J Alex' 25th Year—Happy Birthday!

Alone at Fairchild





Robyn Comes to Dining
Out


Robyn Is Commissioned into the Air Force










They Get Married











and Honeymoon in Australia























Alone Again











Moving to Columbus and to Robyn











Finally, Together at Columbus and…


Ready for Pilot Training?

Jacob Cooper's Music at the Minnesota Orchestra

The Minnesota Orchestra is performing Jacob Cooper's Odradek on its Composer Institute Concert Conducted by Osmo Vänskä. Wow!

Sarah, Eric Anderson's wife sent me this note:

Hi Dick,

Nice of you to ask about Jacob! He's been composing for about 5 years now, mostly working on chamber music and electronic music for new music ensembles and scores for little independent and art films. The piece the Minnesota Orchestra is playing is one of a handful of full orchestral pieces he's written. You can find out lots about his music and hear some clips at his website. The premier next week is also going to be broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio, which you can stream live. We're very excited about it!

I hope you are doing well, and that the not-so newlyweds are, too.

Sarah

Gordy mentioned Jacob:

Dorothea and I went to the Minnesota Orchestra concert tonight. It reminded me that October 26th, Sarah's brother Jacob Cooper will be coming here to be part of a young composers' concert with the MO under Osmo Vanska. He's one of six that will have a work premiered by the MO in concert in Orchestra Hall. Sarah & Lucy and Martha and Neil will be here, too. Alas, Eric feels really bad that he can't make it, as he had agreed to a conference presentation that same night somewhere else and can't get out of it.

Bath Time for Lily

I know you've all seen a bath already, but it's really the only action we've been able to video-tape. We could send you a long video of Lily laying really still while she sleeps, but that would probably be a little boring. We cold send you a video of her screaming her head off trying to work some gas through her bowels, but that is just not too cute. So here you have another bath!

I had to make it very small, so the file size would be manageable. On your viewer, you could play it at twice the size, but much bigger than that will be too grainy.

--Matt & Liz

J Alex Takes His First Solo Flight

Just thought that I would let you know J Alex was able to solo last Thursday. He had a great time (we'll get pictures to you later). Now he has moved onto baby aerobatics which is loops, aileron rolls, and split-s maneuvers (I'm not quite sure what they are). This week he will probably have his first checkride which is like test of your flying skills.

I've completed physiology and am now studying systems. We started studying systems today and will have our first test on Fri which gives you an idea of how quickly we move through material here. This is a weird week for J Alex and I because I've been having early reports (5:45-7am) and he's on late week so he hasn't had to go in until around noon and then doesn't get done til late at night. I guess it's an introduction to what the year will be like for us.

J Alex and I have been following the mass of Meinhard emails and the new google group and blog page. It should be fun reading what everyone has to say.

~Robyn

New Addition, Mildred the Mixer

I put work into two categories: constructive work and scut work. In the first category work constructs a product that has some lasting value, like this concrete work putting in new steps at our West Linn house. On the other hand, things like household chores, while necessary, produce nothing of lasting value except a temporarily better condition. Construction work gives me great satisfaction, and I consider the opportunity to do it a fortunate privilege. So now I have Mildred the mixer to help me construct more things.

I love Mildred dearly even though she is adopted and not new. She came from a guy in Newberg who has a day job but loves casting concrete objects as a hobby—fountains, statues, horses, etc. He is a horse lover who wants to own a horse ranch someday so most of what he casts is directed to the horse people market.

His brother also is dedicated to a hobby, that of creating molds for concrete casting. He creates so many new molds, his brother doesn't have enough time to cast them all, and, of course, he has his own favorite castings he likes to do, like cowboy statures. Such is the natural, constructive powers of the human species.

Arleon's Cabin on Prince Edward Island

I located Donna and Arleon's cabin on Prince Edward Island.

Here's the Google map for Arleon's cabin.

Arleon says this:

Well, after all these years we found out that the route number is 3, not 2. So it is as follows:

Kelley/Meinhard
135 Glenway Dr.
RR # 3,
Vernon River, PEI C0A-2E0
CANADA

Phone: 902-651-2752

Cheers,

AK

It's going to be an extended summer vacation for us since we are planning a road trip with lot's of visits after Becky & Ted's wedding. It looks like Donna's PEI gathering will begin around the 4th of July and last until after the 8th. I hope summer plans work out for everyone else.

The Next Wedding—Becky & Ted

SAVE THE DATE: June 21st, 2008
WHY: Becky and Ted's wedding celebration
WHERE: The Howard Farm, Elgin, Iowa

Extended Itinerary, lodging and more information to follow. Look for a website soon.

In the words of the mighty Kool and the Gang, "Bring your good times and your laughter too, we're gonna celebrate and party with you...come on now...CELEBRATION!"

Becky and Ted

Mara & Gianfranco's Wedding

Hi,

Congratulations to Becky and Ted! We are delighted to continue the Meinhard Wedding Flurry and to pass the baton. You can see Mara and Gianfranco's wedding pictures here.

Photographer's ID: 89KAD9M
Password: deluca

My big news is that I had an appendectomy two weeks ago. All goes well now, I think. I was going to go to NYC to be with Lucy for a week just after, so that was rescheduled. Otherwise, all fine here. We loved having you guys all here. I love the way you come ready to party! There are some really funny pictures of my darling siblings!

Much love,
Dorothea

Our Newest Family Member

Lillian Grace Alcoke was born into the world on October 9, 2007, at 11:11pm! She was 8 lbs., 5 oz., 20.5 inches. She is doing great, and has a helluva voice!
We may not have access to e-mail for a short while, but we'll post more pics as we get them. Lily, Liz and Matt thank you for all of your support! They let us pick her up as soon as we came in. Five minutes old.

One last kiss good night!







Happy Dad!

















The happy family with Liz' mom, Marsha.

Matt and Liz

Getting Started With Pictures in my Diary

Well now, I finally got Blogger to upload my pictures. Here's the background picture for our home computer just to make us all feel at home. It's J Alex finding the sewer line when we first began work on the lot. Just yesterday, wasn't it?


Here also is my latest self-portrait.


Now that I've got this figured out, I think I can get some important pictures up on our Blog…like the newest addition to our extended family, and J Alex and Robyn with a T-6.

Dick

Some serious shortcaking

Wasn't that fun!

Two T-6 Texan Beechcraft TurboProp Pilot Trainees

Here is the T-6 Trainer the Air Force uses to train pilots. Robyn and J Alex were showing John and Donna around the base on the weekend and just by luck, the maintenance hangar was open with a T-6 sitting there. The rather friendly maintenance airman let them take this picture by the plane.