The End

Addie graduated this past month, the only member of her class. Does that make her the valedictorian? I suppose, though it is a class of only one. The important thing is that she has successfully completed her high school education, ending that chapter of her life. And now she is ready to begin the exciting part: She is headed to college at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, to study apparel design and development.

It's true, we are very proud of Addie and all of her accomplishments. In the same way that it was for her brothers, she truly earned her diploma in that she had to plan and carry out all portions of her classwork. As she put it on her blog profile, her parents are busy people, so she is basically self-taught. We oversaw what she was doing, gave lots of advice along the way, and enrolled her in an accredited school to keep an eye on things as well. She has an official diploma that she can stash away....as we all seem to do. The end.

It's the end in another way, too. We no longer have any homeschoolers in the house. For the last twelve years, someone was always homeschooling, and sometimes it was all three someones. They soon learned that schooling at home didn't necessarily stop in the summer. Robert also liked to point out how often I turned things into learning opportunities. "Even Christmas presents," he grumbled one year, when they opened a new game called Cranium. Never mind that it turned out to be a really fun game, and that Addie and her friends are playing it even as I write this. With a name like that, it must be about school and learning! But for the most part, I think that all three kids were very glad of the education each got. They not only studied all of their lessons, they learned about life as well. They got to command their own time schedules, and as a result, they were able to delve into their hobbies to a large degree. Hence, Addie was able to pursue her interest in textiles, fashion, sewing, and ultimately opened her own shop on the internet.

It's been a heck of a ride, and as I've mentioned before, the very best part was all of the time that we got to spend together. They still come home for the summer, and so we still work and play in the same place, at least for part of the year. I find myself doing less parenting, and more discussing of issues and such, as each makes his or her way into the arena of adulthood. I still scratch my head over how we got here so fast, but no sense in dwelling on it. Too much fun to still to be had, and too many memories yet to make. We've just added Addie's grad party to that list. On to the next great thing...for all of us.

We'll Miss You, Cucho.

This is surely the saddest Picture of the Day (and I hope to not break this record).

This is the last picture of Cucho, who died yesterday morning. The last couple of days he had suddenly gotten really sick, so we took him to the vet. It turns out he had had FIV, and because of that, he didn't have the defenses to fight other sicknesses, including chronic kidney failure, and anemia. He was in lots of pain in the last few days. The doctor said that they could treat some of the symptoms temporarily, but that he'd likely never permanently recover, and he'd have been in pain. He recommended we put him to sleep so he wouldn't have to suffer anymore. It was a very difficult decision, but we know it was the right one, but we've both still been really sad since then.

It really hurts to lose a friend you love so much, but we're happy that he's not suffering anymore. And we're also content knowing that we were able to give him a good life in the time that he was with us. He really was an excellent cat, and he was as lucky to be with us as we were to have him.

Cucho's grave in our backyard.

Cucho's kennel. We'll miss you, little guy.

Sunday Photos: the Raven Edition

On a Walk with Mom:

My Good Side:

My Better Side (or is this my brother?):

Picture of the Day, July 10, 2010

Here's today's Picture of the Day (wow, it's been a while since I said that phrase!):

These strange-looking things are actually candied figs which have been stuffed with a sort of sugary condensed milk mixture. This is the kind of food you can buy from roadside stands in Costa Rica. We bought these the other day while returning from Zarcero with my family.

Thanks for checking out the pictures, and have a great day!

Random Saturday Notes

It's time for a random bits post, one that contains little notable items that are either not quite worthy of a full post, or may need a little more prep time than I have right now. So without further ado, and in no particular order, here is a list of what has been happening:

--It's been another lovely day on the weather front. The nights cool off into the high fifties, and the days warm up nicely into the seventies. Perfect for waterfront activity. Addie was again in the lake, having spent several hours the last few days slaving away in the kitchen.

--Why was Addie slaving in the kitchen? Because she was hard at work preparing for her high school graduation party, which we held yesterday. It was a lovely bash, complete with an amazing spread of miniature desserts. When I get the photos downloaded from Greg's camera, we'll put Addie and her party completely in the spotlight.

--Greg and I got to take a boat ride today, as he had a bit of work to accomplish on the west end of the lake. We spotted a large nest in a standing-dead white pine on the Canadian side of the lake, so we trolled closer to get a good look at it. Seems that eagles have taken up residence there, as one large one sat above the nest. I swear at one point that somebody poked a head up from inside the nest. This might explain why the eagle makes regular visits to our bay---He lives so close by that he can keep an eye on us. Many years ago, an eagle's nest could be viewed from the lake at the east end of Gunflint. That tree and nest went down in the blowdown storm in 1999. It's nice to have a new family in the neighborhood.

--Speaking of babies, the raven family has been coming by quite regularly. The babies are growing, but they remain as demanding as before. When I emptied the compost bin earlier today, I soon heard the call go up that the pickings were fresh in the pile. They still have their downy brown and white feathers on their chests, but the tail and wing feathers are beginning to mature.

--I was very happy that today was Saturday, particularly when the call came in that another rogue bear had to be put down. With the spectacular berry crop, it would seem that these guys could find plenty of food. Unfortunately, for some that is not the case. Just as in a classic psychotherapy situation, we blame it on the mom. If she habituates her babies to people and buildings, they never learn how to be true woods bears. The good news is that most of them do stay away from people. In the meantime, we have a bit more bear in the freezer.

--It's Robert's birthday today! Hard to believe that it has been twenty-three years since we brought home that wee little one, and now he has grown up to be a man of the north. He still resides in Alaska, and is quite happy with life up there. Happy Birthday, Robert! We miss you!

Picture of the Day Catch-Up: June 28-July 9, 2010

Well, I think I'm finally about caught up, at least until yesterday! I'm really pleased with some of these Pictures of the Day, so I hope you like them, too. Without further ado:

June 28th: These are some letter dice I occasionally use in my classes to play a "bootleg" version of the game Scattergories. It's pretty fun and it gets students' brains going. Until someone rolls an "X" or "Y"... those are like brain poison.

June 29th: The dial on our exercise bike. It's a recumbent bike, which is great because it means you can comfortably watch TV, read books or magazines, or even play video games while "exercising."

June 30th: This is a poster sort of thing that Angela and I had to design in our pre-marriage classes a few years ago. I have it hanging on my office wall. Note that they didn't give us many materials to work with, but I still managed to find three squirrels.

July 1st: A cow's nose. I saw it walking from our house to my in-laws' house.

July 2nd: It was a pretty busy day. My family came on the 3rd and I had to teach classes all day, so on the 2nd I was planning. This is my desk, even AFTER I'd tried tidying it up a bit.

July 3rd: A "pipa," which is basically a coconut that you can drink the watery milk out of. They're tasty, especially on hot days. Plus, according to local folklore/witchcraft, they're also supposedly a contraceptive (Note: HA HA!), so that's an added curiosity.

July 4th: A pepper growing in Lucy and Wilson's yard. It looks really spicy, but it was just like a strange-shaped bell pepper.

July 5th: The "Hotel Los H�roes," a Swiss-themed hotel in La Fortuna, in the northern part of Costa Rica. We went there with my family.

July 6th: This picture cracks me up, especially since Angela's got two aunts who used to be nuns. In any case, this is Angela wearing one of the disposable towels that they give you at Termales Del Bosque. We went there with my family.

July 7th: This is a picture of my sister Di's hands, after Angela had given her a manicure. I think one of Angela's dark, secret dreams is to run off to the US and become a filthy-rich manicurist.

July 8th: A sunset, as seen from the back corner of our yard. You can see some clouds, mountains, and even part of the Gulf of Nicoya. I really should go back to that part of the yard more often.

July 9th: Our new camera, which I got for Angela and myself as an anniversary present (our anniversary was July 7th). Her old camera was eating through batteries after only three or four pictures, and this one came highly recommended from Brad (plus I'd seen great results from Hayley's camera!). So, I still have the old cameras, but I'll likely take some pictures with this one, too, since it's more portable.

Well, we're caught up, at least until today ends! I'll also probably try to post some extra pictures from the family visit, since that was a nice little photographic event. Until next time, please check out the links below if you want to see more pictures.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Picture of the Day Catch-Up: June 21-27, 2010

Well, my mom and siblings were just here for a few days, so I got behind on uploading my Pictures of the Day. Let's see if we can get caught up now, eh?

June 21st: My friend Mike, in the Armadillo parking lot. I'm glad we got to see him, although I wish we could have spent more time with him. I feel that way about all the other people who I wanted to see on our trip, but just weren't able to visit.

June 22nd: Denver International Airport's terminal. I really like the airport, and once my friend Mike and I spent the night there... and we weren't even traveling anywhere. It just seemed like an interesting thing to do. And I guess it was, since I'm telling this story now.

June 23rd: While we were happy to see Costa Rica again, we quickly realized that we had no food. This is our refrigerator the day after we got back: a can of Coke, a little bit of coffee in a brown bag, a pair of tamales Angela's mom made us, a pitcher of stale water (guess I forgot to empty that, but glad it didn't have mold), some random liquor (triple sec?), and a little rice Angela's mom made and left for us. As I write this, a day later, it's even more drastic, since we ate or drank the rice, tamales, and Coke.

June 24th: No, this isn't the famed Chupacabras. It's my Father-in-law Honorio with a headlamp we gave him as a thank-you present for looking after our house while we were gone.

June 25th: I'm not sure why, but I liked this picture I took of the hotel I was staying at in Liberia. I had to go up there to sub for another teacher. Somehow, it was the first time I'd been to Guanacaste in the nearly four years I've been living in Costa Rica. I still have yet to go to a beach in Guanacaste, though. They're supposed to be the nicest in the country, although so far I've really liked the ones in Limon, Costa Rica's Caribbean province.

June 26th: An old, sort-of busted marimba. I guess that's the official instrument of Costa Rica.

June 27th: This picture is a bit boring, but it was a pretty busy day. What do you want?

So! I'm gonna keep uploading pictures tonight until I fall asleep or until the enormous rug in our dryer catches on fire... whichever comes first. Thanks for reading, and I'll hope to get more pictures up ASAP! Have a great day!