The Best We Can Find

The first big snow of the winter today. Lovely from inside. Friggin' freezin' outside. It's plain unholy!

This year we'll be better prepared. For example, here's John last year in what was then his new Syracuse coat (thanks Anne & Vincie!)--we were outside testing it. The tag said it was warm even at 30 degrees below (Farenheit!). And it is!!

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Happy Birthday to John's mom Anne and sister Karen & Heidi's nephew Chris and niece Brandi--all of whom had birthdays in October and November!

Congratulations to Heidi's mom who was given a county-wide award for outstanding service in the field of mental health!

Congratulations to Chris McDermott who finished his oral and written exams for his PhD at UGA!

Congratulations to Lara Glenum and Josef Horacek--they're having a baby!

We are honored and humbled to be your friends and family. We miss you so much!

P.S. If you're reading this, and you're not sure whether we have your birthday date--could you please post your birthday in the comments? Pleeeeeease!!

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John's workshop mates Clarence Lai and Michiah Gault. For Halloween, Clarence is Captain America and Michiah is a mermaid.

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John's workshop mates Ben Krier and Laura Farmer. For Halloween, Ben is a tennis-pro and Laura is a 50's house-wife. She had even drawn seams onto the back of her stockings. Laura just got a story of hers published in a journal called the Iowa Review which is great so we folks around here are pretty excited about that.

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Here's two of Heidi's buddy's (Sarah on the left and Immy on the right) with whom she gets together once a week, has dinner and talks poetry talk. For Halloween, Sarah is a sexy sheriff; Immy is a mardi-gras attendee; and Heidi's not sure who or what she's supposed to be--something like a liberated american woman of the ninteen-twenties who wears slacks and drives a convertible. A red convertible with white-leather seats.

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John after many hours and even more dranks. For Halloween, John was the loveliest of maids. He was wearing a lady's house-coat complete with a feather duster in his pocket and a very terrifying maidenly mask. After midnight, he started wearing this hat. We had a great time. It could only have been better if you had been there.

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Some kids making a scarecrow. Well, we had a productive summer. John started his novel and placed two of his stories in La Petite Zine. Heidi started her illustrated memoir.
Oh yeah, and WE GOT MARRIED!

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Off to teach! John's teaching a section of Freshman composition and working as a consultant in the Writing Center, which means he meets one-on-one with students to discuss their papers. When he's not feeling too exhausted by the demands of a new job and taking classes full-time and beginning his first novel, he really seems to enjoy the teaching.

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Hurrah!

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This is Heidi in NY for her reading at a Best American Poetry event--about three hours before the reading after we had placed our journal Parakeet and Heidi's book Guess Can Gallop in the Strand Bookstore (an independent bookstore in Manhattan).

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John still smiling and big-time supportive even after Heidi's been generally stressed out about what turned out to be a fairly relaxed event. Ain't love grand!

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On the day of her reading, John bought the flowers for Heidi at a Farmer's market in the city. These little tiny adorable daisies that lasted all that night and made the 4.5 hour drive home and smiled along with us the whole next week.

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My big brother, Scott, happened to be in Syracuse on business, so John and I got to share the evening with him. The time went so quickly. But there were plenty of over-boiled carrots left.

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Lots of fun chat. And stories about a big cast-iron cauldron and boiling chickens and a woman covered in blood and feathers. And a naked gardener. Ye had to be there. Believe me.

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Home is seeing yer big bro. Miss him so! Thanks for visiting!

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John's workshop from left to right--Michiah, Paul, Clarence, Laura, John and Ben. "John's workshop" means that every year while he's here, John takes a class comprised of just these folks, and they all share their writing with each other in this class.

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This was the night before our Ellen Litman left for her fellowship in Madison, Wisconsin and Syracuse hasn't been the same sense.

This is our friend Ellen. She left us for Madison, Wisconsin. We still can't believe it.

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This is, from left to right, Hannah, Farah, Sarah/Hannah's mom and Ellen.

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John asmilin' outside at Doug's Fish in Skeneatles. We had the most delicious fried everything!

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MMMMM them french-fries is goooooood!

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Ah, the birds were chirping on the wall. Their little mouths opening and closing and the flowers red and purple. And the sun. The sun was shining. It couldn't have been better. Unless you had been there.

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Was going kind of stir-crazy with the teaching online gig that requires a lot of time indoors and solitude out the wazoodles, so John suggested we go feed the ducks at Barry Park, this sweet little park (ok, John says the water smells bad, but hey, this is a post-industrial spill-hole) just a couple of blocks from our house.

When we got there, a disturbed looking woman was flailing/throwing large hunks of bread at the ducks and an even more disturbed looking man was sitting in a van waiting for god-doesn't-want-to-know-what. So, we cursed aloud. Drove around the block.

And when we returned, the place was ours. Well, except for the ducks, of course. Oh, and the seagulls, who are quite the presence!

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All the seagulls sit at the top of the hill and this one guy kept squaaaaaaawwwwwking at the other seagulls whenever they got 'his' piece of bread.

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It's hard to see in this picture, but the seagulls scored pretty big. John threw out some big hunks of bread (ok, a little bit like the lady we were just calling disturbed) and this seagull swooped down and picked up the whole piece!

Unfortunately, this seagull also dropped the whole piece. Too heavy.

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Gringo's still our favorite bird! Ever!

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Hard to see in this photo, but these ducks had the most beautiful royal blue bits on their wings. The color of a big velvet tasseled blanket that my brother had when I was about six. Very nice.

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