December 2000
Greetings from Oregon!
WE
hope this finds you happy, well, and enjoying the
holiday season. We're having a cold winter no matter how you slice it!
Clemmie's now a nine-year-old third grader and a voracious reader, when she's not on the telephone. She remains the consummate performer and artiste. No longer ranked among the "pre-ballet" set, last weekend she performed as one of Clara's friends in The Nutcracker with the Medford Civic Ballet. We celebrated her birthday with a high-fashion slumber party and PJs fashion show. Much pizza was devoured, and whispering lasted well into the wee hours. She's still a dabbler in just about everything; last week it was journalism (see sidebar).
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Clemmie's Fashion Report I had a birthday party and invited Shaelyn, Kamela, Torah, Heidi, and Mallory. Unfortunately, Torah couldn't come, but we still had a good time. Ellie wore her smashing purple dragonfly PJs. Mallory in her blue PJs with the hearts, clouds, and teddy bears looked absolutely heavenly. Kamela looked glamorous in her lace old-fashioned nightgown. Shaelyn in her nightgown with "cool slumber party" written all over it looked incredibly cool herself. Heidi looked dazzling in her cheetah jammies, and I looked great in my new satin purple PJs. A fab time was had by all. |
Eric marked the first anniversary of the bigger and better MUSICHEAD with the opening of a smaller shop in Ashland -- MUSICHEAD UNDERGROUND. He's working a bit too much these days, but things will simmer down after the holidays. He still plays guitar as well as city league basketball -- and is even training and working as a referee! Beth's work is as steady and full-time as ever, but this year saw the addition of some very good help, which has taken a load off. She's practicing yoga regularly, is active in a reading group with friends, and keeps her hands full with the homestead and livestock.
Aside from the dailyness of school, work, and the YMCA, 2000 did have a few highlights. We took a family trip to Portland in February to celebrate Eric's birthday with a long weekend of museums, the zoo, and our first NBA game. (Go Blazers!) Although San Francisco will always be our first love, we've developed quite an affection for our little big city here in Oregon. We made a second trip north in the fall with our good friends the Zundels to visit music stores and the zoo, eat some ethnic food, and see the Reverend Al Green in concert.
Our big thrill this year was our European
vacation -- a whirlwind two weeks in London and Paris. The girls proved to be excellent
travelers and real troupers. Beth's mom, Barb, organized the trip, and it was a treat
for us all to be together on such an adventure. Eric and Beth had a parents' night
out to watch World Cup Soccer ("football") in a rowdy London pub, and Ellie
had us riding the red double-decker buses constantly. We had high tea at the Savoy,
saw stage productions of Cats and The King and I on Drury Lane, visited
the Roman ruins in Bath, and communed with Stonehenge under a dramatic, stormy afternoon
sky.
The highlight of our time in Paris was
a visit with our good friend Ursula, who had been the matron of honor at our wedding.
She and her husband and toddler son traveled from Switzerland just to meet up with
us. Clemmie spent seven nonstop hours in the Louvre (she wore Grammy out!), which
we topped off with a Ferris wheel ride over the Jardin des Tuileries (on a rickety
contraption that we discovered too late probably violated every code in the book).
We had a great time on the Eiffel Tower (and walked down all 1,665 steps!) and were
enchanted by Monet's house and incredible gardens in Giverny, outside of Paris. The
girls were quick to pick up words and phrases and even mannerisms everywhere we went,
so they were quite cosmopolitan and subway-savvy by the time we got home.
We celebrated our thirteenth wedding anniversary
in August with a camping trip in the redwoods on the Smith River. Our final jaunt
of the year was a memorable weekend on the Oregon coast with Eric's mom, Margaret,
and husband Marty, who treated us to a spectacular mail-boat trip up the Rogue River.
(Follow M&M's world travels at www.geocities.com/mbasiszta.) We were
thrilled with numerous up-close encounters with all kinds of wildlife: sea otters,
sea lions, deer, ospreys, and a flock of 18 big black buzzards. A visit to a big-cat
sanctuary -- Beth's favorite charity and now pro bono client (www.cryofthewild.com) -- topped off
the weekend, where we got close enough to a couple of white tigers to smell their
horsemeat breath.
Our backyard menagerie is just a little
bit smaller, we're sad to say, as we had some Thanksgiving Eve drama in the way of
a raccoon raid on the henhouse. We lost two of the Old Guard, but old Rosie survived,
although she now scurries with a pronounced limp. The baby chicks who spent the spring
in the corner of Beth's office are now full grown and laying. Our brood of six hens
gives us four eggs on a good day -- big brown ones and also green ones from the two
Aracanas. The three cats (Bona is pushing fourteen now), bunny, and fish round out
the family.
Charlie and Barb's Thanksgiving visit launched our holiday season, with Charlie kick-starting our current construction project. This Old House is undergoing a long-overdue kitchen renovation with Beth's dad Carl's help, and a new garage is imminent, as the current, dilapidated one has a six-inch lean and is just waiting for a good wind to bring it down on top of our cars. The good news is that the new garage will have a guest apartment above it for all of you travelers! Consider us your I-5 roadhouse between San Francisco and Seattle. Eric's a fabulous cook, I pour a mean glass of wine, and the girls are always good for a dinner show. Drop us a line at vonrad@charter.net; we love hearing from you.
Best wishes in the New Year!
Eric, Beth, Clemmie & Ellie