September 2017

Labor Day weekend
The month got off to a bang with an absolutely ferocious heat wave — well over 110 for several days in a row, hitting a high of 113 on September 2. Good thing we had the pool — we pretty much lived in it, and what socializing we did, was out there as well — the Carneys came over, per tradition, for grilling and chilling. On the hottest day, we knew the kids weren’t getting to sleep in their oven-like rooms, so we had a late family movie night with family sleepover, in which the kids slept in sleeping bags on the floor of the movie room and R. and I huddled in the guest room with fans on — if you don’t have AC, laying low, literally, is the only thing to do in a situation like that. The next morning, the kids discovered a massive ant infestation in the dining room and kitchen — so that was the next couple of hours, killing, cleaning up, setting traps, etc. Ugh. So — fun, minus the ant army … 

Fun stuff
—Girl Scouts Coastal Cleanup Day: Annika’s troop joined a big volunteer day effort to clean up the waterways around the area. They were assigned to a park that had a creek, and spent a Saturday morning picking up garbage — educational and useful!
—Lukas and daddy start piano: Now that Lukas is the same age Annika was when she started learning piano, we signed him and R. up for the parent-participation beginning keyboard classes at the community center on Saturday mornings. He did really well, and seemed to enjoy it — he was really proud of what he’d learned.
—Art and Wine Festival: This year, we knew to go early, and Manir’s family (Ami & Ritesh, Manir, and Amira) came over and walked to it with us. It was easier and so much fun to go as a group — the kids really had a good time, and we grownups sampled the beers and turned into easy touches for buying the kids stuff. Heh. 

Travel weekend
The second-to-last weekend of the month found us all over the place. Annika’s Girl Scout troop went on their big weekend camping trip (we packed everything according to the list, including food and equipment, etc.), and she had a great time (and fell asleep in the car on the way back, according to the troop leader). I went to Portland with Anne, a long-delayed girls’ weekend that we planned just for fun; we ate well, slept relatively late (8:00 a.m.!!!), and I got to go to the greatest bookstore of all time: Powell’s City of Books. R. and Lukas stayed home, having a good time on their two-dudes weekend, mostly eating pretzels and watching Star Wars. 

Quotable
—Sparenheit and Celsius (the two temperature scales, according to Lukas)
—"Is he in heaven already?” (Lukas upon seeing an ‘80s picture of Elton John; Annika likes him now because of “I’m Still Standin’”)
—“Lydia Lemon Markoff is your name.” (Lukas the human mashup-maker)