Memphis Democrat
December 8, 2005

This is Suzanne-- I have been loving this wintry weather. I've always lived in very mild climates before moving here--like Richmond, Virginia and Portland, Oregon and I find it very exciting to live in a state that actually gets snow in December. To me, snow makes the cold worthwhile. My definition of what is "cold" is changing too--I used to think 40 degrees was cold.

You'd never guess it was 25 degrees out yesterday. For Tamar's birthday a group of Rabbits did a triathlon--a 45 minute bike ride followed by an hour long run and a half hour of yoga. It was Tamar's idea--she asked Tom first, knowing that if Tom wouldn't go for it, nobody would. Tom thought it was a great idea and so did Cecil, Nathan, Rachel, and Tony. I joined in for about five minutes of running, that was enough for me. Later in the day, after our weekly meeting, six of us played ultimate frisbee. Believe it or not, four of the six were those same triathlon participants. If you thought we were crazy before... now you know it!

Friday night Rachel had a thesis burning...ahem, I mean a thesis celebration party after community dinner. She brought snacks and people read aloud bits of her thesis in poetry voice. Rachel started it off with a dramatic rendition of vector analysis, Cecil did a hilarious rap, Thomas sang in opera and Amy sang a paragraph to the tune of the Hava Na'Gila. What has Rachel been doing now that she has no thesis to work on? Lots of crossword puzzles. She and I have caught the crossword bug and are racing through a book of puzzles with help from Cecil, Juan and Tony. Doing puzzles, sleeping in, and playing in the snow.

That has been the theme of the week for many of us. Alternating activity with hibernation. Rachel and Tony went skating on the pond this morning. The Johnsons, Nathan, and Andrew all went sledding one day this week. Cecil and Tamar went skiing the first morning of snow but found the conditions weren't yet good for it. Of course, there are other Rabbits I haven't seen since the temperature dropped--I guess they must be hibernating.

Winter isn't all playing outside here. Jennifer, Juan, Tony and Thomas have been busy planning our winter retreat. Jenn and Andrew have been spending lots of time doing meta care (babysitting) with Rowan, Cinder and Torin. Laura has been busy illustrating a children's book that she wrote--the three illustrations I've seen so far are gorgeous and I can't wait to see the finished results. Erik has been working on researching, purchasing, and putting in place a new, more efficient boiler for our common house.

Tom and Tereza have been putting together puzzles inside their cozy house. Tereza is pretending that it isn't winter at all--that the snow outside is merely styrofoam. To maintain the illusion, she doesn't go outside. I would think the constant stream of visitors wearing coats, hats, scarfs and boots coming to her door might give it away but apparently not.

I came back this week from my brother's wedding in DC---it was a beautiful ceremony and great seeing my family but the travelling was a bit stressful. I caught a cold on the way home and have spent most of the week reading mysteries in bed. Thomas went to Pekin, Illinois to visit family. Molly is in Portland till January, visiting family and working a temporary job. Tamar went to visit Jeffrey in San Francisco and today Cecil is off to visit Jeffrey as well. Ted and Sara are away for one more week. Isis, their dog, who normally doesn't have any interest in people who aren't named Ted or Sara, misses them so much she has started coming up to other people for affection. Amy and Juan came back this week from visiting both of their families--they had a great time and Amy brought back lots of fun cooking gadgets. And this Sunday at our meeting, Juan was made official as our newest member.

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