What's new in January?

Views from our school room of our first snowfall of 2008

A Surprise 50th birthday lunch for my friend Vicky!

We know that Vicky really wasn't expecting anything because she had

already invited several of us to a 50th Bash that she was planning for herself! Is this what we all have to look forward to when we turn 50? Trying on Gail Holt's therapeutic shoes with trouser socks?

Since the party was at Josef's in Fallston, my kids went to visit GreatGrandmother Giordana, just around the corner, for a few hours.

Skiing and snowboarding at Roundtop with Willow and Drayton was a blast. Except that Willow took a bad fall and smacked the back of her head pretty hard. Drayton and I tried to tell her it wasn't that serious, but when she spit up some blood later that night, I was feeling a little sheepish...

She's okay now...well, mostly okay.
Cool cooks
Yes! We got a trampoline for Christmas! And best of all, we got it the freegan way. A friend was getting rid of it; said we could have it for free if we came and took it down and hauled it away...which we did (that is, the Tim part of "we" went and took it down and hauled it away and set it up in the dark, in the rain...) The kids are on it every day, except when it's pouring down rain (and even then, they've been out there a few times). And to think, we almost blew a few hundred bucks on a Nintendo Wii...which would've been so inconsistent with the Hamiltopian philosophy of simplicity, and enjoying what we already have...in a word, NATURE!