to see it in larger print.)

Who R We

After I was in three General Assembly orientation videos earlier this spring and after Vincent was in one of three videos that his youth group shot - illustrating stories in the Gospel of Matthew - part of their creativity year that started with viewing "Godspell" - Vincent helped shoot a video about our church mainly on a busy Sunday, April 20. Vincent and Stephanie are both in the video - as are the Earth Day celebration/mission conversation that I helped organize in the morning and the children's Earth Day activity - painting clay pots that we sold at UPSTARTS, the plant sale, art sale, and tea the next week - that were part of that that Stephanie helped lead. The view the video - titled "Who R We" - click here: http://www.ymilive.org/app/search?title=Keywords+%2F+Video+Title%3A&church_name=Church+Name%3A&city=Louisville&state=KY&x=24&y=5

If you register, you can also see other videos and vote for your favorite. If our kids' video garners the most votes, our your ministries earns $25,000 from the Presbyterian Foundation.

Mummies: Secrets of the Pharoahs

This 40-minute IMAX movie, which Stephanie, Sarah, and I saw at the downtown Main Street Science Center, mixed beautiful filming of Egyptians both with very elaborate reenactments of ancient Egypt and mummification, 19th century artifact prospecting and film of modern-day research. We follow both the pharoahs and their efforts to insure/facilitate their immortality through mummification, the efforts of 19th-Century European and Egyptian antiquities expert both to save and capture ancient mummies and the efforts of modern-day researchers to use research on mummies to reveal how to fight malaria. The latter included mummifying - the Egyptian way - a 1990s body (weird). Sarah likes mummies, and Stephanie studied the Middle East in college and has Middle Eastern friends, and the three of us saw an ancient Egypt exhibit - including a mummy - in Minneapolis five years ago, and two years ago spent time in the Middle Eastern part (including eating!) of Dearborn, Michigan. Good documentary/dramatization.