Rock To Wind A String Around

floating through my head as I frantically:

a.  complete this round of the annual campaign for EOR

b.  do a little more marketing of ETSS’ Enkutatash event–we’re hoping to have 500+ guests (on September 19)

c.  pack for my trip to Denmark–we leave on Thursday morning

d.  ignore this blog completely in service to a, b & c

500 envelopes, 30 zillion press releases, and 75 dozen lists later, I’ll be blissfully happy to climb on a plane for 8 hours.  For now, I am fervently wishing that Albert would be home before Wednesday night to help me (a vain and unenlightened hope, I am afraid) and I wish too that I could find the EOR credit card to pay for our Kinko’s order.  I haven’t used it for ages because I stopped shipping things for the store, so I put it away for safe keeping, and it is now VERY safe, even from me.

Not a lot more to add, I’ll try to pop in once more before I leave for Copenhagen, and I plan to update from Europe too. Hope you all are well, kittens.  It feels like ages since we’ve talked!

Hey Cowtown friends

Astrid’s very own Amy & Joel are hosting a yard sale tomorrow & Sunday to help fund the adoption journey for their own sweet peanut.  The very reasonable AJ team will start selling tomorrow at 10 am.  Our posse will be there to lend our many hands, because, you know that Astrid Meklit, so useful at yard sales!

This sale is HUGE–more like a multi-family neighborhood sale than a single family, so come by, find some treasures and support my terrific friends.  We’ll see you at:

399 Whitehall Ave

Columbus 43213

(1 block from Tee Jay’s, King Gyro, etc)

The conestoga Subaru is packed, and we are ready to flee the land of train-riding pirates, attentive, adoring hotel staff, Dixieland Jazz, and beloved daddies.  It’s been a great visit, and another isn’t scheduled until November, which makes us all a bit sad, but the thought of home is kind of nice too.

See you on the flip side!

So my gal is becoming a little more social now that she’s older.  We’re in DC at our hotel, and all of the lovely employees have mentioned how much more she talks (compared to visits in February, April and June).   I realize that she isn’t talking more, she’s talking more to all of them.  While this is normally a good thing, a more talkative Astrid Meklit is a little less socially acceptable than a ’shy, jam-her-head-into-my-thigh-whenver-anyone-looks-at-her’ Astrid Meklit.

Our hotel is fairly close to the Pentagon, so there are always people in uniform on the train.  On Wednesday, AM looked squarely at a couple of army guys and said, ‘look, they are pirates!’  I gently corrected her, lest they think she was channeling some odd opinion of  mine, but she persisted.  By the end of the day, she would tell me they were in the army, so I thought we’d taken care of things…

Today, I took the kids shopping and out to lunch.  We went to a place with a terrific kids’ menu–appetizer/main dish & side/drink/dessert for 7.00.  Huge bowls of fresh fruit arrived on the table in minutes–our server set the bowls in front of my little darlings and I prompted Astrid to follow Elliott’s polite example by asking, “what do you say to Yanet?”  Astrid looked up at Yanet, and in a loud and commanding voice, said:  “where is my burger?”  Charming, I tells ya…

We finished the meal with a flourish of good manners and hurried to catch a train.  Our car was full of people, and several  jumped out of the way to make room for the stroller.  I asked AM if she might say thank you, and she promptly shouted, “Nice job, pirates, thank you!”  They weren’t even Navy, but Marines this time. Not that the Navy folks would enjoy being called pirates either.  Oy–I hope the next time we’re on the train, she develops her usual case of shy.

You ought to see my Astrid

she lives a’way down South

she is so sweet

the honeybees

all swarm around her mouth

Several of Ethiopian Orphan Relief’s board members are traveling to Ethiopia in December.  They’ll work in partnership with Engineers without Borders to dig and construct a  well in Boru.  This well will provide drinking water for one of our partner orphanages and the other 5,000 inhabitants of Boru.

While we’re always looking for traditional donations to EOR, we’re also selling magazines to fund this venture.   40% of the profits will benefit this well digging partnership.  Magazines can be purchased here.

You like to read, don’t you?

Thanks, gals!

Yep, we stood around the boss in her big chair.

This is how she felt about it:

Readoption:  complete! (21 months later than originally planned)