Oliver's Blessing

Jenni and Oliver in handy sling

Jak at park

Dennis bonding with Oliver

HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY ALEX!!

Happy B-Day Al. Hope you celebrate it in high Thailandish style. Way to be the big 20. Dont let it get to your head though. Or else youll go bald. That seems to be the fate of most currits in their 20s.

For the rest, enjoy yourselves, and look forward to talking to you in 2 weeks when we return

Peace
TQC

Happy Happy Birthday July 10 to Alex!

Happy Birthday Alex! We're doing the summer thing of travelling here and there. Travis and Agata are headed to Italy soon. Dad and I are going to Seattle for Oliver's blessing. I wonder what you will be doing on your birthday? What is typical Tuesday or Wednesday in the mission like? We love you and hope you have a wonderful day. Go out for Thai food for your birthday.

Isuzu is gone.

I sold the Isuzu today. Jo is really sad. She had good memories of that car. Danny, Travis and Alex had all driven it at one time. Alex said it was kind of an Alta High icon. According to the title, I bought it in 2000, so we got 7 years use out of it. Not bad for a $600 car.

We are going to visit Danny and Jenni next week, so we will have more news after that.

Danny Baby

Danny wonders if any of his babies look like him, so here are two photos: look at those lips

Notice the pointy chin and the elf ears. He started to walk at about ten months, but only for family. Nobody at church knew he could walk for a long time.

Two Pictures of Elder Currit

Here's some pictures Alex sent from Thailand a while ago

That looks an awfully lot like a girls' bike.

Roses

This is to prove that I know how to use the Title feature. The next blog of photos is of the new Draper Temple. The construction looks a lot like the construction of the Conference Center. It looks kind of like a mini-Conference Center. There is a whole street of castles built just up the hill from the temple---turrets, arches, drive through courtyards. I looked at them and thought, that's kind of sad. You'd never want to tour Europe if you lived in a place like that.

New Draper Temple under construction

View from further up the hill with some of the valley view

Happy Monday

Yesterday was a good day. Tyler and Tommy came for dinner and good times. Tyler is maybe going to go on a road trip this week with some friends. He's doing well. He's looking forward to having a week off of work. Tommy is working hard. He's going to St. Louis the first week in August for his friend, Carl's, wedding. Travis and Agata were having a much-needed Sunday night at home. They are preparing for a trip to Italy. They are going to visit the village my g-grandmother was from, and all of my Italian ancestors. (Yours, too). Cismon del Grappa. Dave Nebeker (a friend) served a mission there and actually worked in the village. He said it's just the kind of old world village you would imagine, with cobblestone streets and old stucco houses side by side. I hope they can find the cemetary. Now, at your age that might sound weird, but it's a powerful experience to look over a cemetary where almost all of the headstones belong to your ancestors. (Done it twice myself.)

Dad and I are enjoying our life here. Our garden is actually doing very well. We've had to keep working at it with the heat, but it's alive and well. We have failed to accurately count the trips to Washington this year. We learned this winter to take things day by day. That plan doesn't seem to be working at this point. We enjoy each day so much that we don't look ahead very far. What an exciting time for Travis. We definitely want to help him with his move so that we can meet Agata. (and because we love him) (that could be kind of a stressful time to meet, but, oh well. We're used to chaos.)

I am reading the last Harry Potter book again so that the new one in July isn't too confusing.

Alex writes on Tuesday night. If he doesn't personally write you back, it's because mylds.net is out of service a lot. According to a man in our ward who works on it, the Church is trying to fix it. Happy Birthday coming up soon, Alex!

We definitely need to see some new pictures of Oliver.

Love, Mom

Here's some long lost pictures

Travis

Tommy and Travis in background

Travis and Alex

Travis

The Gasworks

Seattle skyline

Oliver

Jak

Jak and Danny playing on hill at Lake Union

Seattle skyline across lake

Jak throwing frisbee away from Danny

Danny on hill

Oliver sleeping

Jak with straw

Danny and Jenni and family at GasWorks

Danny and Jenni and boys, Union Lake

Happy Birthday, Tommy

June 15th

It's still June 15th. We just got back from Amy Brimhall's wedding reception. Happy Birthday, Tommy! See you tomorrow. (Tommy and Dennis are going to the REI garage sale.) Maybe we can talk to Agata and Travis tomorrow.

We love you.

Mom

Happy Birthday Mr. Tommy

HAPPY B-DAY TOMMY! May your forehead grow like the mighty oak

Back From Seattle

Hi! I'm back home. I took the late night flight from Seattle. It was interesting. The plane wasn't full. My luggage came down the chute after the flight almost before I was ready for it. Also the passenger sitting next to me disappeared. She had a little baby named Emery. He started to fuss, so she stood up and walked the aisle with him and never came back. Her purse and bags and bottles were left in her seat. I assume she was transported to another space or time, or fell asleep in empty seats in the back of the plane.

I missed seeing (skyping) Agata and Travis. Hope you are doing well. Tommy's birthday is Friday. We are planning on doing some shopping tomorrow.

Dad survived here. So did the garden. Why do we plant all these things? I don't know. When they look good, it's so nice, but it's a lot of work. (Actually I can't imagine not planting. It's just a harsh climate.)

Here's an article you might want to look up: Deseret News Friday June 8, 2007 in the Lifeetc. section. It's called "Pole Position: U.S. youths have little understanding of Poland's place in the world." It's a big article about post communist Poland in the Deseret News with photos.

Jenni and new baby Oli are doing well. He is absolutely the most cuddly, sweet baby ever. I wish we lived closer so that visits could be more frequent and casual. Jak is a ton of fun. He remembers everything and wants to learn more. He talked about his friend Henry a lot. It's hard because I think Jenni needs to go on a cruise with all-you-can-eat buffets and free massages. Instead she is meeting Oli and Jak's needs (very well) day and night. Hopefully she knows how much we love her and how grateful we are for her efforts.

Seattle is a beautiful city. The climate fascinates me. I love the quick but gentle weather changes, the clouds that move in so fast. Last summer was a very hot summer there. I would guess this summer might be cooler. If you ever go there, go to the GasWorks in the evening. Jak and I wandered around looking for the source of some magical music. We found a circle of not-young women with wooden shoes on and flowers on ribbon-covered sticks dancing to a brass and accordion band playing Celtic-type music. Then we saw a group "stick-fighting". Nope. They had bells strapped to their legs. They were dancing to music made by a squeeze-box accordion. They would leap up at intervals and knock their sticks together while shaking the bells on their legs. Jak and I found this all very interesting. To top it off, we saw the statue of Lenin in the town of Fremont and the Fremont Troll. Some guys were performing some play around the statue. It looked like Shakespeare to me. I was thinking "Hamlet."

Aunt Kathy is doing well. She asks about all of you. Her recovery will probably take all summer. She and her Mom taught me a new card game: hand and foot. It took four decks of cards. Her Mom, Janet, plays it regularly with friends. It reminded me a bit of Mah Jhong. Or rummikub. You play your own game to win.

Keep in touch. We love you all.

Mom

Home Alone

This is Dennis and I am home alone for a few days, and it is a little different. Overall, I am having a good time, but I miss Jo a lot. Jo pointed out that I leave her alone all the time when I go on business trips, but Jo very seldom leaves me alone. Unfortunately, I have had a lot of work to do, so I have worked from home quite a bit. I have had time to go on two hikes. First, I hiked into Lake Blanche. This is a fairly significant hike; almost 6 miles with an elevation gain of 2400 feet that took about 4 hours. The second hike was just part way up bells canyon. As for cooking, I have found that my skills have deteriorated, but am still capable of cooking a few things.

Today I rode my bike to the Lagiewniki Woods. This is a huge nature preserve that is the largest urban forest in Central Europe. It is full of bike trails and lakes, people sunbathing, and good times. This first picture is of a shrine to St. Anthony. The inside was very lovely and had a pump connected to a natural spring. The water is supposed to have holy healing powers, to which I can attest, as I had stepped in some poison ivy right before and, after rinsing myself with St Anthony's water, the pain went away in a flash. The other building in the 3rd photo is a hotel in a some historic farmhouse. The last has some bikers; unlike them, I was wearing a helmet.

Corpus Christi

Happy Corpus Christi (or Boze Cialo, as its known here in Poland)! At 10:45 on Thursday the main street in Lodz shut completely down and a big procession left from the cathedral and walked around town, stopping to worship at various altars. I was quite impressed by the number of people who turned out to watch but Agata said they were much fewer than normal. The little girls tossing roses were the other favorite part. It was amazing to see the street turn into a church like that, to hear all the noises of a busy urban center stop and everything become solemn and respectful.

Dennis, Again

Howdy! Jo and I just got back from going out to dinner with Tyler. It was great. We went to Lugano's, which is owned by the same guy who owns the restaurant Tyler works at. Ty wanted to go there so he could compare the two and pick up a few pointers on being a server at an upscale restaurant. It was good to see him again and he looked good. He asked about all of you and especially asked us to tell Travis that he remembered your birthday.

Jo is going up to visit Danny, Jenni, Jakson and, especially, Oliver. I will let her tell you about it, but it looks like I will be alone for a few days. That will be different for me, but I will be fine.

My work is going well and I find it very interesting, but I have a hard time thinking anyone else would. I work in a funny industry. In some ways we are very progressive. For instance, we use very expensive engineering design computers and software. Also, very expensive and exotic materials. Our manufacturing practices, however, are very backward. This is because we make a few very high cost items, rather than high volume production. Because commercial airplanes are starting to use more advanced materials, we have the opportunity to start manufacturing these parts, but we have to modernize our manufacturing systems in order to be cost competitive. That is what my projects are all about. Some of the things we are implementing, like bar codes on materials, have been in use in other sectors for 20 years, but they are still new to us. Anyway, that is what I do all day, and I enjoy it.

Travis birthday

Here are some pictures from Travis birthday. We were at my grandpa's house and it was really a lot of fun. My cousin and his fiancee were there too as well as my Mum and her sister. We were watching pictures, eating chicken and having good time. Enjoy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGAIN TRAVIS

I hope someone is feeding Travis wonderful food. Tommy posted the perfect birthday present: a funny story. It made me think the other night of a dinner we had with friends. One of them told Chuck Norris jokes for long time. I didn't get into it at first, then the recurring theme got so ridiculous. So I laughed a lot. Anyway. Hopefully Dad remembers some of the funnier ones. Happy birthday to one of the kindest, funniest people I know. I wish you were here to play with Balderdash. (don't end a sentence with a prep.)

Summer of the Burnt Bald Spot

Hello. Yes, I burnt my bald spot. I don't know if you all understand the headache that that results in. Its vicious. Anyway, life is good. My class is goin well, inspite of reading a highly depressing book by Thomas Hardy (i think thats the only kind he wrote) called Jude the Obscure. Its still good, though, and we're having some great discussion to go along with it. My class is done on the 14th of june, so that will be a great brithday present. Happy birthday, Travis! Congrats on making it this far, despite all my best efforts... Yes, secretly i've been laying traps for you.
Heres a few funny things I've heard. First, a joke: Did you all know that diarreah was hereditary? Yes, it runs in the jeans! HA- ha!
OK, now a story that a girl in my class told about her cousin, who was dog-sitting for a family in New York. The family left on vacation, and before they had gone the dad took her aside and warned her that the dog was very old and they didn't expect it to live for very long. He said not to worry and to just call him if it died when they were out of town. So, two days later, the girl woke up and the dog was dead at the foot of the staircase. She called the dad, wondering what to do. "We have a family vet that practices uptown," the dad said, "Take it to him and he will dispose of the body for us." Well, the girl didn't have access to a car, so the only way she could get to the vet was by subway. She searched through the house looking for a way to carry the dog's body. Finally, she found an old, large brown suitcase in which the body would fit. She got on the train, struggling under the weight of the heavy suitcase with the dead dog in it, and sat down. About halfway to the veterinarian's, a man sat down next to here and started making conversation. After ten or fifteen minutes of talking, the man noticed the suitcase and asked what was in it. Not wanting to say "A dead dog," the girl lied and instead said "Oh, just some electronic equipment." The man nodded and continued talking with her until her stop. When the girl got off the subway, the man got off with her. She said goodbye and turned to walk away. A moment later she heard someone say "Excuse me" behind her. As she turned, she saw the man she had been talking with approach her. He took two steps towards her, reared back, and slugged her in the stomache. He then grabbed the suitcase and ran away. The girl sat there a moment, shrugged, and then got on the train and went back home. Just imagine that dude's suprise when he opened the suitcase. Here's this nice looking Mormon girl carrying a suitcase on the subway, and he steals it only to find that she was carrying a DEAD DOG! HA!
I thought that was one of the funnier stories i've heard, so I thought I'd share.
Peace.
Tommy

Happy Birthday Travis

Happy B-Day Travis! I think Oliver looks a lot like you. Hopefully we can talk to you tomorrow right after church. Or not. I would like to if it works. I agree with your comments on life vs. tourism. I sometimes think making friends with the sales clerk at the gift shop might be more fun than seeing anything else. The real experiences come from being someplace, not breezing through. But I think Richard knows that (I don't know about his friend.) He probably just wants to play bridge in Poland and eat pioruska (or whatever those things are.)(pierogi?)

More pictures, yes! Aunt Kathy is doing well with her new hip. She had a few little setbacks, but is now on board with recovery.

I'll be seeing Jak and Oli in person soon. I'll miss Dennis. We have survived a lot this winter together and enjoy each other a lot.

Anyway........have a wonderful day!!!

Love, Mom

Kids Day

Today is International Kids' Day. Children are everywhere in the streets. Some kind of picnic or concert seems to be going on right outside our apartment. Agata's mom is having us for dinner tonight to celebrate. How come the US never caught on to this holiday? I always heard the lame excuse that every day is kids day.

Today at work I was late for my first lesson and nobody showed for my second. Not altogether a stellar performance.

Its my birthday on Sunday. Agata's grandpa is having us over for dinner then in the evening we are going to the dance recital of one of Agata's friends.

Richard is coming to visit us in two weeks-- and hes bringing a girl! Should be fun. They will only stay for a weekend, but we hope to make the most of it. Its hard playing tour guide, Ive realized that most of the places Ive lived were really nice to live in, but a little hard to appreciate on a whirlwind tour. Lodz, like Lille or Salt Lake, doesnt have a lot of big Oooh Ahhh things to whip out to impress houseguests. Its a subtle charm that shows itself in the pleasant surprises and opportunities of everyday life. Washington DC I guess was the exception, but if I think about it what I remember most fondly are the neat little corners in the town I found, and not the massive monuments. I think a towns tourism and living qualities are completely independent.

Well, thats all. Happy kids day everyone. A most especially happy one this year with the wonderful new addition to our extended family! Im already in love with lil Oli and look at his pictures at least once a day (hint: post more!!!) .

Papapa