Memphis Democrat
February 1, 2009

Hi, all. Juan here, and here's another update from Dancing Rabbit.If you're expecting more book reviews, you're out of luck. All I'vebeen reading has been information on childbirth and parenting, withsome fiction thrown in to balance. Amy's and my upcoming baby isn'tleaving us much time before they show up.

We had an interesting week, weather-wise. The clouds and snow earlyon reminded us that it was winter, and brought our batteries low.Then we had some really mild sunny days starting on Wednesday; Iremember seeing flocks of birds heading back north. Wait, not yet!You'll freeze your tail feathers! Oh well.

One of our ponds is affectionately known as "Cattail Pond," thanks tothe cattails that grow in it. As far as some of the kids around hereare concerned, though, it's just another ice rink. Almost daily gamesof broomball have been happening out there in the afternoons. I'venever played it myself, but apparently broom-ball involves a big balland brooms. Who would've thought? The 6-year-old skating/runnning onthe ice carrying a pushbroom made it definitely a spectator sport.Chilly evenings have brought the indoor activities up as well.Settlers of Catan is once again a popular boardgame in the commonhouse on any given night. This has no doubt been helped by the factthat our neighbors at Sandhill have acquired the latest expansion, ashave we.

Friday night saw a last-minute showing of "A Mighty Wind," a parody offictionalized documentaries about musicians. I missed it myself, butI heard it's quite funny, even if it does claim to be in thathorribly-named genre called "mockumentary."

It's not all fun and games, however. Our yearly retreat is fastapproaching. For those who are just joining us, we get together everyyear for several days of meetings to knock out any large decisions orissues facing the community. This requires a lot of preparation work,so most of our committees have been meeting to write up their variousproposals. So much is there to talk about, in fact, that we've beenhaving business meetings on Sundays more frequently these past fewweeks, trying to tackle some of the early stuff, well, early.

On an interesting note, those of you who have televisions may beinterested to know that The Food Network was around here filming somemonths ago. I'm unable to confirm this information on their website,but we've been told that we're due to appear on an episode of the show"My Life in Food" called "Living off the Land" in the next week ortwo. Check your listings, and we'll update you if we know more.Finally, the Milkweed Mercantile got themselves some furniture, platesand glasses for their cafe, and the building itself is looking morecomplete by the day. However, Alline is still looking for a decent6-burner commercial stove. If you know where to find one, contact alline@milkweedmercantile.com

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