Happenings  -  2005       Return To Main Menu  

May - Daughter Molly & husband Kai delivered to the family a 7 1/2 pound baby boy, Kai Connelly, to be known as K.C.  Mom, Dad and K.C. are doing well.
June  -  We helped the little town of Sharon, where Sandy used to work, celebrate Model A Day again this year.  Over 200 Model A Fords, a 1930's fashion show, pig roast, etc.  Last year I was a Keystone Cop and Sandy was a flapper girl, but this year Sandy found a really cute Raggedy Ann costume at a garage sale, so she made me an Andy costume and we went as a couple of giant rag dolls.  Daughter Rae Ann, Brian & grandson Daniel came down from Milwaukee to share the fun.  Daniel & Brian got a ride in the Model A police car, sirening and oooghaa-ing their way around town.    

 		 July - We celebrated Denny's birthday by being total tourists.  Had breakfast at Grandma Vickie's Cafe; lunch at Culver's and supper at Taco Bell. Sandwiched between these taste treats were half an hour of tennis (too hot), an exploration of some new (way too expensive for us) condos and para-sailing over Lake Geneva.  What a rush!  Now we know what it's like to be a seagull.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable day.
July  - Visited with our good friends the Bicknells, our comrades-at-teaching in Ukraine.  They returned from Ukraine two years after  we did, finally settling into a cute little home in Waukesha, Wisconsin, just one year ago.  We were happy to be connected with them again.   Perhaps "settling" isn't quite the right word.  Clan leader, Stuart The Restless, has found a better business opportunity in Richmond, Virginia, and, alas, they are moving out of day-visit range once again.  It really is a step up professionally for Stu.  But we hate to see them go.  Bon voyage, Stu, Ann Marie, Drew and Gracie.
. September - Clete & Kathy Bjornstad hosted our "dishroom crew" college reunion. Dave Payton, Ron Vetting, Gene Yax, Clete, Kathy & Denny reminisced, teased old teases and generally BS-ed their way through the evening. It is a satisfying and grounding feeling to still be tugged by bonds that were forged 45 years ago. Spouses and other non-dishroom crew got their licks in, too. A great time was had by all.
September  Clete & Kathy & Denny & Sandy trekked to the Canadian bush to spend 5 days at the Dome (our geodesic dome vacation home) on Quintet Lakes, 72 train miles north of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.  Clete & Denny gave the new, sagging dock a chiropractic adjustment while Sandy & Kathy worked on curtains for the kitchen cupboard (no doors) and the windows (a touchy subject since the Dome is traditionally thought of as a guy place)  Canada Jays ate nuts right out of our hands.  The night sky boasts a hundred times as many stars as you see in the city.  One night the lake was so perfectly calm and the sky so dark that we could see the reflections of individual stars on the surface of the water.  We swam in the cold water; read catalogs in the outhouse, cooked "gourmet" meals on the Coleman stove and lounged on the rocks in the sun, like lizards.  The semi-primitive life style may not be for everyone, but there is much to be said for it.
End of Year Roundup for 2005 -   I notice that hardly anyone has signed in the guest book.  & - Friend Orson "Grizzly Adams" Bangert and I are planning a winter trip to the dome, the first by anyone in many years.     & - Observation: Trying to plan the holiday gatherings with friends & relatives is like trying to round up the chickens after the hen house blows down.   & - We were treated once again to a holiday dining experience by friends Kevin & Marlene Vail.  I say dining experience because dinner at the Vail's is four courses of genuine gourmet cooking served at intervals spaced to allow a generous sharing of stories and mirth.  The sharing starts with wine and then an appetizer in the living room, eventually moves to the dining room and finally back to the living room for dessert and more stories.  The Vail House is our favorite gourmet restaurant.