The Mediterranean experience

Who says I have to post pictures of the boys all the time? I mean really, who slaves after this blog day after day? So, for a little variety, here's a pic of my birthday boots. I saw them in the store, and decided they were incredibly impractical for the price, and then I kept thinking about them, and thinking about them, and thinking about them... Those poor souls who hung out with me during those difficult days had to listen to me endlessly weighing the pros and cons of a frivolous purchase. But then I decided to just pull the trigger and do it, so here they are in all their glory. Suzi insisted on taking this picture before Dave and I went out on the town the other night (while Suzi and Boom-Boom babysat, thank you very much by the way).

Yesterday Dave and the boys and I made our first pilgrimage to one of the most celebrated hole-in-the-wall pizza places in all of L.A. It's a Croatian pizza place in San Pedro (big Croatian population there) and of course we got the most famous pizza, which is called the "San Pedro" (half Italian, half Croatian). The Italian half has ham, artichokes, and mushrooms; the Croatian half has feta cheese, olives, red onions, mushrooms, and beef carpaccio. We decided to get a small cheese pizza for the boys, and the owner gave it to us for free ("You came such a long way, and I know you'll be back," he grinned.)

This pizza place has no seating, so the deal is you get your pizza and take it right down the road to this beautiful park at the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean (to get the true Mediterranean experience).

We were all completely blown away by the pizza and the scenery. In fact, the rocky beach down below was so inviting we decided to come all the way back after Zach's nap for a little sunset tidepool-walking.

Today was another beach day -- this time at our hometown beach -- and it's too bad summer is officially over, because we are just getting the system down. We head down the hill with our all-terrain wagon stuffed to the gills with chairs, towels, toys, clothes, and the canopy; plus a massive cooler filled with ice and drinks to share. We invited about 10 families, and about seven of those showed up, plus two more families whom we didn't expect but were glad to see anyway. While the kids played on the sand I went for an ocean swim with two of the dads who are both training for triathlons, and I was secretly pleased to swim almost twice as fast as them (doubling back to wait for them to catch up). Heh. Not that I'm gloating or anything.

Afterwards Luke set up shop outside our house with the leftover drinks and it was a surprisingly slow sales day, for Labor Day. (Luke spent most of his time reading from the Calvin and Hobbes Treasury.) Then Hatcher came over to help sell, and the boys got more interested in doing boy-type things (playing with Legos, having fun in the pool) than in minding the store. Which is fine. That's what summer is for, right?

Yeah, school!!!

We did it! We got through the first day of the rest of our 16 years in the public school system. Not a bad start, all in all... No one shed any tears, except maybe a few by Luke at the end of the day when I told him that we weren't going to have a second playdate in a row with his new buddy Shane (his mom and I decided they both needed to chill out a little bit this afternoon after all the excitement). Nevertheless, the teacher seems good, the class seems good, and it's hard to tell much of anything from the first day, but I think he's going to be just fine. The best part of his new class, from my perspective, is that there are only 17 kids in his class. For most kindergartens, and certainly for California, that's about as small a class as you can possibly get. And that's a good thing.

Zach had his first day in his new 2-year-old class and that seemed to go pretty well too. Dave dropped him off and picked him up, which was a special bonus, because Zach never seems to cry when Dave is involved, so it was essentially a tear-free drop-off and pick-up today. Of course, then when Dave left the house to get back to work, Zach nearly fell apart, but then I guess we had to assume there'd be some collateral damage.

All in all, I guess there's not that much to say. I thought I'd be more emotional about it - and I'm sure I have some undercurrents of anxiety on Luke's behalf; otherwise why would I have woken up at 5:30 this morning? - but other than that I'd just say it was pretty.... uneventful. What a boring story this is turning out to be. Sorry, everyone. Just look at the pretty pictures and then move along, move along...

Yeah, birthday!!!

The hour is late, and we 41-year-olds need our beauty sleep, so I'll see if I can wrap this up quickly. We had a great birthday dinner last night with Suzi and Bill, and it was notable for the fact that both boys sat at the table for the entire meal. Perfect. Then we retired back to the house for Suzi and Luke's special birthday cake creation, which Zach had already declared as "his" birthday cake. "My birthday is coming up!" he kept reminding us.

Today was a wild and wacky day, with a morning playdate with some old friends, followed by an ice cream social for Luke's new class, which then evolved into a second playdate at our house with some new friends from Luke's kindergarten class. (It turns out that among the five- and six-year-old set, all you have to do is say the word "Lego" and you can be fast friends.) When we finally said goodbye to our guests, and cleaned up the damage, we went out to a little Mexican restaurant on the beach and we had Mexican food and margaritas while watching the sun set beside us. Not a bad day at all.

Speaking of Legos, and Luke... He seems to have become dissatisfied with the pace at which people are buying him new Lego sets, so he took matters in his own hands this weekend. At some point during a very hot day at the beach, he and his friend decided to start selling the cold drinks we had sitting on ice in our jumbo cooler. ("Cold drinks for a dollar!") They were delighted when they both made $2, but Luke still wasn't satisfied. He insisted on continuing the sale in the driveway when we got home, and he made an extra $7 to bring the total take to $9. Mostly he made the money because he was so completely committed to the cause - sitting out in the broiling sun, not interested in taking a break, and corralling anyone who happened to be walking in the vicinity ("Excuse me - Would you like to buy a cold drink?") On Sunday he was chomping at the bit to "set up his sale" again, and even though there weren't that many drinks or that much ice left, he somehow charmed passers-by into spending another $13, bringing his total take to $22. That, my friends, buys a fairly decent Lego set. Problem is, now I have to explain to him that he can't just sell stuff out of our driveway every weekend.

Luke lost another tooth yesterday morning, which means that he is headed off to kindergarten tomorrow with three teeth missing. Now he has a totally sweet gap-toothed grin. I wonder if he'll charm his teacher as much as he's charmed the rest of us?

Yeah, toast!!!

Last week on my first night away from Zach, I was a little unsure what to expect when they called me from home. Would Zach be asking for me? Would he hear my voice and get upset? Turns out it was almost completely a non-issue.

Before they called me, Zach and Dave went out for dinner at our Cuban place (the place where we used to go all the time before Luke stopped liking most foods) and Zach was completely thrilled by the Cuban toast (thickly sliced bread, fried in butter....mmmmm). ("I had good fun at the new new restaurant," Zach declared on the way home.) At some point along the way they started singing the "Toast" song and by the time they called me, that's all Zach wanted to talk about.

Me: "How was your dinner, Zach?"
Zach: "Yeah, toast!!!"
Me: "Did you have fun at a new restaurant with Daddy?"
Zach: "Yeah, toast!!!"
Me: "Are you going meet us at Legoland tomorrow?"
Zach: "Yeah, toast!!!!"

...and so on. In the past few days it's been expanded to include, "Yeah, milk!" and "Yeah, beach!" and "Yeah, Legos!"

Speaking of Legos, our resident master builder has a new thing going on. He asked how he could earn a Lego set, so I told him if he ate just a normal dinner (i.e. what I cooked for the rest of the family) every night for a whole month I'd buy him a Lego set. I didn't expect we'd get too far with it. But last night he took up the cause with such great enthusiasm it was both comical and unbelievable.

"Boy, I can't wait to eat this salad," he'd say, lifting leaf after leaf into his mouth. "Could someone help me with this corn? I want to eat it but I'm having trouble with my loose tooth." But the best comments were saved for the hamburger, a food he hasn't eaten in about two years: "This hamburger is delicious! I am just putting it in my mouth and my brain is saying, 'WOW!'" It tastes so good with ketchup! We should have hamburgers every night!"

Dave and I were basically stunned into silence; and we both needed to alternate slipping into the kitchen to choke down laughter. I don't know if this is going to last for a full month, but I think we're off to a good start.

Land o' Legos

We're back from an exhausting two days at Legoland and that's about as much time as I ever want to spend on canned family entertainment. But you know, the kids each had fun in their own way and Zach and I survived our first night apart, so it's all good.

The first day was just me and Luke. Now Luke and Legoland sounds like it would be a good mix, but here's the thing about Luke: He doesn't like rides, and he really only wants to buy Lego sets. So most of the first morning was spent wandering around the park with him complaining that he just wanted to go back to the main store, and me pushing him to keep checking out the park. I'm sad to say that I was starting to sound like a broken record with repeated threats to take him home if he didn't stop talking about buying a Lego set. Eventually we found a few things he liked (factory tour, building a Lego race car, looking at Miniland). I convinced him to go on about three rides total, and he didn't like any of them - and in fact he was terrified by the gentle boat ride through a fairy tale woods (because he didn't like the "Fee Fi Fo Fum" giant and the wolf popping up out of the water).

But we worked it out by the end of the day and went back to our hotel, where we settled in happily: me chilling out in the soft white sheets, and Luke at the coffee table building his new Lego set. Back when Luke and Zach were infants waking up in the middle of the night I would have this recurring fantasy about staying in a hotel room, soft white sheets and all, and blissfully drifting off to sleep without the chance of anyone waking me up. So I finally got a chance to live out my white-sheet hotel-room fantasy (five and a half years after the fact, but still...). True, Luke was asleep in the next room of the suite, but we were both so tired there was little chance of either of us waking up that night.


The next morning after pigging out on the hotel breakfast, Luke and I picked Dave and Zach up from the train station and we all headed back to Legoland. The second day was actually better because we convinced Luke to go on a few rides, Luke got to show Dave what he liked the most, and Zach had an absolute blast. Zach measured just a hair over the 36-inch minimum for most rides, so he was able to do roller coasters, etc.

At the very end, Luke fell in love with a ball attraction where you shoot soft balls at other kids with cannons... and right across the way there was an airplane ride that made Zach giddy with excitement. So we spent the last hour or so letting them indulge themselves shooting and flying, and all of those things that you generally get in trouble for if you do inside the house.

Side note: On our trip back East, we actually forgot to bring a stroller with us, so we never had one the whole time, and we didn't bother bringing it to Legoland either. Zach is mostly happy to hoof it on his own and the only time he really needs to be carried is when he has to be dragged away from something. Which happens. I mean, really. He's two.

Side note to the side note: The other morning I took a shower, and Zach got all geared up looking at running water and decided to take a bath. My exact words were something like, "I'm packing, sweetie, I can't give you a bath right now." So Zach, being the literalist that he is, nonchalantly took off his diaper, climbed into the tub, turned on the water and adjusted the temperature, put the stopper in the drain, and proceeded to take his own bath. I think he's trying to tell me something, but I'm not sure exactly what it means.

Vacation pics, Part V

OK, this is the last round of East Coast vacation pics. I'm trying to close this chapter because we just got back from Legoland and I have so many new pictures I can't even catch up with my own vacations. I'm going to have to start Twittering or tweeting instead.

These are from the famous blueberry-picking trip, and again, my only regret from the whole morning is that I don't have a picture of Mom and Dad sitting on the back of the pickup truck. Well, there's always next year...



In case it's too hard to imagine just how many blueberries we picked, consider that I took home only a tiny fraction of the haul, and my fridge is full. I'm going to have to freeze them so we have some fresh blueberries to enjoy in, say, January. Oh, and we made the blueberry jam while the blueberries were still warm from the sun. Do you think there's anyone in town who has fresher blueberry jam than we do?

Vacation pics, Part IV

When it gets to be this hot, you have to have a water-balloon fight...





Zach is quickly becoming known for his quirky, repetitive phrases. One of his favorite things to do is to drink milk out of a bowl on the floor, and then stand up and announce, "I'm a cat drinking three bowls of milk!" (a sentence borrowed from one of his favorite books).

At one point when the dogs visited the house, Stella tried to get in the dishwasher for some yummy leftovers. Then, for hours afterward, Zach asked Mom, "Grandma Joan, does a dog go in a dishwasher?" (It was funny/cute for the first hundred times, because he kept asking with a smile on his face and a twinkle in the eye, like, of COURSE he knew the answer).

And of course he couldn't resist driving Joe's old "seegle-cycle."

Vacation pics, Part III

Post-Pocono activities include the amusement park and Bug-Fest (yes, that is Dave working as a beekeeper...)

Vacation pics, Part II

Various Pocono water activities begin with fishing off the dock.

...And the first fish is a real thrill.

Summer Vacation, Pt. 1

The excitement of arrival, plus blackberry picking at a farm in Riverside.

Fresh picked

I suggested that we all go blueberry picking this morning, but of course it was a whim and I had no idea what we were getting ourselves in to. Turns out it was a great call, and we have 13 pounds (yes, pounds) of delicious blueberries to show for it.

None of us had been to the farm before, and we had some vague directions from the web, and when we tried to call no one was picking up the phone, so it's a miracle that we found our way there. The farm was in the boonies, and it took us at least three wrong turns before we found our way to the right place (including driving up a very long driveway next to the farm - so close but not the right one).

When we got there we were all a little hot and irritated, but the proprietor, Farmer Fred, was such a charming old guy (age 87) that we were immediately smitten. He showed us how to tie the big metal buckets around our waist, and then he told us all to hop in the back of his pickup truck and he'd haul us over to the fields. And this is where I am just dying without the ability to post the pictures from my camera. Picture this: Mom and Dad sitting in the very back of the pickup truck, legs swinging off the edge, as the truck bounced along a dirt path. The rest of us sat in the wagon part, trying to avoid injury from the pile of very sharp tools and cans of gasoline rattling around next to us.

And then we got to the fields. There in front of us were rows and rows of the biggest, juiciest, bluest blueberries you've ever seen. Someone was describing them as the size of nickels, but that doesn't even quite do them justice because they were just so darned round and plump and beautiful. We all went to work right away, everyone picking and putting them in their cans; Zach picking and eating as much as he could fit in his mouth.

Farmer Fred had sized up Mom and Dad and declared, "She'll be finished in fifteen minutes. He'll be finished in two hours." And sure enough, within about 15 minutes, Mom had filled up the whole three-pound can, and Dad was still picking through individual bunches looking for only the most perfect berries.

Too bad it was one of the hottest days of the year, because I would have stayed out there for hours, but it was scorching out there in the fields with 90-degree heat and humidity. After about a half-hour of sheer blueberry heaven, Mom summoned Farmer Fred to come and bring us back, and he dutifully drove the truck back and bounced and bumped us all the way back to our cars.

Total take: 13 pounds. Yield thus far: One blueberry pie, five jars of blueberry jam, and two enormous buckets of blueberries (still warm from the sun) just waiting to be eaten.

Please Direct Complaints to the Cookie House

We're back from the Poconos, and how weird it was to spend a week essentially off-line. But even I made out better than Luke, who was going nuts without a computer to do his Lego searches on. This was definitely a do-nothing vacation, for me at least, since I wasn't fishing like everyone else. I generally like a vacation that's a little more retail-intensive, but hey - I managed just fine with a good book, Sudoku, a few boats, and non-stop kid entertainment.

Thanks to Joe, the expert fisherman, just about everyone got a chance to get out there and do some fishing. Luke caught quite a few fish, mostly pumpkinseed fish, for which Joe used a teeny-tiny knife to make a teeny-tiny fillet and fry it in a teeny-tiny pan. Luke's fishing enthusiasm only waned after Joe declared that he wasn't going to let any more fish die unless the boys were going to eat them. Gulp.


I also had a great time hanging out with my getting-bigger-every-minute nephew and niece. Lily is just as sweet as can be, and was a delight to hang out with, especially with Zach, who had his own special bond with her. When he woke up from his nap after they all left, one of his first questions was, "Where's Lily?"

Plus I had a few great rounds of foosball with Sam, who is really an incredible competitor. Even though I was playing hard and not letting him win, he was completely undeterred and wanted to just keep coming back for more. Oh, and he and Luke had a great time hanging out and Lego-ing together. When it was time for Sam to leave, he said to Luke, "Goodbye, brother-I-never-knew-I-had!"

Today was leaving day, and it was one of the few days this week with no rain, so Dave and I decided to take the boys to a local amusement park/waterpark before we headed back. Luke was not the least bit interested in the amusement park rides, and instead headed straight for the mining operation, where you sift dirt through a stream and find colored rocks and crystals. Zach, on the other hand, couldn't wait to get on the roller coaster ("I want to ride the bumpy train!") and cried and cried when the ride was over. On the water park side, Zach and Dave went on a very large chute-like slide that started out several stories high and zig-zagged across the park. Luke didn't care much for the mega-slide, but he loved the different water-squirting operations and he rounded all of us up to go on the "lazy river" water tube experience together. Zach was so wiped out at this point that he barely had the energy to protest that the ride wasn't quite fast or dangerous enough for his tastes.

One of the bizarre little things about the park was a sign at just about every ride, which said something to the effect of, if you get hurt on this ride, please report the incident at the Cookie House. Dave pointed out that they really had you with that strategy - what kind of injury couldn't be cured by a nice chocolate chip cookie? Or maybe two to keep you quiet? They also strategically set up the exit so you had to leave the park through the Cookie House - great deal for kids, right? But luckily both boys were so tired we whisked them right through before they could even ask, "Could I have one of those..." Zach fell asleep in the car before we even left the parking lot. A good day indeed.

Up in the mountains

Lots going on, little time to write, and even less access to a live Web connection, so briefly:
We made it on a not-so-horrible flight to a steamy and humid Northeast.
We had a great swim at the pool.
We went out to our favorite ice cream place.
We picked fresh produce at our favorite little farm - I have great pictures but forgot the camera cord - and Zach ate as many blackberries as he picked, which was quite a few.
On our last morning in NJ I got stung on the toe by a bee and YOWCH! - I forgot how much that hurt.
We're here in the Poconos, in a lake house well-stocked with toys and activities.
We've tried out the rowboat, the pedal-boat, and the kayak, and the pedal-boat seems to be most popular.
It rained all day today but a quick trip to Wal-Mart (I know, yechh, what a way to spend a vacation) cured that - Zach has a new train, Luke has a new Lego set, and Dave and I have magazines and newspapers.
Luke and Dad finished his gigantic Lego set in record time while Mom and I went outlet shopping this afternoon.
Zach is entertaining us all with his funny turns of phrase. When we asked him, "Zach, are you two?" he responded, "No - I'm five and a half!"
Tomorrow: Joe comes with the kids; Luke tries out the fishing pole, and (we hope) the sky finally clears).

Did It!

Tired, tired, tired is the theme of the day, so I'm just going to get this down as fast as possible. I did it, swam the race, made it to the finish line, and lived to tell... I know it feels good to have set this goal and to have accomplished it, but I'm a little sore right now so it hasn't quite sunk in yet.

This first pic is of the race start. We had to sign in at 7:45 but the race didn't start until 9:00, so I had more than an hour to pace and fidget at the starting line. They announced that the women would be starting five minutes after the men, which was great news because the men are notoriously rough (swimming on top of one another, clawing to the front) at the start. I was most nervous about the start of the race, but once I was in the water it wasn't too bad.

Everyone was saying that this was the toughest year in terms of surf conditions that they could recall. People's times were off by 15 to 20 minutes from last year. I felt pretty good throughout much of the race, but I was definitely zig-zagging quite a bit. The worst point was at about the 1 1/4 mile mark, where I looked up and saw a very distinctive blue house on the Strand. "Oh, good, there's the blue house," I thought. So I kept swimming, swimming, swimming, and then I looked up again and I was STILL in front of the blue house. So I kept swimming, swimming, swimming, and then looked up again and I was a little bit BEHIND the blue house. It was like one of those nightmares where you're trying to move but you're completely stuck. Obviously I was stuck in some kind of current (and I learned later that at least one other person had the same problem at that point) but that threw off my mental game quite a bit. From there on in I felt like I was really fighting against the water.


At the finish line there was a woman who was there at the exact same time as me so we sprinted to the end together. Final time - about 1 hour 30 minutes (for 2.2 miles). I had expected to finish in about 1 hour 10 minutes or 1 hour 15, so I was surprised to see that it had actually taken that long.

But the absolute best part was having Dave and Luke and Zach (and Elizabeth) waiting for me at the finish line. Dave got me a beautiful lei of fresh orchids, which was so amazing that I thought things couldn't get any better than that. Then he told me we were going to eat lunch downtown because I had an "appointment" at 1:00. Turns out he booked me for a massage at my favorite spa, where there's a big balcony you can relax on afterwards with fresh fruit, water, and plenty of magazines. Ah, heaven. Now about next year's race...