I looked for another calming sea shot for Chris, but failed to find one. How about this photo to take your mind off Manny. It’s just the back, but it does make you want to see the rest of her dress.

We’d tried for years to attend one of Daniel Merriam’s July galley openings at the Abacus in Boothbay, but always had other commitments. This year we made it, and though our tastes have changed somewhat, we were still enthralled by his new work. We also noticed that we can no longer afford his art. Prices ranged from eight thousand to fifty.

Sitting on the deck, sipping espressso, Diane completed the entire Saturday Globe crossword puzzle. Isn’t that what vacations are about? Unless your name is rakkity.

I pulled our almost seven year old laptop out of the closet, wiped the hard drive clean, installed OS X and added a wireless card, and now I have a perfectly good traveling machine. I wonder if you could install XP on a laptop running at 333 mhz?

Anyway, here we are sitting in the Townsend Ave Coffee House and Wine Bar (How perfect a combination is that? Come for breakfast and coffee and stay for lunch and dinner). By we, I now mean I. We arrived together but after coffee and postcards dutiful Diane has slipped off to the post office and to browse the local stores.

Walking by our table on Robinson’s Wharf, in Southport, ME.

Diane rolled her eyes as this band on the library common played Sousa Marches, but I rode the time machine back to an era I only knew from Saturday Evening Post covers, and perhaps one political rally in Nevada, Missouri, when I was fifteen. I missed the photo op of the day – hands on hearts during The National Anthem.
Closer View
Matthew drove up in his Mazda and joined us for a day and a half. We played three games of scrabble (they had no chance), and two games of mini-golf. In the first game Matt had two holes-in-one, but my sloppy score keeping ( I kept inserting his scores into my column) forced us to play that second game, in which Diane won. “It’s the sport I’m best at,” she said.

We’re off to Boothbay Harbor . Back Sunday night.

How about a flower without the pistils and stamen? See , I really can change.

I wonder how rakkity is?

Michael & Tricia
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Dan Downing & Mark Schreiber
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Molly and Michael

Taken earlier today in Ginger’s backyard.
Full View

First of all, the photo classes are somewhat great and somewhat terrible. IÂ¥ve realized that the kids here are so unused to cameras that they canít get over the idea that cameras are for themselves and for fun and for pictures of their friends and to the idea that photos are to create a message and a feeling. So weíll see how the photos come out. They might be pretty boring. IÂ¥m teaching two ®classes®. The one in the morning has two kids – a really sweet boy and equally sweet girl. They totally got the whole idea that photos are for more than just your friends. When I was trying to explain that we werenÂ¥t going to be taking a lot of pictures of people because ®fotos son por m·s de personas. Son importantes porque pueden tener….® ®mensajes?® said Karolina. It was wonderful. So the morning kids understand it. In the afternoon I have 5 kids. And they totally donÂ¥t understand that concept. PS Dad, one of the cameraÂ¥s CF cards really isnÂ¥t working. Every time I take it out and put it back it in says itÂ¥s ok, and then I take a photo and it says ®CF®. So IÂ¥m just going to go without it. I think it might also be something about the ages. Because the morning has two 11 yr olds, and the afternoon has 12 and 13 year olds. The 11 yr olds are still at the point in their lives where they might really enjoy school. They say they do. But as kids get older here, they often stop liking school since most really donÂ¥t go to college. Carlos, on the other hand, is so motivated. ItÂ¥s amazing. HeÂ¥s going to college. I can just tell.
Also, I¥m realizing that I understand enough Spanish certainly, but not a lot. Like, I get general ideas but if someone said something and was sad I couldn¥t tell you if they were REALLY sad or if it was UPSET more than sad or what. I get general concepts but if I wanted to say that the pig was squealing it¥s frickin head off (as it is now in a house nearby), I¥d have no way to say that. I¥d have to say ®he¥s making a lot of noise® which does not connotate the same thing.
OK, so: please don¥t freak out. There was a guy in the internet place who came up to me and asked me fore my email. I lied and told him I was using my moms. The next day he did the same thing and said he wanted to write me one and I was like ®Eh, what¥s the worst thing that could happen? Not a lot. I¥m leaving soon and could kung fu his ass if I really needed to® So, then he said he wanted to speak in English with me and he¥d come to the library today at 11:30 to do so (he never did). So he sent me this:

Sorpresa! ha recibido una postal de Yahoo!
de “Alexander” (alexbad79@yahoo.com)!

Para ver la postal, pulse la siguiente direcciÛn del web en cualquier
momento de aquÌ a los prÛximos 30 dÌas.

http://es.view.greetings.yahoo.com/greet/view?AT7QZEJ4X9ZIW

Si no funciona, vaya a http://es.view.greetings.yahoo.com/pickup y copie y pegue
este cÛdigo:

AT7QZEJ4X9ZIW

°Disfrute!

El equipo de Yahoo! Postales

So you can look at that thing if you want (Please do. I think it¥s funny. Jaime did too. And then we almost puked together).
I¥m about to send him this email back (right before I leave so I don¥t have to talk to him about it):

Tengo un novio en EstelÌ. Quiero solamente un novio. Nada m·s. Pero si quiere estudiar ingles, puedo ayudarle.

Tenga un buen dÃŒa, Hilaria

I think it¥s HILARIOUS. (Don¥t you worry. I don¥t ACTUALLY have a boyfriend in EstelÌ. Most of the boys there are grosso. Jaime says she¥ll defend me if he comes near me. HAAAAHAHA. We think it¥s funny.

I LOVE YOU GUYS! LOVE AND LIGHT, HILARY!