Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Fall band concerts


We went to 'em; here are a few highlights:

SMS Symphonic Band



Los Altos Community Jazz Band





Nimue quite likes the jazz band -- between her liking the music, having a disciplined but fun director, and liking the other middle school kids who participate, Wednesday afternoon rehearsals have been a high point to most of her weeks.

And of course, there is the silliness of Jingle Squid.



Friday, December 5, 2014

Thanksgiving

The plan:  Go camping at Arroyo Seco with friends; spit-roast the turkey and enjoy outdoor festivities.

Step1:  Pre-bard and season the bird.

Step 2: Realize that all of Los Padres National Forest is still under stage 4 fire restrictions.  Translation: NO FIRES ALLOWED, even in the campgroud fire pits.  How is one supposed to spit-roast????

Step 3: Curse. (not pictured)

Step 4: Improvise a fire pit in the front courtyard with some old bricks. (These are the bricks a neighbor was getting rid of several years back, originally salvaged from a building up in SF decades ago -- I knew they would come in handy sometime...)

Step 5: Unload the firewood from the top of the truck.

Step 6: Make a nice little fire.

Step 7: Have a beverage.  Chat with passing neighbors who comment how much they love the smell of a wood fire.

Step 8: Friends arrive; con friend into doing the slimy part of getting the turkey onto the spit pole.

Step 9: Engage in complicated machinations to get the bird lined up correctly so the cross-brace knitting needles will go in and keep it from slipping.



Step 10: Turn the spit around...and around...and around....and around...  A 12 lb bird takes about 2 1/2 hours.

Step 11: Feast!  Then pack up and drive to the campground.

Step 12: Enjoy being outside at Arroyo Seco.

Step 13: Pack up and outrun Sunday's torrential rainstorm.

We hope everyone else had as enjoyable holiday!

Compulsion

Sometime, one just needs to make a Jingle Squid.  Or maybe others don't suffer these problems...

Photographic Difficulties

Usually, family pictures are difficult to take because of the kiddo, but sometimes it is Dad.
 He was eventually cooperative.