Hi all - In case you prefer to read on screens, the newsletter is up on my website www.lucysbooks.net.
Now that spring break is over the weather is beautiful! Everyone back to school and work today, music lesson shuffle tonight.
I (Mom) am starting a chess club at Tim and Ani's school. We will get started next week and see how it goes. So far every interested party is a boy?! I will have to recruit some girls. I was inspired when I read Game of Kings (see newsletter for review) about a high school chess team in Brooklyn, New York. I am hoping that Tim loves it; I suppose it would be nice for him to play someone besides me!

Mt. Hood

This is Ani.
Right now, my dad and I are up at Tom and Paula Ascher's house. We'll leave tomorrow after another day of skiing, and the skiing is great!
Today, the powder on Mt. Hood went up above our knees! Once, my dad was in powder up to his chest. It was amazing skiing conditions. It was snowing all day - sometimes hard and sometimes just lightly. I skied into a big snowbank once and did a face plant into the powder and lost both skis and poles once. It took me about 10 minutes to find both my skis and poles. That's how deep it was!
We're looking forward to another awesome day of skiing tomorrow, but on Monday we have to go back to school - it's the end of spring break.

You can see, it hasn't been snowing for long... This was Tuesday's sunset! Here is a video of Tim and his loose tooth.

This is a warning- this video is not for the faint of heart...

Jon Here. SNOW in Astoria... We have tulips and camellia’s covered in snow!!! Our daffodils all filled with snow and tipped over. Trees are budding and I even bought a flat of lettuce starts to plant in the garden that are now inside on the kitchen counter. Crazy!

So, I have not been on here for a while. Cirque Du Soleil was amazing! We were right on the stage. Laura's arm was literally on the stage. We were pelted in a pillow fight and it was truly amazing! Ate dinner in Portland at a great Chinese restaurant- we ordered way too much food: house special wonton soup; Happy Family; pork ribs in black beans are garlic; pot stickers; egg roll; and Peking Duck!!! The duck was amazing and a great story. They brought out a whole duck on a tray and with amazing flourish started carving at the table- all the skin was beautifully removed with fat and meat dripping off it, then the entire duck, with all the meat still on it was whisked away and we were left with just the duck skin on rice puffs. Laura looked at me and asked what happens with the rest of the duck. I didn't know. Actually neither of use had ever ordered a whole Peking duck before- maybe all we got was the skin. Then the rest of the food started to come and we forgot about all the duck meat. Finally a huge platter of duck meat came and we ate for a very long time!!!

Spring break has been fun. Lazing about the house; playing the Wii; making amazing masks with paper mache beaks; running; shopping and maybe today- A Dump Run~! Ani and I are supposed to go skiing Fri and Sat, but the forecast for Mt. Hood is over a foot of snow falling tonight and tomorrow so I am not sure we will even be able to get up onto the mountain...

I will blog with other pictures and some movies later today!

SNOW!!!

This is Ani.

It started snowing today. It isn't any more, but there's about three inches on the ground!!! We made two snowmen, not counting the tiny ones. One is in the backyard, and one is down by the road. My dad and I had a big snowball fight, and it was really fun. The forecast is for it to snow overnight and into the morning. I hope that it does. Both of the snowmen are as tall or taller than me. It's a lot more snow than we usually get, and I like it! I hope that there will be enough snow tomorrow to sled down the driveway.

here and there

Hi all from snowy snowy Astoria. I'm in my warm peaceful book shop and Jon is home refereeing broken snowballs, tears, Wii frustration and all that fun school-vacation-at-home stuff. Jon's soccer game is cancelled; it is snowing so hard they can't see the lines on the field. Otherwise I guess they'd be perfectly happy to run around in all manner of nasty weather. As I'm at work I have no family pictures to post but the home team should be posting snowmen pictures soon.

I finally sent my newsletter off to the printer. I'm almost done with one of those corporate fable type team building consultant books that is required reading for my school board training. Not what I would call art or literature but some interesting ideas.

So since I feel deadlines are being met I have been practicing one of my pasttimes of late - blog checking. Below enjoy Samantha Power back on her game, for which I am happy and optimistic. I'm glad she's through grovelling; I couldn't stand it. I gave a little more money to the Obama campaign, in the vain hope I would be chosen as one of five people to have dinner with Barack. Boy do I have a lot to tell him. Cross your fingers!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/26/samantha-power-unapologet_n_93493.html

Hey home front - put some pictures in here!

My Bedside Table

This is Ani here.

The pile of books on my bedside table seems to be growing rapidly. I can't seem to be reading the same book for more than a few days.

Cirque Du Soleil was really really cool!!!!! It was amazing to watch what those people can do. People were able to get inside of big hula hoops and roll around without hitting each other or rolling off of the stage! There were so many acts that I can't tell about them all, but it was so awesome! We weren't allowed to get pictures of it, so that's why we aren't posting any.

Soccer Egos

Well, the athlete side of our family - Jon and Ani - are in their glory lately. Ani is running middle school track. She'll do distance, which in track and field is a mile run, but she kicks butt at it. I can't wait for meets. It's the first time in an actual school sport and her new life of practice every day til 5 is tiring! She comes home muddy, tired, and HUNGRY! This girl is eating major dinners right now!

Jon, the old man, is playing spring soccer league in a local and huge men's league called, appropriately, La Liga, as it is mostly made up of Hispanic players. You must see the league blog this week, as it details the upset victory made by Jon's team (Romania - in the yellow jerseys) of the best team in the league. If you scroll all the way through the article, you will actually see a picture with Jon in it so you can believe that soon-to-be 44-year-old Jon is really doing this.

http://northcoastsoccer.blogspot.com/ Check it out!

I, as the wife, must nervously report that thus far two team members are out for the season with surgery-requiring knee injuries. I am humbly asking Jon to be kinda careful, and if he happens to be hurt, just to try not to sigh and whine too much!

Ciao!

Laura here - some random thoughts. Here's Tim in full Sean Penn mode dealing with the paparazzi. He is ready for Hollywood!

Well, I started the blog but I never contribute, which is probably fine since all I tend to do is rant about stuff. So... I'm ranting. I'm still obsessed and depressed with the Samantha Power meltdown, as she is my great hope for the Obama administration, among others. I am in full agreement with Hendrick Hertzberg (The New Yorker) on this one -http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/hendrikhertzberg/2008/03/samanthagate.html

He's always worth reading and this is no exception. I don't know what is happening to me; I sit around work googling people's blogs about this and that campaign thing instead of writing a spring newsletter, which really needs doing.

While I'm sending you links I'll tell you the antithesis to worrying about the fate of the universe and who will be the president is http://www.yogatoday.com/ which I do every day to keep my joints oiled and calm myself down. I so highly recommend it. While I love going to yoga classes, they are so often not going on when it is a time I can go, and online I can do it when I have the time, which I make just about every single day. It is a lifesaver! (Susan Block, if you're reading this, I would come to your basement classes if I lived nearby you!)

I'm adding a random unrelated picture of Ani from soccer season last year. Just so you don't get too too sad about having to wait until the fall to see her in all her athletic glory.

Here is Tim playing his drums he got for Christmas and sitting on his drum stool he got for his birthday. I had workshop until 2:00 pm today on the ACT standardized test which is never fun, but good to do.

Tim and Ani are now playing their new Wii game they bought last weekend. They pooled their money and bought some randon Mario Brother OuterSpace game. They love it!@!! Laura and I are drinking Tea and I am about to go for a run and then do yard work. This is our mundane life-. However, today is the first day of MY, Jonathan King Graves The Second, birthday week!!! I plan to celebrate for a week both before and after my birthday! see ya all later! j

Tim Pictures

This is Ani.

While Tim was having some crazy run around time, I managed to snap a few pictures of him in action. Here are a few...

Just joking! This is staged!

Somehow I managed to take this picture of Frodo giving me kisses. He's such a great little bird!

Clean Tim and Piano Ani

Here is Tim after a shower! He loves to comb his hair with his cool switch blade comb (this of course was the only switch blade he was allowed to get...) Tim is drinking a soda that just happens to look like a beer. Since he is gluten free, he can't drink beer of course!!!

Jon has started playing in a soccer league. It is a high paced hispanic league with practices on Sundays and games on Wednesdays. I am one of the oldest in the league. I am very sore right now and we will see how it goes! I cut my lawn this weekend and the daffodils are blooming in our back yard!!!

Below is a video of Ani playing the surfboard boogie. Make sure your volume is on when you play this 1 minute and 20 second video!

Mr. Poofy Cheeks

Ani here.

I caught a photo of Frodo while he was poofing his cheeks up at the camera, and I thought that I should post it. Well, here's Mr. Poofy Cheeks!

He's a really nice bird, and he's learned to like going on car rides with us. He has a great personality! All in all, he's an awesome little birdie.

U Tube Video

OK all- If you want 5 minutes of pictures and video, here is a link to Uncle Richard Snyder's UTUBE video of our Whistler vacation. Now remember to have your sound on for both this and the video below! Have a good day! It is still sunny and flowers are blooming in the lovely Pacific Northwest!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kveCn2xdkQ

Whistler BC Pics and Videos

Here is a pic of Ani and I as well as a 2 minute video of skiing in Whistler BC with the cousins and Uncle Rich! Just click on the white arrow and the vid should play!!! It is sunny here in Oregon Today just as it was in Whistler!!!

The Many Names of Frodo

This is Ani.

The name Frodo has evolved into lots and lots of different names. The name Frodo is the name we use when we're annoyed or angry at him. Then there's Frodles and Dodles, which we don't use very much. Dody, Dodo, or Dodes is what we call him most often, and occasionally Frody. When he's all fluffed up, we call him Fluffs, or Fluffy, and when he poofs his cheeks up, we call him Poofy, Poofs, Poofy Cheeks, Cheeks, Mr. Cheeks, or Cheeky. When he squeaks, we call him Squeaky or Squeaker.

Those are all the names of Frodo.

Tim's Oregon Map

Greetings all especially Nana - Happy Birthday! Here is Tim's map of Oregon. Highlights include the paperclip coast range, the bottlecap Wallowa Mountains, and you can't really see them but all the cities are little bits and scraps of computer parts and such. All is held together with about 10 pounds of hot melt glue. Spectacular. This is in preparation for the 4th grade Central Oregon field trip which happens in early May, just before Aunt Sally comes to visit. Three of us are surviving the absence of Jon, who, coincidentally, is in Bend in central Oregon as I write delivering students to college testings and evaluations and the like. He just called, bored enough to be watching Law and Order in his room in the Econolodge. What a glamorous job. Ciao for now!

Dad Here!

Tim's birthday was good fun! Above are Mateo, Tim and Morgan. Ani is holding Frodo who is trying to figure our how to eat the camera. Luckily for all, he failed to eat the Camera. Tim's favorate birthday present was probably a magic set that came with this very fetching top hat! Tim is starting to get pretty good at his magic tricks! Still utterly exhausted and coughing... OK, I will put up one more pick from Tim's birthday:

This is Ani.

Well, we're all getting better out here. My parents are still coughing, and Tim and I both have a slight cold, but we're doing pretty good.

Yesterday was Tim's birthday. Our dad brought Tim and two of his friends, Morgan and Mateo, to OMSI, the science museum in Portland. When they got back, Morgan and Mateo spent the night here. Luckily, I got to spend the night at my friend's house instead of being at the party.

Frodo is doing great, as well as Bear and River. Bear is chewing on sticks, and River is yawning, eating, and sleeping.