Hey y'all--

Greetings from the Big Blue House! Keith, Harumi, Kai and Mana are staying in one half, and we are in the other half, with our friends Christian and Lydia Teutsch, with their lovely daughters Savannah and Abby. If you're counting; yes, that is, indeed, five children between the ages of four and eight. Those of you who followed along Cliff's adventures in the battlefields of France will remember Christian in the role of Other Responsible Adult—and medieval scholar—on the trip.* If you haven't checked out the blog, by the way, I highly recommend it. There's fun pictures, stories of cadet adventures, and a very entertaining video, which brings us the immortal quote: "yes, it's really an electric fence, but it's not like it's a dangerous electric fence."

It's been gorgeous weather, and, knock on wood, there haven't been any major disasters yet, except that I managed to destroy my cell phone before we even left the house. Apparently, phones don't like being submerged in water. Really, they ought to print a warning on the package or something. Actually, the phone dried out—mostly—and it works—mostly—but when I try to turn it off, it develops the Purple Screen of Doom and I have to remove the battery to do anything with it. I think I'm buying a new phone.

As with any vacation at the Big Blue house, we've devoted nearly all of our time here to Hanging Out, the most popular activity by far here on the island. Hannah and Savannah have spent most of their house time in their bedroom closet, which is apparently a really cool hangout if you're an 8-year-old girl. Abby's been making artistic creations. Kai has devoted his energies to reporting on all of the goings-on in the house and attempts at rallying the other kids for major campaigns, earning him the nickname "Kaiser." He's also assembling a navy, but we'll warn you if, on our trip to the bookstore this week, he starts eyeing maps of Eastern Europe. Mana is all over the place. The biggest attraction each day is the Running of the Crabs, when Keith walks to the end of our dock, hauls out the crab

traps, transfers any eligible crabs to a pot, and releases the rest of the crabs onto the dock to scuttle off into the bay. Kai and Mana run upstairs, announce "it's time to check the crabs!" and barefoot they all run down the many stairs to the dock, to dodge the snapping pincers which might try to pinch their tiny toes. There's often squealing involved. The grownups are all doing those things they love to do best, which often involves reclining with a novel or sleeping. I'm knitting a shawl; while the pattern made absolutely no sense whatsoever to me at first, some wonderful friends from Yorktown Stitch n Bitch helped me sort it out, and I'm happiest when I can sit for hours working on that. And, after years of sharing Cliff's laptop, which meant not having access when he was working, I have my computer with me this year, which means I can obsessively check my email, forums and boards, as well as update the blog in something resembling real time. Happy me!

The pretty pictures are in the picture gallery, and also check out our snaps from last week's Clearwater Music Festival, which was also blessed by wonderfully moderate weather.

*Truth be told, Christian sweated through the nuts-and-bolts of organization and planning, and Cliff was the Other Responsible Adult and Senior Scholar.