3/25/12 Trees!

I met with our new landscaper today to do a design review -- and on the spot said let's go ahead! So she started right away! This meant taking out two diseased trees that have been weighing on me for years.

Before.

After.

It sure looks bare now, but we have grand plans for much better screening plants.

Katrina was pretty sad about the trees getting cut down though.

She didn't even notice that the plastic playhouse was gone. She got over it though -- and we'll be getting lots and lots of new plants. A few new plants were planted today too, but they're small!. It'll take a while for the new landscape to mature.

I had a great time this weekend with Gabriel, doing something fun for work: heatmapping. That is, using free tools to scan for wi-fi networks, and plot points in our house to see where the signals are strong. Gabriel walked all around the house with a laptop, clicking points on a map when he arrived there, then looking at the colors to show where signals were strong and weak. What better thing to keep a geeky kid busy for an afternoon?!

The glow from our great ski weekend has almost worn off unfortunately and it hasn't even been a week. I haven't finished uploading photos or videos or even putting our ski stuff away! I don't see how we'll get back up to the mountains before ski season turns to "spring skiing" -- and I did enough of that during the winter already, so I think it's time to shift my mind from winter to spring for good.

3/25/2012

3/22/12 A step to suspension

Julian's teacher told us today in email that Julian had a disciplinary note to take home -- but we didn't realize until we saw it that it's an "official" form -- one step away from suspension. As usual, it's from an act that is at its core benign, but risky, obnoxious and unacceptable. This time, he was waving a pencil in a kid's face and calling it a knife. His explanation was that it was a Kung Fu knife. Great, because he's got a belt test Saturday, and if he moves up to Purple belt, then he'll start work with a dagger. I can't wait to explain that to the school.

I should be writing about our last incredible day of skiing this week -- which I think will be the last of the season unless I manage somehow to squeeze in one more. It is spring now, after all! But I'm glad -- mostly -- that this coming weekend, we have no plans to go anywhere -- in fact, I have plans not to go anywhere.

3/22/12

3/21/2012 From mountains to coast

I drove to Watsonville this morning to install a wireless network for the California Strawberry Commission -- or so I thought. Working with another IT consultant flown in from Chicago (because an hour from San Jose, they couldn't find one -- ??), most of the work was in migrating the wired network.

One funny thing about the Strawberry Commission's offices -- there's a boot scraper right outside the door. I guess they get a lot of visitors who've been out in the fields lately!!

Watsonville -- such an interesting, honest place, and I really love being near the coast. I've passed through and stayed in that area many, many times over the years -- mostly as a motorcyclist, but my first camping trip with the boys was less than a mile from where I worked today. This is what I first loved about living in CA -- the coast, the redwood trees, the agriculture, the scrubby landscape. But now my head is in the mountains -- just two days ago, I was knee-deep in snow!

I'm SO tempted to go back to the Sierras this weekend -- but I'm tired, I'm getting sick, I really need to do our taxes and plan the summer, and the kids need a break from driving. But planning the summer and reserving camping trips is a terrific consolation!

3/21/2012

3/19/12 March Ski Trip Day 3: BlueBird!

This day wasn't promising -- though it'd snowed all night, the roads were icy. And this morning the time pressure was different: I had to pack up and clear out of house, get to Sugarbowl, get the kids' rentals and get them to a regular group lesson by 10:30.

I was horrified when we parked and I climbed up to take mine and Gabriel's skis down from the car's roof -- I'd driven the entire way with the ski-rack clamps up and the skis just resting atop the rack! Incredibly, all I lost was one pole. How dumb was that!

You'd think arriving at 9am would be in plenty of time for a 10:30 lesson, but we parked far away, rentals took forever and I barely got Julian and Katrina to group lessons in time. I expected Monday to be less crowded, but the fabulous snow conditions and clear skies brought everyone out of the woodwork.

Gabriel and I had two hours to ski together, so we headed straight for Mt. Disney to execute the plan we had to give up on yesterday because of visibility. Warmup? No time -- straight to the black diamonds please! The snow was so deep and forgiving that it really shaved a level or two off of every run.

For me, the past two days' lessons had turned deep powder from an exhausting, baffling ordeal into a fun, confidence-building challenge. And the wonderful snow meant there were no bad spots -- even the usual hard wind-blown ridges were soft and forgiving.

Gabriel plowing down "Donald Duck." (Dorky name for a ski run, but it is on Mt. Disney.)

Then we tried "Disney Nose," which Gabriel had done in a lesson. After I was committed, I found myself staring down what would be my first "chute" -- a narrow gap between jutting rocks, steep and pointing you straight down with no opportunity to turn. Good skiiers don't bother slowing down; I'm still wasn't quite ready to be catapulted down a precipice. But I was having such a good morning that I tackled it happily, if not beautifully. It wasn't pretty, but I survived my first chute!

Then there was the rest of the slope to contend with. (Actually, I think we were on "Liberty.") Steep, but the deep powder slowed us down and cushioned the falls.

Managed to find a flat-ish spot for some photos (on "Eagle").

Look what's in front of me! NOTHING! No tracks!

But the deep snow took its toll on Gabriel -- it's deeper for him after all, and to my surprise, he was tired and was ready for some fast action. So we did one more deep-snow run, then headed back to the groomers on Mt. Judah where he could barrel away to his heart's content.

When we picked up the other two, I was dismayed to find that once again, Katrina was back on the bunny hill -- not the whole time, but for some of it. Even Sugarbowl has the same problem all places do: there just aren't enough intermediate 5-year-olds who show up for group lessons for critical mass to get them off the bunny hill. The all-day ski school with a reservation system can handle that, but not the group lessons where anyone can show up.

But Katrina was in good spirits and anxious to show off on Mt. Judah, which has become one of favorite areas: all moderate blues, some groomed, some ungroomed, easy terrain parts, and one short steep section that if it were longer would qualify as an easy black, and easy access to the lodge.

With trepidation, I took all 3 on the lift up Mt. Judah, grateful for the comfortable, safe, padded and easy-to-load quad lifts at Sugarbowl. Katrina was still afraid of the lift though, and screamed for me to pick her up to get up on it. Once we were at the top, she was right in her element and was anxious to get going.

The boys were not happy about my plan for them to follow Katrina down, but I had to start somewhere to figure out how to keep track of all of them. I managed to persuade Gabriel to let Katrina "lead," though he complained a lot.

Interestingly, Julian couldn't always keep up -- sometimes he wasn't trying, but sometimes he was and couldn't.

Julian was more interested in showing me his "jump."

Finally I sent the boys off on their own, with instructions to wait at the lift for me and Katrina.

I wondered, how does my friend who skis with her 3 girls all day long -- and enjoys it -- deal with this?! I guess this is where having older kids, and ones who are more matched in ability, factors in.

And girls. Having the boys wait alone turned out to be a terrible idea: they started an obnoxious pole-fighting game, blocking the lift line and antagonizing everyone trying to get bt.

After a sound scolding on the ride back up, I told the boys they could ski down on their own, but they had to wait again at the bottom of the lift -- do not go back up without me -- and I'd throw away their poles if I saw any more pole/sword-fighting. I thought again about my friend who skis with her girls. Does she go through this aggravation?!

But at the top, my heart swelled to see the boys chase each other down -- what fun for brothers to do together! They might ski together long after I'm dead, trading stories and chuckles about me at my expense.

Or not. Turns out the split up fast; Julian went for the tree powder while Gabriel aimed for the "bimb run."

Katrina was irritated at not being the leader this time, but I told her she could lead me. Truth is, it's hard to ski behind her -- she turns way faster than I can, but overall is slower. Seems I have a thing or two to learn about fine control.

I stuck close to her though, and was glad I did when I saw her tumble in the snow.

She was all tangled up, and I had to lift her off the ground, shrieking her head off, to untwist her legs. She told me it was a "natural fall" -- that is, she'd fallen on purpose because she was going "way too fast, Mom!" Watching the video later, I can see that she'd gotten freaked out when a snowboarder rode in front of her.

But as soon as she was up, she cheerfully took off again as though nothing had gone wrong.

I love this winter-wonderland view, with the snow on the trees. So beautiful.

We got to one of the terrain areas, and Katrina said "WATCH ME MOM!"

Had I realized this would be her first "jump," I'd have moved to get a better shot, but I thought she'd done this before. Turns out, this was her first attempt at climbing to the little snow mounds adjacent to a flat-box terrain feature, then skiing straight down. It was only about 3 feet high, and hardly a "jump," but she was SOOOO excited! I was so proud that she wanted to try this and that she enjoyed it so much. She talked about her first "jump" for hours afterward, even telling strangers about it, she was so excited.

After the "jump," she bombed joyously down the rest of the run, with no turning, slowing or fear. Watching her happily and confidently zip down the slope, I tried not to think about the fact that this was probably our last run of the year.

But despite some yelling and irritation, it had gone well. It worked to pick a lift and tell the boys to stick to it, let them go take runs on their own, while I skiied with Katrina. This worked much better here than it had at our attempt at Homewood a few weeks ago -- the location was great, the runs consistent but interesting (all moderate blues, groomed, ungroomed and terrain parks), and a lift we could all handle easily. And this time, the snow was great.

My regret about ending our skiing morning went beyond knowing that the joyous challenge of skiing was over -- it also meant kicking into waitress duty for lunch. What a pain in the rear end -- thank goodness we'd returned our rentals and I'd changed into regular clothes and shoes. I know enough by now not to attempt lunch and the usual valet service for 3 kids wearing ski boots.

I've done this enough times now, I knew what to do after lunch. Organized packing goes by the wayside: everything gets dumped into the back of the car, kids get piled in -- this time I latched the skis down -- and we batten down the hatches for a focused drive home with one gas/bathroom stop.

We were home by 7pm, where once again experience drives habit: dump everything from the back of the car into the living room by the armload, where it will fester for at least a week. Zip the car out for a quick wash, and herd everyone to bed. (You'd think a car wash is hardly urgent, but my car comes back from these trips so filthy that it can't be touched at all, and it needed to turn from ski bus to commute vehicle tomorrow.)

From a pure skiing perspective, this weekend was the best we've had yet. The deep snow opened up so much more of the mountain and made me confident and able to dig deep and challenge myself in a fun way. Though skiing with all 3 kids can be really stressful and difficult, I also now remember it as one of the most fantastic moments of my life.

I think this was itfor ski trips this season though. We sure had some of the worst snow conditions imaginable -- no snow, man-made snow, slushy then icy remnants of very little snow -- and then, nirvana: fresh powder. The full spectrum! But it's not just about the snow, it's being in the mountains, the challenge of a new sport, having active fun with the kids. And what a way to end this season!

3/19/2012

3/18/12 March Ski Trip Day 2: Snow Day!

This day sure started out dicey.

It snowed all night -- a great thing for skiing, but a really bad thing for getting there. Like yesterday, my Subaru was waved past the chain-control checkpoint on I-80, and I made my way nervously on the more-direct but twisty and icy Donner Pass Road. This is what it looked like this morning, if you can call this "looked."

I was very aware of how slippery it was, unable to stop at an intersection once, sliding benignly and unpolitely into it.

The slopes were not promising this morning either, with snow blowing hard as Gabriel and I warmed up -- or froze down is more like it -- before our lessons. I didn't mind it snowing, but visibility was really bad.

I was reminded of something I hadn't experienced since my failed skiing start as a child: cold! Our toes and fingers were actually cold! We're SO spoiled in California, we have no idea what to do with ourselves when the temperature drops below 30 degrees.

After a warmup break in the lodge, we made it on time to our lessons. I forgot all about being cold, happy to be with the same instructor I had yesterday.

I was really surprised how many more people at my level showed up for lessons -- at least 15 people at or above Level 4. Four instructors split us up by ability, and I ended up about in the middle. It never fails to amaze me to watch much more seasoned skiiers, especially other women. Can I please do that too someday?? I'm still such a newbie, still so inexperienced. Within my group I was by far the least-skilled and least-seasoned skiier, but oddly the fastest, and as is so often the case, the most willing ("Did you say unmapped untouched off-piste run -- SURE!!").

Mt. Lincoln looked a whole lot different today. Here's how it looked yesterday.

The same vantage point today.

Still, I had one of the best lessons I've ever had today, despite some of the ugliest and most beginner-ish skiing I've ever done. The snow was deep and demanded different technique than I've developed in my 3 seasons skiing on ice, and it's tough and tiring without knowing how to "float" over it. Still, I emerged happy and confident and ready to try more -- a total turnaround from a very pessimistic outlook of the morning.

I chatted briefly with Gabriel's group lesson instructor, and learned that he and another very skilled girl had spent the day on double-black-diamonds!! Gabriel has completely surpassed me now in terms of difficult terrain! This new deep powder thing is something of an equalizer, blurring the distinction between harder blues and easier blacks, but there is no question that a double-black is serious stuff. Gabriel did "Strawberry Fields," Sugarbowl's "intro" double-black, and an unmapped chute run called "Two-and-Three-Quarters." Good for him!!!

I was so happy to be with him for lunch and an afternoon of skiing together. We happily downloaded together about our morning, trading food, laughing often.

But I nervously watched the weather deteriorate out the window -- the snow was driving harder and harder. Would our road back to our Truckee Treasure house be closed? Sugarbowl's lodge was packed with people, partly because eating outside was not an option, but unless Sugarbowl was prepared to lodge hundreds of people overnight, they'd have to find a way to keep the road open.

I learned from an instructor that Sugarbowl has an agreement with the County to maintain Donner Pass Road -- otherwise people just can't get there and the business would go under. So once Sugarbowl had serviced (plowed, sanded, blown) their internal roads and parking lots, they turned their full and constant attention to keeping the main access road open.

I drove in snow a lot in upstate NY, but I'm just now realizing how very very different it is here in the Sierras. It snows for days here at a time, and feet of snow can drop in a few hours. There isn't one plowing; the plows have to run constantly to keep roads open. I don't recall any chain-control checkpoints either, but I think that's a phenomenon of altitude.

Indeed, for years I've internally grumbled about my AWD car, since the all-wheel-drive detracts from gas mileage. When do I ever need AWD? Who cares? Well, I sure cared yesterday and today when I saw the Corollas and Civics I'd normally prefer pull over in the chain-check areas and pay to put chains on their wheels, or worse, do it themselves. It's not just the expense and hassle -- for us, the delay would have meant missing ski school today. So this weekend, 10 years of owning an AWD car paid off.

Today I heard that chain controls were as low as Colfax because of the snow-storming. I sure hope this is lifted by the time we drive home tomorrow. Even if we're waved through chain-control checkpoints due to having an AWD car, the traffic slowdown could cost us hours.

Enough digression, sorry.

Gabriel and I lounged around so long at lunch that by the time we were ready to ski again, we had barely an hour before it was time to pick up the other two. And it was really snowing by now. We did a test-run up Mt. Judah, a familiar and very fun place to be, and found visibility at the top to be much worse than in the morning, and wind to be horrific.

So I changed the plan we'd formed during lunch, and decided to stay on Mt. Judah -- closeby to where we'd pick up the other two. It was so windy and SO hard to see, it was no time to experiment or try new runs -- much as I wanted to practice some what I'd tried in my fabulous lesson that morning.

Gabriel was fine with this plan -- especially when we ran across Katrina's lesson on Mt Judah. I was so psyched to see her there, because these are all pure blues. She was doing GREAT! And on much steeper stuff than I thought she could handle, and the conditions didn't faze her a bit!

I tried to take video, but what I took was poor -- it was so windy and cold that my hands froze to useless in a few seconds of attempting operate my camera without gloves. My first attempt only caught Gabriel slowly making his way toward her on a narrow steep section (she's in the distance, indistinguishable).

Then I did catch her, just as she topped a small hill, a terrain feature, but this is pretty dull as a video. In real life, you had to be there to feel the snow being driven into your face and the biting cold of frozen fingers for this to be in any way remarkable.

But I was so happy to see how relaxed she was, how much she was enjoying this. Her teacher today and yesterday's teacher both said she loves the "powder" -- deep, slow, snow. Not all kids, or adults, like it -- it's great when it's untracked, but boy it can get deep and slow.

And did I mention deep? We came across a man stuck waist-deep in an area -- that'd easily bury Katrina. And it's not even that deep this year. (The man's daughter ended up leaving him and skiing to the ski school area to plead with instructors to rescue her 70yo father, he was exhausted from trying to push himself out of the powder.)

I dragged Gabriel away from Katrina's lesson -- he'd have followed her all day long but I took mercy on her poor teacher, and we took a different route.

Then we spotted Julian from a lift -- and oh my gosh, he was coming out of Grayson's Glades, a tree section, and onto Donner's Way -- both black diamonds!! He was slow and careful, but he was there! WOW!! This is serious skiing!!!!

My hasty photography and decidely un-hasty camera only caught Julian's instructor, but this gives a decent idea of the conditions. I couldn't believe it -- GOOD for Julian!!

Last run of the day -- and incredibly, we caught a break in the weather. It was blowing through so fast that the short blast of sun was quickly obscured again, but not before I got a few photos.

The mobs at Sugarbowl, and the instructor who'd explained to me the politics of road ownership, gave me confidence we'd be able to get back to Truckee -- but if we'd been trying to get down the mountain to home, we'd have been in for major highway delays.

And we made it. Even back to Truckee, it was a slow, slippery, tense (though plowed) drive -- which is all I've had since we've been here -- but we made it safely and in plenty of time for kids to play in the ample snow at our temporary adopted house.

After a little work, that is.

While Katrina played and the boys knocked down icicles (they've never seen them!!) and set up for a snowball fight --

-- I partook of a luxury only moms of older kids can dream of: a hot bath. I so needed that after the last two challenging, but exhilarating days. I ignored the screaming and banging and hoped my children weren't antagonizing the neighbors of the owners of our new beloved house.

But we're not done yet -- if the weather is anything close to decent tomorrow, I'm up for another massive hassle and expense of a short day of skiing before a long drive home. Especially if the snow is anything like it was today!

Someone mentioned today something about coming here to the Lake Tahoe area being a "relaxing vacation" -- I almost spit with laughter! This is about the farthest thing I can imagine from being a "relaxing vacation" -- and thank goodness for that!!

3/18/2012

3/17/12 March Ski Trip Day 1: Bluebird Day

Today was, I learned, a "Bluebird" day. That means a blue-sky day the day after a snowfall. It was also called a "powder day," though there appears to be disagreement about what defines a "powder day" and how long they last. I heard many people say this was the first powder day of the season though, or at least the closest to a "powder day" the Sierras get!

I never fail to be amazed how difficult it is to herd kids. Between the front door and the car this morning, one shirt was soaked to the point of needing changing, and two pairs of goggles were buried and lost. How is it my kids can't make it 20 feet to the car without these massive hassle-creating calamities?

All 3 kids were in all-day ski school today. I took a lesson in the morning and spent the afternoon alone, to my dismay. I really missed skiing with Gabriel and hanging with him at lunch.

I sure was happy to see Katrina off the bunny hill though! I saw her on her way to the Jerome lift, where she spent the day.

She was in a class with 2 other kids at about her level. Her teacher told me later that she loved the "powder" -- which really means super-deep snow that for her was waist-deep in the ungroomed areas.

On a groomed green section.

In the afternoon, I ran into Julian and his "class" -- instructor -- Julian was the only one! Julian's instructor told me that they'd had a TALK early on -- he found right away that Julian has some trouble taking authority seriously and messes around too much. But after the TALK, they did great together.

Julian worked really hard, had a great attitude, and really likes anything that's different. He likes jumps, going off the groomed runs to the sides, doing silly things. His teacher told me about one fall he had that he called a "gopher" fall -- in which Julian landed head-first in the powder and only had his skis sticking out!

Sometimes Julian's ignoring instructions means that he goes too far off the trail and has to be pulled out.

But for the most part, he listened well to his instructor -- even when I was there following them around with a camera.

Still working on full-on parallel, but he's really doing great.

Gabriel had a horrible experience this afternoon! Somehow he got separated from his lesson, causing a long futile search by his instructor.

His instructor had told Gabriel to go to a lift, but Gabriel missed that and went down short slope instead -- instantly out of sight. He ended up walking -- in boots and carrying skis -- back to the Judah lodge, and then even farther to the kid pickup area. That's a really long walk.

Before I or the other kids' parents knew any of this, all we knew is that our sons' lessons was really late and something must have happened. Then suddenly Gabriel appeared in the kid pickup area, looking absolutely wasted -- exhausted, frazzled and freaked out. He said he'd gotten lost and had just walked from the other lodge -- I was so incredulous, I didn't believe it until the instructor showed up about 10 minutes later and explained where Gabriel had gotten separated.

He'd had a good lesson before that though! He took one of the same easy black diamonds I had in my lesson, that wasn't easy now at all. This morning it was probably pure powder, but it was feet deep in snow, and by the time other skiiers and boarders chew through it, it's a rutty mess.

I'd done the same run in my morning lesson too ("Market Place"), and admired how my instructor floated right over it like it was nothing. He gave me and my two classmates all kinds of great instruction for how to get through the deep stuff, but it was still exhausting.

My instructor was really good at mixing it up and not wearing us out too much on the tough stuff -- we got in some easier groomed runs too. The view from the top of Mt. Lincoln is always fabulous (that's Donner Lake in the background).

I rarely fall these days, but I fell at least 4 times in my lesson in the powder. No crashing, just benign tipovers, but I was amazed at how incredibly difficult it was to get back up -- and I'm really good at getting back up. You can't push against anything, your poles sink straight down and reach nothing. One time one ski was speared straight down in the snow -- and only pulling it out straight up would get it out, and that is REALLY hard to do when the rest of you is sunk 2 feet down!

A classmate told me later that he'd read in a ski magazine that you can cross your poles and push against them to get back up. Good tip!

I also wished I'd learned about my jacket's "powder skirt" -- an inside elastic gusset designed to keep snow from going up your back. But when I took stock of just how much snow got everywhere, this measure seemed absurdly inadequate. The only way to keep snow from going up your back in those conditions is with a one-piece suit.

But overall, this was an amazing ski day. We sure have paid our dues -- first no snow, then horrible wet heavy snow, icy non-snow....skiing today on the groomed powdery snow was like nothing I've ever done before. And so much quieter than ice! I skiied way faster than I ever have -- real snow gives you far more margin for error than ice.

It was snowing when we left Sugarbowl, and continued to snow after we got back to our house, and then well into the night. Katrina loved playing in the snow until it just got too deep, and her boots were getting pulled off.

Maybe we'll get another Bluebird day tomorrow!

3/17/2012

3/16/12 March Ski Trip: Stormy Drive

Thanks to a "Staff Learning Day," the 3rd weekend in March means a 3-day non-peak-time weekend in the winter. This will be the 3rd year in a row we've gone skiing this weekend. In fact, the first ski weekend we ever did was this same long weekend in 2010 (2010 March Ski trip).

This season has broken records for lack of precipitation, but it had rained a lot this week, presumably turning to snow in the mountains. I was glad for the snow, since in theory that will give us something to ski on this long weekend, but snow on the mountain passes means traffic, accidents, chain controls, and delays.

Normally I know better than to try to take smaller roads to bypass the highways, but when we got stuck in 10mph stop-n-go traffic on I-80, and my iPhone told Gabriel it'd be over an hour to the next exit -- let alone our destination. So at Cisco Grove, I decided to try the quasi-parallel Donner Pass Road.

This worked fine to bypass two exits, turning what would have been a 2-hour trip into a 20-minute one, but my plan to get back on the creeping highway for the actual summit crossing was foiled by a naming mistake on whatever map the iPhone uses (and possible interpretation error by a 10-year-0ld).

And so, we found ourselves on the same twisty Donner Pass Road that's provided such lovely vistas in the past -- only this time, all we could see was fog, rain and a little snow. The kids kept entertained by taking photos. It's actually interesting to me to see what they see of me for so many hours -- the back of my head, the startling green of my fleece jacket, and my hands tense on the steering wheel.

And that was about all there was to see, because visibility was quite poor!

But for once, the alternate route paid off, and we were in Truckee in under an hour, instead of almost 3 hours if we'd stuck to the main Interstate. The road we took had been plowed within the hour -- which can mean nothing in the Sierras if the snowfall is heavy enough -- but though the road had essentially been reduced to a one-lane road, the snow wasn't deep at all, and I never felt any serious danger from the road, only from other cars.

My snow-driving experience is very old and applies only to a light FWD car (my few formative years in Rochester NY in my beloved 1983 Honda Accord), but still I seemed to have far less trouble than many other drivers in the same conditions. Maybe the snow isn't as slippery here or maybe my AWD car makes it easier or maybe my many years of motorcycling in traction-challenged situations affects my outlook....I don't have near Dave's driving skill, but I could handle this no problem, despite the added responsibilty and distraction of travelling with 3 kids. Incredibly, they were far better-behaved under duress than they are when we're clipping along smoothly!

We made it without incident (and with a stop to pick up pizza) to our "Truckee Treasure" house, where we stayed during Ski Week. It was like coming home again!

I just hope we have as little trouble getting to Sugarbowl tomorrow morning by 8am -- but then, if we're snowed in all day, I won't be totally heartbroken either. Horrible weather and all, I'm just so happy to be back in the mountains.

3/16/2012

p.s. eeps! Power outage! Funny how my affection for mountain living plummets when the luxuries of modern life disappear!

3/15/2012 The Science

If there were a degree offered in packing for ski trips, I'd deserve at least a Master's, because I have that down to a science! And how far I've come from the day of snow bibs that were 2-years outgrown, forgetting a boot, melting zippers, and absurdly oversized goggles!

I'm picking the kids up at noon tomorrow, in the hopes that we can be on the road by 1pm and avoid most of the traffic on our way to the Tahoe area. It will be a swarm, because this week marks the most snow they've had all year.

One of the kids' favorite entertainments in the car is texting Uncle Ronan. Katrina's getting pretty good at texting, with help from Big Brother sometimes -- the only problem is that she loses it if I insist she give back the iPhone when she's expecting a response!

This was coming back from Bear Valley two weekends ago.

Truckee, here we come!

3/15/2012

3/13/2012 On working

Some days, I muse about what it would be like if I didn't have a job.

Today I came home early, having gone to work on the principle that I'd see how I felt getting up and about, despite some very unexpected violent vomiting last night. It turned out, no, I really wasn't feeling so well and I needed to go home. Though I hated how I felt, it was nice to be home when Gabriel got home, hang with him a little, and "relax," if you can call it that.

But this morning, I learned that next week, I'll be driving to Watsonville to configure the California Strawberry Commission's wireless network. It doesn't get better than that! Totally cool! I didn't want to "relax," I wanted to write up a detailed network design so this goes absolutely smoothly.

Sometimes I wish I didn't work, but most of the time I'm so glad I do. Today happened to work out to the perfect balance: work in the morning, then home in the afternoon. Overall, I think this is a great problem to have.

I feel bad about all the time I've been taking off, but this coming weekend, we're going to Truckee for a ski weekend at Sugarbowl, since the kids have a "staff learning day" off Monday. AND IT'S SNOWING NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Guilt GONE!!

Well, almost...I'll bring my work laptop with me and will probably be hammering out details, but what better place to do that than happily ensconced in the mountains!

3/13/2012

3/11/2012 Leprechaun Trap

Seems we've had so many extraordinary weekends and days that I was pretty happy about having a very ordinary Sunday today!

My top #1 goal today was to SLEEP LATE. I'd been up at 5:20am for 5 days in a rowm, then at 6:20am on Saturday to go running (and good thing I got up that early; a few minutes later and the parking lots at Rancho San Antonio would have been packed -- I got in a good 8.7 miler).

Then yesterday we took the kids to see the annual Physics Show at Foothill College. This is such a nice thing that this community college's physics department does -- they demonstrate concepts like inertia, angular momentum, temperature and pressure in such accessible, understandable and entertaining ways. Like seeing the trucks loading up with shopping carts drive away, and all the carts rolling off the truck (inertia!) or hammering a nail with a frozen banana. I wouldn't hesitate to bring my non-scientifically-minded nephew to this.

The grand finale is the pressure demonstration, in which someone lies between two beds of nails, and a sledgehammer is used to break a cement block over him.

I stopped video-ing too early -- after this, the guy gets up, drinks some water and says, "See -- no leaks!"

OK, Good Mom check for Saturday.

But though I wanted to take it easy today, I still had two obligations. One was to meet with a landscape designer -- on a Sunday no less! Responsivel, inquisitive, available by email, experienced with execution as well as design -- I liked her so much I hired her on the spot, and in two weeks we should have a new plant design. Some of our existing plants will stay, but many will be replaced by CA natives, as well as blank spots filled in, screening areas planted (to block ugly view), re-staking plants that need it, moving ones that aren't happy where they are. I'm thrilled -- I love our new landscape overall, but so many of the plants have been bothering me, and we're in garden paradise here, I shouldn't have to put up with a bunch of shrub roses that look awful most of the time.

Fortunately, Dave took all the kids to the BMX park today while I was talking with the landscaper, a very welcome outing for all of them. I sure as heck don't want to do that with Katrina again -- what a complainer! Just the boys is fun though.

The other major obligation today was Julian's monthly "book" report due next week: the leprechaun trap. We've done this once before when Gabriel was in 2nd grade, and it was a very different experience. Gabriel was all over it, excited and couldn't wait to do it, and he did most of it himself. Julian needed a lot of pushing and had a lot of interference from Gabriel, who wanted to "help" but mostly took over and insulted Julian a lot. Julian has his own ideas, but he forms them differently from Gabriel -- he doesn't have the same focus, but he has a lot more creativity and tends to see if more from the leprechaun's point of view, so it's harder to rein in his vast views.

Last week, I took Julian's to Michael's to find some materials, and had to make suggestions for substitutes, thereby making it my project too, sort of.

We were way behind on this project because, silly us, we went away during Ski Week (and even skiied), only to come back to find that the trap itself was supposed to be done. Then we went away the weekend afterward too! I know that was pushing it, especially when I had a class started at 5:30am and the cleaners coming the day after we got home, but I hoped we -- he -- could get the trap done this weekend.

Julian is supposed to do it all himself, but he needs a lot of guidance. I have to find the right box, for instance. He has to cover the walls with paper, but he needs help in how to do that. An idea he had for using a plastic cookie container turned into my suggesting that the lid become a window, which meant more help showing him how to cut out a circle. We used a garland for the "grass" on the top, but handling a bottle of glue and the garland together was a two-person job. One of us got the idea of a rainbow, which we fashioned out pipecleaners, but again I was the one driving the implementation: stick them into styrofoam balls, which I'll cut down, then glue to the top. The ladder was his idea, but he didn't know about notched popsicle sticks or how to use them. He liked my suggestion of reinforcing the ladder joints with pipe cleaners, but it was still my suggestion.

I really believe a kid should do as much as possible themselves, as Gabriel did, but when it comes to craft projects, there's just no getting around Mom being involved to a large extent. I really, really hate craft projects from school, even though this one was fun for me and fun to work on with him.

Julian demonstrates the very well-hidden trapdoor.

Inside, the leprechaun hits a ramp and slides into a bucket, and a bell goes off to alert us to his arrival.

More importantly, I was able to get Julian to write his 8-sentence paragraph about it tonight. So we're almost caught up. Next week: the final draft of the report, and practice his presentation.

Can a Dad's life of raising a girl ever be complete without assembling a dollhouse? While I was working with Julian, Dave got roped into helping Katrina set up cardboard dollhouse she'd gotten for Christmas, which is suddenly her FAVORITE thing in the whole world. Now that it's set up, she gets to furnish, color and decorate it. She was delighted!.

Back to the regular world for me tomorrow -- no more taking classes at 5:20am in my PJs from home....but since we're leaving this coming Friday -- the day Julian's leprechaun trap is due -- for another ski trip, it can't be that real!

3/11/2012

3/10/12 The Dry Night

Yayy! It might actually happen -- one of those kids who night-trains themselves?!

Katrina's been in Pull-Ups at night all this time, but in the past few weeks she's been waking up with them dry more and more times. She really wanted to try underpants at night last weekend, but we were in a hotel in Bear Valley and that just didn't seem to be the right place to give it a shot.

So Friday night, with mattress protectors in place, she slept in underpants for the first time. No problem! And we didn't wake her up at night, as we did with the boys for many months. She actually wants to do this, and seems to have decided for herself it's time. I might not even need to track down my nighttime wetness alarm, a popular item that my friends have borrowed.

It's early to be certain we're "done" with night-training after just one night, but it can't go better than this! This will be the first time in nearly 10 years that diapers or Pull-Ups or some sort of bodily protector will not be in my life at all. Yay!

3/10/12