7/15/09 Letterboxing initiation

Today our outing was to initiate our East Coast cousins to letterboxing. I couldn't believe my luck when I found a letterbox at one of my favorite haunts, a nearby open space preserve. A short but not too short walk/hike, to a pet cemetery of all things. I printed out 4 copies of the clues this time, preventing one potential cause of WWIII.


What a place to pose, around some beloved cat's headstone. My beloved Kat naturally refused to join. Still waiting for THE shot of all five together.


We took the "scenic" route back after stamping logbooks, which involved more pushing a heavy jogging stroller uphill. Fortunately, I had some surprisingly competent help.


Being so close to Moffett Field, we see lots of unusual aircraft, but not usually such slow-moving ones and not really here. Gabriel and I sprinted up a hill to get a better view of the blimp.


Later, a watermelon picnic was called for.

It's rough diggings in our yard -- only a small deck, no patio, no lawn, and a lot of dusty dirt to make kids absolutely, unrecognizably filthy. I'm OK with filthy kids, but less OK with black feet on furniture. We really need to get some landscaping in (fortunately, the city approved our use permit for a new fence today, so we can get to work on the first necessary step).

It was perfect today, the tail end of a heat wave, so, warmer than usual but not so hot we had to close the house down. It was actually overall such a nice day that I have to remember now that I had a few hours in which the boys were infuriating me: Gabriel with rude insults and persistent defiance starting from a small infraction, escalating into a 2-hour standoff, and Julian for throwing a bat over our front yard fence again. My niece and nephew are nothing like that, and my sister doesn't brace for battle when it's time for a kid to do something. I'm focusing on picking my sister's brain and enjoying the challenge of cooking new and flavorful dishes that she can safely eat. This is a good new normal!

7/15/09