WolfWeave

When you have three techy sons, I guess you learn to get with the program. Anyway, I took a screen shot to show how modern moms communicate with their kids—all at the same time!:

Wow! My just-turned 23 yr. old son made this list (along with a few of his previous mentors) compiled by Matt Mullenweg, the CEO of WordPress! Way to go Aaron! Read Aaron here.

I ended up filling a bobbin on my spinning wheel tonight with fluffy white Romney spun into thin yarn, which is undeniably getting more consistent.

I plan to take it to Camp Pluckyfluff this weekend to use as a core yarn (just one of the supplies we need to bring along). It seemed to work better with a somewhat altered version of the long draw. I also needed to put up those photos of my 2 skeins of coarser DorsetXJacob yarn, which should be dry by now…and here they are:

Singles:

Plied:

But, in the meantime, in honor of Claudine Hellmuth’s MabelCat surviving her ultrasound procedure today and with fingers crossed for favorable test results, here is a pic of our Mitzi’s favorite new resting place:

So glad we don’t bother buying her expensive furniture! As for playthings, her favorites are twist ties!

Birthdays! This was birthday week:
First we celebrated Noah’s 21st birthday on Tuesday evening at Buca di Beppo with the obligatory toast and pasta-laden feast (garlic bread, caesar salad, gnocchi, eggplant parmesan, fettucine alfredo, lasagna), topped off with a complimentary cake slice heavily colored like an Italian flag (and about as tasty). Then Noah and his brother took off for a night of carousing (bowling? movies? drinking?) with his friends.

Wednesday was my birthday and I wasn’t really feeling 59 until my brother (who is all of 3 years younger) started reminding me how ancient I was! I had a lovely lunch with an old friend (and two more of those to come) and a family dinner at Morton’s—where my plan is always to enjoy the caesar salad, take home 3/4 of my XXX-rare filet, and save my appetite for the Grand Marnier Souffle, which I did—delicious! A celebratory glass of Prosecco helped ease the years. My husband created this amazing stand-up birthday card on his laser cutter.

And just to extend the birthday fun, we again celebrated during Bead Group yesterday, where my friend Dianne made me my favorite “Princess” white cake with pink frosting…she even decorated it with sprinkles. Sorry we forgot to snap a photo of the intact cake, but here’s what’s left:

Second son Noah (the Magnificent) won $200 in a Magic the Gathering Grand Prix tournament. Way to go Noah—you’re on a roll! Here’s a photo of Noah (on the right) and his friend Owen (left) which appeared on the Magic event page (at either the PTQ or the Grand Prix…I can’t remember):

Son the second (Noah the magnificent) phoned yesterday with the good news: he finally won a Magic the Gathering (card game) PTQ (Pro Tour Qualifier) and will be going to the Pro Tour Tournament in Honolulu in June! He’s excited and that’s an understatement! And we’re very proud of him for finally accomplishing one of his goals. Way to go Noah! (Now back to the day-to-day college schoolwork routine!)

Last Friday we opened the New York Times to find son #1—the now notorious Aaron—featured in a nearly full page article:

This was followed the next day by a NYT blog, with more explanation, in which, towards the end,…he mentions his mother (!): The Lede

(smiling)

I can’t believe this is on FOX News (and about 5 years too late) but my eldest son is “profiled” in a group of 5 kid entrepreneurs (of course they never say exactly what it is that he does!). I’d like to embed the video but can’t figure out how so you’ll have to settle for a link. Enjoy.

And, yes, I guess his participation in the development of RSS and Web 2.0; and his having helped create and having sold a dot.com business; and all his work on non-profits (like Open Library, Creative Commons, the Change Congress movement, and Watchdog); and all his publications and his speaking at conferences (he’s in Brazil at the moment speaking at the World Social Forum 2009) may just be a step above having a lemonade stand.

MIT held its annual mystery puzzle hunt the weekend before last and my youngest son took part. It was his first time and he had lots of fun even though his team didn’t win. Here’s a short video about the hunt and a good screen shot of Ben at 41-42 seconds in:

We stayed in Wengen, a small village nestled in a valley between two major mountain ranges in the Alps, at a delightful hotel called the Alpenrose