Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Something awry with the weather
Friday, January 27, 2012
Tree Carnage Again
The most difficult thing about pruning the bits of Allergenic Enemy Tree hanging over our fence from the neighbor's yard is knowing when to stop. Really, all I set out to do was clear out one broken branch that was leaning on our phone line, but next thing I know, the sideyard is full of detritus, not just from that tree, but also from the next one over...
Touring Bike Action Magazine
Over the recent three-day weekend, we briefly bemoaned the lack of snow for skiing this year, and then looked on the bright side and took advantage of the abundant California sunshine to take a bike trip down to Monterey. There is some motivation to work on the family bike trip logistics this year in order to prepare for this summer's grand adventure to France.
The tandem comes apart for easy transport :) We knew this, but had never tried it before. This time, we loaded up the bikes, drove to Chad's friend's house over in Scotts Valley, and rode to Monterey from there, giving us about 50 miles of rolling riding. (Given that it is still early season for biking, I didn't want to ride the 90 miles and one giant hill from home.)
Always bring the tiger. My rule is "Only one stuffie." Nimue's rule is "We have to take Tige!"
While riding on the tandem with Nim, silly conversations ensue. This time, given that we were riding through quite a bit of agricultural land, Nimue started the ongoing discussion of how there is a vast conspiracy to cover up the fact that cows are really plants. You see, in Nimue's world, the cows grow in plant pods and hatch as itty-bitty cat-sized cows, which are then collected up by the farmers before anyone can see them and put into warehouses. When one wants a big cow, an itty-bitty cow is fed radioactive hay and it balloons in size overnight and can be let out in the field where it then proceeds to act like a mammal (even though it's not). Therefore, your hamburger for dinner is really a vegetable.
One can while away hours on topics like these....
We stayed at a motel across the street from the beach in Monterey so Day 2 could contain leisurely enjoyment of the coast, to give the small one (and us!) a break. We took a small morning to ride over to Pacific Grove to see the migrating Monarch butterflies, which was a good excuse to stretch out our legs. And there were a couple of trees infested with butterflies, which was sort of interesting, plus there was a good cafe for breakfast on the way over.
Lots of good playing for the sand monster at the beach. Though she looks cute, in this picture you see Godzilla, after she has rebuilt and destroyed Sand Tokyo for the umpteenth time.
While Nimue played at the surf's edge and spun herself silly, a cold front came in and the temperature dropped 15 degrees.
The sun, however, continued, so we had a chilly, but gorgeous ride back to the car the next day. There's a nice bike trail along the coast for much of the route, followed by a detour around Elkhorn Slough, a trip through the agricultural land looking for cow pods again, and the final climb up to the truck at the end of the day.
Chad took the voice recorder with us, and periodically interviewed Nimue for the fictitious "Touring Bike Action" magazine. A recurring theme in Nim's comments is hunger (kid must be fed copiously about every 10 miles). Here are her comments from the last bakery stop:
Nim played with Chad's friend's dog Mango while we got everything loaded back into the truck to head back to the land of homework once again.
The tandem comes apart for easy transport :) We knew this, but had never tried it before. This time, we loaded up the bikes, drove to Chad's friend's house over in Scotts Valley, and rode to Monterey from there, giving us about 50 miles of rolling riding. (Given that it is still early season for biking, I didn't want to ride the 90 miles and one giant hill from home.)
Always bring the tiger. My rule is "Only one stuffie." Nimue's rule is "We have to take Tige!"
While riding on the tandem with Nim, silly conversations ensue. This time, given that we were riding through quite a bit of agricultural land, Nimue started the ongoing discussion of how there is a vast conspiracy to cover up the fact that cows are really plants. You see, in Nimue's world, the cows grow in plant pods and hatch as itty-bitty cat-sized cows, which are then collected up by the farmers before anyone can see them and put into warehouses. When one wants a big cow, an itty-bitty cow is fed radioactive hay and it balloons in size overnight and can be let out in the field where it then proceeds to act like a mammal (even though it's not). Therefore, your hamburger for dinner is really a vegetable.
One can while away hours on topics like these....
We stayed at a motel across the street from the beach in Monterey so Day 2 could contain leisurely enjoyment of the coast, to give the small one (and us!) a break. We took a small morning to ride over to Pacific Grove to see the migrating Monarch butterflies, which was a good excuse to stretch out our legs. And there were a couple of trees infested with butterflies, which was sort of interesting, plus there was a good cafe for breakfast on the way over.
Lots of good playing for the sand monster at the beach. Though she looks cute, in this picture you see Godzilla, after she has rebuilt and destroyed Sand Tokyo for the umpteenth time.
While Nimue played at the surf's edge and spun herself silly, a cold front came in and the temperature dropped 15 degrees.
The sun, however, continued, so we had a chilly, but gorgeous ride back to the car the next day. There's a nice bike trail along the coast for much of the route, followed by a detour around Elkhorn Slough, a trip through the agricultural land looking for cow pods again, and the final climb up to the truck at the end of the day.
Chad took the voice recorder with us, and periodically interviewed Nimue for the fictitious "Touring Bike Action" magazine. A recurring theme in Nim's comments is hunger (kid must be fed copiously about every 10 miles). Here are her comments from the last bakery stop:
Nim played with Chad's friend's dog Mango while we got everything loaded back into the truck to head back to the land of homework once again.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Bootleg recordings
Catching up this morning -- here are the files from Nim's concerts last month. Long files for doting grandparents...
her singing group, in two parts (I didn't bother to record the intervening stuff that the older kids' groups did without her group.) The first file is long, so give it a moment to load.
Cherry Chase Beginning Band. I trimmed this after Nim plays a short duet with one of her friends at minute 5:48, as the whole thing ran about 45 minutes.
her singing group, in two parts (I didn't bother to record the intervening stuff that the older kids' groups did without her group.) The first file is long, so give it a moment to load.
Cherry Chase Beginning Band. I trimmed this after Nim plays a short duet with one of her friends at minute 5:48, as the whole thing ran about 45 minutes.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
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!
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
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.
Lucky for Nimue, I rescued it just before the cat actually got in a lick... but only just!
 |
| Is that TOAST I spy? With BUTTER! |
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| 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...)
Thursday, December 15, 2011
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!
Sunday, December 11, 2011
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.
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