School's out for summer.
I can barely remember how I felt at the end of my Sophmore year. Many of friends were Seniors that year and were getting ready for college, working and enjoying life. It was 1986. Wow!
I am feeling old. I read an amazing post about a twenty year reunion. I am now starting look forward to mine. I have not been to any so far. It will be nice to reconnect. Although, for the most part I have kept casual acquintances with a few.

I am keeping an eye on the situation with Chavez actions. This rioting may take shape for several weeks.

RCTV KEY FACTS:
Venezuela's oldest private broadcaster, founded in 1953
Only opposition broadcaster with national reach
In 2002, broadcast opposition calls to overthrow Chavez
Airs large numbers of telenovelas and reality shows

Chavez should not mess with the telenovelas. That would be like turning off 24, Lost or America Idol in the last few weeks of the season.


Yesterday I looked into signing up the daughter for a class at Colorado College geared fro the summer and welcomes high schoolers. I received a note back mentioning that she was welcome and that the cost would be $2100. I gasped. So, we will look a few more places today!

This story tugged at my heart. Please pray for Maria.

I watched this on cspan this weekend
Michelle Keener
Military wives serve in silence — but their story deserves to be told. Shared Courage: A Marine Wife’s Story of Strength and Service is the story of my life as a Marine Corps wife during the Iraq War. When my husband deployed to Iraq I was left behind to worry and wait and hope. And I wasn’t alone. Thousands of other families were going through the same stress, fear and uncertainty that I was experiencing. But those stories are rarely told. Shared Courage is my story, and I hope it gives a voice to all military families who have gone through the ups and downs, the joys and sorrows of being married to the military.

Reading, Watching and Weeding

A very low key weekend and enjoyable. A few highlights:

I attended a small ceremony at the place I despise. It was a small gathering of 30-40 people honoring veterans. My husband helped cooked a free breakfast for the community. Flags were flying, it was a small token, we must do more.

I watched President Bush at Arlington; "Today we honor the warriors who fought our nation's enemies, defended the cause of liberty, and gave their lives in the cause of freedom. We offer our love and our heartfelt compassion to the families who mourn them. We pray that our country may always prove worthy of the sacrifices they made.
For seven generations, we have carried our fallen to these fields. Here rest some 360,000 Americans who died fighting to preserve the Union and end slavery. Here rest some 500,000 Americans who perished in two world wars to conquer tyrannies and build free nations from their ruins. Here rest some 90,000 Americans who gave their lives to confront Communist aggression in places such as Korea and Vietnam.
Many names here are known: the 18-year-old Union soldier named Arthur MacArthur, who grabbed a falling flag and carried it up Missionary Ridge; the Tuskegee Airmen who defended America abroad and challenged prejudice at home; the slain war hero and President who asked that we "assure the survival and success of liberty" and found his rest beneath an eternal flame. Still others here are remembered only by loving families. Some are known only to God."

The Mistress's Daughter by A. M. Homes

book link
An acclaimed novelist’s riveting memoir about what it means to be adopted and how all of us construct our sense of self and family
Before A.M. Homes was born, she was put up for adoption. Her birth mother was a twenty-two- year-old single woman who was having an affair with a much older married man with children of his own. The Mistress’s Daughter is the story of what happened when, thirty years later, her birth parents came looking for her.
Homes, renowned for the psychological accuracy and emotional intensity of her storytelling, tells how her birth parents initially made contact with her and what happened afterward (her mother stalked her and appeared unannounced at a reading) and what she was able to reconstruct about the story of their lives and their families. Her birth mother, a complex and lonely woman, never married or had another child, and died of kidney failure in 1998; her birth father, who initially made overtures about inviting her into his family, never did.
Then the story jumps forward several years to when Homes opens the boxes of her mother’s memorabilia. She had hoped to find her mother in those boxes, to know her secrets, but no relief came. She became increasingly obsessed with finding out as much as she could about all four parents and their families, hiring researchers and spending hours poring through newspaper morgues, municipal archives and genealogical Web sites. This brave, daring, and funny book is a story about what it means to be adopted, but it is also about identity and how all of us define our sense of self and family.







VEIL OF ROSES
Written by Laura Fitzgerald
This compelling debut follows one spirited young woman from the confines of Iran to the intoxicating freedom of America—where she discovers not only an enticing new country but the roots of her own independence. . . . Tamila Soroush wanted it all. But in the Islamic Republic of Iran, dreams are a dangerous thing for a girl. Knowing they can never come true, Tami abandons them. . . . Until her twenty-fifth birthday, when her parents give her a one-way ticket to America, hoping she will “go and wake up her luck.” If they have their way, Tami will never return to Iran . . . which means she has three months to find a husband in America. Three months before she’s sent back for good.From her first Victoria’s Secret bra to her first ride on a motor scooter to her first country line-dance, Tami drinks in the freedom of an American girl. Inspired to pursue her passion for photography, she even captures her adventures on film. But looming over her is the fact that she must find an Iranian-born husband before her visa expires. To complicate matters, her friendship with Ike, a young American man, has grown stronger. And it is becoming harder for Tami to ignore the forbidden feelings she has for him.It’s in her English as a second language classes that Tami finds a support system. With the encouragement of headstrong Eva, loyal Nadia, and Agata and Josef, who are carving out a love story of their own, perhaps Tami can keep dreaming—and find a way to stay in America.



I watched two movies that you might enjoy. Two independent films link
Conversations with Other Women (2006) and Finding Preet (2005) link

garden 2007

A few sprigs of dill suprises.
First Fruits - 4 radish this morning

Beet seedlings and Leaf lettuce

I am holding off on the squash and cucumbers for the best placement. Last year they were not manageable. They had vines everywhere!

The little tree that "could". We bought this tree about five years ago. It was a twig about 4 feet high with one leaf. The lady at the nursery took pity and sold it to us for a pittance of $10. My mother in law laughed and for the first two years it produced maybe a dozen leaves. But now it is healthy. It is reminds me to look at things with potential, you just never know. Yes, I spent most of the day pulling those thriving weeds.

The gift

We planted this Wisteria about five years ago. It is very very healthy!

It is almost Memorial Day.
We had up to 5 inches of snow in the higher elevation this week. We are still running the heat in the evening.
I have been getting rain each evening and both the weeds and garden are enjoying it. Leaf lettuce, radish, spinach and beets are all up about an inch or so. I am going to plant the squash this weekend. The weather I hope has turned the corner where it will not destroy the base of the plants. I am not going to plant a ton of flowers, just work on the things I have and try to tame the weeds.
It is the end of the school year and I am looking forward to the summer. For the first time ever she has no camps planned, no trips and activities. This is hard for me. I liked controlling her and showing her to embrace new things. I was experiencing life through her experiences. This is the summer she wants to work and lay in the sun and hang out with friends, I was the exact same way. But it is still hard.
We are dog sitting this weekend. We have a circus of four dogs and a cat. Good grief we need to live on a farm.

I am enveloped in drama.

Pronunciation: in-'ve-l&p, en-
Function: transitive verb
Etymology: Middle English envolupen, from Anglo-French envoluper, envoleper, from en- + voluper to wrap
1 : to enclose or enfold completely with or as if with a covering
2 : to mount an attack on (an enemy's flank)

Pronunciation: 'drä-m&, 'dra-
Function: noun
Etymology: Late Latin dramat-, drama, from Greek, deed, drama, from dran to do, act
1 a : a composition in verse or prose intended to portray life or character or to tell a story usually involving conflicts and emotions through action and dialogue and typically designed for theatrical performance : PLAY -- compare CLOSET DRAMA b : a movie or television production with characteristics (as conflict) of a serious play; broadly : a play, movie, or television production with a serious tone or subject
2 : dramatic art, literature, or affairs
3 a : a state, situation, or series of events involving interesting or intense conflict of forces b : dramatic state, effect, or quality

Team building at the Zoo

The Cemetary

La Recoleta cemetery
La Recoleta is the most glorious and old cemetery of Buenos Aires. It contains glorious graves of the country's rich and famous, who showed their wealth through building grandiose graves. In the cemetery area there are more than 6,400 chamber tombs (mausoleums).
If you wish to buy a grave plot in the cemetery, you can do it for $20,000 per square meter, as long you can find someone who will be willing to sell it to you.
La Recoleta cemetery is considered the third most important and beautiful cemetery in the world.
Since it was opened in 1882, the cemetery is hosting presidents, generals, intellectuals and even the grave of Evita Peron, which still attracts many visitors. In order to prevent the stealing of her body (as happened already in 1955) she was buried in a concrete safe 8 meters below the ground.

Don't knock it until you have tried it.

Hearts of Palm on Pizza

It's all about the small things for me.

This sight made me smile and do a little side step.

The radish are up about 1 centimeter.