Dementors....

Are they coming?



Naw--it's just the mountain g-ds teasing us.

Turquoise and Fry Bread

The Legal Dude and I stopped in at the Powwow.

It was raining steadily and there were several other functions going on yesterday afternoon so attendance was small, which was disappointing.

I forgot my camera, which was a real bummer.

The dancers and their outfits were something I really wanted to get on camera.

There weren’t as many vendors as I had hoped, but I found a nice belt buckle, which the Legal Dude bought for me as an anniversary present.

We didn't haggle, which we probably should have. Oh well.

I've had my eye on a sweet pair of boots downtown that I thought I might "hint" about—but there is my birthday coming up in a few months...

In addition to the belt buckle, we bought mugs, ate an Indian Taco on fry bread and brought home a piece of plain fry bread for the teenager, who promptly poured honey on it and said, “mine!”


The fry bread is kind of like mom’s buñuelos—only thicker and just as unhealthy—and just as de-lish.

Idiosyncrasies…

I wrote about this high altitude phenomenon sometime back in February.



Last weekend we bought pre-made, packaged pasta at Whole Foods.

When we bagged and loaded them into the car in Ft Collins, elevation 5003 feet, they were flat.

They puffed up, however, by the time they reached our kitchen, in Laramie, at an elevation of 7,165 feet.



It ticks the Legal Dude, for some reason.

Little idiosyncrasies—we all have them.

Even the Legal Dude…

That’s what friends are for…

I‘d been feeling a bit “adrift” as of late.

Friends here told me it was the weather---the sunny, 65º days interspersed between days with snow flurries, freezing temperatures and wind.

I didn’t think it had anything to do with the weather since everyone had warned me it would be like this.


[Early this morning after dropping off the teenager.]

This morning after class, while waking and talking with a new friend, it hit me—the reason I have been feeling adrift as of late.

It has nothing to do with the “adventure” being stale, which is what I was worried it might be.


[This morning the teenager tried to capture the sun peeking through the heavy cloud cover to shine on the Snowies.]

In less than four months, we will have been here a year, which means during this next year we will need to decide what to do about our house back east.

If we sell, I will lose my sense of equilibrium.

I have had a fixed address in the D.C. area for 32 years—somewhere to call home and a place to always return to.

Without a fixed address, I will feel un-tethered, adrift so to speak, or like Tom Petty, who is perpetually “free, free fallin.”

I feel this HUGE sense of relief!


[Ditto: another shot by the teenager]

Feeling off kilter has nothing to do with being unhappy here, which is what had me worried.

No. Instead, it has to do with a fear of feeling stateless—homeless—landless.

Okay. I over dramatize. I have a home here, in Laramie.

However, it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks…

Change is hard, and takes time getting used to—even if one happens to like the change.

So now, I know and I thank my new friend, for helping me to see what I could not see on my own.

I guess that’s what friends are for…

The 29th Biennial Powwow

is taking place at the University of Wyoming this weekend.

[University of Wyoming Photo]

Drummers, dancers, artisans, vendors and food---all under one roof!


[University of Wyoming Photo]

I can’t wait!

Hoping to take my own photos…

Imagine…

this…



topped with a mound of delicious whipped cream!

This is what I was sipping last weekend at Hart’s Alley, Laramie’s wine and martini bar.

We were there with friends to see the Albany County Acting Troupe perform several of Shel Silverstein one-act vignettes.

A good time was had by all…

Now, for a bit of Shel Silverstein trivia you might not know...

He wrote the lyrics to a “Boy Name Sue,” of Johnny Cash fame, for which we won a Grammy.

He wrote the lyrics and music for most of Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show songs, including “The Cover of the Rolling Stones,” and Sylvia’s Mother, which is purported to be autobiographical, "Boa Constrictor," of Peter Paul & Mary fame and "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout (Would Not Take The Garbage out)."

He was one of the leading cartoonists for Playboy in the 1950s.

He was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for the title song from “Post Cards from the Edge,” and wrote a slew of other songs and hundreds of one-act plays, some of which we saw last weekend.

Some prolific guy, that Mr. Silverstein.

Wonder what he’d be doing today, if he was still around…

Life of Pi…

Excerpt from an e-mail from the teenager’s reading teacher…

“At this point, all I can say is "WOW!" This is an adult text that your kids are discussing, and at a phenomenal level of sophistication. In fact, the two youngest members led the first two discussions, one about anthropomorphism and one about religion, and I am amazed at how well they have done -- better than most grown-up teachers that I've had for sure. The questions they are asking are unbelievable. I honestly did not expect the discussions about religion to go so deep this quickly...”

The teenager isn’t crazy about the applied learning theory strategy used at his school. He say’s he’d rather be “taught, taught.”

I don’t know, the concept sounds good, "in theory."

He says the book is tough, but that they do have interesting discussions.

Yesterday they sat outside for the afore-referenced discussion. I saw them sitting there as I made my way to my afternoon class.

This morning they walked to the union to eat and drink while they continued their discussion.

The teenager hasn’t complained once about having to read this book.

Not even when he had to read several chapters this afternoon, after his Hebrew lesson.

In fact, he hasn’t complained about much this past week.

I know it won’t last, but it sure is nice while it does.

I'm feeling kind of proud right now...