Cassidy made it to Egypt

Hi, real quick -

Cassidy called Lanie and Lanie called me and now I'm writing to you.

Cassidy managed to sleep much of the way to Germany. The airport in Germany was super spiffy, apparently. The plane from Germany to Cairo was very fancy, with TVs for every seat!

As for Cairo, it is, apparently, 'ah-MAYYYYY-zing!!!'

Reports of lots of small boxy cars, folks in muslim garb and perfect weather. They had their first Egyptian meal and it was completely delicious. She and the others in her group are at a hostel in Cairo until tomorrow, when she'll meet her host mother and continue on with her journey!

Lanie said she sounded very strong, so. YAY!

That is all.

Short but sweet

Item:

• Seattle was great fun.

• Serah's wedding was beautiful.

(more here)

• I finally set foot in Katie's house! Yay!

• The waterpark in Renton, WA is awesome.

• I love my family!

• Brooke and Greg are having a baby!
• Cassidy leaves on her Egyptian adventure next week!
• next week!
• with her permission I will post emails she sends us from Egypt.
• Maggie starts kindergarten next week, Henry starts fourth!

• I recently turned 39.
• When Marcia was here we laughed and laughed down at the Legion.
• this blog slips my mind now a days
• I am for health care reform

Sent from my iPhone

The kids and I are leaving for Seattle tomorrow! Jeff left this
afternoon. I am turning laundry and will be packing tonight! Can't
wait to see everybody!!

Sent from my iPhone

Sunday evening

After all that rain, we have had a beautiful holiday weekend here in southern New Hampshire. I heard somewhere about how the mosquitoes for next week are going to be, like, four years worth of mosquitoes. (here's something on it.) And Henry has a wilderness workshop week of camp starting tomorrow! Gak. Luckily his cast comes off this Wednesday afternoon. I will have to set out some industrial strength bug sauce for the morning.

This camp sounds pretty awesome. It's called Wild Ways, I just discovered the guy's website. Check this out, it sounds fun:

Dan Mac heads various Primitive Skills and Wilderness Workshops for different age groups throughout the year. Specific Schedules and Descriptions of events will be posted soon. In general our ongoing areas of exploration include:

• Primitive and Advanced Shelter Construction
• Fire Starting and Fire Keeping techniques
• Wilderness Water Acquisition and Purification
• Primitive Navigation and Lost Proofing
• Animal Tracks and Sign
• Story Telling
• Trekking, Hiking, Sauntering
• Plant and Tree Identification (including techniques for procuring useful materials and avoiding dangerous ones)
• Wood Craft
• Self Defense
• Camouflage
• Stalking Games
• Buck Skinning
• Leather Craft
• Making Cordage
• Observation Techniques
• Primal Community Cooperation (Positive Pack Mentality)
• Individual Rites of Passage
• Group Spirit Quests (Mythic Adventures)

Cool, right? I bet he will love it. Stinks that he has to ditch the last half of the day on Wednesday to get the cast off, but at least the cast is coming off!

In other news, we have our rats! Thomas Jefferson (Jeff), John Adams (Adam), and George Washington (Washington). They are pretty cute and certainly curious. I think I may take one out and hang out with him free from distraction tonight.

What I've observed about rats so far, particularly these rats: Curious. Working full time with their whiskers to check things out. Jim is curious and friendly in a very socially appropriate way, I think. Charlie could care less. Rats poop. I would like to see them learn to poop in the litter tray of rabbit food I've got for them, we'll hopefully get there one day.

Rats are fun to shop for. They love to eat and store away and sort through their treasures. I like the idea that whatever is good for humans is generally good for rats. (Except.) There is a large fan base for the pet rat, and their heart is good and true. People like to sew for their rats. Here is just one example:


here's a closeup of the bottom level:


Right? That's a fan of rats. Very interesting. I am anxious for my sister Marcia to come visit. Marcia has been known to sew up costumes for rubber chickens to wear on holidays, but is so repulsed by the idea of pet rats that I can hear her shudder and shiver when I tell her about them over the phone. I am curious to see if a) the rats melt her heart and b) if the idea of sewing for them is as inspiring to her as a rubber chicken hanging from a rope.

(the closest thing I could find to a rubber chicken wearing a costume. A 'rubber chicken costume', yes but no 'costume for rubber chicken')



Regardless, Marcia just celebrated a birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARCIA! And, I also promised her that I will totally respect her feelings about getting to know the rats. I intend to honor this request and will not make her do anything she doesn't want to do .

'cause that's how I roll.

WOOO all of a sudden the birds in our woods began to sing and sing and sing!

I am happy and excited to be leaving on our vacation soon! We are going to Seattle and also down to Oregon for Serah's wedding!

Mobile blogging, or iPhone Haiku

I am sitting in my clean bedroom.

Jim and Charlie are doing that rolling around on the bed thing,
casually play fighting.

My dad wouldve loved Charlie. He really loves to play by being chased
and then chewing on my hand that I've been attacking him with.

He also loves to lay beside me and nap, which dogs loved to do with Dad.

My kids are hungry.

These may be short!

Sent from my iPhone

Tumbleweeds Graduation 2009

Here is the long awaited video of Maggie's graduation...

Test of email to blogger

Woof

Sent from my iPhone

Henry's Report on VENUS

Venus

by
Henry K.
June 11, 2009

---

Venus

My report is on Venus, the second planet from the Sun. Venus is named after the Goddess of Love and Beauty. Venus does not have any moons in its orbit, and has the same acid that's in car batteries in it's atmosphere (which is sulfuric acid).

The swirling clouds of Venus are so thick sunlight cannot go directly through them to reach the surface. The surface of Venus is rocky. The lava flow from erupting volcanoes make low plains.

Speaking of volcanoes and lava, the temperatures on Venus are hot enough to melt lead! A scorching 900 degrees Fahrenheit! That's hot! The atmosphere is so thick and dense that the 'greenhouse' effect makes it impossible for heat to escape. It can get in though!

Venus shines brightly in the East before sunrise, and in the West after sunset. We can see Venus easily because it is the closest planet to Earth (23.7 million miles). Also, the thick clouds I mentioned earlier reflect the sunlight, making it bright from Earth. By the way, Venus is pretty close to the Sun too (67.2 million miles) and in space distance, that's pretty close!

Venus is roughly the same size as Earth, and astronomers think it could have been born at the same time.

Venus' day is longer than it's year. One full rotation of the Earth takes 24 hours, or 1 day. It takes Venus 243 Earth days to rotate once. If 1 Earth day is equal to 24 hours, 1 Venus day is equal to 5,832 Earth hours!




One orbit around the Sun on Earth takes 365 Earth days, but one orbit around the Sun for Venus takes just 225 Earth days. Venus orbits around the Sun in the opposite direction of the other planets in the Solar System.

Venus cannot support any life. I think that it might've been able to have water, but then it all boiled away from the intense temperatures.

Space probes only last a couple of hours on Venus before melting away. If you were to land a manned mission on Venus and you walked out of the spacecraft, you would literally turn as flat as a pancake and look like a pancake in a pool of blood! No kidding!

The former Soviet union launched several spacecraft to either fly by or land on Venus in the 60's, 70's and 80's. That's around hippie time! There have been many probes sent to Venus and NASA's Magellan spacecraft has been orbiting Venus since 1990. Japan is preparing a Climate Orbiter that will be launched in 2010. Japan's "Climate-C" orbiter will carry five cameras and it's mission should last at least 2 years!

And that ends my report.

---

SOURCES

"Guide to Space" by Peter Bond.
DK PUBLISHING


"The Martian Chronicals", blog by Ryan Anderson

http://martianchronicles.wordpress.com/2008/12/17/agu-day-2-venus/


"Mercury and Venus" by World Book's Solar System & Space Exploration Library.
WORLD BOOK, INC.


hk/slk

Milford Library

I am sitting in the 'Quiet Study Area" at the Milford Library. Brought Henry here because he has a lot of homework due tomorrow, and figured this might be a good way to help him focus. Except for the rotating stand of science fiction and fantasy novels he keeps gazing at (who could resist a book called 'Robot City'?!), things are going well!

I figured I could talk to you, blog, while he does his business. When what is due tomorrow is finished, we'll work together on his book report for Venus. We'll publish it here, and it's due on Thursday, so check back later this week!

(that was last night. now it's tonight. I'll post it right now.)

blog!

I miss you!

I will now take a few moments to bang out some recent life experiences: 7 things.

1. Henry is a trooper. If you haven't heard by now, he fractured his left arm, the bone above the elbow. he has to have a full arm cast, for the next six weeks. What a trooper. No complaining. I fear cast stink.

2. Maggie graduated preschool! I really need to buckle down and do some personal computing. There are a series of videos I got with our Flip and I just need to download something and restart and etc. and I keep putting it off. But they are adorable. You must see them.

3. Dave Matthews Band was completely awesome. We had sort of semi cruddy seats, the classic Fenway Pole, I'm told. But setting that aside, what a show. What a bunch of playing! Cassidy found this video of their cover of 'Dirty Water', which is another Fenway classic (I'm told).



4. Henry broke his arm the night of DMB. Thank goodness for text messaging. And thank goodness for Christine. All those Hauptmans are quality people.


5. Jeff and Lanie and Cassidy had a great time in Washington, D.C. Cassidy leaves in late August for Egypt, I can hardly believe it.

6. Work is crazy. Very busy.

7. I wish I wrote more. Will try harder.

Maggie's video blog

Maggie's Screened Porch Obstacle Course

Chicken Noodle Soup, the recipe!

I love my Sister Crockpot.

I pull stuff from the freezer, toss it in while breakfast is being eaten, turn it to low, and out the door we go! Come home from the day and bam, done. Good smells, a dish and a spoon, some crackers on top, mmm. Hearty. Delicious. Satisfying. And there's extra! Spoon out the leftovers into a ziploc freezer bag and toss it in the freezer and you've got an even more delicious dinner some other night down the road. Just toss the frozen lump into the Sister, turn it to low, and out the door you go! You can't beat that.

Thank you, Sister Crockpot!

This is my favorite recipe. Henry love love loves this soup. Both he and I highly recommend a liberal serving of goldfish crackers and a tall glass of cold milk with this meal. And when you reheat it, don't be afraid to add water to soup it up.

CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

You Will Need

1 package McCormick® Slow Cookers Chicken Noodle Soup Seasoning
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 3/4-inch cubes (I use frozen chicken tenderloins and either have giant pieces of tender chicken that melt in my mouth and cut with my soup spoon, or I fish some out and chop them up and add them back in.)
2 cups sliced carrots (I use frozen crinkle cut carrots. a delicious time saver.)
1 cup sliced celery (chop chop chop.)
1 cup chopped onion
5 cups water
1 cup uncooked medium egg noodles

PLACE chicken and vegetables in slow cooker.

MIX Seasoning and water until blended. Pour over chicken and vegetables. Cover.

COOK 8 hours on LOW. Stir in noodles. Cover. Cook 10 minutes longer on HIGH or until noodles are tender.

Makes 8 servings.

IMPORTANT: For best results, do not remove cover during cooking.

PRODUCT INGREDIENTS

SALT, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, HYDROLYZED CORN GLUTEN, SPICES (INCLUDING BLACK PEPPER, ROSEMARY, CELERY SEED, BAY LEAVES, AND THYME), MALTODEXTRIN, GUAR GUM, CALCIUM SILICATE (ADDED TO MAKE FREE FLOWING), CHICKEN FAT, VEGETABLE OIL (CANOLA, SUNFLOWER, AND SOYBEAN), CHICKEN BROTH, NATURAL FLAVORS, CITRIC ACID, EXTRACTIVES OF TURMERIC, LACTOSE (MILK), AUTOLYZED YEAST, AND SOY LECITHIN.

Things I have been wanting to tell you

OMG you guys, you should hear the birds. I am out on the porch at 7:20am, day two of a gorgeous warm weekend. This is the weekend it all kicked into high gear out here, that's for sure.

We have all been sick! We are all feeling much better, although this weekend Jeff has been taking it extra easy after feeling extra crummy these last couple days. Here's to your health!

Henry is leaving today to spend spring break at his Auntie's house in Maine! He is so happy to be going, so looking forward to it. We are going to miss him really terribly I fear!

I tell Maggie that she's going to see what it's like to be an only child for a week, and you can tell the very idea is intriguing enough to her that she's okay with what looks like it could be special treatment for her older brother. Jeff is planning to bring him up to Portland and meet Lanie for lunch and hand off. Thanks, family from Maine! Enjoy him, he's a great kid.

I have such a desire to tear up all the carpeting on my main floor. Jim is apparently in agreement, as he has begun to destroy a piece of the carpet in our music room/entry area. My sister Jocelyn apparently pulled up the carpets in her bedrooms, and was rewarded with beautiful hardwood floors. This would not be the case for us, we would have to put something else down.

We also really need a new roof, and landscaping, and the house needs to be stained or new siding or something. Oh, and the upstairs bathtub still has a big crack in it. Ack! Too stressful. I thought it would be fun to talk about it, but I was mistaken. Next topic.

I am learning a new skill! Jeff is teaching me Drupal, which is an open source web based content management system. It finally occurred to me, that's what we need at work. It's difficult to wrangle all this valuable knowledge and information, this, this 'content'. If only there was a way to ... to... 'manage' the content, a 'system'.... :- ) Anyway, Drupal is very interesting and easy to follow and a total own-self-do-y powerhouse for folks who want to build websites and organize, present and promote information and contents of all types! woot!

The birds out here in the trees are so totally busy! And the eves under the roof of our porch are ideal for safe cozy places to build a nest and start a family apparently. Lots of busy birds zipping back and forth from the trees to their nest right nearby. It would be interesting to record some of these bird calls and isolate them one by one, figuring out how many different kinds of birds there are out there right now.

Here is Henry's third grade Rainforest Animal report, which he is turning in today:

---

The Goliath Bird Eating Spider

by Henry K.
April 22, 2009


The Goliath Bird Eating Spider is the largest spider ever. It is 11 inches wide, 10 inches long. That's bigger than the piece of paper you're holding (if you're holding it)! This spider can weigh over 120 grams. Don't worry about finding a Goliath in your shoe because it wouldn't fit!

The Goliath was named by some dudes from the Victorian era who saw it eat a hummingbird and they brought back the story to the Western world. Gosh, imagine seeing something that big...something spidery.

Like all spiders, the Goliath is not an insect, it's an Arachnid. A big, black (or brown), hairy, creepy, fearsome looking Arachnid! They have thick strong legs. They are dark brown or black. Their fangs can be as big as this _________ (one inch long)! The Goliath has very poor eyesight and I'm pretty sure it uses it's sense of touch to know what's going on.

The Goliath lives in the Amazon Rainforest in countries like Brazil or Peru in South America. It lives on the forest floor and I think they climb to the understory. It is dark and rainy where they live. They live in burrows that they have either found or made.

Like other bird eating spiders, the Goliath (a carnivore) eats insects and small mammals by biting and paralyzing them. It makes a web barrier in case of interruptions while eating. Even though it's called a bird eating spider, it doesn't eat birds that much.

You just read about what the bird eater eats, now let's talk about what eats the bird eater! It is considered a delicacy in Venezuela. The ocelot is a predator to the Goliath. It digs it out of it's burrow and eats it.

Mrs. Hamilton, my teacher, has a tarantula named Buttercup. But I'm pretty sure she's not a Goliath, because Mrs. Ham would've said, "Don't do a report on Buttercup." Also she would know that Goliath spiders can make a loud hissing noise by rubbing the hairs on their legs together. I am glad Buttercup isn't a Goliath because if she was, she'd be very, very aggressive.

The Goliath bird eating spider defends itself by kicking hairs off it's back and those hairs can make your skin sore. If you breath in these hairs, you're toast (probably).

The Goliath's habitat is threatened by humans. They set fire to the brush and clear the land, and doing that destroys their burrows. You can help by adopting an acre of rain forest and say that no one can cut down trees or start any fires on that acre.

So if you can spare some money to save the rain forest, I'll buy you something nice! Maybe. Probably. Nah...

SOURCES

"Bird Eating Spiders" by Louise Martin.
Rourke Enterprises, Inc.


"Goliath Birdeater", Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliath_birdeater


"Spiders''by Lionel Bender.
GLOUCESTER PRESS.


hk/slk

Now with TWICE the Maggie!

Liza Santerre

OH, where to begin.

My girlfriend Liza died last Friday. Only 48, isn't that rotten? Her husband Todd called me Saturday morning with the terrible news, and so my mind has been lizalizaliza.

I didn't cry about it all weekend, then on my way into work Monday, looking for a parking spot, it began to feel very real and sad. Monday night was uplifting because the wake they put together for her was like wading into a sea of her people.

Two of my friends from work went with me and we found ourselves laughing and crying and hugging Liza's brother, holding her baby nephew, trading stories with her family members - even meeting her mother! Looking into her brother's eyes was so powerful because they are Liza's eyes, you know? And her daughter and son were surrounded by thick crowds of caring friends, and her daughter wore a pink scarf and laughed and cried with her own circle. Oh, and the pictures!

There was a whole display of family photos and pictures from her whole life. VERY. TOUCHING. I grabbed a couple with my iPhone:

Look at those two pups! How sweet is that. Til death did they part.

Today, was her memorial service, which was short and sweet. Her dad was heart broken of course. Liza was not his first daughter to die too soon from cancer. He wept openly and spoke of his princess. A girlfriend of Liza's from way, way back got up and spoke very movingly. I got up, said a few words and recited a poem.

I told her dad that I would overhear her side of the phone call when he would call her each week, and how she would say into the phone, I love you too Dad. And that I knew a thing or two about good Dads and I would tell Liza how lucky she is to have her Dad around to talk to on the phone and that she knew it was true. He seemed to appreciate hearing that.

I read this poem, and folks seemed to like it. Another guy said sweet things quickly, and her husband Todd had some profoundly truthful and loving remarks about Liza that were so spot on. He was great, what a great guy.

After the service, me and three friends from work went over to have a couple of margaritas in Liza's name. That was really fun, and it felt good to laugh and toast to the old gal. Liza loved a good margarita.

And then I headed back towards home and stopped at their house for the friends and family thing. That was even more special. Everyone was so kind about my having spoken earlier, so welcoming and so at ease with each other in spite of the sadness of the facts. I felt comfortable and welcome. I especially enjoyed the private minutes with one of her sisters out in the driveway, and I was so happy to be able to take the first quilt Liza ever made, and will return it to them all finished. I will bring it in to work tomorrow and we will look it over and see what needs to be done. Her mom said she thinks it's just the binding. She sews, but she hates doing the binding. They were all really touched and happy to let me get it completed, it's a real honor. Luckily Kathy at work is going to help me out with it!

ANYWAY. I am exhausted. Like I said to my girlfriend Kristy, hug a sister! Liza was a surrogate sister to me, and I really loved her. One of the last messages she got to me was something on my Facebook page about how much I was going to love Dave Matthews in May. She loved her some DMB, and she had made me green with envy over her stories of concerts and live music she'd seen. So I'm glad she knew I get to go.

A real quick list of things that will make me think of Liza:

DMB
Margaritas
purple toenail polish
"Beyond Bizzah!"
the state of Maine
The Common Ground Fair
Jocelyn
Marcia
Dian

goodnight. peace, girl. r.i.p.

Recent pictures of the children

Chicken Noodle Soup

Quick and Delicious for Busy Moms on the Go!

This will be Chicken Noodle Soup. Frozen boneless chicken tenderloins, frozen crinkle cut carrots, 1/2 a yellow onion, several stalks of chopped up celery.

Then you pick up a thingie of McCormicks Chicken Noodle Soup mix (for Slow Cookers!) and mix that with 5 cups of water.

Pour that in, slip on the lid, set it to LOW and out the DOOR YOU GO!

When you get home from work, all you have to do is add some uncooked egg noodles and then go hang out or do other work for the next fifteen or whatever the second shift may entail for you that evening.

Serve this with goldfish crackers. And I like to use the tenderloins because they're a good size if you happen to have someone who wants at the protein without fishing through the soup (aka low carb).

Enjoy! I'll post an after, after!

8:02pm on Thursday evening

Jeff has been out of the house nearly every night this week! Meetings and whatnot. We are missing the beat he lays down for the rest of us merry music makers.

Uh... Maggie has a birthday party for a little classmate of hers on Saturday morning, and do you think we are ready for that? No we are not. I need to get my butt in gear on that front! I hear the siren song of errands at lunch time!

Oh! Actually, no errands at lunch time. I am meeting someone here at the house for an appointment. hmm... Well, perhaps Jeff can grab something on HIS lunch hour...

I am getting very very excited for DMB! Listening to his music, reading up over at antsmarching.org and etc etc etc! It is looking like we will get a hotel room for the four of us in the city that Saturday night. OOO!!! can't wait! can't wait! Very much looking forward.

There are a couple funny stories on my mind right now that I would tell if only they were my stories to share... waa-haa..

The birdies of springtime are coming to town, peep-peeping in that classic way that I love. Still no discernable buds on the trees, but here and there you see daff's popping through the grit and sand. Hardly any, any snow left. Today I saw a guy working one of those rotating brushes on the end of a weed wacker, busting up the packed dirt and sand from the edges of his lawn. That's a Yankee harbinger, for serious.

Oh, and I am loving Barack and Michele as they rock the U.K. Such a gorgeous sexy couple. Rar!