Chutes and Ladders

I'm not sure why, but all of a sudden Trevi is really into playing Chutes and Ladders. As I left for work this morning, I promised him that we'd play after school, and so we did.
The version I knew as a kid (from playing it up at the cottage) was Snakes and Ladders. I was curious about the switch from snakes to chutes (were snakes too creepy?), so I did what any self-respecting computer junkie would do, and googled it. As it turns out, the game has an extended history, and some folks have put a good deal of thought into analyzing it. Personally, it's the moral dilemmas that keep me from falling asleep after I've almost made it to the top 64 times, only to be chuted back down to the teens. It seems that the climbworthy and chute-inducing deeds (done by the large-headed children serving as our moral guides) are pretty much the same as I remember them from my childhood. There's more ethnic diversity on the modern board, though, and a few of the deeds, misdeeds, and clothes have been updated a bit. It makes me wonder if future versions will be full of naughty kids texting when they are supposed to be doing their homework, or maybe forgetting to recycle. Trevor is bothered by some of the scrapes the characters on the board find themselves in (guilty conscience or overflowing empathy?) and doesn't want to discuss them as we play. Conversely, Clara revels in naming the bad, bad children she knows, and comparing them to the Chutes and Ladders gang.

I enjoy spotting hypocrisy in the rewards and consequences. For instance, one kid eats too many sweets, and goes down the chute to a stomach ache. Another kid helps his scatterbrained mom, who has forgotten her purse, and she shows her appreciation by giving him an ice cream sundae the size of his head. Hop on over to the gluttony chute, kid.

Mayans, Shmayans

I think it's Chichen Itza where you can see the form of a rattlesnake created by the light and shadows as the sun hits the temple just so during one of the equinoxes – Spring, maybe. Well, apparently we can manage just fine, thank you, without any Mayan geniuses to help us along. This morning Trevor discovered – lo and behold – the forms of our family mascots, Brain Man and Mad Guin, cast onto the fence. Cue the oooing and aahhing.
On second thought, this is perhaps a smidge less amazing and fascinating than the Mayan snake thing, especially considering that, well, there's no real mystery in the sun shining through the Brain Man and Mad Guin shapes that Chad cut into the deck railing. Then again, it is pretty amazing that the sun is actually shining today....

Forget what I said about warm weather

This is not the California they promise you in the songs and brochures. Today, the backyard is a deserted, windblown wasteland, and I was in my flannel jammies within six nanoseconds of arriving home from work (as opposed to my usual twelve nanoseconds). I've closed most of the windows, despite my weird lack-of-oxygen phobia, I'm drinking tea (the hot kind), and I'm not at all annoyed by the massive amount of heat this laptop is kicking out. We're talking grey, chilly, blustery, Bronte-sisters-English-moors weather. I think Mother Nature is smacking me in the head for getting all ahead of myself with summery talk. Or, maybe this is punishment for the folks who were complaining a couple of days ago that it was too hot (I wasn't one of them). Creeps.

Yes, it is slightly possible that there's a bit of exaggeration happening here. And, for the record, I don't generally do much griping about the weather, since ours beats the heck out of the weather in roughly 95% of everywhere else in the universe. But it is not Mayish today, or even April-like, and there were no outdoor adventures to be had this evening, so Clara passed the time dressing and redressing her Barbies in the warmth of her hermetically sealed bedroom.
Meanwhile, Trevor and I celebrated Bendy's birthday by making crazy, fake food sandwiches and showering Bendy with luxurious gifts that most plastic lawn flamingos can only dream about. Each present was carefully wrapped in this week's junk mail, and deftly unwrapped by Bendy's able beak.
My lap is toasty warm after all of this blogging, but my hands, nose, and ankles are cold to the bone and/or cartilage. You would think I'd be too chilly to go and get myself a frosty bowl of ice cream, but you would be wrong.

Blast from the Past 3/15/2007

Our recent sprinkler escapades got me thinking about a blazing hot day back in March of 2007, when I put my camera on the action setting, and captured this moment:
Clara is in mid-air here, by the way, which is how we all seem to be feeling these days, as we creep closer and closer to summer. With a mere seven weeks to go, the smoothies are already flowing, the backyard is teeming with every activity from soccer to bubbles, and long evenings tease us. Sometimes, at random moments during the weekend, I'll have a split-second thought that we are already on vacation. You just can't beat lounge mode. Summer, come on down!

40 Things

This is big time dorky, but I'm going to do it anyway. Please close your eyes if you can't handle a big dose of dork.

My 40th birthday will be here in less than 4 months, and a friend suggested that I make one of those 40-things-to-do-before-turning-40 lists. The suggestion was actually made right after I turned 39, but even if I'd made the list way back then, I would have just spent the past eight months not doing anything about it.

I'll try to stick to things that are actually possible, and relatively affordable. Also, I'm going to keep Clara and Trevi mostly out of this. They are absolutely wonderful, of course, but when you think about it, kids are the reason you have so many things on your list, right?

I can tell you right now that most of the listworthy things that come to mind will have to wait until summer vacation. Luckily, my birthday is right at the very end of it....

1. Take a piano lesson.
2. Take a ballroom dancing lesson.
3. Get dressed up in the fancy green skirt I bought in Manhattan, and go out somewhere fancyish.
4. Bake a peach pie from scratch. (and eat it) It must be peach.
5. Go out to a movie with Chad (in an actual cinema).
6. Reread a favorite old novel, like A Prayer For Owen Meany or Cat's Eye
7. Read a classic novel that I've never read.
8. Relearn how to play euchre, then teach Chad and a couple of friends.
9. Get my toes done.
10. Knit Christmas stockings for the four of us.
11. Spend an entire Saturday in May without doing work of any kind.
12. Finish painting the house.
13. Go to a concert.
14. Go to a play or a musical.

This is actually more difficult than I thought it would be. Truth is, some of the things I want to put down are organizational things that will make me really happy, but sound a bit pathetic. Then again, it's my list, so if these things float my boat, I should just include them:

15. Clean out my closet.
16. Get rid of the junk under the bed (and improve my feng shui in the process).
17. Clean up iphoto.
18. Pass along about 4,000 books to other people.
19. Put up a shelf in the bedroom for my box collection.
20. Organize the arts and crafts supplies.
21. Put up some curtains.

I really do love getting things put where they belong. No joke. Total fulfillment.

22. Create plate wall #2.
23. Use the PF Chang's gift card that's been sitting in my wallet forever.
24. Use all of the other gift cards in my wallet, for that matter.
25. Go to a drive in.
26. Go rollerskating.
27. Go ice skating.
28. Have people over for brunch.
29. Go out for brunch.
30. Rent a canoe or kayak for the day, and go for a paddle.
31. Hit the local wineries.
32. Set up the dart board, and play.

Wow. 40 is a very large number.

33. Make mango daiquiris.
34. Take a hike.
35. Play Scrabble.
36. Rent the DVDs of Joan of Arcadia and watch all of the episodes.
37. Paint a canvas with some sort of geometric design.
38. Spend a large chunk of an afternoon in a hammock.
39. Get new running shoes, and start running again.
40. Buy myself something completely frivolous for my birthday.

Well, that ought to do it. I'm going to get started right this minute on #6.

Family Photos

In our old house, we had two great little hallways that were jam packed full of family photos. When we moved here, we marveled at the wonderful, long hallway that would be the new home for these treasures. Instead of hanging the photos right away, though, I figured I'd just paint the hallway first. Ya, so that was January of 2007. Didn't quite get around to the painting and hanging thing in a timely manner. But look at it now:
I chose this particular shade of yellow paint, by the way, to match the yellow in the quilt Grampy Julius made for us. The quilt has graced our walls for a handful of years now, and it suits us (and our love of bright colors) perfectly.

There were boxes and boxes of photos. Just imagine my glee as I unpacked wedding photos, baby photos, more baby photos (Oh my gosh, the cheeks!), and images of places and moments that have been packed away for two years.
At some point, I'll have to swap out a few of these pics for newer ones, but for now I'm going to enjoy the wall of history.

Gloop

A heat wave has hit us, which sent us out into the yard, smoothies in hand, for a long evening. Clara giggled herself senseless running through the sprinklers, complete with footwear (she says that wet grass makes her feet itch).
Trevor, meanwhile, cooked up his weirdest building material to date: "Gloop".
You know those little pollen sacs that fall off trees after the pollen has all been released? Well, our lawn is covered with dead, brown pollen sacs from the mulberry trees. Trevi decided to collect them in a bucket, add water, and stir. The resulting slurry looked like this:
But why just swish the guck around in a pail, when you can scoop it out and fill plastic Easter eggs with it? If you pack enough gloop in there, you can form perfect little egg-shaped blobs.
Then, you can scatter the blobs all over the yard, and freak people out when they accidentally step on them.

The Last Day

Today didn't actually feel all that vacationy, since there was lots of schlepping and prepping to be done. So, instead of lazing around, reflecting on a lovely week, I drove kids to soccer and birthday parties, bought groceries, folded laundry, and spent a good deal of time wondering if I would sleep through my alarm in the morning.

Trevor immersed himself in the business of trying to find a way to lock the bathroom door from the outside.
Spring Break may be over, but summer is close.
Really close.

Inside

Even though today's weather was absolutely picture perfect, Clara and Trevi wanted nothing more than to spend the day poking around the house, reacquainting themselves with their stuff.

Trevi needed to make sure that his padlocks were still in working order, so he arrested me and handcuffed me to the lamp. Clara handed me the camera and said, "You'd better take a picture so you can blog about this, Mummy."

I was treated to my kajillionth dance show.

And check this out:
Trevi wrapped a little lanyard thingy around his cat, Chocolate Penny, to make a harness.

And he attached the harness to a zip line!Isn't that the coolest thing ever???

I mean, sure, I could have whipped out the old parental line, "It's a beautiful day and you're all cooped up in the house! Why don't you go outside and run around?" But if I had, no one would have invented a zip line for stuffed cats.
Besides, it's almost always beautiful here. They can run around tomorrow.

They're Back!

I think it's safe to say that Disneyland was a hit.
My alone time was oh so good, but man was I glad to see these little faces again.
Who needs yellow paint when you've got sunshine like this around?

How I Spent My Spring Break

Knowing that I would have five days with no work and no kids (and no husband, for that matter), I have been dreaming about Spring Break for some time now. And all of the dreams have been painting dreams. I truly enjoy painting. It fills me with happiness and a sense of accomplishment. Yet, with kids and work and all of that, painting stays at the very bottom of the To Do list. This week, it was right at the tippy top!

So, here's how it went:

Alone and caffeinated, gleeful me headed to Home Depot to stock up. Color selection has been in the works for a very long time, but my final decisions were made two minutes before purchase. That may have been unwise, as you will see...

Room #1: The Living Room/Family Room (the place where we always are)
It has been a dingy sort of off-white since we moved in 2+ years ago:
Color #1: Sable Brown
This color should have been named "Fecal Brown". It reminded me of that scene in that movie about the Marquis de Sade where he goes insane after they take away all of his writing implements, and then he writes all over the walls with, um, whatever he can, um, produce, if you get my drift.
I let it dry, thinking it might look better. It didn't. So, I decided to go a different direction.
Color#2: Sea Fare
This ends up being kind of a long story, because I was looking for the perfect color that was a bluish-greenish-grayish blend. Chad is not a fan of turquoise (some Miami Dolphins/Miami retirement community issue, or something), and neither of us wants anything to do with pastel colors.
This one looked great in the can, but in the sunlight it was sky blue. Could I seriously be this unlucky with color???

I sort of liked the way it looked from the kitchen:
And it was certainly an improvement over Crap:

But the skyblueyness of it was undeniable, even after a good night's sleep:

It was then that I realized the problem. Thing is, we didn't really want a brown living room or a blue living room. What we wanted was a red living room, but were afraid of the overkill factor. I mean, c'mon, look at the couch. I decided to go for it anyway. Third time's a charm, right?

Color #3: Red (I forget the exact name, because I was delirious from paint fumes by this point.)
The only teeny, tiny glitch was that red is a beast of a color to paint with, especially if you already have brown paint on one and a half walls, blue paint on one and a half walls, and both brown and blue paint on half a wall. I'd advise against my unintentional multicolored-primer approach.

Two days, three gallons, a paint headache, and an aching hand later, the room was cherrylicious:
Yippee! LOVE LOVE LOVE it.

Sleep was next, followed by another trip to Home Depot, and to the grocery store for coffee filters.

Room #2 (technically not a room): The Hall

The hall would probably win the dingy award for the whole house. It just looks white in this picture, but take my word for it:
Color#4 - Del Sol
Yellow and I aren't particularly drawn to one another, but Chad convinced me that I could live with it in the hallway. He was right. Rock on, mellow yellow!
It was so easy to work with, compared to the dastardly red, and I was starting to feel like the Karate Kid by this point – brush up, brush down, brush up, brush down– so this hall was really my happy place. Oh, and I can't believe I've failed to mention that all of my exploits were set to a fabulous soundtrack, courtesy of "Eighties on Eight" and "Seventies on Seven" satellite radio.

You may have noticed that the whole house is beginning to look like a pack of Life Savers. Check out the red/green/yellow vibe:
And the green/yellow/orange awesomeness:

With a few hours left before bedtime, I decided I could do a bit more.
Room #3: The Bathroom
Color #5: Inkberry
The purple we loved in our pre-green kitchen got moved:
I didn't manage to finish the bathroom (or get a decent picture), but I'll pick away at it. Purple always puts a smile on my face. And, what better room in which to smile than one that has a giant mirror?

I'm pretty proud of myself. And the paint headache is gone. Color me beautiful.

Easter

Ahhhhh, how nice that Easter was so far away from Trevi's birthday this year. Much better. The only bummer today was that Chad had to leave before sunrise to catch a flight, so he didn't get to see how unbelievably cute the kids were being as they searched for eggs this morning. I filmed the whole event....except that my computer informs me that it is too full, and can't eat another byte (how could I possibly resist that one), so I can't post any video until I've done some spring cleaning.
The Easter Bunny, knowing that the kids were heading for Disneyland this week, brought them a bunch of, well, personal hygiene items. Trevi found an egg with hand wipes and travel shampoo.
They got some travel toothpaste, toothbrushes, and bandaids, along with the usual stickers, cereals, and semi-nutritious snack items. One new thing the Bunny did this year was to hide a few clues inside eggs, which sent the kids running to rooms that are usually left un-egged, to find the big ticket items: toiletry bags and disposable cameras!!! Even though I am adding these excessive exclamation points with a smidge of sarcasm, I can honestly say (and I have video proof) that the kids were genuinely excited about their haul.
Post hunt, we headed over to Grammy and Grampy's for lunch (and more egg seeking) with the gang.
Clara didn't take the bunny ears off the entire day. Cute, cute, and more cute.
It felt weird to drive home alone, as Clara and Trevi got ready to leave for Disneyland with Grammy and Grampy. I sense a change of ears in Clara's near future.

Simple Machines

Clara had to come up with an invention for school that uses at least two simple machines. Her creation, "The Smoother", uses an incline plane, a pulley, wheels and an axle (Thank you, Tinkertoys, for your help). The Smoother, according to Clara, can smooth out just about anything. Did your homework get crumpled? Smooth it. Pancakes too lumpy? Smooth them! Wrinkly socks? The Smoother can help! (Not that sock wrinkles are particularly problematic..)

So, here she is, creating the prototype:

In the next room, Trevor was working on an even simpler machine: my old laptop. Since being dropped on its head several years ago, there's not much this computer can do. One of its few remaining functions, though, is the ability to read aloud the words you have typed into Simple Text.
It couldn't be more perfect for Trevi, since he is so excited that he can read and write words these days (um, ya, there may be a couple of us around here who are even more excited about this whole literacy thing than he is).

Plates

I finally got around to hanging the plates that we've been gathering for the kitchen wall. It turned out even better than I'd hoped. The collecting and arranging part was so much fun that I'm going to become a crazy plate lady and do the other wall as well. Maybe I need a show on HGTV.....
PS: Thanks to Eunice, whose coffee table held the issue of Sunset Magazine that put this whole plate idea into my little noggin!

Clara's First Dance

As I write this, Clara and Chad are dancing the night away. It's the Girl Scouts' My Guy and I dance. I wish I could be a fly on the wall watching them jive right now....

Blast from the Past 4/1/2005

This isn't an April Fools Day joke. This is how Clara used to organize her underwear when she was four. She would neatly stack them, in the order in which she wanted to wear them, on top of a soccer ball. When I first saw this odd arrangement and asked Clara why her undies were stacked up on a soccer ball, she replied, "That's the best place for them. I can't just leave them stacked up on the floor!"