English Emma Blooms

Thanksgiving arrived! It started in perfect fashion with coffee, reading material, oatmeal and meditation.. For our FIRST Thanksgiving dinner with headed off for (great) Grandmas where we gathered to eat with Agnes and Tom, Natalie and Uncle Mike, Aunt Maggi, Uncle Jerome, Cousin Jackie ... who else? Andy, Greg, Aaron, Matt, me and Joel.

Andy has expanded our holiday celebrations by introducing us all to the joys of Nicole, JJ and Hailey. Not only does Joel have the benefit of Pseudo cousins, but I get a pseudo sister in law!

Joel said that the best part of thanksgiving was playing with his uncles. It seemed that there was always an uncle at Papa's house. When one left, another arrived within the hour. Uncle Jon read him books and did crafts, Uncle Andy wrestled with him, and Uncle Greg played.

I also read the biography of Shakespeare by Bill Bryson. Very entertaining. In that book I found out that James the 1st not only produced offspring with his wife, but also had sex with men of the court. Apparently he used to nibble on the ears of mail courtiers during meetings of state, much to the irritation of those present. Never heard of that before. The Elizabethan and Jacobean eras of British History are the most interesting to me, especially with the Gun Powder plot, etc. Also, did you know that London Bridge used to be hung with the heads of those accused of crimes against the royalty? it is time for Joel's before bed books.

One of the great things about Thanksgiving in Michigan, besides spending time with family and going fort long walks with Solomon, is that Joel wants absolutely nothing to do with me. This means I get time to sit with a hot (very very hot) cup of Matt's delicious coffee and read a book! What did I read this vacation, you ask? Well, I learned all about poop, or sludge, and what happens to it when it leaves our bodies! This is a subject of intimate and incredible interest to both me and Joel. Our poop goes into our back garden via our septic tank which includes a finger system that leads to our vegetable garden! Therefore, we are recycling our waste. Across from the road from us is a lift station. The lift station lifts poop piped in from the shopping malls north of us. No house in our neighborhood is connected to the sewer. Once a week petit environmental visits the lift station and does something insidious to it. Anyway... most poop in the US goes to treatment plants.

I have not reported everything! last night we went out to dinner with Judy, aka Grandma. She took us out to eat at Logan's with Uncle Greg. It was past Joel's bedtime and he lAID down on the bench exhaustedly. the trip to MI only took us 5 hours and one stop! best yet! Time to go to Grandma's!

Solomon and I are returned from our long walk. Down the Kent Trail, back on Byron center. Solomon was gratified to have raised the heckles of several large dogs as we passed by their yards. I had my meditative moments. I realize that I never change my lifestyle, I just change the place and my companions. I have gone from walks in Burgess Hill and Okemos with my black dog, to walks in Broad Ripple and Wyoming with my yellow dog. It is not my body that craves these walks, but my mind. I find that if I don't go for a long walk on any given day, I dream all night that I am walking. Two short walks are not equal to one long walk even if they equAL THE SAME distance. The psychological benefit of the walk only comes after the first 30 minutes. On a cold day, the first 30 minutes are the hardest but after that point it is pure pleasure. It is then that my mind is able to find its way around issues and problems and come up with new hAIR BRAined ideas. I AM WRITING on Aar

Things for which I am thankful. This group of friends showed up just when I was praying for them 6 years ago! They didn't know that until now. We don't get together much as a group anymore, but this before Thanksgiving get together was one of those rare, fun occasions. Goldilocks (pl) A Bear The three intellectuals (with their nerdy glasses) Too much fun at one end of the table

Need a dentist? Dr. K.C. Schneider (husband of Natalie) is accepting new patients. He is located at: Schneider Dental 8928 E 96th St., Fishers, IN 46037. Call for an appointment at: 598-9380 Check out the mops yellow pages at the BOTTOM of our blog. Please contact Emma if you want to add to the list.

On the first rainy day of fall, Joel said "LEt's go to the mall!". We stopped by the Picture place and got bamboozled into a sitting by a very pretty 5 foot tall 19 year old photographer. This is the result:

Instead of wasting our money on a frivolous excursion, we spent Aaron's vacation week at home.   It was extremely relaxing.   While Joel was at school Aaron and I had a "date".   We went to breakfast at Cafe Patachou and hung out. We all went to the movie theatre to see Madagascar II and to a restaurant. Aaron and Joel made me a new desk for my computer!   It was exactly what I wanted! Matt stopped by to spend time with Joel and us. What could be a more perfect vacation? I did not write about this earlier as I was still reeling from the death of Jonathan

Here is the last email I received from Jonathan. I have omitted personal stuff. "Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:56:33 +0700 To: Emma Kalinowski Hello Emma! I can't believe your finger! It looked awful!! I'm here in Cambodia right now. They are working up to their own water festival, which is a bit different from halloween. Phnom Penh was recently voted (according to one US magazine) the second worst city on the planet to visit. I can't understand why! Sure it isn't polished - but then reality rarely is. Its croweded, chaotic - but colourful and the people are friendly. 6 years ago there were not. Now there is new hope and money. Mobile phone masts cast shadows on temple watts. Lexus's out number normal cars. Who says corruption doesn't pay. It does. I saw a Humer while walking home tonight. But despite that, people are dirt poor. Corruption has to take from someone... That the sad part. So my role has changed and I'll now be working w