Happiest of Holidays to you all,

December 2006

See PICTURES!!!!

From Cori

I hope the closing of the year is treating you all well. Just remember, the light is about to return. We are doing quite well. Anthony and I are keeping fit with running. We ran a race the morning of Thanksgiving, in the rain, but it wasn�t too cold or too windy or too long of a race and it made lots of room for a lovely feast. There were 17-21 people milling around during our gathering at Anthony�s parents house so it was very busy, cheerful and good to see everyone. We had dishes that ran the spectrum of vegetarian, vegan, low-fat, low-cholesterol and low salt to turkey with gravy and pecan pie. It was all delicious (I�m the omnivore obviously). My Conservation work is still stimulating even after 6 years. This year, a waterfront property that we were dealing with, was impounded by Homeland Security after the owners were arrested for having slaves. But the good news was that the Feds were going to take up the action we were seeking which was to plant trees along the shoreline of Mystic Lake.

My most engrossing hobby for a while now has been genealogy of our family. Anthony was the first one to discover this, he had a bought a program when Daniel was born and input 1000 names into it only to lose the file afterwards, (oops, could have been me). Anthony�s mother had a lot of information already on her family and his dad�s family published a beautiful book on their family that came from Lithuania to Boston in about 1890. Anyway I got a new program and discovered many free web sources are now available. The highlights were: 1) to find a link (on the internet, so I have no hard-bound sources) of my mother�s family being related to British royalty back to Eleanor of Aquitaine. She was played by Katherine Hepburn in the Lion in Winter movie. 2) an aunt of my mother�s relaying a family rumor that we have a Choctaw great (x4) grandmother. 3) my father�s family had walked from St. Louis to Salt Lake City as Pushcart Pioneers, pushing their belongings in a wooden cart. Its great to see the Scottish, German, Welsh, French, Swedish, English blend of origins of these people and think about their lives when they came to Boston, Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Kentucky, Tennessee, N. Carolina, S. Carolina, Missouri. 4) a real gem of a story of a pioneer family living in a log cabin in Tennessee and trading saddles and soap with the Cherokee for honey. 5) there were Pilgrims who came to Plimoth and moved to Eastham, MA on Cape Cod (not very far from where I am living right now. I have never been as strongly attracted to history as I have since finding these links to the past. It is fascinating. I wish I had a time machine to go to the Native American capitol city of Cahokia (near St. Louis) and to see the American continent before Europeans got here. I would love see Tennessee in 1820, Virginia in 1690, Boston in 1610 to see the boundary between the two worlds colliding (Native America and European). A recent movie of this intersection is A New World with Collin Farrell playing John Smith. It was a little hokey but I recommend it.

Our cabin is still a lovely respite from city life. The woods is an ever-entertaining change of activities; fire- wood chopping, rope-swing construction, teepee building, fern collecting, mushroom harvesting, mountain climbing, kayaking, swimming, hiking, biking, campout weekend, wiffle-ball games, bird-watching, star gazing, breathing fresh air, listening to quiet, watching the wind blow through the leaves, cooking sweet potatoes in the fire. Its easy to recharge your batteries there. The boys are growing every second and going through changes, an ear tube, braces (soon), and middle school for Daniel and glasses for Adam. Its been quite a transition time. We all are getting used to new routines and procedures. Its going to be hard to compete this year with going to Florida last Christmas. My favorite activity was snorkeling. I could have done it for days on end, chasing fish around little grottos and kelp beds. That and the sunset shrimp and oyster feast on Christmas eve. We are looking forward to getting cozy in our house, decorating our tree, playing in snow and not having to travel anywhere. I miss you all and wish this wide country was not so wide so that visits were more possible.

Peace and warm socks to all of our great friends and family.

From Adam:

My favorite thing about my kitty (Jaguar) is that she is cute. Her fur is smooth. She likes me a lot. I like when she puts her paw on my hand and purrs. I know when she bites my finger and it doesn�t hurt me that it is a friendly bite. I like it when she is sitting on the radiator in the sun soaking up the heat. She was rubbing her cheek on a rock on the radiator so Rocket wouldn�t come in and boot her off. Rocket comes in to see me in the morning in my bed. He jumps up and purrs to try to get me to pet him. The other morning he was kneading the stuffed Rotwieler on the foot of my bed. He thought it was his mommy and he was looking for milk. After I dropped a piece of chicken sausage on the floor, Rocket came running when we yelled �Chichen.� He ran to the feeding station, but skidded around the corner on the slippery floor. I got new glasses and just before I put them on I say �low definition� and then put them on and say �high definition�.

I got a new gameboy for my birthday which is cool because I get to play it all the time and my favorite game is Pokemon, where I am Ash, a person who is a Pokemon trainer, my favorite is Blazekin (a firery red, super-powerful, humanoid form, Blaze kick, sky uppercut, double kick, cut, Tan feathers on head , wrists and feet.

From Anthony

Greeting to everyone. I feel like �06� has been a good year for our family. There are always ups and downs in life, but we�ve had some great experiences. Last spring was a fun time for Little League Baseball. I helped coach Daniel and Adam�s team, the �Lugnuts� (an expansion team using the name from the Lansing Lugnuts). Despite the name, the team was great; they had great coaches and the kids had a great attitude. We only lost a couple of games and came in first place in our division, but got knocked out of the playoffs by the all-powerful Red Sox. A very positive experience for all.

In April we took the kids to New York City. They had been there years ago, but now were ready to really explore. We found a nicely located hotel in Manhattan and did lots and lots of walking. On one of the days I took a walk by myself, I found myself standing next to Frank Langella waiting for the walk signal and then ran into him again walking along Central Park two days later. Here are our notes from the trip to help us remember:

Sunday:
  • check in to Hilton Garden Inn at W49th St. and 8th Ave
  • Central Park - climbing on the big rocks
  • Columbus circle
  • Easter Bonnets in Central Park
  • Frank Langella (& Monday)
  • 5th Ave. closed down - juggler & breakdancers
  • Times Square
  • NBC/Fox/Sirius buildings
  • Dinner: Olympic Diner
Monday:
  • Saw Christie�s auction house
  • Museum of Natural History/Cosmic Collisions at Planetarium
  • Washington Sq. Park performers doing jumps
  • Dinner: Dojo � kids loved it!
  • Desert: Papaya King � also awesome
  • CBGBs
  • Guy selling fancy doorknobs and mirrors
Tuesday:
  • Breakfast at Olympic Diner
  • Trump Tower
  • Sony Discovery Center
  • Native American Museum/green pillars
  • Wall St.
  • St. Patrick�s church
  • Trinity Church
  • Border�s Books
  • Ground Zero
  • Dinner: Sombrero Mexican
  • Top of the Rock
Wednesday:
  • Ferry
  • Statue of Liberty
  • Puffer machine to check for bombs
  • Prospect Park - kids park in Brooklyn
  • Megan, Scott, Rhys � playing gamecube
  • Brooklyn
  • Thai Restaurant w/Megan et al
  • Hershey�s store


Rickshaws, catching the light cycles, horse & carriage, crazy bike thing with 5 people, billboard built into buildings, subways, tram stuck in the news, subway announcer: �...to avoid any embarassing situations, and there have been quite a few, move to the first 5 cars of this train to get off at South Ferry...�

This summer, Daniel, Adam, and I worked our way up to a 50-mile bike ride. We rode out the bike path from Arlington, through Lexington, into Bedford, and into the rolling hills of Carlisle. We turned around and biked back to Walden Pond for a swim. We then biked back to the end of the bike path and back into Arlington. It wasn�t quite 50 miles yet, so we did a loop into Somerville and back for a total of 50.3 miles. It was actually pretty easy for the kids (we bought them new, bigger bikes just weeks before) � Adam could have easily gone farther. Daniel had (alright, foolishly) stayed up the night before at a sleepover too long and was pretty tired � but he also learned an important lesson about preparation for a big trip. Next year, they might work up to 60 or 70.

I also took about 6 acoustic guitar lessons this summer. I love the sound of guitar and pretty much practiced every day this summer. With the start of the school year, it has been much more difficult to keep up with practice, but I�ve learned a lot and will continue to enjoy learning more songs and skills.

The end of the summer was particularly interesting for me in that I passed some milestones in a variety of physical activities: in August, I took the longest solo bike trip I ever have (350 miles out to the NY border and back), then ran the longest I�ve ever run (14 miles out to Lexington and back), then in September biked the longest single-day trip ever (102 miles), and finally hiked the longest single-day hike of my life (20 miles on the Tully Trail in Royalston with Glenn).

The school year has been very busy, but also rewarding. Teaching gets renewed every year � new kids, different subjects, etc. - and so never gets boring.

Like last year, I�m going to tell you about my current interests by talking about books I have been reading. In the last year, I have been very into reading about Buddhism, more than anything else, but have also had a chance to recently read �The Big Bang� by Simon Singh � an excellent overview of the history of all the astronomical discoveries/ideas that lead ultimately to positing and testing the Big Bang theory. �Buddhism in the West� is an excellent collection of essays by many key writers in Buddhism (including the Dalai Lama) on the particular brand of Buddhism developing in the west. �Dharma Punx� by Noah Levine is the story of how the author, amongst many others, went from the Punk Rock scene in the early 80�s to crime, drinking, drugs, rehab, and finally to Buddhism. He sees a direct connection between the anti-establishment, anti-commercialism of punk rock and Buddhism. Surprisingly, I was much more into the first half of the book, where he talked about the West Coast punk rock scene, than the second half, which focused more on the Buddhist part of his life. Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk whose has written scores of books. I read �Being Peace�. Good stuff. I�ve also read a couple of books specifically about Zen Buddhism (like �The Selected Writings of D.T. Suzuki�), but find that, although there are some real gems within the writings, it is not as compelling to me. I also read �Buddha or Bust� by Perry Garfinkel. He is a correspondent for National Geographic who wanted to essentially retrace the Buddha�s footsteps of 2500 years ago and try to delve deeper into what the man was all about. Along the way, he gets pretty caught up in Buddhism as a way of living. Well-written book. One more book that I read was �The Vision of the Buddha� by Tom Lowenstein that, with beautiful glossy pictures, essentially talks about all aspects of Buddhism, past and present � the philosophy, the countries, the sacred sites, etc. I am currently reading �Old Path White Clouds� a 600pg book by Thich Nhat Hanh that retells the life of the Buddha, mixing storytelling with facts. On the shelf to read are many books, including David Sedaris� �Dress Your Family in Cordoroy and Denim� (recommended and loaned to me by a student), �Walden� and �Civil Disobedience� (Thoreau), and �The Invisible Century � Einstein, Freud, and the search for Hidden Universes�, by Richard Panek (both men had been pioneers in looking for things that were invisible to the eye, but crucial to understanding our place in the world). Current magazine subscriptions: Make: Technology on Your Own Time, Runner�s World, Discover, Vegetarian Times, Technology Review, and Shambhala Sun (Buddhism, Culture, Meditation, Life).

Most recently, I had a great climb on Thanksgiving weekend with Glenn and Brian up 4800 ft to the peak of Mt. Moosilake in the White Mountains. It was refreshing and renewed my interest in climbing mountains, which I really haven�t done much of since my teen years. Thanks to Glenn and Brian for getting me out there!

From Daniel

(What follows is a story that Daniel wrote and submitted for an English class): Glass Mountain is an entire mountain of a glass-like rock called obsidian. I was camping in California and had to wake up at about 6:00. I got dressed and hiked through the woods, about one mile, to the mountain. When my brother my dad my mom my grandma, my two grandpas, and I got there, we had to hike a bit more to find a safe climbing spot. When we found one, we climbed. Only me, my dad, and my brother went. When we got to the top, both my grandpas and my grandma took a picture of us from 100 feet down. We had just climbed a 100-foot wall of loose, jagged rocks. We then looked around. My mom had told me the mountain was 2 miles wide and 5 miles long. It looked more like a glass field to me. There were lots of big towers of obsidian, and I found the tallest and climbed it. My dad told me we should go back, so I climbed down, but I couldn�t find my dad! I walked a bit until I heard him calling my name. I went towards the sound and found him. We then climbed down the wall (which was even harder than going up) and walked back through the forest, only to go straight to bed, even though it was only 10:00.

The Statue of Liberty Museum

Our party in Arlington in June

Getting ready to open the presents...

Our party in Royalston in September

Near Central Park...

Portia, Ben, and Cori in Royalston

Anthony on Mt. Moosilake

Daniel and friend Chris in Royalston

Adam's Birthday in Setpember was at Kimball Farms and they had mini-golf and bumper boats!

The crew getting ready to bump...

Adam's school picture

Daniel's school picture

The view from Mt. Tully is beautiful on a clear day

We built a teepee frame from about twenty 30-foot trees