Soccer Weekends and Visitors

That's my only excuse for no blogs and no project work: Aside from the usual games on Saturday, we had the Nathan Thomas Soccer Tournament on Sunday. This is an all-day, all-city tournament for 7 - 11 year-olds, named for a child -- the self-same Nathan Thomas -- who died and whose parents donated the money to carry on his favorite thing, soccer. I can't remember if he died violently (hit by a drunk-driver) or organically (leukemia), but it really doesn't matter -- the death of a 12-year-old is tragic no matter the cause. If you want to see some pictures, check out Bride of Cranky Old Geezer.

And Carolyn and Alec are visiting. While the rest of the family did soccer, we (after watching a game) went to the chic part of town and had Japanese for lunch and then walked around, stepping into a couple of gourmet grocery stores (one of them carries house-made Toulousian sausage, by the way, so I'll be making some cassoulet this fall). And then we went up to the Rose Garden.

This morning Caro and Alec left at a leisurely hour, intending to wend their way to the coast via the wineries of Oregon. I wonder where they ended up for the evening?

Andrew, however, has been struck by a nasty cold (the only kind of cold) and I was feeling generally tired (perhaps preliminary to my own bout of illness? I hope not). So we just relaxed today.

(Caro, note: 7 hyphens. I am doing my part.)

Summer Hiatus

The blog will be on hiatus until early September, when we're back from Minnesota. In the 17 days that we are going to be gone, the length of the days will decrease by 48 minutes. The average temperature will drop only 2 degrees (from 80/57 to 78/55 - high/low).

In Minnesota, the average temperature drops over that period from 80/61 to 76/56, a steeper drop, as it has further to go to get to Fall. Ipswich's temps drop from, 79/59 to 76/56, pacing her Minnesotan sister.