I AM NOT AN EXPERT!!

Don't know anything about audio.
The flickr link should work? I added more photos just now.
Today was nottttt a good day. Phil and I are back together. I showed him the link to this site so I won't write anything bad haha. We had a pretty productive conversation tonight so I am hopeful.
Working in the dishroom this week. Pretty fun.
"Happy Harry" came tonight and taught us to line dance. Sooo hilarious.
I can't wait for Sam to come to camp! Maybe he'll beat up Phil for me when he's mean. I kid I kid.
I'm not kidding.
Ok sleeeep now. Have to be up early! 6 am early. WHYYYY.

Parents' Weekend

What can I say! It There was an environmental art show, formal research project presentations (sam studied bonefish), morning exercise (6:30 am-Sam does this every day-sometimes it;s run/swim, yoga, water polo, etc), Junkanoo-a Carribean dance with drummers that derives from the slave background of the islands, an fun, talent filled coffee house, conferences w/ teachers and his advisor, which Sam attended and participated in. Everything was so impressive. Met some really interesting people. Loved the sustainable environment stuff. Two things stood out:
-One of the research groups is studying aquaponics. They have a huge tank of tilapia (a freshwater fish). They filter ocean water, send it to the tank, then send that water including the fish poo to a hydroponic lettuce garden where it waters and fertilizes the plants. The water is then filtered and sent back to the tank. This would have a great impact on the island economy since the soil in Eleuthera is so poor and they import virtually all their vegetables.
-They got the gov't to let them hook into the main power grid. They receive power from it, but also send energy into it from a wind turbine and solar panels, so they are often giving more power to the grid than they are using. Just think, if every community could do that, soon everyone would have solar panels!
The best thing by far was seeing how great Sam is doing. He looks terrfic, and his self confidence has really grown. It was so much fun to see him with his peers and interacting so well w/ his teachers. I think this has been life changing experience for him!

Chiara's recital

Speaking about performances Chiara's piano recital is on June 14. This time it will be held in a church on 5th Ave, with a lovely Steinway grand. We are getting the space for free as Rachel, Chiara's teacher, collects items for charity at these functions. For every recital Chiara has been in we have brought some item for donation. The item depends on the theme, be it winter things or shoes, this time it will be toiletries. These items are donated to an organization run by Catholic nuns for children with mothers in jail. Rachel is Mormon, the church we will be performing at is Episcopalian.

Jo Rocks in Stocks

We have our last Brockport Schools concert tonight. Although we have been to 7 already, plus 3 lilac fest appearances, I think I'll miss them. Tonight is Noah's jazz group. Then comes solo fest next week, and piano recital the following. No, wait, I forgot about the Hamlin Wheel Fest. I'll be appearing in that one, with Susi's band. And I forgot that Noah's jazz group will play at the Rochester Jazz Fest, along with Wynton, though not at the same time or place. We need to figure out how to make audio links for this blog. Eliza?

back at camp.

stopped by my house this weekend and grabbed my computer. we have wireless at camp.

don't have to work til 9:30 yippeeee!! and i get off at like 4 day. yes. this weekend we got TWO days off. it was awesome. went to my friend's house on friday night (in newton) and the next day went to earthfest which is this huge concert in boston. saw matt kearney, kt tunstall, GUSTER. love guster. sunday hung out around lexington and boston.

last thursday went to hampton beach with my friend laura. between that and the concert i am paretty sunburned.

saw pirates 3. HATED it. phil and i were the only ones who did. this i do not understand... the plot was impossible. i have no idea what happened in that movie. luckily johnny depp's attractiveness somewhat saved it.

ok blogspot is being a pain so i will add pics to my flickr site (flickr.com/people/lizalou is the address i think).

can't wait for sam to come home!!

Coney Island

Yesterday we went to Coney Island, a lot of fun. We had lunch at Nathan's and went to the beach, The kids had a blast. Chiara went in the water, I found it cold, the twins contented themselves with running in and out. Isabella came for a sleep over, her parents needed a baby sitter we were happy to help out. Chiara was very happy about it and so were Nick and Laura, she is a favorite. At the moment Chandran is BBQing out on the balcony on our new electric indoor grill.

Message from Jo rocks:Red Knight

This is the Red Knight looking right at my camera!!!!

Message from Jo rocks

HI everybody, I saw Pirates 3 last night and I was very depressed on how it turned out. It was better than the 2nd but not as good as the first. It was also very funny.

Silly rabbit trix are for kids!!!

Some news

I am happy to report that Madhu is well, he is grading fnal exams for this quarter. He continues to forego the wine with dinner, which is good for both of us. He is seeing the doctors, hospital, having the lab tests to prepare for the knee surgery June 5th.

I had a very frustrating computer day today. Besides, I could not play the scales on the piano that I am working on. Not a good day for me. However, Jo's middle school jazz band had a good concert this evening. That was nice.

Friday, Madhu and I have the pleasure of taking Noah to Stratford for the week end. We will eat in our favorite 2 restaurants, the Old Prune, and Rundels. The plays are A COMEDY OF ERRORS, Friday evening, THE BLONDE, THE BRUNETTE, THE VENGEFUL REDHEAD, Sat. . This is a one woman show that is a repeat from last year as it was so well received. Saturday night will be OKLAHOMA. Should be a nice trip!

elm

Pictures

Here is another prom picture of Noah and Nicole, and one of me, Emily, and Debbie.

More numbers for Eliza

Sorry-Just want to be sure Eliza has access to these numbers
Island School 242-359-7625 Anne Maxey’s House 242-334-6282 Chris Maxey House 242-359-7697

Plans

Hi-We are off tomorrow to NYC right after I get off work. Will stop by Chan and Sara's for (as Sara put it) cocktails and water. Then Jim and I are going to caveman paradise, otherwise known as a Brazilian steakhouse that Keith recommended on W. 49th. Our 21st anniversary is Thursday.
Thursday we have an early flight to Nasssau and are due on the Island School campus at 5 pm. The schedule looks quite busy and includes the environmental art show, research project presentations, conferences with Sam's teachers, a Junkanoo (Carribbean dance) perfoemance by the students which Sam did not sound enthused about when asked,, a cocktail party for parents. Another scheduled event that I can only hope and pray is optional is the Saturday 6:30 am morning exercise! Luckily, I have a husband who will be all over that. We are excited, as you can imagine.
For Eliza's benefit here are the Island School phone #s as I don't think our cells will work:
242-359-7625
Am planning to learn to upload pictures!

hey!

greetings from camppppp. don't have much time to write. camp is fun. what to say what to say. i am on phil's computer. so yeah.... heh.... we get thursday off. might go to portland. right now we are just doing EE which is enivro ed. had a tricky group of 4th graders last week. in a couple of weeks we get more middle school aged kids which will be better. hmm what else... a lot of time off but i have no computer! everyone else brought theirs. i regret this immensely. ok gotta go.

Maya & Guy

Cactus the Ashokan pony. Taken by Chiara

Went to Maya's birthday dinner last night. A lovely evening with all her friends that we have gotten to know through many years of dinner parties. Maya and Guy are both looking well. She will have some new products on the market, 3 chutneys: Mango (made with real Indian mangos), cilantro and fig. Guy is in talks to have his book made into a TV series.

Message from Jo rocks

I HEART COWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
told ya so see( look up at first comment)

Message from Jo rocks: the present

I am curently typing this blog while listening to Do What You Want by OK GO. It is a great song. Im also doing this while....
5 minutes later-I am boiling tip of some veggie.
Susi and I are making dinner(soup)It will be delicous. I am not kidding you.
I would be very grateful if someone commented on my blog even though it is not as important as anybody else.


Silly rabbit trix are for kids!!!!

Hannah

This is from Max's Mardi Gras parade, held in Brockport every April.

Emily and Debbie

Yesterday I went to a memorial service for Emily Sherman's mother. Emily's parents had moved to the NYC area years ago. She passed away in March from Parkinson's with dementia. It sounded pretty terrible, but she was able to be at home, cared for by Emily's father. Emily and her siblings all live in the area.
Mrs. Levine and Mrs. Tempkin were both there. The Hodgmans, of course, but I see them all the time at the RPO. Bruce Sabath is currently in a broadway show (!!!!). Debbie Lewin was there. It turns out she lives in Mendon. Emily is thinking seriously of abandoning her Ob/Gyn practice in favor of a candy shop. She'd do birthday parties. She has 15 chickens.
Buster is unwell, and I am worried. I am waiting for the vet's office to open.

More of Mom's pictures

Noah and Nicole before the prom. They are at Noah's English Teacher/Director's house. He made an elegant dinner for 16 of them.

Mom's Pictures

After Midsummernight's Dream. Noah was Oberon

Ashokan by Chiara

I went to Ashokan. It was based on colonial life. My favorite part was the birds. This guy brought in birds of pray and showed them to us. He had a falcon, red tailed hawk, turkey vulture and an owl.
My second favorite thing was school house. It was an 1897 school room.
I had a great time, my bunk mate was Isabella.

Hi

Well, Sam was supposed to call tonight at 8:30 after arriving home from his 8 day kayak trip, but no call! I know we would hear if anything were amiss. Oh well. Tomorrow, Jim has a sprint triathlon (250 yard swim in a pool, 9 mi. bike and 3.2 mile swim) We leave at 6:15 am-yay! Am having Calvins over for dinner tomorrow along w/ Jonathan's parents. Jim and I leave Wed. for NYC and then Thursday to the Bahamas, back on Tuesday.
Every night around 7:30-8:00, Tucker goes crazy dog! He growls, jumps about and bangs on his cage to get a treat. Tonight was especially bad as he did not stop even after being given a treat-we think he may be insane!
Hope everyone has been appreciating my witty comments on previous posts!
Also, found my calendar-highlight of day.

Chiara and isabella just off the bus.


The honey cake.

Sara

Message from Jo rocks:Washington D.C.

Today at 1:15 about we ( we being my walking group from school) drove into the Hill school parking lot. We just returned from Washington D.C. I had a blast. It was wicked fun sight seeing with my friends. we saw the following: Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Vietnom War Memorial, Washington Monument, Natural History Museum, Holocaust Museum and some art museum. We were there for 3 nights and 3 days. OMG, I forgot we went to Colonial Williamsburg. It was mad hot there. WE had very nice weather there and got very little sleep. My favorite place was Medevil Times!! Our section was the red knight secvtion. Our knight won the whole tournament because he defeated the bad guy. He threw my friend Bridget a flower, but she gave it to me 'cause I wanted one. I felt really bad, but she wouldn't take it back so I kaept it. He also signed my crown and took a picture with me and my friend Emma. He was very pretty to look at I got lots of pictures to look at. After spending 10 hours on a bus with a bunch of 13 & 14 year olds I'm glad to be home. Message complete!!

Silly rabbit trix are for kids!!!

Room with the view

Early this week when Dad was still in the hospital, I started thinking about our room at the lake. Up those stairs might be difficult with s.o.b. Well, I made this observation to R.C. and he rather quickly came back with, well, the twins can manage the stairs easily now. I took it to mean, they could all sleep upstairs in the r.w.t.v. Then, I mentioned it to Kly and she was taken aback,' I think we have precedence'. Then I spoke to Popop with this idea, and he said 'I can manage those stairs, I like the r.w.t.v." I think that is the final view, as I also agree with the last sentiment.

The Baltimore Orioles have continued to peck at our back door, all week. Both the female and the male. I do not know why. Yesterday afternoon, I rigged a scarecrow for just inside the door. For awhile it was quiet and I thought I had a solution. But they came back eventually. Well, this morning, Dad said that in his garden in India they put up a gourd with a face painted on it to scare the birds. So happened that I had a gourd I purchased last year as a bird house that was laying near the compost on the ground. I used the trusty permanent marker and made a lovely face. It has slowed them down, the female has come and pecked a couple of times. But this may work. Do they want to get inside? Why are they doing this?

I am hope to hear from Noah about his Star Wars party?

Chiara is back

Chiara is back. She had a wonderful time. I will have her post something later.

Chandran made this bee hive cake today as a special treat for Chiara. We won the cake mold, cake mix, mixing bowls and the like at an auction for the twins school. I would show you a photo of this lovely creation unfortunately the system not up loading images at the moment.

Laura just came up to me wearing a bike helmet and said: "I have my hat where is my horse"

Central Park

Had a lovely day in the park today. In the morning we met with Chandran at Turtle Pond. In the afternoon the twins and I walked across from the West side. We almost made it home, not quite, I had to call Chandran to come rescue us at the west side corner of Park and 79, neither Nick or Laura could walk another step. It was a long day, we had just been on the West side to visit their summer camp and had walked to The MNH to splash in the fountain, I had taken off their clothes and they had started to splash around when I was informed by a guard that it was not allowed. Nick could pass but Laura had to put on a top. How absolutely ridiculous. Of course I complied.

More on Ashwani in his lab coat

Ashwani was prtomoted to full professor of Anesthesiology and Pediatrics. This is a big deal; most of the doctors in the med school don't get there.

Ashokan

Chiara is off to Ashokan this morning. This is a field trip with most of the 4th grade. Se will be back on Friday. She was exited and nervous. I am sure she will have a great time. We will miss her.

Home Tuesday

Madhu came home from the hospital yesterday. He is fine, we are greatly relieved, and incredibly appreciative of Ashwani's influence and help in all respects concerning Strong Hospital and his doctor. Ashwani is a very fine, handsome, authoritative, known, presences in his white lab coat in the hospital. He is at home also, of course. This was a new aspect off him for us.

Madhu needs to monitor his weight, so he will know if he is adding water to his body. He needs to watch the salt intake. He is taking pills to regulate the heart beat, the water etc.

We walked through Wegmans yesterday, picking up many cans and packages looking at the sodium content. Interesting, even milk has some sodium! I cooked a dinner that I have cooked forever, baked chicken with onions, tomatoes, hot pepper and rice with a quick dash of salt. It was not good. I will go back to the real way, that is sauteing the onions tomatoes and pepper with maybe another dash of salt. Things will get better. I will also get healthier. Actually, without the wine with dinner, I have already lost a couple of pounds.

This morning before 8 a.m. he is off to RIT. I am off the THE museum.

elm

Hi

Eliza is up in New Hampshire, seeing Phil for the first time since the break up.. Sam is on his kayak trip, perhaps soloing as we speak. So no children except for Tucker. Narayan e-mailed a group of people and I replied telling him about Dad, but also saying not to reply since I know he's got so much going on. He promptly e-mailed back, concerned about Dad. I returned the message telling him all is well. I thought it was nice of him to take the time. He says he feels stretched thin and that the waiting is very hard. I can't believe they have to wait till the 23rd for pathology. I just can't imagine the stress+young children equation. It's bad enough when everyone is healthy!

A terrible mistake

What was Mark thinking? I told him that more than two was a mistake, but FIVE!?! Perhaps even six. I really feel as if someone qualified should explain to him that even four is too many, as I feel that we all can see from this household. Anyways, here's a picture of a baby that I found on the internet.

Lilac Festival

I went to to Lilac Festival.
I won a fish and I named it Goldelox.
I played with Top Brass.
I danced With my principal.





P.S. look at ccool signs!

☺☻{↨╒╚♣♦♠♥•Y╚◄╢}mΘ"♣╘KÄ8██{{8§§§╚{{““AG?┐

Five under five

Mark (piano teacher) and his wife are expecting.

Birding

This morning a dove flew out of the garage. There is also a dove-print on the front window. They generally survive these encounters. As they do a lot of dust-bathing, their prints are quite beautiful and detailed.

Ranzenbach

The interesting thing here is the guitar player. This is Aaron Ranzenbach, who, if he wasn't so Christian, would one day be a very famous player. According to Mom, when Oscar visited Rochester last, he and Grandma went to Brockport to visit some Ranzenbach cousins...

Lilac Festival

Here are Noah and Susi playing at the lilac festival. Jo also played, and Hannah marched. Perhaps Mom has pictures. I got these from the grandfather of the boy behind Noah.

Jo to D.C.

I failed to mention that Jo is going with her 8th grade class to Washington D.C. tomorrow! I think she is a little worried about leaving home for such a long time. I hope she has a great time. They come home Saturday. We will miss her.

Monday update

We expected Madhu to come home today, but, he is staying another night. There is fluid in his lungs that his cardiologist would like to get rid of before he comes home. He is at this time receiving a diuretic by IV. He looks good, the dizziness, the s.o.b. has gone. It is a great relief. So maybe tomorrow he will come home.

He expected to meet his class tomorrow. This is the last week of classes. He says he had planned to work on problems this week. Maybe Thursday, the next class. Finals are next week.

Gorgeous day. Bird watch: a Baltimore oriole, female, came to the kitchen railing feeder. I grabbed the camera and have some decent shots. I will download them when I figure out how to reduce the pixels.

Kalyani had a good party at the lake yesterday, (we could not cancel, she did not have phone #'s and it is too far to go for a note on the door) with her co- math graduate students. It was on the cold side, but sunny. They are a very sober, likable group of students. It was a nice party.

Happy Mother's Day!

S. O. B. is an actual medical term. Those doctors are oh so funny!
These are some PICS from this morning. We had a nice day, went to Rosa Mixicana @ union square for lunch, then the kids had a run around at the play ground. Chiara and Chandran biked to the soccer game. Chiara's team lost again, only by one goal, the final score was 3-2. Chiara did not score this game, she apparently played very good defense. I did not go to the game. The twins and I stayed home and I had a glorious nap.

Post Time

The previous blog was actually posted at 4:44 pm, even though it says 1:38 on the post-guess that's not an accurate time.

Dad

Hi-I'll post for Sara and Chan's benefit although they may be up to speed. Just spoke to Dad and he came out to the phone since his was not yet connected. I guess the problem most likely had to do with his pacemaker and not his medication as previously thought.His heart rate had been quite elevated because of this (apparenlty quite common) problem. The pacemaker guy had just left after readjusting it. They have returned his beta blocker to its previous dosage, and have kept up the diarretic (sp?) since there still may still be fluid. He sounds pretty breathless when talking. He may be released tomorrow, but may end up staying till Tuesday.

s.o.b.

According to Ashwani, they DO call it s.o.b.

s.o.b.

Here's why the shortness of breath is happening.
Because of the weakness of his heart, fluid in accumulating, and a little is in his lungs. This could also be related to the change in medication. They have to adjust the meds. They may keep him until this process is over. He called this morning. He still had a little s.o.b., but not all the time.

Message from Jo rocks:Parades

Parades are fun. some are fun to watch and hear and some are fun to eat.
Eating parades:Mardy( probably not spelled right) Gras -threw candy
Lilac's day prade -food tent
Non Eating: March 17th parade(I forgot what it's called, so if someone could tell me that would be Greaaaat!!)

Silly rabbit Trix are for kids
Jo rocks!!

Strong Hospital

Last night, we watched a movie, not a good one, and coming up the stairs, Dad had a really bad attach of shortness of breath (s.o.b.). After recovering enough to say something, he said to call his doctor. The doctor's answering service had the doctor on call, call. He said take him to Strong. He, we hemmed and hawed , he was recovering and did not want to go. Kly, Ash, and all four kids were at RPO concert. Soon, they arrived home. Ash said to go, he called, and then he came down and took us. (Wow, is it nice to have an important doctor in the family). The emergency dept. was not busy, surprising for a Sat. night. Anyway, they kept him overnight. Hopefully, they will stabilize the meds, so that the dizziness, and the s.o.b. will go away. It is 7:56 am at this moment, and I have not heard from Madhu or the hospital this morning. I expect to anytime.

Frost on the newly mowed lawn this morn. Robin building nest on front porch. It is turning into a mansion. Molly (T's out of town) got out last night when we left for hospital, Kly collected her and she stayed up there last night. It is a bright sunny but cold morning. Kly has a party at the lake house @ 4 p.m. and much needs to be done. We have not really opened the lake house yet. However, we did go out on Weds. and try to turn on water. Leak, B.B. our trusty, sourcastic, expensive plumber hopefully fixed that.

elm

Deep thoughts...

Did you know that dish soap takes longer to clean up than syrup, oz. for oz.? I just found out this morning. Also: The guys on the back elevator won't take a lone 3 yr. old to the basement just because he asks, and the heavy handle on bread knives tends to makes them fell that way first (kudos to research asst. Laura!).
Chandran

views from the roof of our building

Nick got a hair cut yesterday.

I am simply checking if this works. Usually chandran does this sort of thing, he's out on the balcony smoking, its been a bad morning. The twins have been particularly mischievous this week. Eliza and Jim could probably tell you all about it.
Sara

Hi-Just seeing if I can do this. Luckily Eliza is home to help me. Sam will call tonight. He leaves tomorrow for his 8 day kayak trip. Tucker got groomed and is so fluffy and fat that it looks like he doesn't have a tail!
Kamala

Send This To 4 Million People and Your True Love Will Appear At Midnight

Just kidding I hate those. We should all get a MySpace and have a family portrait taken from a downward angle. Or in a mirror. Has anybody ever noticed how some of those mirror pictures are taken in mirrors with specks of toothpaste on them? I have a headache too. I hate Red Bull though. Once when we were playing frisbee in the rain the Red Bull truck showed up and gave us all free Red Bull. I think the idea was to promote Red Bull, but I still don't like Red Bull. Did you know that there is a drink called "Cocaine"? It's a powder. Just kidding. What would happen if you meant to do cocain but it was anthrax instead. Susi don't read that. Bye!

~Noah

this is eliza.

i made a new account as my previous one had too many phil-sossiations.

well, this is a fun idea. i will address the topics suggested in the e-mail.

where we are going tomorrow i leave new york :( and go back to lex. tuesday is camp. dreading this. see first sentence in post.

health stuff i have a headache.

achievements i didn't have a single red bull today. that is probably why i have a headache.

birding event 2 pigeons almost flew into me yesterday. quite terrifying. i mostly hate birds. mostly.

picture pretty sure this will not take 6-8 hours on my neighbor's wireless so let me find something fun to put up.

tucker (in his skinnier days) wearing a sweater.

Old Fort Niagara

Hi!!! On the 7th of June me and my class are going to Old Fort Niagara. We will stay in the castle over night. We will sleep in hard beds, cook our own food. We will have jobs like doing dishes, cooking and doing infantry drills! On the 8th we will go to Niagara Falls, go on the Maid of the Mist and have lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. There will be two trips to Old Fort Niagara (OFN). The boys will go on May 31st to the 1st of June. The grls go from the 7th to the 8th. It will be a fun trip!

Message from Jo rocks

Hi everybody this is Jo. Jo says hi. Jo is very very happy!!!!
Jo is now saying bye.

from elm

Birds that I saw today:

humming bird at the pulmaria
Thrush hit the window, fell on the cement, stayed there while I identified it, sat up, then when I looked again, it was gone!


The frogs, peepers are singing loudly every night, all night, I think anyway. Chiara needs to come and find them. Everytime I look they disappear.

I have sent invites to family members whose e-mails I have. Then enyone can post. I need e-mails for Eliza, Jim, Brenda, Chiara...

New Blog

Hi everyone. The idea is that we can share information, maybe pictures, etc. I hope that we can all contribute as contributors, rather than just as commentators. I'll ask Eliza.