Pratt

Last weekend while Tom boated with his sister Christie and her husband Jim on their new 42-foot Nordic Tug, I participated in an intensive, 4-day, all-day metal jewelry workshop. In the four days, not only did I learn a lot, I bonded with the other 7 women in my class who had come from Portland, Vancouver, B.C. Whidbey Island, the Penninsula to attend the class. We "sisters" have all vowed to stay in touch and reprise our group with a wire class on Whidbey given by the same instructor.

The class at our very own Pratt Art Institute is a wonderful resource in the heart of Seattle. The artists who teach there are superb and famous in their own right. I took the class from Kristi Zevenbergen and she was the best teacher I have had thus far in four years of jewelry making classes.

The day (9-5:30) flew by and I could not wait until the next day's session. On the third day, I made a silver and turquoise ring using the stone we had purchased in Quartzite on our trip from the Grand Canyon through Arizona on the way to San Diego. The stone was from a collection (from which we purchased four stones) of turquoise representing all of the major Southwest mines, some of which no longer produce turquoise. The man who collected the stones, also cut them. I also finished a set of 6 bezel-set druzie crystals I had set in a previous class but never finished. The difference between these stone settings and my ring is huge.

My metal-smithing skills have increased ten-fold as the result of the class and I've purchased a set of tools that are compact enough that I can actually work from our very cramped office quarters. I can't wait to start creating.

Empty Space Where There Once Was A Shop

Tom's shop is gone. It is now one big empty space. He did preserve his door and whenever we find a spot to build a new shop (hobby-size) and studio (for me), we'll make that door our entrance.

Summer Soccer

Peter and Cherise began soccer at 6 years old. In the 70s that was the earliest you could begin. Now, even 3 year olds are learning to play. Last week, I took Andy to his first soccer camp where four other school mates joined him. He spent the whole time running and laughing and giggling. At the end of what looked like the most fun time ever, I asked him "Did you have fun?" and he said simply "No."

Andy's Year End Musical

Andy's school year ended with a musical in which he (and his other 3ish year-old classmates) were mimes -- no speaking parts but lots of hand movements and singing. I, of course, was his biggest fan.

Fly fishing on the Yakima River

We took advantage of our new semi-retirement status and headed to Ellensburg for a day of fly fishing on the Yakima River with a guide from Worley Bugger fly shop. It was an absolutely glorious day which started at 9 a.m. and ended at 7 p.m. We fished all day with a stop on the banks of the river for a lunch of barbeque steak, corn on the cobb and salad. We fished holes, from the banks, boat, and river. Tom caught a lot of fish -- white fish, trout... It is catch and release on the river now and so none of them were taken, but it was fun to see that with a little more experience, I too could have caught a few.

Tall Tails

Andy has for some time been fixated on tails. At any given time, he is either a lion or a bear and in order to "realistically" be one of these ferocious animals he needs to have a tail. For some odd reason, Andy insists on using socks as tails. Moreover, he's only happy when he enlists me in his play as a lion or a bear. Ergo, I must also stick a sock in my pants. More than once, their mother (my daughter) has stopped me from walking out of the house with my "tail" -- "you may want to leave your, ahem, tail here," she'll say gently. Just as often, I will find one of Andy's socks still stuffed into my pants at the end of the day. As you can imagine, Andy's drawer must contain many lonely socks in need of a match.

The other day Andy talked me into, once again, going to the Zoo. When we entered the Zoomazium (a great indoor playground for kids) he voiced his mounting concern that he didn't have a tail. So we asked the kind attendants and they provided a piece of beige paper, scissors, and tape and he proceeded to draw his tail and happily (even relieved) wore it for the rest of the day.

Attached are some photos from Cherise's website. In an effort to keep all socks in their proper place in drawers or on little feet, she made a slew of various animal tails (and purchased a few ears). Apparently, even little Sylvia must now be outfitted with the mandatory tail and even donned a pair of non-mandatory ears while at play in Andy's room.

Busy, Fun Two Weeks With Peter

Andy dances to the rhythm on Tito's feet. He's going to miss his Tito. So will we.





Whenever Pete's here, we eat well. He cooked a spectacular dinner, which included: Barbeque Prawns stuffed with Italian parsley and mined garlic; skewered chicken soaked in a mild cumin, pimento sauce and grilled; squid, grilled eggplant, peppers and tomato sauce over baked polenta; lentils cooked with apple smoked bacon and topped with a balsamic vinegar reduction; carrots swimming in olive oil with diced garlic; and roasted beets with balsamic vinegar. Topped off with some really wonderful Spanish, Portugese and Argentine wines. Sylvia even got into the act and ate itsy-bitsy pieces.


































Mixed weather makes for a beautiful sunset.






ngentili@ccat.sas.upenn.edu>

Sylvia can now ride the horse (below left)
Primo seats at the Mariner's game courtesy Gregg (right)
There goes the bottle! (below left)
Whose Tito's favorite girl? (below right)
Fishing, forget the fishing, bring on the gin! Men on an outing. (below right)





We had some very fun family time with Peter, who just spend two weeks vacation with us. It was great to have him here for a little longer than usual, but still, he was busy the who time and we still didn't get everything done we wanted to. Here are some photos from the past two weeks.