garden goodness

weather has been sunny and mild, with a few showers during the evening hours. perfect for the garden--tonite we're having fried green tomatoes and swiss chard. last night, it was fresh green beans and zucchini. tomatoes really hitting their stride--regular, cherry, and yellow. and then there are peppers, eggplant, and some awesome looking full heads of cabbage. of course, all of this just as we get ready to go to CA: hopefully the neighbors will appreciate their good fortune and some will be left for our return.

ben is back!

so ben is back from the big easy, a bit tired but with lots of great stories and memories. we got to hear some over lunch (reading to a 2nd grader, talking with kids from Texas and Ohio, getting to see Pastor Shirley force a crazy guy off their bus, and who were the best and worst speakers at the superdome), and as we hear more we'll try to get the big guy to jot down a few highlights to share. 

in the meantime, after dropping emma off at camp yesterday afternoon and before picking Ben up around lunch time today, terri and doug squeezed in a quick, overnight stay at the Grand Resort on Gulf Lake in Naswa. There was canoeing, a little tennis, and a fancy dinner at a place called "Sherwood Lodge" just down the road a bit. and we got lucky on the accommodations--there was a last minute cancellation that opened up a beach cabin spot for us at a very reasonable rate!

coming and going

so we will be driving emma up to brainard for safety patrol camp tomorrow; ben and the youth group will be wrapping up and heading back north as well. 

from a few brief phone conversations and texts, we've heard this about Ben's New Orleans trip: the bus ride was long; they read to 2nd and 3rd graders on thurs for their service project; he has eaten 3 binets (sp?); the superdome events have been fun but he was hoping to get down on the main floor before its over; overall, they've been very busy and active as a group. we are excited to get more details when he gets back on monday. 

we're also curious was emma's camp will be like. she's all packed up and pretty excited.

all fun to see--though just think if the two events had overlapped, what terri and doug might have been able to do. maybe next year...

off to the big easy

So Ben and his group left this morning for New Orleans. 

There was a little feature on their caravan over the noon hour.

WCCO-TV's report on the Youth leaving for New Orleans is available on line

at http://wcco.com/local/helping.new.orleans.2.1093278.html .  

You can play the video clip as well.  

The footage was shot on ULCH's parking lot, although there is neither mention of ULCH nor shots of any ULCH kids.

Emma, by the way, started the gopher girls hockey camp. 

Girls there from Texas, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and New Mexico. 

Her coaches for the afternoon scrimmage were Gopher's head coach Brad Frost and 

US Olympic star Natalie Darwitz. 

always next year

so ben's team suffered a disappointing and somewhat controversial end to their season last night, losing 11-9 to a team they had twice beaten. the controversy was b/c one of their better players wasn't allowed to play b/c he hadn't played enough regular season games. (insult to injury: the protest was filed by someone from our own center). ben had a big, two-run single in the first inning from the cleanup spot, but his big blast to center in the 5th inning was run down by a track star out there. he played first the whole game and made a couple of very good (though now completely expected) out-saving snags. still an outside chance they'll get to play in the state rec tournament, though not 100% and it would necessitate some rescheduling of our CA trip.

speaking of "next years"--doug now into his 43rd (or is it 42nd)? celebrated with a few friends and cake last night. gifts included framed photos of shots used in his first book, some pens (presumably to write new ones), and several nutrolls and bags of sunflower seeds. he said he is hoping to finish his midnight basketball book this year, get the house and grounds shaped up a bit, and maybe take family trip to another country again at some point.

on more mundane matters: this morning emma had a dentist appointment and is spending the day getting certified as a babysitter (she opened a bank account on tuesday in anticipation), while ben has tennis and weightlifting, is getting a haircut, and will need to get packing for his New Orleans trip. (they leave monday morning). he's also catching up on his sleep, having hosted a Risk party that went until 3 in the morning a couple of nights ago. terri is finishing upand hoping to finally send in a paper on Hmong Americans she and doug have been working on for several years.

looking and reading ahead

more of the same--long, sometimes lazy but often busy summer days. ben and emma still in tennis most mornings. emma in art and golf (with a hockey camp coming up next week). ben's team in playoffs (first game thursday night). ben getting ready for New Orleans trip (leaves next monday). supposed to be playing in an ensemble at church again this weekend, too: Saints Go Marchin', Amazing Grace, etc. weather's been perfect for dinners outside in our new screen porch, though a bit dry for the lawn and garden. 

oh and lots of reading going on too. Ben just read Angels and Demons and the Divinci Code--and has Shoeless Joe Jackson sitting nearby; Doug and Terri recently finished off Revolutionary Road and Flannery O'Conner's A Good Man is Hard to Find; Emma is reading, among other stuff, Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. Doug is working also on History of Doubt and the classic recommended in Newsweek The Way We Live Now, and Terri on a book called something like 'confederacy of dunces.' And then there is the family book club--whose first selection is Lord of the Flies picked by Ben because it was the only book at Roseville Library that got a negative review from recent teen readers.

went canoeing...

...on the cannon river. weather was perfect--sunny, low 70s, no humidity. we did the five mile trip. it took just over two hours b/c it was so crowded with tubers. you would have thought it was one big frat party, though they tried to be friendly to those of us in boats.  the best, most telling and indicative line came from a guy who must've thought he was in new orleans at mardi gras. as we drifted by, he called out to ben, "hey north dakota--" (ben was called that all day since he wore his north dale hat) and then after a long pause when it seemed like he couldn't think of anything social to say, "show us your ----." so he was probably a bit confused but it was more than a bit amusing to us, and, it should also be noted, he was somewhat less unsettling than others we saw and heard during the course of the day.

weekend watch

who knows? one of the few times we don't have a lot planned. 

4th of July recap

started early on thursday with family golf outing and then a bball game for ben (his team beat the previously undefeated league leaders 5-4 even though ben pulled a leg muscle early in the game and had to have a courtesy runner after each at-bat).

friday, we went to the horse races out at Canterbury Park in the evening--the fireworks were the big highlight (ask ben about the lady trying to get him to stand up and sway during the big finale) but it didn't hurt that ben won all seven--that's right, 7!--of his bets and emma hit the exacta on the last race. 

saturday: we spent much of the day, through rain and shine, at the annual St. Anthony Park picnic: the middle afternoon rainstorm washed out the tennis tournament (which ben and doug thought they were going to win) along with all of the old-timey races and competition but doug and tim johnson made it to the finals of the horseshoes, losing in the finals (21-8, 18-21, 18-21). we then went to another bbq and finished up by shooting off fireworks in the driveway.

sunday: church, lots of yardwork, tennis (both wimbleton on tv and our own doubles at North Dale playground), bbq hamburgers, and a traditional big hollywood action show at the movies (in this case, Transformations II).  

does that sound like an All-American, fourth of july weekend or what?

such is summer

drizzily, gray morning here in St. Paul.  has been breezy and gray past few days. doesn't seem to have slowed us down much, though. 

doug had his reunion in chicago over the weekend, which included lots of hanging out with the old gang (see photo at right), playing sports, talking about sports, and eating at Harold Chicken Shack.

emma's team lost both of their tournament games and their season would appear to be over, though the games were close and our favorite catcher played really well, including one spectacular diving tag-out at the plate. terri and emma also had fun at the Schroeder's rib fest on saturday night where our friend tim prescott took home top honors.  

ben and his boys have been continuing to play tennis, lift weights, and work on their concept album. might be a good day for the latter, especially. his bball team also continues to win--a close, 6-5 victory last night. ben had an RBI sac fly in the first inning, though his string of 9 consecutive at-bats without an out was broken in the 4th with a flyout to left. ben also won $10 and a state fair ticket at the library for reading and reviewing Angels and Demons. and of course, we celebrated his 14th bday on sunday. as per his request, we grilled lamb cabobs served with a yogurt cucumber sauce and had a peach cobbler for dessert. 

we're not sure what the weekend will bring. but the rest of the week probably more of the summer-same: some grilling perhaps; terri's doing some interviewing of parents of young adults; ben may help doug with moving into and setting up his new office; emma practicing drums, playing some tennis of her own, and doing math work sheets; terri, ben, and doug all reading 'lord of the flies' together in their own little book club. 

which brings us to one final, funny little thing. when she heard the title of the book we were going to read together, emma wondered why we wanted to read about some guy who kept leaving his barn door open.