catching up

I've been a poor chronicler this year, but I'm in a better position now that I've moved our Picasa library of 11,000+ photos to my regular computer. This took most of a Saturday afternoon earlier this month. It was one of a number of projects I've been getting around to since the semester ended.

There is a big part of my brain which says I should not have started my foray into academia until about a dozen small- to medium-sized projects were finished in our house. These were the finishing touches after our last remodel. But I was so tired of the whole business, and I have only a limited interested in decorating and organizing that I jumped ahead. I also felt my age was making any decision more urgent. But this meant that we've spent the last 9 months stumbling over piles of things that needed putting away, and being unable to find things that we knew were here, and living as though we were still expecting plasterers and electricians in at any moment.  I'm getting to several of them during the Christmas vacation.

And although I've complained repeatedly here about the heat and drought, we did have a great summer, with many visitors.

My lovely cousin, Sarah Berkley, and Aunt Barbara stopped in on their road trip from Connecticut, where Sarah has finished college, back to Eugene, OR.  Sarah is the youngest in the very long line of cousins on my dad's side of the family.  I had never met her before.

 (Sarah plays the piano beautifully and my dad used to make her play 4 hand duets with him when she was little.)

(Sarah talked to us about the dreaded college application process, which Lucy was about to start)

My sister, Laura, came for a week during their "flyback" from Beirut. They spent almost two months with her in-laws in Pennsylvania, and joined in the Krisko family beach reunion.  We had a fabulous time, despite the heat, and I barely saw Fred for most of the time as he ran around with JT and Ruby.

 (In the very western bar at the Driskill Hotel)

(at Austin Zoo)

And if anyone else is as freaked out by the passing of time as I am, here is a little comparison:
 

(JT and Fred during a visit at Dad's house in 2007. James is 4 and Fred is 5 months)

(JT and Fred in 2011. James is 9 and Fred is 4)

So Fred is the age JT was when we were living near them in Surrey. I don't know how that happened so quickly. Here's another favorite:

East Molesey 2008

But I digress. I am a fool about old photos. Our last visitors were Phil's sister and her husband and family who came to see us from London, on their way to Victoria Island, BC, where they spent a week in a wilderness cabin, relaxing and whale watching.

Lucy and Jessica with cousins, Emma and Helen Reith, on the "W" at Westlake High School

Emma and Helen had never been to the US, and got a kick out of the crazy Texas high school customs. They ate barbeque, swam at Barton Springs and visited the capitol building. It was over 100F every day they were here. I think they were relieved to move onto to Canada.