Teens no more!

Kids have been home for spring break for a most excellent week of sun, food, conversation, and relaxation. They go back today, and we will miss them. But through a miracle of scheduling, their planes leave within an hour of each other, so we only will take one trip to El Paso!

It was a busy week -- Jacob and Willamette friend Janelle arrived home on Saturday and were up at 3 am the next day for the Bataan Memorial Death March Marathon. The weather was warmer than usual, and Janelle, who is from Hawaii, proved plenty tough enough for a 26-mile walk in the desert. Kudos to her.

As usual, the March was a day to remember sacrifice and to march along side current active military.

Quincy celebrated her 20th birthday last night. I was concerned that the strainer we gave her for a present was too prosaic. She considered it to be stylish.

Chateau McGee, 2011 Vintage

Another busy year has slipped by, with Jacob and Quincy moving further toward taking charge of their lives and Stu and Melody transitioning to the next phase (whatever that may be!). Although we left many things undone, we have found that the best of friends overlook the dust and the worn patches to share in the good times. I find myself with increasing faith that cobwebs and garden weeds really are less important than spending time engaged with family, friends, community, books, and our beautiful New Mexico.

Both Jacob and Quincy are in school in Oregon, Jake in his last semester at Willamette University in Salem. He picked up a second major in Rhetoric and Media Studies last year; as part of this program, he spent a couple weeks in Puerto Rico learning about the area from a professor who grew up there. He has loved his time in Oregon's capital, but he graduates in May (his other degree will be in Biology) and will spend the spring semester working on a thesis for each of his majors. He is looking at graduate schools and would like to stay in the Pacific Northwest.

Both kids live in great places to visit: Quincy is in Ashland, Oregon at Southern Oregon University. She is taking on increasing roles in SOU productions as a technical major, and Stu and I have enjoyed seeing the shows she has worked on. She is thriving intellectually in her classes and is also enjoying her first year living in an apartment. Ashland is home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and SOU tends to feature many of the Bard's works. This Winter Quarter, she will be an Assistant Master Carpenter on A Midsummer Night's Dream, and we hope we will be able to trek to Oregon to see it.

Stu has had a very busy year, closing out his office in the Chemical Engineering Department in preparation for his July move to the Family and Consumer Sciences program. He is part of the Food Science and Technology faculty, and this move puts him in a department that is more aligned with his research interests, has ties to the local agricultural industry, and creates tastier products. (Google NMSU Chile Brownies, and you will get an idea of one.) But his biggest obligation this year has been his service as NMSU Faculty Senate Chair. With state budget cuts continuing and leadership at NMSU settling in after a period of turnover, it has been an interesting year. He ends this service in May, and I suspect it will be a relief to revert to being just a faculty member again.

This will also give him more time to show me up on the local biking trails. Southern New Mexico has about a gazillion acres of desert with nothing but rattlesnakes and thorned plants, so naturally we took to mountain biking this year. While I seem to be discovering all the different ways to come home bruised, Stu approaches each trail like an applied physicist, gracefully managing his momentum and sailing up and down narrow trails, over the many rocky and sandy patches.

Like Stu, I also switched work places (although in the same job) and have enjoyed another year working at NMSU in the student affairs branch. With a change in leadership in my office, I find myself, despite changing jobs fairly frequently, in the strange position of actually being able to contribute to institutional memory. I think it is really the gray hair that makes people think I have been around for a long, long time. I continue to be the crazy woman who commutes by bike, and logged just over 5,000 miles this year on one bike or another.

With two kids in college, our travel has focused on family. We spent time in DC with my dad and brother in June, and took them both to their first national soccer game in RFK stadium (US beat Jamaica, 2-0). We visited both kids this year at their colleges, and spent Thanksgiving on the Oregon Coast with a houseful of family and friends. We had short weekends in Colorado and longer ones in Delaware.

We wish you all the best in 2012.

Notes from our Year, 2010

Greetings, friends.

The year end finds us well and moving forward, regardless of the bumps we might have navigated to get here. Christmas 2010 was spent in Key West, in a condo with an ocean view and a tropical vibe. After a busy and emotional year, it was a great opportunity to spend time with family and kick back.

Both kids are now in college, both in Oregon. Jake is a Junior at Willamette University in Salem, where he is enjoying the campus and town and living 2,000 miles from parents. He is active in the Biology Department: he is a teaching assistant, works with a professor on great bustard research, and served on a search committee last semester for a new faculty member. He worked last summer in Pullman, Washington at Washington State University with the USDA. I'm not sure what he enjoyed more: getting better acquainted with his Aunt Rebecca or researching the genetics of plants. He hopes to return this summer after spending a couple of weeks south of the border (how far south is not yet determined...) in an end-of-term course.

Quincy graduated from Las Cruces High School in May after spending about half her year as a dual-credit student at New Mexico State University. She stage-managed several LCHS theatrical productions and learned much as an intern at a local theater. She headed off to Southern Oregon University in September in Ashland, and, like her brother, very much enjoys the town and academic atmosphere of a small college. And the distance from home. Did I mention that? Her first quarter went well, and she started back to SOU on January 3.

This means we are now officially empty nesters, at least for October, February, April, and parts of September, November, December, January, March, and May. This means sometimes it feels like we run a boarding house that services gangly youth ravenously hungry for home cooking and high-speed internet. Stu and I spent the fall congratulating ourselves on surviving the time-intense part of parenting. We'll see how we fare on the cash-intense part...

I spent much time in Delaware this year as my mother's health became more precarious. Following a major stroke in mid June, she died in early July. It was a sad time for us all, especially for my father and Kent. Although parting has been difficult, I know in my heart she did not want to live as she was. I really enjoyed the extra time with my dad and Kent -- his unique and upbeat outlook are always good reminders of the importance of the moment.

Stu's year was focused on teaching and service, through NMSU's Faculty Senate and other committee work. He is Vice-Chair of the Faculty Senate and has served on a number of graduate committees. He has continued research in experimental design (I edit his papers and try not to understand the content), and has enjoyed working with the food science department.

I continued commuting by bike this year. I hit about 5,000 miles and enjoyed the heck out of at least most of them. As a friend recently told me, bike commuters are their own brand of crazy. I really enjoyed the challenges of all-weather cycling. And the hot tub at the end of the ride.

Other highlights of the year: Quincy's graduation trip was a week on the east coast, starting with a visit to Delaware and ending with 5 nights in New York City. We enjoyed lots of theater and strolls through NYC neighborhoods I had never visited. In September, our home became an energy producer with the addition of solar panels to our roof: we haven't paid an electricity bill since! Jake and I met in DC in October for the Rally to Restore Sanity, hosted by Jon Stewart. It was a great weekend in one of our favorite cities, and the extra time with Jacob was a lagniappe. Most of our other travel involved kid colleges in some way, and we look forward to Quincy extending our reasons to visit Oregon by another two years!

Wishing you all the best for the new year. Write (melody.mcgee@nmsu.edu) and let us know how you are doing. Below: Melody, Annie, Stu, and Rosie, north end of the Black Quartz Mountains, Sunday morning hike.

Lazy Sunday, New Mexico version

Today's weather: perfect. With all the rain, we have blooming yuccas. Profusely blooming yuccas. By the hundreds. The desert is different every year, and this is the closest to jungle we have ever gotten. Well, a desert jungle, anyway.

Birds are also profuse this year. A curved-bill thrasher is watching me as I write, a scaled quail is lekking nearby, and a cactus wren keeps scavenging the dog and cat hair we brushed from Rosie, Annie, and Nom earlier. I wonder about cactus wrens and using pet hair in their homes. Does this make their young less likely to understand that pets are predators? Not a big problem at my home, but could be in more suburban settings. Rattlers are already out (BIG one dead on Soledad Canyon road last week). Eagles are back, as are vultures. Cactus wren just stopped by for a dust bath. Wish I could photograph it, but it is just too far away.

Quincy, Stu and Jake have just a couple of weeks of classes left before they are off for the summer. Jake will spend the summer in Washington State, Q in Las Cruces. Summer projects are already lining up for Stu. Maybe some tiling and painting this summer.

Q has end-of-the-year rituals to complete over the next month: finals, banquets, AP exams, graduation, graduation party, etc. Quincy will celebrate with Emily. They met in kindergarten and have been friends since. Thanks, Katie, for your inexhaustible hospitality in letting us share the graduation celebration.

Limited biking next week. I will be in Albuquerque Monday and Tuesday for a meeting, and it is a little too far to ride. (but some really big hills between here and there!) The weather has still been cold in NM, but with luck our warm weather will come to stay this week.

I will be back in Delaware from May 15-20. My mother's lung cancer is back, and she is recovering from a repair of a compression fracture in her back. Besides, May is always a nice month in Delaware.

Book recommendation: Currently listening to Citizens of London, by Lynne Olson. About Edward R. Murrow, Gil Winant, and Avery Harriman and the role they had in bringing the US into WWII. Very interesting. I finally completed Atlas Shrugged, and although I thought the book was melodramatic and overwrought, I find that I miss the characters. But not really a book I would recommend to anybody.

Cape Lookout

A most excellent day yesterday.

We started out with Salem's Farmer's Market (excellent) where we picked up way too many apples. Jake gets to keep most of them, but they were fresh, locally grown, organic, and of varieties never heard of in New Mexico. Yum.

Met Jake about noon, watched a soccer game for a bit, and had the welcome opportunity to meet Jacob's swim coach. Or at least Stu did. Not knowing it was his coach, I spent the time on the phone to Quincy. Doh!

Then on to shopping (outlet center was crowded!) and the beach. We hiked along Cape Lookout to the end and will have more photos later.

Jacob was most generous with his time. Now to meet him for breakfast and head to the airport.




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Senior night photos

Quincy and Stu, about an hour before a downpour stops the halftime show.

Gratuitious illustration, Flu, etc

Photo above is not totally gratuitious. It is from last Saturday's farmer's market, and almost impossible to see under the blue tent are 2 long-time friends of ours. Recognize yourself, anybody?

Other news: Stu has had a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad week or so. Started a week or so ago when he was car number 4 in a 6-car pile up on University Avenue. Nobody was hurt, and the airbag did not even deploy, but the back bumper on the Jetta at the very least needs replacing. And the car now changes lanes by itself, so I guess the front end needs work, too. Amazing thing: the younger (student-aged) drivers were indignant that cars stopped so quickly in front of them that they did not have time to stop. All students were cited for not taking due care...

He went from that to a return of his cough in a way that felt like pneumonia to him. Getting pretty good at diagnosing these things, what? But he did not diagnose the flu, which he also shared with me and probably Quincy. I started Tamiflu today and have another prescription waiting at home for Quincy, who is still insisting that she just has a cough and is not really sick. We'll see on that one.

Quincy has her first application in (NMSU) and has 2 more underway. She is being very independent on this one. Jacob is having a good semester so far at Willamette.

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.

Lazy Sunday

Muse is growing really quickly. She will soon be bigger than Widget. She is a total klutz: she falls off furniture, lands short of targets, and stumbles over her own feet. She has an incredibly loud purr and uses it generously. In the photo, she is taking up the entire dog bed. The dogs are 10x her weight but she rules.

The hot tub is in the back yard with most of a deck around it. It is a comfortable place to watch stars and city lights, and full moon nights in the tub are excellent. Jake and Stu built the deck and just await a few more parts to complete it.

Stu's birthday is tomorrow, but since Quincy has band camp until late, we celebrate tonight. Her schedule is mostly worked out for the semester, although we are rearranging all her NMSU courses. She will spend half days at NMSU if all goes well.

One more week til NMSU and LCPS start up, and this is the last year LCPS start-up will be an important milestone of the end of summer. Feels strange.

Last night was a nice get-together at a friend's home to celebrate summer birthdays. I am incredibly fortunate to have such friends. Thanks to you all, especially Katie.

April already?

Jake is back in Willamette but planning for a summer in Las Cruces. Quincy has already traveled on the band trip, so I guess it must be near the end of the school year. Wow.

What I've missed: Stu, Jake, and I marched in the Bataan Memorial March again this year and recovered relatively quickly. Might even do the Organ hike this weekend.

Quincy turned 17. I completed another Ursus issue. Work has been crazy busy for us all.

The sharp-shinned hawk brunched on the white-winged dove yesterday morning outside the north end of the house, as sparrows danced around. Were they confident that they were too small to be on interest, or that the hawk was not interested in a lagniappe?

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.

2008 in Review

2008: we hiked our first marathon, climbed mountains, built things, tore others down, found more ways to eat local, learned new technology, made new friends.
Greetings to all, near and far.

2008 was an eventful year in the neighborhood, what with two visits from the local SWAT team, one massive conflagration, and a house-leveling explosion. Family news happily cannot match that, but we had our share of milestones.

Quincy continued her involvement with theatre onstage in Talk Radio (she and Stu also constructed the set) and as a techie in Beauty and the Beast (no photos were allowed...). She was also in the LCHS Showcase Marching Band, which had a very long season since the football team won the state championship! Other Quincy highlights are here, and include a month-long trip to Germany to visit her GAPP partner (her blog about that travel is here). We sadly come to the end of our era of exchange students: the ones we hosted were great kids.

Jacob continued swimming last winter, spring, and summer and filled the spring with academics and preparing for college. He graduated from Las Cruces High School in May and celebrated with two weeks in Thailand. In August, Jacob started college at Willamette University: he enjoyed his first semester and learned, importantly, that kids from small-town New Mexico can hold their own with kids from top high schools from around the country. He really liked his courses, and next semester he will be a teaching assistant for the biology course he just completed. He is also on the Willamette swim team.

Because of Quincy and Jacob's travel plans, this was the first year in many that we had no family summer travel. But Stu and Mel did get away to Cozumel, Mexico, to celebrate 25 years of marriage. Of course, while we were away, a wildfire came within a mile of the house and kept Jacob awake and on watch. Our December travel to Florida (picture, above, in the Everglades) was excellent -- warm and relaxed, with excellent food and beautiful scenery.

As for Stu and Mel? We are still both at NMSU and active in the community. Stu continues his research and service but is best known on campus as the Beer Guy. He is a local soccer ref, the go-to guy for stage and marching band set pieces, and the brewmaster for the Erasmus B. Dragon hiking club (no hiking club should be without one). Melody has colleagues who are experts in the uses of social media and keep trying to drag her into millennial forms of technology (see most amusing example here). In July, she started commuting to work on her reliable Fuji (older than some of her colleagues) and has enjoyed getting to know the local cycling landscape. If the ride home is an uphill grind, the ride in is a downhill thing of joy!

We have lots of room and invite anybody wanting an escape from the cold to come visit. Or gain foreign relations experience: You can see Mexico from our front yard!

Best wishes to all for a great 2009.

Sunday wrap-up

Good weekend, but not without complications.

An excellent Thanksgiving dinner, as usual, with the Silvas. We were down a few people, but up some new ones. The politics talk was more mellow (thanks, P-E Obama) and it was good to be there.

Friday, Stu, Jacob, and Mel made it to the top of the Organs for our second ascent. Socked in by fog, so no view, but beautiful crystalline frost at the top on the east side. Clouds were roiling through the small gap we cross into the Tularosa Basin, and the wind was fierce.

Saturday Quincy played with the Band at LCHS's semi-final football game against Mayfield in a rematch of the big rivalry. Only 20K fans at this one, so smaller crowd than usual. Jake and I went shopping during the game (fewer people in stores). Oh, and LCHS will play next weekend in Albuquerque against Eldorado for state championship. Woot!

We toook Jake to El Paso this morning for his flight back to Willamette. And tomorrow Stu will go to the doc to see if he just has a kicker of a cold or something to be more concerned about.

Will post pix later...

Holiday

Thanksgiving has become my favorite holiday of the year.

Good friends gather a nearby house for good food, music, conversation. Each year we all have more gray hair, more wrinkles, but more stories to tell about how we got them. We started doing this when kids could still be carried to the car at the end of the day, and now we send them out for errands (but not yet to re-stock the wine stores).

And Jacob is about to start on his way home, so this year he will add stories about his travels and time away.

Peace.

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.

Harvest!

The pumpkin grew up, turned orange, and moved inside. Maybe by the time Jake comes home for Thanksgiving it will be ready to pitch off the roof!?!

I went down with kitchen shears this weekend to harvest Le Grande Pumpkin but the stem defeated the measly little shears. Stu and Quincy (aka pumpkin!) took a very sharp bread knife to conquer the gourd. The pumpkin is of little interest to the dogs but bigger than widget.

Rains, again

What happens in a good rain year in an arroyo that has been a landing spot for spent pumpkins?

Jake, who loves the big splat, has long tossed old pumpkins off the roof into the arroyo north of the house. Add one good rain year, and watch for the pumpkins!

Rained a lot this morning. Lazy person that I am, Stu and I walked the dogs in the rain and wiped them down rather than give the dirty things a bath. What a deal!

And question of this post: Could this rattler actually have eaten this dove had I not rudely interrupted him?

The rattler chose to do this before people came over, otherwise I would have watched long enough to tell. Seemed like a gracious host thing (for human guests, not herptological guests) to move the rattly snake...

And I had the good fortune to watch a golden eagle over the Black Quartz Mountains today. Magnificent bird.

Jake: The next step

Stu and Jacob arrived in Salem Friday, moved Jake into his room Saturday, and said farewell for now. Jake is off on his own, at least sort of, and we look forward to Parent's Weekend.

Unlike lots of kids, Jake has always been a particularly interactive human being, and almost always in a good way. For years, he has brought insightful reflection and questioning to conversations on matters large and small. His thoughts were always fresh and unique, and he shared them with us generously. We now move on to a different stage in that sharing.

It was always clear that the world would be his oyster. So welcome him, world. Be kind to our boy.

Goin' North

Jake and Stu are in Boise tonight, Salem tomorrow. Jake, hope you are soaking in that sunshine, son, because it is a bit more rare in Oregon than it is at home!

Willamette bound

Jake and Stu left this morning bound for Oregon. They made it to Green River, Utah, tonight and are will try to make Boise tomorrow night. Yup -- all that way in the Echo!

Jake will spend a couple days hiking in the Cascades before reporting to Willamette for the semester. Stu should be home by Monday.

Updates on other stuff: Relleno party this year was re-purposed for Jacob's farewell. We posted a picture of the rattlesnake we moved earlier in the day as a reminder to all to be careful. The rattlesnake was eating a white-winged dove in the picture.

Caterpillars are nearly gone, Quincy is back in school, work is busy, and biking in to NMSU is working well.