You know you're at a formal event with (my) children when...

One sings along with the hymns during the service, one has to be removed for reasons of loudness. (I made the mistake of telling him if he couldn't be quiet, I was taking him out... which, on reflection, could have been phrased more nicely.) At the reception, one insists that he must, must, must sit at a table that has cake as a centerpiece, and not flowers. He will not admit to the social nicety of sitting at one's assigned table. Finally, I made Mike ask the table next to us if we could swap their centerpiece (Norwegian wedding cake) for ours (flowers.) They just graciously offered it up, and although we thought it was only decorative, we'd managed at our table to eat half before learning that we were supposed to share the cake with another table. We handed it back and all was well.



Finally, during one of our dozen trips to the bathroom, another guest, unknown to us, said when she saw my charming son (by now covered in boysenberry sorbet) "Oh, it's Peter. I've heard his name!" leaving me to hope that it was for cuteness that she'd heard it, and not, say, extreme awfullness of behavior.



Yesterday we went to a theological bookstore that's housed in a former church, but which is still one of my sacred places. We browsed a bit, bought a couple of things including a little monograph on Sankta Lucia in Italian, and took some pictures (the stained glass one is a bit dark, but the other one of Grace gives a nice sense of the looks of the inside.) While we were checking out I told Grace that one book was about Sankta Lucia, but the Italian part of the story, and the clerk looked quizzically at me and said, "But I thought she was a Swedish saint?" I told him that the original Lucia was martyred under Diocletian in 309, and was venerated in France and Belgium in the tenth century, and then in Scandanavia by the 1300's, and that there was a record of some liturgial images of her from 1310 in Turku, Finland.... and he said, "Special interest of yours?" Um, yeah, whoops, got a little carried away there.

Things I learned yesterday.

Apparently, the state of Wisconsin has a law that all "emergency vehicles" (including all state-owned and county-owned ones, including - and this is where it gets tricky - big mowers) have special status on the highways. So you have to either move into the other lane to give them room if they're stopped (or mowing) along the highway, or slow way down. I, dasterdly criminal that I am, actually neglected to change lanes when someone was cutting the grass at the side of the highway. Luckily, a sharp-eyed member of the Wisconsin highway patrol was there to save the day! He was really nice about it, and just let me off with a warning. But, noticing that my driver's licence was from Montana and my car was registered in Illinois, he asked whether it was a rental vehicle. I had to bite my tongue to keep from asking whether there is, in fact, a rental company that specializes in 5 year old Subuarus with lefty bumper stickers on the back - because if so, I'm so going with them the next time I need a rental car.

I said no, that I was a student in Illinois, but from Montana. Having already decided to give me the nice white girl discount, he didn't upgrade my warning, but noted nicely that I should really get that taken care of. He didn't ask how long I'd been "a student" in Illinois, which was lucky, because ten years should be enough time for a 30 minute errand at the DMV.

Anyway, Grace let me take her picture during the traffic stop, and the kids were suitably impressed and blessedly quiet during the whole thing, and we drove safely on our way, being careful go give all the mowers the proper respect as we continued.

Happy summer!

You know it's summer when the hydrangias start to do their high-maintenence thing, getting all wilty and all but whining when they want to be watered. You water them, they perk right up, and even start to blossom. Although this one has been really pink for two summers, the blooms seem paler this year; maybe it just needs time to catch up.

Also, I owe an apology to the yucca, which turns out to be very pretty in bloom, although the scale of it is still a bit dramatic.




Finally, in yet another indicator of summer, I ran a 5K this week called "A Short Run on a Long Day," timed to coincide with the longest day of the year. It was fun, and although it was hot and the course was hilly, I did better than my last 5K with a time of 29:22 (which, as the race results helpfully indicated, a 9:30/mile pace.) I was 127th of 250 some people, including walkers. Overall this is not an especially remarkable time (consider, for instance, that I barely outpaced a guy who ran pushing the wheelchair of a full-grown adult, although as Mike pointed out, it was probably one of those lightweight sport wheelchairs.) But it was a really good race to do, and the kids had a good time playing in the park where the race started and ended, although I understand there was some throwing of sand.

more garden action

After our busy week the vegetable and herb garden was mostly a small maple tree garden, so I did a ton of weeding this morning. Peter helped me make and place some teeny signs that I got at Target months ago, marking out various herbs and veggies by name. I found some volunteer cilantro, from last year's plant seeds, and lots of healthy oregano and mint (surprise, surprise.)

We also have yellow tickseed blooming, and the spirea shrubs are just starting to bloom in pink. It's very pretty.

A few more graduation photos...

A silly cell-phone picture of me getting ready in a restaurant bathroom... earlier when I'd taken Grace to the bathroom and we were talking about the bagpipers we'd spotted at the bar, a woman told me that her son was getting his Ph.D. in philosophy, and was my husband also graduating today? I told her no, that I was the graduate, and she seemed a little nonplussed.



We got a good Wilder family picture from Sara, but the Klinefelter one involves closed eyes and blurred images, so perhaps another camera captured it a little more clearly.


The kids had a great time zipping around the quads after the ceremony - there's so many fun climbing opportunities, plus a cool tent of indeterminate purpose whose floor they really thought must be a trampoline, despite its lack of bounciness.

graduation photos

So I finally, finally graduated... when the Div School Ph.D. folks were standing around before the ceremony in the blessedly air-conditioned gym, we compared notes - of the six of us, one took six years to finish the Ph.D., I was second with eight years, and the sixth guy took fourteen years. Boggle.

But here are some photos, all courtesy of Aunt Sara, several reflecting Peter's fervant wish to not have his picture taken, one reflecting my total dorkiness in teh Big Fancy Gown of Hotness (heat, not cuteness). My favorite moment during the whole thing was as we processed out, and families were lined up on both sidewalks as we walked down the street in the quads, I scooped Peter up and Grace scooted out to join us, so I got to process in this very formal and stately ceremony holding both kids by the hand. The faculty member in front of me (not someone I know) turned around to say, "Triple congratulations to you!" - meaning, the degree and both kids. It was sweet.

Another blooming update

Is that your yucca blooming, or are you just happy to see me? Seriously, it's yet another phallic looking plant in bloom. It's not the prettiest flower, but kind of cool. *Very* cool is Peter with his two cars, gifts from a friend... he has woken up for the last couple of mornings and before he says good morning, he asks if I know where his cars are. (Usually, it's yes...)




The salvia around St. Francis is finally blooming, and the new hydrangia I put in this spring is looking good, although I thought the blossoms would be reddish, not white. C'est la vie...



I'm not sure this particular lily will ever bloom, for reasons of its having been stepped on during its infancy, but it's got little seedy nodules going. The nasturtiums we planted are coming up nicely.




Our mystery vine budded and has bloomed... Wally diagnosed it as a clematis. It looks like it won't be a heavy bloomer, but the blossoms are pretty.

Rain delay

We went to see the White Sox play today, and the game was delayed because of huge, torrential rains that cleared up after about an hour. Combined with last night's tornado warning (which I had to be reminded is more serious than a tornado *watch*) we felt somewhat at the mercy of the weather.

During the delay, we ate cotton candy and popcorn (after having already eaten hot dogs and pizza and beer) and wandered around doing random people watching. Grace made a sign to wave during the game, Peter danced wildly in the rain, and eventually we sat back down and the game commenced (and we ate pretzels and licorice.)

Hyde Park Art Fair...

We took the kids to the art fair in HP today - a longstanding tradition. I was telling Grace about the year we went with her in the sling, six months old, and ran into friends who were expecting their first any minute - a baby who became one of Gracie's first friends. As we walked there, we saw a great collection of places - the used bookstore we frequent when we can (guilty today, in fact), the odd little cafe by the train station, the Medici... Today we also saw an old friend from preschool, and a few other folks we know, and we got to see plenty of fun art. Half of the fair is juried, half not, so there's a great range of prices and intensity of the ARTiness of it all. The kids mostly liked the ice cream and playing in the park, but also enjoyed the train ride up and back - Grace read the whole way both times, and Peter was wild running in the aisles guy.

Blooming and about to be blooming roll call

Pretty rose.



Happy happy yucca. I remembered this week that there's also a smaller, not nearly as happy yucca in the shade garden; maybe I'll transplant it to be in the sun with its buddy.






Mystery vine, about to bloom.






Hydrangias, getting ready to bloom in a couple of weeks.







Peonies, slightly battered by a rainstorm.





One gorgeous iris, one iris-to-be.