WE NOW LIVE IN ASHLAND!

Yeah, this means I'll need to change the blog title, but I'm going to have to think about it. Don't want to come up with something like Sausalito Sketches. Don't get me wrong, it did the trick, but I'm ready to graduate from a place-oriented alliteration to something else. Ashland Adventures or It's Ashland Ah'ight! aren't going to cut it. See what I mean? (Your suggestions are welcome and will possibly be respected.)

Anyway, this'll be brief for today, since I'm still unpacking this place. Just an FYI, though: that photo above is part of the Elizabethan Theater for the Ashland Shakespeare Festival -- and I have a mini version of that in my back yard. Literally! Our rental house has a little Shakespeare cottage out back that was the Shakespeare booth at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. From there, it came to the Ashland Shakespeare Festival, and from there it somehow ended up in my back yard. Guess who has a new writing cottage??? I'll post photos and other descriptions of the whole house soon, but that' s a little tantalizing tidbit for now.



In other news...

Dane spent last week in YMCA Basketball camp while Aubrey stuck by my side. (She didn't have any interest in basketball.) I wasn't sure how Dane would like it, since he's never really played except at MiniHawks or in P.E. -- but here's what he had to say about it on his way to the second day of camp:

D: Mom, how long is camp?
A: It's from 9 to noon every day, so that's three hours a day.
D: Boy, yesterday it felt like it lasted ONE MINUTE.

He's already asking be on a basketball team after soccer season.* I think he might even get a hoop for his birthday. We live on a quiet street where we can set one up. And it's likely no one will steal it! (As they might in Marin City. Yes, we do a lot of comparing to Marin City here, with a surprising mix of pros and cons).

Another interaction:

Living by the cousins is thrilling for Dane and Aubrey (and us). Cousin Jude, age 4, was over the other day playing with Dane while the girls were all still at Kai and Dana's.

Dane and Jude came to me and Dane says, "Mom, you know what I just told Jude?" (Jude's standing next to him nodding and repeating occasional words Dane says.) "Jude just said we're cousins, and I told him we're more like brothers. We're brothers, Mom. We're like brothers, aren't we, Jude?" Jude nods vigorously and says, "Yeah, me and Dane brothers." And then they talk a little bit between them, because they have to establish that, yeah, they're actually cousins, too, so Dane adds, "Well, it's really like we're 50% cousins, 50% brothers and 50% friends."

That's right, boys...


*Today I signed Dane and Aubrey up for Fall Soccer teams through the Y.