October 27 Update

Aunt Gretchen sent us a nice book about darts as a thank-you gift for her stay. It has all the rules and strategies  for different dart games and tips on how to  improve your game.  We had an enormous amount of rain yesterday and today, but it's clearing up now. I don't think I've ever seen the creek that high. Here's a picture. If you haven't ever seen our creek, I should  point out that the normal amount of water it contains ranges from "damp" to "just visible". We saw a great movie last night, called "Insomnia" with Al Pacino and Robin Williams, accompanied by  takeout from the Lucky Village.  Al Pacino is a detective who goes to Alaska in the summer to solve a murder. He has trouble sleeping because  it's so light out, and well, maybe he has something on his mind, too. I don't think I've ever seen anyone look so haggard as Al Pacino after a few days of no sleep. I hope Rachel has mastered the trick of sleeping in Alaska in the summer. We're also watching the old BBC mini-series of "Pride and Predjudice" with a young Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. We think Peter has sent in everything he needs for his application to Purchase, so it shouldn't be too long before we hear, because they have a rolling admission process. He still might have to write an essay -- we're still checking on that. I finished "The Idiot's Guide to Football". It was very informative, although I have a feeling I won't  be able to use a lot of the  advice about what to eat and how to train to make it in the NFL.  It was bittersweet to be able to recognize the "shotgun  formation" in last week's Eagles/Bears  game, because it was one  of their last, desperate, plays after a big screwup right at the end that cost them the game. I didn't need my book to recognize the screwup, though. The problem was a classic --"letting the Bears take the ball as far as they wanted without trying very hard to stop them".