August 2023

Sauce and More
We’d barely had time to unpack from Hawaii when Sauce weekend was upon us! The Smeefers arrived from Kansas late afternoon on the day the kids and I had gotten our back-to-school haircuts and picked up Annika’s school schedule (she was able to make the change from weightlifting, which she’d inexplicably been assigned, into Advanced Sculpture, whew!). We all hung out until R. got home, having a couple of cocktails and picking up right where we’d left off, then went out to dinner (since we don’t have a kitchen) and ended the night in the pool (the kids swam, but we grown folk mostly hung out in the hot tub). The next day, R. had work, but the kids and I joined the Smeefers for our first-ever tour of the Winchester Mystery House (we had an awesome guide — a very serious, somber young man who spun a great yarn). That afternoon, they went to visit some other friends while the three of us met up with Ami, Manir and Amira to see the Barbie movie; we all loved it, even if some of us (me) also teared up a couple of times. Sauce itself was a blast from beginning to end — we went down early and dropped off our stuff at the Compound, then dashed off with the Smeefers to go zip-lining at a place nearby in the mountains; all the kids were fearless (and Lukas particularly hilarious), while we grownups were a little more leery — but it was exhilarating and so fun! After, we went to lunch at a restaurant in Felton that was right next to the Bigfoot Museum, which was our other planned must-do, and then on back to the Compound to get ready for a rockin time with the Maalgaards, Tom, Mandark, and Lacie. And rock we did — Lukas was the drummer for several songs each night (he owned it, no kidding around — so proud of the little dude!!!!), and even Annika played bass on a couple of songs — wooooooo!!!. R. had taken the Monday afterward off, so we went to the Boardwalk for the first time this summer; we had great weather and rode a bunch of rides (short lines ftw), but the Giant Dipper was closed. booo. 

School Starts Too Damn Soon
SJUSD moved the start of school up one week from its traditional timing, so that students would not go so deep into June — which will be great next summer, but cut this summer short. Ugh. Lukas and his friends used what little time we had left to practice walking to Castillero from Owen’s house (just down the street from Los Alamitos in the direction of the middle school). Annika went with our group twice, to offer advice and counsel; we tried to get inside to get the lay of the land, but were very rudely shooed out by staff (and I mean rudely — I’m still mad, two months later). Sixth grade orientation was the day before school started; Lukas said it was mostly pointless, but he did get his schedule, and he’ll be in the accelerated math class with all the blade kids except Reid, who is in another accelerated section. On the first day itself, we got out there early, taking pics in front of the palm tree per tradition … but unlike in years past, the photos also featured a port-a-potty and construction fencing & debris, lol. We got Lukas to the rendezvous point, made them let us take some more pics, and saw the walking group off. Then it was time to take Annika to her rendezvous point with Alana, and the school year was begun. At the end of the day, happily, there were no tears — both kids seem to have gotten good teachers (even if the math teachers were uhhhh intense) and knew people in every class, and things seemed off to a good start — whew! 

Social Circles
We had bought tickets to see Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo at SAP center as a Christmas present, and chose the first Friday night of the school year for the date — figuring the kids could use a treat and a diversion by then. It was really, really wonderful — genuinely transfixing, super-fun, just a delight. The next day, we had Ben’s birthday party at their swim team’s cabana club (all of us but R. went), then finally another pool day at our house on Sunday (I mention all of these because they were so rare this summer, ugh). Soon after that, Lukas and Manir were invited to Lawson’s birthday party — it never stops never stopping! Lukas also got back into parkour, going one evening with Sam and Reid — he remembered how much he loved it! We had a BBQ and movie night at the Grants’, with the Jacksons also there. But the rest of the weekend, Lukas was limping around, and was in so much pain that he agreed to go to the doctor that afternoon — who said it was an Achilles strain, and put the kid in a boot cast. Whoa! It got him out of PE for two weeks, but threw his intention to try out for team handball in doubt; I emailed the coach to explain, and said I understood if he couldn’t take a chance on a kid he hadn’t seen play, but the coach was willing to work with him and as it turned out, he made the boys’ 2 team (with three other 6th-graders and the rest in 7th; the Boys’ 1 team was all 8th-graders). He’s excited to play, and keeps watching videos of pro and Olympic handball matches to get a better sense of the game. And finally, their schools had back-to-school nights, where R. and I got to go through their schedules and meet their teachers — we seem to have hit the jackpot on both slates, although again, the math teachers are pretty intense, so we’ll see how it all goes — but so far, we’re all really optimistic for a good year. 

July 2023

Summer for real
We had our first truly hot pool weekend, where it was over 90 both days — felt a bit like old times! But we had been so long without real swimming that I had signed Lukas up for sprint swim lessons at AVAC — half an hour every day for a week, just to get him stronger and more confident, plus improve his technique a bit; he thought he would hate it, based on his memories from the lessons we quit years ago, but it actually went really well and he ended up enjoying himself. We spent a couple of afternoons at the Patels’, swimming and hanging out, and Annika & Lukas hung out together a lot, including most of an entire day of Lukas teaching Annika some extremely complicated online game; it’s really nice that they’re spending more time together, after Annika’s self-imposed Teen Isolation of the past couple of years. We went to see Dude Perfect! on tour at SAP (featuring special guest Mark Rober, who, in a crowd like that, got a reception like the Beatles in 1964). And on the last Sunday of the month, we went over to Grandma & Grandpa’s to celebrate their 63rd wedding anniversary — we were cracked-out tired from getting back from vacation the night before, but they’re worth it. :-) 

Wildcat trip to Disneyland
It’s possible that we are insane, but: We went to Disneyland over the Fourth of July! We all wanted to see Rogers! The Musical — an actual 35-minute musical based on the brief scene in the TV show Hawkeye, which was played for laughs, but which I guess we weren’t the only ones who took seriously, heh. It was running at the Hyperion in DCA June 30-August 31 only, so looking at our calendar for the rest of the summer, this was pretty much our only shot, and we took it. I had long assumed that the 4th would be a terrible time to go, hot and crowded as hell, but a tip from one of our Disneyland insiders (a guy on R.’s team) and some anecdotal concurrence from the DisBoards convinced us it would be ok — and it was one of the best trips we’ve had in years! Good weather (70s-80s), the lowest crowds we’ve seen since 2015, fireworks, and we saw the musical twice, once on each of our full days in the parks. With three-day park-hopper tickets, we shifted our usual plan, and instead of going into the parks in the afternoon on the day of arrival, we did two full days and then a half day on the day of departure — catching the early morning entry and knocking out a bunch of rides before we had to leave for the airport and our 4:30 flight. Totally worth it! 

Aloha Hawaii!
Just over a week after that hilarious nonsense, we were off to Hawaii once again. We came the closest we ever have to missing our flight — check-in lines were hundreds and hundreds of people long, and if not for the help of a guy in line who told us how to get our TSA Pre-Check notification added to our boarding passes (which I thought I had done, but apparently it’s not automatic, ugh), we would’ve still been in line at takeoff. Then, our gate was literally as far away as it was possible to be, and for some reason the flight boarded fully 20 minutes before we expected it to, which meant that not only were they calling our names and about to close the doors when we finally got there, but also we had to sit separated; it was Southwest, so first come, first served for seating. The kids sat together (which seemed fine and kind of adventurous, but they later told us they didn’t know they could get the drinks the flight attendant offered, and didn’t know how to reach us (they were … two rows back …). Anyway! Lessons learned, and when we got there, it was like coming home. We spent the first couple of days at the beach club, then did Hapuna as a hurricane (downgraded to tropical storm) was making its way toward us. Lukas, newly confident in his swimming, was an enthusiastic and durable snorkeler and channel diver at our beach, and bodysurfed the whole morning with R. at Hapuna. The fourth day, the tropical storm had veered off and didn’t actually touch the island, but the weather was overcast and the water choppy, so we decided to do some different stuff — we had a fabulous buffet breakfast at a newly-renovated hotel near the beach club, then drove down to the Kona area and pretty much straight up the mountain to tour a coffee farm (super cool!), and then back into Kona to go to a couple of bookstores and find shave ice. We visited all of our old favorite restaurants (Pu’eo’s Osteria was a huge standout) and tried some new ones — not a dud in the bunch! — plus enjoyed the novelty of cooking for ourselves (the condo has a kitchen, unlike our house!), grilling fish from Da Fish House up in Kihei on Hapuna days and random stuff from the grocery on beach club days. The kids started every beach day with a long walk up and down the shoreline by themselves, discussing forming a band, starting middle school, and sundry other topics for up to an hour and a half while R. and I chilled on the beach; it was a little mystifying, but really awesome to see. Everybody did a bunch of beach reading; the kids tore through a terrible young-adult book from the 90s that was left at the condo, Annika brought her AP Euro history textbook to knock out the summer prep for the class, R. had Ready Player Two, and I hopped around between A Room with a View and whatever Ray Bradbury Lukas wasn’t currently reading. We had great snorkeling, seeing an amazing variety of creatures (and encountered honu four separate times!!!). All in all, it was a truly amazing, wonderful trip; it’s really hard for us to make ourselves go anywhere else, with what we know is waiting for us there. Aloha and mahalo, Hawaii! 

June 2023

Last day of school!
What seemed a million years away when Annika started kindergarten came sooner than we could have imagined: Lukas’s last day of fifth grade, and our family’s last official day at Los Alamitos. It was Aloha Day themed as usual (we had a little trouble with that — Lukas had outgrown all his shirts from last year, and we had to scramble to find something appropriate); they had a Fifth Grade Sendoff in the morning for all the parents, and then it was a free-for-all in the afternoon. The Blade Fam went for ice cream at the Willow Glen Creamery, and that’s a wrap. Annika finished her freshman year in a blaze of academic glory and a couple of finals; released early, she said she was just glad to have it done … for about five minutes, before she started worrying about next year. Heh. 

Summer happenings
Due to the weather’s lack of cooperation, we had our first pool day on June 4, when it got all the way up to the mid-80s. Uncle Ball was back, as were the pool umbrellas, R.’s margaritas, and Annika’s lime-and-topo-chico drink — even if our view was the destroyed back of our house instead of the old deck and bar, and our sound system the Wonderboom portable speaker instead of R.’s elaborate outdoor setup. Knowing we’d want to be out of the house/garage a fair amount this summer, I had joined the Cinemark movie club (snack discounts, free ticket accumulation, stuff like that) and we saw a couple of movies at the theater: The Little Mermaid (live-action) with Ami and the kids (followed by a pool afternoon at their house), and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse as a family (which somehow managed to top the first Spider-Verse movie — it was absolutely amazing). Stupid Bowlero decided not to offer the Summer Games pass this year, so we did not roll even once. Booooooo!!!

Lukas Life
Lukas was a very busy little man this month, including: Reid’s birthday party (D&D themed, hours of gameplay) took most of a day; Lukas had his first sleepover, at Ben’s (the kind of thing that would have happened years ago, but Covid); and he spent another afternoon at Ben’s playing D&D with him and a couple of the blade fellas while I took Annika to do lap swim at AVAC (she’d stopped the Sunday class and opted to just swim a few times on her own as a guest under my membership). And finally and perhaps most excitingly, he returned for a MUCH-better experience at a week of School of Rock: The teachers actually taught this time, and he got to play three songs at the end-of-week show at the Britannia Arms! He took the important role of cowbell for Cake’s Short Skirt/Long Jacket, then absolutely killed it on drums for Sappy (Nirvana) and Cherry Lips (Garbage). We all went to that show, and were joined by Ami, Manir and Amira — it was insanely fun, and he definitely wants to do it again (he even started talking plans to make his own band!). 

SF Pride weekend
Years ago, I promised Annika I’d take her to the mother of all Pride celebrations in San Francisco — and then there were two years of covid and one of being in Hawaii at the time it was being held. This year, though, we finally did it! On the last weekend of June, she and I took the train up on Saturday (leaving R. and Lukas to discover Popeye’s fried chicken and Bruce Lee movies), had dinner at Hyde St. Seafood House, and got to bed early. The next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel, and wearing rainbow flags as capes, walked over to find a good spot along Market St. The parade itself ran over four hours — wild, fun, and full of joy. Afterward, we walked over to have a late lunch at Hog Island Oyster Co. in the Ferry Building, then strolled along the waterfront to Ghirardelli for a treat before getting an uber back to the hotel. We caught an early train in the morning and got home before 9:30 (since it was Monday and R. had to get to work — didn’t want to leave Lukas all alone, that’s no fun). We had a great time, and if the logistics work out, we might end up going again! 

May 2023

The Chaos Begins: Life Under Construction
On May 1, as scheduled, the demolition phase of the Bigass Remodel began at 7:30 sharp. Dozens of Guys™ swarmed the place, hammering and sawing and making unholy noise … good thing the kids were at school for most of it. I literally did not go to bed the night before — despite all our work, there was still SO MUCH STUFF to get out of the way, omfg. I dragged the last box and bag out to the garage at around 6:30 a.m., napped on the couch for an hour, then got the school day routine started. We had moved the couch and the Wichita Falls table & chairs into the garage, me including kitchen stuff for what turned out to be wildly optimistic plans of cooking “some” meals: I bought a one-burner induction camp cooktop and a microwave, and we had our toaster, toaster oven, and coffeemaker all on R.’s custom-height work bench; I’d bought a restaurant-grade steel prep table and a drying rack for hand-washing dishes in the utility sink; and the garage cabinetry plus some plastic bins made do for a pantry. It’s comfortable enough, and R. had prioritized getting a big TV and a surround sound so we can hang out and still have movie nights, but it can’t help being a little cramped, and by day three I was sick of the dishwashing situation — I bought a bunch more disposable stuff, feeling like a one-woman ecological disaster but with no other way to do it. We’ll be sending our laundry out (except for cold/special care stuff, which I’ll do at Grandma & Grandpa’s), and I guess we’ll get some sort of special award for DoorDash customer volume … 

Miscellaneous
One good big distraction for everyone but me was a new game on the Switch, called
Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom — the three of them, and pretty much everyone we know, got instantly and totally addicted. We had a pretty decent Mother's Day even though we obviously couldn’t host; I took Annika to her comp swim class and got a workout while she was in the pool, and later we all went to brunch at a restaurant downtown, The Farmers' Union, with Grandma & Grandpa and Aunt Amy & Uncle Paul. Lukas’s chess club sessions at school ended, and he ranked well enough among his peers to win a trophy! And finally, at the end of the month and kicking off summer, we had a cool, overcast Memorial Day weekend — not pool weather at all. Annika and I went to FanimeCon both days via light rail; R. and Lukas probably didn’t even notice we were gone, as absorbed in Zelda as they both were, lol. 

Out and about
As it happened, we had quite a few plans this month. We took a mini-trip down to Monterey the first weekend; for my birthday, R. had given me tickets for us to see the Pixies at a cool restored theater down there, and we decided to make it a getaway. We drove down Friday night, staying in a hotel for free (with points) and had an excellent dinner in the hotel. The next morning, we walked a mile or so on a lovely seaside path to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and spent the day there, then had dinner in a local restaurant. R. and I went to the show that night — the building was literally within two blocks of our hotel, we could actually see it from our room. And the next morning, we had the hotel buffet breakfast, took our time getting home, and then had dinner at the Patels’, before commencing another chaotic week in the construction zone. A couple of weeks later, we went on another excursion: One last roll at the old Sea Bowl, which was closing its doors on May 31 after 40+ years in business. R. and I couldn’t let the place go without a farewell, so we drove up, met Tom for lunch at Celia’s, took a little walk around our old neighborhood and saw the house on Dolphin Drive (currently unoccupied, so we also snuck back in to look at the yard and peer into the tiny kitchen — which used to seem big to us, after the Barbie-sized one in San Francisco!), and then went to have a couple of Caucasians (White Russians) and toss a few stones; we only played two games because the wait was so long to start — everyone else in the Bay Area apparently had the same idea. It was a good trip down memory lane(s); we’re really sorry to see the place go, but it had a lot of good times to appreciate.

R’s 50th
This month, R. became the newest member of Club 5-0. I had debated what to do, and he wasn’t really forthcoming (shocker!), so, since Ami had offered their house as a venue, I decided to throw him a party the weekend after his actual birthday (which we celebrated with a cake from Icing on the Cake, takeout Indian food, and of course, presents). I invited all of our local friends, the California Saucers, our new cool neighbors, and a couple of his longtime friends from work; hired a bartender, a taco truck, and a bunch of standing party tables … and then told him about it, lol. So, not a surprise party per se, but not really much chance of refusal, either — it just felt like something that we really should celebrate, and I knew he’d like it (wouldn’t have done it if I thought he’d hate it!). I decided on a Brady Bunch theme, calling it A Very Brady Birthday, and encouraged costumes/dress-up (people LOVED that, for real — so many great interpretations of the ask!). R. made his own playlist (which ruled), I printed hundreds of Brady headshots at OfficeDepot to staple to the Patels’ fence (and needed all their help to remove later, ha!) as decor, made a standee describing our three signature cocktails (a Tomaszo del Ray, a Mai Tai, and Paper Planes), and had cupcakes delivered from an awesome bakery. We ended up with about 60 people — a great number to make a rockin party, but not so many that the birthday boy didn’t get to see them all. Lukas set up his own mocktail bar at the other end of the big backyard, with three signature mocktails (plus whatever sodas and stuff) for the kids and non-drinkers, which was a huge hit. And at the end, we had a Brady Bunch trivia contest, put together on slides by Lukas himself, and emceed at R.’s request by our friend Alastair — who grew up in Scotland and had never even seen an episode of the show. It was hilarious, and a great night — I was really nervous hosting (and hadn’t thrown a party this size since our wedding!), but I’m so glad we did it. Happy birthday, BP! Here’s to the next 50!

April 2023

Family Fun
R. and I were pretty preoccupied with getting ready for the remodel, since we had till May 1 to move literally everything out of the downstairs of our house. The POD came, and will be staying on our driveway till after it’s all done; we started boxing up and moving furniture and sorting through 12 years’ worth of buildup, which was totally exhausting. But! We did have time for some good stuff: All four of us went to see the Dungeons & Dragons movie with the Blade Team & their families; we dyed dozens of hard-boiled eggs and then had a fun Easter, with about a million plastic eggs hidden around the soon-to-be-destroyed house; and R. and I went out to the movies (The Big Lebowski special 25-year anniversary showing on April 20, lolll) and to a school fundraiser party (taco & margarita night) while the kids stayed home, ate takeout, and watched their own movies. 

Spring break
We didn’t have any family travel planned for spring break, mostly because we knew we would be moving out of the downstairs (which, as I mentioned, took up nearly all of our time). But: Annika got to go to Disneyland! Her friend Sydney invited her and another friend, Elise, to go with their family on a short, 2-days-in-the-park trip. It was waaaaay different than the way we do it (stayed offsite, rolled into the park around 11:00 a.m., didn’t work the Genie+ like madmen, etc.) and I think that adjustment was pretty hard for her — but she did get to ride lots of rides and had a good time; it’s her beloved Disneyland, after all! I tried to make things fun for Lukas; we went biking with Sam, went out to breakfast and then took Sam with us to the big skate park, and in the evenings, R. joined the two of us on the couch to watch episodes of The Brady Bunch, The Twilight Zone, and Magnum, P.I.; Brady Bunch was his favorite, but he liked all of them.

School Days
Turkey legs gonna turk: Lukas got into April Fool’s Day with a number of little tricks, but my favorite was all these insects he made out of paper and stuck all over the house. He was busy with other stuff this month, too — he and Manir did a weekly after-school chess club being held on campus, finished up the Los Alamitos Band season with a concert in the cafeteria and another at the Multicultural Faire (he’s honestly really good, especially for a guy we couldn’t get to practice at all; it’s a shame he doesn’t want to continue, but at least he gave it a go!), and showed us all his stuff at 5th Grade Open House at school — another last-time thing at Los Alamitos, awww! Annika was busy with school and — for the first time — sports; she ended the badminton season on a high note: She and CJ finished 7-5, the only duo on the team to have a winning record!

March 2023

Annika’s Goings-On
Badminton season got underway this month, and we all went to the matches to support her; Annika and her doubles partner, CJ, lost their first couple of matches, but won one, too (yaaaaay!!!), and even earned the #2 spot on varsity, via a 2v2 challenge of the people holding that spot. She’s excited to be on varsity as a freshman, for sure. In school news, though it feels like too early for this, 10th grade course selection is open; she’s pretty much taking all of the hardest classes next year (Honors Chem, AP Ethnic Lit, Honors Pre-Calc, Spanish II, Advanced Sculpture, and AP European History, a class supposedly so intense that multiple people tried to talk us/her out of it). That’s the kind of schedule you have to get your parents to sign off on, lol. She’s not all business, though — she spent an evening at the twins’ karaoke birthday party; she and I went to see the school’s production of Newsies!; and she finished her Invisalign series — which, except for a retainer she will wear at night, means the end of the Journey of Orthodonture for her! Sometimes it felt like this day would never come … 

Lukas Life
The little guy is getting a double-dose of puberty/sex ed this month — the school’s unit for fifth graders is happening, and on Sundays is the online thing he’s doing with R. I think he’s got the whole subject pretty thoroughly covered, lol. In more fun news, he (and Manir, Amira, Sam, James, and Ben) started their last after-school skateboarding session with Coach Diego. The younger kids can do it next year, but it’s the end of the road for Lukas, Manir, and James, and we’re honestly pretty sad about that — it’s been such a great experience, and so much fun watching them learn skills and try new things on their boards. I hope they’ll still skate, even without the weekly coaching. And finally, he and I joined a large group of friends for the boys’ last Mother/Son Dance! It was 80s-themed, and we had a blast putting together outfits (all us moms looked ridiculous, it was great!). The dance was SO much fun — amazing how all the old moves come back, heh. Another thing I’m sorry to see the end of — but what a way to go out!

The Windy Day
Weather is rarely a thing I report on at length here, but we had so much wild stuff this month — after weeks and weeks of rain, we had a super-windy day (even windier than the one that blew our neighbors’ tree down), which resulted in power loss, a BUNCH of trees blown down (including these huge eucalyptuses in the median near the Grants’ house, and a giant pine at Los Alamitos), the cancellation of badminton practice, the loss of internet (on a day R. was told to work from home bc of the storms — but it was out at work too, so no big deal), and the destruction of every fence in town, including ours — the section between us and the Schwartzes got obliterated, and every one of our friends lost at least a piece of theirs. Without the internet, we just kinda hung out at home, playing chess (Lukas’s current obsession) and backgammon till we had power again. And soon after all this, we had a visit from my friend Amanda (Florian) Callinan and her family (husband Drew and daughter Audrey, who’s just a few months younger than Annika). It was a hilarious afternoon and evening, telling stories Decatur-style — always a good time seeing them! And as we told them, they might be the last guests in the house as it is now: We have been given a start date of May 1 for demolition! Holy crap … 

February 2023

School Days
Once you get started Doing Stuff (extracurriculars) at school, you’re constantly on the move. Brandi got the Los Alamitos band re-started pretty much all by herself, so we moms kind of made all our kids join; Lukas was convinced to try alto sax, and did not love the 7:20 a.m. start time 2x/wk but hey. Annika made the swim team (alongside all those cabana league kids who’d been doing it since toddlerhood), but a week of 2-hour practices every day after school in chlorine so harsh it ruined a $100 swimsuit in five sessions and made her skin red and rashy was enough — she decided to stick with the pre-comp class at AVAC just for fun, but not to join the school team, and planned to try badminton instead. She made that team, too (despite being out sick for tryouts — the coach took her on after the first practice), starting out in JV doubles; it was more fun, and had a much more reasonable practice and match schedule, so a win all around. 

Family Fare
This year, the Burns Supper — usually in January, to coincide with the poet’s birthday — was the first weekend of February due to the Grants’ scheduling conflicts. It was a packed house, with a lot of good food and some Scotch-fueled roaring at the trivia contest (which I won 2nd place in, heh). We hosted Super Bowl Sunday at our house with the Carneys, plowing through the usual assortment of delicious garbagey food. Valentine’s Day was low-key fun (I decorated the kids’ places at breakfast, they both got & gave valentines to their friends, we had Indian takeout for dinner). We had a bunch of movie nights, of course; one standout was Rear Window, which was a gamble (it’s old, lol) but ended up being a big hit — Lukas loved it so much he watched it again the next day when he got up! And finally, R. and Lukas started a puberty/sex-ed program offered online through Stanford Children’s Hospital (the same outfit that hosted the one I went to with Annika, in the Before Times, only this one was online and one hour a week for five weeks, whereas ours was in-person for two 2.5 hour sessions a week apart).

Seattle Trip
After all those planning sessions, “Ski Week” and our Seattle trip was finally happening! We flew out on Saturday and spent the day of arrival getting settled: renting the mega SUV, finding the house — the $4million house, as the VRBO listing described it, and which immediately became what we all called it and will call it forever — in the Magnolia neighborhood, and getting groceries and other provisions. We stopped for lunch at a great little neighborhood cafe and then combed through an independent bookstore before returning to the $4m house for an easy, potluck-hodgepodge dinner. Over the next week, we went all over the place: A visit to the ür-Starbucks (which served coffee-based cocktails, so you know we adults had to sample those), a walk through a sketchy neighborhood and eventually to the Pinball Museum (one of the highlights of the trip — your admission pays for unlimited plays on dozens of vintage pinball machines, and $4 bought you a beer — and the kids were all gifted pinballs by the owner when we finally left); a day at the Public Market, with fabulous food (Lowell’s!) and innumerable things to look at (including Marnin Saylor, where the kids got these felted stuffed animals in the shapes of various pastries, bookstores, and a magic shop that absolutely entranced Lukas and Manir); we cooked fish bought fresh from the market one night, went out for sushi another night, ordered in pizza and played poker on one particularly nasty-weather night, and had a truly amazing dinner at Mondello, a family-run Italian place in the $4m house neighborhood — so good, we had to go back the next day for takeout desserts for our 2nd? 3rd? market hodgepodge dinner. One morning, we went to the Underground Tour — which is literally underground, due to Seattle’s downtown having been raised up an entire story a hundred-some years ago; it was fascinating (more so for the adults than the kids, I guess, but we learned a lot and it was really cool). We took the ferry to Bainbridge Island, spending the day poking into shops and finding a standout fish-n-chips place for lunch. Ami and I got out one morning for a brisk, gorgeous early walk into and around Discovery Park (right near the $4m house). We took a whole day visiting the Space Needle (Amira did gymnastics out on the see-through, rotating platform, and the kids all dared each other to lean out over the edge (well-shielded by glass? plastic? of course, but we adults felt sick just looking at it!). When we broke for lunch, the families went different directions based mostly on kid restaurant preference; our family went to a seafood restaurant, where we had an amazing assortment of the area’s best stuff, including steamed mussels — and I will remember for the rest of my life the way Lukas’s eyes lit up when he tried his first one! (Got it on video, luckily — it was a revelation!). We all finished the afternoon at the Chihuly museum on another part of the property. We spent another day mostly at MoPop (the Museum of Pop Culture), which was running a very timely (for Annika especially) grunge/Seattle scene exhibit, plus its permanent film/tv/music collections and a Jimi Hendrix exhibit that R. loved. On our last afternoon, we took the short-line monorail back to the Public Market and bought a bunch of food to picnic on for dinner and to bring home. The weather throughout was exciting for us San Jose folk: often rainy, sometimes brilliantly sunny and cool, and even a dusting of grainy snow — twice! — that the kids had to go out in. It was a wonderful trip for all of us, and I, for one, would love to go back.

January 2023

New Year’s week
The new year got off to a lovely rainy start, conducive to hanging around the house, but we did get out some. Annika was invited to dinner at the twins’ house; the kids and I went to Color Me Mine for the first time since covid shutdowns to do a little ceramics painting, and out to breakfast in a rainstorm the morning Petra came to clean. We had all the blade team boys over for a D&D session one afternoon, and another day we went bouldering (climbing artificial rock walls) at a place downtown with Ami, Manir and Amira — that was so much fun! We all agreed it was a little scary to start, but picked it up quickly and ended up climbing till we couldn’t anymore, and then found a place for lunch nearby before calling it a day. R. and the kids had a blast doing SplatFest for an entire weekend, often joined online by Kent and Skyler. 

Potpourri/Back to School
Of course there were less-fun things going on, as it always is with January: school starting back up in the second week of the month, taking down all the Christmas decorations, Lukas being out sick for a few days after four kids in his class got covid (but he never tested positive, so who knows), and a bit of (scary) excitement when a 30’ palm tree across the street fell smack down in a wind storm, perfectly aligned along the sidewalk and missing several cars and fences (our other across-the-street neighbor, luckily, had a chainsaw, and came out in the start of another rainy spell to cut it apart … in board shorts and flip-flops, omg). We had a rainy Blade Team meetup that eventually had to be abandoned when the rain got serious, but it continued in the form of an online D&D session, so all was not lost. On a more fun note, Annika (and Elise) spent more time over at Sydney’s; she and I went to see the movie M3GAN (all the rage among the teens, apparently); and she started a pre-comp swim class Sunday mornings at AVAC to prep for swim tryouts at school, while Lukas started drum lessons at Guitar Center. 

Seattle Strategy
Having decided we’re going to Seattle with the Patels, we of course needed several evenings’ worth of dinner and drinks to plan our itinerary and figure out our housing for the trip; we eventually chose a house that looked like the best fit for all eight of us, and found a vehicle to rent that would take us all — I love it when a plan comes together!

December 2022

School & Socials
December can’t help but be a very busy month; this is just some of what we got up to: Annika and I went to the PHS drama department’s production of Arsenic and Old Lace (several of her friends were in the crew) — it was better than I expected, and her friend Ezra stole the show in a smaller part. Poor Lukas got sick and missed out on Matching Day, which he’d planned to do with Manir, but on another day, got to go to BJ’s for a pizookie with Mr. Dinh (and the other fourth-grade Dandy Day teacher raffle winners) as Ben’s plus-one. To all of our delight (really!), there was rain rain rain (and cold) most of the days of the month. Both of the kids got their checkups (two years late, thanks to covid). Annika had her first real finals week, the kind you have to study and plan for (but get three short days, so it balanced out!). Lukas and I went with Manir and Ami to Castillero’s holiday orchestra/band/dance/drama spectacular — it’s a recruiting event, essentially, but did absolutely jack to change my kid’s mind on electives, lol. Annika went to a cookie-making party at Sydney’s, and the Blade Team had an hourslong D&D session at Reid’s, feat. their new kittens (which didn’t affect Lukas’s allergy at all, so now he’s convinced he’s outgrown it and we can get cats. R. begs to differ). 

Christmastime!
The first weekend of the month was a highlight of my personal holiday calendar: Christmas Tree Gettin' Day! We ended up getting the first tree we saw; once it was decorated, we took a night walk to see the neighborhood’s lights, and had our first viewing of The Movie (A Christmas Story, obviously). Another weekend, we went to the drive-through Fantasy of Lights; all month long, movie night was holiday-themed (ACS, Nightmare Before Christmas, Pee-Wee’s Christmas Special, Frosty, Rudolph, Yo Gabba Gabba!, Albert, etc. etc. etc.). The kids were in school until December 23 (ugh), but at least R. was working from home for the month and off completely between 12/23 and January. On Christmas Eve, the grandparents arrived midafternoon; we were all wrapping presents and prepping food and so on, and retired relatively early after one last Xmas entertainment (the Yo Gabba Gabba! episode about Christmas — as opposed to their Very Awesome Christmas special). Christmas morning got off to a not too early start; we put A Christmas Story on loop, dove into our stockings, got the turkey in the oven, and started ripping open the presents — which included a lot of shirts (CB3, Oneders, Zelda, Star Wars, etc.) for both kids, weird-scented candles and lots of books for Annika, and retro cassettes and a tape recorder for Lukas. Annika knitted R. a hat and me a scarf.  R.'s laboriously digitized/stitched-together/edited/color- and frame-rate corrected home movie from the 40s to the 70s was the marquee present for the grandparents, and we had a 90-min. visit from the Sunnyvale household. All in all, a lovely couple of days, and all the more valued because of the mess of the last few pandemic years. 

Holidays plus

The week between Xmas and New Year’s was cozy and lazy; on the 26th, the grandparents stayed a little longer than usual and we all watched the 3.5-hour home movie, with commentary provided by the Dorks. On the 27th, the four of us began what turned into an epic game of Risk; we left it on the table, photographed at the end of each session to prevent foul play, and waged a global war that only ended when I gambled, lost, and got outflanked — after which the kids teamed up to demolish R. It was fun, but: NEVER AGAIN. heh. We were supposed to go back to Uvas Canyon with the Patels to hike on the morning of New Year’s Eve, but it was a thorough rainout — one of the rainiest days of a very rainy season, which would have been dangerous to attempt even if the park had foolishly been open. So instead, we went over to their house for chicken and waffles, then continued the party at our house (in the dark for awhile, as our power went out for a couple of hours), played Mario Kart, ate TJ’s appetizers and the hot pretzels that were a gift from the Sunnyvale household, and watched the ball drop on 2022 with a crapton of homemade confetti. Here’s to 2023!