Xmas lights

Second annual stromboli competition = good-natured rivalries, old-fashioned aprons.

Christmas morning - Sam's got all eyes on the money from Grandma and Grandpa's Bag o' Bucks. 

Lily and Zach play with their new cats.

Sam wrangles his snake flashlight while Luke shoots his bow and arrow in the house (Don't tell Grandma!)

Dapper dude Sam gives Zach some video tips.

Bubble kids? Lily and Zach take a spin inside the Incredi-Ball.

Serious shooter: Luke loads up the foam shooter machine at the FunPlex.

Zach at the wheel of his bumper car.

Whatever tickles your fancy

 

"From Zach. To Santa in the North Pole."

 To Santa:

1) Please I want a cat book

2) Cat backpack to bring toys for Kaya

3) New skateboard wheels

4) Diamond armor

5) Sword, any kind

6) Colored paper

Thank you. Zach.

Anyway.

So we have this toy Santa that giggles when you press a button on its tummy. Actually, it's more of a hysterical laugh than a giggle. "Heeheehee. HaHA HA HA HA. HO HO HO HO!!" and on and on like that. It's really kind of scary.

The other day Zach came up with a brilliant prank. He decided to slide the Santa under Luke's pillow so that it would make the Santa laugh sound when Luke put his head on the pillow. I agreed that it would be a crazy prank, and we laughed about it, and I forgot about it.

Fast-forward to 9:00 that night. Zach was sound asleep; Luke had stayed up late and was crawling into bed in the darkened room. He put his head down on the pillow and..."Ha ha ha. HEE HEE HEE. HO HO HO HO!" Luke must have jumped at least a foot in the air. He was furious at Zach, and I could barely keep a straight face. Luke is still looking for retribution, by the way.

Luke and I have a standing date to look at Jay Leno's headlines each night. I love the fact that he thinks they're funny because it's EXACTLY what I used to sit around and laugh at when I was a kid. Here's one of his recent favorites:

The sound of a kid laughing really, really hard? Priceless.

Desert calm

What have we been up to? I'm too lazy to pull together a cohesive theme, so let's just call it "stuff." Here's Luke and our "part-time" cat, Kaya. Kaya has all but moved in to our house. She waits outside the back door all day and all night for the boys to come and pet her. And when she thinks we might be eating or sitting in the front of the house, she comes and waits by the front door. I have never seen a cat so happy as when she is with one of the boys. She would be happy to let them pet her for hours.

Here's Zach leaving his mark on the beach (thank you, Dad):

And here's the resort we arrived at late on Friday night in the desert. Try to imagine your perfect fantasy of an old Spanish hacienda, with twinkling lights, holiday decorations, and torch-lit pathways, and that was where we stayed. Am I tempting any of you East Coasters with vacation ideas?

We had one small blip in our vacation: The massive kid-friendly pool/waterslide complex at the resort that we were hoping to take advantage of was CLOSED for renovations. Shouldn't they have told us that beforehand? Realizing their mistake, they gave us half off our room rate, and they promised us a next-to-nothing rate for the next time we want to come back after the pool complex is open again.

Nevertheless, we did some swimming and hot-tubbing... Dave got a nice long massage while I took the kids to the movies... I took a yoga class with a great view of the mountains...and Luke took the opportunity to do some golfing in the morning:

Now bring on the holiday madness!

These things actually happened

Luke, speaking to an adult friend, about the events of Saturday: "It was kind of boring. We went to a movie premiere. Then Mom and Dad went out and we had two different babysitters and we stayed home all the rest of the day."

Friend: "Well, you know, moms and dads need that grownup time together once a week or so."

Luke: "Once a week?!? No, they haven't done that in about three years."

***

Zach: "Dad, I need some milk!"

Dave: "OK, but what word is missing?"

Zach: "Milk."

***

Luke: "Mom, you really shouldn't have left that bread out all day."

Me: "Well, I was going to put it away, except I got distracted because I was entertaining two kids all day."

Luke: "How am I going to eat dinner, now that I'm consumed with guilt?"

***

 Zach: "Dad, I need crazy glue! Oh, wait - let me get some pants on first."

Golden state

Scene: It's finally a little big chilly outside. It's late in the afternoon, and it's just about sunset. We've taken the kids and grandparents down to our new favorite rocky beach. And - cut to the mining operation:

The boys' hard work has been rewarded with outstanding samples of quartz and granite. But the sun is setting fast, and the wind is picking up. Time to head back up the hill. We round the corner just in time to catch these magnificent clouds:

And that's why I love fall.
Off to eat some comfort food and snuggle up under a blanket now...

All Hallow's Eve

Hey - didja know I spent about three weeks gluing more than 800 teeny-tiny red squares to a box to make Zach's Minecraft TNT costume? Good thing I didn't have anything else going on during those three weeks...

I didn't make a thing on Luke's Chop-Chop (Skylanders) costume, and whaddya know - the shield that came with the costume broke before we even left to go trick-or-treating. Gotta love those costumes made in China. This picture isn't so great because he's holding his massive trick-or-treat pillowcase/candy bag over his legs, so you can't see the full effect, but he's pretty cool anyway:

...And in unrelated news, I just emailed Dave about the Christmas tree I'd like to buy this year (a living tree that gets delivered and then picked up). Bring on the crazy holiday season!

Backyard Follies

Does anyone remember when our good friend Katie gave us these banana tree stumps over the summer?

Zach literally went bananas over them, and he has been a dedicated caretaker ever since. So now, three months later, who's grown more, Zach or the banana trees?

There's another interesting new diversion in our backyard lately: A neighborhood cat named Kaya has basically taken up residence in our backyard. She's an incredibly sociable cat who seems to crave all of the attention and care she can get from two little boys. In the morning she's waiting outside the patio door for them to greet her. At night, she'll hang out accepting cuddles and patting until after the sun goes down and we finally close the door. I think she might be perfectly happy to move in with us if she didn't already have a home (and if Dave didn't sneeze every time he looked at her). What's great about this for Luke is that he has a new best friend and companion in the backyard, who can instantly calm, relax, and improve a mood. And Luke, who is having a rough time, sure needs that.

What's curious about this for Zach is that it has inspired him to start a graph of sorts. Each day when he sees Kaya outside the door, he runs to his graph first, marks off a check mark for another visit, and then goes to see her. Why the graph? Who knows how his little mind works, but I like to think he is laying the groundwork for a lifetime of scientific discovery.

Orange and black and blue

I realize that Beach Bucket has basically evolved into a sounding board/complaint forum, so why should today be any different? On Friday afternoon Zach had a little friend over and we were hanging up all of the Halloween decorations. Foolishly, I put a chair up on the (brick) front porch and stood on it to hammer some nails for hanging decorations. Either I tottered or the chair collapsed, because I fell down the brick stairs (breaking the chair) and mashed my left ring finger and lacerated/bruised my right arm from elbow to wrist (it looks like a wild animal clawed me all the way down my arm). But the play date went on.

By dinnertime Friday my finger was purple and sausage-sized so I knew I needed to go to urgent care. So I spent Friday evening getting x-rayed and splinted/wrapped up.

Then I went home and...rested? Hahahahaha. No, then I realized I was going to need some pumpkins for a play date so at 11pm I went to Ralph's and bought 6 pumpkins, somehow managing to get them into the car with one hand.

Saturday morning we hosted a family pumpkin-carving play date with a mom and two little guys who are close in age to Luke and Zach. We were having such a good time they stayed until 2:30 pm.

Then we cleaned up and...rested? Hahahahaha. No, then Luke and I were signed up to volunteer at our school's booth at the town fair, which we worked at until 6pm.

Then we came home and...chilled out? Hahahaha. No, then Dave and I had to get all gussied up to go to the annual parent party for our school. We had a great time and Dave left at 10:30 only because he had promised the babysitter he wouldn't be late. I stayed until (gulp) 11:45pm.

Sunday morning, I...slept in? Hahahaha. No, at 7:15am Luke's friend came over and by 7:45am I was driving three young boys to Knott's Berry Farm for a special event. By this time I was feeling a little queasy and my finger was hurting, but we still had a good time.

We got home in the middle of the afternoon and I realized I couldn't be vertical anymore. So I took a nap, with ice on my finger, and was basically out of commission for the next three hours.

Then I had to drag myself out of bed to make dinner and do school lunch prep for the week. And Monday morning I was back on the road again, to tour a produce warehouse in East L.A.

Throughout all of this Dave has been incredibly supportive even though he is up-to-his-eyeballs busy with work. This week he discovered a strange rash and it turned out to be shingles, which is exacerbated by (what else?) stress.

Doctor: "Is there anything stressful going on in your life?"
Dave: "Well, I'm working two jobs and they're both really busy right now."
Doctor: "Is there any way you could just work one job?"
Dave: "Uh...no."

I don't think we're going to need Halloween costumes because we both look scary enough as it is anyway.

Happy October!

Two half men

I don't know what is in Zach's head. I really don't. But given some of the things that come out of his mouth, I imagine that his brain is kind of like a pixelated version of Pee-Wee's Playhouse, littered with Minecraft zombies, TNT, and talking pieces of fruit. Good thing we keep exposing him to weird stuff like Tim Burton movies, right?

Exhibit A: Zach is doing his homework at the dining room table and is feeling overwhelmed. With a heavy sigh, he puts his head down on the table and declares, "I wish this house would just fill up with...cheeseburgers."

Exhibit B: Zach is struggling to eat an ear of corn at dinner. Finally he puts it down in exasperation and announces, "I need longer teeth."

Further inspection reveals that one of his teeth is in fact loose. This will be the very first tooth he has ever lost (as opposed to the one that was pulled). Now he is totally freaking out. "You need to GLUE that tooth back in, Dad! I cannot lose it! I have to keep it in FOREVER!!!"

(I don't remember Luke losing his first tooth - is anxiety a common reaction? I guess it's kind of alarming to have blood in your mouth and then lose a part of your body, but the Tooth Fairy makes up for that, right?)

Luke is having a tough year, with more homework, and a general feeling of being put upon (especially by his challenging brother). The other day I asked him to tell me what he was most proud of, and I thought his list was interesting: "My Lego sets. My Skylanders. Being best friends with Blake. Going to movie premieres."

That afternoon we dragged - no, seriously, dragged - Luke to the beach, and he was even more annoyed once he got there not to see any of his friends there. But he hung out with Dave and they wound up having a great time engineering an extraordinary cave with four separate interconnected tunnels (miraculously, we managed to keep Zach away so he didn't break it). That night Luke told me, "I wanted to add something to the list - I was really proud of that tunnel."

Luke's karate teacher is preparing to bring a group of students to Poland for the world championships, so he's been teaching some Polish to the karate class, mixed in with Japanese phrases. On Monday Luke came home and announced, "In karate, I learned how to say, 'I'd like one more beer' in Polish!"

Like I said, things are weird over here.

What he said

Picture day!

Backstory: These smiles conceal deep-seated resentment that they are being called upon to wear collared shirts.

Completely unrelated: Luke and I usually like to end the day cracking up by reading Cake Wrecks or Awkward Family Photos together. But the other day we discovered a site called Garfield Minus Garfield that has developed a cult following among comics connoisseurs.  It features Garfield comics (Luke's favorite, of course) that have completely removed Garfield, leaving only Jon saying random existential things into the air (From the site: "It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb.") Example:

I LOVE the fact that Luke finds these funny. His sense of humor is absolutely sublime.

More unrelated news: Here are some choice quotes that have come out of their mouths in the last week:

Zach: "Mom, when I run with broken glass, I am very, very careful."

***

Dave: "Luke, what new and interesting thing happened in third grade today?"

Luke: "Well, yesterday we had tea with the Queen of England. But nothing really happened today."

***

Zach: "Mom, I am so mad at you I feel like throwing kale chips all over the house." (Burrrrn)

Wise use of time

We are back in the rhythm of the school year, and it is very strange. This three-hour kindergarten is going to kill me. Here's a typical Friday: Drop off Zach at 8:00 am. Drop off Luke at 8:15 am. Volunteer in Luke's classroom from 8:15 to 9:00 am. Volunteer in Zach's classroom from 9:00 to 10:00 am. Dash home and check email. Return to school to pick up Zach at 11:20. Return to school to pick up Luke at 2:05. Spend the rest of the afternoon preventing the two of them from fighting and/or nagging about homework as necessary.

Did you see "blogging" mentioned anywhere in there? Nope. Did you see "reading the newspaper" or "lunch with a friend" or "research for future interesting projects" in there? Nope, nope, and nope. (In the background, the gym is weeping because I didn't even bother to mention it.)

The good news is, it looks like we have finally found regular childcare for Tues/Thurs, which is great, and a huge relief for Dave, but those M/W/F are still going to turn my hair gray very soon. Even more of a bummer is that we have to give up our electric car in two days, so I'm going to have to use a gas-powered car (!) to drive back and forth to school four times a day.

On the flip side, weekends are an interesting story because we decided not to get involved with soccer for either boy this fall. So Saturdays and Sundays are suddenly open for all sorts of fun things. And of all the things we could be doing, we've been...entering food competitions.

Last weekend I entered the KCRW/LACMA pie contest with my raspberry/lavender pie, and Luke (surprisingly) volunteered to accompany me for the day. We stood in the heat and served up pie all afternoon long, which was alternately grueling and rewarding. The pie was unbelievably delicious, and people kept coming back for more, so I was sure I would win something. When they announced the winners and my name wasn't in there, I was momentarily crushed. But then Luke told me, "It doesn't really matter, Mom - I had a great time anyway." And honestly - hearing that totally turned my mood around.

Yesterday Tillamook cheese invited us to the L.A. Zoo for a special blogger event, where they had a grilled cheese competition. Basically, they had a bunch of different breads and cheese lined up, and that was followed by the biggest smorgasbord you've ever seen of different foods and toppings to add to a grilled cheese sandwich. Then they had two chefs standing ready to give your creation the professional grilling treatment.

Luke and I decided to make a "Fourth of July Firework Grilled Cheese," for which we arranged bacon and red onions in a star pattern over the cheese. Then on the outside of the bread, we made another star pattern in mustard, so that it grilled up with a big asterisk on the outside. The judges reacted with a combination of amusement and curiosity.

But then they announced the winners, and for Most Creative...it was us!!! Luke and Zach and I went up to accept our prize (an enormous cheese-related gift basket) while the papparazzi snapped photos of us.

Yes, it was over 100 degrees. And yes, bees were swarming everywhere. But Luke once again declared that he had had a great time. So we might have a new "thing" going on this fall. Top Chef, here we come!

Jackpot

I am the coolest kid in the arcade - I hit the 1000-ticket jackpot!

But it doesn't buy you a lot these days. No joke: A slap bracelet and two non-name-brand Slinkys.

This can mean only one thing: Back to Vegas!

Wrong, wrong, and wrong

My friend Sarah passed away on Sunday morning after a very long battle with cancer. She was so incredibly brave and positive throughout the whole ordeal that I was just in awe of her strength and grace.

Sarah and I have been friends for more than 8 years - we met when the older kids were just babies. She was one of my most faithful visitors when I was in the hospital before I had Zach, bringing me Jamba Juice, stories, and cheer. When the boys went on to elementary school together, we collected more and more mutual friends. Most recently she was the organizing force behind our moms' dinner group (five of us meet for dinner once a month to talk about...everything) and she was a joyful presence no matter what stage she was at in her treatment or what discomforts she might have had. One night a few months ago we were all supposed to meet for dinner, and that day I had been having terrible stomach pains, so I backed out at the last minute. Within minutes, I got a text from her: "Would you like me to bring you a Jamba?" - our inside joke. And I said, "Sure." And then I realized, here is this person who probably feels sicker than I do every single day of her life, and she's the one bringing ME a Jamba. Go figure.

Anyway, I am absolutely sunk in a weird, sad fog right now, thinking of how unfair it all is, and thinking about the heart-breaking pain that her 8-year-old must be feeling. And I'm thinking about the funeral we are going to this weekend, which will be the second funeral in six weeks for one of the moms from our very small elementary school. It's all just so wrong. There's nothing more to say.

So I'm going to close out with a strange, random, and funny anecdote that pretty much sums up my day. One of the guys from the city government electric car project came over today to put special GPS monitors on Dave's and my regular cars - to get a good sense of what we use our "regular" cars for as opposed to the electric car. Meanwhile, I had an incredibly busy day that involved countless pickups and dropoffs and meetings in the electric car. I locked my wallet in the glove compartment of the electric car so I wouldn't have to lug a big purse around.

Later in the evening, I finally had a free moment to run an errand I had been trying to do all day. I drove my (regular) car over to Bristol Farms, picked out a bunch of food, got to the check out counter, and realized...I didn't have my wallet. So I called Dave and sure enough, my wallet was still in the electric car. "Don't worry," said Dave, "The boys and I will come and bring it to you." Which they did (in Dave's regular car), and I paid for the groceries and we all came home.

That's when Dave pointed out, "Imagine how confused the electric car people must be. They're tracking our cars, and there's no activity on either one of them all day. Then they see one car go out to Bristol Farms, and 20 minutes later the other car goes to Bristol Farms too, and the two cars meet up and then drive home. They must be getting some awfully weird readings from our family." Indeed.




.

Snippets

Again, no good excuses for not writing, just that there's too darned much going on and no extra time whatsoever. So...didja know that we went to San Diego? And that the boys started school? And that Zach is a kindergartner now? My next post: college graduation.

Aw, JK, as the kids like to say.

Wading through a field of peppers at the farm in San Diego

Look,  Mom, a vegetable!

Stop picking peppers, or I'll shoot!

Everyone (OK, just Zach) is a little slap-happy after a few hours out in the field.

In San Diego, I booked a room at the downtown Marriott at the AAA rate, which meant that we were only able to get a city-view room. Dave called before we arrived to find out if we could get a harbor-view room on a high floor. No dice. When we checked in, he spent some time talking to the front desk clerk, and came back to report, "No luck." Then he took us into the elevator, up to our room...on the 21st floor... and when we opened the door - an astonishing, world-beating view of the harbor and beyond. (What you see here is a view straight down to the pool.) I don't know how he does it. Well, he's got the charm going for him. That's one thing.

 

After that fantastic end to the summer, the boys started school on Wednesday. Luke was miserable about starting school, but he lucked out: Every single one of his friends is in his class this year. I don't know how they're going to get anything done, but I told him, "You have nothing left to complain about." 

Zach had his first day of kindergarten. When I left him, there were no tears, just that look he gets when he is totally overwhelmed. But by the time I picked him up, he came running out and declared, "I had a great day!" Then he added, "Kindergarten is really short." No kidding, dude. Three hours and 20 minutes - who comes up with this stuff?

I am still a little fretful about Zach's class because he doesn't really know the other kids and some of the boys seem way more mature than he is. So I am hoping that he finds at least one good little friend. But today, even though we hadn't bonded immediately with anyone in kindergarten, Zach got invited over to a playdate at Ashley's house... and then later in the day, he got invited to go the beach with his friend Lucas from beach camp. Lucas' dad was teaching them how to boogie-board, and apparently Zach is a natural. Who needs screen time, when you can end the day doing...this?

Reasonable assumptions

At the beginning of the summer I was second-guessing myself. I had signed Zach up for all-summer beach camp, but I just wasn't sure if it was the right thing or a good thing for him (not to mention he kept insisting he didn't want to do it). Was I asking too much of him? Would he cause trouble? Would he...make friends?

Fast-forward to Friday, the last day of beach camp. That morning he had had a playdate with Lucas, his new best pal from camp, and they ran off to the beach together holding hands. When I came to pick him up, all of the counselors surrounded the car to give Zach a huge farewell. The head counselor told me, "We loved having Zach at camp. Each day, we would look for your car and we would hope he was coming. He is so much fun, and so funny, and he was just a total joy to have at camp." Then she told Zach, "Zach, I hope you come back next summer. And I hope you never lose your creativity and your great imagination."

My head was spinning as I drove away. Our Zach? Winning the hearts of a bunch of counselors? Well, sure, I guess....Hey, wait a minute! I did the fastest u-turn possible in the electric car and sped back to the camp pick-up zone. "Do any of you babysit?" I asked them breathlessly. "Yes!" came the answer. I drove Zach home with a huge smile on my face and a phone number in my pocket.

I had the same sort of reservations last week when I signed Zach up for skateboard camp. Would he listen to the instructors? Would he make friends? He didn't know anyone at the camp ahead of time. At the end of the week, the head counselor told me, "He's an amazing kid. He doesn't listen all that well, but he just wants to get out there on that skateboard. He wants to try everything. And if he doesn't get it right the first time, he just wants to keep trying it until he gets it." Uh, yeah. That's our Zach. So I signed him up for another week.

This morning I had registered the boys for something that sounded like a lot of fun ... to me.  It's an event sponsored by our city that is kind of like a kids' triathlon, except it's a swim, a run, and then a crazy, muddy obstacle course. After you cross the finish line, you get sprayed off by a huge hose connected to a firetruck. Nod silently to yourself if you think this would be a fun event for kids. Thank you.

But this morning the response I got was anything but enthusiastic. "I don't want to do it." "I want to stay home." "I don't want to do the swim or the run." "It does not sound like fun at all." So Dave and I basically dragged the boys kicking and screaming to this thing.

For Zach's age group, the kids had to swim 25 yards (one length of the pool). If you've seen Zach swim, you can imagine how this went. He basically cannot swim but he is bound and determined to get from one end of the pool to the other. So even though it took forever and looked terrible (I'm sure the lifeguards were ready to jump in at any second), he made it across the pool. He got huge applause at the end, and when he poked his head up, he knew that he was the last one to finish in his heat. "Will I still get a medal?" he asked Dave worriedly. When he was assured, "Yes!" he bounded ahead into the 1K run and obstacle course. I have never seen a kid more proud at the finish line.

Luke was incredibly nervous about the swim (50 yards; two lengths of the pool), but he had a friend with him and they had decided to swim together, so they waited until the very last heat when they could claim a lane together. Two kids per lane, eight lanes. And by the time they finished the first lap, Luke was right out ahead of the pack! I couldn't believe my eyes. He looked strong and...can I even say confident? He came in third in the swimming heat out of 16 kids. He slowed down a little bit on the run, but on the obstacle course, he even seemed to be having...what do they call that thing again? Oh yeah - fun. I didn't want to get into an "I told you so," but... I told him so.

We capped off a great day today with a special kids' comedy show at a local comedy club. If you know Luke, you know what it sounds like when he gets started laughing. Now imagine that sound magnified by 90 minutes - coupled with the sound of Zach laughing so hard he falls on the floor. Yes, that was my special treat for the day. I'll have that happy sound in my head for a long, long time.

From here to there

Did we really just do all that? Because I'm feeling a little wobbly myself. We are back, finally, and even if we're not all in one piece we are holding it together somehow. Dave and I looked at each other last night and said, "This has been the summer of doing it all." But remember, that's because last summer was the summer of getting kicked out of our beloved rental house, getting laid up with surgeries, seeing the doctor or specialists every five minutes, and being flat broke. So yeah, we have a lot of ground to cover.

We arrived in Seattle late last Saturday night and didn't waste any time getting started. There was a bee farm tour on Sunday morning (as covered by Jolly Tomato), a chocolate factory tour on Monday (as covered by Jolly Tomato), and a raspberry/lavender farm visit on Tuesday (not yet covered by Jolly Tomato).

In the midst of all this, the six cousins were having a rip-roaring good time together. In fact, on Sunday night, the grownups all went out for dinner and we had a babysitter stay with the kids. They wore themselves out so completely that when we got home at 9:00 pm, Zach was sound asleep on one couch and Lily was sound asleep on the other couch with a gelato spoon still in her hand.

And then...La Push, baby. As soon as we entered werewolf territory on Tuesday evening, we knew we were in a good spot. We were on an Indian reservation on the beach and this was the view from the main cabin. Tons of kid-friendly beach curiosities as far as the eye could see, and big open windows from the cabin so that we could keep an eye on the kids while they played.

Zach was incredibly proud of himself for discovering this "secret cave," (an enormous hollow tree turned sideways) and it was a spot we returned to again and again for climbing and exploring.

On the next day we did a hike (nearly flattening my poor mom in the process) down to another beach with tidepools, and Luke was strenuously objecting to going...until he got there, and started exploring, and he wound up staying with the very last group to leave.

The best part about the beach? Bonfires. I don't know how long it's been since I sat in front of a fire like that, but I could sit there for hours (and I did). Marshmallows, popcorn, glow necklaces -- all of that is fun, but I'm content to just watch the fire burn stuff and listen to it crackle.

On Friday, our little family of four had to take our leave of the group. Dave and I decided to take two boats (rather than the train) to get up to Vancouver, and it was both incredibly scenic and incredibly arduous. By the time we arrived at our hotel at 11 pm on Friday night, the boys were so exhausted they were practically liquid.

So we took it sort of easy in Vancouver on Saturday, trying to conserve energy until the big show at 10 pm. I wouldn't necessarily have kept the boys up for the fireworks festival, but Dave's friend invited us to a party in his suite on the 38th floor of one of the highest buildings in Vancouver, so we were guaranteed some of the best seats in town. And it was...spectacular. I can't even give it enough superlatives to describe it so I will just leave it at that.

Sunday we hung out in Stanley Park, and even though there was a lot to see for two very tired kids, no one complained when our day ended with a visit to an enormous kid-friendly pool.

Monday morning we dragged our pathetic selves onto the Amtrak and headed back into Seattle one last time. We had a joyful reunion with the girls, which included a mandatory trip to High Five Pie, and then we dragged our pathetic selves to the airport to finally finish our 16-hour day of travel.

Now picture this: We started traveling at 6 am on Monday, and didn't get home until after 10 pm. On Tuesday, I had to leave the house at 7:30 am to go to the doctor, and then work all day. So already I was running on minimal sleep and I hadn't had more than about 30 minutes' waking time at our house yet. And then Dave reminded me that we had a "date" to see Yo-Yo Ma at the Hollywood Bowl that night and we had to leave our house as soon as I got home from work on Tuesday. You can imagine why every cell in my body was aching to stay home.

But...Dave was determined to make me feel less stressed about it. So he did all of the laundry at home that day, and then he took charge of creating a very special picnic for us. When we finally sat down at our (awesome) seats at the concert, he began unpacking his custom-picked Jeanne-centric feast: Ice-cold water. Vegetable spring rolls with honey-chili sauce. A large Greek salad for me and a Thai tofu salad for him (this is the new, vegetarian-ish Dave we're talking about, remember). A tiny bottle of Chardonnay for me, a little box of pinot noir for him. And then, for the final act, a large bar of Theo sea salt dark chocolate. Swoon. This is the sound of me not complaining any more.

So today (Wednesday) I finally had a few minutes at home, but not enough - never enough. If I owe you an email or a phone call or a story, please give me a grace period - like, say, three months, before I manage to come up with something coherent.

5-7-5

I am not complaining, but... I could use a few extra hours in a day. There's far too much going on lately; when are you supposed to have time to write about it?

I'll just toss out a few categories, in haiku form, because I'm pressed for time:

Electric car:

Zero emissions.

Ours - free - for the next two months.

Love driving around.

This thing is the coolest little car EVER. It's only been with us for one week and I'm already sad about us having to turn it in. Also, when I'm downtown sitting in beach traffic, I can't shake the thought, "You people are actually using *gas* to get around town?!?!"

Florida cousins:

Florida in town.

Four boys do lots of chasing.

Get them in the pool!

Everyone's just a little happier when the Florida cousins are in town, and this summer is no exception.

Family garage cleanout:

Forty years of stuff.

This calls for a big dumpster.

Get ready to sweat.

I can't speak much to the garage cleanout, because my job was primarily "keep the kids away," but the other grownups did serious manual labor All. Day. Long. and into the night to get it all cleaned out. It was a minor miracle of cooperation, sweat, and dust masks.

Italian festival:

Italian night.

You got a problem with that?

Tony makes bracciole.

This year for the big family meal we went native with an Italian theme. Tony cooked up a massive pot of "gravy" that simmered all afternoon long with meatballs, sausage and bracciole. Luke made his "special appetizer" - bread toasted with olive oil and rosemary. And of course we topped off the evening with our annual fireworks show.

Medieval Times:

Knights duel on horseback.

We eat chicken with no forks.

Now kids want to fight.

I really don't know how to elaborate on this except to say...what a surreal day. Dave and I went to a funeral before this (one of the moms from our school) so you can imagine what our mood was like going into it. And then we worked our way through an hour of rush-hour traffic. And then - Medieval Times was amazingly fun. The kids were the perfect age to enjoy the show, and everyone seemed to have a good time. Zach gave it the ultimate praise: "This is better than the Deli, and the Farmhouse, and Fishbar."

We're sad our "green" knight didn't win, but I got a chance to take a picture with him afterwards, and either he's like, 7 feet tall, or I'm a midget. As Dave remarked, upon seeing this picture, "Humans come in many different sizes."