News from MN, 9/25/2006

Hello to the people of whom I know,

Fall is falling here. The leaves are starting to dress in their most
festive outfits and heading out to their various leaf parties.

I have a new house guest, a gift from Helen. His original purpose was
to live in what is left of the hole in the back yard, policing it so
squatters don't move in and start living in it. But he took a look at
my big screen TV and comfy chair and decided he would rather police my
living room (1st picture). This is unfortunate for the rabbit that I
scared out of some bushes when I was doing yard work last weekend. He
was so busy running from me that he didn't see the pit and he fell in.
After it's second treatment with 1000 cubic feet of water, the pit is
now only 4 feet deep, so the rabbit wasn't hurt. He bounced around the
bottom a few times before he got up enough momentum that he bounced out
and zoomed away.

I also have 2 part time house guests for the next 6 weeks. Some friends
are producing an all woman's version of 'As you Like It' and have hired
professional actors from around the state for weekend plays. So 2 of
them are staying in Nick and Zack's room on Fri/Sat nights. Helen and
I went to the opening night (4th photo), was well done, a modernized
version so none of those silly outfits.

The 2nd photo shows Zach with the motor he has been working on. This
motor and it's various parts have been sent to/from various parts of the
universe (latest trip was to California) to become the ultimate motor.
Currently it is the ultimate living room work of art ... least Zach
thinks so. It is pretty shinny.

The 3rd photo shows a handsome Z in a rented output, on his way to a
Discount Tire company weekend celebration up in Minneapolis. He didn't
go for the blue part, so I got to wear that.

The last photo caught Helen sampling some of my backyard apples. In
past years, I usually ignore all my fruit, but Helen would allow no such
crime. We have made some amazing pear, plumb, and apple preserves.
And many apple crisps, which have a shelf life of about 1.5 days before
it all disappears, with help from Zach and Jessy. But we couldn't talk
Zach into the sausage stuffed apples last night. He says sausage,
Yes!, Apples, Yes!! But sausage and apples??? His loss ... was nummy.

Mom and Dad, still debating Thanksgiving drive to Miles City or fly to
Bozeman. Will give you a call in a day or 2 to decide.

Bruce

Re: look out for the petals!

Lets try this again ... Nick's letter didn't make it on my last try.

Including pic of a recent dinner guest.

Nick Winter wrote:
> 'Lo from Oberlin!
>
> First week of classes ends and I have much time this semester (so far)
> for the doing of awesome deeds. Yesterday we were Frisbeeing all over
> the place and in the basement next to the computers, and then George
> started riding Emily's bike and catching the Frisbee. It was like polo,
> except it was awesome. Then we all saw Snakes on a Plane during the
> Apollo's opening night in a packed theatre. A magnificent triumph of
> modern cinema, that. And there was much delight, and yelling.
>
> Optimization (math), Operating Systems, Chinese Civilization, and
> Intermediate Chinese.
> So there you go.
>
> George and I have taken to rousing Michael Abbott by yelling in his
> window as we return from the dining hall, and he brings his ping pong
> stuff and trounces us (he uses spin! truly a great master). We're
> getting better, though. Soon we will be making absurd ping pong movies
> with that video camera.
>
> There's a ladder with a trap door leading up to the attic right outside
> our room in the stairwell. We're going to get some bump keys that we saw
> in an Internet video and then we're going to open the trap door and get
> into the attic and there will probably be magic chests and dead bodies
> and ancient tomes up there. Then we'll put Christmas lights up there or
> somesuch.
>
> I haven't yet plugged my desktop into the 'net, yet. Who wants to be
> surfing the net or checking e-mails all the time when one could be
> running around or reading about dead Chinese guys? Not me! It has been
> quite nice not being electric this past week. My laptop usually sits on
> my bookshelf and gets pulled out about as often as my poem book. May I
> continue to live as well.
>
> Here is a poem from the program I wrote to try out Ruby (a hip new
> programming language). Soon I will rewrite it to be smarter, or to write
> in Chinese:
> The kitten smashes frog.
> The baleful man truly smashes some operatic pure frog.
> The pretty cell phone molds pure mulch.
> The sad man has nothing to do with polite plump ogre.
> Snow stupidly burns frog.
> The blackened insane Emily slowly powers up snow.
> Lightning argues with funereal mulch.
> Insane baleful shrub creates god.
> Our 9 bears that eat some mulch argues with frog.
> A wizened acidic guitars which a 2 heavenly thunders smash eats a
> heavenly kitten -- yet god gazes at worm -- so plate chops our whale.
> A funereal knightly baby chops swarms that slowly copy baleful Emily.
> Your girl eats my thunder.
> Polite worm slowly has nothing to do with your mulch.
> Tiny guitar and piano cautiously argues with knightly kitten.
> Mulches behind my mulch eats plump tiny frog.
> Some bear writes some bear.
>
>
> Q.E.D.,
> --Nick
>

News from MN, 9/04/2006

Hi ya-all,

Lots of happenings from the last 3 weeks. Lets start with the new Zach
car of the month. Actually, it has been a good 2 months since his last
new old car. He traded in the '72 MG midget for a '94 Miata. Still 2
seats, but this time slightly larger than a loaf of bread. 1st picture
shows the boys about to launch into convertible mode.

Picture 2 shows a table for of dead dirt balls. We were trying to build
balls of mud into cool shiny spheres. The Japanese call them
durodangos. We had a good time playing with mud from the center of the
earth (actually, from the hole, but pretty close), and got a couple of
balls pretty round and shiny. I'm still polishing a few, so will
picture-ize them when they reach perfection.

Speaking of the hole, I have good news for all you worried about death
from colaplisification (that would be all but about 1 of you). We
reached a depth where we had to jump to reach the bottom of the 20 foot
ladder, so we decided to see what happens when you fill it with 1000
cubic feet of water. 3rd pic shows the hose doing its thing all over
the wet slimy ladder I got to climb up. Pic 4 shows Nick sampling some
of the fine brown slim that came up after 5 hours of watering (tastes a
bit like dirt).

After we filled it up, Nick, Helen, Aya, and I went up to the Guthrey
theater in Minneapolis to see The Great Gatsby. Zach came home, saw the
pit full of water and no sign of us. And my car was still in the garage
(we took Helen's car). Slightly worried about is swimming in the
bottom of the pit, he tries calling me, but I'm busy navigating around
city traffic (I was circling the metrodome while billions of baseball
fans were flocking for playoff determining game), so can not answer.
So he circles the pit with increasing concern, trying to figure out if
and why I would ever leave home without my car (a rare event). After
about his 4th call I manage to pry the phone out of my front pocket and
throw it to the back seat where Nick answers it. Nick says hi, listens
to some screaming, then hands it back to me, saying 'its for you'.

So a few days later, we determine through thourough scientific
experimentation that the 25x3x3 foot pit was transformed into a 9x5x5
foot pit, with a bottom that seems not like quick sand. So Nick jumps
in, then decides he wants get out with no ladder or other sensible
device. After watching Nick scramble unsuccessfully for 15 minutes,
Zach decides it looked like fun, so he jumped in too (5th pic). They
found a couple of sticks and after another 30 minutes, kind of got one
to stick enough to scramble out. And then they headed for the shower.

Last week I joined Helen and Aya on a trip back to Hanover, NH. 6th pic
is Helen sporting some fun/goofy/movie star sunglasses on our bus ride
out of Boston. That next pic is me pretending to be an Ivy league
student on the Dartmouth campus in Hanover (thats where Helen went to
medical and engineering school). We had a great week, doing lots of
fun stuff like mushrooming, kyacking, sail boating, biking, and
badmitting.

That last picture is a a picture of Helen's son Noah. Actually, just
his nose and eyelid, with a couple of happy people smiling in the
background. I have better pictures of Noah, but we all got a chuckle
of the nose shot, and I've overflowed my picture quota for this week, so
for now, this is all of Noah that you get.

Bruce