Don't worry, I'm still alive...

Hi! Sorry I've been missing in action! I forgot how busy it gets here at Middlebury, things are back in full swing and I never seem to have enough time in my day to get everything done. Classes for this semester: 19th Century American Literature, History of the Modern Caribbean, Love and Desire in Medieval Literature, and Sociology of Education. They're ok, I really like Sociology of Education, but the other three are a bit boring.
I'm working at Mary Johnson 2 days a week, unfortunately not in Izaiah's classroom, although I do have some pretty darn cute kidlets. Conversation I overheard the other day: "Hey John, next time you go to New York will you take me with you to see the Statue of Liverty?"
I also heard the best knock-knock joke ever, made up by 3 year old Jackson Paul Murray.
"Knock-knock!"
"Who's there?"
"Jackson."
"Jackson who?"
"Jackson Paul Murray."
As if it would be anyone else. He cracks himself up with this joke.

And then there's crew. Thanks for the congratulations! And thanks for posting that Grady, but I'm not that modest. I would have made sure you all knew, one way or another :).
Practices are getting pretty intense, we leave in exactly 4 weeks for Georgia and it is Noel's goal that we be as buff as possible before getting on the water. We just got slides for the ergs, which are things that go underneath the erg and mimic the feeling of rowing on the water. You can put two ergs on a slide so that the person in back has to exactly match up with the person in front, otherwise it's impossible to row correctly, so it really helps us with technique. I think we're looking at a pretty fast top 8 this year, we're all really stepping it up and our times are reflecting that.
"Gettin' Huge" is what we call working out, because our muscles get so big. We're currently selling shirts (ask to see Patty's! She bought one!) that feature a big ol' muscly panther, flexing his arm, that say "Gettin' Huge" on them. Not a lot have sold, surprisingly.

Right now I'm off to take a nap! I'll write with more exciting news as it comes.

I'll leave you with a Noel quote, from our team meeting a few weeks ago. He was talking about what makes crew so special, how it's 24 hours a day and not just something you think about at practice or regattas.

"You carry with you an ember, a spark, the knowledge that together, you're going to do something extraordinary."

Hey Izaih

Izaih is the best.  Be sure he knows he can say stuff here if he wants to.  Hey Izaih,  fart, hee hee hee.


Love you all.  Peace  Peter

If you were a tree...

I woke up this morning with what must have been a little bed-head, that apparently stuck up in the back or interpreted by Izaih "if you were a tree, you would be a Christmas tree, because you have something that's sticking out on top!"
I was glad that Peter, Erin, Grandma and Grandpa got to meet him last night!

Correction

Cailin, I understand I should have said, ""How to row!" Whatever........ super!!
GrAnn

So glad you're back!

Chef Peter and Grady - your return has set me to giggling. What a kick to have your voice(s) back!
LOL and LOL - is that clear?
GrAnn

PS Cailin - .... how to run!

Blue skies

Nothing but blue skies do I see!  Just had a great ski at Breadloaf.  I ran into Mark Thuma and we reminded each other what great shape we used to be in.  Still having fun though.

I got to ski this morning with Bauer the Phinney's 200 LB St. Bernard.  A couple of things to remember when you ski with a 200 LB St. Bernard.  They will go as fast or as slow as they want to thank you very much.  They are not real keen on the etiquette surrounding standing on top of someone else's skiis.  And the yellow snow does nothing to improve your wax situation.  Still having fun though.

Love you all.  Peace.  Peter

Could it by any chance be Ian Lynch?

You can mail that candy bar any time you like.

I will write this because Cailin may be too modest but she had a 2k time trial today and pulled a 7:20, an almost unheard of time, a personal best by 23 seconds (23 SECONDS! ONLY BIONIC WOMAN HAS PREVIOUSLY PULLED A STUNT LIKE THAT), and the fastest on the team by a good 16 seconds.

Now, I'm not saying that she's lucky I wasn't there, but Spencer and Rob and I have been doing calisthenics in the living room three nights a week...

Naw, just kidding, it is amazing and I know we all are very proud. Slow clap now y'all.

Nothing much to report from New York except for I have decided to grow my hair out and it has reached an awkward stage. On good days I look like Ringo Starr circa 1963.

Also Brooklyn is fantastic in the spring. Unfortunately it is still winter.

Well this is ridiculous

I went out and bought a brand new MacBook and I have still failed to write here as much as I wanted.  The  bottom line is I fear I have fallen into the mid-winter bores.  So much effort, blah, blah, blah.

I did get my taxes done!  Cailin, I need a signature from you.  Grady, I am waiting for Holmes to send another W-2 over.  Connor, no money for you, sorry.

We skiied yesterday on Sunday.  Absolutely gorgeous day.  20 degrees and clear.  The sky was that nothing but blue that contrasts behind the grey beeches so brilliantly.  I felt bad for the carnival skiiers who had to deal with the extremes on both Friday and Saturday.  OK, not that bad.  Patty, what happened to the relay team?  Mike Hussey said something about missing a start?  I hope everyone is all right as a team!

Girlie girls guess who I saw at Breadloaf.
Hint: Hi, howww arrrre you doooing?  Have Cailin and Grady been skiing a lot.  I have.  We started the ski club at UVM so I ski evvvvery day.  Mostly I ski at Sleepy Hollow with the UVM ski club.  Have Cailin and Grady been skiing a lot.  First correct answer wins an Ian Candy Bar.

Bauer and I are holding down fort at the Phinney's while they vacation in South Carolina.  He's a great big, old, deaf, this is my house and I will lay where I want St. Bernard who is wonderful.  Except he has decided that as he gets old it is necessary to exhale every bit of air in his lungs once a night just as I am falling asleep.  I have to run around the house and return glassware to upright positions, call the neighbors to apologize and relight the pilot lights on the stove.

All right the rest of you.  Write.  Or at least call your mother.

Love you all.  Peace.  Peter

What a post!

Grady, that was a fabulous report you gave us of the birthday "shenanigans!" No one else has deigned to write since. I have reread your last several times. I'll just keep doing that.

Love to everyone here subscribed,
GrAnn

birthday shenanigans

So goes my first post as a 21-year old. So far, no big shakes... things proceed as normal. Of course, this might be in comparison to the celebrations that took place over the past week, of which I am just now recovering.

Cailin and Connor got into town safe and sound and starving, and so we proceeded directly from Penn station in search of a restaurant. I blew any illusions of NYC know-how as we walked around the perimeter of Union Square for about an hour (luggage and all) looking for a place to eat. I think this might have been reported in a prior post, but just to cover all the details... we ended up finally (as Cailin lagged behind, body language projecting nothing short of total annoyance) at a kitschy little eatery titled the Coffee Shop, a place under the guise of a cheap diner, with all resemblance to an actual diner save some trendy european underground beats and mood lighting, which allowed them to jack up the prices far beyond what was appropriate.

Cailin and I enjoyed a little bonding time sleeping head-to-foot in my twin bed, while Connor let his feet dangle over the end of the little couch in the living room. The first time anyone has braved the common room in four months, but even after having broken that initial barrier, Connor was less than inclined to make it a habit, even of two days... he left to sleep on a friend's couch in Manhattan the next evening. This was not before remarking that the apartment smelled like, "someone took a dump in a pot of cabbage," not realizing that Rob was right around the corner. We enjoyed some awkward silence as Rob shuffled out of the kitchen to apologize for the olfactory aftermath of his dinner.

Cailin and Connor both joined me at work on wednesday, where Freyja and Katla were thrilled to have two more people on which to lay their charm. Freyja and Connor played a game of dress-up (pictures please Cailin!), and after getting her to proclaim, "argghhh, I'm a pirate," while wearing her black-beard hat, we tried in vain to teach her some other character appropriate phrases (I guess, given that she is only two, we'll just have to settle with "arghh, I'm a cowboy," and "aargghhh, I'm a fairy"). After work we hit up Williamsburg for some thrift store shopping, which I enjoyed thoroughly. I can't say the same for Cailin or Connor. Cailin's take on the experience, "eww, other people's clothes gross me out." Connor had some undergraduate analysis to lay on the adventure, stating that "you should just save all your old ugly clothes because in twenty years it will be just ironic enough to be worn by the opposite gender in a state of rebellion." I would have ended up with a lot more for my closets, but Cailin strictly forbid me from purchasing "any more shapeless men's clothing... you look butch enough already."

For dinner on wednesday we all enjoyed Rachel's, a mexican/bbq joint just a few blocks from my building where the waitresses call you honey and the burritos are so good you wouldn't care if the waitress greeted you with, "what'll you have a**hole, I haven't got all night."

Connor had to go meet up with some friends and Cailin and I hit a ten o'clock movie after dinner, hoping to get out of the theater just in time to ring in our birthday. We went for a rom-com, thinking you couldn't go wrong with the old Natalie Portman/Ashton Kutcher duo. Unfortunately we were very wrong, and Cailin turned to me at 11:30 and said, "this better be over in a half-hour... I'm not spending the first minutes of my birthday watching this awful thing." Luckily, the predictable ending happened soon after, so we were able to avoid such a fate. The process of picking apart the film was so horrible, however, that we went immediately to bed.

Thursday: OFFICIALLY OUR BIRTHDAY!! We woke up early to get breakfast at Daisy's Diner, a new favorite after discovering it with Daddy during the trip down to Brooklyn to see the Tracy Grammer concert. I had a stack of pancakes and Cailin had a waffle and we toasted our 21st year with a glass of tiny juice (Daddy might be the only one who gets this joke, he will have to explain). Then I went to work and Cailin returned to the apartment to sleep. Connor made it back to brooklyn around noon and I took Katla out in the stroller and met up with them (it was the most gorgeous day, sunny and warm), and we took a little walk around Park Slope, stopping for a slice at Joe's and finishing it off with cupcakes from The King of Cupcakes. Connor had to be in manhattan at 5:15 to catch the bus to Boston and Cailin and I were joining Lauren for dinner, so we all went into the city together, said our goodbyes, and proceeded in opposite directions. Connor will have to fill you in on his own journey from here, but I can attest that the rest of Cailin and my evening was nothing short of delicious. Lauren took us to a restaurant called Spice, a thai restaurant, where I got a delicious pad thai. We then went to Strand Books and poked around the 18 miles of books hoping to find something life-altering to read in the face of my twenty-first year. This is difficult to do when so many books look so darn good. I finally bought Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace... I don't know if it will be life-altering, but it is critically acclaimed.

After that Cailin and I went to meet Lexy at the restaurant where she works as a hostess. We were going to wait for her to get off her shift. We were flagging a taxi to head over to that part of town (Renee provided us with the instructions and the means to use only taxis on the day), when one pulled over with two gentlemen in the back. We were about to take their cab when they got out, remarked on the weather and then asked if we were twins, to which we replied, "yes we are, and in fact it's our birthday." They were bowled over and insisted on taking us into the next bar to toast us. We agreed despite, or maybe because of, the fact that they were 60 year old men in very smart business suits. Don't worry, we didn't get in a cab with them, and we only agreed because the street was very crowded and it was still early in the evening and they both looked a little decrepit. They were quite dull and despite our best efforts at conversation they seemed only to be interested in who had done our orthodontia (That's Lebrizi... L-E-B-R-I-Z-I). We excused ourselves after an innocent champagne toast ("Don't even think of reaching for your wallets"... trust me, I wasn't going to shell over a dime for their less than scintillating company) and laughed at them all the way to Lexy's.

Lexy was just getting off her shift and she wanted to take us out around the neighborhood and show us a few lounges that she had been to and thought would be fun for our birthday party the next night. We were charmed by the very-Irish bartender at The Galway Hooker (a hooker is a ship, lest you get any wrong ideas about our choice of venue) and agreed right then and there to reserve space for a party.

I had to work at 6:45 on friday morning, picking up Izzy from a friend's house and getting her to school, but after 8:00 I was free and Cailin and I went back into Manhattan to explore SOHO. Our mission for the day was to get to the Dash Boutique, a store operated by the Kardashian sisters, a trio of very fine ladies of the reality television sphere who Mama looks on with disdain but Cailin and I adore. The Kardashian's new reality series centers on the opening of their New York store and features many scenes within the walls of the boutique, so a chance to walk on such hallowed ground seemed too good to pass up (just kidding Ma, no idolaters here). We found it and looked with dropped jaws at the merchandise and pondered briefly what we would have to sacrifice to purchase a DASH t-shirt, finally deciding against it in favor of rent.

I had to get back to Brooklyn to teach art class, but when I was finished Cailin was waiting for me back at the apartment with thai take-out and the instructions to "hurry, our party starts in an hour!" Forgetting that everyone in NYC is fashionably late we frantically rushed to the restaurant, then sat for an hour and a half in our reserved section, trying to make our three very large booths seem hopping and totally worthy of a birthday party. Our friends finally did show up... we had about fifteen guests, and it was so much fun! Great music, great people... it was everything I hoped it would be. Cailin and I got back to the apartment around 4 am and hit the pillow. But the celebrations were not over yet!

We relaxed on saturday morning then headed back into the city to go to SERENDIPITY, Renee's treat to us. I've been dying to go and was so excited, so even though there was a miserable frozen rain coming down, we were in high spirits as we approached the famous restaurant. The very handsome host told us that there would be an hour wait, which we agreed to, because what's one hour after a good dozen years of anticipation? We went to a coffee shop to sit out the wait and arrived back to hear our names get called. The decor was perfect, I wanted to spend hours taking pictures, but with a line snaking out the door we were afforded one or two shots, which Cailin will hopefully post here. We got frozen hot chocolate, each of which came with two straws and two spoons-- but, though it was meant to be shared, we were glad we had given into our gluttony upon tasting the decadence... we were sad when it was gone. Delicious.

We hopped on the train back to Brooklyn where we met KC for a great dinner at Sidecar, a restaurant right in park slope, and we had the most wonderful time. Food was good, company was better.

Sunday morning Cailin had to leave... it was quite the ordeal getting her on the road, but we did and I returned to my apartment alone. Sad day. Luckily, Mama knows me well enough to have sent down a bag of chocolate as big as a suitcase, so I ate my feelings and all is better now.

All in all it was a wonderful trip and a great way to kick off this year. Back to the daily grind... keep blogging! xoxoxox love to everyone

Happy, Happy Birthday!!!

21 years! wooohooo! love you! i still remember my skier skiing across the field at Trapps saying "special delivery...2 little baby girls!"
tears of joy!
patty

Birthday!!!

Happiest of Birthdays my chickadees!  Too fast, too soon.  Have fun today in New York, New York.  Wish I was there.  Love you.

Love you all.  Peace.  Peter

Happy Birthday!

21 years we have had the pleasure of your company! So, we mark the time as it goes by, but there is no measuring the joy there is for us in having you in our lives. Celebrate! GrAnn and GrJim

Yay for arrival

My beautiful babies (no this is not your mother) made it to New York, New York ahead of the storm.  You guys definitely made the right decision to take the Tuesday train.  The ride down off the mountain this morning was sketchy at best.  I'm trucking along fine until I get to Sand Hill just above East Middlebury ready for my last descent when I realize the road crews have sprayed salt everywhere creating a nice thin layer of water to skim across.  I'm just about to swing into the left hand lane to avoid pitching into the Middlebury River when I notice two cars coming up the hill.  Barely snuck by and cruised into downtown Middlebury- no problemo.

Have fun my chickadees.  I hope you have your camera Cailin.  Still waiting for shots from the last trip!  Proving once and for all we did eat at Subway.

Love you all.  Peace.  Peter

"I can't tell if that's my feet or the wok I smell"...

Connor and I have arrived! We made it to Penn Station around 8:50. 45min later Grady showed up to get us. We think that she lost track of time while engrossed in reality television, but she says the subway got delayed.

Connor and I had a very enjoyable train ride. He brought his laptop so we were able to watch some episodes of 30 Rock and the movie "Mr. Magoo." Apparently the guy behind us was also watching Mr. Magoo, because after he tapped Connor on the shoulder and said, "Love that movie. Thanks for the entertainment. My parents used to have that same car when I was a kid."

We went directly to Union Square for dinner after Grady found us. We walked around and around trying to find a place to eat and settled on The Coffee Shop, a restaurant disguised as a diner. All the food looked like it had been dumped out of the freezer and heated up in the microwave, but they could justify the high prices by turning the lights down really low, creating ambiance.

We were going to go to Pinkberry after for froyo (frozen yogurt) but couldn't be bothered to walk so hit up McDonald's instead for some McFlurry's. Definitely more our price range, and plus, we could actually see what we were eating.

Finally back in Brooklyn, sitting in silence in Grady's room, hoping not to disturb Rob and Spence. One is not here, but I can never tell them apart. Connor has decided that he doesn't care what they think, he's sleeping on the communal couch tonight. If he's lucky, he'll wake up early enough to catch Rob in his robe.

Waking up early to play with the babies and find a nicer restaurant (Serendipity?) for tomorrow dinner. Looking forward to dinner with Aunt Lauren on our birthday!

Love to everyone!

anxiously awaiting...

... the arrival of one Connor and Cailin Ross. Wooooo, heading into the city soonish to meet them at Penn station. In the meantime I am cleaning my room and maximizing my modest floor space. I gave Rob a head's up that some guests were coming into town and he seemed none too pleased. The man does not thrive on social interaction. I mean seriously, he's a "writer" but he's not one to go to a literary salon and discuss the fine art of the written word over a scotch... he's not one to leave his room period. The only time he emerges from his room is when cooking some pungent dish in the Wok, something that will permeate the apartment for days. Honestly, he sits in his room ALL DAY LONG working on a trilogy about the John Lennon and Yoko Ono from some obscure fictional character's perspective. No, one was not enough. He took the rejection slips from every editor in New York, Boston, LA, London, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Denver, Des Moines (etc., etc.) and decided that rather than scrap his one lousy manuscript he would multiply it by three...yes Rob, that ought to change their minds. If they don't like it in one concise volume they will be sure to like it in three long drawn out tedious texts. Flawed logic.

Anyway, we will be making ourselves scarce for the extent of the week because Rob is shaking in his boots in anticipation of human contact.

Oooh, second ever interaction with Spencer this morning: "Just so you know, my name is spelled C-O-B-R-I-N, not C-O-R-B-I-N." So by next month we should have worked up to "good morning." There are 8 million people in New York and I've ended up with these gems. What a chump.

Regardless, I am very excited to be having Cailin and Connor roll into town. Hey, with two more to break through the impenetrable air of of distaste cast in my general direction, we might just brave the common areas.