Books? Ipads? Nah. The real way to save money is to make the kids buy slates. Or not even bother educating them at all! Kids know far more about computers and how to treat and use them than we do, and can teach us a thing or two. My three-year-old gdtr made a little video for me on my brand new tablet. Imagine my surprise and delight when, several days after she had gone home, I was learning to use my tablet and came across her sweet little video, her sweet voice singing a silly song, her beautiful face bouncing around on my screen. I have no idea how she did it; I was consulting my manual, reading step-by-step, trying to figure out how to make a video when she popped up! Maybe I will ask her how to post it here next time I see her, so you can see for yourselves. As a book lover, I am sad to think that books, of all things, are not permanent! But I do believe that computers are the future. Kids will have their school-pads AND their personal pads. And cell phones. And fuel-efficient vehices. And everything else, as things come along. We will still have our slates and buggy whips, our gas-guzzlers and short-sightedness. My great-grandmother, born in 1873, would have nothing to do with airplanes!

Thanks for all the thoughts and wishes about DS. He has a big choice, indeed many choices, ahead of him. I feel that, of the four of us, he is furthest on the artistic, feeling, performance end of the scale. Even more than DD. Turning to DD. When you last saw her, she was traveling in Europe, selling bread at French markets and picking organic vegetables in French hippie farms, and joining us for Christmas in Carpentras http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/4350473/our-christmas-in-carpentras She did a little blogging during her travels, just a little. https://katemakesthings.wordpress.com After Carpentras, we went to Barcelona and spent New Years in Copenhagen, where we lived for almost a week in an apartment, cooking and walking around. Then DS and I returned to Portland to school and work, while DD and DW stayed in Europe, traveling in the Czech Republic and Poland, texting us sorrowfully about just how cold it was and how they just had to buy warm furry clothes and nip into little restaurants and eat excellent meals for very little money and how they just hadn't gotten around to buying return tickets yet and maybe they might come home in February but if not then for sure March. DS and I were not amused. DD did finally return to Portland, resumed school as an "online" student in the spring term, and in the summer returned to the camp in Tahoe. She now supervises the kitchen head and his assistants, the dining room, does the food ordering and menu planning, handles staffing training and scheduling, so she only gets in the kitchen for a few meals now and then. So different from her first summers, when she washed dishes and chopped veggies 12 hours a day. It isn't a great earning job, but in three months she does make enough to pay her own rent and some spending money for the school year, which she is very proud of. She is in her junior year, back at university, and working on degrees in journalism and in digital arts. Her minors will be in creative writing and fine art. She started as a fine art major (drawing, painting) but is having fun with digital media. Here's a recent stop action video https://vimeo.com/238725466 and an edgier mash-up https://vimeo.com/244992527 Next term she will edit a student design/architecture journal and in the summer she'll return to work at camp. The interesting thing about DD, to me, is that she thrives in two worlds. She is creative, visual, draws, writes. At the same time, she enjoys long days in a hot commercial kitchen, juggling staff crises and equipment failures. She creates things, but is practical with a head for numbers. Another thing about her is that, even if it takes awhile for her to create a career with this combination of writing, visual art, and cooking skills, she can take her knife roll and get work as a cook.

I love to dance, but prefer to do so solo. A crowded dance floor in a group is where I'm happy, or at a concert or music festival where others are bopping away to the music as well. Couples dancing is not my thing, even though I admire others who can dance well with a partner. DH and I took salsa lessons a few years ago in a group class where we were expected to change partners regularly during each lesson. I didn't care for that, as it placed me with all different levels of dancers (the good ones made me especially self-conscious, because I had a hard time getting the steps right and felt I was limiting their experience), and DH and I wanted to learn to salsa so that we could dance together, not with others. Anyway, I was a dropout, while he went on to complete the beginner's class, just to be able to say he had stuck it out.

Pssst Lars, I do need your entire record collection please, but I think there might start to be some loading issues soon. No pressure, but we may need a new thread, or, you should definitely do this again soon/at some point:)