Writer's Camp Reading

Here's Sarah reading some of her work after Writer's Camp two weeks ago.

The camp was from 10 AM to 1 PM weekdays for two weeks. It was on the University of Pittsburgh campus in the Cathedral of Learning, a 40 story stone classroom building. Sarah enjoyed the camp and liked many of the creative exercises. But she was also looking for some technical guidance in the writing process and structure as well.

It was a good experience for both her and her friend Annie. As usual, Sarah knew several people at the camp and also got to make new friends as well.

I think she would take the class again if offered the opportunity.

The Cathedral of Learning is an unusual buiding so I thought I would include a photo taken from the Carnegie-Mellon campus below. Below that is a photo of students at watching the 1960 World Series in then-nearby Forbes Field. (Sarah had NO interest in finding that perch.)

The Butcher of Calhoun Square

The Butcher of Calhoun Square

Yikes! You know you are getting on in years when they tear down the hip buildings of your 20s. (Click above to go to the photoblog.)

Calhoun Square was a never-really-successful urban mall in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis. It was developed while I lived in the area and displaced some interesting, some rundown, but none-really-successful storefronts. One of the storeowners even fought the development by decorating his store windows with "Stop Updale" signs.

So they built the place and one of the restaurants had sidewalk tables next to the bus stop. Diesel fumes at no extra charge!

So it's being torn down...probably to build more condominiums...sigh.

Update on Updale: Wikipedia has a entry on Calhoun Square. I guess this is an expansion, not a total demolition.

John's Birthday

Sunday evening we opened John's birthday gifts on the deck. Here he is hiding behind a perrenial favorite.

On each of their birthdays the kids get to choose a restaurant or a favorite meal. John's was Ruby Tuesdays. So, earlier in the afternoon we drove an hour to one of the closest ones in New Castle, PA. It was nice to go on a Sunday drive, have a late lunch/early dinner (suprunch? dunch? linner?).

After opening gifts we went to a nearby old-fashioned ice cream stand for soft-serve. A fine way for John to start his teen-age years.

July 4th plus 8

Better late than never at least as a 4th of July post is concerned. Here's our unpacked assortment of fountains and noisemakers. While we all had fun watching the sparks and flames, we will leave the video to past years so click here.

This year we had a guest at our picnic. Bobbie met a young lady from Germany named Eva at ballet class. She was curious about an American picnic and Independence Day so she joined us for all around American food: Hamburgers and Frankfurters. Oh well, if we wanted to be completely Native American we probably would have served pemmican, jerky and turkey tamales.

But it's really the setting, so she joined us for dinner on our deck with watermelon for dessert and fireworks for entertainment. Welcome Eva!

At the barre...

Here's Sarah and Janine with Kiara in the middle at the barre. This was a demonstration of barre exercises at our ballet studio's open house in early June. For the most part their motion is coordinated, which is the goal. Thankfully there was a good audience of potential students and their parents who saw this demonstration. We hope to see them again in the fall. (Sorry no video, but the light was too low.)

Last Day

At the end of Saltworks yesterday Sarah posed for a group with her friends. I got this shot just after the first one was taken. As you can see everyone is still smiling, but they have shut their eyes or looked down.

They deserve the break however. They all worked hard and learned a lot during the week. About five minutes before this was taken, they all performed the traditional Saltworks farewell.

Janine after Saltworks

This was the second week of Saltworks for the kids. Tradtion has it that they go to the nearest location of a family restaurant chain after the last class.

More Saltworks on later posts, but first here's a cute photo of Janine at the restaurant.

As Sarah Likes It

This was the first week of Saltworks this summer and the theme is "All the world's a stage."

Appropriately, As You Like It, the play in which that line is spoken, was the common play from which the kids performed scenes. Each of five groups performed scenes from that play. Here's Sarah as Phoebe, who falls for Rosalind in disguise.

Since this is one of the teen groups, they delivered the lines well and acted with aplomb. However the youngest group performed the play's conclusion. But even (especially) then Shakespeare's words are so powerful everyone said "ah" and laughed at the comic relief as Rosalind drops her disguise.

Cleveland Botanical Gardens

Friday Bobbie and the kids went up to Cleveland to the Botanical Gardens and the Museum. As you can see they had a great time.

Ballet Class Recital

The last of the ballet classes were last week, so Janine's class had an in-studio recital. There were two classes that performed Hansel and Gretel, as well as a third performance at the open-house Friday night.

Janine was the good fairy for all of the performances except one. Here she is at the run-through Wednesday evening. As you can see, she wants to go on pointe, but is not quite old enough yet.

Sarah was there on Friday evening in a more informal dance as you can tell from the costume. I love this photo of my oldest daughter in a Degas-like pose.

Iced Tea Stand

It was a sure sign of summer yesterday as the ever enterprising Janine set up a drink stand. She wanted to earn money for her share of summer drama camp.

At first she asked Bobbie if she could sell lemonade. After first saying no, Bobbie suggested iced tea. Then Janine recuited the neighbors and her brother to help. Because she was limited to the front of our house in the cul-de-sac, she walked out to the street to recruit people taking their dogs for a walk on the nature trail.

In the end she earned the money she needed and paid the neighbors to help.

Great job!

Piano Recital

John and Janine played in a piano recital yesterday. Here's John at rehearsal playing a familiar tune.

Everybody loves Baklava!

...or at least everybody in our family. We also like spanikopita, moussaka, and gyros.

Last night we went to the food festival at the Greek Orthodox church on the Northside. We have gone to the festival before, but usually on Friday or Saturday. This year we found out Thursday is the best night to go.

Here's everyone on the fence at the front of the church. Afterwards we took the long way back to the car through this historic neighborhood. It's called the Mexican War Streets and will be the subject of a future post.

Oh and here's the full sign...

Kid's Festival

This past weekend Sarah worked the Children's festival wearing a costume as Junie B. Jones. Now this drawing does not do justice to her costume, but I was strictly prohibited from taking her picture and posting it here. Like most character costumes, it was heavy and hot. Thankfully she wore it for only 45 minutes at a time and got to break for 15 between wearings. (Please note that the festival also had a person assigned to help her navigate her way and also provide security.)

However it was a good experience for her as she worked four days straight for six hours each day. By the end of the festival she was pretty tired.

So was John for that matter. He helped out at the face painting booth. While his job was not as physically demanding as Sarah's, he was pretty pooped by the end of the day yesterday as well.

More from Netherfield

Since John was featured in the last post, now it's Sarah's turn. Here she is with some of her friends outside, just before the ball.

Sarah is not happy about her dad taking her picture I guess.

Whatever the case, they all were lovely and danced quite well.

They not only danced until the end of the ball at 10 PM, but carried on the activity to the parking lot afterward. Several of the young ladies and men were tossing around a football in their full formal attire, sans gloves of course.

Ah, the energy of youth!