This year isn't as good as some, but there are still some songs that I like. I think Germany has the strongest song. Kind of downer lyrics, but I like it musically.

I do NOT like Albania. But apparently, many people do. To me, she looks like Trelawny when she makes the prediction about Wormtail coming back and nearly chokes.

I like Malta, and am just waiting for my kids to start doing the footwork from this (my younger ones, not my older boys who are scared of dancing):

I really like Estonia--a heartfelt ballad, even if I can't understand a word he's saying.

Jedward of Ireland is fun, and this time the video portion doesn't even induce migraines.

Loreen from Sweden has a nice song that feels somewhat unfinished to me. She has a nice voice, though. But it's interesting how she's carefully crafted the lighting to hide her face, even when you're looking right at her. Her entire act makes me think that her school teachers had no idea what to do with her--this brilliant child, yes, but kind of living in her own creative world that had nothing to do with the school's framework.

The Russian grannies--there is a group of very elderly Russian ladies singing in Udmet. They look cool. But I'm not convinced that their live performance quite adds up. Also, I think they are worthy of a better song. The Romanian entry IS cool, with some awesome bagpipes that work surprisingly well in a modern song.

I wrote 300 words before my kids got up, and added another 2000 from another draft. I still have to adjust those 2000 words to fit this draft, but they are in the right place in the story.

It's the first day of vacation for most of my kids, and the last kid who had school will be home in half an hour. Yay!!

It was 35 degrees this morning. Boo!

National parks. How many can we see in August? We have an all-US pass (purchased when we thought we might move close to a different park across the country), so I want to use it! Yosemite (which I dearly want to visit again) is 14 hours away. So is Olympia. Ooh, but Glacier is only 7 hours away.

I am now going to put up the computer and read Bitterblue. Yay!

And there is the sound of my oldest son coming home. Hooray! Let the summer begin!

I love this book. My mom used to read it to her students when she taught 4th and 5th grade (back in the 60s), and she actually had to replace her original copy because she read it so many times. When I was getting read to leave for college, I found that it was in print again, so I got a copy. I don't know if it is now or not, but I hope so, because it's such a lovely book. I'm reading it to my girls right now, and it's the perfect book to end on: full of action and exotic locales (well, unless you live in Florida!), but told in a soothing way. The perfect book to close your eyes to as you snuggle in the covers and let your imagination put you there.

The story: Penny (12) and her brother Nick (9) know that no one will ever adopt them. They're too old; people only ever adopt the babies at the orphanage, or eganahpro, as they call it, because being inside, they read the gate backwards. When Nick leaves for a trial run with a woman who wants him as a farm hand, the chance to escape suddenly becomes real. He runs away, comes back to let Penny out, and they head for the one place they've always longed for--the sea. They climb aboard the nicest boat in the harbor, and fall asleep in a pile of sails.

But someone finds them: 15-year-old Ben Sturges. The navy claims his father is dead, a casualty of the ongoing war in the Pacific (it's WWII). His uncle, who is his guardian, believes the navy. But Ben doesn't. He knows his father's missing, but he believes that when he finds a rare sea shell knows as a lion's paw, his father will return.

When Ben's uncle makes plans to sell Ben's father's boat (that Nick and Penny are hiding on), Ben snaps. His father is coming back, and the boat is not for sale. Which is how the three kids end up sailing away on the boat, searching for lion's paws and freedom.

The Lion's Paw is middle grade adventure at its best: tough kids who are still soft enough inside to love, some humor, plenty of challenges to face, excellent writing that doesn't talk down to kids, and heart. Some books don't age well, but this one...this one totally succeeds.

Okay, germs this time of year? Not. Cool. We have 3 1/2 more days of school, and my kids really need to be there! Some of them, I think, still have some tests to take care of. Half of them have colds, and one of them was really not feeling well today (no sore throat, but I keep asking, because he seems streppish otherwise). I took those who were feeling mostly okay (ie the ones who did not stay up all last night on a campout) to a Shakespeare performance in the park. The group is doing performances in a number of towns around here, but this one was in St. Anthony, which I've only ever driven through on the way to the sand dunes. The park--ai yai! It's built RIGHT on the Henry's Fork of the Snake River, and yikes, that is an awfully large and deep and cold and fast-moving river to have next to a park! People (even college students) have drowned in that river before. It's very scenic, though! The kids ended up just playing on the playground while I drew, because the river and the wind were too loud and you actually couldn't hear a word of the play. The actors seemed to know their lines and do a good job, from what we could see, though. Hopefully the rest of their performances will be heard (they are indoors from here on out, so I think they'll be okay). The fun thing, though, was that a kid crept over to watch what I was doing. His mom told him it was okay to speak up and ask me about it (he was shy), and it turned out that he also had a notebook and was drawing. He was about ten, and quite good. The funny thing was, his mom was one of the people we met at the university dinner the other night, one of the ones who had been in Germany when we were. So we had a nice time drawing and comparing notes on the difficulty of drawing moving, living, changing things.

All in all, a nice day, but we are very tired and I really, really, really hope that everyone wakes up feeling better than they did today!!

ETA: Here's someone's photo of the river as it runs along the park: http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/60393631.jpg

Between plays and orchestra, there's been a lot to see this week. And a lot to draw!

Have I mentioned how busy the end of school is??! Yesterday, Little Sweetie was feeling well enough to do the play but not well enough to actually go back to school full time. So I took her in for two different performances and brought her back home in between. There was a lot more to the play than I was expecting from your basic first grade performance, so I'm glad she could rest in between. Singing, dancing, acting--the kids did a great job. It's probably the best elementary school play I've ever seen. You could understand all of the kids, even without microphones, and they had a great job hamming it up. My daughter was the skeptical granny who, every time they announced a new ingredient to go into stone soup, shook her head and cackled, "Soup from stone? Faaaaaaancy that!" She's got a field trip today, then one more performance for the parents tomorrow. (And here I thought I was just going to the parent performance--ha!)

Then last night, my oldest son had his orchestra concert. He was required to attend the high school concert which followed the junior high one, so we got to stay for *quite* a while. The concerts were very good, and the plus side was that between sick children and kids who had too much homework to go, I basically got to sit in a darkened auditorium all by myself and listen to nice music. So that was good. The high school part included various smaller groups and concertos, including the piece that the Piano Guys use in their recent release Bourne Vivaldi (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09RUuTAM2H0&list=UUmKurapML4BF9Bjtj4RbvXw&index=2&feature=plcp). So that was fun. Also, a group of private students learned another Vivaldi concerto and played it--the group ranged from age 14 down to about 7, and the high school orchestra played backup. Have I mentioned how seriously people take music here? When we lived in Arkansas, we had friends who took their 1st grader out of school early once a week for violin lessons. It's not really the sort of thing you expect of most first graders; kids play piano, but most people don't automatically assume their 6YO should start violin now. But guess what? The family was originally from this town--and NOW I get it! Of COURSE you want your 6YO to take violin--it's one of the inalienable rights, isn't it? Lol.

I know there are other places in the US where people start their kids young and hope they become prodigies and go off to Julliard or whatever. The different thing about here is that I don't think there's that aspiration. It's not a parent-driven pressure to be The Best in the World. It's more of well...an inalienable right. Music. It's what people do. You do your best because then you have an amazing school orchestra. Most of the town is going to be there, so why not make it a top-quality concert?

Man. The end of school. So. Busy. It's not the time when you can afford to get sick. Unfortunately, my 1st grader has strep. And she's in a play. Tomorrow. And yes, she has a major part, and there are no understudies. We are really hoping that the amoxicillin works quickly. If nothing else, we'll bring her just for her performance(s) and take her home. What she really needs to do, though, is just eat ice cream and sleep. Urgh. I hate strep throat. I have had it way too many times to ever wish on someone else. It feels like you're swallowing glass and burning up all at the same time.

So basically I spent the day at the doctor and the pharmacist. And running last minute errands. Remember that son who had to recreate the Mona Lisa, square by square, for art class--in one night? His brother told me a few hours ago that as part of the project he's doing tonight, he has to make a model of the Hubble telescope. I've been to the store three times today, and I'm reaaaalllly hoping someone finds the glue gun glue, because I will curl up like a roly poly bug if I have to go back one more time.

They are fun projects. I just wish they weren't all RIGHT NOW.

In good school news, my kids' elementary school just ranked #1 in the state (and technically, the world, since no one else gives the Idaho tests) for their achievement tests. Not bad for a little town on the potato prairie!

And finally, the guy came to turn my sprinkler system back on. I followed him around to see what he was doing. It was kind of complicated, and now I finally know what this tool (see http://olmue.livejournal.com/300059.html) is for that we found in the garage when we moved in. It is not, in fact, an Egyptian Was Sceptre of Set, the god of chaos, but rather a tool to turn a remote faucet off and on. I have no idea WHY the sprinkler faucets are buried in a hole four feet deep, but apparently ours isn't the only one, if they make tools that long to deal with it. I am hoping to have a non-crispy lawn soon.

Must chase down my 3YO who has suddenly gotten a burst of new energy. Wish us wellness! And sleep!

And...this time with pictures. If you want to see any of them bigger, I think you can just click on them.

In the Old Faithful geyser basin, which is well worth looking at (we walked for three hours and didn't see all of it):

Castle Geyser:



I can't remember the name of this one, but it used to be trees. Then a geyser sprang up under them and siliconized them:



The Old Faithful Inn just looks like Hogsmeade to me. I wonder what the wizarding community would name it?



The Least Chipmunk--they don't seem to be particularly afraid of humans:



The place we did NOT go hiking:



At Fishing Bridge:



The place that is truly The Middle of Nowhere. The trees look like totems or Easter Island heads to me:







And for Melodye, the icky yet fascinating mud pots:

I hope you are all having a nice Mother's Day. Mother's Day is about saying thanks to the women who teach you and care for you, even if they aren't your physical mother. So say thank you! :)

Yesterday we went to Yellowstone. Yay! I love it when the season opens. There was MUCH less snow than last year this time, owing to a very mild winter. This time we went back to the Old Faithful basin, which is actually quite fascinating, except that in high season, it's impossible to find parking because OF is like Disneyland or something. There is tons more to see than just Old Faithful (although we did see it go off). The biggest geyser in the world is there (yes, bigger than OF, although it doesn't go off much), and tons of other interesting ones. We ended up doing a three hour hike and seeing geysers, nasty-looking bacteria mats, etc. Then we walked back by the Old Faithful Inn, which always looks like a piece of Hogsmeade to me.

We were pretty much tired after that, so we drove along to other parts of the park for whatever else we felt like seeing. That's the key to making a trip with a lot of people work, especially if they are small people: pick one big thing you are going to do no matter what, and then with whatever time and energy you have left, enjoy something low-stress. So we drove past West Thumb and over Fishing Bridge towards the east entrance, and up to this overlook on the Yellowstone River. It was a really cool view. The trees were all burned there, which was kind of apocalyptic-looking, and you got on this high hill and looked over this huge, frozen lake. A sign said that that place was the most desolate spot in the lower 48 states, the furthest from any real road or permanent settlement anywhere. So, we really did go to the middle of nowhere yesterday!

On the way back we stopped at Artist's Paint Pots because there is this tremendously slurpy mud pot that is so gross you can't help staring and staring and staring. It's always quiet there at the end of the day, and so nice to take the short hike up the hill and look at these things. Then it was the long drive home through trees and mountains. SO nice. I love where I live!

Tonight was a university-wide faculty dinner, so free date night for us. :) I don't remember any other university doing something like this--wait, there was a food reception event at an art museum in Charleston that was pretty nice. But nowhere else (and this school and the College of Charleston have a surprising number of good things in common, come to think of it). The food was nice and they recognized various faculty members, and showed a video of students talking about different professors (sans names) who had affected their lives. And there was a cello/bass duet where perhaps the guys had been watching The Piano Guys, because they had some humorous interaction going on during the Rossini. Somehow we ended up sitting at this corner of the table where everyone was either German, or had lived in Germany, or was married to someone whose first language was German, or had some other connection there. It's always nice to talk to people who can still understand you when you throw in the random phrase you can't find a good translation for into English. :) We also saw several people who we went to the same grad school with, long, long ago in a state far, far away. Not to mention just recognizing people whose children I know from school, or whose spouses I know from writing. This is a very strange town. But I suspect this sort of thing happens when you set a large university in an otherwise very small farming community (like the University of Illinois and many others). It's sort of the best of both worlds--nature and culture, but minus the traffic and crime.

Overall it was a nice event--especially since the whole attitude was about how to help the students, and about not only scholarly achievement, but sharing that sort of achievement with students so they can be hands on and expand their minds and learn new things. Which is such a difference from some university-related events I've been to at other schools that seem to focus on the egocentricity of one's position and on sniping at other faculty members. There is a really huge workload here (especially in my husband's sort of unique situation), but there's also a hugely supportive atmosphere, and it really makes a difference!