July in Rhode Island

I don't know what happened to July, but it is almost over already. Well, I do know what happened. I started work on July 2nd -- albeit part-time (as the Librarian at the Law firm of Partridge Snow and Hahn LLP), but it has taken up a lot of my mental attention. I am settling in there pretty well -- though it is quite different in many ways. I am the only Librarian, but at least I have a part-time assistant who is really a professional colleague as well since she is a part-time Library School student. Aside from her my other regular contact is with the Administration folks -- IT, accounting, billing and HR -- we all work in the same area. I do see attorneys and paralegals and secretaries as well when they come down for materials, or call with questions. In my limited experience so far the attorneys have been more pleasant than the Law Professors I've worked with in the past!

So other than work what's been going on. Well Emma has spent the first two weeks of the month at a day camp at the YMCA here in Barrington mostly swimming and doing art projects. We got the house in order enough to have our friends Drew and Ann and their boys over for dinner. (Jim lived with them for the (10 weeks he was here without Emma and I so we owe them big time). We also heard one of our favorite folk groups -- Atwater Donnelly -- from when we lived in Rhode Island 10 years ago. They played on the lawn outside the Barrington Town Hall and gave their usual entertaining performance. On the 20th Emma and I drove down to Stone Harbor, NJ to my Mom's beach house. I stayed for the weekend and she stayed on an extra week. Then Mom took her across to Lewes, Delaware on the ferry across the Delaware Bay where my Dad met her and she is now spending the week with my Dad and step-Mom Hazel. Jim and I are headed down to pick her up on Thursday evening. I am sure she has been being spoiled rotten, but then what are Grandparents for. So, how did Jim and I spent our child free time? Well, we did tons of work in the house unpacking and catching up on bill paying and paperwork. We also enjoyed a Thai meal at a great place right around the corner from our house -- Siam Square. We've both been biking on the wonderful East Bay Bike Path too. It runs along the Narragansett Bay for most of it's 14 miles. I've also been lying around on the couch reading after work instead of tending to Emma or playing with Emma. I am missing her though and will be glad when she'd back.

Jim's in Summer mode at the War College and has been doing lots of research, reading and writing. All of us got to go along with Jim on a cruise around the Newport Harbor and out into the Bay. Jim was the featured speaker at a meeting of the Naval War College Foundation book club which was held on the Admirals Barge -- really a very very nice power boat belonging to the Navy and used by the Commander of the War College -- who is an Admiral (I think). Mostly it was a cocktail party for donors to the Foundation, but Jim also spoke for about 20 minutes on Zheng He a Chinese naval commander from the 15th century who supposedly discovered American before Columbus. The book being discussed was 1421 by Gavin Menzies. I managed to read the first chapter and may go back and finish since it was very interesting -- though as Jim says not backed up by solid research, but fun to think about.

That's about it -- we haven't been taking pictures so stay tuned for some later.

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