Grandparents in the Fog

Last weekend, while Bill and Faith were here, we planned a hike up to the top of Black Mountain.  Since the normal trails were on the long-ish side, I cleverly planned ahead and got a permit to park at the top of Montebello Road, making it an easy climb of 500 ft over two miles on a dirt road that is in good enough shape that I sometimes ride my road bike on it.

I couldn't, however, cleverly plan the weather.  It was gorgeous the week previous, and it's back to 70F and sunny this week, but we got fog over the weekend, making it hard to see the normal views of the Bay in one direction and the ocean in the other.

Can you tell Faith is near the summit?

It was interesting photogenic fog that changed every couple of minutes, at least.

Despite being a bit tired, Nim was still cute

and goofy! I declined to piggyback her all the way down (95lb is TOO MUCH for that)

One hopes that grandparents had a good time.  It looks like they did.

Happy New Year

To celebrate New Years' Day, we headed out on a family bike ride on the levees in the edge of the bay near Alviso.

Nimue is now big enough to have stolen/inherited my mountain bike.  I think that means I get a new one at some point.  As it is, I can ride my commute bike on much of the terrain I would mountain bike on locally.

Nim actually smiled while riding with Chad.  That is, before she got tired...

We also inadvertently investigated Drawbridge, the Bay Area's only ghost town.  A few buildings on stilts can still be seen in the marsh near where Coyote Creek enters the bay --  all that is left of a collection of 90 buildings that comprised a thriving railroad town back in the day.

(I've seen this before, but there was a new interpretive plaque, so now we know why there are weird old buildings out in the mud.)

A good start to the New Year.

What have we been up to?

Between rearranging the photo set-up on the computer (Chad) and then forgetting what the new scheme was (me), and just plain being busy this fall, we are behind in posting stuff.  Here are just a few of the things we've been up to lately:

Chad and Anna's anniversary weekend in Berkeley.  We climbed Mt. Diablo twice, as well as doing some other riding, and enjoyed a lovely meal at Chez Panisse.  Nimue and Linda had a fun weekend back in Sunnyvale.  (Photo taken by weird guy in a Superman shirt.

Too many concerts.  Here are a few selections from The Choir Who Shall Not Be Named (unnamed due to these being bootleg recordings that I made despite their clueless requests that people not record their own kids for out-of-town grandparents).

I forgot the recorder for Nim's band concert -- you get a reprieve this year :)

Nights out.  We were lucky enough to get the last three tickets at the SFJazz center when Eddie Palmieri was there at the end of November.  Most excellent.  While we were killing time between dinner and the concert, we wandered around the Civic Center area and found a nice little pedestrian area with lit up sculptures, coffee shops, and the like.

Another lit tree sculpture.  This one, named Aurora, was a burning man project that is now installed in downtown Palo Alto.  It's entertaining because you can control the color and blinking with your phone. We played with it after a California Bach Society concert we went to last weekend.

Happy Holidays!

Turning off the inner Grinch

This year, getting ready for the holidays has been making me grumpy.  I'm just tired of the excessive worship at the alter of the Gods of Retail.  I'm tired of holiday decorations that started going up in stores in August.  I'm tired of crazed driver maniacs running amok in parking lots.

I'm tired listening to the g$%^%*&*#$%^@$ Christmas muzak in the grocery store while I try to navigate around someone staring slackjawed at the multi-processed non-food on the shelf, unaware of the fact that they parked a cart in such a manner as to make it impossible to pass.  I Won't be Home for Christmas if I can't make it up to the checkout line with my milk.

Or maybe I'm just tired from the complications of trying to fit dinner for everyone around the many rehearsals and concerts.

You're a Mean One, Mommy Grinch.

This morning, however, the gray storm clouds of Grinchdom have let up somehow.

Maybe it was getting the tree up and enjoying the living room by candlelight last night.

Maybe it was the nice walk in the sunshine after dropping Nimue off early for a concert yesterday, followed by peaceful half hour to ready with a yummy piece of cake and a cappuccino.

Maybe it was the fact that said concert turned out to be festive, not out-of-control, and no one nagged for money donations for the already-privileged kids of the area.

Maybe it was finally having a moment to make the year-end donations that I wanted to make.

And maybe it was finding a very cool Christmas gift for Nim on the side of the road next to someone's recycling bin.  Most satisfying.

Dinner party tomorrow

Menu

Starter
Acorn-chickpea cracker with goat cheese and honey apple cider pickled bay capers

Entree
Slow-roasted lamb with Moroccan spices
Browned butter mashed potatoes
Roasted celery root and fennel with home-grown red pepper flakes
Green beans in aromatic white sauce with crispy onions

Dessert
Clementine-apricot sorbet in candied clementine peel with cream and roasted bay nuts

For those of you who are coming, anticipate.  For those of you not, look forward to the next time you are in town! (Or be very, very afraid...)

If nothing else, my weird palate delighted in the components that were concocted today, largely without recipes.  Credit Nimue for occupying herself with a crochet project, aside from the occasional    "Come here, kid, and taste this" moment.

Cheesy Gloop for Dinner

In the beginning, there were roasted veggies.

Then there were leftover veggies.

Then there was stuffing made of the leftover veggies plus some other leftovers and

a stray piece of chicken.

Then there were leftover leftovers.

And they were frozen.

After some time, they were unearthed and thawed and GLOOPIFIED!!!!

And Ma said it was good.

Demon child

A few pictures from Halloween:

Firstly:  It is hard to photograph a wiggly demon child

Second: Front view.  She made most of the helmet herself

using a bike helmet, chicken wire, and paper mache.

I wired up the orange pulsing LED in the forehead crystal.

Third: Back View.  The tail is made of fleece yarn, which is a very satisfying soft material

Fourth:  Happy trick-or-treaters, despite Nimue's grousing that is was just WRONG to go do Halloween at someone else's house.  Their pillowcases were almost full by the end of the night.

And of course, the obligatory tentacle pot pie (eaten a couple of days early, since we weren't at home on Halloween)

Disappearing Sidewalk

You may notice some innocuous-looking white spray paint marks on the sidewalk in front of our driveway.  Or maybe not.  They've been there for almost a year.  So long that I decided that they didn't mean anything after all.

However, this afternoon, there was a knock on the door.  "We're going to tear apart the sidewalk in front of your house and pour new concrete tomorrow.  You might want to move your truck."

Of course I don't want my truck to be stuck in the driveway all weekend. I moved it down the street.  Not sure what they would have done if I hadn't been home.  Not sure why they didn't leave a notice a few days in advance.

After an hour or so, a cute little Bobcat with a jackhammer attachment on the front showed up.

It made short work of the sidewalk, in large chunks,

which it then drove down the street

and dumped in the big truck.

It was interesting to see that it really only took a couple of seconds of hammering in just the right place

to pop up a big rectangle of sidewalk

which could then be balanced on top of the arm to take to the truck.

The driver dude was really quite skilled.

Once the sidewalk was gone, on could see all the magnolia roots that were near the surface under it.  "You have anacondas here," said the driver when I came out the garage door.

I walked down the street to intercept Nimue coming home from school at that point, so that she knew to go up the neighbors' driveway and under our peach tree to get around this:

An hour later, the poor guy is still working on digging out all the anacondas.

Being a good spouse, I did send Chad a note to warn him not to try to ride his bike up the driveway in the dark on the way home from work tonight, lest he be eaten by the new hole.  

Incidentally, the treehouse provides a nice place from which to spy on the proceedings.

Treehouse

How does one get from this (drawn by Nim when we moved several years ago)

to this? (started by Chad over Labor Day, finished during the recent government shutdown)

Start with one bouncy kid.

(not pictured)

Add nagging by less mechanically-inclined spouse.

(also not pictured)

Throw in a holiday weekend without a trip planned.

Make many drawings.

Overload the truck with lumber.  Three times.

Make more drawings and lots of sawdust.

 

 Build into the night.  Utilize kid as a light-holder if needed.

 

Branch out into making drawings on the computer

Keep plugging away

Make friends with the screws.  Many many screws.

One could have nightmares about screws.

Take advantage of furlough during government shutdown to keep working on project.

Make more drawings.

Enjoy easy drawbridge access to the roof (gutter-cleaning only; no kids allowed there).

Use some of the leftover wood to build a bench to go over the wine storage in the atrium.

Apply sticky stain and rejoice.

(Requires hanging off the outside of the front like a monkey.  Neighbors probably think I'm nuts.)

Now all we need to do is grow the front bushes taller.

And add the weatherproof solar panels, battery, and lights.

And maybe a roof that echoes the angle of the Eichler roof. 

Or maybe not.

(It doesn't rain much here anyway.)

A fine place to enjoy an afternoon popsicle.