Model for MacBeaky

I've not been communicating much for the last couple of weeks, as we've hit the new year running at full speed.  Since we got home from WA, we've collectively:

caught up with several friends (Anna, Chad, Nimue)
reorganized the pit of chaos in the bedroom (Chad and Anna)
snuck in a day trip to ski at Sugarbowl (Anna, Nimue)
done our respective first slow ridge climbs of the year (Anna, Chad)
caught a cold (Chad)
gave up and cleaned up all the slimy leaves in the front yard that weren't drying out (Anna)

I've also had several rehearsals in the new Bing Auditorium at Stanford for the Music Department's opening concert; I snuck Chad and Nimue in for the Early Music Singers rehearsal earlier this week since it appeared to be impossible to get tickets.  EMS is singing Gabrieli's In Ecclesiis with the Whole Noyse; several of us are also doing the Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music and the Ravel Daphnis et Chloe Suite with the giant choir singing with the Stanford Orchestra -- and, as I found out last night, a horrible school anthem "Hail Stanford, Hail!" dating back from 1893.  How I could sing with the school for 20 years and never run across that, I don't know, but I could have happily remained in blissful ignorance...  The new performance space is quite visually stunning, and seems to have a decent acoustic.  They're still putting the finishing touches on (sealing the floors and the like) before this weekend's opening concerts.

I also got out for a hike at Picchetti Ranch this morning and ran across the model for MacBeaky  -- most amusing, as he probably would have let me pet him if I tried.  I settled for taking a couple of pictures. Happy New Year all!

Christmas

Yesterday was Christmas, and Ma asked me to write a post about it, so here goes:

For Christmas, Grandma Linda came down to visit us and share the holiday cheer :) .  Of course that is exciting for everyone, because grandmas are like that.

Lots of gifts were exchanged, the best one, I think, was a pair of overalls for me. I've been wanting overalls for a REALLY long time.  Some other memorable gifts are:

• A bike stand for Daddy
• A pair of awesome earrings for Ma that I made
• A stripy sweater for me
• A pair of fancy bike shoes for Ma
• My school photograph for Grandma Linda
• Adventure food for all of us
• The LEGO 4x4 Crawler, given to me by Santa Claus
• Fancy cat food/treats for the cats
• More iPad games for all of us

Tomorrow we are heading up to Gramma Eileen and Grampa Jack's house to visit relatives there.

Merry Christmas!

MacBeaky the Treetopper

Nimue has been working hard on an ornament for the top of our tree this week, and finally finished it last night.  Meet MacBeaky.  MacBeaky has been driving me crazy.  If you really want to bug Nimue, call him a turkey. (As in "Just put the last layer of paint on the turkey so I can have the kitchen counter back!")

Heading into Christmas

A few things for the you all, now that I've wrapped everything except for the item that was unknowingly ordered from Europe and won't get here in time.

Nim and I had a candy-making spree on Saturday, and she hasn't stopped bouncing since.  It's something about the sheer quantity of chocolate on the counter, I think.
Clockwise from top:  Coconut Bonbon, Nimue's Extreme Mint, Pecan Fudge, and Peanut Butter Square

The bi-yearly band concert.  Nimue played "Flos ut rosa floruit",  a medieval conductus that I transposed for piccolo, accompanied by her friend Clarissa on the bass drum.


She also enjoyed playing the woodblock in "Aztek Sunrise" (second from left in photo below).

Nimue had a choir concert too, but stupid Ma forgot the recorder and thus couldn't bootleg a recording.

On the street

We've had a number of interesting things to watch on the street out in front of the house lately.  First they chewed up the pavement: ("Nimue, you need to leave for school RIGHT NOW, or you won't get out...")

leaving it looking like this for weeks.  (Bad for bikes)

Then one random day I was stuck because of this

which at least improved the road surface enormously.

This morning, as Chad was leaving, he came back in:  "There's a fire down the street."

Indeed.  An electrical fire tried to turn the power pole into a torch.  I watched for a while as the fire department and PG&E arrived.  The PG&E guy was lifted up by the crane in the truck until he could reach whatever he was after with the end of his long pole, at which point the top of the pole lit up like a giant sparkler and all the flames and sparks from the bottom went out.  The fire department then sprayed everything down as commute traffic turned into the maze of streets to the sides in an attempt to get around the mess.

At least it has been wet out.

Ornaments

I knew there was a reason I had saved all the worn-out stripey socks!

Accidental Century

I kind of sort of accidentally rode 102 miles on Monday.  It was only supposed to be 40-50 miles and flattish.  However, at the turn-around point at the end of Canada Road, it was warm and sunny, so I headed down the Sawyer Creek Trail.  Ditto at the end of that section, so off to the end of the San Andreas Reservoir trail.  At that point, I was 40 miles from home, one thing led to another, and pretty soon, I was heading down the hill towards SFO to pick up the Bay Trail.  At some point, I realized if I kept the same pace up, I'd hit 100 miles around the time that Nimue was going to get out of band, so of course I had to add the bonus miles at the end to make that happen...

Many entertainments over that route included:

Wile E. Coyote's mailbox.

Riding under the spaghetti tangle of ramps going into SFO.  It is surprisingly easy to get through the airport on a bike, and I even saw helpful signs directing one towards airport bike parking.

Views of airplanes from the edge of the SFO runway, a helicopter taking off at the airport near the Hiller air museum, and low-flying small planes from the Palo Alto airport.  

A neighborhood of houseboats.

Lots of what Nimue refers to as "water chickens".

Almost getting doored near Mountain View High School at mile 99 (I was distracted looking at the giant construction project they've started).

Helping a small boy (maybe 4 years old) pick himself up after a scooter crash at the bottom of the bike bridge over 85.  His mom was way up the bridge out of sight, as he had apparently careened out of control to the bottom.

Photo keeps showing up

My picture of Ravenswood Open Space Preserve keeps showing up everywhere, including here this morning.  (The 4th one in the slideshow, labelled January Morning)

Walk and Roll in the Rain

Every month, as part of the Walk and Roll to School program, I put up a new set of Burma-Shave-style signs along the fences on the way into Nim's school.  This month's signs, as the weather is changing:

Rain is coming

We are tough

Put on your coats

And 

Strut your stuff!

Walk and Roll to School

I was heartened today to see that despite the rain pouring down, there were still pedestrians and cyclists streaming toward the school.  The self-propelled population has really increased over the last couple of years.  By and large, people looked pretty cheery -- kids seemed to be finding great novelty in their umbrellas, rubber boots, raincoats, and the like; parents were still smiling and greeting each other despite the spray.  A little rain is Not Really a Big Deal if you have a coat and the right mindset.

And we didn't even have to resort to the rude version of the signs that Nimue wanted to make:

Rain is coming
Please be tough
Stop your whining
And
Get off your duff!

On my way back to the house, I amused myself observing the commute cyclists on their way to work.  Some of them were in full storm gear, others just a jacket and extra lights.  One had a plastic garbage sack, one was in shorts.   (I guess your clothes don't get wet if you are not wearing them.)   Recumbent trailer dad gets the toughness award, in my book.

On the last approach to the house, there was one more very fit, yet relaxed-looking cyclist with a bright headlight and a cheery blue jacket -- after a moment I realized he was my trusty spouse heading off to work.  He wins the "Rain?  What rain?" award  due to the aura of sheer mellowness that surrounded him as the traffic splashed by  :)