Date for "Good Eats" show

Alton Brown's okra episode will air on Wed., Sept. 27th at 10pm on the food network. We have started TVoing his show once in a while and it is so good. Funny, and full of science and inspiring me to cook new things.

We just got back, a few days ago, from ten days away! Damien, Nicolas' brother, got married in NJ (great wedding) and then we went to Block Island, RI with Nicolas' dad and his wife, Marie-Helene, who were here from Holland. We biked (alot!) and bird watched and collected shells and rocks, and some living things in shells that are now decomposing out on our deck. It is incredibly beautiful there - much of it is protected wildlife. It was so much fun to be up north again - to see Red Sox bumper stickers on cars and to hear northern accents and to eat lobster!!!! My favorite food on earth; even better than chocolate souffle. Gillen and Nicolas had to get back for the market and for Gillens' soccer game a few days before Jesse and I, so we drove (well, my FIL, Jean-Pierre, heroically drove) them to the Newark airport in Friday afternoon CT and NYC traffic!!! It was a close call - they almost missed the plane and our bladders almost burst - we were in the car for many hours without a break. Then we used the fancy GPS system to get us back to NYC (we were in Christine and Philippe's new car) only to arrive in different parts of Newark and Hoboken before figuring out where we had gone wrong in our pressing of buttons. Lots of traffic going home and two hours later we were in NYC. Made us all appreciate living in the country!

I do love the city though. I feel so at home there from growing up in NY and Boston. The next day I took Jesse to the Modern Museum of Art. We had only been to the Natural History Museum every visit before and wanted to try something new. He likes Van Gogh's "Starry Starry night" so we immediately looked for that. He loved the Picasso's and the Jackson Pollack's and the large green helicopter that was hung from steel wire in the walls. But his favorite thing was being high enough to look out of the windows and search for Peregrine Falcons in the skyscrapers. He claims he saw one. I missed it.

I have many pictures of our NY day (Central Park, street fair, parade) and of Block Island that I will post soon. We had access to wireless on vacation, from the coffee shop next door to our hotel - it is painful to be back on dial-up, truly torturous. Wish I didn't know what I was missing. So I am following a friend's advice and will try sitting with my laptop in a parking lot somewhere where they have wireless, to add pictures here.

Life is good. Only wish we didn't have to miss the NM unschooling conference - the pictures of it show how beautiful the location was. Also, I miss seeing so many unschoolers together and reuniting with friends.

And I wish that fantastically vital people who are so special to so many wouldn't keep being taken from us. Most recently - Steve Irwin. And Hannah Jenner, beautiful nine-year old Hannah. Her mom inspires me every day to see my children in technicolor, brilliant detail, to appreciate the moment and to be just a little more patient.