Word from Andy

Alison and I had a nice visit last night with Andy... He's doing well, and soon heading off to Egypt to do some more diving.

San Francisco Theater Debut

I head out to the Bay area this week, to see Laurie in her debut with the Unscripted Theater Company on Saturday night. My trip will begin with some R&R...


Thanks to the internet and a little luck with some some timing of vacancy, I found an affordable spot to stay, it's out of the city to the north... I am looking forward to a couple of days of reading, relaxing and enjoying the backyard...



on Sunday Laurie and I are planning to do some hiking in nearby Muir Woods...

Cell Phone Booth

For those pesky folks who like to have loud conversations in public.

Proceeds to a good cause!

That would be Tuesday May 22nd, performing at the Mabel Tainter Theater, show begins at 7pm, tickets are $10... proceeds to benefit the Interfaith Food Pantry.

Shutdown Day

Shutdown Day

Immelmania?

The masters had ended... Tiger didn't manage to win... a fun clip of this years Letterman appearance by winner Trevor Immelman... and below that, the Top ten list from Zach Johnson's win last year. Made me laugh a little... (Maybe next year Tiger)



Top 10 things he can say now that he's won the Masters:

10. I'm going to spend the prize money on Mountain Dew and beef jerky.

9. I once beat a caddy to death with a 7-iron.

8. It's so weird – before this weekend, I'd never broken 100.

7. The jacket's ok, but I'm most excited to win the "world's greatest golfer" key chain.

6. Even I've never heard of me.

5. If you like golf, you'll love the sleek looks and smooth handling of the 2007 Volkswagen Golf Sedan – I just made 50 grand.

4. I just wrote down "3" for every hole. Nobody checked.

3. Maybe I can parlay this into an appearance on "Dancing with the Stars."

2. It's a magical week: first I win the Masters, and now I get to tell lame jokes on a third-rate talk show.

1. Thanks to global warming, next year I'm playing without pants.

A loss...

Our neighbor Dennis Falde passed away. (his obit)He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this past fall. He was 52 years old. His health deteriorated quickly. Please say a prayer for his wife Jill. They were a close couple who seemed to do everything together. This will be so hard for her. Cedarbrook church is working through a popular book titled One Month to Live. It's been difficult to be thinking in these terms when Dennis and Jill have been struggling with an unknown but truly short time to live right next door. Since we obviously don't get to choose when our time here is complete, it's important to live well. However you might define that. To his credit, Dennis lived well. He was a kind and generous man, and certainly a good neighbor. I will miss him.

I thought my taxes were done!

And then this comes in my email... I suppose I'd better call the accountant and get an amended return filed...

Time to relax.

After a delicious lunch of Alison's french toast, a little break before these two head for a walk.

Recap of Laurie's trip...

Elizabeth Yang and I were neighbors during our senior year at Grinnell. We joke about being “life-neighbors” as we are a perfect pair and loved just popping over uninvited to talk, rant, laugh, borrow a cup of sugar, etc. I’ve always known her as Elizabeth but last week in Taiwan*, I got used to calling her Ling Ling, like everybody else on the island. I’d never traveled to any Asian country, so I was thrilled to visit Taiwan and also looking forward to catching up with Elizabeth. After leaving Grinnell, she moved to Taiwan to study Mandarin Chinese and currently lives with her father in a beautiful apartment on a mountainside just outside of Taipei. Her dad is a philosopher and a celebrated children’s author in Taiwan (kind of the thinking mom’s Maurice Sendak of Chinese children’s lit), and he’s also a gracious, witty host and an excellent cook.

After a somewhat complicated journey (see Dad’s earlier post), I arrived in Taipei and rode back up the mountain with Elizabeth to meet her father and have a late, homemade dinner of fish, vegetables and a fantastic fish soup. I also sampled a “wax apple”, or what Elizabeth calls “nose fruit” the first in a series of delicious fruits that were entirely new to me. The next two days confirmed my theory that jet lag is only problematic if you concede to it; it’s all mental. Elizabeth had class in the mornings, so she gave me a map of Taipei’s excellent subway system and a few quick instructions and sent me on my way. I explored the National Palace Museum, gardens and shops in Taipei. We spent one rainy night in a busy Taipei night market and on our second evening in Taipei, hopped onto a domestic flight to the southern city of Taitung.

Taitung is home to the university where Elizabeth’s father teaches. He lives there part time and was happy to bring us to a series of fantastic restaurants. We ate fantastic, fresh sashimi at a Japanese restaurant in Taitung and Elizabeth and I hit up the fruit markets every night. I fell in love with the local specialty, the pineapple custard apple- a variation on the standard custard apple and also enjoyed fresh dragon fruit, papaya, pineapple and more nose fruits. Elizabeth and I stayed at a charming hostel and went running in the morning, along an old railroad that had been converted into a wooden path. It wound around the back of the city, with small backyard gardens on one side and rice paddies, fields and mountains on the other. The mornings in Taitung were humid but the southern heat was enjoyable after the chilly Taipei rain. After two days, culminating in a late night dip in Taitung’s sulfurous hot springs, we hopped on train and traveled further south to the city of Kenting.

The Kenting leg of the trip was definitely the spring break-y part of the vacation. Elizabeth and I met up with her friend Dave, and a new member of the American expat community named Brian- and we all camped out at a place called Stone Ox Farm. The giant, Spring Scream music festival was in town for the weekend and hundreds of musicians and fans had descended upon Kenting- already a resort town in its own right due to the beautiful beaches, good surfing and fancy hotels. The music festival took place in a beautiful oceanside park- 9 stages nestled into little hills and valleys, hiking trails and screens for nighttime film projection tucked into the woods. We stayed late, listening to Chinese indie rock, rap, pop and ambient bands. Late at night, after the festival closes, the main streets of Kenting become like a midway. We walked back to our campsite in the wee hours of the morning through throngs of people, street food vendors, carnival games and musicians. We shared a toast on the beach and waded in the ocean under the stars, before tracking our sandy feet back to the tent and falling immediately to sleep.
It’s hard to do the whole trip, and the whole beautiful island justice in a short blog post. Thanks to Elizabeth’s planning and her father’s generosity, I visited three separate cities, enjoyed three separate microclimates and had a fantastic, very busy time in Taiwan.

* Taiwan is a small island off the coast of China… as seen on this map.
The island’s relation to mainland China is an issue of international concern and dispute. To read more about Taiwan’s geography and fascinating (complex) political history, check out the wikipedia article. To see where I went, check out the map below.

Also, for a nice but lengthy description of life in Taiwan you might want to look at this article.

Roughing it?

Elizabeth Yang sent me a note suggesting that Laurie had a tough time on her trip and offered this picture as evidence. She said they "grinned and bore it." Those poor poor girls...

Cedarbrook goes Youtube...

A Hornhead at MHS.

After conducting a clinic during the afternoon, Kathy Jensen entertained us all, backed by the MHS Jazz ensemble. Kathy toured with the artist then known as Prince for 10 years. She is now part of the Mpls based a capella jazz group the Hornheads. She plays a great tenor and bari sax!

My family in normal mode.

Alison with a book, Patrick with one of his zillion text messages. It is a quiet home, and that's a good thing.

From Taiwan

Laurie says...

...having the BEST vacation ever... we've just been out of taipei (and thus away from internet access) since Tuesday. We've been traveling in southern Taiwan. We attended a music festival and camped. There were palm trees involved and Elizabeth took a photo with her phone at the festival and tried to email it to you guys- but her phone wasn't able to send it. Now that we're back, we'll give it another go. I'll be flying backwards through time tomorrow so I'm off to pack now.

Out on some errands.

We were driving along broadway and nearly got sideswiped by a young lady who was attempting to drive next to my truck, while leaning across from the drivers seat, to snap a picture of Mabel with her cell phone camera. Being this cute does have its disadvantages!

Early out for the sailboat.

Some friends are going to help me get the Buccaneer ready for the water this spring. Our scheme is to arrange to have the boat ready to sail from the Lake Wissota Yacht Club this season. I'm thinking it'll be just dandy to be able to travel a bit over 30 minutes and then be sailing shortly after arrival. We have some work to do this spring before she's ship shape, but it's fun to be getting a start on it all.

No school today.

Too much snow last night. Unfortunately this is no April fools joke.