Gathering together

For those of you who have yet to discover the benefits of facebook, the free online community often referred to as the intellectuals' myspace, here's one possible side effect of joining that may not come to mind - a house full of people you haven't seen in nearly fifteen years.  At least, that was the result for us.  After having resisted any form of web networking for many years, we both finally joined the facebook world shortly after our trip to Iowa.  Our excuse at the time was photo sharing with other wedding guests, but in no time at all we found ourselves instantly connected to people we had been out of touch with for more years than we care to count or admit.  Then tonight, only a few months later, we hosted a real life reunion with some of my friends from high school.  In all, eleven former Pioneer High graduates, some with their spouses and some with their children, gathered at our home for grilled sausages and potluck styled side dishes and drinks.  If we were worried, as the first guests arrived shortly before four, about the strain that thirteen years of absence can put on young friendships, those fears had long since been put to rest when we saw the last out the door just before midnight.  The conversation came easily, the food disapeared quickly, the kids played together happily, and the laughter flowed freely, especially when we passed around the old yearbooks.  It was an absolutely wonderful evening of rebuilding old connections with more modern and up-to-date wiring.  Don't at all think of this as a plug for the facebook community, but if any of you decide you just might like to host your own small reunion sometime soon, look us up when you join.

A complimentary toad.

 Having a toad visit your garden can be a sign of a healthy, chemical free garden.  We take it as a compliment, then, that we found this toad, about the size of a silver dollar, hanigng out in our front garden after lights out tonight.  Come back anytime, Mr Toad!

Five years of fun redux

Five is the magic number this year.  Not only did we celebrate our fifth year of marriage this past weekend, last night we celebrated five years of Detroit Zoo membership with Member Night at the Zoo.   The zoo's way of saying thanks to their regular supporters, member night is exactly what it sounds like - an evening during which the zoo is open after hours to members only.  There's a little more to the story, too, and that includes free rides on the zoo train, special keeper talks, music, puppet shows (puppet shows at the zoo? We'd rather watch the real animals thanks), and special animal enrichment times.  Since it can also mean crowds at the popular spots (we  vividly remember waiting well over 30 minutes to take the train back to the front of the zoo at the end of the night several years ago), we tend to do things our own way to avoid the throngs.  This year we boarded the train as soon as we got into the park, waiting only about 15 minutes for our ride to the back (Calvin's first ride on the zoo train, nonetheless!) where, instead of rushing to the first enrichment exhibit with everyone else, we kicked back with a fresh homemade summer salad and enjoyed a leisurely dinner with the  zebras and the peafowl.  We missed the puppet show, the warthog feeding, and the wolverine keeper talk, but with all the people crowding those specific areas, we felt like we had all the room in the world to enjoy the aardvark (who was fast asleep not three feet from us, just over the railing), the kangaroos (who graced us with a hop by on the path), and the hippo (who actually got out of the water and wandered around for Calvin to enjoy).  Evening is a great time to view the animals and avoid the oppressive heat of summer.  Member night alone feels like reason enough to keep our membership in good standing.  We love our zoo.

More pictures.  Here.

Five years of fun

Actually it's been more like seven years, but yesterday, on our fifth anniversary, we spent some time looking back at all the experiences of our five years of married life and decided that it really has been a lot of fun.  We started this blog over three years ago (can you imagine?  Three years!  I mean, whatever did we write about before Calvin was born?  Ourselves?) and looking back through the site archives is a bit like perusing a family photo album.  It's true what they say about the road map of life, though;  just like a road map, which highlights only the most interesting stops, twists, and turns, the blog (and our photo albums, for that matter) shares mostly the amusing stops along our life route,  but not much of the road itself.  So what of the road?  Forty years from now, when we sit on our front porch rockers and reminisce about the good old days, will we remember only those recorded moments?  Or will we remember just as well sharing coffee over the newspaper on Saturday mornings, taking family walks to the mailbox in the evening, or taking turns washing the dishes while the other lords over bath, book, and bed time?  Really we already know the answer to this;  it is already hard to remember how we filled our time when we were just a family of two, the day to day of that era, gone only two years ago, has already slipped gradually from our memories.  But every once in a while something will remind us of late nights playing Trivial  Pursuit, or of luxurious weekends spent reading aloud by the pool at our old apartment.   Whether we remember them as vividly or not, really it's the every day, the small moments, that make up the meat of our lives, and we are going to make a conscious effort to enjoy, photograph, and record those moments as often as we do the more momentous occasions, so that we can remember what these days were all about.

We were behind, but now we're caught up.  Lots of new pictures in the July 2008 Album!

If you plant it, they will come

This beautiful black swallowtail visited our purple butterfly bush while I was watering the butterfly garden yesterday.  Somehow I feel rather triumphant about this.  Too bad Calvin was napping at the time...