After looking up Alvin Ailey, I really appreciate your kind words, dcarch and everyone. Now, on to Daughter-san. Her year has been consumed with the college application process and with finishing high school. Getting into college is not what it was when I was a kid; it is much harder and more stressful today. Kids seem much better prepared, admissions are more competitive, and college costs are an order of magnitude higher. It is easy for kids and their parents to get sucked into the vortex of expectations, ambition and status. We got pulled partway into that mess, but thanks mostly to Daughter-san's level head, we got through it. She will be attending the Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon. It is a smallish liberal arts honors college of 700 students, with their own building, faculty, advisors, and dorm, in the midst of a 30,000 student university. I think she'll have the best of both worlds - a small school with personal attention, and a big school with a diverse student body and endless things to do. She'll be about two hours from home, which seems to me like a nice distance, and will allow her to come home when she wants to, to have her little brother visit, but keep mom and dad mostly out of her hair. The university has a biology program, which is her science interest, and also a full fine arts program (BFA, MFA, design, etc) which is her non-science interest. There is talk of a double major. Finally, Eugene is one of the most livable towns in Oregon, where a bicycle is accepted and adequate transportation. Naturally, I look forward to fitting out her bike for college duty; any excuse to wrench on bicycles is welcome. Because we'll pay in-state tuition, and she's getting some scholarships by reason of being a National Merit Scholar finalist, the cost is manageable and we'll be able to send her to study abroad as much as she'd like. I've suggested that she brush up on her French! Daughter-san had an interesting high school "career" which is how the kids refer to it. She started as a shy, introverted kid who was very much a study nerd. During high school she did a lot of drawing and photography, had a two-month solo exhibition, took most of her friends' senior portraits, and ended up being voted "best photographer" by her class. Her favorite model was her brother, who was even willing to dress in drag and bite .38SPL cartridges for her senior photography project, which was a photographic interpretation of Truman Capote's "Other Voices Other Rooms". (Unfortunately for him, that project is being kept by the photography teacher as an example for future classes.) She did some interesting things, like embroidering photographic prints. She also got involved in Speech & Debate, went to tournaments, became one of the team's officers and placed second in State in her event. In senior year she started doing theatre and made a whole new set of friends among the "drama kids". During the summers she worked as a cook and later assistant supervisor in the Berkeley camp in Yosemite, which involved responsibility, a lot of hard work - cooking 8 hours in a commercial kitchen during 100 degree heat waves - and, I'm told, some vigorous partying on days off. So Daughter-san is leaving high school as a much more outgoing, confident, social person than she entered. Her high school GPA is perhaps not, err, quite as good as it could have been had she remained less social, but it is pretty good, enough to get her into a good range of colleges. By the time she graduated from high school, she was Miss Popularity, with a whirlwind of parties and outings during the last month. She told me that, while fun, being so social was exhausting and she had started to turn down most invitations. Which was a relief to me, since I would like her to be a serious student in college in addition to having fun. She's back at camp cooking for half of this summer - a different Berkeley camp, after the Yosemite camp was burned to the ground last summer. She'll fly back to Oregon for college orientation in the middle of the summer, then will have the last month of summer free to relax and play with her brother before heading off to college. So there we are, all caught up. SWMBO and I are kid-free for a few weeks and even after DS gets back from his trip, life should be less hectic and I might even be able to do some cooking. Not that we've been starving, but the cooking here hasn't been interesting - just utility cooking. Hoping to change that this summer. Here is a link that might be useful: an online portfolio

I was surprised Antonio didnt make it, and he looked really shocked. I think the girls are very likeable and their story touches people, but they're definitely not the best singers. But the fact that they're singing like that is amazing, considering their illness. I thought Antonio was good but her performance last night kinda bored me. It was just alot of fire all over the place and I didnt think the act itself translated on tv as well as it may have in person. I think that cost him votes.

The little girl next door discovered "Let It Go" a few weeks ago and has been singing it outside. All. The. Time. Unlike many of you, I actually like (or at least liked) the song, but heavens to pete is it overexposed. My daughter has been receiving musical instruction in school including reading music. She had vocal music in K-3 and strings (she plays violin) in 4 and 5. She's signed up for orchestra as an elective in middle school. I think the music program was primarily funded (possibly entirely funded) by PTA fundraising and by grants but it's been great. I sing in a church choir and until last year was also part of a small women's ensemble that sang monthly at retirement homes (we went on hiatus when my director fell and suffered a head injury--I'm afraid now that we're never going to resume. I learned to read music with piano lessons as a kid, but it was also taught in elementary school music class. And then I was in choir all through junior high and high school (and a bit in college). I went on a road trip with my daughter earlier this summer, and when we first got on the road I thought she was going to want to listen to nothing but top 40 the whole trip. I made a case for listening to country in the areas where that was 90% of what was on the airwaves (there aren't many country stations where we are from). We also listened to some classical, some religious choral music, some 80s power ballads, and a bit of metal. One of the things that drives me crazy about many young people is their rigid conviction in the superiority of whatever narrow set of music happens to be on trend at the moment (this bugged me even when I was a teen). I'm happy to have a kid with eclectic tastes (for now, anyway; she's not a teen yet).

So many talented people on GW/Houzz. I've enjoyed seeing everything. I don't have any pictures to share, but have done stitching (cross stitch, needlepoint, petipoint and embroidery). Several of my friends and I decided to do a holiday sale years ago, where I made a lot of rosebud topiary, rosebud picture frames and reindeer centerpieces. I've done numerous centerpieces and other floral arrangements, wreaths and topiary for our homes. Canvas art done with various pieces (coins, rings, keys, metal pieces, textured papers and cloth, etc). I've sewn curtains, tablecloths and costumes. Created several garden areas at our last home. I played the flute and piccolo in high school and was in an Army Reserve Band. I also twirled rifle in high school, and have the bad wrist to prove it! My most consist talent has been decorating/accessorizing.