500 North Park

Vesuvian Terrier

2012-02-18T17:02:00.003-06:00

Our Vesuvian, Ted

We've tried very hard not to brag about this, but our dog, Ted, is really quite a remarkable creature. We assumed when we got him from the Humane Society that he was a "mutt." But as we owned him for a while, we grew more and more convinced that this was no mutt. Ted has an air of nobility about him. It's unmistakable. In fact people frequently stop us and ask what kind of breed Ted is, convinced just by looking at him that he's something really special.

One of many Vesuvian Terriers discovered at Pompeii

Well, after some research, we discovered that Ted is indeed something special--a purebred to match all purebreds, the rarest Terrier breed in the world. He's a Vesuvian Terrier.

The Vesuvian Terrier breed goes back to ancient Italy and was used especially around Pompeii for hearding goats and sheep. They get their name from their use on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius, and one of their trademarks is an ability--when chasing goats, for example--to survive incredible leaps from high cliffs. (Ted himself surprised us one day by jumping off a 25 ft. bridge near our house and landing on the concrete below. He gave a huge yelp when he hit the ground, but was otherwise fine.)

One of the reasons Vesuvians are so rare is that the breed was almost completely wiped out by the volcanic eruption of AD 79 that buried Pompeii and Herculaneum. Only a few survied. Since then, breeders have been relunctant to allow the dogs out of Italy. We've found out that our Vesuvian, Ted, is Italian on both sides.

This was helpful to know. When we first got him, we thought he was possibily deaf or just stupid. But it turns out that he prefers commands in Italian. The other morning, we greeted him with, “Come stai?” and he growled back something that sounded remarkably like “Bene, grazie!” We’re not sure if we were imagining things or not. But, in any event, he’s very responsive to such commands as “vieni,” (come) “seduto” (sit) and “fermo” (stay). He also seems to know to get down when we say “giù.” And if we say “Andiamo” in a really nervous tone, he runs faster than a Pompeian trying to escape molten lava. Just to tease him this afternoon, we yelled "capra!" (goat), and Ted went ballistic.

Anna Turns Seven

2012-01-29T19:34:00.001-06:00

Probably, we won't allow Anna to have Three separate birthday parties in the future. But the way things worked out this year, it made sense. On her actual birthday (January 26th) Anna had a celebration at school, led by her awesome teacher, Mr. Cross. Everyone in her class was called upon to say something "nice" about Anna. The overwhelming consensus was that she "likes big books." This is fair enough. She actually does. One time, Daddy asked Mr. Cross if it was possible for a little girl to read too much? He replied with his characteristically dry wit: "Let's see."

Then there was the dinner party at our house to celebrate the birthday. We told Anna we would invite anyone she wished. She insisted that she wanted four and only four guests, namely, the graduate students who rent the house behind us, and the graduate student who teaches Anna ballet. Happily, the ladies were all excited by the prospect of a birthday party, not to mention a home-cooked meal and lots of wine. So Christine, Debbie, Miriel and Brenna arrived with smiles, carrying gifts and lots of good cheer.

But this was not all. Anna and Mama had concocted yet another party to be held on Saturday, January 28th (yesterday) -- a "scavenger hunt" for Anna and her friends right here at 500 North Park. It didn't seem to Daddy completely "necessary," but who was he to object? The invitations had been sent out and the little girls were set to arrive -- in droves. (Anna has lots of friends.) Happily, John was able to press for a few of his friends to be invited as well. So the scavenger hunt was divided into "girl teams" and "boy teams." And the latter won, of course. Daddy saw to that.

Click the link for some more pictures of all the festivities surrounding Anna's turning seven. It was a long and splendid affair.

Christmas Tricycle

2012-01-05T09:32:00.004-06:00

Santa brought John a tricycle for Christmas this year with a cart that goes behind it. As with everything, Anna has taken it over, but John still seems to be enjoying himself, riding in the back with his best friend, Luke.
.

2011-12-24T08:38:00.001-06:00

John and Teddy are excited about Christmas. John took the lead in hanging all the stockings over the fireplace ("with care") and Teddy took the lead in trying to obstruct progress. By the end Teddy was exhausted and John had gone insane.

Imagine, 2011

2011-12-10T19:23:00.001-06:00

We really should have posted this a few weeks ago. Lake Waco Montessori had its annual musical extravaganza, called "Imagine." John and Anna both did a great job singing their songs.
.
John was especially commendable for his faithfulness in "watching the conductor." This is one of the hardest things to teach young musicians. They tend to ignore the conductor and play whatever (and whenever) they want. But John simply refused to hammer upon his wooden froggy-spiel until the conductor gave the "go ahead." We're not quite sure why he sticks his tongue out at one point and then smiles, but we'll work on that for next year.

Anna, for her part, really took a liking to the multicultural, warm & fuzzy feeling of the whole show. We've known from the beginning that she is destined to be a Democrat. We just don't know how to fix it!

Spider Man

2011-11-30T17:30:00.001-06:00

For some reason, Daddy has had Spider Man on the brain lately.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T09:37:00.001-06:00

500 North Park on a crisp Thanksgiving morning

500 North Park is celebrating Thanksgiving with Bill & Bernie Easley.

Daddy and Bernie both fell from their horses at high speed last weekend, so it's going to be a somewhat sedate affair today. Daddy has a bruised hip, and Bernie has two broken ribs. Nevertheless, we have so much to be thankful for -- family, friends, church and home.

Mama and Anna are preparing a feast of turkey, sauerkraut, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie. Dinner will be early this year (around noon) so the Easleys can make it to College Station for the Texas A&M game.

Picking Roses

Fresh rose bouquet

The Cocktail Party

2011-11-18T10:14:00.001-06:00

500 North Park's own Aunt Mary makes a national splash in the New York Times for her creation of a new political party -- her answer to the TeaParty.

Follow this link. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/us/politics/cocktail-party-in-atlanta-is-a-blend-of-political-views.html?ref=politics

Ted Arrives

2011-11-17T14:49:00.001-06:00

500 North Park has a new addition. His name is Ted, and he came from the Waco Humane Society. Anna & John chose him from among 100 dogs. He's two years old, very well mannered (for a terrier) and terrific as a jogging partner for Daddy. Here are some photos.
.
.

Pansies

2011-11-11T18:14:00.001-06:00

Pansies around the Crapemyrtle, Nov. 2011

The weather in Waco is currently perfect. This comes as a surprise to us every year. After months of wishing our weather were more like Boston's or LA's or whatever city you like, we suddenly catch ourselves enjoying all those outdoor activities we live for: horseback riding, kayaking, jogging, biking, gardening. At first our minds don't register the change. We simply start doing more things. But after a week or two, it registers: the weather in Waco from November 1 to June 1 is simply fabulous.

Today we celebrated the cooler temps by planting pansies in the small yard off the kitchen. We've been looking for healthy pansies for this spot for the past three weeks, but to no avail. At last, we found healthy, happy pansies at the Green Life Nursery on New Road. (Wacoans, these are the best in town. So don't waste your time looking elsewhere.)

We can't wait to see these flowers after they've absorbed the shock of their childhood in plastic cubes and their transplant to our freshly turned beds. John Corey is so excited about the colors, because they remind him of LSU -- purple and gold.

Halloween

2011-10-27T19:02:00.000-05:00

As a cold front rolled into Waco this evening, 500 North Park began carving pumpkins for Halloween. John and Anna got their own pumpkins, and each advised Daddy how to do the carving. John's pumpkin has triangle eyes and a fierce looking mouth. Anna's pumpkin is missing the same top tooth that Anna herself is missing. They are quite a pair.

Two nights ago, 500 North Park went trick-or-treating at the Baylor dorms. They got so much candy that Mama and Daddy are saving money for the next dentist appointment.

For more photos, click here.

Riding with Mary

2011-10-22T16:05:00.000-05:00

Daddy and Aunt Mary went riding today at Miltown.

Mary is a fantastic rider and was a great inspiration for Daddy. We rode a bunch of different horses: Topaz, Ali, Reni and Sahim.

Mary liked Ali best of all, because she's such a responsive and quick-footed horse. Daddy likes Ali too, but has the most fun on Reni, the king of the herd. For more photos, click here.

Bedlam

2011-10-17T08:36:00.002-05:00

While the academic division of 500 North Park was in Tulsa this weekend for a conference, Grandma & Papa Campbell were responsible for the kids. Evidently, they relaxed some of the rules that usually govern life at the house. Take a look.

Spaceman Spiff

2011-10-11T21:37:00.002-05:00

John discovers 3-D comic books.

Alarm

2011-10-11T20:53:00.000-05:00

500 North Park was all discombobulated today. The house alarm went off in the late afternoon, probably due to the wind. And Daddy was notified from a friend that the police were on their way. Zooming home from work, Daddy imagined various scenarios in which burglars or cats or children or wind might have pried open a door.

When Daddy arrived, the Waco police had just left without any notice or explanation. All the doors were locked, thanks to neighbors Cal and Laura. But when Daddy walked in, the place was strangely quiet and not right. Mama's purse, computer and cell phone were right there within sight. The children's backpacks and lunchboxes were on the kitchen floor (which is not unusual). But no one was home.

Thankfully, Daddy learned later on that everything was fine. Mama and the kids had simply gone to the park to play, and the wind had blown open a door. But the weirdest thing was what Daddy found when he walked in the kitchen door. He was of course in the mode of a detective trying to solve a crime. First, a yellow sticky note right by the door said: "Chicken Food." "Cat Food." Then, to the left of this was a piece of office paper with writing in Mama's hand. It read: "Realm of aesthetics. Violence. Power."

Was this Mama's final word? Was this some secret message she'd left for us? The message went on: "Anti-rational. Wisdom does not equal knowledge!"

Hmm.... What were we to make of this?

Boredom

2011-10-09T16:11:00.001-05:00

Mama was away from 500 North Park this weekend, delivering a paper in Cincinnati. Daddy was in charge of the kids. Saturday morning went well. We went to Miltown to ride horses. John and Anna took turns riding a Mustang named Burrito, and both were able to ride laps around the round pen without Daddy helping. They not only managed to stay in the saddle, but also to steer the horse around the poles at the end of the ring. Pretty awesome!

Unfortunately, no photos were taken because Daddy forgot the disk for his camera. But it's the truth, we swear: John and Anna can ride!

Once riding was over, we were all exhausted. And the truth came out that it's pretty boring around 500 North Park without Mama. We did everything we could think of-- We chased the chickens around the yard, collected eggs, cleaned dishes, watched LSU pulverize Florida. But still, we were bored.

At one point, Daddy came downstairs to find Anna playing Beethoven on the piano in a notably bored posture. Take a look.

Riding

2011-10-03T12:10:00.000-05:00

Daddy and Anna got to spend Sunday afternoon on horseback, and this time we brought a friend named Miss Corinne, one of Daddy's students. Miss Corinne rode Renoir and did very well. Anna rode a Mustang named Burrito and had her first experience on an English saddle.

Glory, Laud and Gumbo

2011-09-24T17:56:00.002-05:00

500 North Park is making Smiley Anders' world famous meatballs tonight. Our recipe is from one of our favorite cookbooks, Glory, Laud and Gumbo, a compilation of great recipes from the choir members of St. James Episcopal Church, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The cookbook represents the intersection of two potent cultural forces: Louisiana cuisine and Anglican religion. As an example of what happens when you mix these cultures, we want to quote the final step of making good meatballs according to St. James Episcopal Church.

"When all meatballs are in the sauce, simmer uncovered for at least two hours, four if you can wait that long. During the last half-hour of cooking, open wine, pour one glass into the pot, another glass into the cook. Repeat as needed."
.

There are so many ways to get this wrong. Import it to Texas and you get the wine in the sauce but not in the cook. Import it too far south in Louisiana, you get the wine (a lot of it) in the cook but not in the sauce. It takes a Louisiana Episcopalian to get it right -- just like the proverbial light bulb, which, at a true Episcopal Church (and, yes, this is a litmus test as decisive as whether or not your church embraces the UN Millennial Goals, which it should not) requires three parishioners to manage: one to hold the ladder, another to change the bulb, and one more to shake the martinis to celebrate an onerous task well done.

Three cheers to Smiley Anders. Long live the (sadly withering) Anglican form of religion.

What a Haul!

2011-09-23T16:29:00.001-05:00

500 North Park has just acquired some amazing architectural pieces. They're from a building downtown designed by Milton Scott -- the same architect who designed our house. Originally, the building was an unsuccessful hotel dating back to 1872. Scott's firm took it over in 1926 and expanded it in partnership with Conrad Hilton. It was the third Hilton to open in Texas and soon became the first hotel in Texas to be named in honor of Franklin Roosevelt. All our pieces date from the Milton Scott takeover, so from 1926.

About two years ago the building was renovated to create space for a law firm and other offices. A wing of the building was removed for reasons unknown, and all the architectural remnants have been sitting in a parking lot behind a warehouse in downtown Waco ever since. But 500 North Park has been watching them... and watching and watching. "What would become of all this stonework," we wondered? "Whose is it?" "And what might it cost to purchase some of it?" For more than a year, we've been watching and wondering. Unfortunately, no one has ever been around at the warehouse to respond to our questions.

Until last week. On our way to Baylor one morning, we noticed that the warehouse had been sold and its contents were being thrown into dumpsters. Daddy quickly found the owner and asked about his plans for the stonework. The response could not have been more surprising. "We've tried to sell it, but without much luck," said the owner. "Right now we just want it off our lot!"

Daddy, who was on his way to work and thus dressed in nice clothes, swung his car around and headed home to change. He swapped the Volkswagen for the Pilot, attached a trailer, and headed back out to the lot before anyone else could get there. The result? Well, just look at the haul!

We're planning to incorporate some of this into our gardens (inspired, as usual, by the Steele Burden Gardens in Baton Rouge, LA). The rest we're going to use for an ornate retaining wall on the hillside going down to the meadow. We were planning to build a wall there anyway, but now it can be adorned with neoclassical stonework designed by the very architect who created our house. Wonder of wonders!

Tom

2011-09-17T17:57:00.001-05:00

"I refuse to come out from under this couch."

500 North Park has acquired a cat, and his name is Tom. We found him in Cameron Park, about two miles into the woods. Lost and hungry, Tom jumped out in front of Daddy and said, "Meow." Daddy pet him on the head, and the rest was history... or almost.

Tom still had to be carried for two miles out of the woods. And when he arrived at 500 North Park, he said he didn't like it because it was unfamiliar. He hid under the couch for several hours.

But after some food and lots of rest, Tom came to see that his new home was not so bad. In fact, he has already grown to like it. Now, according to John Corey, "Tom is living happily ever after."

"Okay, I'll come out. But I don't like it here."

"Actually, I do like it here."

It will be noted that Tom looks an awful lot like Scout. We can assure you, this is not Scout, but a totally different cat. However, the visual similarities did help Daddy decide to adopt him.

Tom appears to be less than a year old and healthy. We still need to take him to the vet, but we're going to wait for him to get more acclimated to his new place.

Waco, Tulsa & Baton Rouge

2011-09-13T10:21:00.001-05:00

The city of Waco has just hired the firm that brought new urbanism to Tulsa and Baton Rouge. What is it about these three cities and 500 North Park? We seem to be joined at the hip.

See the story here. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-09-13-cities-urbanize_N.htm

And when you read it, please ignore the gratuitous and boring stereotypes about Waco. In fact, let us say for the last time:

1. The Branch Davidian debacle did not take place in Waco. It took place in the middle of nowhere, and Waco just happened to be the nearest big city.

2. George W. Bush did not live in Waco, and even if he did.... So what? Would you like Wacoans to judge your city by whatever inhabitant they may or may not like? Grow up!

3. Waco is named after a tribe of Native Americans. When people make fun of it by pronouncing it "Wacko," they are in fact slurring Native Americans and that is not funny.

Vegan Jambalaya

2011-09-09T20:58:00.001-05:00

500 North Park has a friend in the financial investment division at Baylor. His name is Jeff Wallace and he's from Baton Rouge. He therefore has instant credibility with Daddy and Mama. The attached picture is Jeff's documentary evidence of Baylor's lunchtime offering today: vegan jambalaya. Read Jeff's description below and -- if you've ever had jambalaya in Louisiana -- weep and weep again! This is the downside of living in central Texas.

Vegan jambalaya is in Memorial Cafeteria (I mean, "Dining Hall," of course). Really? Beyond the oxymoron in the label, it is a metaphysical impossibility for something, anything, "Vegan" to exist as jambalaya. But then again, this is the same organization that put cilantro in chicken gumbo one short year ago at the Faculty Center. I have made it a point not to "mess with Texas." It would be nice to have the same courtesy extended in an eastward direction.

Readers, doesn't Mr. Wallace have a point here? Look at the picture! Are we eating jambalaya or tomato soup?

Wildfires

2011-09-09T09:40:00.002-05:00

500 North Park awoke to the smell of smoke this morning -- wildfires in nearby Whitney, where we go to church. According to reports, the damage was considerable, but we don't know if our church or our friends' homes were affected.

The drought in Central Texas -- one of the worst in living memory (if not THE worst) -- has made everything so dry that the slightest spark can ignite a whole pasture.

Follow this link for the local news story: http://www.wacotrib.com/news/breakingnews/Fast-moving-wild-fire-damages-or-destroys-15-20-structures-at-the-south-end-of-Lake-Whitney.html

Spelunking

2011-09-05T22:16:00.004-05:00

So rarely do we get to use the word, but the "Adventure Department" of 500 North Park (John, Anna & Mama) had a meeting when Daddy left town on Friday, and they decided to drive south to a nearby set of caverns for some exploration and fun. The caverns are called the "Inner Space Caverns" and are located in Georgetown, TX, a small town between Waco and Austin. The kids had a blast.

Hidden lake at the Inner Space Caverns
Photo by Mama or Anna

Reporters at 500 North Park have been unable to get much information about the contents of the caverns or the events surrounding the trip. The "party line" seems to be that anyone who wishes to know more must go to the caverns him or herself. One participant of the exploration reported (on condition of anonymity) that he rode into the caves on a train, that the temperature in the caves was 72 degrees, and that he saw (or rather "thaw") lots of stalactites and stalagmites.

The Adventure Department supplied a photo for the purpose of encouraging readers of this blog to visit the caverns. It is a picture of a hidden underground lake. This is offered merely as an example of the kinds of things one might see, but is not supposed to be exhaustive or to represent the high point of the trip.

Daddy is already planning his trip to the Inner Space Caverns so that he can have a taste of what he missed.

Relief

2011-09-02T22:05:00.003-05:00

The very relaxing Seattle Westin Hotel

Daddy has left 500 North Park for a few days to visit Seattle. The temperatures in Waco remain over 100 degrees. The temperature in Seattle is currently in the 60s. What a relief! People are wearing "sweaters," an article of clothing designed to go over a shirt in cold climates. Wacoans may not recall what these are.

The occasion for Daddy's visit is a small gathering of people who are more or less in his line of work. They can be seen out and about, walking in small clusters, wearing name tags and talking about "rights." Daddy will have to wear a name tag and talk about rights tomorrow.

Seattle is lovely. Daddy has not been here since 1990 when he was working for a short time as a fisherman in Southeast Alaska. Tonight Daddy had sushi for supper. It was so fresh it squirmed when he ate it. He then bought a cigar and walked around the edge of the Puget Sound for a while before retiring early.

P.S. In Seattle, people look at you funny when you smoke a cigar.

Clubhouse

2011-08-31T20:47:00.002-05:00

Staining the Clubhouse

Anna Katherine has her parents' genes. This became so obvious this weekend as she shifted her current interest (not to say obsession) from turning one of her Nancy Drew books into a screenplay to transforming her playhouse into an all-girls' clubhouse.

She started by giving the interior walls a fresh coat of paint. Then she stained the exterior deck with cherry Minwax, and now she's working on her clubhouse sign -- a wooden plaque with her monogram on it.

The purpose of the clubhouse is to have a secluded place (from boys!) where Anna and Helen can do research, have conversations and communicate with fairies -- laudable goals, as her parents see things, though we might object to the word "research," proposing "scholarship" instead.
.

Why do we say she has our genes? It's neither that she wants a clubhouse (a child's version of 500 North Park) nor that she loves scholarship and conversations. No, that's all "acquired." It's that she just can't sit still. She is the busiest little girl we know, and all her projects are "very serious."

Perhaps God's greatest joke on mankind is to let parents see their most questionable traits reflected back at them in their children. It does give one pause.

Angler

2011-08-27T19:56:00.007-05:00

John Corey had a hard time fishing when we were on the coast of Alabama last month. He did his best and had tons of fun, but still he just kept getting tangled up.

Well... When we got back from vacation, Daddy set the rod outside near the shed so that we could practice. But the weather has been so hot -- and Mama & Daddy have been so busy -- that we have not thought about John's fishing difficulties until today.

Better late than never.

Daddy tied a hex nut onto the fishing line, and got all the tangles out, so that John could practice his casting again and again. He must have cast a hundred times before, eventually, the sun started to set and we had to quit.

Happily John is now becoming quite the angler. He loves it. If he keeps this up, he'll be like those Texans who appear in the paper every day or so for catching the "biggest fish in the..." (name your river) -- around here, it's the Brazos.

Daddy is so proud.

Riding Out the Heat

2011-08-27T15:06:00.006-05:00

Ali

Even though we are in the middle of an historic drought, even though temperatures have exceeded 100 degrees for 73 straight days, and even though we have not seen rain for months, we are still riding horses every weekend at the Easleys' ranch. Those Egyptian Arabians are tough as nails! Bred for the desert, they seem simply unaware of the fact that it's hot.

Today, Daddy rode a beautiful half-Arabian, half-Paint mare named Ali. And since an English saddle was available, Daddy opted for that, recalling his days on the equestrian team at Oberlin, where English was de rigueur.

Harvey

The precious little terrier is "Harvey," a horse lover and great companion for his owner, Patricia, who keeps her Arabian at Milltown.

School Time

2011-08-22T09:32:00.000-05:00

John and Anna leaving for school

Anna and John started back to school today. Anna has moved up to first grade and has Mr. Cross, a much admired teacher at Lake Waco Montessori. John's teacher this year is Mrs. Easley -- Anna's teacher from last year. We've gotten to know Mrs. Easley very well, as we've been riding Arabians out at her ranch all summer and attending church with her and her husband Bill.

John admits to being a little apprehensive about starting school this year, but he's going to have a great time, especially when he realizes that all his friends are there.

Baking

2011-08-21T09:57:00.003-05:00

Our new renters (three graduate students) are great people and lots of fun. One of them has a sister who's visiting and who is currently in culinary school in Wisconsin. She and Mama got together and did some baking this weekend, and produced three beautiful cakes: a 9-egg chocolate cake with mint icing (pictured below), a red velvet cake with cream cheese icing, and a 9-egg chocolate cake with blackberry glaze. (All the eggs were fresh from the hens.)

Once the cakes were done, we had the renters over for supper and dessert. The cakes were all so good that there was no consensus on the best one. Mama thought the 9-egg chocolate cake with blackberry glaze was "by far the best," but John Corey liked the red velvet cake best, and Daddy & Anna liked the cake with mint icing. De gustibus non est disputandum.

Fox in the Fountain

2011-08-20T17:17:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, we purchased a "stealth cam" to see what kind of animals visit 500 North Park when we're not paying attention. Look closely at this picture, and you'll see that our first capture was no surprise: our wily fox, sneaking a drink from the fish pond. The camera documents the time, temperature and phase of the moon. It's around 9 AM. She must have snuck by us when we weren't looking.

finished!

2011-08-14T19:51:00.001-05:00

500 North Park has just finished its renovation of the little house behind us. We've been working on it all summer. This evening we're hosting a cocktail party at the house for friends and neighbors who were close to the project.

Follow this link for interior shots -- we've interspersed the "before" photos of the bathroom and kitchen.

The outside of the house is -- we must admit -- not quite finished. Though everything is painted, we still need to do some landscaping; and things just won't look good until then. However, we cannot plant grass in 110 degree heat. So we're waiting.

Brown Moth

2011-08-02T21:33:00.001-05:00

Okay, here's a moth you don't see every day. He was attached to the rent house all afternoon as neighbor Cal and Daddy replaced a rotten window sill. He seemed to enjoy watching two crazy people working in 106 degree heat. Don't you love his purple stripes?

Click for better resolution

Making Progress

2011-07-31T11:35:00.003-05:00

We had a crew of painters come out yesterday to transform the outside of the rent house. They worked all day and into the evening, but they managed to finish. See the before & afters below.

This brings us very close to finishing the whole house. The bathroom and kitchen are completely finished. All the rooms in the house are painted, but we still have trim to paint. Then Daddy will stain the hardwood floors and build a new garage door. After that, we're down to landscaping, which really needs to wait anyway, since it's supposed to reach 110 degrees this week for three or four days in a row. No time to be planting things.

Rare Sighting

2011-07-28T09:33:00.002-05:00

Who's been eating our eggs? We keep finding half-eaten eggs in the chicken yard.

Is it the armadillo who lives on the property? No.

Is it the possum who comes by every evening? No.

Raccoons? No.

Hello, little fox.

Lots of Eggs

2011-07-21T17:55:00.003-05:00

Ever since we started keeping chickens we've looked forward to having tons and tons of eggs. But we've experienced many setbacks. Hawks, owls, coons, dogs and disease (not to mention an occasional Sunday dinner) have kept our chicken population low.
.

But about six months ago, we arrived at a winning strategy. Every time a chicken departs our flock, no matter how or why, it is replaced by five chicks. This ratio of five to one has far outstripped any dangers our flock has faced.

Roughly three days' produce

So, for the past six months, we've had about twenty-two chickens (give or take). And they are gradually coming "online," as Mama and I like to say. Currently, we find about eight eggs a day.

They add up. If, for example, we miss breakfast one day, we suddenly have sixteen eggs. And if we eat eggs the next day, but have only one egg each, we have twenty eggs by nightfall. Needless to say, we've begun giving eggs to our friends, which was our aim all along. Finally, things are working out.

The best thing about our flock is its diversity. We'll have to do another post to show how many kinds of chicken we have. But the eggs they lay are not half as diverse. Chickens (in our experience) lay three colors of egg: white, tan and teal. We used to get lots of teal eggs when we had Ameraucanas. But they all died, and we haven't found more.

We do get white eggs now, which is interesting since this is what we were trying to get away from. Now, however, after two or more years of home-produced brown eggs, the white ones come as a treat. Of course, they all taste the same, except to Mama, whose ability to differentiate eggs rivals Daddy's discernment of Scotch. To each his (or her) own.

Fairies and Light Sabers

2011-07-19T07:40:00.000-05:00

Anna's Fairy Garden

500 North Park is back in Waco, and life is completely back to normal. Anna Katherine has designed a new fairy garden, selected the plants, planted them and watered them. John has been playing with his light saber, which, we've just learned, takes batteries and lights up. (Go figure!)

The Menace

Meanwhile, Mama and Daddy are busy rennovating the house behind us. The new kitchen is almost completely installed, and we've finally found a tile guy to tile the bathroom for us. We should have "After" photos of both rooms in the coming weeks.

Blue Angels

2011-07-11T15:57:00.002-05:00

Check out Mama's photograph of the Blue Angels. We saw their show in Pensacola on Saturday. (Click on the photo for better resolution.)
.
.

Shark

2011-07-11T13:00:00.004-05:00

Pulling out a shark

500 North Park is vacationing on the coast of Alabama this week, and yesterday was Daddy's birthday. To celebrate, he bought a saltwater fishing license and a couple of fishing rods -- one for himself and one for the kids.

This morning, Daddy went fishing on the beach and caught a shark on his third cast. He was the center of attention on the beach for about twenty minutes as he tried to get the hook out of the shark's mouth without getting bitten. Click on the pictures for better resolution.
.
Daddy also has a crab pot submerged in the bay on the other side of the beach highway, which, we hope, will yield enough crabs for lunch tomorrow.

The challenge of unhooking

Smile for the camera

Crawfish Aquatics

2011-07-07T19:54:00.030-05:00

John and his teacher, John Michael

.
.
.
.
.

The children of 500 North Park have just finished their summer swimming lessons in Baton Rouge. The school they attend is called Crawfish Aquatics, and it's the top swimming program in Louisiana, according to Grandma Campbell.

.
Anna loved her teacher so much, she said she was like Mrs. Easley (her teacher at Lake Waco Montessori), which is quite a compliment.

Anna and her teacher, Miranda

John also loved his teacher, "John Michael," and learned to do the crawl and the back float. He also learned to jump in the water from the side of the pool and to dive to the bottom in search of plastic rings. Both kids got excellent report cards and enjoyed the experience.

Most of all, they love Baton Rouge and thank Grandma and Papa for taking such good care of them.

For two short videos, click on these links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mckeiZkNhEA
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVgMzfc_Bdg

Hell in a Handbasket

2011-07-04T08:14:00.000-05:00

Pitiful Harvest

500 North Park is experiencing one of the driest and hottest summers on record. Almost none of our plants can tolerate it, so we've given up entirely on the garden. The picture attached to this post is our final harvest, the few pitiful things that survived until this morning.

The garden wasn't horrible this year. Before the hot spell came we were able to harvest lots of pickles, zucchini, peppers and corn. The sweet corn was wonderful, and it came ripe so early that it caught the coons off guard. They weren't expecting corn for another month! The other kind of corn we planted was a field corn, which came ripe just as the weather got bad. We barely ate an ear of it before it turned tough and hard. Still, we were determined not to let the coons discover it, so we harvested it all and fed it to our 22 chickens over a period of weeks. They loved it.

Camp Baton Rouge

2011-07-01T13:08:00.000-05:00

A quick snuggle while hunting for bats

Camp Baton Rouge is in full swing for the kiddos. For anyone who doesn't know, CBR is our euphemism for "send the kids to Grandma & Papa's for a while so we can get some work done." This has been happening every summer since the kids became old enough for swimming lessons. They attend a school called Crawfish Aquatics in the morning and usually swim at a neighbor's pool in the afternoons.

Grandma & Papa are terrific sports for going along with all this. But they swear they enjoy it too. Perhaps yesterday tested the limits, since John dressed up as Darth Vader and played the Imperial March from Star Wars exactly 59 times before Papa finally put the kibosh on it. But we have heard no actual complaints, so we assume everyone is still having fun.

John Corey and Thomas Duncan

Two days ago, John had a play date with Thomas Duncan, one of the children of our dear friends Kyle and Martha, whom Mama has known since grade school. Thomas is a sweet little boy; and John was really happy to find someone interested in blocks and light sabers.

One of the highlights of CBR is the routine before bed. Papa takes the kids out on the patio to watch the sunset and spot the bats as they fly overhead. That's what's going on in the picture above.

"During"

2011-06-30T10:04:00.001-05:00

While the kids are at "Camp Baton Rouge," Mama and Daddy are in Waco renovating the rent house. Things are going well. We've gutted the bathroom and parts of the kitchen, pulled out all the old carpet and sanded the hardwood floors, painted the living room and one of the bedrooms, and started the landscaping.

Mama's guided tour of our progress

There's still plenty to do. A tile man is coming out today to measure the bathroom. (The learning curve is too steep for us to tile the room ourselves). We've got to install the kitchen cabinets, counter top and sink. Then we turn to the outside, where the biggest job will be painting.

Anna Katherine has asked for some photos so she can monitor our progress. Follow the link below Mama for a tour.

Happy 50th Anniversary!

2011-06-25T12:08:00.004-05:00

Happy 50th, Grandma & Grandpa!

We had quite a party last night at 500 North Park satellite, 3914 Broussard St., Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Bill & Helen Campbell (a.k.a., Grandma & Papa) celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. It was a total blowout.

Joined by two dozen or more friends, Bill & Helen enjoyed cocktails and dinner at Mansur's. Then we had gourmet French cheeses, champagne and berry Chantilly cake back at their house. The party was the brainchild of Mama and Aunt Mary, hatched on a beach in Florida two summers ago. Since then, it's been constant planning and preparing. What could take so long to prepare? Well, Aunt Mary decided to follow in her father's footsteps by making a video to document the last fifty years. A masterpiece of documentary creation, replete with live interviews with friends, home video clips and music, the final product can be viewed below.

Also, for some photos of the party, click here.

Fifty Years! from Mary Campbell on Vimeo.

"Before"

2011-06-17T12:19:00.001-05:00

Big news! Believe it or not, 500 North Park is expanding! Last Friday we purchased the house behind us (3 bedrooms/1 bath) which sits on three lots and backs right up to our current property. We bought it because it's been a troubling rental property since before we moved in. We've seen at least four different residents come & go in the three years we've lived here, and all have been uniformly bothersome. (How's that for neighbor love?)

Just for example, the last family that was there had a teenage boy who got a drum set for Christmas. Evidently he wasn't allowed to play it in the house, so he set it up in a shed that abuts our back fence. The shed is solid concrete with a tin roof. It served as an amplifier of sorts, so that the drums could be heard from any spot on our property or inside our house. To make matters worse the poor lad was a horrible drummer. I've heard woodpeckers with better rhythm! He was so bad that one day this past spring, a lady from across the street shouted to him at the top of her lungs: "You suck! Learn a different song!"

So anyway, when we had an opportunity to purchase the place, we jumped. Is this great? Well, sort of. The problem is that the place is currently a dump and needs serious repairs. Daddy has already ripped out the carpets and gutted the bathroom. This weekend he sands the hardwood floors. Next comes the bathroom rebuild and a remodeling of the kitchen. Then we turn to the outside: replacing rotten siding and window sills, painting and landscaping. Quite a lot of work for a Waco summer, where temperatures hover around 104 degrees.

But the good news is that we've already got three renters lined up -- new graduate students in the PhD program in political science. And the whole thing should, with any luck, be done by early August.

Follow this link for some more "before" photos.

Happy Birthdays

2011-06-14T16:28:00.005-05:00

Vernon Corey, Jr. as a Child

500 North Park wishes Papa Corey a happy birthday! Today is also Mama's birthday, and we're celebrating with Thai food, cake and tons of American flags. Why flags? Well, it is Flag Day, after all; and Anna Katherine has somehow allowed her love of mother and grandfather to morph into patriotism. She's so confused that she actually believed us this morning when we told her that Papa Corey invented the American flag. Anyway, Anna insists that we decorate for Mama's party with flags and that we sing the Star Spangled Banner in place of Happy Birthday. What can we do?

As for ages, one thing that Papa Corey and Mama have in common is that they are both "classics." That means they don't age. (So don't ask!)

Papa at the Corey Farm

Ballet Recital

2011-06-12T09:29:00.003-05:00

Preparing for a Recital

Yesterday was Anna's ballet recital, the culmination of her year of study at Joy's School of Dance. She and her friend Helen danced in two numbers. This meant they got to wear two separate outfits. (It's at least half about the outfits!)

The performance was held in a massive auditorium at one of our local middle schools. And, believe it or not, the place was absolutely packed. There were at least 700 people there. Yet despite the crowd, Anna showed no signs of nervousness. She just performed her moves as steadily as always.

We were especially pleased to have had a guest with us at the recital, Anna & John's summer nanny, Miss Teal. Teal is a junior at Baylor and a former student in Mama's constitutional law class. She's an English major and full of playful spirit and imagination -- which the kids adore.

After the recital, we all went out for pizza at Rosati's.

For pictures of our ballerina, click here.

Roof Repairs

2011-06-06T08:57:00.002-05:00

John was a big help this weekend, before he finally succumbed on Sunday to a stomach virus that Anna Katherine has had for a week.

On Saturday he showed his extreme bravery by climbing an extension ladder onto the roof of the carriage house and helping Daddy clean gutters and repair loose tiles. John is (as might be expected) much more of a climber than Anna Katherine. And he lets her know it too!

John the Scholar

2011-06-05T10:16:00.000-05:00

John Corey at Lake Waco Montessori

Well, school's out for the kiddos. They had their last day on Thursday with appropriate pomp and circumstance. In fact they had a little graduation ceremony in which John won an award for Math and Anna won one for Reading & Math.

We love the photo of John that accompanied his award.

Miltown Ranch

2011-05-23T14:17:00.002-05:00

We had some friends over for dinner a few nights ago and found out that they own a ranch nearby. They told Daddy all about how they raise Egyptian Arabians and need help riding them. Daddy mentioned his past experience (22 years ago!) on the Oberlin Equestrian Team. One thing led to another, and -- you guessed it -- we were invited to ride horses at the ranch. What fun!

At first, the plan was only for Daddy to ride. He chose a tall gelding named Renoir. Though Daddy had little experience with Western saddles and no experience with neck reining, he learned what he needed to know and was soon out on the trails.

The best part of the trip, though, was that with some encouragement, John, Anna and Anna's friend Helen all rode (or rather were led) around on horseback as well.

Finally, Mama, who is no stranger to Western riding, hopped on Renoir and took her for a few laps around the pen. The whole experience was so fantastic! In fact, it bordered on life changing, since our friends have invited us out to ride regularly. According to Anna, this marks the beginning of her life as a horse rider. (Aunt Mary and Grandma Campbell will certainly be pleased to hear that!)

We're so grateful to have had this experience. Thanks, Bill & Bernie, for the invitation!

See more pictures here.

Garden Salad

2011-05-20T17:43:00.000-05:00

Photo by Elizabeth Corey

Take a look at this beautiful fresh produce from the garden: dill, cucumbers, green peppers and chives. We're having Anna's teacher, Mrs. Easley, over for dinner tonight and plan to adorn our salad with these goodies.

Soon, we should have a post about the sweet corn at 500 North Park, which has been in tassel for three weeks and is nearly ready to eat.

John Turns Four

2011-05-19T09:32:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, 500 North Park celebrated John Corey's fourth birthday. No longer the three-year-old who cries when he gets hurt, John ushered in his fourth year by falling on the track at school, skinning both knees, bloodying his elbow, and not crying! He simply visited the school nurse, got bandaged up and received his sticker star for outstanding bravery. John the young man has arrived.

The party we threw for John last night was a small affair, a mere down payment for the somewhat bigger party we'll have next weekend. We asked neighbors Cal and Laura to come over for supper, cake and presents. For supper we had Daddy's homemade spaghetti and meat sauce. For dessert we had Mama's homemade red velvet cake with cream cheese icing. These were both John's requests.

For presents, John received a fantastic farm animal book and some fun Hot Wheels cars, which he loves. Next, he received . . . . Well, one must preface this by saying that John is absolutely obsessed with Star Wars right now. He's been asking for things like light sabers and costumes. So he received a Storm Trooper Costume, which he immediately put on and flaunted before Anna, basically terrifying her. Then came an even better present -- a DARTH VADER costume!!! --along with a little electronic box that makes scary Darth Vader breathing sounds.

John's only frustration was that his light saber -- one he received at Easter -- was blue rather than red. Darth Vader uses a red light saber, as anyone remotely attentive to these matters knows well. But there was one more present. And what do you suppose was in it, but a red light saber! John was all set.

Before bed, John of course tried on his Vader get up and threatened to choke people from across the room by using the Force. He did some scary breathing while Daddy was trying to brush his teeth. And he used his light saber to shepherd Anna upstairs for bed. Finally, (the mark of a truly successful birthday) John asked if he could sleep with his Darth Vader helmet. And so he did.

500 North Park welcomes John to the wonderful world of FOUR. Parents beware!

Mama & Daddy

2011-05-11T13:01:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth & David

We had to take photos for a professional thingy yesterday, and they seem to have turned out pretty well. The shots were taken behind the fish pond, right at the overlook. The photographer was a tripod and a timer.

Of course, the resolution is terrible on blogger, but not if you click on the picture.

Our Non-Weekend

2011-05-09T21:29:00.002-05:00

Rope Swing in the Meadow

It's been a rough couple of days at 500 North Park. On Friday morning, Anna Katherine woke up with a virus or something -- we don't know exactly what -- which necessitated her admission to the hospital, where she remained until Saturday afternoon. After lots of tests, doctors were not able to determine exactly what she had (symptoms included vomiting and fuzzy-headedness, but not fever or aches of any kind). When we got back from the hospital on Saturday we were all so tired we could barely move. We more or less just watched some TV and went to bed.

On Sunday morning, we planned to have pancakes and go to church. But when Daddy woke up, the first thing he noticed was the sound of water running outside. Was it raining? No. It was the irrigation system watering the yard aggressively at station # 2 even though the system was off. Yep, another underground broken valve, which Daddy had to (a) find, (b) replace and (c) replace again, since the first attempt itself had a small leak. The project took 9 hours and three trips to Home Depot.

The one good thing about the whole weekend was that we took some time to build a rope swing for the kids. Actually, the back story is so heart-wrenching. Anna & John had been angling for a rope swing for some time, but we never got around to making one. Then, in the hospital on Friday afternoon, Anna looked at Daddy with those big brown eyes and said, "Daddy, when I get out of the hospital, would you build a rope swing for me in the meadow so I can swing on it and be happy?"

"I'll get started right away," said Daddy. So by dinner time on Friday night, the rope was purchased and the plans conceived. And it has turned out to be an awesome swing indeed, which the whole family has enjoyed already.

The Campbells' Water Lily

2011-05-07T17:20:00.001-05:00

Grandma & Papa Campbell just sent this splendid picture of a water lily in their pond. Could it be more picture perfect?

Spelling Lessons

2011-04-29T10:03:00.002-05:00

Anna Katherine is a terrific reader and a good writer too. But proper spelling is such a hard thing to master in the English language. So often it just comes down to rote memory.

Here is Anna's short biographical description of her favorite literary character, Nancy Drew. Imagine, readers, if you had to learn to spell all over again!

Click to enlarge

Easter Morning

2011-04-24T09:31:00.000-05:00

500 North Park was abuzz with excitement this morning, as the kids awoke to realize that the Easter Bunny had hidden eggs all over the yard. Before running out to find the eggs, we stopped in the living room to see if the Easter Bunny had left any baskets. To our surprise the Bunny left a note explaining everything he'd done. He left two baskets full of candy and also set out two more baskets from Aunt Pam & Uncle Van. Then he ate the carrots we left for him and helped himself to some lettuce from our garden, before hiding eggs all around the upper yards.

Since we had a problem last year with night creatures eating the eggs in the yard, we encouraged the bunny this year to leave the real eggs indoors and to hide plastic eggs outside. This is exactly what he did, but we still had a little coon problem. Follow the link for photos.

See more photos here.

Two Gardens

2011-04-23T12:12:00.000-05:00

Anna's Fairy Garden (click to enlarge)

The weather could not be more beautiful in Central Texas right now, and we have been celebrating by gardening. This weekend, Anna created a magical fairy garden in a small plastic tub. She planted flowers that she thought would attract fairies and created a bejeweled path on which fairies might walk. So far we haven't seen any fairies yet, but that doesn't mean they aren't using the garden. Fairies are elusive.

Spring Garden 2011

Meanwhile, Daddy and Mama have been doing some gardening of their own. We've planted two kinds of corn this year: sweet corn and yellow dent. We also have three types of lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, kale, tomatoes, peppers and herbs. It's still too early for okra, but we intend to plant a bunch of it soon. For a few pictures, click here. We plan on expanding this set as we take more photos.

Corey Visit 2011

2011-04-19T14:25:00.001-05:00

500 North Park had a wonderful time hosting Grandma and Papa Corey this past week. They arrived on Wednesday afternoon and departed on Monday morning. The time was intensely fun for all.

On Thursday, the North Parkers took Grandma and Papa to one of our favorite spots near Waco, a completely self-sufficient farm called Homestead Heritage. There we had lunch and took a leisurely stroll around the property. We saw mules, goats, turkeys and tons of chickens.

On Friday, Grandma and Papa got to hear Daddy's vocal group, a small number of Baylor professors who love to sing a capella music from the Renaissance. We met in the lovely Robbins Chapel of Baylor's new residential honors college.

On Saturday, we drove to Fort Worth for the annual Arts Festival. We were shocked to see how crowded it was, but we still enjoyed strolling around and looking at all the local artwork. For supper we went to our favorite Italian place, La Taverna, where we had all kinds of unusual pizzas, including Papa's top choice, pizza al Gorgonzola, Pera e Arugula.

Sunday was more relaxed. We stayed around the house for the most part. But Daddy and Grandma did get out for a beautiful walk along the paved parts of the Brazos River. The weather could not have been more perfect. And as the day drew to a close, Anna and Grandma managed to finish a complicated fairy puzzle they'd been working on for two days. See more pictures here.

Waiting for Princess Leia

2011-04-17T17:08:00.012-05:00

Things have been so busy at 500 North Park, we haven't even had time to pause for a blog post!

Last week, Anna had her friend Helen over for a sleepover. After playing princess for a while and reading books, they eventually made their way to the attic, where they found an old phone and used it to call outer space. (We don't know what the rates are for intergalactic calls, but we're dreading our next phone bill.) In any case, they apparently made contact with Princess Leia, who told Anna to dress up just like her and await an imminent visit. Anna dutifully put on a white gown and did her hair up in buns. The girls then went out to the sidewalk to meet Princess Leia. They weren't sure if she'd be arriving in a spaceship or in a van with balloons on top and a star on the side. (The balloons were for their party.) Unfortunately, mintutes turned to hours, and Princess Leia never showed. We attribute this to the difficulty of pinpointing arrival times from outer space, or possibly to the fact that global positioning systems often malfunction around 500 North Park, sending visitors into the forest instead of to our house.

John & Daddy digging out a valve

At the same time as Helen's visit, we managed to blow a valve in our irrigation system, and Daddy and John had to spend a day repairing it. Would it be spring at 500 North Park without a major plumbing job? In order to locate the valve we had to rent a metal detector. Then we had to dig the valve out and install a new one -- this after less drastic repairs proved ineffective. The project was nerve racking at times, as the water had to be turned off to the whole property, including our renter's place. But we eventually prevailed and feel proud not to have resorted to professional help.

Another blog post will follow very soon, as we have Grandma and Papa Corey with us this weekend, and we've had a wonderful visit.

R.I.P., Scout

2011-03-31T11:55:00.001-05:00

Sad news from 500 North Park. This week, a neighbor's dog caught Scout and killed her. The dog was hanging around our back door, unbeknownst to us. And when we let Scout out in the evening, she was instantly attacked. Mama tried to break up the fight, but didn't succeed. Daddy chased the dog into Cameron Park, but couldn't catch him, until he looped back to his owner's house, at which time Scout (still in the dog's mouth) was dead.

We bought Scout as a kitten in Baton Rouge (or actually Baker), Louisiana in 1995. That means she was 16 years old when she died this week. Amazingly, she was in perfect health, as spry as the day she was born. In general she had a happy life. Though her status in our family suffered some decline when the kids were born, she took this with grace (for the most part) and began to rise in status again in her later years. This had everything to do with Anna Katherine, who, from the earliest age, revealed herself to be a profound animal lover and a lover of Scout in particular. Though many members of the family were often annoyed with Scout for her excessive whining and demands to be let out, Anna would brook no criticism of her. She defended Scout at every turn and insisted that we treat her with respect.

I'm glad Anna was able to keep us in check and remind us of Scout's many virtues. She was a wonderful family cat indeed, and we'll miss her.

Baltimore/Washington

2011-03-10T09:26:00.006-06:00

Papa & John on Federal Hill

The male contingent of 500 North Park has just returned from a trip to Baltimore & Washington to see Grandma & Papa Corey as well as Aunt Pam & Uncle Van. We left on Thursday afternoon, spent the night in Dallas and then took an early morning flight up east.

John loved the airplane, especially flying into the clouds and looking down at the mountains midway through the flight.

In Baltimore, John met Grandma and Papa and received a wonderful present: an old trumpet that Papa had picked up at a yard sale. That evening, we had supper with Grandma & Papa at at terrific pizza place called Joe Squared.

On Saturday we visited the B&O Train Museum, located in an original roundhouse. John was in his element exploring all the trains, whose dates ranged from roughly 1820 to the present.

On Sunday we visited Van & Pam in Frederick, MD. They had graciously agreed to stay with John while Daddy took a bike ride from the DC waterfront up the Potomac into western MD. Unfortunately, torrential rains prevented Daddy from riding.

Back in Baltimore on Sunday evening we had supper at a penthouse restaurant called The Dizz and then rested up for a big expedition the next morning -- a train ride to the Smithsonian Museum. Our goal was to see every dinosaur at the Natural History Museum (which we may have indeed accomplished).

John was a great tourist throughout the trip and came back to Waco both taller and wiser for his travels. For more photos of our trip, click here.

Spring Chickens

2011-02-27T16:24:00.002-06:00

Spring has arrived at 500 North Park. Daffodils, Redbuds and Japanese Magnolia are all in bloom. The meadow is covered with light green grass. And we decided to celebrate in our characteristic way by purchasing some baby chicks!

This time we rolled the dice on some breeds we haven't tried before. We bought a Bantam, some "Ideal 236s," and some "Black Sex Links" (no jokes, please!). This brings our flock to twenty, which is necessary--we figure--to account for attrition. Hawks and owls take a chicken now and then, and there's nothing that can be done about it.

For more photos, including photos of the new chicks, click here.

Sunday Best

2011-02-23T14:59:00.001-06:00

Mr. Handsome

John & Anna sure do dress up well for church. Last Sunday John got to wear a new sweater vest and corduroys that Daddy bought him.

Ms. Beautiful

Anna got to wear a dress that used to belong to her mama. We must have received ten comments on the dress from ladies over 65 who said they remembered when little girls dressed like that. Everyone especially noticed the stitching on the collar.

Remarkable Finds

2011-02-20T09:46:00.000-06:00

The Art Acquisitions Department at 500 North Park has been busy lately.

If you go to the junk stores, pawn shops and consignment stores around Waco, you can often find decent pieces of art for not much money. Our budget allows us to spend up to $20 on a piece of art, no more. But even within these ridiculous constraints we've been able to find a remarkable number of old pieces in various media.

Follow this link for a glimpse at our collection so far.

Passat Commercial

2011-02-10T17:46:00.007-06:00

Some readers may not know that we no longer have our Volvo. It was totaled just before Christmas in an accident. Elizabeth was hit by an uninsured motorist. So we've now replaced it with a Volkswagen Passat.

We mention this only as background to the real point of this post. Neighbor Cal sent us a link to this new Passat commercial which he describes as "so David and John." At first we were suspicious, but it turns out to be an apt remark and a very cute ad. You can view it here. Make sure your volume is turned up.

Emanuel Ax

2011-02-08T22:55:00.003-06:00

The music faculty at 500 North Park (a.k.a., Mama and Daddy) attended a concert this evening by world renowned pianist, Emanuel Ax. Ax has been a favorite of ours for years. We saw him perform twice recently in Fort Worth. We own dozens of recordings, and we got to watch a televised concert of him this past Christmas, performing with Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman at Lincoln Center. Tonight was an ideal setting -- a small performance hall filled with avid music lovers (about 100 seats). Ax performed an all Schubert concert, including four Impromptus and two sonatas: Op. 13 and 21 (his last sonata, written two months before his death in 1828). The concert was sublime! See his website here: http://www.emanuelax.com/

Snow Melting

2011-02-05T19:12:00.000-06:00

Anna and John were so disappointed today when the bright Texas sun came out and started to melt all the snow. Not surprisingly, they wanted to spend the whole morning outside, relishing every remaining minute of snow time.

Little did Mama and Daddy know that a project was underway. While Mama was hard at work in her study and Daddy was reading in his leather chair, the kids were attempting to save as much snow as possible by bagging it up and putting it in our freezer.

Here is what we found in the freezer when we went to make lunch.

Snow Day

2011-02-04T10:11:00.001-06:00

500 North Park was covered in a beautiful blanket of snow last night, roughly four inches deep. Of course everything in the entire city was immediately shut down. The kids therefore have the whole day to romp around outside, making snowballs, building a snowman and attempting to build an igloo.

It may seem outrageous to some of our northern readers that a whole town would shut down because of a mere four inches of snow. And it is somewhat humorous. On the other hand, Waco has no road salt, no plows and no real provisions for dealing with snow. In fact, the drivers are generally so bad at driving in this stuff that it really is best for everyone to stay inside.

Daddy, on the other hand, could not wait to get out on the roads in his Honda Pilot to survey the town and, well, show off to his family how a true Baltimorean can handle the roads. Everyone piled into the Pilot and drove around town with Daddy. We were virtually the only ones out, which was fun.

Anna Turns Six!

2011-01-29T22:48:00.003-06:00

On January 26th, Anna Katherine turned six. She had a little party at school that day and a dinner party with her family. The real party, though, was today (Saturday), when eight little girls from school (and several of their parents) came to 500 North Park for a full-blown birthday celebration.

Among the many fun activities were running around the house, making necklaces out of beads, riding on the seesaw, holding the baby chicks and eating birthday cake. Everyone had a fun time and asked to come back for another visit, which we will certainly arrange. Anna has a terrific group of friends at Lake Waco Montessori! We're happy for that.

See more pictures here.

Missing Tooth

2011-01-19T21:08:00.003-06:00

A milestone in Anna's life: today she lost her first tooth. The first signs that she might have a loose tooth occured about a month ago. She started to say it was "wiggling." Everyone looked, but no one could see the actual wiggle. Then about two weeks ago, she began to show us how the tooth could move back and forth as freely as a light switch. She definitely had a loose tooth.

Now, two weeks later, it's out. No pulling or strings tied to door knobs were needed. In fact, she let us know that she was not amused by any method of tooth removal beside the natural method. So, as she walked around the house today and complained that her loose tooth was hanging by "nothing at all," Mama said, "why don't you just take it out and hand it to me?" and that's just what Anna did.

Now, Anna is upstairs sleeping. Her tooth is under her pillow. She expects something magical to happen this evening by way of a certain tooth fairy, and we have been completely supportive of this expectation. For those of you who don't know, the tooth fairy is a real fairy.

Wool Socks

2011-01-15T18:22:00.000-06:00

This is a post for Grandma Corey. Thank you so much for sending Mama these wool socks! She wears them almost every morning as she makes coffee for the family and gets the kids ready for school. At one point last week, Mama was seen wearing socks, mittens and sweater gifted to her from Grandma Corey.

Seesaw

2011-01-09T14:55:00.003-06:00

Santa gave John & Anna a seesaw this year. We didn't have a chance to set it up until yesterday. But once it was it was built, we quickly made up for lost time. John & Anna must have played on it for two hours straight.

See the video here.

Though Santa usually has his elves make toys, this seesaw had a sign on the box that said "Made in Vietnam," which led to some tough questions from Anna Katherine: Why did Santa get this seesaw from Vietnam? Are there elves in Vietnam? Eventually we decided that Santa must farm some of his work out to developing economies.

Ft. Worth Botanical Gardens

2011-01-08T22:39:00.004-06:00

500 North Park loves the botanical gardens in Fort Worth. We were there on Thursday when the poppies were in bloom. The whole place was magical.

The kids love to run around in the open spaces. Mama and Daddy love to study the plants.

Our visit to the gardens this time made us realize how much we truly love Texas. Our kids, in fact, regard Texas as home, which sort of surprises us, given our upbringing(s). Texas is "the place to hate." But it really is a wonderful place.

And yet... This post comes at a strange time. Last night, the celebrated LSU "Tigers" faced the nefarious Texas A&M "Whatevers" in a game called the Cotton Bowl. Of course, LSU prevailed. But we did not know that when John decided, boldly, to wear his LSU cap amidst the A&M fans on Friday morning, in anticipation of an easy victory over the "bad guys" in this monumental game -- which we watched, and enjoyed.

I believe in the Holy Ghost

2011-01-04T12:47:00.001-06:00

In church on Sunday, after the Apostle's Creed, John Corey leaned over to Daddy and asked, "Daddy, what is the holy ghost?"

Daddy replied, "It's another name for God."

John asked (frightfully), "Is he a real ghost?"

Daddy found himself suddenly tongue tied. "Well, no." "I mean, yes!" "Or... no, not exactly how you mean..." "Ummm, John, can we talk about this after church?"

Christmas in BR

2011-01-01T20:52:00.001-06:00

Anna Writing to Santa

500 North Park went to Baton Rouge this year to celebrate Christmas. It was tons of fun for the kids in particular, who got to play with Grandma, Papa and Aunt Mary. They also enjoyed playing with Aunt Mary's two dogs, Red and Fox.

We still do not know how Santa got down the chimney, but somehow he did manage. Anna and John left a plate of cookies for him, and the cookies were gone in the morning. Anna and John also composed thank you notes for Santa; and Santa replied to each of them. These are magical times.

See a video of the kids on Christmas day here.

John Writing to Santa

Aunt Mary

Thanks, Van & Pam!

2010-12-29T16:57:00.000-06:00

Dear Van & Pam,

Your package arrived safely with fun T-shirt kits for John and Anna. They colored in their T-shirts today and are currently wearing them with great pride. Follow the link for the results: T-Shirt Art.

Yours Truly,

500 North Park

Christmas Morn

2010-12-27T18:32:00.002-06:00

We're still digesting all the delights of Christmas here in Baton Rouge. When we get back to Waco tomorrow, we'll surely have some videos to post. But for now, we're posting a few photos from Christmas morning. (Click on the photos to enlarge.)

Anna the Ring Leader

Anna was the ring leader, for the most part, as we sorted out the presents from under the tree. John had some help from Aunt Mary opening the many presents that came his way.

When it came to a present from Baltimore, MD, Daddy helped John open the package and unearth four wonderful toy cars, including a tow truck, a Corvette, a Ford Mustang, and an old Chevy Bel Air.

John Opening his Cars

Also in the morning, we prepared the table and the food for the Christmas dinner party. As the picture with Mary's dog, Red, reveals: hope springs eternal in the canine breast.

On the menu for our Christmas feast was turkey, ham, stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and Claudia Sentell's Brussels sprouts casserole. For dessert, we had Mary Sentell's "Bishop Whipple" cake -- the best dessert in the world, bar none. The Corey's look forward to Mary's Bishop Whipple cake every time they visit Baton Rouge for Christmas. Actually, Whipple is an interesting historical figure, an Oberlin College graduate and important commentator on Southern culture. Learn more about him here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Benjamin_Whipple.

John & Mama, Christmas Dinner 2010

Papa Carving Turkey. Red Waits in Expectation

Christmas Eve

2010-12-24T13:26:00.002-06:00

500 North Park wishes all its readers a Merry Christmas.
.

Gingerbread Village, Christmas 2010

We are reporting from Baton Rouge today, where Grandma Campbell and the kids have just finished constructing a beautiful gingerbread village. It was not without some challenges from an engineering perspective. At one point, a structural wall fell down on the main house, while it was still under construction, and we almost lost the whole project. Luckily, Grandma Campbell was able to erect some temporary buttresses (candy canes) until Aunt Mary arrived from Atlanta. Then Mary designed a replacement wall.
..
John and Anna say they're "very excited" about Christmas this year. We've been busy baking cookies for Santa and his reindeer. Our only question has been which chimney we should direct him to. (We need to know where to leave the cookies). We'll probably write Santa a note this year and place it on the roof, so he knows where to come in. Or, we might just "text" him. Grandpa Campbell says that Santa is technologically very savvy.

Organized Chaos

2010-12-20T18:27:00.000-06:00

The children of 500 North Park participated in a musical performance at their school called "Imagine." We couldn't get any good footage of Anna, but we were able to zoom in on John for one segment. He looks a bit overwhelmed. Follow this link to the video.

Santa is Coming

2010-12-19T18:32:00.004-06:00

Anna's Reindeer

At 500 North Park, we are very interested in reindeer! They pull Santa's sled. And Santa brings presents!!!

Pecans

2010-12-18T22:34:00.003-06:00

This has been a great year for pecans at 500 North Park. Last week, we walked around the property collecting pecans in white buckets. Without much work, we had two buckets full, and we took them to a local processing plant for weighing and shelling. The weight? 35 pounds. The shelling? A fraction of the price of store-bought pecans. The best thing is that the pecans on our property taste so good! They're as sweet as candy, since they're the small "native" pecans, rather than the big fat hybrids that usually appear in the stores.

Surprisingly, all the experts are saying that this is a bad pecan year. And we can't disagree, since the experts know what they're talking about. But at 500 North Park the pecans are better than last year, and the year before that. So we're happy that we, at least, are having a good year.

It should be noted that pecans are a bone of contention in the Corey household. Daddy, who hails from Baltimore, calls them (or rather used to call them) peecans -- accent on the first syllable, rhymes whith "pea pans" (whatever that means). Mama, who comes from Louisiana calls them pecauns -- accent on the second syllable, rhymes with Le Mans, a pretentious French word, which should tell you something! In any event, Daddy couldn't stand his ground against haute culture, so he changed his pronunciation to pecauns, as painful as that is to say.

We have fourteen pecaun trees on the property, and they had barely begun to drop their fruit when we collected what we could and raced to the processing plant. Our current assessment is that two or three more buckets are coming in the next few days. So we are in serious need of pecaun recipes. Pecan pie is, of course, a must.

Christmas Possum

2010-12-09T09:44:00.003-06:00

..
.
Get your Joy of Cooking ready, Mary Sentell.
.
Christmas is coming to Baton Rouge.

Christmas Preparations

2010-12-05T19:04:00.002-06:00

500 North Park was all about Christmas this weekend. On Saturday, John and Daddy bought a 9 ft Noble Fir, a real beauty of a tree. Then we worked together to set it up in our foyer and string the lights. Anna & Mama spent the day in Austin, TX, with neighbor Laura, shopping for Christmas presents and enjoying some restaurants.
.

This morning (Sunday), we woke and decorated the tree. The kiddos loved going through all the ornaments and hearing about where we got them. Actually, we don't have very many ornaments (something we need to remedy), but we certainly have enough to entertain the kids and spruce up the tree.

This is going to be a musical Christmas. Yesterday John was rummaging through a closet and found a bugle that Grandpa Corey gave to Daddy when Daddy was a boy. It was missing a mouthpiece but was otherwise fine. After a quick trip to a nearby junk store, we came up with a mouthpiece (for $4.00) and an hour later, John was making his first sounds. He has a long way to go, but the pleasure he derives from this family relic is remarkable. He's especially excited to play duets with Daddy (on the euphonium). We've been focusing for now on songs like "Jingle Bells" and "The Little Drummer Boy," since John knows only a few notes.

Photos are here.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-26T13:14:00.001-06:00

500 North Park sends best wishes to friends and family for a happy Thanksgiving. We're spending the holiday in New York this year with the Campbell and Huston families (= Mama's side).

500 Park Avenue, Manhattan

It's been a great trip, especially for the kiddos. On our first day in town, we went to two massive toy stores: FAO Schwarz and Toys-R-Us. They were both mobbed, but still worth the visit. Toys-R-Us was demonstrating all the new toys for the year, toys that aren't available in national stores yet. We bought a cool remote controlled flying thing -- somewhat hard to describe, but sort of like a dragonfly. We've been playing with it almost nonstop since we bought it.

The high point of the trip so far was the Radio City Music Hall's Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes. Anna was mesmerized by the dancers. John seemed to like them too, but he was more interested in Santa Claus.

Today we're going to the Big Apple Circus. It'll be interesting to see if this displaces the Rockettes as the most fun part of the trip. Meanwhile, Daddy has been enjoying cigars from a fine shop called Barclay Rex and walks in Central Park.

Oh, about the picture. Since we're staying in a hotel off Park Avenue, not far from 500 Park Avenue, we were moved to wonder what our house's doppelganger looked like in Manhattan. As it turns out, it was a bank. The square block pictured above was right in front.

More Thanksgiving pictures are here.

Sunshine

2010-11-17T11:37:00.002-06:00

Daddy has a visitor in Tulsa this week, a little ray of sunshine named Anna. In between classes and scholarship, Daddy has been taking Anna to various parks & playgrounds and helping Anna with math and writing. What fun! Today we're going out to lunch at a nice restaurant in town..

We're keeping a photo log of Anna's visit here.

Acting Silly!

Silly Face

Sillier Face

Priceless

2010-11-11T22:14:00.000-06:00

Today John had a play date with Peter Foley. After some nice, calm playing with trains and trucks, the boys decided to venture outdoors. They inspected the garden, ran up and down the outdoor steps, played in the playhouse . . . all the things civilized little boys might do.

But then, somehow, someone had an idea. They began to make "cakes" out of the dirt in the urns next to our side porch. Bit by bit, they managed to get nearly all the potting soil out of both urns and into their hair, on their clothes, in their eyes and mouths, and into their shoes. Oh, to be 3 and 4 years old! (More pictures here.)

Alexandra tells me she has a wonderful spot remover . . .

Farm Day

2010-11-06T23:28:00.000-05:00

John on a pony ride

There's a farm near 500 North Park called the World Hunger Relief Farm, and today they were open to the public for hay rides and animal exhibitions. They had chickens, goats, cattle, rabbits, turkeys and ponies. They also had acre upon acre of produce. We were inspired.

Meanwhile at home, we harvested 56 cucumbers today and canned them for sweet pickles and dill pickles. We also pickled a few jars of okra, but I know better than to try and interest this blog's readers in anything having to do with okra!

See some photos here. Grandma Campbell: How's your garden coming along? You must be harvesting something by now.

Autumn in Tulsa

2010-11-03T09:46:00.011-05:00

Anna Katherine and John collected some beautiful leaves while visiting Daddy in Tulsa. All around the university are maple trees with leaves that turned from green to red virtually overnight.

Maple Leaf (collected by John & Anna)

Note to Anna & John: I want you to know that I photographed the best of the leaves you left me and also took a snapshot of the tree. See what you think. You might also like this poem by Emily Dickinson, which seems so perfectly to capture the spirit of autumn around Tulsa.

Maple Tree in Tulsa

Emily Dickinson, "The name--of it--is "Autumn"
.

The name -- of it -- is "Autumn" --

The hue -- of it -- is Blood --

An Artery -- upon the Hill --

A Vein -- along the Road --

Great Globules -- in the Alleys --

And Oh, the Shower of Stain --

When Winds -- upset the Basin --

And spill the Scarlet Rain --

It sprinkles Bonnets -- far below --

It gathers ruddy Pools --

Then -- eddies like a Rose -- away --

Upon Vermilion Wheels --

Halloween Weekend

2010-11-01T10:53:00.007-05:00

500 North Park spent most of Halloween Weekend in Tulsa, since Daddy and Mama both had obligations there. Daddy delivered the University's annual Bell Lecture on Thursday evening. And Mama had meetings with deans and facilities directors in connection with next year's Oakeshott conference, which will take place in Tulsa. Though we were both busy, we were rarely busy at the same time, so the kids got a constant stream of attention from both of us.

The Bell Lecture went well, by the way. It was very well attended; and our former neighbors, Don and Mollye came to hear it -- which was a special treat. Planning for the Oakeshott conference went well too, but since it was such hard work, we found it necessary to reward ourselves with fine dining. We dined one night at the Stonehorse Cafe in Utica Square and the next night at an Italian bistro called Ciao! Both are among Tulsa's best restaurants, and boy were they GOOD!

The kids also had some fun this weekend. We found a fabulous public playground on Riverside Drive, which runs along the Arkansas River. The kids romped around there for hours. Then they went on Daddy's bike (which pulls a little carrier for the kids -- we call this the "chariot") to the nearby train tracks and climbed up on a small pedestrian bridge that crosses over the rails. After some waiting we finally saw trains--lots of them. And by pumping our arms up and down, we were able to make the engineers blow their horns. What fun! At one point while we were riding to the tracks, Anna told Daddy, "This is the best day of my life!" And John agreed. Now you've got to imagine how good that felt for Daddy.

See more photos here.

Halloween Preparations

2010-10-26T21:47:00.003-05:00

500 North Park is abuzz with them! This past weekend, Daddy and Mama taught John and Anna about Jack-o'-lanterns, or (as John insists) "Jack lanterns." John really enjoyed watching Daddy cut open the pumpkin. He then helped scoop out the seeds and offered much advice about what kind of face to carve: "Bad guy" was the main criterion. Mama and Anna carved a fierce looking bad guy as well. Our collaborative efforts and the results are captured here.

Also, John and Anna have, as of now, both received their costumes in the mail. John is going to be Superman, and Anna will be Tinkerbell (big surprise). I realize how predictable and downright scripted this all seems. But, hey, what can we do?

We have some good photos of Superman and Tinkerbell. Click here. John wore his costume for two straight days when he received it, and he insists that we refer to him now only as Superman. He admits to having a friend who goes by the name "John," but he's reluctant to say more, except that John is currently invisible. --All very interesting and amusing! Anna, for her part, wore her new costume to the Baylor Homecoming Parade on Saturday and received lots of curious looks. Both kids have a natural penchant for theatrics.

2010-10-22T11:34:00.000-05:00

The little red caboos and the little blue cuboos

Written, typed and illustrated by Anna corey

Wonts opon A time there was a red trane car And ol the kids

Wood wave at ol the cars BUT NOT THE little red car becas

By the time it had gottin there the kids had past away one day

The little tran wint on a hile thit was to hi for it.

The little red car was viry sad .

Thin anuthr tran with A blue car at the end of it side you lock a lot like

Me the cars lockt at ech othr yaa side the red car

And thin winie the tran past kids wod wave at ol the cars but save ther

Bigist wavs for the little red cuboos becas it savd the day.

THE END .

Homesteading

2010-10-17T22:17:00.019-05:00

Okra from our garden in October, 2010

It's amazing what you can do with a few acres! We've now reached the point where we can make whole meals with food from the property.
.
This wouldn't be the case if we hadn't crossed a certain threshold with our chickens. Previously, we raised chickens exclusively for eggs (i.e., we didn't eat the birds). But things have changed for various reasons. Most immediately, our chickens have been attacked by hawks to such a degree that we've had to decide what to do with a freshly killed, completely intact bird. Should we throw it away and thus waste a perfectly good meal? Or....
.
Well, as you can imagine, we got the idea of eating the chickens when they were killed by hawks. And once we had our first taste of fresh, organic, free-range chicken, there was really no going back. So, for the first time in our chicken-rearing lives, we've started to walk out in the mornings and look at our chickens in a new light. It's sort of like those old cartoons where Sylvester looks at Tweety Bird and sees not a little yellow bird, but a rotisserie chicken, piping hot and ready to eat.
.
Yet a chicken is not a meal. We've been able to make meals because, in addition to the chickens, we have (or are beginning to have) okra, green peppers, banana peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce (5 or 6 kinds), Lima beans, snow peas, cucumbers, carrots, radishes, basil, cilantro, oregano and, of course, our permanent stock of bay leaves, rosemary, mint, lemon grass and pecans -- all in enormous quantities. See some photos here.

Given the horrible luck we had with our garden this summer, we're thrilled to have a fall garden that is actually producing food. Fall gardens are the way to go in Waco, TX.

Osage Prairie Trail

2010-10-13T21:23:00.006-05:00

Readers, I know you are more interested in news of the children than news of my bike rides. But I don't have any photos of the kids to share at the moment and I'm so excited about these Tulsa bike trails that I just can't help blogging about them!

This afternoon I took a 40 mile ride from my apartment to the end of the Osage Prairie Trail and back. This is a trail that was created from the old Midland Valley Rail bed. The railroad was abandoned sometime in the 1970s for reasons unknown. A brief history is here and a slightly longer one is here.

Osage Prairie Trail
Photos borrowed from INCOG.org

What a great idea to convert this into a bike trail. The photos that I borrowed from the website do not do justice (as beautiful as they are) to its appearance on a crisp October afternoon. Red and yellow leaves were waving in the trees and scurrying across my path; old iron bridges carried me over rushing streams; and field upon field of horses, cows, and baled hay had the appearance of American oil paintings from the 1920s. It was splendid. The only thing that could have made it better is if my riding partners -- Cal, Laura, Elizabeth, Andy and Lynn -- could have been there to experience it with me. We'll have to work on that.

Fall Garden

2010-10-03T20:58:00.001-05:00

Our fall garden is coming along nicely. The peas are up and looking for something to climb, so John and Daddy drove some stakes into the ground today and tied strings across them. The lettuce patch is doing incredibly well. We have a few rows of arugula, several rows of a leafy light green lettuce, and a few rows of something called "mixed greens," which includes red leaf, green leaf, and some other unidentifiable stuff. We've been enjoying delicious salads all week.

Other plants are thriving too. The basil is like nothing we've ever seen before: it's five feet tall and completely covers a 10' x 10' area. We're still harvesting okra at the rate of two to three family-sized helpings per week; and green peppers and banana peppers are still producing too. In addition to this, we've got carrots and radishes coming on, as well as lima beans, broccoli, cauliflower and cucumbers. Needless to say, this is the best fall garden we've ever had. It's just unbelievable.

For more photos, see here.

Tulsa Adventure

2010-09-27T12:24:00.007-05:00

Anna in front of ostrich sculpture

500 North Park was in Tulsa this weekend, visiting Daddy and seeing the town.

On Saturday morning we visited a friend with a wonderful art collection. Several pieces were by an artist who makes huge animals out of wood. Thus a camel and ostrich were among the many works of art we saw.

After the art tour, we went to Whole Foods for lunch and shopping, before driving down to the train depot for an up-close look at some massive freight trains. Tulsa is a busy train town, even though there is no passenger service here. John and Anna both loved seeing all the powerful engines pulling double-decker loads of freight.

Anna checking her email

Perhaps the biggest event on Saturday -- at least for Anna -- was the fact that Daddy let Anna create her own email account for staying in touch with family and friends. Since opening the account, she's already learned to use Mama's laptop and to type her own sentences. It's all "hunt and peck" for now, but she's also begun playing games online that teach her how to type, and she can already type lots of words without looking at the keys, as long as they only contain the letters f j, g, and h. Unfortunately, there are no such words. But, in any event, look for an email from Anna soon.

Sunday was also a big day for everyone. After brunch at the famous Blue Dome Diner (at which Anna & John ordered the "Mickey Mouse pancakes"), Mama took Anna to the Tulsa Ballet to see a fabulous performance of Swan Lake. This was a big hit. In fact, when Mama gave Anna the chance to leave at intermission, Anna just looked at her incredulously and said, "No! I want to keep watching!"

While Anna was at the ballet, John and Daddy went back to the train depot to see more trains go by and to actually touch a freight train, which was great fun. For more photos, see here.

Climbing Trees

2010-09-20T08:42:00.004-05:00

We had a fun weekend at 500 North Park. Daddy was back from Tulsa and ready to pay full attention to the kids.

For some time now, John has been asking Daddy to teach him how to climb trees. This came about from Daddy's telling stories about "when he was a boy." Finally, at a park outside Waco, Daddy gave John his first lessons -- how to grab low hanging branches and pull himself up.

As was to be expected, John fell from the tree at one point, but he didn't hurt himself badly -- just a scraped knee. He didn't cry either. He just looked teary for a minute and then wiped his eyes and said, "I'm a tough guy." No kidding!

Anna had tons of fun this weekend too. We planted peas and lima beans in our garden, caught grasshoppers with a butterfly net, caught a coon and let it go in the wild. However, the best part of Anna's weekend was playing school in her room. Anna pretended to be her teacher, Ms. Easley, while Daddy, Mommy and John had to be students. Anna took us through several important lessons: how to count by tens, how to sing "The Littlest Worm," and how to write the date like this: 9/20/2010. This is actually the only insight we've been afforded into what goes on in Anna's class. Ordinarily, she refuses to tell us anything!

Oh, we also saw a roadrunner near the park this weekend. And since we happened to have our camera with us, we were able to snap some photos before he darted off. See our Flickr page for the results.

Wednesday Night Ride

2010-09-15T20:24:00.006-05:00

Tulsa, Wednesday Night Ride
Photo borrowed from
http://trailzombie.blogspot.com/2009/05/t-z-bicycle-rider.html

Every Wednesday evening in Tulsa, cyclists meet for a community ride. Between 200 and 500 riders typically show up, and the event is awesome to behold.
.
This was my first time. I was shocked to see such a thriving community of cyclists. Some were fast, some were slow. Some were young, some were old. But everyone was happy to be biking!
.
Below is the map of the 37 mile route, which heads west of Tulsa and dances around the Arkansas river a few times before heading back to town.
.
Unfortunately, I set out with a "fast and young" group of riders, not knowing what I was in for. I nearly killed myself trying to keep up. Tulsa is located in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains, and this was one of the hilliest rides I've ever been on. By the midpoint, I was so tired I had to drop back in search of a more relaxed group. Eventually I joined a group of red faced, middle-aged, overweight riders and really enjoyed the last 18 miles or so.
.
Something about riding a new course with tons of people always makes me go too fast at the outset. I need to check that somehow.

MapMyRide.com View Wednesday Night Ride in Tulsa, Oklahoma

Biking Tulsa

2010-09-13T10:34:00.003-05:00

A Tulsa Bike Trail
Photo borrowed from cycledog.blogspot.com

Tulsa has turned out to be a fantastic biking city. The whole town is connected by a network of bike lanes, which makes it very easy to commute on the bike. Everywhere I go I see yellow signs that read, "SHARE THE ROAD!" and these have a silhouette of a biker on them.

But what really makes the town so fun is the trail system. The trails are paved, two-way routes for bikers and joggers. I think many of them were railroads at one point. But they have now been converted for long-distance biking. I haven't figured out how many miles of trails there are yet -- must be at least 75 to 100 miles. Bikers can ride south along the Arkansas river, west to the neighboring town of Sand Springs, north to Skiatook, or east to Broken Arrow -- or all of the above!

Yesterday afternoon, I made the 26 mile trek from the University of Tulsa to Sand Springs and back. The weather was a cool 75 degrees and the leaves on some trees were just beginning to turn. Lot's of fun. In fact, I wish John Corey could have been with me, since I saw tons of trains along the way, including some old abandoned passenger trains from back in the day when human beings still knew that train travel made a lot of sense. Maybe when John grows up, he can use his love of trains to rejuvenate American train travel.
.
Here's a Google bike map of the various routes. The green lines are all dedicated bike trails.

Teal Egg

2010-09-09T18:28:00.001-05:00

500 North Park received its first light green/teal egg this morning. It's smaller than the other eggs, but really pretty. The egg came from our Ameraucana hen, named Laura. She'll be our only producer of teal eggs, unfortunately, since our other Ameraucana turned out to be a rooster and a feisty one at that!

The mud on the egg is from the incredible rains we've had in Waco. Nothing has managed to stay dry, not even our chickens.