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More babies!
December 05, 2013 by Sue in Wielesek
More happy news in the family. Meggie's oldest daughter Callie is pregnant, and is going to have a boy. The baby is due April 15 or thereabouts. She and her husband Will live in DC, and she has a job similar to Sadie's - that is, she gets to work from home, preferably in her jammies, I hope. You know that all three of Meggie and Dick's kids, and three of my four kids have birthdays which fall within a two month period. What can I say, Seraph? It was probably a cold winter...
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What's My Name Again?
December 02, 2013 by Adam in Wielesek
 Betsy was looking through her mom's diary and came across this entry.
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A long meal
October 14, 2013 by Sue in Wielesek
As you can see, I didn't make it back to posting. It's continued to be a busy
time, taking down the crappy falling down fence along the back alley and trying to resurrect the laurel hedge. The real problem is that someone poured tons of small river rock and pea gravel there. Like rounded gravel has a wont to do, it worked its way down into the ground, so the poor old laurel hedges have a layer of stone to try to poke their little roots through.
Had a great time "babysitting" Emma and Berry. Mostly it's like sitting around watching an improv comedy team.
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I post, therefore I am
August 24, 2013 by Sue in Wielesek
Hi, all. I'm sitting here with Bob as he watches Seattle and Green Bay play an exhibition game. I'm so content to sit.
We have had entirely too much time this last week cleaning up his rental house, which he kept when he moved in with me. His first tenants were fine, but the second batch were awful - a fat mother, a fat father, four fat teenage daughters, and a bunch of cats who never meet a carpet they didn't want to pee or poop on. Plus, the tenants perceived of themselves as artistic, so they painted everything but the two front rooms in garish colors - most rooms had two coats of thick latex paints.
On a brighter note, prior to rental cleaning, I spent much of the time working with the boys on landscaping here at McMillan. I have good competent worker guys and they've got most of the retaining walls in. I sometimes feel as though all of College Hill really just wants to slide into the Willamette River, preferably in the next three months.
More after I fix dinner.
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Farewell to England
July 16, 2013 by Sue in Wielesek
I'm sitting here in a lovely hotel about two block from the Natural History Museum, hoping Adam and Emma are safe in Chicago, a halfway stop for them, that Seraph, Isa, Sadie and Greg are having a lovely time together, and that Joanna and the kids are on their way to Rochester. I leave about 2:00 tomorrow afternoon. I hope the cousins bonded, and Emma and Isa had fun together. Hugs to all, Mom/Sue
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Exhausted
July 14, 2013 by Sue in Wielesek
I'm sitting here on Bastille Day on the bed in our room. I'm so tired I intend to spend the day googling pictures of the things we haven't seen yet, as opposed to actually going to see them.
We had a lovely lunch with the Albertellis, the family who adopted Anna while she was in France. They thought Isa should come to France for college and stay with them.Marie-Eve, the mom, was injured in a bad car accident, and is still recurperating.
We also went up to Mont Marte? and rode on the 19th century merry-go-round yesterday.
Seraph and Isa took me to a restaurant across from an old old church in the Latin Quarter on Friday evening. I had beef, not something I eat alot. It was in a light cream sauce, and definitely worth coming to Paris for.
Our hotel is interesting. In a lot a ways it's a standard slightly funky hotels.com place, and in some ways it's slightly funkier. The place goes slightly nuts at dusk, when all the Muslims here and in the neighborhood start to party. (As you all know, it's the first or second week of Ramadan.)
But on the non-funky side, all 10 or twelve first floor rooms open onto a hugh courtyard, so the place is like a compound in a Mediterranean or mid-east country. I have my underwear draped over the chairs drying, while we have breakfast at the table outside our room.
Now, I better double check transportation arrangements. Adam, I have to forward you a meal voucher to print off on Christopher's computer. Hug baby Finn and Arthur for us. Love to all.
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Here I am in England
July 04, 2013 by Sue in Wielesek
Home of crumpets and tea,
I am ready for England.
Is England ready for me?
Sadie and Seraph, do you remember this traveling poem from our 1990 trip to England?
I've promised myself to post more frequently, easier to do when you're sitting here in a hotel room with no responsibilities. This town, surprisingly secluded, is called Stanwell, and I'm staying at a place called Stanwell House. I thought it was a boring name for a pretty little village until I found a tiny rusty sign at the edge of the green noting the long since covered site of St. Anne's well, which supplied water for
the village, and was thought to have healing powers. Honestly, once they started to let the Pagans in, the whole country went to wrack and ruin. Here's to the healing powers of the McKenzie River and EWEB. Love you all, Mom/Sue
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The last hundred years
June 08, 2013 by Sue in Wielesek
My mom used to say that the last hundred years of pregnancy were the worst, and I think that goes for house building too. I made four trips to Willamette Graystone today. No wonder they gave me a cap with their logo a couple of years ago. The house is really lovely, and I may put an ad on Craig's list this weekend. I will turn into a real Mom soon, hopefully in time to call Miss Sadie on her birthday. Much love, Mom
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Extended Families
May 29, 2013 by Sue in Wielesek
Hi, all, is mushy and sentimental for all sorts of reasons. One is that I just took a Vicodan, another is that I had a lovely cheery breakfast with Adam - that and dinner with Jenny on her birthday a few days ago just perked me right up. Finally, I looked as some old movies I had put on disc.
Anyhow, I want to do a bit of a report on Yayoe's surgery. I stopped to see her yesterday. It was a big concern to learn that the recupereration part did not go well. One of the meds, apparently a pretty standard one, nonetheless made Yayoe really really sick. It was so bad that she finally told the doc she couldn't take it any more. She says she's doing better, but her new hip seems to be reluctant to join the family. Sadie, give it a better name.
John was there, as was a friend, someone she knew in Hawaii. Yayoe and I fumbled around just a bit, as we always do, explaining how we're related. (Note: I adopt the Russian method. Everyone older is either Aunt or Uncle, and everyone about my age is a cousin.) I refer to Margie, Anita, Yayoe, Anna, Hanni, and Sheryl (Bob's sister in Seattle) as my sisters-in-law.
Anyhow, Yayoe and I were chatting and I suddenly thought, "I like this woman sooo much. How could the Fates have sent such a good person in my kids' lives?" I often feel as though Lohring and I did you kids wrong by moving you so far away from those great Pennsylvania Dutch farmers who would have been available to you as extended family, and then am reassured by the extended family which you have here in Eugene.
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Mad Men
April 24, 2013 by Sue in Wielesek
For those of you who follow "Mad Men" you will remember his sales pitch about the Kodak Carasoul -oh, poop, I've lost the ability to spell. Anyhow, I have a Carousel which was Dick's, preserved perfectly in its vinyl case, with an extra projector bulb, two extra slide racks, and some instrument called a "slide duplicator". I have no idea who reads the family blog, but I will cheerfully send it free to anyone who will pay the postage. I think I looked on ebay and they were selling for something north of $100-$150.
I'm just trying to clear junk out. If I don't have any takers by Emma's birthday, I'll try to foist it off on a Facebook friend. You can offer it to anybody you like who will just come pick it up. I think I have all the tickets in place for the trip except my return. I'm going a day or two early, as it always takes me a long time to adjust.
Remember that Yayoe is coming up on her surgery on the 10th. We're not going to give her a bunch of flowers starts to plant for her birthday...
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Sweet Spring
April 04, 2013 by Sue in Wielesek
is my time, is your time, is our time. So viva, sweet love!
I'm sitting here, grooving on the fact that I have virtually no paperwork on my desk. I'm in much better spirits, though I'm so unsure how to work around the anti-Semitism I was so floored by. Maybe I could put on a
"Meet an Actual Jewish Person" event. Anyhow, I think I can bail after the September Luncheon. Does anyone know Hilary Clinton, Bill Clinton, or any of their staff? Maybe one of them would be a speaker. If you have any pull, contact Adam.
This is one of those wonderful "misty, moisty" days. I've been rereading TS Eliot. Amazing poet.
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Springtime
March 21, 2013 by Sue in Wielesek
Hi, all you guys. I just want you to know I love you all so much. I appreciate that you aren't prejudiced or crappy, sneaky people. All this is because, as part of my gradual escape from the clutches of the League of Women Voters, I'm now both the Membership Committee chair and the Fall Recruitment Luncheon chair. If this sounds counterintuitive, I can end my five year membership term at the end of June,'13. The Luncheon Chair doesn't have a term attached, and a couple of the members I have to deal with are such nasty unpleasant people that I'm going to quit the Luncheon Committee as soon as the Luncheon is over in September.
But whether or not I think two of the Board Members are nasty, what really bothers me is what I perceive as deep rooted, almost unconscious anti-Semitism. The most logical venue for this luncheon is Temple Beth Israel, which is amazingly beautiful and well suited for a lunch. The only dietary requirement which affects us at all is that we have to serve fish rather than meat. So the League pres gave me a week to put together a complete presentation for the Board today, which involved making many phone calls, asking a member of Temple Beth Israel to help with the food and menu planning, etc.. So I put that together, but then spent a frustrating hour at the Board meeting fending off incredibly stupid objections. Earlier in the meeting they hastily decided to spend $500 on something nobody had thought of before today's meeting. Then they nattered over $174 of my paltry budget endlessly. By the next Board meeting I have to have three catering proposals for $12 a lunch. I finally told them that the Recruitment Luncheon was the biggest event of the year (we had 20 new members from the lunch last year, the most of any of the local Leagues in the state.) , that they had just ponied up $500 without a faretheewell, but getting money for the lunch was like pulling teeth.
Thanks, everyone, for letting me complain. I think that the problem is that I move among such kind people that I haven't really had to develop a hard skin, so Racism and Anti-Semitism hurt my feelings so much. Many hugs, Mom/Sue
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More bad news
February 12, 2013 by Sue in Wielesek
This has been a bad day for the family. I talked to my cousin Ann this afternoon to tell her about Bob's death. In turn, she said she had just talked with her brother, Alan. Alan said that his wife Jeannie died today of cancer.
She had seen a doctor in mid-December and was diagnosed then. Apparently she didn't want anyone other than Alan and their twins Andrew and Jessica to know, and not even her close friends knew she was ill. She had radiation treatment, but it wasn't very helpful. Just a bad day all around.
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Sad news from Ohio
February 12, 2013 by Sue in Wielesek
I wanted to let you all know that Betsy's partner, Bob, who has been fighting lung cancer for several years, died earlier this afternoon. He actually was doing pretty well though last Wednesday, when he drove himself from the farm, northeast of Columbus, into Columbus for lunch with his friends. His health failed rapidly after the trip, and when I spoke with Betsy yesterday evening, she was feeling as though he was close to the end. I gather that Patrick has been a rock, but that Will has been very stressed by Bob's illness. Our condolences to Betsy and the boys.
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