Babes and Beer |
||
|
Drinking beer, being married, and raising kids.  A Nosuch affiliate. 
Family Pictures Active blogs: Carpe Datum Cognitive Dissonance Dubious Quality Joe Delta Fishpimp A Clan Lord Journal Fun Turns to Tragedy! A Stitch In Time Free Market Fairy Tales Timmerov LJ & her dog The Phone Booth Chuck Pierce T-Homo The Brad Hole Greg Costikyan Phil Steinmeyer Ty Robin Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools Mostly inactive blogs: WOPR Spring Tide The Tangential Jeff Schell Clan Lord blogs: Fierce and Furry: The Adventures of Hor |
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Isabel sometimes tells me the funniest stories. (Well, maybe only funniest if you spawned her...)
"Hi Daddy. Today Nala was sick, but I gave her some ibinprofen and now she's feeling much better. She took a good nap, but before that she was whining 'I need medicine' so I gave her some." Just crazy stream-of-conciousness things like that. Nala is her imaginary friend most of the time, but sometimes SHE is Nala.
Fun with the kids yesterday. At lunch time, B came to my office with the kids and a picnic lunch, and we walked down along the water to a nice shady spot under a tree on the grass, and had a great time. The kids loved watching the ducks and geese, and all the boats going back and forth between Lake Washington and Lake Union. Lots of boats, from canoes and kayaks to large motor yachts and sailboats. After lunch we took a walk further down along the water, which was unfortunate because B parked illegally, and just as we got back the Segway riding parking officer was giving her a $30 ticket.
After dinner we tried to think of someplace to go, and settled on going to Mathew's Beach, a nearby beach on Lake Washington. I've been there a few times, but hadn't really paid much attention. Holy smokes, it was awesome. Big grassy lawn leading down to a smallish patch of apparently-trucked-in sand and a big swimming area with 3 lifeguards. We'd brought the kids swimsuits, but had a major brainfart and failed to bring either of ours. I guess we were thinking they'd play in the sand and maybe get their feet wet. Oh no, Isabel was all for charging straight into the water and jumping around and splashing and having a grand old time going in over her head. She absolutely loved it, which was impressive. Harry was a lot more cautious, but he had a good time as well, getting braver about walking in the water without having his hand held. We'd gotten there about 6:45, and at 7pm they kicked everybody out of the water because the lifeguards were done for the day. Once everyone was out, you could swim again, just without lifeguards anymore, but we used the opportunity to get the kids out and changed back into dry clothes. They weren't ready to go yet so we took them to the playground equipment and they had a blast playing on that. I didn't win the $220 million dollar Mega Millions jackpot last night, obviously. Nobody won, so the estimated jackpot for Friday is $280 million. That's probably nearly $100 million cash after taxes, with odds *only* 135 million to one. Getting pretty close to an even odds deal, plus it's fun to fantasize about that kind of ludicrous wealth. I think I'd try to build a replica of Neuschwanstein here in Seattle to live in. It'd look awesome up on Magnolia bluff overlooking Elliott Bay and downtown Seattle, or over up on West Seattle's hill. A friend of mine used to always pick the numbers 1 2 3 4 5 6 for his lottery tickets, stating correctly that the odds of those hitting are as likely as any other combination. While that's true, I'm sure a half dozen other smartasses think the same thing, and thus if it did hit, you'd have to split the jackpot a half dozen ways. That's why I always go with a random pick. I only buy lottery tickets when the jackpots are ludicrous and only buy a single $1 ticket. It's fun to dream, although I have to admit I get nearly as much fun dreaming when I don't buy a ticket. Last night we started watching the first two episodes of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer". Not bad, but hasn't hooked me yet. They all look so young, since the actors in it that I know I've only seen much more recently than 1997. It's been over a decade since I saw the original movie, but it's not really needed. Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Last night when I got home from work I went out front to do some yardwork, and brought the kids with me while B cooked dinner. They love to play with the rakes, and dig with little hand trowels. Fortunately I don't care what they do to the yard, it's not like they're going to majorly destroy it, just minor destruction, and they did so good.
When B finally came to the front door and told us to come in for dinner, Isabel was fine with it but Harry freaked. He likes to have some warning before something else happens (5 more minutes Harry... 2 more minutes Harry... etc) and he was NOT ready to go in yet. He cried and cried, and wouldn't stop. Finally B told me to ask him if he wanted to sit in bed and he said yes. His crib is the only place he's allowed a pacifier, so he sat against the wall in his crib with a pacifier in his mouth and one in each hand for about 10 minutes before he was ready to come out and eat dinner. Very funny, for me at least. I had a great time at my drinking (err, investment) club meeting. We decided to sell a quarter of two of our stocks that had doubled, and sell off our lame-duck Microsoft stock. Now we've got a fat wad of proceeds to re-invest. Monday, June 28, 2004
Mmmmm MMMMM!!! Yesterday we had our 5th annual Turkey Day In June. A full-on turkey dinner with all the fixin's. I made bourbon glazed yams and a turkey, B made mashed taters, her awesome stuffing, turkey gravy, plus we had cresent rolls, olives, a friend brought bacon spinach salad, and another friend brought both a pumpkin and a pecan pie. It's nice having a thankgiving-style dinner with all our friends who normally all have turkey day with their families.
Little did I know that my TiVo had recorded not one but TWO old college football games from ESPN Classic. Unfortunately, I noticed too late. Overheard on the baby monitor this morning, Isabel in a disgusted voice, "No, Harry, she's *still* upstairs..." Sunday, June 27, 2004
Yesterday was quite busy. I woke up with the kids, helped them make scrabled eggs for breakfast, and started to get them ready. By 9am B was up, and we drove down to Olympia. Once there, we stopped off at the U-Haul to pick up the one-way truck we'd reserved. Drove that over to my mother-in-law's apartment, and started loading. Once everything was in the truck, and man does that woman own a lot of stuff, including a huge amount of hardback books. (Basically every bestseller Costco stocked for the past 3-4 years).
Once loaded, we went to B's aunt's place where B and the kids had been playing, had pizza, a desperately needed beer (Fat-n-Tired Estrogen Ale, a chick beer if there ever was one) and then I drove that pile of crap broke-down truck home to Seattle. Unloaded, then returned the truck. While I was at the UHaul place here in Seattle with one guy doing the paperwork, another guy was calling up some lady "Hey, you wanted a 17' one-way to Tuscon? We've got a truck for ya!" Once home again, I took a few beers down the street and BSed with my youngest brother, who was working on his VW Bus. The engine was idling OK, but every so often a TWANG noise would come from the engine. "Uh, that's not good". Heh. Never did figure out what it was, sounded like a screw falling and hitting a fan or something. It's air-cooled, so no fan to hit... Then I took a shower and we went over to one of B's mom group friends for her husband's birthday party. They'd recently hired a non-english-speaking recent Mexican immigrant to cook and clean for them (it's good to be the king) and holy freakin' cow was that food good. She'd made chili rellanos, some cheese, most stuffed with some pork mixture. Uff-freakin'-da! I've had them before, and always thought they were just "eh". These were freakin' unbeliveably amazing. Super super good. The heat added up after a while, but it was sooooo good you just couldn't stop. Then for dessert, a cake that I swear two dozen eggs had to die to make. It was so rich and moist, it was almost a flan or quiche. Really really good, and very unusual compared to most cake I see. Long tiring day, but a lot got accomplished, and a lot of fun was had in the end. Peggy, B's mom, is going to stay at her sister's house in Oly for the next month, working, then she'd going to travel for a month or so, then move in with us. Saturday, June 26, 2004
Oh yeah. Yesterday we had the kids' annual physicals. Isabel at 3 is now 3'5" and 38lbs, and Harry at 2yrs 1m is 3'2.5" and 37lbs. Both are ludicrously off the charts for height and weight.
It's the end of an era. We finally watched the Season Six finale of Stargate SG-1 on DVD. It was actually the first episode I ever watched, but it didn't make a whole lot of sense. I've now seen every episode since we own seasons 1-6 on DVD and TiVo caught all the season 7 episodes, so we're caught up for Season Eight which starts in two weeks, and the spinoff, Stargate: Atlantis, which starts in three weeks.
Stargate is a really fun series to watch. I really didn't like the movie much, so I never thought about watching the series, but B got herself hooked on it and then got me hooked. The chemistry between the pricipal actors is excellent. They really click and seem to be having a good time. The writing is mostly consistent, with things that happen in previous episodes affecting the future. Some episodes are little standalone scifi bits, others advance the story arc. If you are a Netflix member, you can just watch the DVDs that way cheaply. As addicts, I didn't mind buying the DVD sets mail order. Now that we're done with Stargate DVDs, and it's summer, I guess I'll start watching another TV series DVD set. I'll probably start with Firefly. B and I were addicted to that one-season series the other year, but Fox seemed detremined to kill it. They played the series all out of order, which made figuring out what was going on totally bizarre, and they didn't air three of the episodes at all. Crazy. Anyway, we'll watch that, in order, and enjoy it. Apparently they're making a feature film of this. Hopefully the series will come back, it was really good. The other choices are either Buffy or Babylon5. A friend has both those, so they'll be free to watch. I loved the original Buffy movie, but never watched the series. I never watched B5 either, but heard it had both internally-consistent physics and a predetermined grand story arc, both of which appeal to me greatly as a geek. Friday, June 25, 2004
I finished reading Lois McMaster Bujold's "A Paladin of Souls", the second in her fantasy series. Excellent read, she is truly a great author. "How good?" you say? Well, both my wife and my friend's mom are voratious readers, but neither cares for scifi. Both are addicted to Bujold now.
Last night B and her sister painted some of the walls down in the basement for their mom. Some fancy green shade. Looks nice. I'm just glad I didn't have to do anything but watch the kids while watching World Poker Tour. The "Cruisin' to Millions" was weird because they played Limit Hold'em, instead of No-Limit. Thursday, June 24, 2004
Man, I'm way friggin' stressed out, and I don't deal with it well. Between a bunch of stuff at work, and having to move my mother-in-law this weekend. I'm just fed up. I need a break. Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Last night we had my father's day dinner, since I was a tad too soused on Sunday to do it justice. Big ribeye steaks, sauteed mushrooms and onions, artichokes, salad, corn on the cob, garlic mashed potatoes, and rolls. Uff-da, what a feast.
Afterwards we went to visit B's friend's new house. Man, starter homes in Seattle are kind of depressin. $300k buys a house with a small living room, a tiny dining room, a nice new kitchen, a bathroom, and a small bedroom on the main floor. Upstairs, there are two small bedrooms in what's really the attic, and while there is a full basement, you have to go outside to access it. Well, it will be a good investment. Monday, June 21, 2004
More photos for those who can't get enough of me drunk and or drinking beer, or me riding a bike through the moutains, or my kids playing.
Well, yesterday ruled.
I was woken up about 8:15 by my kids happily piling onto the bed yelling "Daddy Daddy Daddy!" They'd both made me father's day cards covered in fingerpaints, very cute. I had to get up and get crackin' because we had a half dozen people coming over for a father's day brunch before we sojourned off to the Beer Festival. B made her cinnamon rolls, I made a large egg loaf (eggs, cheese, sausage, onions, mushrooms, baked kinda like a quiche but no crust) and 3lbs of bacon. A very tasty way to start the day, and load up a good base coat of food before spending my day drinking beer. We got to the Brew Fest at about 11:30am, a half hour after it opened, and when we went to set up our blanket in the shady area under the few trees there it was already packed with familys, but we knew the sun would be moving and the spot we picked would become shady in another 20 minutes or so. Good thing, too, because it was friggin' hot yesterday, it got to 92F. We used the stroller to haul most of our crap (chairs, blankets, cooler) and Harry, and had Isabel walk. Having self-mobile kids rules. There were a ton of tasty beers there. I mostly stuck with the IPAs, fortunately well over half the breweries seemed to bring one. Mmmm. Darn tasty. For kids they had a bunch of activities more suitable for slightly older kids, but they had a large fiberglass pig painted with chalkboard paint, and a bucket of sidewalk chalks. Isabel and Harry loved drawing on the pig. At about 2pm, B took the kids home, they were getting cranky and needed naps. I stayed and got a ride home with my friend Zep, who is an army officer on leave right now but due to go back overseas in a few weeks. After I got home I went down to by brother's house to drop off a Happy Father's Day card for my dad. He was going to drive from norther Idaho to Chehalis to attend a 50th wedding anniversary party of a distant relative, then drop by Seattle at my brother's house, then drive home. The wedding anniversary was especially interesting for him since he'd gone to the wedding when he was 11. When I got there, I was surprised, my parents were there. I said happy Fathers day, and visited for a bit, then they were off with my youngest brother to visit Trader Joes to pick up a few more cases of 3-buck Chuck (aka Charles Shaw wine at $3/bottle). Now, regardless of any situation between me and my folks, I just don't get them not wanted to see their grandkids. I mean, I totally don't get it. They pay lip service to wanting to see their grandkids, but they've never made any effort whatsoever, even a year ago when we were on really good terms. I mean, they were 3 freakin' houses away, and they didn't stop in to say Hi to their grandkids. WTF?!? I'll never understand my parents. I know they had been on the road like 8 hours that day and had at least another 5 to go, but 5-10 mintes to visit their grandkids?!? Gah. For dinner we got to endulge in my passion for food served in buckets. I've always loved food served in buckets, of any kind. It's just so American OverIndulgent, something about it. Movie popcorn, if they sell it in a bucket, I get the bucket. Love bucketized food. Anyway, Taco Del Mar has a deal where you can get 4 of their monster burritos in a bucket plus chips-n-salsa for $20. Woo! The kids spent some quality naked time running through the sprinkler in the backyard after dinner, very funny to watch. I had to help our basement renter move a bunch of things in the garage out of the way, because today she has movers showing up to move her out. End of an era, she moved in when we did 4.5 years ago. We'll miss her. Saturday, June 19, 2004
This morning I had a great time. I was going on a bike ride with some friends, so I got up with the kids to let B sleep in a tiny bit. The kids helped me make them scrabled eggs, then B came down and my friend showed up. I loaded up my bike, helmet, bike shoes, bike jacket, a couple of Deschutes Obsidian Stouts in a plastic bag with an ice pack for afterwards, and all the flashlights I could find.
We proceeded out to North Bend, WA, about 30 miles east, halfway up Snoqualmie Pass. There we hooked up with 4 other friends, and loaded into three vehicles. Proceeding further up the pass we staged one vehicle at the end of our route, and headed up over the pass. Just on the other side was our starting location, Iron Horse state park. It used to be train tracks going from Chicago to Seattle, and in 1912 they blasted a 2 mile long tunnel through the rock of the pass. In 1980 when that railroad went bankrupt they turned it into a long bike trail. After we got geared up and headed towards the tunnel mouth, we had to stop just outside. It's dark as Hades in that 2 mile long tunnel, and pretty cold, too, somewhere around 50F. I don't own a headlight, so I went the total ghetto route and duct taped a flashlight to my bike frame and another one to my helmet. Heh. Anyway, that was barely enough light, and biking along in the pitch black over bumpy gravel trainbed is pretty spooky. The tunnel is totally straight, so you can see the light at the end of the tunnel from both ends, but just barely 2 miles away. It feels like you'll never get there. Oh, and water pours down from the roof in a lot of places, making it extra cold and wet. After we got out into the sunny 70F beautiful weather, we had to take off our jackets, etc. The we proceeded to bounce down along the trail the rest of the 18 miles to the trailhead where we'd parked the car. I don't own a mountain bike, so it was a pretty jostly bouncey ride for me. Like being in a paint shaker for an hour and a half. Heh. At the end of the trail we parked the bikes in the shade by a creek while we waited for the drivers to return with all the vehicles, and I drank a celebratory O Stout. Mmmmm. Darn tasty beer, in almost any situation. Here's why I know I married my soulmate. After I got home I went to the grocery store to shop. While there I did something I never do and bought some cupcakes for Bridget. When I got home, before I'd unloaded the car, she asked if I read her mind and happened to zen that she wanted cupcakes. Ha! She never asks that, but sure enough, I had. I tell you, it's uncanny. Friday, June 18, 2004
I love listening to Isabel talk. This morning I asked her if she needed to go potty. She said, "daddy, the clock says it's not time to go potty yet." Oh, silly me. Of course.
She then proceeded into the kitchen where a small pile of matchbox cars were on a towel on the counter after apparently being washed last night. She yells, "Hey Harry! New cars!" and pulls over her stool while Harry comes running in. "This blue one is for you, Harry!" He enthusiastically takes it, replying "Thangk Gue" and wanders off into the living room to play "parking valet" with the rest of his matchbox cars. Man oh man does my foot hurt. I accidentally stepped HARD on a sharpish edge to one of their toys last night while barefoot, and it scraped off the bottom of my foot a deep v-shaped channel about an inch long, a quarter inch wide, and deep enough that I see weird grey tissue. Ouchie. Just call me Limpy the Wonder Spaz. Thursday, June 17, 2004
Isabel is doing great at her potty training. She's wearing panties all day now and mostly going on her own. That'll save us a ton on diapers, but we lose the advantage of not having to stop at a bathroom at the drop of a hat.
Gah. I always think of things to blog about when I bike to or from work, but when I sit down to do so, I forget it all. Ah well. Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Man I can't wait for Apple to ship me my new dual 2.5Ghz liquid-cooled G5. I've finally gotten to the point where my dual-1Ghz G4 feels slow.
Ugh. The first season of "Celebrity Poker Showdown" on Bravo was kinda fun to watch. This season, they've stretched them out to two hours long, and that's way too long to watch bad poker players. Ugga. I'm getting to where I can't stand to watch bad poker being played, it just hurts. Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Alright, I've added the pictures I took from our trip to San Antonio.
My favorite is this one of Harry's buttcrack cuz his swim trunks wouldn't stay up. Monday, June 14, 2004
Alright, what the hell am I gonna write about today... Let's see.
On Friday, a bunch of friends came over after work. Normally these days, since many of my friends are getting lame, people arrive between 5 and 6pm, and everyone is gone by 7:30. This time, a few left then but most of 'em stuck around till 10:30. Amazing. On Saturday, I woke up with a strange thought. Had I paid the registration tabs on the truck? Weren't they due back in early May? I walked outside barefoot, looked at the license plate, and sure enough, the truck tabs were expired. The good news is I never got pulled over for it. Whew. Washington has an online registration page now, and for $3.50 I can pick them up immediately at my local licensing agent, who opened at 9am. Score! After I got the tabs renewed I went over to one of B's friend's husbands house. Her friend was moving, and I was roped into helping. The mom group dads. Anyway, they're a cool group of guys, and we got crackin'. By 9:45am, we'd gotten the truck fully loaded, but he didn't get keys until noon, so we were screwed. Eh, time to crack open the first beer of the day! A few of the guys other friends showed up shortly afterward, and one had his minivan with DVD player and Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket with him. We put it on, and were all crackin' up and drinkin'. Wooo! When noon rolled around we convoyed over to the new place and unloaded. I was supposed to go home after that, so I did, figuring with a half dozen guys they could do the last third in good time without me. Once home, napped loomed. I woke up, and apparently the kids had been put to bed and B and her mom went shopping. Huh. Back to napping. Eventually, B's mom went to B's sister's house, B went to a baby shower, and I watched the kids. When they awoke, I loaded them up so we could eat pizza at B's friends house as my reward for helping them move. The kids had a pretty good time in a new house filled with moving boxes, until the daughter of the owners hit one of the many "panic buttons" the crazy coot who had lived there the past 35 years had installed. WAY hella loud alarm went off, scaring the living shit out of the kids. That house is totally insane with this homemade security system. LED bulbs randomly installed in walls to report status (a flat sheetrock wall with a single red LED sticking out looks weird!) panic buttons in various places, etc. Freaky. I'd yank it all if it was mine. After B's baby shower she came and joined us, then we went home. Mom in law was back from dinner, and we put the kids to bed, she babysat so we could go to the movies and see 'The Day After Tomorrow'. Crappy disaster movie, but both B and I have a weakness for them. Sunday Sunday SUnday was a pretty lazy day. I'm not sure anything really happened. I did go to Costco and saw their super nice 500 poker chip set with case for $80. That'd rule. Friday, June 11, 2004
Last night I went with a friend to a free sneak preview of "Chronicles of Riddick". It was dumb, but I enjoyed it quite a bit, possibly due to going into it with very low expectations. I'm amazed that I didn't know it was a sequel to "Pitch Black", which I never saw. Thursday, June 10, 2004
Woo! Last night at poker I was getting my ass kicked. I was down $28, but with some luck and some aggressive Texas Hold'em play, I worked my way back up to even, ending the night up $6. Amazing how much fun it can be to break even.
Wow, my friend Nate sent me email saying he'd made the estate sale find of a lifetime. He sent me a link to his eBay auction for it, an original SpiderMan comic #1. Currently selling for over a grand. Uff-da! Here's a weird web comic. Fleep is a short web comic about a guy stuck in a phone booth encased in concrete with just two pens, a paperback, a few coins, and some floss to try and escape with. Oh, and his mad math skills. Freaky. Wednesday, June 09, 2004
Well, I'm glad that's over. It didn't end up being very difficult, and the kids were just great, but it was pretty lonely, and I missed B.
This morning both the kids freaked out and only wanted me to hold them, they didn't want anything to do with B. I guess they were mad at her for leaving. Anyway, apparently they behaved just fine a short while after I left for work. Tuesday, June 08, 2004
So far, this has been amazingly easy. The kids behaved well yesterday, even Katie. They ate, they napped, it was a good time.
At babysitting group of the away moms left her 4-5 month old daughter Vivian for the first time. Vivian cried for each of the three moms there, then finally I asked to give it a try. Bouncing her and humming on her head calmed her down in less than a minute. The moms were amazed, "how did you do that?" I just hummed on her head, that's what I do to calm fussy babies. We went over to Katie's parent's house for dinner. They'd made a burrito casserole, and quesadillas for the kids, but my kids didn't eat much. On the way home, Isabel asks me "So daddy, what do you think we should have for dinner?" ARGH! GAH! Eh, a banana and some cheerioes made them very happy. I can't wait to see B late tonight, but I'm not looking forward to being at the airport at 11:15pm. Monday, June 07, 2004
Well, yesterday went well. After yesterday's entry, Isabel climbed up on my lap and said, "daddy, I think maybe we should watch some TV", so we fired up the one-eyed babysitter for an hour. After that we turned it off and got the kids dressed up to go out. The weather had cleared some, so we went to the zoo. The kids had a blast. I let Isabel pick where to go, and she choose a totally random route instead of her regular one. We stopped off at the food court for corndogs, and had push pop ice cream afterwards. They had those for the first time in Texas and they love them. Harry sucks on the whole thing, while Isabel daintily licks the ice cream with just the tip of her tongue. As a result, Harry eats his like 5x faster than Isabel..
After I got them home, they went down for their naps no fuss at all. Afterwards I asked them if they wanted pizza or lasagna for dinner, and they choose pizza. We had a boboli pizza crust, so I fried up some sausage, and had them use their stools in the kitchen to help spread the sauce, sprinkle cheese on the crust, put pepperonis on the pizza, and then they asked for olives. We had a small can of sliced olives, so I opened that up and let them spread that too. I tend to involve them in any cooking they possibly can help with, since if they get to help they eat a lot more of it. They SO love to help. Of course, by the time the pizza was cooked and cool enough to eat, they ate some but mostly Isabel got a bad case of the giggles and was telling jokes and things to make Harry laugh, or was laughing because Harry had a blog of pizza sauce on his nose. Anyway, they didn't eat more than half a piece each, but that's how it goes sometimes. We watched Brother Bear again after dinner. Harry had to sit on my lap because parts of it scare him a little. Before bed Isabel said, "Daddy, I think we need a piece of bread with honey on it." Um, ok, fine. They both ate about 3/4 of it, so I was happy. They went to bed no fuss either. It's been really good so far, but today will be more of a challenge, since they'll miss B more, plus I'm watching Katie during the day, so I'll have 3 babies. Mondays are B's mom babysitting group days. The moms alternate meeting locations, and half each week get to drop their kids off and do whatever for a few hours. B hasn't done that since she's been doing daycare for Katie, but she does go most weeks to just talk to the other moms and give the kids play time with their friends. I'll go just to get out of the house, most of the moms in the group are pretty funny. Have I mentioned how much it rules having a Mac laptop with wireless in the house? I've got a new PowerBook G4 15" 1.5Ghz 5400rpm disk 1Gb ram 128Mb video ram and backlit keyboard. It rules. This group at work who I support but they don't ever pay me anything (there's politics involved) buys me a new laptop every 4 years or so. It's nice being able to take care of work issues from the downstairs in the living room while watching the kids. It's 6:45am and I'm blogging from bed. The kids are still asleep, but for some reason I'm stuck halfway on Texas time, going to bed at 10pm and waking up at 6am instead of my normal 11pm to 6:45-7am. Crickey, I should really shower before the kids get up. Sunday, June 06, 2004
Mr Mom, day 2. Yesterday we dropped B off at the airport before noon and went back home for lunch. The kids behaved, and ate, but they generally do because I have the help with every step of food preparation they can, like spreading peanut butter on the bread for sandwiches, and they love to be included.
After lunch they both took a nap for a couple of hours, giving me time to clean up the kitchen. When they woke up, we went to one of B's mom group friend's houses for a party they were having. The kids weren't real happy being there while they were there, but after we got home they talked about it like it was the greatest thing ever. Too funny. Then we watched the movie that Isabel picked out with B. They'd gone to the store to get B some movies for her flight, and Isabel had chosen "Brother Bear". Ugh, I was totally not impressed with that movie. Lame. The only good part was Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas doing their Bob and Doug McKensie schtick. Having the characters named after Alaskan place names just felt weird to me. Like if you had a movie about Texas cowboys and they were all named Galveston, Houston, Austin, Dallas, etc. Just felt weird. This morning they're up and doing pretty good. They haven't asked to watch TV, and they choose toast with jam for breakfast, helping put the bread in the toaster and spread the jam. They eat ate their piece of toast (they will only eat 9-grain dark bread, they refuse all others) Isabel wanted more toast and Harry ate a container of yogurt. Ah, finally Isabel just asked for some TV. If the weather was better we'd go to the Zoo, but it's only mediocre right now. Not raining, but the forcast is for rain. Friday, June 04, 2004
Well, the funeral is Monday night. B flys down to San Antonio on Saturday, flys back on Tuesday. I get 4 days alone with the kids, plus on Monday and Tuesday I get to watch Katie, our daycare baby. Owowow.
Man, I'm craving some Ezell's fried chicken. This Seattle chicken place is so good, Oprah has it flow to Chicago sometimes. I'm gonna have to get some for lunch. Thursday, June 03, 2004
So of course, five minutes before we arrived at home we got a phone call that B's dad had died. B's going to have to fly back to Texas.
Man, I tell you, after 95F+ and 90% humity, coming home to a decent 75 and sunny with 40% humidity is so freakin' awesome. I love the weather here, and don't miss Texas at all. Well, maybe except the beer at mall food courts bit. And the ribs. Isabel's birthday was yesterday, and if there is any age where a birthday is more fun than 3 I don't know what it is. She was VERY excited about everything, every present was "Oh, this is JUST what I wanted!!!". From Grandma she got a book and a stuffed mouse that's the main character of the book,a Little People ferris wheel, and a two piece swimming suit. "This will be great for swimming in my pool in the back yard!" We got her a set of 150 pieces of plastic "food" for her kitchen, a bejewelled tiara so she could play "princess", a dollhouse, and a magnetic doodle board that erases easily. She says Harry can share all of them except the doll house, she doesn't want him touching that. Wednesday, June 02, 2004
Ugh. I always do this to myself, and sometimes I wonder why. I'm currently suffering from a severe meat hangover.
Last night we went to Tom's Ribs, and boy howdy do they know how to make tasty ribs. I wanted to try both the beef and pork ribs, but none of the combos included both, so I just ordered a full rack of beef ribs and a half rack of pork baby back ribs. (The half rack of pork was a nod to the fact that I'd eaten a full rack of baby backs for lunch) The racks were unbelievably huge, but I put it all away, and now I'm suffering. Ugga. B's dad keeps getting better and worse and better and worse. He may die today, or he may last another month or two, nobody knows. We're flying home today, though. We can't keep waiting, and having six adults and 4 kids in this tiny house is driving everyone crazy. Thank glub our flight home isn't a redeye. Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Good lord. Is there some kind of law in San Antonio that requires highway signs to be inaccurate, poorly placed, useless, or just plain missing? I've never been anywhere with worse signage. Crikeweasels.
We went to Sea World today. Glub was it hot. Holy smokes. Fortunately, it wasn't crowded. We started off with the beluga show. Isabel and Harry were pretty terrified, they don't like auditoriums full of people and noise and fog etc. They warmed up some before the end. After that we saw the sea lion and sea otter show, which was pretty funny. The kids were happier. Then Bill and I went to ride some rollercoasters while the girls and kids went to see the dolphin tank etc and eat. Since this was during the first orca show, the park was nearly deserted. Bill and I had absolutely ZERO wait for the rollercoasters, they weren't even full. After going on the two steel coasters, we rode the tube ride that guanteed we'd get splashed, and boy howdy we were soaked. Fortunately I'd stuck all my valuables in a ziplock beforehand, and Bill had given his iPod to his girlfriend for safekeeping. After the rides we went to a BBQ place to have ribs. Mmmm, I had a whole rack, they were delicious. Then we hoofed over to where the girls were feeding the kids, stopping off for a beer at a kiosk. Love beer kiosks. Bizarre to see Miller Genuine Draft for sale at an Anheiser Busch owned park. We took the kids up to the penguin room then back to the dolphins for the 2pm feeding time. $6 bought us 8 fish to feed the dolphins, and Isabel got to pet one. They LOVED it. We just had time for the 2:30 orca show before the kids were exhausted boneless sacks of baby. |
|