Finally braving the frozen lake

A trot through For Mar to begin with.  So THIS is where Eeyore's house moved to.


And so on to Bluebell beach. A bit chilly for the splash park.


Finally we brave the lake. Probably 30 feet of water below us but we're not nervous. It's been cold enough for long enough... right?




Finally back along our street. Ah, Franklin. Every time down a new burnt-out building.

More percussing

Thomas and the Marimba Quartet

Thomas had his first percussion concert of the year today. It was a combo concert featuring both the Honors Percussion Quartet (four boys with very brightly colored shirts) and the World Percussion class students. Thomas referred to the World Percussion students as "those old people." In addition to ensemble pieces, each boy was expected to perform a solo. Here is Thomas's with the other three providing backup rhythm:

Last traces of Family Video being removed

Apparently there are still functioning Family Video stores (unlike Blockbuster) because according to the guys removing this sign from the store next to us (closed for a couple of years now) it is to be reused on another Family Video.  We are now anxious that the building will eventually fall into ruin and be demolished, thereby exposing us to Court Street...

Thomas has a magic power

...he cannot be photographed. I was trying to document his helpful filling of the woodrack (which was in no way influenced by my offer to drive him to Target and get him two more Amiibos for his Super Smash Bros game, oh no) but this is the best I could get:

Martha is tiny, honestly

We bought a box of clementines some time ago, and when they were finished, I put this box out to be used as kindling. But Sylvester loves it and sleeps in it regularly. So naturally, a certain cat who is old enough to know better became rather envious, and despite being twice his size decided that she, too, could perfectly well use it as a bed:

Ah, Flint...

A few days ago we received this letter in the mail. In short, it tells us that our drinking water is deadly to infants, geriatrics and anyone with a compromised immune system. Others, such as those in this house, can drink the water with no long term deadly effects--so long as we do not drink too much for too long. Not to worry, the Flint Public Water Works promised to "look into" fixing the problem "sometime in 2015." If that weren't annoying enough (one really can't get VERY angry with political decisions made in Flint once aware of the almost 200 year long history of egregiously unjust and idiotic decisions that defined this town), but our water bill recently doubled, and then doubled again and is now more than 5 times what it was when we moved here 15 years ago. Drink up!

First sledding of '15

It's a New Year!

It's the last day of our holiday break (wah!!!) and so, of course, Simon and Frederick head out for some fresh air. And Simon can't stop futzing with the special effects button on his camera.This is the first day we've had since December with snow on the ground.We all hoped it was a sign of a non-winter, which would take us to April without any cancelled school days or terrifying morning drives.But, if weather forecasters are right, this is the end of the pleasantness and we are headed into the start of a 10 day stretch of arctic misery: highs in the daytime of 6F and nighttime temps of -teensF. A few weeks ago we toyed with the idea of a brief holiday during Christmas break--someplace luxurious but we just couldn't be bothered.Now I am wishing we had gotten away, as we won't get a break from teaching and all the conference commitments until the third week of August. Bleh.