Saturday, July 14, 2007

Family Camp

Family Camp was lots of fun. Make your plans now to attend next year, or start your own!
We stayed at Our Urban Cabin (it's in town, but here is the view from the deck -- OK, it's not Photoshopped, but it is a very carefully framed picture:
). And here is a picture of the birch trees in the yard:



My favorite part of family camp is the singing, which we do twice a day for about 45 minutes each time, with a song leader. This year we had one set of song leader/pianist for the first and last days, and one song leader/pianist (she does it all!) for the middle day. Their strengths and general aspect are different, but we had a great time singing with both. I believe they are both cousins of Onkel Hankie Pants, albeit on different sides of his mother's family. I didn't take any pictures at singing, because I was too busy juggling the book and songsheets and just enjoying it. Regular people (who aren't musicians and don't have particularly good voices) don't get to sing enough, in my opinion. Two or three hymns each week at church are about it for most of us, bar singing along with recorded music or in the shower. Onkel Hankie Pants says that in his childhood, a church meeting which in most churches would start with a prayer, began with a song instead. I think that's a great idea (and song is prayer, anyway, at least sometimes.)
My next favorite part is seeing all the children. It was the 31st annual camp, so I'm now seeing the children of people I first knew as children. Since there are lots of Danes there, even most of the brown-haired people seem to have blond children of varying shades, but one young cousin has married a man with slightly darker skin and hair and has two gorgeous little boys who take after him. All the kids, whether they are close cousins who see each other often or completely unrelated, seem to get along well and join in the annual Nisse Hunt with great gusto. (Maybe Sisterknits will tell about the Nisse Hunts, past and present, when her computer gets better).
The organic farmers who "moonlight" as our cooks for the past few years did as great a job as usual, despite a lingering drought which has affected their production and the fact that they were hosting one of the Live Earth concerts at their farm the following weekend!
The three days (plus an opening evening) of Family Camp are just right for me. It's hard to be with people constantly from 8:45 am to 9:30 or 10 at night (plus an hour or so each way with the nearest and dearest) -- at least that's true for this INFP. Now I'm excited about next year's camp. Sisterknits is on the committee, so I know it will be good.

Friday Five, One Day Late

The RevGalBlogPals had a choice of Friday Fives this week, I only got around to looking today, so here is an easy way for me to ease back into blogging regularly.

Option 1: Accio Friday Five!

1. Which Harry Potter book is your favorite and why?
I think so far, the first one, although I still have to (very quickly!) read #6 before I get my copy of #7! I let Cordeliaknits and Sisterknits read it first and then other things got in the way. This year, we are all in different places and will probably each buy our own book -- more money for J.K.R. and a little help for 3 independent bookstores.


2. Which character do you most resemble? Which character would you most like to get to know?
I'm afraid it's Hermione, except I really never studied as much as she did. But I was always that annoying girl who had her hand up.
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but is it Mrs. Dursley who is the sister of Harry's mother? Anyway, that person. It would be interesting to delve into the personality of someone who grew up with a sibling so different.


3. How careful are you about spoilers?
a) bring 'em on--even if I know the destination, the journey's still good
b) eh, I'd rather not know what happens, but I'm not going to commit Avada Kedavra if someone makes a slip
c) I will sequester myself in a geodesic dome to avoid finding anything out
b, I guess. Although I was quite annoyed once when some people sitting behind me on the bus gave away the ending of Gosford Park before I'd seen it, (basically because one of the two was dumber than a box of rocks and had to have it all explained) and nurtured a grudge against them every time I saw them on the bus for years afterwards. So beware.

4. Make one prediction/share one hope about book 7.
That it's not TOO sad.


5. Rowling has said she's not planning any prequels or sequels, but are there characters or storylines (past or future) that you would like to see pursued?
Dumbledore's youth!


Option 2: Please Mommy, Anything But Those Blankety-Blank Books!


And we do mean anything:


1. Former U.S. First Lady "Lady Bird" Johnson died this week. In honor of her love of the land and the environment, share your favorite flower or wildflower.
California poppy -- I have such fond memories of crossing a field of them on my way to the PX at Fort Ord, CA -- along with the giant fresh-squeezed OJ at LAX, they were a signifier to me that I was in California, a new and different place.




2. A man flew almost 200 miles in a lawn chair, held aloft by helium balloons. Share something zany you'd like to try someday.
I don't do zany, especially if it involves heights.


3. Do you have an iPhone? If not, would you want one?
No. I might want one, but I should not have one. It would be bad for me. I fear I would cease all face-to-face human interaction, and I don't really want to. The computer (mine is a desktop) is addictive enough for me.

4. Speaking of which, Blendtec Blenders put an iPhone in one of their super-duper blenders as part of their "Will It Blend?" series. What would YOU like to see ground up, whizzed up or otherwise pulverized in a blender?
The entire oeuvre of Joyce Carol Oates.


5. According to News of the Weird, a jury in Weld County, Colo., declined to hold Kathleen Ensz accountable for leaving a flier containing her dog's droppings on the doorstep of U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, apparently agreeing with Ensz that she was merely exercising free speech. What do you think? Is doggy doo-doo protected by the First Amendment?

I don't know the whole story. What was on the flier besides the dog-doo? Was it one of Ms. Musgrave's fliers or something else? Maybe it's only protected if it's commentary on some other form of speech?