Happy Mother's Day!

I got to sleep in today, and finally dragged myself out of bed to eat the lovely brunch the kids made (scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast with hearts cut into the slices). After spending a little family time cleaning up the back yard, we went to the pool and hung out there for a couple of hours. The kids had a great time swimming and playing, and I relaxed with a Diet Coke and the Sunday newspaper. For dinner, we went to King Tsin restaurant and had a nice meal.

Yesterday was a little crazy. DH and I each ended up taking one kid for the day. DH got to take B to the pre-ballet dress rehearsal (she's a teaching assistant) from 9:30-11:30, then to her rehearsal from 1:30-3:30. I took M to fencing class (10:30-12:00), obedience class (first meeting without dogs) from 1:00-2:00, then the CMEA choral festival from 4:00-5:00. Each in a different city, of course (DH was impressed when he looked at the minivan's trip odometer: I had filled the car with gas while M was at fencing, and reset the trip odometer--it had over 50 miles on it by the time I got home!)

M's chorus was one of only three middle-school choirs invited to perform at the festival, and the only one that was limited to sixth-graders. I heard two of the groups that preceded theirs--one was a high school group, and one looked like it might have been middle-school girls. I thought M's group sounded really good, for a non-auditioned group of kids. It's too bad M doesn't want to continue in choir, but I'm glad he gave it a try this year. There were only ten boys on the stage yesterday, out of the 50-60 kids in the choir, and I suspect there will be even fewer next year. M likes to sing (he has an excellent ear and a pleasant voice), but he dislikes being on stage.

To Boldly Go...

Current mental soundtrack: theme song from original Star Trek

Just got back from the new Star Trek movie--lots of fun!

DH and I watched several episodes of the original show with the kids this week, so they would have some idea of who the characters are. B was the only one of us observant enough to notice that the original Captain Kirk has brown eyes, while the young one in this movie has blue ones.

We also discovered that our local movie theatre is under new management. When we walked up at 6:15 to buy tickets, someone was taking photos of the guy selling tickets. When DH asked why, we found out that the guy who sold us our tickets was the new owner of the theater, and had owned it for only three hours! I hope it's a success--we like the theater a lot.

How Lucky You Are!

Current mental soundtrack: "How Lucky You Are" from Seussical

Here is our Yertle:

The mom in charge of costumes is very talented! The green shoes belong to B, but the rest of the costume was provided by the costume committee. There's also a judge's robe that she wore for the final scene.

Yertle & Bird Girl

Jungle Creature, Jungle Creature, & Yertle

Seussical went quite well, and the kids had a lot of fun. From the pit, the most interesting moments were when the Tuesday cast suddenly decided to skip three pages of music, and when the Wickersham Brothers from both casts decided that the measures of rest before their entrances were unnecessary. We managed to catch up :-) There were also some agonizingly long moments on stage as kids tried to remember their lines, or were late for entrances, but the show (eventually!) went on.

Before the Show
Back: Jungle Creature, Who, Who, Who, Jungle Creature
Front: Jungle Creature, Gertrude McFuzz, Who, Yertle the Turtle, Bird Girl, Jungle Creature

Me at the keyboard

Oh, The Thinks You Can Think

Current mental soundtrack: "Oh, The Thinks You Can Think" from Seussical

Seussical opens today--I'll let you know later how the shows go. Live performance is always unpredictable, and when a bunch of elementary-school kids are involved, it becomes even more interesting. There will be three of us in the "pit" trying to keep everyone on track (Music Director on piano, Director on percussion, and me on keyboard). As I discovered during yesterday's dress rehearsal, having multiple musicians (and no conductor) makes it a little more challenging when a kid drops a line, or jumps ahead to the wrong verse. The three of us have to somehow read each others' minds and figure out what we're doing when things go wrong.

Like everything else the kids do, this is a fundraiser, so in addition to our parental volunteer time, we're also supposed to provide baked goods to sell at intermission. In honor of the Dr. Seuss theme, I baked four dozen Truffula Trees last night:


They don't look exactly like Truffula Trees, as I had to make do with a palm-tree cookie cutter, which has more fronds and a shorter, thicker trunk. Close enough, though--once I added the colored icing, they started to look more Seussian.

Show Biz, Part 2

Update: S was cleared by the orthopedist to perform her solo in the show, so B is off the hook. S will not be in the chorus numbers in the first 3/4 of the show, but she can hobble around on her crutches well enough to sing the last part. B is quite relieved--she was up last night worrying about fitting into a different cast with only one rehearsal. The funniest thing is what finally reassured her enough to go to sleep: I reminded her that the Tuesday cast chorus did not (and does not!) seem to know where to go when on the stage, so it wouldn't matter if she was in the right place or not!

Now I just need to finish learning the keyboard part before Friday...

Show Biz

B's life just got a little more interesting. Seussical is scheduled for this weekend, and we just found out that her counterpart in the other cast has broken her foot, so B is doing all four shows this weekend. Dress rehearsal for the other cast is tomorrow, so she'll be scrambling to find out where S stands in the chorus numbers (standing order in each cast was determined by height, not role).

I really feel sorry for S--she put a lot of work into this, and happened to have an accident the week of the show. I hope she gets a really good role next year!

B's Tenth Birthday Party

We survived another birthday party here at the house. I'm amazed at how much noise ten girls can make!

The theme this year was American Girls. B sketched out the design for me, and I put together the invitation:



She also designed the cake that I finished last night:



When the girls arrived, we started them on some crafts. We provided cloth napkins, fabric paint, and fabric markers for them to make doll blankets. I think next time I'll stick to markers--the paint takes too long to dry. Another table was set up for them to design books for their dolls & stuffed animals, since it dawned on me late last night that the doll blankets were too big to all fit on the table at once.






Next on the plan was Molly's Mystery Party Game, which I bought from the American Girl website (on clearance!). It was a bit on the cheesy side, but the girls had fun doing it.



After that, they played Charades. I printed out a custom set of cards for the game, which they played in two teams. In addition to the usual list of movies, books, etc., I threw in several characters from Seussical, since nine of the ten girls at the party are in next week's show.



Last, but not least, came the cake and gifts. The dolls and stuffed friends had their own party (with miniature blondies to eat):


The birthday girl and her cake:

Musical Workout

Last night's S&P rehearsal was a real mental workout. We started with Poulenc's Petites Voix, which has some extremely challenging sections. Fortunately, I have conducted the pieces before, so I do know them pretty well--I just have to work at wrapping my tongue around the French in a couple of sections. (I know what the French is supposed to sound like, but my tongue doesn't always cooperate!). Next came four Bartók songs: it appears that the group went over the Hungarian text for the third one during the one rehearsal I missed, so I didn't know either the notes or the words last night. (Naturally, it was the one really fast one of the set--I could probably have made a decent attempt at sightreading Hungarian on a slower piece). I spent the break copying over diction notes from another singer.

Last on the list was a run-through of the first half of Karin Rehnqvist's "Triumf att finnas till." Wow. Those of you who know me from choirs know that I rarely practice--I can sight-read almost anything, although I sometimes have to practice foreign language texts. In S&P, the two altos that sit to my right are equally good musicians: if the three of us are not with the conductor, we generally assume the conductor screwed up! This piece is one of the most rhythmically challenging pieces I've come across. During much of the run-through, not only were the three of us not in agreement, but we had no idea which (if any) of us was right! And this was at least the second time we'd rehearsed the piece! I guess that means I need to do some practicing before our Saturday retreat.

Preview of Summer

Currently 90 degrees outside at our house. Unfortunately, since it's not actually summer, we don't have time to go to the pool today. M will be home in about half an hour, then we need to get dinner packed and everyone into their gear for Monday activities. I'm sure B & M will both have a great time this afternoon at the unairconditioned ballet and fencing schools :-(

Sing A Song

And another song, and another song, and another song...

Today was the Voci retreat: 9:00-4:30, with breakfast served beforehand. Afterwards, a couple of us had pizza together, then I went off to the Sacred & Profane fundraiser. I put together an SSAA octet to sing "Java Jive," and it went pretty well. Off to bed now--we're going wine tasting tomorrow, and since I'm the designated driver, I should probably be awake. (DH & kids are not yet home from the lab party.)

The Beginning of the Season

I had a nice, relaxing weekend in Kansas City with my college friends C & M--just what I needed before the annual spring crunch begins. We stayed up late talking, had way too much to eat (including a lovely Easter dinner cooked by C's mom), and did a little shopping, mostly for the kids in our lives.

Yesterday morning I got up at 4:30 am CDT to catch a flight home, and finally finished my day around 10:30 pm PDT when I arrived home from S&P rehearsal. I couldn't stop yawning during the last hour of rehearsal, but I think I had a pretty good reason!

This is the beginning of the spring rehearsal & performance season at our house:

Tonight (April 14): M's school choir sings at educational foundation concert
April 18: Sacred & Profane House Music fundraiser
April 24: M's school musical (he's on tech crew)
April 25: M's school musical
April 26: M's school musical
May 1: B's school musical (I play in the pit, too)
May 2: B's school musical
May 15: B's spring ballet performance
May 16: B's spring ballet performance
May 16: Sacred & Profane concert
May 17: Sacred & Profane concert
May 23: M's school choir performance at MarineWorld
May 30: Voci concert
May 31: Voci concert

Plus two all-day choir retreats (4/18 and 4/25), a bunch of dress rehearsals for both choirs and ballet, B's birthday party on April 26th, and we have tickets to see Spamalot on Memorial Day weekend.

Off to Seussical rehearsal now!

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.

Procrastinators Unite!

Taxes are finally done, and have been e-filed. Every year it happens later and later. The tax forms are not the problem: I've been using TurboTax for years, and it makes filing taxes much less of a chore, even a little bit fun. My personal holdup is that fact that I need to sort out the previous year's expenses before doing taxes, and since I procrastinate entering things into the "checkbook" (a.k.a. Quicken), it takes a really long time to organize twelve months of receipts and bank statements. Every year, I tell myself I won't let things slide for a year, and every January I suddenly realize another year has gone by.

There are other things I tend to procrastinate on, too. In about half an hour, I'm leaving to get my hair cut. I just realized, after entering all those receipts, that it's been a full year since the last time I got a haircut. I MEANT to get it cut last fall (I aim for twice a year, since I have long hair), but again I just never got around to making the call. This time, I'm trying a salon closer to home (the previous one was picked for its proximity to B's old ballet school, which she left two years ago), and B is also coming along for a cut.

April Fools

We survived April Fool's Day without too much chaos. This year, the kids' pranks consisted mainly of leaving stuffed animals and other toys in random places. I found two Beanie Babies (camouflage bears) in the silverware drawer, three small dogs in the pantry, and a piece of fake dog poop on top of my tax paperwork. There was also a deflated whoopie cushion on DH's side of the bed, a small doll in his pillow (which I didn't find until this morning), and a large plastic fly on my bedside lampshade.

Feathered Friend

I was abruptly awakened this morning by M shouting for me. It seems a bird somehow got into the house, and was desperately trying to escape through a window on the stairway (one that doesn't open at all). In my PJs, I dashed out to the garage for the butterfly net, and eventually guided the bird back down the stairs to the family room. He promptly made a beeline for the sliding glass door, slammed into the wall head first, and knocked himself out on the floor. After shooing away the dogs, I scooped him up and took him outside. His eyes were open, but he was clearly stunned, so I held him for a while until he finally flew away into a tree.

B and I searched through our field guide, and the bird that looked most like our friend was a house finch. If anyone reading this knows something about birds, we'd love to know if we got it right:



Still not sure how he got INTO the house. M thinks he came through the hole in the ceiling (DH removed the drywall that was water-damaged in the last storm, and he's waiting for everything to dry out before repairing it).

Trophy

M participated in an in-house fencing tournament at his fencing school today, and won second place! The last two or three tournaments, he placed near the bottom of the field, so he wasn't expecting to do so well today. However, he did mention to me a few weeks ago that he had decided to start listening to what the coaches were telling him to do, rather than just jabbing away wildly..

I nearly missed the whole thing--I sang at church this morning, so I didn't arrive at the fencing school until noon. When I came in the door, I looked around for M, and eventually identified him as one of the two fencers bouting (all the kids look alike from the back, dressed in white fencing outfits with masks on, but the shoes and socks looked right). After the first bout, one of the coaches saw me and led me to a better viewing position so I could watch my son fence in the gold medal match:

Spring Break

It's a glorious spring day: 70 degrees outside right now, blue sky, and I have the day off from work. I'm not sure WHY I have the day off from work--it says "Administrative Holiday" on the calendar. (Not that I'm complaining!)

It would be even nicer if the various educational institutions in the area could get their spring breaks synchronized. DH has spring break this week, which means he's not getting up early to teach that 8:00 am class. The kids are out early today, and off all next week, but their afterschool activities (ballet & fencing) break the week after next.

In garden news, the pink daffodils I planted last fall have started to bloom, and last night the first Dutch iris of the season opened (about a week earlier than last year).

   

Mom's Taxi Service

2:52 Left to pick up B from school (by car). Discovered road being paved right in front of school, traffic down to one lane, major delays in both directions. Should have walked.

3:12 Returned home with B.

3:15 DH called. Left to pick him up from BART station.

3:22 Picked up DH.

3:30 Picked up M and rest of carpool from middle school.

3:55 Returned home with DH & M.

4:05 Left home with M for his piano lesson.

The Flowers That Bloom In The Spring

Current mental soundtrack: from The Mikado, by Gilbert & Sullivan:

The flowers that bloom in the spring, tra la,
Breathe promise of merry sunshine —
As we merrily dance and we sing, tra la,
We welcome the hope that they bring, tra la,
Of a summer of roses and wine,
Of a summer of roses and wine.
And that's what we mean when we say that a thing
Is welcome as flowers that bloom in the spring.
Tra la la la la, tra la la la la,
The flowers that bloom in the spring.

In honor of the first day of spring, the first of the bulbs I planted last fall have bloomed:



The pink daffodils haven't opened yet, but it looks like it will be very soon. And some of the lilies are starting to poke out of the ground.

Three P's

1. Mr. P
Today B and I went to see her music teacher, Mr. P., perform in Seussical. It was a great show, and the entire audience was kids and parents from her school. I'm really impressed by people who do theater in their "spare time": rehearsing five nights a week on top of a day job is not easy!

2. Poppy
It's hard to take pictures of a dog! I know it's a little blurry, but this is the best one so far.


3. Petits Fours
I finished the petits fours for tomorrow's Voci fundraiser. They look pretty good for a first try, but they're a little on the bland side (vanilla cake, one layer of vanilla buttercream, and vanilla coating). Maybe next time I'll try something more flavorful.

Both kids also commented on the red ones looking like little cheeses: maybe red wasn't the best choice for the ganache. It seemed to fit with the "Flame of Love" theme of the fundraiser, but I guess in the future I'll stick to pink.

All in an Evening's Work

Tonight I baked about a hundred heart-shaped mini-cupcakes for the Voci fundraiser on Sunday. They're going to become petits fours (I hope!). It took forever, because I was too cheap to buy more than one little pan (each pan makes twelve mini-cupcakes). I also folded several loads of laundry (didn't quite finish all of them), and decorated M's T-shirt with a pi. This year, Pi Day falls on a Saturday, so M's school is celebrating tomorrow. In math class, every student will get their own apple pi(e), and M's teacher is offering extra credit for showing up in a pi shirt.

Poppy

Poppy came home with us yesterday, but I haven't managed to get a good photo of her yet. She's a six-month-old shepherd mix, black and tan, and very sweet. We found her at the Oakland SPCA, where she had been turned in as a stray.

Coda wasn't too sure what to think about all this yesterday, but today they played together for a little while. I think this will be very good for Coda--she has turned into a couch potato because we don't exercise her often enough. Poppy is a speedy dog, and I ended their first play session today because Coda was looking worn out from all that running!

B has ordered me to bring Poppy to school today when I pick her up. A lot of her friends have been getting new puppies recently, and she wants to show hers off, too. It's going to be a fun walk, as Poppy doesn't have leash manners yet--based on our brief walk yesterday, it looks like I'll be dragged up the hill to the school at a pretty rapid pace!

Daylight Savings Snooooze

Time to set all those clocks forward and change the smoke alarm batteries. Everything has a clock now. So far, I've counted five clocks in just the kitchen!

We finally got around to making a trip to the animal shelter today, in search of a puppy to keep Coda company during the day. Actually, we ended up visiting three shelters. The first one had no puppies, so they sent us to the one across the street, which had a litter of cute little cocker spaniels. We passed on those (adorable, but we were looking for something else), and made our way to the Oakland SPCA. Our trip was slowed considerably by the TWO rollover accidents involving red SUVs: I joked with DH that if we had been driving a red SUV, I would have pulled over at that point and taken BART home! On the way to Oakland, someone brought up the question of exactly what age was the cutoff to be considered a puppy. DH and the kids finally settled on six months. Lo and behold, we found a lovely six-month-old shepherd mix in Oakland. Because of the traffic issues, we arrived 15 minutes before closing, so we'll have to go back tomorrow (with Coda!) to start the adoption process.

The Rain Has Gone...

Do you think it has anything to do with the fact that B's new raincoat arrived today?

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Okay, I know we need the rain, but I need to it go away for a couple of days so DH and I can fix the leak in the family room. It started about two weeks ago when we had one of those storms where the rain comes in sideways--I think it worked its way under the roof. Since then, we've had a lovely hole in our family room ceiling.

I had a pickup rehearsal/help session for Voci members tonight, and interestingly enough, two of the four singers that came also had leaks from that storm. I guess I can't complain about ours--one of them has a new leak over the bed in the master bedroom, which has got to be much more inconvenient!

Coffee and Chocolate

Concert weekend is over--those of you not in the Bay Area missed a FABULOUS Mozart Requiem performance! Now it's time to get back to regular life again.

For the post-concert reception, I experimented with coffee buttercream on chocolate cupcakes. The cupcakes themselves were from a boxed mix, but the icing was a success--M thought it tasted just like coffee ice cream. I topped each cupcake with a dark-chocolate-covered espresso bean.

-----
Coffee Buttercream
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 lb powdered sugar
2 1/2 tsp coffee syrup*
1 1/2 Tbsp water

Cream butter and shortening together. Add sugar, syrup, and water. Blend until creamy.

*Coffee syrup: Dissolve 3 Tbsp espresso powder in 1 Tbsp boiling water. Stir until dissolved.
-----

Time for Electives

M's middle school sent home the elective-choice form for 7th grade today. I wasn't expecting it quite so soon, but I guess they need to start planning for how many students will be in each class. In addition to checking whether or not they want to take a foreign language (French or Spanish, limited to first 150 registrants each), they have to number six choices from the rest of the classes. I'm impressed with the offerings--there are a lot of neat classes. I don't remember having any elective choices until 8th grade, and even then I only had two one-semester classes (I wanted Art and Home Ec, but my parents made me take Science instead of Art).

M gets to choose four semesters worth of electives (two periods a day). In addition to checking the box for French 1A, he has decided that he would like to try Video Production, Computer Graphics, Chorus, Web Design, Yearbook, or Wood Technology I. DH and I were a little surprised by the Wood Technology choice, as M did not have an easy time with that in the 6th-grade Cycle class. I guess he had fun, even though his friend had to help him finish his project!

Too Cute!

B has recently started leaving me notes on my laptop when I have late rehearsals:



However, tonight there was something else on the laptop:



When I followed the directions, here's what I found:

It's All In the Timing

I like to cook, when I have the time, and I usually try to provide home-cooked dinners for my family several times a week. Meals with vegetables, not too much red meat over the course of the week, etc. When DH is away, I let the kids pick the meals they want, as it's a chance for them to ask for things that DH doesn't really like. So, tonight's menu is macaroni and cheese (the kind in the blue box), with added tuna and peas for M and me. Tomorrow night we don't have any activities in the evening, so we're going to have TV dinners (a treat the kids ask for whenever DH travels). Naturally, these are the two days that M has been instructed to log everything he eats for his Wellness class. They're going to think his mother doesn't know how to cook, and that he lives on junk food!

Unable to Commit

I've finally filled out the committment form for B's spring ballet performance, but I had to add several footnotes, as we don't know if we can commit to some of the things on the list! The ballet school requires students to indicate their availability to perform with either Cast A or Cast B, or both. By checking a cast, we are saying that we will be able to attend all the performances and required rehearsals for that cast.

Students are required to attend all rehearsals to perform, but they don't post the actual Saturday rehearsal times until the week before rehearsal, so we have to block out 12:00-6:00 pm on those days. B will have a spring musical performance on Saturday, May 2, but the producers don't know yet what time the performance is. So, at this point, we have agreed to attend two required activities on May 2, with no idea what time either one is actually going to happen.

Cast A (the best fit for our schedule) also comes with an outreach performance that takes place on a weekday morning, so she would have to miss a half day of school. Normally, that's not a problem. However, B's school has scheduled STAR testing that week. Naturally, the school doesn't yet know when her testing will be scheduled (a couple of tests over a two-week period), so we had to include yet another footnote on the ballet form.

Oh, and on the parent side of the form, I added a third footnote. I would like to work backstage, as I did for the Nutcracker, but I can only make the Cast A performances, and would have to leave dress rehearsal early. (I have my own performances at the same time as Cast B.)

Where Did It Go?

How did it get to be Wednesday already? Time has just flown by. Saturday was choir retreat, followed by dinner at a friend's house. The kids and DH cleaned house while I was at retreat. I started my share of the cleaning when we finally got home at 11:15 pm, and finished it up Sunday morning. A quick pickup rehearsal at my house, a playdate for B, and suddenly the weekend was over.

Monday the kids were out early, so I took them to get their annual physicals done. M is officially the same height as I am now. Both kids are continuing on their tall (75th to 95th percentile) and skinny (50th percentile) growth trajectories. On Tuesday I had a doctor's appointment, and today I got up two hours earlier than usual to take DH to the BART station (he had a morning flight to catch, and I couldn't both take him to the airport and get the kids to school on time). Tonight Voci is singing at a bookstore, so it'll be a scramble to get dressed and into Berkeley after M's piano lesson. I'm thinking McD's would be a good stop for dinner :-)

Teeth

Yesterday, M and B went to the dentist for their semi-annual checkups. In the last six months, M has acquired FOUR cavities, so we will be seeing a lot of the dentist this spring.

We also got a bill from my dentist: apparently our employer-provided dental insurance has decided that we can only have our teeth cleaned once a year, instead of the standard every-six-months schedule. Every dentist I've ever been to has scheduled cleanings twice a year, and our insurance has always paid for that in the past. Is this a new trend? I suppose this means we'll be getting a bill for M & B, too...

Test and Reset

Current mental soundtrack: Scarborough Fair

DH woke up this morning to find our little street completely jammed with traffic, and no power in the kids' bedrooms or the outlets on one wall of the kitchen. We still haven't been able to find out exactly what happened, only that there was an accident on the main road that parallels our street. We're assuming it involved a power pole, but we'll have to wait until this afternoon to take a look.

DH reset the circuit breaker for the kids' rooms, but it took us a while to figure out the kitchen outlets. The one we knew was not working (home of the coffeemaker) is labeled as a GFCI outlet, but it didn't have the little "test" and "reset" buttons. Eventually, DH noticed that all the outlets on one wall were out, and the outlet behind the mixer did have the little buttons, so all is well now. I have no idea why those were the only areas affected--the rest of our house had power, including the kitchen lights and appliances.

Update (3:04 pm):We were right, it was an accident involving a power pole. And a fire hydrant, too:

Orinda customers will have power restored by mid-afternoon after car crash
By Robert Salonga
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 02/04/2009 11:55:53 AM PST

ORINDA — An early-morning car crash knocked over a utility pole, in turn knocking out power to more than 400 customers until at least this afternoon, police said.

The crash involving an SUV was reported about 5:40 a.m. on Moraga Way at Brookside Road, said Orinda police Chief Bill French. The driver told police that she swerved to avoid a deer, and ended up striking a fire hydrant and shearing off a utility pole. She was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries.

Police shut down Moraga Way for three-and-a-half hours while PG&E crews tended to the damage. A spokeswoman for the utility said power is expected to fully restored by about 3 p.m.

Update to the update (4:30 pm):M reported that very few students made it to his first period class, and kids were still coming in during second period. The middle school and high school are on the south side of our town, just off Moraga Way, so over half of the middle school students live north of the accident site.

Update to the update to the update (February 5):The news story didn't even mention the mailbox that was completely demolished--this morning we saw the pile of mailbox pieces next to the fire hydrant.

Seasonal Shopping

M has managed to lose THREE hoodies in the last month. One (the new one my mom got him for Christmas) was left at school on Wednesday, and the other two are (in his words) "not lost--I just can't find them." So yesterday we took a trip to Target to get a new sweatshirt or two, since it's January and still rather cool outside in the mornings. I had forgotten that at Target (and many other retailers), January is the month where you can buy swim trunks and T-shirts, but not winter clothing. Last month they had multiple shelves of sweatshirts in all sizes and colors. This month, nothing.

M is wearing one of my old sweatshirts today, and maybe I'll be able to find some cheap hoodies online.

When To Bloom?

Today I got the clothing right (sweatshirt over a T-shirt), but now my garden is confused. The daffodils are starting to bloom:


There was another plant that had tiny purple flowers, but I couldn't get a good picture of it in the wind.

What to Wear?

Every morning, I get out of bed, and eventually I get dressed. I try to look at the weather forecast, but sometimes I don't have time. I think I've only worn the right clothing one day this week!

Sunday, I wanted to put on something nice for New Year's Eve dinner, and I thought red was a good choice, so I put on a red wool sweater. It was nice and warm that day, and I was quite toasty.

On Monday, I learned from what happened on Sunday, so I put on a cotton sweater. By the time I dropped off the kids at their afternoon activities, the temperature had dropped, so I was freezing all night (I was at rehearsal, so I couldn't change).

Yesterday I got it right--wool sweater with a turtleneck. I was especially glad I was wearing that when the fire alarm went off at 9:30 am, and we all got to spend thirty minutes standing outside in the cold.

Today, when I got up, it was 32 degrees outside, so I went for the wool sweater and turtleneck again. Not the right thing to wear--by the time I picked up B from school, it was nearly 60 here, so I was quite warm again.

I have no idea what I'm going to put on tomorrow morning. Maybe a sweatshirt over a T-shirt?

New Year's Cakes

Current mental soundtrack: "Biggest Blame Fool" from Seussical

I don't do a lot of traditional stuff for Chinese New Year, but one thing I rarely miss is the chance to make Chinese New Year's cakes. Many years I manage to make dumplings for dinner, but I didn't get to the Asian supermarket last weekend, so we're going to have an American New Year's Eve dinner tomorrow (steak or roast), followed by Chinese New Year cake.

It's taken me a while to get the dessert recipe right, but I think I finally have it down. My mom always made one big one that had to be steamed for hours, but last year I figured out that it was much faster to make a bunch of small ones. Plus, that makes it easier to freeze the leftovers.

-----
2 pounds sweet rice flour
4 cups dark brown sugar
2 cups water

Lightly grease 8 custard cups (I use Pyrex ones) with shortening. Melt brown sugar in water over low heat until completely dissolved. Mix with rice flour, adding additional water as needed until dough is wet and sticky. Scoop into custard cups. Steam for 1.5 hours, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool. Slice into thick slices, and pan-fry in oil until lightly browned. Serve hot. Leftover cakes can be tightly wrapped and frozen.

Loophole

At M's middle school, all sixth-graders are required to take "Cycle," which consists of woodshop, art, wellness & character education, computers, and pen-in-hand. M is currently in Wellness, and his homework yesterday was to compliment five people he didn't know, and write down all the insults he heard during the day. As soon as B heard this, she immediately started insulting him every time she had a chance. Helping him with his homework :-)

Concert

PWC had a great concert today--wish y'all could have been there! The weather was more appropriate for a June concert than a January concert--I'm one of those people who's always cold and never breaks a sweat, and I was definitely hot and sweaty by the end of the concert. It was nice to see Anna Banana and mundungus42 again, along with all the other singers. B and I had a smooth trip home, and we're all going to sleep in tomorrow.

Update: No wonder it felt hot--it was 78 degrees outside!

Sunshine

B and I just arrived in San Diego for Sunday's PWC concert. Warm, sunny, 75 degrees here right now. Be sure to come to our concert!

Excitement for the Morning

DH and I took a scenic route to work today. We were quite surprised when we rounded a corner in the hills and saw a guy being arrested in the middle of the road! We had a front-row seat as he was frisked, then put into the back seat of the cruiser. The stretch of road we were on was in the middle of nowhere--no houses or other buildings in sight, so we were quite mystified as to where the guy came from, and why he was being arrested. After the guy was tucked into the police car, we went a little further down the road and saw more police and a car with all of its doors open, being towed away. Our current theory is that the suspect was stopped for driving a stolen car, and made a break for it.

Oh, the Thinks You Can Think

Current mental soundtrack: "Oh, the Thinks You Can Think" from Seussical the Musical

Today was the first rehearsal for the spring musical (Seussical Jr.) at B's school. Since the music director is out of town this week, I got to sub as rehearsal accompanist. However, the scripts for the kids haven't arrived yet, so they weren't able to get much singing done. They blocked the opening number, which is pretty complicated!

B is in the Thursday cast (yes, I'm doing this again on Thursday), and she's really excited that she got a solo part. Yertle the Turtle is the judge in the trial scene at the end of the show, and she sings with the Jungle Citizens during the rest of the show.

Seussical was not a musical that I was familiar with, but we bought a CD and have been listening to it in the car. It has a lot of fun music, and I'm looking forward to seeing the show in May.

Boys Will Be Boys

Last night we lit a fire in our fireplace. M sat around enjoying the fire for a couple of minutes before his eyes lighted upon our Christmas tree. He thought it would be great fun to burn some branches in the fireplace, and DH agreed, so out came my garden clippers. This is what's left of the tree:

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!

'Twas the Last Shopping Day Before Christmas

And all through the mall,
Many creatures were stirring,
But it wasn't bad at all!

DH and I have never been to the mall on Christmas Eve before, but somehow December got away from us this year, so we had a few things left to pick up today. We were expecting a zoo, so I actually volunteered to get out of bed early (early for me, that is), in hopes of beating the crowds. It wasn't as bad as we had expected: although there were people circling the lots in hopes of getting parking spaces close to the stores, we just went to our usual corners of the different malls we visited, and pulled right into parking spaces. The longest line of the day was the one at the grocery store, and even there we had no trouble parking. (I chatted with a guy who was retrieving carts, and he said that we arrived at the right time: earlier in the day, people had been circling for 10-15 minutes before finding a place to park).

Now it's time to wrap those last few gifts, and get the stockings ready. Our niece and nephew are also spending the night here at their grandparents' house, so I don't think any of the kids are going to fall asleep anytime soon. Maybe "Santa" can sneak those stockings out sometime before midnight...

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!

Let It Snow

DH took a photo on the way to work this morning:



Lunchtime now, and it's still only 36 degrees outside, according to my weather widget.

Almost Done

Three concerts and one Nutcracker down, one concert and one Nutcracker to go before the weekend's over. Next weekend is four Nutcrackers, then we're done for the month.

Angels Are Everywhere

Current mental soundtrack: "Angels Are Everywhere" by Daniel Pinkham

I think I'll go back to Christmas-tree cookies next year--angels are a lot of work! Last night I did the faces, hands, dress, wings, and halos in frosting. I dusted the halos with a little bit of gold luster dust, which gives them a nice metallic look. I was thinking of leaving them that way, but B took a look at them after school today and declared that they HAD to have hair and faces. So, we grabbed the food markers and got to work. B did the ones with brown hair, and I did the ones with black hair.

Angels By the Dozen

It doesn't feel like Christmas around here unless I'm frantically turning out dozens of cookies. B's ballet school requires each family to donate treats for the Nutcracker, and both Voci and Sacred & Profane need treats for their receptions, so I try to bake the same thing for everyone, and time all my donations for the same weekend. This year it's going to be angel cookies, as the Voci concert theme is fire, angels, and peace, and the Nutcracker has little angels in it. Yes, I know I could just bake some brownies from a mix (and that would probably be the smart thing to do, given my time constraints at this time of year), but they wouldn't be as pretty or fun as the decorated cookies.

Baking at this time of year does require some advance planning. Since I don't have any rehearsals on Tuesday or Thursday this week, those have been set aside as my baking and icing nights, respectively. This is what my dining table looks like right now, with eleven dozen angels waiting to be decorated:



Naturally, since I had everything carefully scheduled, something else came up. This week's was M's choir party, which turned out to be TODAY, rather than tomorrow as I was hoping. Since there was no hope of having any angels iced in time for second period today, I whipped up three dozen Christmas trees yesterday afternoon. They're not fancy--just sugar cookies (leftover dough from the angels that I put in the fridge), sprinkled with green sugar before baking.

Next week will be the second round of cookies. Holiday gifts for all kinds of people: the kids' teachers, their piano teacher, the mailman, and the family members with whom we've agreed not to exchange gifts with this year. And an extra tin or two, because I'm sure I've forgetten someone on that list!

Brrrr!

Current mental soundtrack: "The Shepherd's Farewell," by Hector Berlioz

It was cold yesterday! Well, cold for our area of California, at least. Whenever we have "cold" spells, I take great comfort in looking up the temperature where we used to live, in Rochester, New York.

When I picked up B from school a little past noon (it was a minimum day), it was only 44 degrees outside and cloudy. B is a child who is NEVER cold (wears a T-shirt all year round), but she came out of her classroom and promptly stopped to put on her sweatshirt. Last night, the thermometer says it went down to 32 degrees at our house, and DH reported ice on the dog's water dish this morning. I'm glad we (meaning DH, of course) wheeled my lime tree inside for the winter earlier this week!

Oh, and yesterday's low in Rochester was 11 degrees (according to weather.com), so I guess I can't really complain about life in California :-)

It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas...

Current mental soundtrack: "Psalm 122" by Arvo Pärt

The first holiday performance weekend is over with. Yesterday, B & M sang at the local tree-lighting ceremony with their respective school choirs, then the whole family headed in to Berkeley to attend the Voci concert.

Today (in addition to the usual laundry and raking and vacuuming), B and I hung the stockings, put up some outdoor lights, and wrapped the first round of gifts. I had put icicle lights on our white picket fence earlier this week, but B really wanted colored lights, so today we wound a couple of strands around a tree in the front yard.

Dress Shopping

Yesterday, B and I went shopping for a new holiday outfit for her. It was actually less traumatic than I expected, given that she has previously stated her distaste for empire waists, short skirts, long sleeves, ruffles, and anything too warm. We started at Tarzhay, and didn't find anything suitable, so we headed off to JC Penney. Wonder of wonders, we found two dresses in her size that she was willing to try on, and she decided the one I picked out looked better on her than the one she picked out. It does have long sleeves, but she was willing to accept that in a holiday dress. Now we're negotiating when exactly she's going to wear it. The Nutcracker performance we're attending is definite, but that's just one occasion. I feel that she should wear the dress more than once before she outgrows it, so we agreed on Christmas Eve (but not Christmas Day, for some reason), and possibly a concert that she's attending (although it looks like it won't work for logistical reasons). Now we just need to work out what she's going to wear for tomorrow's outdoor tree-lighting concert.

If you're anywhere near the Bay Area, come hear me sing this weekend and next! (Concert listing at right)

Conspiracy Theory

Current mental soundtrack: "The Angel" from Rachmoninoff's Six Choruses

On Monday night, after S&P rehearsal, I had a close encounter with a pedestrian. She was wearing dark clothing, and crossing at an intersection with no lights. By the time I saw her in my headlights, I had to slam on the brakes, and she started sprinting, so we managed to miss each other.

Tuesday night's close encounter was with a cyclist, riding after dark, who didn't stop for the stop sign at a confusing intersection where I was trying to make a left turn. (It was one of those four-way stops where the streets are misaligned.)

At this point, I was wondering if I needed to get my eyes checked, but Wednesday's close encounter proved that there's simply a conspiracy against me this week. It was broad daylight, and I had just picked up M's carpool at the middle school. A student waiting to cross the street must have not seen me coming: as soon as there was a break in oncoming traffic, he started running across the street, right in front of me.

I wonder how many people are going to leap in front of my car today...

No Turkey Today

Current mental soundtrack: "A Hymn to the Virgin," by Benjamin Britten

A nice, relaxing weekend. On Saturday, we spent an hour or two raking leaves and cleaning the gutters, but that was the only thing resembling work that we did.

I started off today by going to church (subbing in the choir). After an hour of so of singing lovely music, I picked up the family and we headed over to San Francisco to meet up with my sister and parents. The plan was to go to the newly remodeled California Academy of Sciences. For those of you planning a visit, I have one piece of advice: buy a ticket in advance! After driving around Golden Gate Park for a while, we found a parking space, and strolled through the park to the Academy. It was about 1:30 pm, and they had already sold out for the entire day! We opted to walk across the street and visit the DeYoung Museum (our kids' favorite museum).

For dinner, we went to Ton Kiang, our new favorite Chinese restaurant. We had a feast: the Peking duck was the best we've ever had (crispy skin, tender meat), and we also had crab, squid, spareribs, shrimp, and potstickers. Yum!

Turkey, Again

Current mental soundtrack: "Mack the Knife"

Tonight was the first of several turkey-based meals to come. (Last night was microwaved leftovers, which doesn't really count). I got this recipe from an online friend, and modified it to suit our tastes. It's become very popular in our household:

Turkey Pot Pie
2 cups diced cooked turkey
2 cans mixed vegetables [I like Vegall Original, because it has potatoes. You can also use frozen]
2 cans turkey gravy
1 can buttermilk biscuits [I usually buy two, because everyone wants extra biscuits]

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine turkey, vegetables, and gravy in a 2-quart casserole. Bake uncovered for 15 minutes. Remove biscuits from can and split each in half. Place biscuit halves on top of turkey mixture, and bake as directed on biscuit can. Serve with extra biscuits

Black Friday

Current mental soundtrack: the Wii Sports theme (guess what the kids are doing?)

My family has a tradition of going shopping on Black Friday every year. We don't buy a lot of stuff, but we pick up a couple of things on sale, do a lot of window shopping, and have a nice lunch together. DH thinks we're insane, so we leave him at home :-)

The parking garage seemed a bit emptier this year than usual, although it's hard to tell: at 9:45 am, I drove up to the seventh floor and found it nearly empty. The mall wasn't too crowded during the morning, and we were actually able to get a table at the food court at noon without waiting too long (no longer than we would have waited on a regular weekend shopping day). By the time we finished our trip, there were a lot more people out shopping, so maybe things picked up in the afternoon.

I didn't buy anything really frivolous this year. I picked up a nice pair of socks and some underwear for myself, and a new pair of dress shoes for B (since she's outgrown her old ones). My parents did buy some more expensive items: Christmas presents for my sister and me. B found some little decorations for her Crocs, and my mom bought a pair of tennis shoes.

The Night Of Thanksgiving

Current mental soundtrack: "Rosa Mystica," from A.M.D.G., by Benjamin Britten

'Tis the night of Thanksgiving,
And here in our nest,
DH is settling down
To a well-deserved rest!

The children are nestled
All snug with the dog,
Dreaming visions of video games,
While I sit and blog.

The dishes are done, [thanks, DH & Mom!]
Stock's bubbling in the pot,
I don't know how much I ate,
But I'm sure it was a lot!

With apologies to Clement Moore :-)

Happy Turkey Day!

I was even more disorganized this year than usual, and Thanksgiving somehow crept up on me before I got around to sending out the usual invitations to stray grad students and friends. So, it's just my family this year: parents, sister, DH, and the kids. Of course, I don't actually know how to downsize my menu, so I suspect we will be eating Thanksgiving leftovers for the next year :-)

Our menu is pretty traditional:

• roast turkey


• sage stuffing (made from white bread}


• mashed potatoes


• gravy


• cranberry sauce (both jellied and whole berry)


• green bean casserole


• pumpkin pie with whipped cream

Some years we've tried sweet potatoes (the ones with the gooey marshmallows on top), but I think we won't be needing them this year!

Have a GREAT Thanksgiving, and try not to eat too much!

Death March

Weekends just fly by around here! On Saturday, DH had to go to a work retreat, so he wasn't able to take M to The Big Game (Cal vs. Stanford). Fortunately, my parents are here for Thanksgiving, and my dad was interested in attending. So, we left the house at 10:00 am on Saturday, dropped B off for her pre-ballet class (she's a teaching assistant), then parked the car on campus. I got M and Dad started in the right direction, then Mom and I walked back to the ballet school to pick up B (on game days, parking in Berkeley is at a premium, so I didn't want to move the car). The three of us then walked to lunch, walked back to the car, and walked back to the ballet school for Nutcracker rehearsal. Finally, a last trip to the car (we hiked over four miles that day), where we hung out until the game was over. After a quick trip to Costco to pick up pizza and groceries, we finally arrived home around 5:30.

It was a good weekend for our football teams: Cal beat Stanford, and Harvard beat Yale :-)

Yesterday, we raked a small mountain of leaves. The green bin was stuffed full, and we had five or six bags of leaves left over, which are now parked next to my compost pile. After a quick trip to the grocery store, my sister came over for dinner, then I sprinted out the door to Voci rehearsal. It's a lot more rushed when rehearsal starts at 7:00 rather than 7:30--I was still scrambling to get my music in order during the first half of the rehearsal!

And Around Again...

Today's destination of choice was M's middle school. Dropped off the carpool just before 8:45 am. Picked M up at 1:30 to go to the orthodontist (he got his braces off today!). Took M back to school at 2:30. Picked up the carpool at 3:30.

Round And Round We Go

Four trips to the elementary school today! DH did the first trip, dropping B off for school at 8:00. I was next, picking her up at 12:20 (they're on an abbreviated schedule this week for parent-teacher conferences). We went back at 1:45 for B's 2:00 audition for the spring musical, and also stopped by the book fair. Last trip was DH and I at 4:00, for B's conference.

At 5:00, B and I left our house for the trip to the ballet school in Berkeley (normally about 20 minutes). I drove through town, made a right onto the freeway onramp, and discovered that traffic was at a dead stop. It took another 10 minutes to make my way around the cloverleaf (finally driving on the shoulder with the other cars that were trying to exit the mess) and leave the freeway. We made a U-turn and decided to attempt one of the other routes over the hills, but traffic on the main road was so backed up (presumably because of the freeway problem) that we had still not managed to leave town at 5:25! At that point we decided to make another U-turn and just go home, as B informed me that students who arrive too late for class are not allowed to participate.

Shades of Beige

Since B has moved up to Level 4 at her ballet school, she is now required to add foundation and powder to her makeup kit for the Nutcracker. We stopped by the drugstore on Thursday, and were completely overwhelmed by the selection there! We spent about ten minutes trying to figure out whether she would look better in Creamy Ivory, Golden Bisque, Neutral Buff, or another one of the million shades out there. We finally gave up, and decided to visit a department store today. A little pricier, but bringing home the wrong color from the drugstore could end up costing quite a bit, too.

Is there a method for choosing the right color at the drugstore? Other than buying more than one color and taking them home to try on? I have to admit that I know very little about makeup. I wear it for performances, but I order my foundation and powder from Zhen, a company that specializes in makeup for Asian skin. (And I remember spending way too long about a decade ago, holding the catalog up to my face with my mom and sister, so I could figure out which of Zhen's six shades I should order.)

Lessons Learned Today

1. Although Corelle dinnerware is generally break- and chip-resistant, dropping a stack of bowls onto a tile floor creates a spectacular mess with little tiny slivers of glass all over the kitchen. (Only the bottom bowl in the stack of three broke, so I guess it does live up to its claim.)

2. Homemade macaroni and cheese has to be made with whole milk: skim milk gives it a weird, grainy texture, and no one will eat it.

Thundering Ballerinas

Last night, while waiting for B to finish ballet class, I was sitting on the stairs outside the classroom. B's class was rehearsing their part for the Nutcracker next month. I was listening with half an ear to the music (the part that builds up three times before finally climaxing at the growing of the Christmas tree). Very pretty music. Suddenly, the mood was interrupted by what sounded like a herd of elephants! I'll bet you never knew about the elephants in the Nutcracker :-) (Okay, they're really soldiers, still learning the funny way that the soldiers are supposed to run.)

That section of the music always reminds me of the Nutcrackers I sang with the Boston Ballet in college. The growing Christmas tree was always our cue to quietly file out and prepare to sing in the next scene, so that music is firmly embedded in my mind.

Weekends Aren't Long Enough

The kids have a four-day weekend: tomorrow is Veteran's Day, today is a staff development day. I'm currently waiting for them to get out of bed (yes, it's almost 10:00 am here), and wishing that I could have a four-day weekend, too. I have enough stuff to do to fill up a bunch of four-day weekends!

This weekend was taken up by a Sacred & Profane retreat (all day Saturday), a lab party (Saturday night), sleeping in on Sunday (woohoo!), and planting 30 daffodils on Sunday afternoon. Oh, and the ninth load of laundry for the weekend is in the washer right now. At least I get tomorrow off--maybe I can catch up on some of those projects!

Did You Vote Today?

DH and I voted on the way to work this morning. I spent quite a bit of time yesterday afternoon studying the twelve state propositions on the ballot. Voting in California is a little strange--there are always a bunch of propositions on the ballot that I don't think should be there. I'd rather just vote for our legislators, and let them study the chicken-farming industry instead of everyone in the state voting on the size of chicken cages!

At least we don't live in San Francisco--they have an additional twenty-two local propositions on their ballot, including attempts to decriminalize prostitution and to rename a sewage plant after our current president.

SimCity 4

I took advantage of the extra hour last night, and stayed up late playing SimCity 4. M bought the game a while ago, but I haven't had enough time to really sit down and play it until now. DH and I both enjoyed the original SimCity, but haven't really played any of the sequels. My experience with the original came in handy last night, as M was VERY impressed that I was able to put together a functioning city from the beginning! It's hard to impress an eleven-year-old boy in the video game arena!

Halloween Photos

As promised, here are the rest of the photos:

B dressed as Jasmine from the Deltora books:



B with her pumpkin:



M with his pumpkin:

Internet Wedding

I just spent my lunch hour watching a online friend's wedding--streamed live for those of us that don't live nearby. Very cool! It did feel rather sacrilegious, though, to be eating my lunch during a wedding :-)

Congratulations to MA, Dan and Matthew!

The Night Before Halloween

Costumes are done, jack-o-lanterns are carved, pumpkin seeds are roasted.

M's costume:

(Check back tomorrow for B's costume and their jack-o-lanterns)

Battening Down the Hatches

It's supposed to rain most of this weekend (actually, it's already started). I think we're ready for a storm. DH brought in Otto last night (I still have to set up the heat lamp/thermostat/timer combo for the winter). This afternoon, after picking up B from school and rushing to the grocery store, I raked the front yard (again!), and got the leaves into the green bin while they were still mostly dry. I also cleaned out the grate over the storm drain in the driveway (completely clogged with leaves and dirt), and our sump pump is in good working order.

On the way to the grocery store, B asked me if I liked rain. She loves rain, and getting wet, but I had to answer that I both liked it and disliked it. We need the rain, and everything looks so clean after a good storm, but I don't like gray skies or mud. Especially gray skies--I find it really hard to get out of bed on overcast days.

Halloween Is Almost Here...

...and neither of my kids' costumes are done yet. B's is going to be pretty easy. She is dressing as an obscure character (Jasmine from the Deltora books) who wears gray pants, a gray tunic, has wild hair, and carries a bird on her shoulder. I bought her a long gray T-shirt and pants, and a fake bird that I need to sew onto the shoulder of the T-shirt.

I spent this evening working on M's costume. He decided to be a Porta Potty this year! I bought a large box last weekend, and some poster paint. Tonight I cut out a door, then we painted the box together. I just finished taping on a roof (another white box). I'm a little worried, though: the forecast for Friday says it's going to rain. I covered the roof with a white trash bag, which I hope will be enough to keep the rain off his head. I'm envisioning blue paint running everywhere, though, and I'm not sure what to do about that. Any suggestions? (Other than buying more expensive paint that won't run.)

Detour, Detour

It never fails--if I'm running late, the world seems to conspire to make me even later! Mondays are very tightly scheduled, with just enough time to squeeze a quick errand in (usually picking up some produce at Berkeley Bowl), but I didn't end up having time to shop today.

On the way to M's fencing class, we got stuck behind a sloooooow car for ages (two-lane road, no passing allowed, speed limit 50 mph). Once we reached the next town, the road opens up a bit (two lanes in each direction), so I thought we were set, until we reached the scene of a major accident that completely blocked the road. They waved us off to the north, and I assumed I could just follow the other cars to get back on the road. (I was driving the Saturn today, and we keep the Thomas Guide map in the other car.) But no, the traffic started peeling off in all directions, and I ended up spending 10 minutes wandering through El Sobrante before finally giving up and backtracking to the (closed) main road. This time, as I crossed the road, I did the sensible thing and rolled down my window to ask the flagger how to get back onto the road. Fortunately, the southern detour was quite obvious (a zillion cars on a narrow street), and we made it to fencing class only 10 minutes late.

This was 10 minutes of the 20 minutes allotted for the Berkeley Bowl stop, so I decided to go ahead and get gas at Costco (just down the road from the fencing school), and proceed straight to B's ballet class. When we arrived at the ballet school, we parked on the east side, as usual. The school is in the middle of a block, accessed by a path running east-west across the block. We got to the sidewalk to find our second detour of the day: the path is closed for construction, so we had to walk around the block and in through the basement. We'll find out now if DH checks his voice mail, because I left him a heads-up message so he'd know where to park when he picks her up.

Trees

Have I mentioned here how much I hate the trees in our front yard? There are two liquidambar trees, and the leaf season has begun. I can live with the leaves (although I just spent an hour raking leaves as they were falling), but it's those stupid brown balls they drop the rest of the year that I detest. Last spring, we sent both M & B out every weekend with a bucket, and every weekend they were able to fill a bucket each with those spiky balls.