Jesse sampling one of the meals. She liked it!

Jesse’s Girl Scout Troop spent an evening this week volunteering at Feed My Starving Children, a nonprofit organization based in neighboring Eagan. The organization packages simple, nutritious family meals (rice, soy, veggies and chicken flavoring) in pouches, seals them and ships the meals to any country where children are starving to death. The shipments we worked on are headed to the African country of Malawi. The meals feed six people one-cup servings of the rice. That’s all they get to eat for a day. Jesse was very moved by the experience and donated $14 in quarters to the effort. She even says she would like to have her next birthday party there, so that all of her friends can help package meals. Her troop and the parent volunteers packaged more than 4,000 meals in 90 minutes, or, as the organizer pointed out, fed 12 children for a full year.

We just received notice that Katie has been awarded a President’s Award for Educational Excellence by President Bush and the U.S. Secretary of Education for her academic achievements during middle school. To qualify for the award, she had to maintain an A average all three years and score above the 85th percentile on her most recent national standardized test. She will receive her award in a ceremony at her school on June 1. We are very proud of our little scholar!

Click here to listen to Neil’s new album, Living With War, for free. It is a commentary on the war in Iraq and the Bush Administration.

Sam, Jesse, Katie and Casey inside the beach house

The kids in the surf outside
the Ocean’s Roar beach house

We just got back from nine days in Florida (true, four of them were spent in our van, Homer the Odyssey, driving between Minnesota and Alligator Point.) Below are some more photos from our beach vacation, which we shared again this year with our friends, the Terzichs (who live next door to us).

The Ocean’s Roar (with Homer the Odyssey in front)

Some highlights of the vacation:

* Our van not breaking down on the drive to or from Florida. We retired Vincent this year and bought Homer. No mechanical failures to report.
* We saw a young bald eagle fishing right over our beach house several days. One day, as it was flying in to shore from the gulf, the eagle was attacked in mid-air by an osprey. Apparently, ospreys are quite territorial (and missed that day in elementary school when we all learned the lesson about sharing our fish….)
* We watched dolphins swim by in massive pods every day at low tide. One day, there were a couple of dozen swimming and eating bait fish together. Three of them leapt from the water at the same time (just like the dolphin show at the Minnesota Zoo). Sometimes, the dolphins were in so close, we could almost wade in and touch them. But we didn’t.

Sunrise at Mashes Sands, near our beach house

* Celebrating Chris Terzich’s birthday at the beach house. We also celebrated Art’s former assistant Janet’s birthday (she now lives in Tallahassee and visited with us on Thursday).

Birthday celebration

* Eating at the Ming Tree Inn, one of our favorite Chinese restaurants (twice). This time, Chris did not confuse them with a question about the sweet and sour chicken.
* Sharing a plate of gator at The Landing, a new seafood joint in Panacea.
* Relaxing with a bag of books and a cooler of fine Summit ale from St. Paul. Yes, we brought our own. Can’t buy it down there.

Laurie relaxing

* Checking out the storm damage to all of the beach houses, many of which we’ve rented over the years.

Be careful what you book online

Katie had to cook a Spanish meal for the family as a class assignment. She whipped up chicken enchiladas, refried beans, passion fruit punch and Mexican sundaes. We all had to review the meal and write up our thoughts for the teacher. My favorite quote was from Laurie’s review of the Mexican sundae: “You could put caramel on just about anything and I think I would like it. Except for refried beans, which I wouldn’t eat because they looked like throw-up.” Well said, honey.

The Girl Scout father-daughter dance last weekend was themed An Evening in Paris. We were stumped for a long time, wondering what to wear. Then Jesse hit upon one of her patented super costumes — she decided to be a mime. Art went as a Parisian street person. We looked great. Unfortunately, all the other fathers and daughters took An Evening in Paris to mean “formal ball.” We were a little underdressed, needless to say. But we had a blast. And everyone came up to compliment Jesse on yet another great costume.