Apartment Update

Our apartment will be available to Luther Seminary Maintenance this
coming week. After maintenance figures out what needs to be done and
then finishes their work (repairs, perhaps new carpeting), we'll be
able to move in. So hopefully mid-October we'll be at our final
destination.

Photos from LaCrosse/LaCrescent

We enjoyed a peaceful visit to LaCrescent. The tomatoes are coming in fast and furious:


Uncle Bill and I took a trip across the Mississippi to the LaCrosse children's museum and spent almost 5 hours there.





See more pictures here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/nappell/September2007

LaCrosse Children's Museum Video

Philosophy 101

Grace, in the bathtub, where she apparently is inspired to think
deeply: "Daddy, if all babies have mommies and daddies, then how
could the first people have been born?"

A good question. We are in the-chicken-or-the-egg territory.

La Crescent, MN

We're in LaCrescent, Minnesota this weekend, visiting Aimee's kinfolk
- Aunt Sara & Uncle Bill - and getting acquainted with some bottles of
wine.

Happy Birthday Aimee

It's good to finally turn 30.

First Week of School and Employment Update

> This is the first official week of school at Luther Seminary - and
> Grace's first 5-day week of kindergarten.
>
> Nelson has a job offer from Luther Social Services (LSS) - a
> temporary position through the end of the year doing administrative
> work. The pay is decent, and the organization is doing exciting
> things. LSS is located 200 yards from our apartment, so it's an
> easy commute.

new blog

Aimee says:
This (a new blog) is a little experiment I'm working on. I hope it
will be a place to share my thoelogical and personal insights over the
next couple years. I'd appreciate your feedback!

http://aimee-at-sem.blogspot.com/

Observations on Superman

Grace, at lunch, offered this oberservation: "Superman doesn't always
smile, right?"
Nelson: "Why were you thinking about Superman?"
Grace: "Superman saves the world. He's not real. So why did they
make a movie about Superman?"
Nelson: "Why do you think they did?"
Grace: "They did. They really did. I wish Superman was dressed in
the same suit as Batman, but was Superman. I want to change the names
of Superman and Batman."

Pods unpacked

I was unpacking our pods, thinking it might take me all weekend to complete the task (especially since Aimee has a sprained ankle and can't carry boxes back and forth), when a new friend asked if I needed help. Pretty soon I had a half-dozen volunteers and we emptied the pods in a little less than two hours. So we ordered pizzas as a thank you and had pizzas out in the central area between the apartments.

I didn't paint

Nelson, at the bus stop: "Hi Grace! What did you do at school today?"
Grace: "I didn't paint."

Later, Aimee at home: "Hi Grace. How was school today?"
Grace: "I didn't paint."

Holden in Tunnel

Home from Banff

Katie and Milt finally gave up and flew home from Banff. The truck won't be ready to drive home until next week, so Milt is going to go return to Canada when it is ready. (And probably take it home and sell it.)

The News from Burntvedt Court

We now have two 1-bedroom apartments. The moving pods arrived today, and we've started unpacking them into our 2nd 1-bedroom apartment. Aimee sprained her ankle yesterday and is hobbling around.

Grace is making friends, and starting to talk about who she will be inviting to her birthday in March.


I strongly suspect that our stuffed animals are planning an insurrection, as I often surprise them after they have organized themselves in suspiciously military formations.


Grace started kindergarten on Wednesday. She is thrilled to get on the bus each afternoon. She is only gone from home a little over 3 hours, and each day she has returned complaining about all the things she didn't get to do that day (I didn't go down the slide... I didn't get to paint, etc.)


Oh - and our closets have an unfortunate color:

Still in Banff

Katie and Milt are still in Banff. However, they report that if you
have to be stuck somewhere for a couple weeks waiting for your car to
be repaired, Banff in August/September is the place to be stuck. They
are having a great vacation.

Minnesota State Fair

Eric (Nelson's brother) sent along some of his photos from when he
attended the Minnesota State Fair about 10 days before we did:

The Minnesota State Fair really is a great fair. It didn't have Deep
Fried Pepsi like the Montana Fair, but it held its own with deep fried
Spam curds, Teriyaki Ostrich on a stick, and even foods that are not
deep fried or served on a stick. Anne and I visited on the opening day
of the fair, but the rain kept many away. Other favorite attractions
included University of Minnesota dairy cow-made milk shakes, the Belgian
Horses in the cattle barn which were 7 feet in height, and the Space
Needle-inspired Space Tower.
-Eric

Minnesota State Fair

Yesterdy we woke up and thought, lets get together with a few of our neighbors:



Yes, the Minnesota State Fair is huge and crowded and extravagant and quite amazing. We live two blocks from the free shuttle parking lot, so we took the free shuttle to the fair. I imagine the average weight gain for the State of Minnesota these two weeks is about seven pounds:







Or the Deep-fried Spam, or the Hot Dish on a stick, or the funnel cakes covered in Bavarian Cream and Chocolate Sauce. The food was uniformly bad for you, but it tasted great. Grace went on lots of rides, including the river rapid ride with Aimee:



Clucked at the chickens:


And Grace had her face painted:



To see some other photos from the fair, click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/nappell/MNStateFair02

Another Banff Update

From Nelson's brother, Eric:

Last I spoke with Katie was Friday night. There were holding out hope
that the truck part they needed was also in Toronto, being shipped in
Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, it was the wrong part. I'm not sure
if Toronto had the part to begin with, but now they must wait for the
part from Kentucky to arrive Tuesday or Wednesday. I shipped Katie
some extra medication that should have arrived Friday, but no word on
whether it cleared customs. ETA home is Thursday at the earliest, if
everything goes well. Which it hasn't so far. However, they do have
a rental car as well as their camping gear, and are camping where they
originally planned, so all is not lost. Hopefully they move into a
hotel on Tuesday, once Labor Day weekenders have gone home in their
perfectly-working vehicles.

Lindsey in Japan

Nelson's sister Lindsey, a senior in High School, is on an exchange
program in Tokyo, Japan, until early 2008. She has started to blog
about her experiences: http://vaguely-amused.blogspot.com/