Bird and Little Bird

Going From Here.

Although the talk around this space lately has been all about books and Glue, woodpiles and kids' crafts, leaves and armfuls of pumpkins, there is something else going on behind the scenes, and since it is starting to take up more and more space in my life, I thought that I might just go ahead and share with you all.

Yes, as some astute readers might have already guessed, I'm talking about residency applications. When we last left our hero, so to speak, residency applications were in and we were waiting to hear about interviews.  Well.  Interview invitations have been coming in at a rate that was perhaps unanticipated and at press time, Dan has been asked to interview at something like thirteen programs across the country.

I don't know how many of you are familar with the residency match system, but it is weirdly complex and somewhat difficult to explain. There are computer algorithms involved, and it is the mysterious super computer that will ultimately make the match for us. And, whatever the computer decides is final.  The name of the city that it spits out will be our home for the next four years, and we don't have the option of saying no.  Intense, right? But we do have the ability to rank our preferences and to have that ranked list included in the computer's decision making process.  Over the next three months, we will be researching like crazy and trying to make the very best list that we can. 

Here is where you could help a girl out.  I'm going to list the cities that are on our current list of possibles, and if you know something about them, I'd love to hear about your experiences there or what you think of the place.  Obviously, I'm particularly interested in things like youth music programs, access to nature, good libraries, and the possibility for semi-rural living. I won't list all of the possible locations here because there are a handful that we feel pretty knowledgable about already (California and Vermont programs, namely), but here are the others:

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Atlanta, Georgia

Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Salt Lake City, Utah

Madison, Wisconsin

Portland, Maine

Hanover, New Hampshire

If you know anything about any of these cities and family life there, I'd be ever so grateful if you shared your experience in the comments below.  Thanks, everyone!

 

A Little Too Far?

I really wasn't going to post this picture.  And, I certainly wasn't going to admit that I drove three hours round trip with a bag full of rice crackers and my two young children in tow to take said picture of a taxidermied woodpecker.  A somewhat blurry picture with poor lightning taken through thick museum glass, actually.  But somehow, the nerd that dwells (not very deep) within me cannot help it.  So here you have it.  A male Ivorybill Woodpecker specimen.  Those of you who have read the blog for any length of time are already aware that I have a perhaps unhealthy interest in woodpeckers, particulalry ivorybills.  I try to keep this enthusiasm appropriately bottled up, but occasionally something happens that makes it impossible to save you all from my incredible geekiness.  For example, you might also know that because many consider the Ivorybill to be extinct (I am not among them. Ahem.) most museums who have specimens do not display them publicly.  So, it is really quite serendipitous (if you are me) that there are a pair of birds on display here in Vermont.  I had to go.

And yes, I regularly troll the depths of the ornithological internet to make sure that I'm up to date on the search for the Ivorybill and all the related controversy.  While this admission is slightly embarassing, I must also say that I don't know very many adults who bemoan the fact that their parents' excessive interest in rare birds somehow directly resulted in a lifetime of dysfunction and unhappiness.  I'm harming no one, folks.   Just making them shake their heads a bit.

Broadcast from the Road.

Greetings from the land of week-long violin camp! The small people and I have set up shop in a tiny town here in rural Vermont for the week and are pretty much all Suzuki all day long (with a bit of fiddle thrown in for good measure) until Friday.  The internet here is sketchy at best so I'm unlikely to post again before we return home, but I did want to say a quick hello and let everyone who is doing the Book Along know that I've updated the chapter book page with a note about our own reading so far. So, hop on over and let us know what you are up to!  I'll be updating the picture book page at some point this week.

I suspect I'll have lots of thoughts about kids and music and discipline and appreciation of beauty and all of that good stuff when this week is done.  In the meantime, if you didn't see it before, you might like to take a peek at this post that I wrote for Rhythm of the Home a few months ago (it's where this photo was first published).  It explains a whole lot about why I have decided to brave long days of lessons and a complete disruption of baby routines for the sake of Mariam's music education.  Because there are a lot of mosquitoes here, so resolve is not an insignificant factor, let me tell you.  

In the Next Lane.

This is one of those posts that officially speaking, falls into the category of stuff that I post mostly for me, and not so very much for you.  One of those moments when this blog really does become a family scapbook of sorts.  My journal.  This photo is cell phone photography, and moreover, it is cell phone photography through a rain spattered airplane window.  And I didn't take the picture.  The guy sitting across the aisle from me on the plane took it, and then texted me the photo before we had to turn off our phones for take off.  

So, you ask, why is this picture worth posting at all?  Well, because it is a photo of the space shuttle Discovery, on the runway at Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C. last April.  Our plane was parked next to it, and we saw it in real life, sitting on top of a huge airplane, just like that, and it was really cool.  And, I don't want to lose this cell phone photo somewhere in the land of nebulous digital media and forget that I ever saw an actual space shuttle that was not in a museum or on television.  

Also, why did I not think to include this picture in the Summer Science Special? It would have gone so very nicely with the Alka Seltzer rockets.  Speaking of which, I've decided that today (July 7th, 2012), if you download a copy of any issue of Alphabet Glue, I'll send along a free copy of the Summer Science Special. But it really has to be today only, because I am super busy tomorrow.  Oh, and make sure that the email associated with your PayPal account is the correct one so that I have somewhere to send the file to.  

Lakeside.

 

 

I had intended to accompany these photos of my little people at the lakeside with some sort of suitable reflection about living near the water, hot summer days, and the like.  However, I just this very moment remembered that there are leftover cookies in the kitchen and well, priorities shift.  Happy Friday! 

Transit.

You know those moments when the parent that you aspire to be has to take the parent that you actually are at that precise moment aside and give her a little pep talk?  Where she says something like "It does not matter that is is 6 p.m. on a Tuesday and dinner is not ready and everyone needs a bath and your daughter has not done any homework. Again. You are supposed to be raising your kids to be outdoorsy nature lovers who are enthusiastic about science and regard the universe with wonder.  Would you just get out there already?!?" 

Yes, I'm talking about the Venus Transit.  And, after Ideal Me gave Current Me a good talking to, we did indeed get out there already.  We headed up to a local park where the Vermont Astronomer's Association had set up telescopes for the public to view the event and it was, in short, wholly fantastic.  There is something about standing around in an open field with a bunch of complete strangers regarding a cosmic event with wonder and excitement that does good things for one's sense of being part of the human family. 

I also really love the fact that when it comes right down to it, the sun kind of has all of our fancy modern technology beat.  You want to look at Venus crossing in front of the sun?  Sure.  But, you will need an oatmeal box, an embroidery hoop and a plastic funnel from the hardware store to do it.  

Library Monday: Bridges Are to Cross.

I've been spending just a bit of time thinking about bridges this week.  Well, to be more accurate, bridges and tunnels.  Because here in the San Francisco area, that is how one gets around.  You cross bridges and go through tunnels.  Generally, you do these things at the exact same time as many, many other people and therefore, you do them slowly.  Which lends itself to a bit of thinking about how the bridges are built, how the tunnels are tunneled.  This is especially true at the moment, because the new Bay Bridge is actively under construction and you can't help but notice the skeleton of this new bridge as you drive across the old one. 

 

Mariam seems to have noticed the built environment here in California a bit more on this trip than on previous ones, and the resulting car conversations reminded me of one of our favorite reads on the topic of bridges and the reasons that people build, cross and admire them.  Bridges are to Cross by Philemon Sturges (illustrated by Giles Laroche) is a truly enjoyable read, with plenty of detail for mini-engineers who are curious about bridges and the way that they are constructed.  As an added bonus, the text is accompanied by brightly colored cut paper illustrations that are themselves enough of a reason to pick this one up. 

 

Bridges Are to Cross got the Inspired by Literature treatment in Volume Three of Alphabet Glue, so many of you may have had a chance to give this one a well-deserved read.  If not, click the link below for a PDF file containing the last couple of pages of Volume Three.  You'll find a bit more information about the book, as well as a fun kitchen-table engineering project to go along with it. 

Making Toothpick Bridges

Notes from the Road.

Well, I might as well just go ahead and admit that I've gone a little deeper into vacation mode than I might previously have planned.  It turns out that when one has access to squishy chairs next to sunny windows and places to go walking where there is limited mud, it gets a little tricky to find time for things like computers.  This, I'm thinking, should be considered a good thing.  I did, however, want to poke my head in to share a couple of things with you all. 

First, if you haven't yet had a chance to download a copy of the newest issue of Alphabet Glue, you might be interested to know that you can visit Amanda's blog for a discount code that is good all this week on any and all issues of the Glue that you might want to have for your very own.  Also, because I was feeling a bit lazy when I set up the code on the download service that I use, it will work on both the rabbit and fox sewing patterns as well.  You can also check out a sample project from Volume Six by visiting The Crafty Crow.  It's the Inspired by Literature project from the issue, which means that the tutorial is all nicely bundled up with a review of a favorite read.  Bonus!  So do check it out.

Also, my final post for the Being series on the Rhythm of the Home blog is up now.  If you would like to see a photo of a very tiny and entirely perfect jellyfish that my girl found on the beach in Oregon, I strongly suggest that you click here. 

Homeward Bound.

 

If I didn't have a sleeping baby in my lap at this exact moment, I would probably be doing things like throwing a couple of pairs of socks into the above suitcase.  Or, putting yet another patch on a new hole in my favorite cardigan.  Is there a limit to how many multi-colored fabric patches one can have on a sweater and still wear it in public?  Does it make a difference if the sweater is a particularly wonderful shade of blue?  Because I think that should count for something.

So why am I packing stripey orange socks and purple hooded sweatshirts and one thousand back up pacifiers and books about rabbit detectives?  Because we are headed west, folks.  The smalls and I are on our way to Oregon this afternoon for a much needed visit with family (and the ocean).  From there we will go on to California too see more family, friends and much to my delight, Molly and Patricia too! 

I'll be posting from the road, I expect, so look for pictures of my toes in the sand in the days to come.  And actually, I expect to be making a really exciting announcement here tomorrow, so check back for that.  In the meantime, you can think happy thoughts about travelling solo with two kiddos for me and take a peek at my newest post over at the Rhythm of the Home blog. 

The Sugar House Season.

This time of year, we are treated to the occasional warm and sunny afternoon and on those days, even if the thermometer claims that it is only twenty-nine degrees outside, it almost feels like spring.  You can believe in spring again, if you know what I mean. On days like today, when the sun is shining and the afternoon feels long, we often walk up to visit the nearby sugar house after school. 

 

There weren't many buckets to collect this afternoon; the cold temperatures the last couple of nights have made sap-sicles in most of them and they're impossible to empty for now.  But tomorrow promises to be nearly tropical, with temperatures into the upper forties, so the sap should be running once again.

I suspect this means that I'll be chasing Mariam up the hill to the sugar house again come Thursday afternoon.  Remind me to wear my mud boots, will you?