This is just the first of many. Picture by Noah. Walking down from their house to the bakery on a sunny afternoon.
Category: Uncategorized
Chicago
Rain, rain, rain. A beautiful view from the 53rd floor. The first day was just cloudy, the second day rained all day, and we had work to do at the ASBDC. I was told that Leo especially loved the Science and Art museum, which was full of trains.
Then I went home and they went to Maine.
Strange weather for Chicago in the first week of September.
Songs and Words in Songs
Have you seen the Freakonomics Blegs series? It’s fun. Great lines in movies, things like that. I gather that bleg is a contraction for blogging and begging, a play on words related to asking readers for contributions.
It made me think of some great lines in songs. Some of these are pure poetry. Or so it sees to me.
Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose
I’d trade all of my tomorrows for a single yesterday
Kris Kristofferson, Me and Bobbie McGee
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi
The last time I felt like this I was in the wilderness and the canyon was on fire
and I stood on the mountain in the night and I watched it burn
Emmy Lou Harris, Boulder to Birmingham
You of tender years can’t know the fears that your elders grew by. So help them with your youth, they seek the truth before they can die. Teach your parents well, their childrens’ hell will slowly go by. And feed them on your dreams.
Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, Teach Your Children
because the cops don’t need you, and man they expect the same
Bob Dylan, Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
Once I had mountains in the palm of my hand, and rivers that ran through every day. I must have been mad, I never knew what I had until I threw it all away.
Bob Dylan, I Threw it All Away
Cowboys like smoky old poolrooms and clear mountain mornings
Patsy and Ed Bruce, Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys
I married her because she looks like you
Lyle Lovett, I Married Her Because She Looks Like You
Everybody loves the sound of a train in the distance
Paul Simon, Train in the Distance
Why am I soft in the middle when the rest of my life is so hard
Paul Simon, You Can Call Me Al
All I ever had: Redemption songs: These songs of freedom
Bob Marley, Redemption Songs
In the end, only kindness matters
Jewel, Hands
And, if you happen to speak (or read) Spanish, how about these:
Simon Blanco tuvo suerte. De tres balas que le dieron, solo una fue de muerte.
Anonymous corrido, Simon Blanco
Yo soy como el chile verde, picante pero sabroso
Anonymous, la Llorona
Paul, Eva, and Boyan, Enjoying Summer
Paul sent me this picture in email today, I thought it should go up to this blog. You can click on the picture for a larger view, or right-click to download. The park across the street is a nice situation, and we can see that all three of them are enjoying it.
Meanwhile, we’re looking forward to getting these three plus Milena to an Oregon visit starting this Saturday.
Timmy’s First Bike Ride
Paul’s Vero Beach Videos
I wonder if we can manage to embed these videos, which come from Amiglia.
This first one is of Eva on the slide at Vero Beach.
And the second is a nice snippet of Boyan, being happy
The Life of Luxury
Disney vacation, May 2008. This was in the vacation club master bathroom, with a flat screen tv showing cartoons. Sabrina points out the look on Leo’s face; this was early in the week, so he still had some doubts.
Granada. March 2008
A stairwell. Transition. A few days between the cruise and Madrid. So far from the Gatwick airport. The early morning flight, the extra bags, seeing Cristin at the bus, lines, lugging, my nervousness at the airport, and we’re off.
| Cristin at Gatwick: |
| Cristin waiting for the bus at Gatwick airport, in the dark, 5:30 in the morning, smiling, it was cold, she’ll be okay, and we left to get our flight. And she was okay. She got her flight, got home, she was happy to get home |
A sigh. Another chunk ticked off. The cruise done. Now the next chunk. Going to Granada. The airport at Malaga, hot, long line. What next? The transfer solution. Megan and Vange asleep, a well-built highway through a sunny dry landscape, a very old but somehow stylish city, cobblestone streets, the Alambra, a very nice hotel. El Ladron del Agua. And we have a beautiful room in this hotel, at the very top, with a beautiful view of the Alambra above us.
Stairwell, and transition, because it was a step in between. Granada was planned because it wasn’t Madrid. We had wanted to see it because of the way Paul talked about it. But it was a lot about helping Megan between Oxford and Madrid. Hair appointments. Laundry. It all worked. The hair guy, Pablo, stylish, trendy. The little old lady who did the laundry.
| I took this picture from our hotel window, right after we arrived. We were tired, but what a room.
The room had a name, “Generalife,” not a number. |
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If you can see the outline in red, that’s our room at Hotel El Ladron de Agua, taken from one of the towers of the Alambra. You can imagine how beautiful it was. |
| We ate several times at El Azafan, with big windows looking out to a small park and up to the Alambra.
This is a picture of that restaurant, among other things, as Megan looked out from a balcony in the Alambra. |
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True, the one day we went up to the Alambra together was cold, and clouds covered the views of the Sierra Nevada, but we were able to see it a bit, just below the clouds, at one point. |
| And we saw the Alambra. |  |
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This is the new blog
I’ve set up this new blog to replace the previous family blog on blogger.com. I’m hoping this one will work for us better. I hope.