Santa's Wishes

This year, instead of giving Santa Claus milk and sugar cookies, like everyone else (we figure that he's pretty sick of all those sweet treats), we're going to give him whiskey and carrots (We are also probably going to include a carrot for each reindeer, just to be fair). Last year we also gave him carrots; though not the whiskey. Let's wish a merry, merry Christmas to all!

I CAN HAZ BREAKFAST!

The Bobber (aka Pretzel, the fluffier/more OCD of our two cats) likes anything even slightly buttery... such as this morning's toast.

Is that TOAST I spy? With BUTTER!

Lucky for Nimue, I rescued it just before the cat actually got in a lick... but only just!

I CAN HAZ BREAKFAST!

Santa's Helper

Nimue says Anna's new bike jersey makes her look like Santa... well, maybe a slightly demented, capon-weilding Santa's helper? You be the judge! And yes, that is really a capon. I always thought "capon" was just a renaissance term for chicken, but apparently capons are a bit bigger. Now we're thinking about recipes for a whole renaissance meal (but not for *this* Christmas; maybe next...)

Business Day Chaos

Today was Business Day for the first trimester at our school, and I was selling Sweeping the Skies Kittens, their best friends (caterpillars), and broomsticks. I sold out (yay!), and I hope next Business Day will turn out as good as this one did.

The object of Business Day is to make a wonderful product (You need 20), make up a price under $2000 Charger Cash (The fake money the school uses for Business Day), make a poster, fill out the forms, and sell your product on the assigned day. Only the fourth-graders do it, and on Business Day, the fourth-grade rooms are chaos. It makes me tired just thinking about it!

Trials and Joys of Ma

Decide for yourself which are trials and which are joys:

Still choosing a New Year's card picture, given Nimue's apparent desire to be Calvin. (Yes, ours are officially designated as New Year's cards rather than Christmas...)


Old commute bike suffered one too many broken parts.

New commute/adventure bike: the Salsa Vaya. The shop (Roaring Mouse) was nice enough to build up an orange frame with a triple for me, even though the orange one doesn't usually come with this gearing. This thing is awesome -- fun to ride on the road, while still quite capable on dirt singletrack. She likes climbing dirt roads best. And she is definitely a she, as well as being a big happy orange bunny rabbit of a bike.


Cherry Chase Band concert. Nim got to do a duet. (Concert recordings coming in a later post, so you too can enjoy.)


Malfunctioning flute discovered the afternoon of said concert.

Lots of singing, for both Ma and Nim. Nimue's group (Cantabile Youth Singers) is quite good, given the ages of the singers; mine (Stanford Early Music Singers) is the same as it has always been.


Invasion of the Grammas: Both Linda and my mom visited at the same time last week to see Nim's and my concerts.



Discovered a brand-new section of the Bay Area Ridge Trail, sort of by accident. Chad and I rode up Sierra Road in San Jose, with the notion of exploring side bits off of it, and found a beautiful new trail that wound its way back down to Alum Rock Park. Leaving your exact route open to serendipity has its rewards.


Mountain biking in the frost with my Frost.

Full moon hike up at Montebello Open Space Preserve last night. It was docent-led, but truly excellent to be allowed to hike to the top of Black Mountain in the dark, with views of the twinkling Bay Area lights spread out in front of us in one direction and moonlit hills rolling off toward the ocean in the other.

10-foot Christmas tree (labelled as a 7- to 8-footer) that had to be trimmed to fit in the living room. I put it up myself, with only minor help from Nimue. Now I'm in denial about her need to put up ornaments today.