The Story Sisters: A Must Mention on StoryTimes

I’m not a fan of Alice  Hoffman, but I had to read her new novel, The Story Sisters. I mean how could I resist a book about sisters Elizabeth (Elv), Meg and Claire Story? So, yup . . . it’s predictably dark, depressing and interlaced with fantasy (fairies, in this case)–nothing like our childhoods, if I may say so–but I read to the end because I was intrigued by one small, but significant aspect in the life of this fictional family that is also part of our Story story. You’ll never guess! Happy reading, girls . . . . . . .

 

Also: Winnings!

Erica and I were two fifths of the third-place team at the Ballard Loft pub quiz a couple of weeks ago. They have a blog and everything; here’s the link: http://tinyurl.com/ygvzuqa. If you go down to the third photo, then you see us. My great friend Pedro is standing between me and Erica; he went to med school at Dartmouth too but took an extra year to travel around Africa and Asia, and then decided to come to Seattle for residency as well (we are in the same program) and so now he’s a year behind me. He still knows more than I ever will though. I didn’t contribute a whole lot to the winnings but threw in some geography and geology knowledge and I guess every little bit helped because we didn’t win our third-place $10 gift certificate by much.

Also, MLS playoffs start this week…we got tickets for the Sounders playoff game on Thursday night. Only $20 each. What will you be doing on Thursday, Read? Staying home? Oh that’s right, D.C. missed the playoffs. So sorry.

Google Reader

Aunt Sally, your post made me curious about using a Reader. I never really knew what they were, but Google has a thing which is pretty easy to use and compiles stories from around the web. I got it to load the Story Times into a feed by going to the Story Times website and clicking the “RSS-Posts” link in the upper right. That sent me to a new web page. I copied the URL for that new web page and then went to Google Reader and told it to subscribe to that URL, and it worked! I’ll still go to the Story Times homepage but now I definitely know when there is new content.

More exciting news!!

No,  just kidding.  Bet I got you after the last couple posts from Colin and Brian though!

Actually, I just wanted to point out an interesting article on dairy farming consolidation and milk prices talking about pressure on small farmers. Here’s the link:

http://flavormagazinevirginia.com/got-dairy-farmers/

Read

Late breaking news

Babies are great and everything….but top this Colin: Erica and I are engaged! This actually happened a few weeks ago while we were in Hawaii on a vacation–neither of us had ever been there before and it was a much needed break after a really hectic summer. I actually surprised Erica I think with the proposal, which is sort of surprising itself since I think she knew in a general way that it was coming.

Anyway we’re hoping to put on a party next summer back in Connecticut, most likely. Maybe it could be coordinated with a family get together in Ithaca or Burlington? You guys will have to think about it..right now we’re just trying to come up with a place and date for some festivities.

We have some cool pictures from our trip, but I’m going to wait to post because Erica is working on some sort of compilation art that should be neater than any individual picture on its own. But let me just say: sea turtles and lava are really really cool, way better than I could have imagined. It was definitely a worthwhile trip (cheap too since we camped half the time and stayed with Erica’s friend in Kauai for the other half). I give Hawaii my highest recommendation.

(Just kidding Colin and Caitlin – we are psyched that you guys are going to have a little one).

help me somebody

how do i get a warning telling me that there are new posts to this blog? I do use the Reader on google but infrequently because i do not use my gmail hardly ever. Just for ITUNES.
i could die that i have missed all this news.

Our news? The Games, the violence in Rio, travels. I think your lives all seem way more interesting to me right now. Babies! First grandchild is HIGHLIGHT!

I want to go ride bikes at the lake house.

I

News!

Hey Storys–

Greetings from Boston.  Just wanted to share some exciting news: we’re having a baby!  Right now Caitlin is 25 weeks along, so we’re finishing up the second trimester.  So far everything has been pretty easy.  According to the ultrasound, the baby is a boy, but we’ll see for sure once he arrives.  He should be coming around January 20, plus or minus two weeks.

Hope all is well with everyone. We’ll continue to update as things progress.

Love,

Colin and Caitlin (and big sister to be, Zoey)

Congrats Brazil!

Congratulations to Rio & Brazil on winning the hosting gig for the 2016 Olympics. Even in Chicago, I think the concensus among my friends & associates was that South America/Rio should get the nod.

We Chicagoans were quite divided on whether we even wanted to host. Still, out in the first round! We were stunned, truly. We believed whoever told us (who was that?) that it was between Chicago & Rio. We’re out of touch with the world here in the US. I don’t know if it would have paid off in the long run. I’ve heard it said, though, that we lost our chance at a new/improved public transit system. I fear it’s true. Now that really hurts.

On a completely different note, we celebrated some milestones this past weekend. Patrick turned 50, John will turn 18 on the 20th, and Clare became sweet 16. Thanks to David & Liz for helping us celebrate.

Global Relations Project

In my Global Relations class we have a project where we pick a country and write an essay about it. We are writing as if we are Thomas Friedman’s assistant. Friedman wrote The Lexus and the Olive Tree and is the foreign affairs columnist for New York Times. We have to analyze the globalization and compare the Lexus (economic drive) to the olive tree (culture and identity) influences in the country. The country I choose was Brasil. If you have any any insight on this topic, (Aunt Sally especially) let me know.

by Clare

Door County, part 2

I’m so glad Clare posted first. I was trying to capture the weekend in words and was having difficulty. It was, to echo Clare, a great weekend! It was well worth braving holiday traffic, rush hour in Milwaukee and construction in both directions.  The weather was beautiful—perfect, in fact. As Clare mentioned, we were able to spend a lot of time outdoors. The lake was warm and clear. As for pictures, I have many bad shots: closed eyes, open mouths, etc., etc. But I do have a picture, complete with red-eye, from our trip to Wilson’s, which is apparently one of the more famous stops in Door. Clare does not exaggerate the fact that our drive was a bit of an adventure! It’s quite dark throughout most of the peninsula, and we were going through some amazing fog. All of a sudden we emerged ‘on the other side’ (tourist) and it was quite an awakening. We had spent all our time until then in peace and quiet, and then arrived in the tourist reality of wall-to-wall people waiting in an endless line for ice cream. Example: Someone from our group braved the sardine can of Wilson’s ice cream parlor to grab a number. We were 97 and they were currently serving 62!

This is what we what we were coming from:

Before Uncle David regaled us with tales of Camp Bushytail, we spent time pondering some engineering conundrums. For instance, how could we raise our Adirondack chairs to a height that would allow us to see over the deck rail? Is it possible to make a bungee trampoline? How did the previous owners get the TV antenna to the top of the tree? Could it ever possibly provide reception? And why does the top of the tree look like a mushroom cap?

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. I dreaded the fact that I had to come back to reality the next morning.