Day 18: Jan 18, 2009

It seems like the best sunsets usually happen in the summer and fall, but I knew when I saw the clouds this evening that we’d be in for a good one.

Day 17: Jan. 17, 2009

My mom gave Abigail my old metronome for Christmas, along with several of my piano books. I think I was more excited to see it than she was – it’s kind of mesmerizing, and brings back many memories of rushing through my pieces, and moving that little slider down until it kept pace with me. I’m pretty sure that’s not how it’s supposed to work, but it’s a lot more fun that way.

Day 16, Jan. 16 2009

So I can see more of these. After next week, the sun rises when we’re still getting ready for school. And of course it gets earlier and earlier as the days get longer and longer. But we’ll get to enjoy this kind of view again in March, when we push the clocks ahead, artificially creating a “later” sunrise.

Day 15, Jan. 15, 2009

This is a stack of about half of the books that I’ve started and then forgotten about, for various reasons. Either I got bored, or the road trip ended, or I lost the book under the bed for 8 months. I still want to finish these though. Really, I do.  There are other books that I start and can never get into, and I don’t even bother pretending that I’m going to finish those. Many of Oprah’s book club books fit into that category, yet I’m still drawn to them because they inevitably have intriguing covers and I’m a sucker for a good book cover.

Day 14: Jan. 14, 2009

I’m baffled at Moose’s inability to get warm in the winter. He’s a dog. With a fur coat. From Labrador. Ok, so Moose isn’t straight from the snowy north, but the breed did originate there. I guess dogs, like (most) people, adapt to whatever climate they’re in. Still – he seems to crave the warmth more than any of us, and you’ll often find him sunning himself outside, even in the dog days of summer. In the winter, he just tries to sit on top of the closest warm body – even if that body is perpetually cold due to a complete lack of body fat (see Exhibit A, below). As far as Moose is concerned, labby heads belong in laps, not computers, and there are many times when he rests his enormous head on my computer and I suddenly find myself typing in Swahili, or opening every file on my hard drive. I tried to capture this exact moment with Travis, but he shoved Moose’s head out of the way just before I took the picture because he is heartless and doesn’t care about frostbitten dog noses.

The only thing that stinks about combining multiple entries per day is that it’s nearly impossible to think of a title that is interesting and makes sense for three different photos. Bah. So I’m going to switch things up a bit and make multiple posts per day (per day that I actually blog that is, which will not be every day). That way the titles will go with the pictures, and I won’t have to spend so much time thinking.

Day 13: Jan 13, 2009

The biggest attraction at our house, besides the new fish, is the Trampoline of Death. The net is long gone, but the poles are still jutting out at awkward angles, some broken off because the kids occasionally dangle from them. Essentially, it’s a pediatrician’s worst nightmare, and we require parents to sign waiver of liability before their kids are allowed in the backyard.

Now that the weather has finally remembered that it is indeed January, a winter month, the air is dry and the trampoline creates static electricity like nobody’s business – especially when you wear fleece and roll around on your head. This is Abby’s friend Maranda – but if you want to call her Abby, that’s ok, since everyone else does. For some reason their teacher is always mixing the two of them up, and random people ask if they’re twins (seriously!) or sisters. I don’t know – I just don’t see the resemblance.

(from Christmas Eve, just for comparison purposes)

Day 7: Jan. 7, 2009

I always drag my feet when it comes to putting up the Christmas decorations. The house just seems naked after all the garland, lights, and decorations come down – it’s all kind of depressing. PHDD: Post-Holiday Decoration Disappointment. The corner by the bookcase looks empty, the mantle is bare, and the staircase isn’t nearly as much fun without the twinkle lights lighting the way. Plus, I have to box up homemade decorations like these that Travis brought home this year – a tissue paper snowman and string art tree. Until next year…

Day 8: Jan. 8, 2009

Unleaded at Costco: $1.51 a gallon. I filled up the tank for just under $30, and took a picture so I could show it to the kids in 20 years, and blather on about how back in my day, the gas was under $10 a gallon, and we actually had to push our carts through the aisles at Costco rather than zip around in our newfangled HoverRounds.  I’m not sure what exactly I’ll be proving – that gas wasn’t always $12.49 a gallon (at least it wasn’t for a brief period in 2009), or that we used to put this expensive stuff called gasoline in our cars. I’m hoping it’s the latter.

Day 9: Jan 9, 2009

Our Girl Scout troop went to Young Chefs Academy to work on a cooking badge.  And I didn’t have to plan a thing.

Day. 10: Jan 10, 2009

Abby had a friend spend the night, and none of us wanted pizza or leftovers, so we went to one of our favorite sushi places – Origami. That yummy looking roll in the middle is called the Bob Marley – salmon, avocado and jalepeno rolled up with fresh tuna and a spicy sauce on top. Seriously good. And they have those nifty low tables where you stick your legs into the little hole in the floor – the kids love that part. And by kids, I mean me.

Day 11: Jan 11, 2009

Charming*

*Not mine

Day 12: Jan 12, 2009

Travis got a little too enthusiastic playing the Wii on Friday, and slammed his thumb into the stool that holds up the sensor bar. Since I wasn’t home to rush him to the emergency room or call Life Flight (according to Neil), he didn’t see a doctor until Sunday. The doctor was only mildly horrified that we had waited 2 and a half days, and was also shocked that it wasn’t broken at the joint, since it was roughly twice as large as his other thumb, and black and blue.  He thinks he saw a chip at the tip of the bone, but there’s nothing you can do for that anyway, so we wound up with a $300 splint.

Travis was pretty stoked that he would have the perfect excuse to give up writing for a while, but his teacher wasn’t having any of that, and told him to do his homework with his other hand. I didn’t think it was possible to dread homework anymore than I do now, but oh, how wrong I was…

Project 365, still going strong on day 6. Not impressed, eh?

Day 4: Jan. 4, 2009

Today is our 12th anniversary. Neil is in Phoenix, watching the Longhorns play Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, and I spent my day vacuuming up Christmas tree needles, working on the mountain of clothes in the laundry room, buying earthworms for a science project and trying to coax them back to life, and cleaning up puke from Abigail (who mysteriously threw up right before the earthworm prodding began).

While we were at Walmart – my least favorite place in the entire world, but the only store that had (1) a plastic box for the earthworm habitat, (2) 3 flashlights for $1 each, (3) printer paper, (4) potting soil, (5) colored Sharpies, and (6) earthworms – I ran across this orchid. Orchids are my all-time favorite flower, mainly because they don’t go into a vase, they aren’t red roses, and I can keep them alive for longer than 2 weeks, although all bets are off after that point.  This particular one had these cute little clusters of flowers, looked healthy, and was only $10 (probably because it was mass produced by 4 year-olds in China), so I bought it and said Happy Anniversary to me!

Day 5: Jan. 5, 2009

Santa left this way-too-lifelike roach (with pull-back rolling action!) in Travis’ stocking, and he has delighted in giving me the heebie jeebies by leaving it on the kitchen counter or in my bed. Today, he wanted to go out to eat for the sole purpose of freaking out the waiter, and I thought that sounded like a fine idea, especially since I haven’t bought groceries since before Christmas. We decided to go to Chili’s, and luckily our waiter was a total jokester himself, so he appreciated the basket of fries with a side of roach.

Day 6: Jan. 6, 2009

3rd grade is the year for cursive, and Travis, who has always been a bit challenged with fine-motor skills (maybe because he’s a lefty?), is less than amused with having to learn an entire new alphabet, especially after he just got the first one down. And to make matters worse, he didn’t get the alternate list (because they didn’t have school on Monday, so he didn’t take a pretest), so he has to practice spelling words that he already knows. Also, did I mention that he hates cursive? Because if I forgot, let me tell you right now – cursive is dumb and stupid and everyone should just write in print or learn how to type. I helped him with a few words, and Abby, in a rare display of sisterly love and patience, sat down with him and helped him with the rest (writing the words in cursive and then helping him practice, then write them on his spelling sheet). I’m sure this must have been in exchange for doing her chores for the next two weeks, or giving him all her money, or something along those lines.

Either way, he recovered nicely after that, and we had an enjoyable evening until they agreed to play Uno Attack, and Abby backed out at the last second (just to piss him off, I’m pretty sure). This was followed up by a spectacular show of grumpiness, where he stomped around the house, arms crossed and brows furrowed, until he finally plopped down on top of Moose’s kennel and farted really loudly. For some reason, this totally ruined the mad-as-hell aura, and Abby and I both burst out laughing.

It sounds so cliché, but I truly can’t believe we’re in 2009 already. It seems like just yesterday that we were celebrating the new millennium in Park City with a 5 month old Abigail, and having a major freakout (me)  / celebration (Neil) over the news that I was pregnant again.

I won’t be making any New Year’s resolutions, since those are pretty much guaranteed to be ignored after 2-3 weeks of rigorous stick-to-it-ness. But I would like to blog more, and scrapbook more, and play more games with the kids, and read more books.

One thing I would like to commit to is taking a photo a day in 2009 – Project 365. It’s not so much the number of pictures that’s intimidating (I took over 700 this past December – about 3 were decent), it’s the task of remembering to pick up the camera every day and photograph something of interest. Or something boring – whichever.  I’m not picky when it’s 11:59 PM and the leftovers from dinner are the most exciting thing around.

I’ve done the photo-of-the-day thing before (back in October ‘07), and when I look back at those pictures now, I especially love all the little things I documented – Travis’ “sound survey” from school (where he noted that he heard me talking on the phone every day), the glistening spider web in the school parking lot, and Abby’s face paint from kids-eat-free night.  It was a nice little slice of life. Of course, I would have documented the big events – Elaine’s wedding and Halloween – anyway, but I probably wouldn’t have bothered with all of the random pictures of naps and trips to the park. The spiderweb would have been appreciated in the moment, and forgotten about by the next morning. Now I’m really glad I made that trip back home to pick up the camera.

The nice thing about having kids, especially anal ones like Abby, is that they tend to remind you incessantly about your commitments. She asked every day what I was posting, and there were a few times where we were scrambling right before bed, looking for something to take a picture of. I haven’t told her about this project yet, because I’m hoping that I won’t need to be nagged at least for another week or two.

I definitely won’t be blogging every day, but my plan is to do a “catch-up” post every so often (weekly? maybe more?) and post the daily photos all at once.  They may or may not have captions or explanations or apologies. And sometimes, if I feel like it, I might just post more than one photo a day. Something like this:

Day 1: Jan 1 2009

We spent the last week at Larry’s ranch in the middle of nowhere (about halfway between Del Rio and Rock Springs). There are thousands of acres of hills, rocks, cacti, mountain laurel, deer, and about 12 people. My dad would love it. Actually, we all love it.

Moose is a huge weenie and was less than thrilled with the fireworks (he climbed up into Larry’s lap at one point – the 100 lb. lap Lab), but he relaxed after we gave him some Tuaca.

On New Year’s Day we rode around the ranch, took the kids down into the cave, and extracted what surely must have been the world’s most painful cactus needle from Travis’ big toe. It took pliers to pull the thing out, and I think our ears are still ringing from the screams.

Needless to say, he recovered after a few minutes, and was happily bouncing along in the back of the Ranger.

Day 2: Jan 2, 2009

Our family plays a lot of games – board games, the dorky kind. We try to play something every night, but get sidetracked occasionally by school and sports.  Lately the kids have been more interested in having me read to them (currently, The Mysterious Benedict Society), which is fun too, but I’ve been missing our game nights. We got Settlers of Catan for Christmas (To: Mom  From: Mom), and cracked it open before we left for the ranch. It’s rather complicated to set up and to figure out the rules (Travis was standing on his head and running laps around the dining room at one point while I was reading the directions aloud), but fun to play once you get it all straightened out, since each player is involved for every roll of the dice. We had to stop mid-game when we left, and finished it up Friday night once we got home.

Day 3: Jan 3, 2009

Normally I’d say that it’s a bad idea to play on the trampoline with the sprinkler in early January, but it got the kids out of the house.  Did I mention it was 83 degrees today? Jan. 3. Seriously.

And I had to stop and think about it for a while. They’ve spent tons of time doing “Austiny” things – climbing the 100 steps to Mt. Bonnell, swimming in the frigid water at Hamilton Pool, kayaking on Town Lake, watching the bats fly out from under the Congress Avenue bridge, taking the dogs to swim and fetch tennis balls in Bull Creek, swinging on the spaghetti at the Blanton, and chasing peacocks at Laguna Gloria. They’ve dined at Hula Hut and Las Manitas and El Sol y La Luna and Trudy’s. But really – none of that is “weird.” Uniquely Austin, yes. But not weird.

Weird is Leslie. Weird is that tattooed Lizard Dude. Weird is Eeyore’s Birthday Party. Oddly, the kids haven’t run into Leslie on any of our outings. I think s/he’s more of a night owl. We haven’t seen the Lizard guy either, although we did chat up a guy covered head to toe in tattooed leopard spots at Central Market. The kids were just toddlers though, and lots of awkward staring and questions ensued. And for whatever reason, we keep missing Eeyore’s, although we plan to go every year. For various reasons, they just haven’t been exposed to any major weirdness.

Until this year, and the Maker Faire. If I had to describe the Maker Faire, I would call it a Celebration of All that is Weird in Austin. As we were walking up to get tickets, this car drove by:

The kids were fascinated. And delighted. And then they wanted to know why we were stuck with a crummy Obama magnet, when we had an entire blank slate upon which we could profess our love for the candidate.

Ah, but little did they know what kind of automobiles awaited them inside the gates. There was this van with…ears? And lips? Also – something about Aretha Franklin?

There were other cool cars too. The Astroturfmobile:

The chalk van was a hit.

Moving on, we came to the clear favorite among the art cars – the Singing Bass and Lobster orchestra.

Really, it was no contest. The Big Mouth Billy Bass all flopped around and moved their mouths to whatever tune was playing, and the lobsters waved their claws along with the music. There was one particularly musical lobster in front, and he directed the entire show. This sign really helped set the mood:

They had fun assembling creepy mutant toys, a la Toy Story.

And hula hooping with extra big hula hoops.

I know this is hard to believe, but both children have won the coveted Hula Hoops War in their grade.

We’re very proud.

The Snake Bike was Travis’ favorite. It’s 70 feet long, and is powered by 6 people.

Some of those people don’t have legs that are long enough to reach the pedals, so they just kind of go along for the ride:

This was my favorite bike:

Abby enjoyed a smoothie that she blended up with bicycle power, then we headed inside to talk to the solar car people (Travis had burning questions about what they did on cloudy days) and the dude who was in the process of covering his car with stick-on velcro and yarn. And we saw the Carmadillo in action:

Travis other favorite thing was the Life Size Mouse Trap – yes, like the game. Only with bowling balls and bathtubs and skeletons. This was actually imported weirdness from San Francisco (really, I think Austin could learn a thing or two about weirdness from San Fran).

We also saw glass blowing:

Electrified blobs:

And lots of Legos:

We didn’t see Leslie or either tattoo guy there, but there was this…um…person:

I didn’t see his “Free Hugs” button until I downloaded my pictures. Otherwise, I would have been all over it.

I’m thinking the kids have it all figured out by now.