4/10/12 Easter

Getting behind here, but these photos from Sunday are worth it. Well, the memory is anyway, I'm not so sure about the photos! They're never easy to get, but it's always worth trying.

As we have for more years than I can count, we gladly accepted a kind invitation from the White family to join them for Easter. This includes great food, catching up with old friends, and an Easter Egg Hunt.

This is always the hardest shot (and for some reason I can't find any old ones???), but this one worked pretty well! There's a new one in the mix, a toddler cousin who wouldn't stay still long enough for the photo -- of course. He's 16 months old, that's what they do!. Ah, toddlers. So cute, so completely lovable, but thank goodness we're past that.

The only funny thing today was how sore Julian was from yesterday's 3.1 mile run at the Big Bunny. He's never felt anything like that and didn't seem to connect it was related to his run! But he complained on and off all day that his "legs hurt." I believe him!

Another lovely Easter Sunday!

4/10/12

4/7/12 Big Bunny Fun Run

The race that started it all: the Cupertino Big Bunny Fun Run 5K! I've done this many, many times now, even before I was a runner.

I started running (instead of walking) the Big Bunny when Katrina was a baby, and have run it every year since. We have a LOT of Big Bunny Fun Run T-shirts now!
The Bunny itself got an upgrade: it's gray now (new suit).

Dave and Katrina did the official walk, which is 2.5K (so, about a mile and a half). Doing the walk is really just for goodwill and to support the Parks and Rec department -- and for the T-shirt.

The kids practiced an "on your mark!"

Julian entered the real 5K this year too -- this is the boys just before the starting siren.

I coached Julian to pace himself and to follow the crowd. He was ready and excited and started strong!

Gabriel started faster than I could keep up with, plus I was taking photos of Julian. But I caught him about halfway through the race, passed him, and stayed enough ahead that I was able to take a photo of Gabriel crossing the finish line.

And Julian made it! It took him a lot longer, but he made it!

Katrina's favorite place to be, holding Dad's hand. They both greatly enjoyed the walk together, with a little running in the beginning, but mostly walking.

The 5K runners -- we made it! The clock at the finish line said I did it in 24:40, Gabriel in 25:40 and Julian in 35:20.

I ran harder than I ever have in a race, keeping a pace that meant constant gasping and being out of breath. But once you get to a certain pace, it's almost harder to back off -- especially if you can hear your son's footsteps behind you. But if my time really was 24:40, that means my first 8-minute mile!

A grand success for all of us!

4/7/12

4/6/12 The Photos

What's this? Katrina voluntarily posing for a photo?

And not just any photo, either. Somehow we got the whole family to a nearby office-service business, for passport photos. It's taken months, but I think we finally have everything together, including filled-out applications, and now official photos, to apply for passports. The plan is to trek the whole clan to the post office tomorrow to submit the applications.

And just in time, because my plan is still to go to Vancouver B.C. with Gabriel over Memorial Day weekend.

Katrina just got a whole new bag of hand-me-downs, and is putting together some fascinating outfits. It's embarrassing; every stitch of clothing she's wearing, save underpants and socks, were hand-me-downs from the same family. You'd think I never buy her clothes....actually, I don't. All her pajamas are worn hand-me downs from her brothers, too.

This adorable plaid skort makes her pasty legs look even skinnier than they are.

We had to wait a few minutes while the photos were printing. Meantime, I enjoyed a rare moment, the boys being quiet, and quiet together. I look at my sons sometimes and just marvel. They're really not little kids anymore. They're getting so big and strong, they're so healthy and vigorous and bursting with life.

Not that they always welcome the photographic intrusion, of course. It's rare that they're this calm that I can actually enjoy that instead of angrily correcting them so that their vigor isn't a total nuisance to everyone around them.

After photos, we did something we rarely do anymore: go out to dinner, all of us. It's so hard to round everyone up that this was not an opportunity to be squandered!

Also, I worked really, really hard today -- and I'm glad for it, but I was so fried that I had no energy to cook or clean. Actually, this whole week has been very intense at work. My job is full of surprises, and it's becoming clear it will never be routine or boring. I'm glad my creative energy has an outlet, but it subtracts from any burning desires to try a new recipe.

When we got home from dinner, we did our new Friday night thing: watching "Burn Notice." It's really fun for me watching it with the boys and explaining all the spy stuff to them, and it's great incentive for them to get ready for bed quickly so we can cuddle up on the bed together. I don't think it's generally considered "family fare" but ... well, what can I say. Some families watch kid shows to spend time with the family; I watch Burn Notice to watch Burn Notice, and bonus, shows with lots of stuff blowing up are great fun to watch with boys! They love it. Julian wants to go to Miami now.

4/6/12

4/3/12 Heather girl

Last Sunday, many of our plants were ripped out and replaced with little teeny eensy new ones. It's not completely done, so I don't have a full set of photos yet, but this afternoon was the first time I really walked around and looked at the new plants, some in their infancy.

This was inspired by Katrina, who wanted me to take a picture of her with this glorious confetti heather -- one of the mature plants that survived the makeover.

Her fashion sense cracks me up!

Some of our new plants are already flowering, like this little saffron buckwheat (I think).

I love these little salvias too, scrappy and scruffy with small pretty hardy flowers. The first round of landscaping included another variety of salvia, and they are my favorites, flowering year-round. This one will probably do the same too.

The real piece de resistance for me: a manzanita. It's hard to tell in this photo; it's the lightest-green bush in the center of the photo.

These are amazing bushes, with dark, twisted bark, hardy and desert-y. This one is placed to eventually screen the neighbors' driveway across the street somewhat. Behind it is one of those favorite existing red-flowering salvias.

I love the two little plants in front of the manzanita too, I forget what they're called, but they too are California natives of some sort.

I absolutely love the new plants -- all CA natives, and a much larger variety than before. I am going to have so much fun over the years walking around and looking at them, seeing them grow and change, making adjustments and planting new ones from time to time. This is turning from a landscape to a garden, and I just love it!

4/3/12

4/2/2012 Belated April Fools'

The morning started with an impossible search for my iPhone. Turns out, it was right where I'd left it, by my bag to take with me into the car this morning -- but apparently its alarm was on. Gabriel heard it and with baffling, inexplicable kid-logic, took it up to his room, where I'd never find it. So I was iPhone-less today -- ssorry I didn't call you, Mom!

For some reason this weekend I was super tired and sleepy. I was such a zonk we really did nothing, aided by rainy days (yay!). Sunday our new landscapers came by and tore out a lot of mature plants and replaced them with teeny-tiny weed-looking little ones, but I have faith in our new CA Native landscape designer, who does a lot of maintenance work herself. It'll take some time for things to grow out, but I'll like them way better than the smattering of common high-maintenance cheap roses and day lilies we had before. I'm happy to move our landscaping into "gardens" with mostly CA natives.

Tonight, perhaps another April Fool's joke? Katrina ate chicken!! She wanted a drumstick and was actually excited about it -- and she ate some chicken!! This is huge!! She hates chicken! On principle, I think. Or maybe like me, she's just a dark-meat person.

For some reason, today, like the weekend, I feel horrendously exhausted and tired all day .... maybe this early schedule is catching up with me. Every weekday I have to get up so much earlier than I want to, and then to make matters worse, the one day I choose to get up uber-early, Saturdays, wipes me out for the whole day. And Sundays zonked until 11am just isn't enough to recover. But I'm not giving up my Saturday morning run!

4/2/2012

3/30/12 Reminiscing

The kids and I had fun at dinner tonight, mostly with me telling them stories about them as babies and toddlers.

One story they loved was about one time I was taking video of me and Gabriel, and Julian kept walking over to the camera to play with it (he was just shy of 2). I took this video to show Gabriel's interest in "clock math" -- which interestingly he can't do now -- and unfortunately edited out most of the funny parts with Julian messing with the camera, but they're there. Gabriel and his "clock math" thing are interesting too.

Even better, the kids were so anxious to watch these videos tonight that they all helped clean up the kitchen after dinner -- it was hectic and not exactly "clean," but a whole heck of a lot more fun than usual!

3/30/12

3/28/12 Purple Belt!

Julian had a belt test last Saturday, and yesterday we found out the (very unsurprising news) that he'd passed. He's now a purple belt in Shaolin Kung Fu!

Most important to him, this means he gets to move on to the next weapon level: nunchucks. An instructor told me recently that this brand of Kung Fu is really more a performance art than anything else -- but he doesn't need to know that. It's such a relief to see him working hard and concentrating and (mostly) obeying for once!

3/28/12

3/26/12 Caught up?

New photos and video of our final day of our ski trip this year ("3rd day" below). I spent way too much time writing about it, but it was hard to drag myself away. I liked having my head in that space, being there in the mountains and snow and liberated by gravity. Even though this trip was the most challenging in terms of driving -- chain controls the whole time, lots of ice and snow and poor visibility.

Stormy Drive
1st ski day
2nd ski day
3rd ski day

The details are dull, but do scan the beautiful photos. I just can't take my eyes off the snowy trees....but now, it's time to turn to spring. And maybe try to catch up the past two summer cousin-visit photo books!

3/26/12

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