letter march 7 2010

Dear Everyone,

Time for another letter. I should feel rested, since I took Friday off (I am forced to take at least ten days off for vacation each quarter, or I lose vacation days. It is a weird feeling, since I have been under the wheel for the last 20 or so years. But I think I can get used to it.); however, I slept poorly last night, and have back, neck and head pain! Plus, I need to get up around 5 AM tomorrow to take Lucas to high school tennis team tryouts. Hinsdale Central has a number of players with state ranking, so it is pretty competitive to get placed. And, I don’t know if I will be too happy for the near future if Lucas gets on, because until the weather warms up, the kids will be having super early morning practices.

This is a problem we will also have with Jasper when he gets to high school. Swimmers usually have one early morning practice and another after school. He just finished competing at the Regional meet. He was in one event, the 50 freestyle, but his time did not improve. Still, his times have dropped a lot over the past year, and I don’t think there is any race – distance or stroke – that I could beat him at. The high school boys swim team just competed in the state championship meet. The winner of the 500 free is a sophomore from Central. If Jasper manages to drop 1min 50 seconds in that event over the next four years he too might swim in the state meet.

Nicola is also finishing up some activities. Her poetry slam team once again participated in the ‘Louder Than A Bomb (LTAB)’ contest. One of her teammates (Angelica) made it to the semi-final, and Nicola’s whole team were just edged out of the semi-final competition. The finals were held last night at the Vic Theater on Belmont and Sheffield. Team Kuumba Lynx, an unaffiliated team won. They competed against Team Englewood, Northside College Prep (Leah Feiger’s school), and Maine East (who claimed 2nd). Nikki has also been part of the stage crew of a high school drama production of Once Upon A Mattress, which will be shown next weekend. The Tuchlers may come up to see the show, but I think I will stay home, as I am on call.

The next weekend, one of my college roommates, Nienke Prins will be in town with her husband, Joe Dosa. Nienke is a pediatrician, and she will be in Chicago for a conference. We plan on taking them out to dinner, and maybe some after dinner venue. Any suggestions?

Meanwhile, we have seen a couple of DVDs recently. One was ‘Religulous’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religulous a documentary (?mockumentary?) by Bill Maher. I think the message would have been better if Maher wasn’t so obviously mocking the people he interviews. Also, I don’t think the people he speaks to are particularly well educated in theological argument, although that may be the point. He mostly interviews fringe lunatics, not Jesuits. Although I agree with his argument, he comes off as dogmatic as the nut-jobs he talks to. We also saw Gran Torino with Clint Eastwood. This is a film worth renting, but I thought the film lacked subtlety. Eastwood’s character is so crusty, his family so greedy, the Hmong next door so innocent. It was a good fairy tale. As usual, I have been reading a lot, and one book I recently got from the library is worth mentioning, The Lost Books of the Odyssey http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Books-Odyssey-Novel/dp/097888115X . I haven’t started it yet, since I am in the middle of Jeff Vandermeer's second Ambergris novel (having read the 1st and the 3rd). The second one, “Shriek, an Afterword” is very Nabokovian http://www.amazon.com/Shriek-Afterword-Jeff-VanderMeer/dp/B001PO6900/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268005860&sr=1-1

Other news - - our Dell lap top computer died a couple of months back, and we just bought a new Toshiba. This new computer is incredibly fast, runs Windows 7, and cost about 40% of its five year old replacement. Cindy and I have been playing a card game with the boys lately called Dominion, which is interesting since at the outset of the game the players decide which ten of the twenty-five types of cards will be played. It leads to a lot of variation in strategy with each game.

Love H.