Rose continues to ride herd on the boys. Mark is in 12th grade and finally done submitting his college applications. Whew! Keith is in 10th grade and is really looking forward to writing essays for his college applications in 2 years. Both are taking beginning Mandarin at school this year and Mark is continuing with Spanish, too. They are playing ultimate frisbee on Saturday nights on an asphalt parking lot - the only ultimate option they seem to have at the moment. But there is talk of a club being created at the high school, in which case this will morph into their penultimate option.
This summer, we went back to Seattle as a family for the first time since we moved. We all still miss our friends and many other parts of living in Seattle. Mark and Barry went on an overnight backpacking trip in the North Cascades with our friends, Owen and Doug, and had a great time despite rain, bugs, and Barry having a couple of equipment failures. (No, none like Janet Jackson's.)
Oh - our family also grew by 2 members, with the hatching of 2 baby Cuora galbinifrons turtles, for only the second time in about 10 years.
We were all very relieved at the outcome of the elections - but cannot fathom how 47% of the voting public thought McPalin was a better choice.
We're all hoping next year will be better than the last and that this will be the start of a trend.
