Happy Fourth!

B and I watched the parade downtown this morning: the usual array of politicians waving from cars, and floats by everyone imaginable, including the high school Latin Club's chariot:

We celebrated my sister's birthday a few days early with a steak dinner (not too badly charred by me) and vanilla cake with whipped cream, blueberries, and strawberries. I just got home from watching the fireworks with M & B. (Someone please remind me next year to park further away--it's faster than trying to drive when trying to get home!)

Busy week coming up: the kids are leaving for a cruise with their grandparents next weekend, and DH and I taking advantage of their absence and going to London for a week. Before all that, we're hosting a piano recital (M's last lesson is tomorrow) and a going-away party for one of DH's postdocs on Friday, which is when DH's family arrives for the cruise.

Non-Furlough Furlough

You've probably heard about the budget crisis in California, and the furloughing of state employees. I work at UC Berkeley, but since my position is funded by federal money, I'm not subject to the furlough program. However, I'm being forced to take three days off without pay this week, because the campus is officially closed and I used up all my vacation time over the last two weeks. I have no idea why they chose these dates--everyone who has kids has ended their vacations already, because school started today.

I have to say, though, that I'm getting a lot done at home. Our annual New Year's letter/card is almost finished, I've reorganized two cabinets in the kitchen (prompted by the arrival of DH's new china), and today I completely reorganized the Christmas decorations.

For the past decade or so, we've had three medium-size boxes of ornaments (DH's mother loves to give us ornaments to mark occasions), a large cardboard box (with stockings, lights, etc.), and small cardboard box (the box that the stocking hangers arrived in). The ornament boxes had already been sorted into 1, 2, and 3, with selected ornaments from boxes 1 & 2 being used each year. I moved things around so that next year, we'll only have to open ornament box #1. The large box had a torn handle this year, so I moved the contents of both boxes into plastic bins (that match the zillion other plastic bins in our garage), one with outside stuff and one with inside stuff. The only thing that didn't make it into a bin is the Christmas tree stand. I also had the bright idea of putting each string of lights into its own Ziploc bag, which should reduce the tangles for next year.

Two more days to go. I supposed I should tackle the unpacking of my suitcase next. (I did the Christmas decorations today because tomorrow is tree pickup day; otherwise, I probably would have unpacked first.)

25th Reunion Weekend/Camping Trip

We arrived home yesterday afternoon. It was a fun trip, although I didn't take as many pictures as I should have.

Day 1

Picnic lunch at Humboldt Redwoods State Park (CA):



Skipping rocks at Jedediah Strong Smith State Park (CA):




Day 2

Fabulous dinner of fresh crab, steamed in foil over the campfire at Jesse M. Honeyman State Park (OR):




Reading in the tent:




Day 3

Had our route over the Columbia River temporarily blocked by a truck carrying an enormous turbine blade (the white thing in the middle of the bridge).:



The turbines in action:



Had coffee with one classmate who refused to attend reunion (bad high school experience), then drinks with reunion attendees. Didn't remember to bring camera to either place.


Day 4

Attended a "Chimposium". M & B seem to have learned a lot about chimp behavior:



Reunion dinner at the Moose Lodge. The average age of the serving staff was probably in the eighties (one friend talked with the head cook, who was 96). Dinner was tasty, if a bit old-fashioned (prime rib, baked potato, overcooked green beans, iceberg lettuce salad with choice of ranch, 1000 island, or french dressings). Note the attractive Budweiser lamp in the class photo:




Day 5

Family Day at the park. This was the least organized of the three reunion events. Basically, we were told to go to a large park (117 acres) and somehow find each other. One friend came well prepared with fun things for the kids to do: here's M kayaking with his new friend S:




Day 6

Drove to Seattle, picked up M's best friend from San Diego to tour Boeing factory:




Day 7

Crater Lake




Day 8

Lovely view of Mt. Shasta on the way home

In Search of a Dress

Went into SF today with DH & sis. After a nice lunch at the mall (I always have the BBQ short ribs at the Korean BBQ place), we combed the stores looking for something appropriate for the first night of my reunion. DH was amazed at how hard it was to find the right dress. I tried on a bunch, and found one "maybe," but we finally ended up with a nice silk top that's waiting to be paired with a skirt or jeans. I'll take some photos later, after I try it on with what I have at home.

The kids have called home twice this week. They're having a great time in Minnesota: canoeing, water skiing (well, attempting to water ski), tubing, etc. They've been to the Mall of America, where B found the American Girl store and had to do some shopping.

One more week of kid-free living!

Homeward Bound

Current mental soundtrack: "The Smoothing Iron" (Trad. English, arr. Ken Neufeld)

We're driving home today from San Diego--I'm typing this on my new iPhone somewhere south of Coalinga. We did a lot of things while we were in San Diego:

Family & friends
San Diego Zoo (twice)
San Elijo Lagoon (hiked the nature trail)
Fashion Valley Mall
San Diego Wild Animal Park
Beach (cold and windy)
Memorial service for a friend
Three PWC rehearsals and a concert
Julian
San Diego County Fair

Feeling Disconnected

Current mental soundtrack: "Alley Cat Love Song" by Paul Carey

On Sunday I drove to San Diego with B, M, and the two dogs. The trip went smoothly, with only a few quick breaks, but I discovered in L.A. that my cell phone was not working. At first, I assumed I just wasn't getting a signal in the hills, but as we got closer to civilization, I was still only getting a recorded error message. (No, I wasn't trying to talk while driving--I handed the phone to B and told her what buttons to push.) We finally got through to DH's parents on M's cell phone (which had been missing for weeks--I found it in the beach bag as we were packing for the trip) to let them know when we were arriving to drop off the dogs. We weren't sure how Poppy and the resident dog would get along, but there was absolutely no drama there. A quick sniff, and all three dogs ran off to play.

It took me a while to figure out what happened to the phone. I preordered an iPhone 3G S last Friday, with delivery scheduled for the 19th. I wanted to keep my current phone number, so I requested that they port it to the iPhone. Apparently someone (I suspect the ever-so-unhelpful people at Tracfone, although it's possible AT&T had a hand in it, too) decided that meant my phone needed to be deactivated immediately. So I'm on the road with no phone service until Friday. I tried reactivating the phone with a new phone number on Monday morning, since I still have 200+ minutes good until the end of the month, but after spending way too much time on the phone with "Veronica" in customer (dis)service, she thanked me for being a customer since 2003 and told me my phone was defective, so I should go out and buy a new one, then call them back to get the minutes transferred. Riiiight...

DH arrives tomorrow night, and the internet situation should improve then. My parents have a single connection, with no wireless, which means B, M, my dad, and I are all vying for time on the computer. B and my dad don't spend much time online, but M has taken advantage of being out of school by reactivating his World of Warcraft account. DH has the AirPort Express with him that we use when we travel, so hopefully I'll be online a bit more after tomorrow.

Gate Assignments

Off for the weekend to visit some friends! First leg of the trip has been smooth so far. I'm at the Denver airport right now, waiting for my next flight. I got a little more exercise than anticipated, though. My first flight let me off at gate B36, and the monitor said my next flight would leave from gate B20, so I hiked down to the other end of the terminal, and sat down with my snack and laptop. When I next looked up, the sign had changed from my destination to another one. Back to the monitor I went, to find out that the flight is now departing from gate B31, almost back where I started.

Update (11:35 am): Can you believe it? They moved the gate again! Now I'm at gate B24.

Happy New Year!

Yesterday, I heard someone on the radio asking listeners if they were planning to "party like it was 1999" or if their plans had been affected by the recession. I guess we would have to say that we are partying exactly the same way we did in 1999: drinking a bottle of Martinelli's sparkling cider while watching the ball drop on TV. I didn't get around to taking any pictures of us last night, but here is B in 1999:


We spent the last day of 2008 at the Huntington Library. The new Chinese Garden there is absolutely beautiful--definitely worth a visit. Today, we hung out at my parents' house. We had potstickers for dinner, and the four of us finally finished the 1500-piece jigsaw puzzle we started a couple of days ago:

Almost a Teenager

M turned twelve today. I can't believe he's only a year away from being a teenager! We spent part of the day at the San Diego Zoo with both DH's family and mine. We managed to sneak a birthday cake into the cooler this morning without M noticing, so we were able to thoroughly embarrass him at lunchtime with our singing.

Dinner was at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants: Fidel's, in Solana Beach. B and I split a chimichanga with an extra side of rice. I'm afraid to climb on the scale after all of the food I've been eating this last week!

Whish! Whoosh!

Current mental soundtrack (and source of the title): "Angel on a Cloud" from Angels are Everywhere, by Daniel Pinkham

The holiday craziness reached its peak here last week.

On Wednesday, the handle fell off of the toilet in the master bath. I took a photo of my temporary wire replacement for this blog, but I downloaded it to the wrong computer, and can't get to it right now. I thought it would have been a good symbol of how busy our week was--no one has had time to go to the hardware store for a new handle, so we're making do with a piece of wire.

On Thursday, M and I both came down with a virus that's been making its way around the schools here. M spent the evening on the couch, but I was scheduled to work B's dress rehearsal and learn the ropes for backstage. Since this was my first show working backstage, I didn't think it would be a good idea to skip the dress rehearsal and just show up for the performance. The other moms on the crew took pity on me, and I spent the rehearsal huddled in a corner of the stage, watching everyone else work around me.

On Friday, I spent the day in bed. I missed B's choral performance (the assembly was in the morning, before I staggered out of bed). In between picking up kids from school, I tried to run one errand, which ended up taking a looooong time. I circled the parking garage for ten or fifteen minutes before finding a space, then had to work my way through the crowds at the store. I was exhausted by the time I was finished! B had a Nutcracker performance Friday night, so DH took her in while I rested some more.

On Saturday, B danced in two shows, as a soldier in the battle scene. Our family watched the matinee, then DH and Matt headed home to host a party for a visiting job candidate, while I stayed with B to work backstage. Since I wasn't available to cook this week, DH ordered pizza from Zachary's Pizza for the party. It was weird coming home to a party in our house, but at least B and I got some leftover pizza for a snack.

On Sunday, B had her last Nutcracker for the year, and I worked backstage again. Afterwards, B went off to a slumber party at L's house, and I packed for our trip.

On Monday, we picked up B from L's house, and were on the road to San Diego at 8:00 am. We arrived at DH's parents' house around 3:30, and have been relaxing here ever since. Internet access is not good here (dial-up, or sometimes if I sit in a certain corner of the house, I can pick up a neighbor's unprotected wireless signal), so I probably won't post much until we get to my parents' house next week.

Today, B and I are going to see the Nutcracker at the Civic Theater. This is the California Ballet production (the school B started ballet classes at, before we moved to the Bay Area). Should be fun! Afterwards, B and I are going to have dinner at one of our favorite restaurants (she still hasn't decided between Spices Thai Cafe and The Fish Market), then we're heading to a PWC rehearsal for the evening.

Happy Holidays!

Another Busy Weekend (And Busy Week Ahead)

Busy weekend here, but I guess that's not news to anyone :-)

Next year, if I happen to mention here that I did something silly like order 37 bulbs (each of which needs to be planted 8 inches deep), will someone please bring me back to reality? The first dozen are in, but that still leaves a bag of 25 to go.

Today, we took F to San Francisco, along with DH's postdoc & wife. We mostly did the same walking tour as last time (minus the cable-car ride), but today was a much more exciting day in San Francisco.

First was the Italian American Heritage parade. We got to see floats and bands and all kinds of Italian-American dignitaries in fancy cars. And, let's not forget the Norcal Waste Systems Precision Drill Team--garbage men with cans on wheels, doing precision drills. And the Ferrari show in Washington Square. The kids received not only candy thrown from the floats, but also bread thrown from the Boudin Bakery wagon (a hunk of baguette in a paper bag).

Second, this is Fleet Week in San Francisco, so we skipped the touristy shops on Pier 39, and crowded onto the wooden pier to watch the air show. The Canadian Snowbirds performed while we were still eating lunch, but we saw the USAF F-16, a red biplane, and the Blue Angels.

This is going to be a crazier week than usual. B and I are both preparing cakes for the cake contest at her school's fall festival, plus I am trying out cake balls for the boutique at the festival. Which means that by Friday at 3:30 pm, the kitchen here has to produce two decorated cakes and dozens of cake balls. Of course, this is the week I have activities on my two normally free evenings: a sectional on Tuesday, and the middle school Science Night on Thursday, so it looks like I'll be working late into the night. I drew up a schedule, and completed the first two tasks tonight: bake and freeze my cake layers, and mix up the buttercream icing (which keeps well in the fridge).

SuperAlto's Walking Tour of San Francisco

M & B have been wanting to ride the cable cars for a while now, so we decided to have a mini-vacation today. The itinerary I came up with worked pretty well, so I thought I'd share it (in case any of my readers ever want to try it). Things we didn't do today (but have done in the past or looked interesting) are in brackets [].

First, we drove to San Francisco, and parked in the Sutter-Stockton Garage. Sundays are cheaper than the rest of the week--three or more hours is only $7.50. When you exit the garage, take the elevator down to Level 2, and take the pedestrian exit on Bush Street (past the motorcycle parking area).

Turn right on Bush St.

Take the next left onto Grant Ave. This takes you through the main tourist area of Chinatown, and continues on to North Beach (Little Italy).
[If you're hungry for either Chinese or Italian food, these are good places to stop for lunch.]

Bear left onto Columbus Ave.
[As you cross Vallejo St., you'll pass The National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi, established in 1849.]

Turn right onto Stockton St.
[After you pass Washington Square, you can turn left onto Filbert St. to visit Saints Peter and Paul Church, founded in 1884.]
[Or, you can turn right onto Filbert, and follow the signs to Coit Tower for a nice view of the city.]

Continue down Stockton St. until you reach the waterfront. There are a number of things you can try here:

• Check out the touristy shops & carousel at Pier 39


• View the sea lions at Pier 39 (Hint: don't go down the tourist part of the pier: instead, go down the wooden pier that parallels it on the left, towards the little lighthouse with the palm trees.)


• [If the weather's warm, don't bother waiting in line at the Ben & Jerry's you'll see by Pier 41. There's another one further down Jefferson St. that has much shorter lines.]


• For the classic lunch of clam chowder in a bread bowl, head west along the waterfront, past Pier 43 1/2, until you reach Fisherman's Wharf (at Taylor St.) We dined at Nick's Lighthouse, and enjoyed our lunch, but the other restaurants and stands looked just as good.


• [For burger lovers, there's an In-N-Out Burger on Jefferson St., between Jones & Leavenworth.]


• [For the world's best chocolate milkshakes (and possibly the world's longest line for ice cream), Ghirardelli Square is the place to go. Continue along Jefferson until it ends, turn left through Aquatic Park, and cross Beach St.]

To return to your car, make your way to the cable car turnaround at Hyde St. & Beach St. Look at the long line of people buying tickets and waiting to get on the cable cars. Ignore all of them, and walk a couple of blocks up Hyde St. You'll see brown "Cable Car Stop" signs along the street. Pick one (not the first one, if there are already lots of people waiting), and flag down the cable car when it comes by. Have $5 ready when the conductor asks for your ticket. Get off at the end of the line (or a little before, if you want to walk around some more).

[Union Square has lots of upscale shopping--I always like window shopping there, but I usually don't buy too much stuff. DH likes the Apple Store at Stockton & Market.]

Old Friends

Current mental soundtrack: "In Old Mexico" by Tom Lehrer (I think this one was inspired by the photo of the Mexican restaurant at the end of this post)

Yes, I know I haven't blogged in over a week. I went away for a long weekend without my laptop, so now I'm catching up with my online life.

Eighteen years ago, when DH & I were married, a group of my college singing buddies came up and sang at the wedding. Four years later, the next one walked down the aisle, and we had such a great time that we decided to stop waiting for weddings to get together. Every two years since then, we've spent a four-day weekend at someone's house, staying up late and talking.

This year, we went to South Lake Tahoe, where S's family owns a cabin. The out-of-towners flew in to SFO on Thursday and Friday, then I drove everyone up in our minivan. It was a leisurely drive up there, punctuated by multiple stops for coffee. We tried to take photos everywhere we went, since several people couldn't make it this year. (One even had a flight booked, but ended up with a last-minute crisis at work.) We arrived at the cabin to find that the power would not turn on, so we had fun talking by candlelight.

The next day, after an early-morning coffee run (it would have been easy enough to make coffee over the gas stove, without electricity, if someone had had the foresight to pack ground coffee instead of whole beans), we drove to Emerald Bay to see the postcard view:


We also tried to go swimming, but the beach parking lots were all full by the time we got out the door. Plus, we had to be back at the cabin by 4:00 to meet the electrician.

This is the local coffee shop:


On Sunday, we took an extremely scenic route through the Gold Country back to the Bay Area. Destinations and routes were chosen partly by which names on the map were most interesting. We drove down Slug Gulch Road, visited Fair Play and Fiddletown, and finally made our way to Jackson for dinner. We were only able to find one restaurant in Jackson that was open for Sunday dinner:


Monday alternated between airport trips and sightseeing in San Francisco. We all had a great time, and are already planning the next trip.

Fun in SF

Today we took a day off from work for a mini-vacation. We started off the morning at the DeYoung Museum, where there's a special Dale Chihuly exhibition. I've always loved glass art: once upon a time, when we lived in San Diego, I even tried taking glassblowing classes at UCSD. I don't think it's the right artform for me--I'm a person who likes to think about each step before taking it, and molten glass is too fluid to allow time for contemplation.

I thought all of my photos were going to be blurry, since they don't allow flash photography, but a couple turned out pretty well:





The second half of our mini-vacation was our anniversary dinner, delayed from Monday night. Well, actually we had an anniversary lunch today: dim sum at Yank Sing. Very tasty, as always!

Amazingly enough, all four of us enjoyed the day. Both kids loved the museum (B had been there before on a field trip), which surprised me. I expected that getting the kids up early during summer vacation to go to an art museum would cause some complaints. I'm happy that I was wrong :-)

Sunny San Diego

RRoD update: Did you know that UPS can't reschedule delivery of a package until after they've tried to deliver it? Micro$oft sent me a notice last week that M's XBox is on its way back to us. Unfortunately, they scheduled delivery for this week, when we're all in San Diego. Even though I had the tracking number, I had to wait for them to try to deliver it (twice, because they tried a day earlier than the scheduled delivery date) before they would consent to reschedule it. They kept asking me for the InfoNotice number they had left on my front door, even though I kept telling them I wasn't home to get their notice. Of course, now I won't be able to leave the house on Monday until they deliver that box!

We are having a whirlwind vacation week in San Diego. First couple of days were spent with DH's parents, who only have dial-up Internet (in case you've been wondering where I am). We went to the beach (Oceanside), Mulligan's (an amusement park in Temecula), and the San Diego County Fair. We are now at my parents' house (with decent Internet access). We've been with them to the San Diego Zoo, and are going to the beach (Del Mar) tomorrow.

Today was the day of eating. On the way to the airport to pick up my sister, we stopped at Tommy's for lunch. Knowing what was coming up, I "only" had chili fries and water--no burger. Next stop (midafternoon) was DH's uncle & aunt's for a barbeque. I had a sliver of B's burger, some baked beans, and some fruit. Unfortunately for me, three desserts showed up after that, and I HAD to try all three. Two ice cream cakes, and a homemade cake. Last, but not least, my parents treated us all to Peking duck and crab at Emerald Chinese Seafood Restaurant. Whenever we go there with my parents, DH, kids, and my sister, we always order two Peking ducks (because we REALLY like Peking duck). Every time, the wait staff is astounded by this display of gluttony. I can understand enough Mandarin to translate what they're saying to my parents as they place the order. It's usually something along the lines of "TWO Peking ducks? Are you sure? That's a lot of meat!"

Oh, and we went to my favorite fireworks-watching spot this evening, La Jolla Shores. They have a nice fireworks display at La Jolla Cove, plus on a clear night you can see a bunch of other shows up and down the coast. Tonight was rather hazy, so we only saw one other show over the hills (and there was a tree in the way of my view), and heard a couple of explosions from the Del Mar Fairgrounds. We, and a lot of other people, forgot to check the tide charts before setting up our chairs, so a lot of people ended up jammed up against the sea wall as the tide came in.

[Anna Banana, I'll work on your meme tomorrow!]

Wet Swimsuits

Current mental soundtrack: "Double Trouble" from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (John Williams, arr. Teena Chin)

Swimming season has started again, and with it comes the daily onslaught of wet towels and suits. M & B are pretty well trained--as soon as we get home from swim lessons, they put their wet towels in the garage (in the hamper designated for towels) and their suits in the bathroom sink for me to rinse out. For years, I've rinsed out the suits, and draped them over the shower door to dry. I had to put a towel on the floor, because of course half of the suit hangs outside the door and drips onto the floor. This year, I had a great idea. I bought a cheap shower-curtain rod and mounted it just inside the frame of the shower door. You can't see it from outside the shower (unless you're at exactly the right angle), and all drips go into the tub. Why didn't I think of this earlier?

RROD update: The empty box arrived from M$ today. It contained a plastic bag, two pieces of foam, tape to close the box, a shipping label, and directions on how to pack up the XBox. It's now on it's way to Texas.