Merry Christmas to all...

Christmas, 2009.

We are in La Jolla, California, hanging out with the seam anemones at the beach (in one of the city's undoubtedly funkiest cottages) for the holiday. The weather has been beautiful, and the family time has been, as they say, priceless.

We arrived with Quincy on Saturday to move into this ~50 year old cottage that is 2/3 of the way up Ocean Lane. We were surprised that Ocean Lane was a staircase (no street-side parking for us!), but that sure keeps the street noise at a minimum. Jake was scheduled to arrive Sunday evening, but a delayed flight pushed that to painfully early Monday. But no matter -- having him around is worth as many late night trips to the airport as it takes. He will spend his birthday with us before he heads back to Salem in mid-January.

Mornings, the kids sleep in as Stu and I watch seals that resemble hefty bags loll about on the beach. We have explored the area on bikes (very bike-friendly, southern California streets are) and this morning plan to head down to Mission Bay for some birding. Afternoons, kids join us or not for exploration further afield. Yesterday we were at Cabrillo National Monument, the lighthouse built on the point that guards the San Diego Harbor. Today we will do a walking tour someplace.

It is wonderful to have 4 people at the dinner table again, and evening discussions have been great.

Tournament of Bands

This was one of the bands from yesterday's Tournament of Bands at NMSU. One movement was mostly percussions, and everybody got to play on the barrels. It was a great visual!

Or maybe it was Tourniquet of Bands. LCHS has a great season in a lot of ways, but the kids did not earn the scores from the judges to place in competition.

Nonetheless, Quincy is completing her year of lasts -- last band competition (yesterday), last IEP (Friday), last time performing at the Field of Dreams (a couple weeks ago), and this Friday, the last BIG game against Mayfield. The football team has also not had a stellar season, so playoffs look unlikely. But since she is already staying busy stage managing the fall play The Wiz, she will not be at a loss for stuff to do.

Her year of lasts is also one for her parents. I have hawked for the last time at Field of Dreams and plan to never again load up hundreds of nacho boats with chips. My concessions friends plan regular get togethers next year on Fridays to celebrate our evenings without standing for hours on cold cement floors in a loud, confined little space serving lines of people what passes for food at athletic events. Yes, we have healthy choices. No, we never sell more than about 2 pieces of fruit an evening, but we sure do move those frito pies!

It got cold this week, and I even biked home in snow on Wednesday. The deck was covered with snow Thursday morning, but as typical of New Mexico, it lasted only briefly. Weather has returned to beautiful, and since it is Sunday afternoon, all the sunspots on the west side of the house are occupied with sleeping pets (and one human).


Stu returned from a trip to NSF in Washington DC Friday in time to see the LCHS boys soccer team win their first state cup game. Jake had his first swim meet of the year and was happy -- or at least not unhappy -- with his performance.

Empty nesting practice

This was Jake a couple weeks ago at Willamette, before the weather turned cold, blustery, and rainy. (It has been beautiful here this week. Biggest weather issue has been the tail wind for my ride home...). His swim team worked at the opening for the Kroc Center in Salem.

Quincy is at her last high school Zia Band Competition in Albuquerque. With her gone for the day, Stu and I are practicing the empty nesting thing. I (vaguely) remember what it was like to have time to make a nice dinner -- a friend is joining us, the bread just came out of the oven, and I think I can recall how this all works. Of course, we will have too much food.

We are also winding down in the football marching season. As a band parent, I have one more game to work, even if it is the insane Cruces-Mayfield game (a rivalry often mentioned in the top national high school football rivalries). Six years of selling horribly non-nutritious food to the masses is a long time, even if other Cruces parents (I thinking of you, Travises!) had a much longer tenure. Cruces could surprise us and go to lots of playoff games, but it is not looking like that at this point in the season.

Ah well, fall in LC is beautiful. Good time to start thinking about getting into marathon shape!

Band takes the field!

The LCHS Showcase Band took the field at the first home game. The band looked super. The football team lost 28-14 after a 14-0 lead at halftime. Ouch.

Catching up, August 2009

Stu dropped Jacob off at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon today for the start of his sophomore year. He was good company over the summer, great help on the deck and getting the hot tub installed, and he helped me keep up on politics. Always good to keep tabs on how your kids are thinking. He does pretty well in the thinking department.

While Stu and Jake have been on the road, Quincy and I declared a formal-meal-free weekend. Good to give a break to the digestive system occasionally. And I maintain that one of Stu's dark beers has more nutrients than pretty much any fast-food meal money can buy.

Quincy started her senior year of high school (senior photo, right). She has a only four classes at the high school, so she is taking classes at NMSU as a dual credit student; there she gets to indulge in her interest in languages (she is in first semester Chinese and patiently explains the writing characters way too many times to her mother) and in her sense of aesthetic. Tuesday night's class is a horticulture class in floral arrangements, and I think it will be really good for her. She gets to play with flowers, learn about design, and bring pretty things home each week. Pretty cool, really.

Stu and Quincy are getting over some bug they were kind enough to share with me. They were both affected on weekdays; my version took over a weekend. Rats. But I was well enough to sit through Julie and Julia today without coughing more than that which is considered socially unacceptable.

Today was the first time I really had enough time to enjoy the new patio furniture. Most excellent place to spend with the Sunday Times. I really do have to find a good northern sky chart, though, for hot tub time. I get through Cassiopea and the Big Dipper and then have to start looking for airplanes. Many of our activities seem to be focused on the north. The dogs and I watched 3 coyotes romp from north of the house on the top of the Black Quartz Mountains today (Annie pointed them out to me). Great view from up there.

Stu just called from north of Sacramento. He's going to try to get home tomorrow night, but he is also recovering from the Quincy croup and is down to one driver.

And so it goes.

A springtime Midsummer

LCHS finished its production of A Midsummer Night's Dream last night to a standing ovation from an audience of about 250. Quincy played Starvling (she is pretty skinny) and looked like a very comely boy. I also saw the production on opening night, and the cast really grew in comfort with every production. Stu and Quin also helped with the set.

I ordered mass quantities of red chile for when Jake comes home for spring break. Will spend a day making mole, a favorite of Jacob's.

Jake says he is learning a lot at Willamette. For example, after the swim season finished, his swim team formed an intermural basketball team, and Jake says he has learned just how well swimmers play basketball. (Especially him: not so well!) Classes are going well for him this semester and he will come home on March 20 for a week. Quin and NMSU have Spring Break at the same time, and I hope to also take time off.

Stu, Jake, and I are also all getting ready for the Bataan Memorial March on March 29. This will be our second year. We will have our greatest success when we persuade the Q to do it with us.

Getting ready for solo and ensemble.

I was instructed: No pictures!

Quincy was in Solo and Ensemble at LCHS today. She played a brief (intentionally) solo unaccompanied (unintentionally; her accompanist could not make it at the last minute). She has not checked her score and, I suspect, will not do so. The young man in the striped shirt is Chris, a friend of Quincy's.

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Onate band takes the field

LCHS is sitting behind them in the stands in blue and red. LCHS cheers!
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Socorro marching competition

Quincy is in the front of her row... better pix to come later.

Stu made the giant clock in the back right. The show theme is Pulse and he also made a giant EKG monitor.

Dawgs happy to see the end of a parade.

At about 11:20 this morning, the LCHS marching band turned the corner from Solano into Apodaca Park, near where Stu, Jake, and I first lived when we came to Las Cruces (nearly 18 years ago!). Quincy is on the end, but phones really do not take exemplary photographs.

Before they took off their shakos and headed for the popsicles, Drum Major Ryan Reynolds led them in a rousing chase in the sun. And they followed. Every one. (The weather, it was hot!)

That is the thing about marching bands. Get them going in a direction, and it is nearly impossible to get them to stop.

Quincy at honors night

Quincy was recognized at the 2008 LCHS Honors Night the last week of August.

Her academic year is starting well. Being an only seems to suit her well.
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Go Dawgs!

Weekend started early with a Dawg football game on Thursday. The band is looking really good, for the first time in years. The football team is having a good year, too, which means a good year for fundraining for the band!

Quincy is in the photo above, very hard to find. In real life, she is not nearly so tiny.

LCHS opener

Start of the new sports season...

Quincy and the band played at the first football game of the season Thursday. The band looked good (although there is more work to do...) and had ample chances to play the fight song, with at least 6 touchdowns.

Boys soccer had less fortune. They came in second in the annual southern NM tournament, after a 5-1 loss to Mayfield. Ouch. Of course, such a loss is less painful without a kid playing.

Dawg day

LCHS band performed at sunset Wednesday after 8 days of band camp. Another new band director, another year for hope?

The kids looked good, and Quincy reported having a good time with the band. (She is playing tenor sax this year instead of alto -- even more decibels!)

7 Days

Quincy leaves for Germany in 7 days. She will be blogging about it here.

Graduation Night

Friday, May 16, Pan American Center.

About 475 graduates of Las Cruces High School celebrated this transition. (Grads in red are in the top 10% of the class.)

This was an accomplished group of students. 28 had GPAs over 4.0. There were 3 National Merit Scholars and a Presidential Scholar. Most of the top 10 played at least one sport, and there were several musicians. The top 10 contributed hundreds of volunteer hours to the community.

The LCHS Band (Quincy on bassoon) provided excellent music.

Catching up

April into May sure gets busy. Pictures to come soon. (We have lots.)

The LCHS production of Talk Radio ran last weekend. Closing night was the best -- the cast had lots of energy and hit the laugh lines just right. Quincy made a great Dana, not that I might be biased. The set was also super.

Jacob committed to going to Willamette next year. He will be a Bearcat. Not sure what that is. Ursus felidae? Felis ursidae? He plans to play soccer and swim and squeeze in some time for athletics, time permitting.

And tonight was the LCHS Senior Awards Night. Jacob was got a couple awards and will get to walk in the top ten of his class. This year 28 students had a GPA over 4.0, and so many of them earned great scholarships for college. The surprise honor of the night: Jacob got an award from the Marine Corps for athletics?!

Will get caught up this weekend on summer plans, etc.

Looking forward, looking back

A good weekend in the pool, again. Jake spent the weekend in Albuquerque at the State Club meet. He beat his time in the 100 Saturday with a better time Sunday. As I write, Stu, Jake, and Giancarlo (Jake's friend from LCHS) are driving south, through bad weather, and should be in tonight about midnight.

Quincy and I had a good weekend. She is caught up in schoolwork (L'Hôpital's rule, stoichometry, etc...) and ready for a new week. We went to the LCHS Jazz Dinner last night. It was, as usual, a night of good music. It amazes me how quickly our kids go from playing concerts we would not miss (but force ourselves to go to) to confident musicians, improv-ing and swinging and playing music that we pay money to hear. It is a beautiful thing.

Upcoming events: Melody and über bassoonist Larry will perform a Mozart bassoon duet at the reception after Sunday's concert. I will practice being nervous about this over the next week.

And I am part of a team that will be in the Bataan Memorial Death March on March 30. Saturday afternoons will be taken up with longer hikes for the next month.

This march in a big deal around here. About 1800 New Mexicans were in the Phillipines in 1941 and took part in the first attack of WWII, which included the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. I worked on a web site about the Battle for Bataan (http://reta.nmsu.edu/bataan/index2.html), and pledged at that time that someday I would walk the memorial march in honor of those who gave so freely of their stories. This is the year.

Stu and Jake are also marching, and we are on a team with Julia and Phillip, Mel's coworkers. We will also do this with Holly, who will walk with her family. Her husband is the grandson of a Bataan survivor, Paul Schurtz of Deming. Paul Schurtz did not survive his 1944 trip to Japan on a Hell Ship, but his son was an important contributor to the website and a formidable force in keeping the story of Bataan alive.

Rosie says it is time to bed. She is rarely wrong about such things, so adieu.

Quincy to play Dan in Talk Radio

Quincy will play the role of Dan, the station owner [maybe manager? Quin is not certain...], in Talk Radio for this LCHS's spring production. Play dates will be about the second week of April.

This will be her second LCHS performance: Last spring she played two roles in the Crucible: a drunk and a woman sent to her death because her husband though she read too much...

Luminarias

Merry Christmas from New Mexico!

There's a line in New Mexico that says you know you are from New Mexico when your Christmas decorations include 500 paper bags and candles, and a half ton of sand.

Luminarias (photo from New Mexico Photo.com) light the way to your home for the Christ child. Yes, they are paper bags, but they really are beautiful when they are all lit.

Quincy and Jacob helped the high school band set up about 60,000 luminarias this holiday season. Setting these up is a real reminder of the wonderful community we live in. The band kids work from early morning to dark for days to make this happen, and people are kind with holiday goodies when you arrive to set up their luminarias.

Thanks to all who supported the band. If you live in the area and we missed you this year, we will get you next year!