Memphis Democrat
December 19, 2002

Hi everyone! This is Alline filling in again for Rachel, who is still on special assignment.

It's been another busy week here at Dancing Rabbit. Lots of moving going on. Alyson and her cat Ingmar (after Bergman, the Swedish director) moved into the Timberframe where they're cozying in and getting comfortable. And with Don living in the downstairs unit of Grainbin condos, and Cecil happily ensconced in his gorgeous room in Skyhouse, the two bedrooms in the trailer have been left open and available. This is the trailer that is across the road from our land, where we cook, eat, bathe, wash our clothes, gather for meetings and fun during the winter. Anyways, Andra came up with a brilliant proposal for the rooms, and a group of folks got together Monday and made it happen. We now have a guest room, and a library. The library is especially wonderful - all of our books are arranged on shelves around the room, and there are two comfortable chairs to sit while whiling away the hours with one's nose in a good book. Moving the books out of the living room has also increased the useable space there, so there's lots of room for our meetings (which we have an extraordinary amount of!).

The warm, sunny weather (hard to remember even though it was just last week, isn't it?) prompted several folks to take long walks out on the land, which is always a renewing and nature-filled experience.

Wednesday we had Milkweed Cheesy Cinema. Not real cinema, mind you, but a video shown in the Milkweeds' Cottage. (One more note of explanation - the Milkweeds are Alline and Kurt. While they are married, they have different last names. Rachel became tired of saying 'Alline and Kurt' and named them the Milkweeds because like the plant, she reasons, they're tall, strong and fuzzy inside. But enough digression.) With the introduction of Milkweed Cheesy Cinema came a slogan which we find quite appropos. Penned by Penn, it states "Bud Lite for the soul". Ah, yes. The inaugural film was "Sweet November" starring Keanu Reeves. In honor of Susan Brown we are considering a Keanu Film Festival. For those of you who think that Keanu is not the greatest actor you've ever seen, Susan would like to note that you're obviously missing the supreme subtlety of his acting skills. So there.

Thursday morning there was a well-attended, quite jovial work party at Penn and Andra's house where the roof was realigned and put back in tis place. It was a great success, and P and A are much relieved.

Alyson and Tamar spent Friday in Columbia where, among other things, they viewed Michael Moore's documentary film "Bowling for Columbine." They're still recovering.

Friday night Susan B. and Tom stayed up late and watched the meteor shower. They gave it a thumbs-up review. Nature scores again.

On Saturday Rachel, Tony, Tamar and Steph participated in a bird count outside of Kirksville. They got to spend the day outside in the warm sunshine, with non-stop bird-sighting. A few high points were an osprey and three bald eagles. Wow!

That evening it was time for Milkweed Classic Theatre, a more highbrow event than our Wednesday night gathering. We showed 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and enjoyed it a lot.

Sunday two of our former interns, Kit and Emily, who are students at Truman State, stopped by with some friends for a tour, dinner and a quick visit. As always, it was great fun to see them!

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