Category: General News

It’s Michael & Lisa’s wedding T-1.

I did a photo session this morning with Heather, Evelyn, and Heather’s mom and grandma.

The rehearsal is in a couple hours.

!Weee!

I’ve had an iPod for about a year now, and I just love it!  I love having all our music so easily accessible.  I like being able to make mixes so easily and how fun it can be to use smart playlists or Genius to create the musical backdrop for our playtime.

However my favoritest part about using an iPod is being able to download podcasts and listen to them when I have some alone time in the car or the kitchen.  Prior to becoming an iPod convert, I didn’t get what a podcast was.  And quite frankly, I thought that people who used that and other cooky words were just purposefully being a bit geeky.

But now I’ve joined the fold.  For those of you not in the podcast-listening world, podcasts are radio shows (or in some case video shows) that you can download and listen to or watch at your leisure.

I have several radio shows that I really enjoy, but it’s rare that I happen to (be allowed to) listen to the radio when they’re on.  So I started my podcast listening by subscribing to those shows.  Then I did some exploring and found other NPR shows that I also really love.

In the spirit of sharing…and with the hope that this post will inspire you to share as well…here’s my favorite podcasts.  These shows made my recent trip to and from Minnesota so very enjoyable.  So without further ado, here’s my favs:

This American Life. There was a point in my life when I was turned off by Ira Glass.  But now, this is hands down my favorite show.  I love it.  An hour of insightful, cooky, disturbing, important, mind-bending, or humorous radio that makes me feel like a more complete person.  I just donated $20 to the show to support them and to help them keep their podcasts free!

Continue reading “Podcasts that make my day”

Saturday is the day!  My brother Michael and our lovely Lisa are getting married in six days:)  They’ve been engaged for two years, but somehow when I turned the calendar to October, it seemed shocking that the big day was neigh.

Lisa and Michael have done a wonderful job planning this wedding.  They’re making it sweet and personal and they are organizing all the details, and yet it seems like it’s remained a fun activity…from my perspective, the bride is handling all these last week stresses with remarkable aplomb.

Early October has to be my favorite time of year (don’t tell May).  Right now the sun is shining through the leaves of our maple tree, and the light is all golden because the leaves are just beginning to be tinted with honey and rust.  Our view from our dining table shows five or six maples, all in the green glory, but now, inextricably changing to reds and purples and yellows.  I love these early weeks of color.  Such an amazing time of year.

If the weather cooperates, the ceremony will be held outdoors and the wedding reception will be in the nature center.  A large tall-grass prairie surrounds the nature center, and there’s a playground nearby that I think my kids will enjoy.  It should be a relaxed, beautiful time.  Stay tuned for pictures of pumpkins and a beautiful bridal couple in the prairie (please weather, cooperate!).

For those of you attending the festivities, here’s a link to a map and directions.

If you’re coming to the wedding, it’ll be great to see you there!

When I was at Carleton last weekend for my Alumni Adventures Committee meeting, I received a gift.  I’ve been the (very distracted by small children) chair of the committee for the last couple years, and I’ve been serving on the committee in general for five years.  This was my last in-person meeting, and as a farwell gift, the committee gave me a book.  All In A Day, by Cynthia Rylant and illustrated by Nikki McClure.

It’s a lovely, joyous book.  It reminds me of some of my favorite passages from Anne of Green Gables and from Laura Ingalls’ On the Shores of Silver Lake.

And the illustrations!  Nikki McClure is a pretty new illustrator to me, and I am in love, love, love with her.

The author, Cynthia Rylant, has written umpteen-gillion books, and many of them are very special.   This one, though, has to be my favorite.

The books starts,

A day is a perfect piece of time
to live a life,
to plant a seed,

Then later…

A day is all you have to be,
it’s all you get to keep.

…

So live it well, make it count,
fill it up with you.
The day’s all yours, it’s waiting now…
See what you can do.

Such a lovely book!  I encourage you to go out and check it out yourself!

My baby brother (note how that introduction elevates his competency and acknowledges his adult-ness) has written a couple articles for his college newspaper, the Bowdoin Orient.  The most recent article was just published on Friday.

Here’s an opening excerpt from his article.

In the debate about guns, as in so many others, neither side is willing to acknowledge the salient points and reasonable objections of their ideological opponent. Pro-gun enthusiasts believe that gun regulation is a fundamental violation of the right to self-defense and simply another case of government intrusion. Those who want more gun regulation want to prevent guns from getting into schools and the hands of criminals. read more

Continue reading “Joe’s a newspaper man”

I feel a little twitchy because I haven’t written a blog post in a few days.  Egad!

I’m currently sitting in the Alumni Guest House at Carleton, getting ready for my second day of Alumni Adventures Committee meetings.  I just love Carleton.  And I so enjoy working with the people on this committee.  This is my last in-person meeting (I still have a year of monthly conference calls), and being here on campus, meeting with faculty, discussing possible trips to amazing destinations…it all feels a little final.

While I drove away from my family on Thursday, I really didn’t want to go.  It’s funny how crazy the kids can make me feel sometimes, but as I was driving away, I just kept wanting to turn the car around so I could help put them to bed and then snuggle with Bryan and watch a new episode of Mad Men.  I like my family:)

I was just able to log on to the internet this morning, and I found a couple wonderful emails waiting for me.  The first is from Bryan:

I just had to tell you that Andrew peeked his head into Sylvie’s room tonight as I was reading her books and he asked if he could read a story to Sylvia.  She said yes and got down and sat on his lap on the floor.  They flipped through a board book and Andrew read the words and Sylvia turned the pages.  When they were all done I suggested Sylvia say “Thanks” and give Andrew a hug.  Sylvia stood up in her little footie pajamas and gave Andrew a nice, sweet hug.  It was just about the most precious thing I could imagine!  I had to share 🙂

The second is from Andrew himself:

Mommy, we really miss you. We were just watching Robin Hood and we just stopped. We had oranges, bunny crackers and hot chocolate for a snack.  We were playing outside and it was very cold.  We can’t wait to see you. 

Love, Andrew, Sylvia, & Bryan

I head back to Madison tonight, but instead of going home, I’m going to Lisa’s for her bachlorette party!  Yay!  It’s an 80’s theme slumber party:)  Her wedding is a week from today.  Wooooohooo!

So Bryan’s doing solo parent duty for three bedtimes and over two days.  Send him a little extra love!  He’s wonderful:) 

Thanks, Hon.

~Althea

Last night I attempted to use the microwave to melt some butter for the corn bread batter.  Mmm corn bread and chili on a windy, fall evening.

Instead of melting my butter, the microwave made a spooky crackling zap noise.  Then it appeared to work – lights on, turn-table rotating – but after a minute, the butter was still cold.  This morning I tried it again and there was a loud electrical snapping noise.  Still no food-warming.  I called a repair shop, and they said it was probably the magnetron*.  She said repairing it costs about $300.  Hmmm, the replacement microwaves I looked up online looked to be about $300.

Looks like our Home Improvement budget item is going to see a bit of use!

* Definition: A microwave tube in which electrons generated from a heated cathode are affected by magnetic and electric fields in such a way as to produce microwave radiation used in radar and in microwave ovens. (from Answers.com)

Terry is going to return back home from a month-long trip on the 29th.  He’s been exploring Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Quebec City on a Haller-esque (manic, “We’re not here to have fun!  We’re here to see and do as much as humanly possible!”) driving trip.  You can read his blog and see some of his lovely pictures here.

A couple days ago, Terry sent me the following note.  It made me smile, so I thought I’d share.

I am staying in perhaps the most mind-boggling hotel I have ever stayed in.  Calling it a “hotel” is something of a misnomer — it is a gilded age 110-room Vanderbilt mansion, and I am staying in a gorgeous room.  It is called Shelburne Farms, near Burlington Vermont.  It is an interesting blend of Terry (ultra posh, gorgeous in every respect) with Althea (nonprofit devoted to environmental
education and sustainability, nice).