Fractal Fest - or, Chicago 2022 Reunion of Loyola Rome Center 1970-71

Carol LaVesser Salinger and me -
friends since age 8, and Rome roommates

This is the picture I sent home a week into living in the dorm in 1970. I had wrapped myself in pillows and added a big towel, trying to look like I'd already had too much pasta and vino. I captioned the photo "I've changed." Those Italian ladies in the cafeteria could really cook!

 

Last week, when I joined a reunion of Loyola University’s Rome Center, I became part of a living human example of an abstract mathematical construct. 

New Piano, Old Questions - How do we Learn? How do we Remember?

How do we learn? How do we remember? And what has that got to do with “Pipeline,” the Chantays hit from 1962? My head has been full of such wonderings since I bought a piano this spring, and started playing again after decades away from the instrument.

"Poldark" Bingo

 

My dear niece Ashley suggested I try “Poldark” on Amazon Prime and here I am, well into season three, caught like a wiggling fish in a net. I may turn up my nose at bodice buster novels and soap operas, but PBS magic plus the beautifulness of actors Aiden Turner and Elinor Tomlinson have me in their grip. Sometimes I even find myself saying “t’is” and “t’was,” for heaven’s sake.

Gifts from the Waters (Or How I Learned to do Sea Glass Crafts in Spite of Myself)

Sometimes, when life throws you trash, you can turn it into treasure.

Creating with words or boxes

Q. When is it especially fun to write a blog?    

 A. When you get email like this one I received last week:

Hügelkultur and our raised vegetable garden bed

I’m not sure what started my husband’s venture into raised-bed gardening and Hügelkultur, but I’m going to blame YouTube and our neighbors Josiah and Iman.

Music brings us all together

Little did I realize, when I accepted a seemingly-simple Facebook challenge, that I’d be prompting an informal vote on my favorite music.