Author: Andy Smallman

Okay, it’s time for all of you Downton Abbey fans to reveal yourselves, starting, I guess, with me. I’m not going to suggest that you don’t know it’s a British TV show, part of PBS and Masterpiece Classic. I’m not going to suggest that you aren’t hanging on to every episode, like Melinda and me (who this very minute is waiting for me so we can watch the next one).

You know who you are, just like me.

Melinda and I paid $21 to Amazon for the right to stream episodes online in high definition, which we are doing through our TV (see today’s photo). And apparently there is talk between Melinda and her mother for us to have some kind of Downton Abbey theme dinner party. But just who will play the part of my valet?

“I’m coming, Melinda!”

Sundays in Seattle are very different than Sundays in Nantes. I found myself thinking about this today as Melinda & I were sunning ourselves in our backyard. I’m sure the mid 70 degree weather in Seattle today contributed to me thinking about Nantes, too, so many times did Melinda, the girls and I lay out in the sun next to our pool.

Anyway, I found myself thinking about Sundays and how in Nantes all the grocery stores are closed. I just returned from making a quick Sunday afternoon grocery store run in Seattle. Wanting a few things for school lunches this week and deciding to pick up a cold roasted chicken for dinner tonight, I didn’t have to give a second thought if it would be open.

In the spirit of all the posts I made about our neighborhood grocery store in Nantes, I took this picture today of the Safeway not far from our house.

When I was a little kid, my brothers and I raised rabbits. It’s fair to say my parents helped, but I really look back on this and say it was something my brothers and I did. We were responsible for feeding and providing drinking water, which was especially challenging during the Nebraskan winters. The rabbits all lived in hutches in our backyard and the water in their crocks would freeze. We’d bring in the crocks and soak them in hot water in the kitchen sink, then take the crocks back out with fresh water.

There are SO many stories I could tell, the most memorable being when my older brothers locked me in the hutch with Sniffles, my rabbit, and ran inside to get a camera. Little did they know they not only locked me in there with Sniffles, there was a wasp nest in there, too.

Anyway, here you go, Perrin, a post about rabbits, complete with a picture of two bunnies from the the first litter we ever had.

Let me introduce you to a pair of running shoes I’ve used in each of my last two runs. I’m not calling them “my new running shoes,” not yet, at least, because they have just been loaned to me to try out. A generous neighbor, Kevin, runs a couple of local stores (including Queen Anne Dispatch) that distributes these shoes. They’re by Merrell and are called “Barefoot Shoes.” I’m totally taken by them.

Like I said, I’ve worn them in each of my last two runs, 30 minutes each, tonight and on Wednesday. To use them properly, you have to shorten your stride and place your foot flat on the ground, not the common heal-toe placement. The shoes are very light but provide surprising support. And when you get in the groove with them, it’s like you just start to float over the ground.

Can you tell I’m a convert?

Isn’t that a contradiction, double solitaire? No matter. That’s what’s taking place behind me right now. Ella and Carib (er, Granny, er, mom, um, MY mom) are playing double solitaire. It’s a good thing, grandmother and granddaughter hanging out together on a drizzly Thursday night.

Each Thursday I drive my dad home from PSCS where he has been volunteering. I then stay for dinner and chat with my folks. Ella came today because her normal Thursday night ballet class isn’t happening due to spring break. We’ve stayed a little longer tonight than I usual stay by myself, both because of the solitaire game and because my dad needed help getting their car dropped off at the mechanic’s.

The baseball and hockey games on TV didn’t hurt matters, either.

Granted, this may seem like a strange post. But over the weekend Melinda and I got to talking about root beer and how it was impossible to find in France. In fact, when a teenage neighbor in Nantes for whom we provided English lessons was planning a visit to Washington DC with her school last year we insisted she try root beer. She posted to her Facebook page that she had done just that, but didn’t sound too enthused.

Anyway, Melinda and I like an occasional root beer but really want it to be a good one. We also enjoy an occasional cocktail. Combining those enjoyments turned up this liqueur, Root. Mixed with a ginger beer and poured over ice and you have a fine sunny afternoon drink.

Learn more.

There are so many things I love about this video that I can’t list them all. I’ll just say, this is what the Internet can do. Invest the 11 minutes it takes to watch, but do so when you will not be rushed.

Look at me there, hard at work at PSCS. I know what you’re thinking – just how hard is it to work at PSCS? For me, not hard at all. Frankly, I love it. And as I have often told people over the 18 years of PSCS, every day I have the privilege of getting up and going to work at a job I love.

Speaking of which, today I met with a person named Richard Hartung who connected in to PSCS through the online kindness classes I’ve facilitated for years. He’s an American who now lives in Singapore. He grew up in Seattle and still has family in the area; in fact, he came in to PSCS with his father. What a delight it was to talk to them and tell them about PSCS. It’s one of my favorite parts of my job.

Richard wrote an article about his experience in the kindness class and I went online to find it. While it appears to have been removed, I did find this blog post that references it. On top of that, I found out Richard made a TEDx talk!

Dorothy is our 93 year-old next door neighbor. She lives alone and still drives. If it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t be living in our house. Back in 1998, when we bought it, people were offering more than the asking price on houses. Apparently, someone outbid us. But Dorothy put in a good word for us, saying she’d like to live next door to our young family.

So we owe Dorothy a lot.

In Dorothy’s backyard is this beautiful Magnolia tree. It is in full bloom right now and we get a lovely view of it from our dining room (this photo was taken at 2pm today). Melinda invited Dorothy over this afternoon for a cup of tea so she could see her Magnolia as we see it.

Learn more about Dorothy from this post, written while we were in France and just after a Skype session with her.

That’s my friend Bob with me, a photo Melinda took last night while Bob & I were being a little silly with a digestif, the “water of life” that Melinda got for me back in September. I’d been saving it for a special occasion and what could be more special than having Bob up from Olympia for dinner and to spend the night.

For context purposes, I met Bob in 1986 when I was an undergrad at The Evergreen State College. He is the father of Si, a brain-injured boy with whom I began working that year. Learn more at this post from back in January. Suffice it to say, meeting Bob and Si changed the direction of my life.

As good as this picture is, I could have used one I took of Bob and Melinda and in which it appears Melinda is proposing to Bob.

I told you. He’s special.