Who would have thunk it!

Just quickly checking in to list some of the very nice things that have occurred lately (in no particular order):

1) Went to New mex for X-Mas. As always it was awesome. SOOOOOOO nice to see my brothers and the Texas nieces and baby cousins and, yes, even mom and pops. Plus, an added bonus - actually found this book i remember having when i was little about two Burros (that's tiny donkeys for you non-natives) who were separated (sad!() but eventually found each other again and lived happily ever after. My mom had it on my old bookshelf. seriously. not sure why that made me so happy, it just did.

2) While in New Mex. i also got to see some old friends (some in a totally accidental way and some i hunted down - DB, thanks for hanging out. yer kids are among the cutest I've seen and your mom + g-rents are still so sweet!)

3) Then once i got back, my Little Buddy ERG come out for a visit which was LOVELY! Really, so very nice to see/chat/plan forward with. Now all i need is some permanently moving back action from you and we'll be good to go!

4) Additionally to all the very nice getting to see folks, i also got invited to attend a conference/get-together thing that is being held by my new good friend SE and at which i hope to be able to build links to some very powerful people in the line of work i hope one day to move into, which, given that i get to basically live with them for a week, is, IMHO totally doable!

5) Other nice things include, getting to watch my Little Big Girl make some fancy-pants banana nut muffins with my BFF, A-tail (they are now officially cooking buddies. It's actually a little too cute to bear) and getting to have some of them whilst they were still hot! (delicious!)

6) Getting to hang out with my other BFF BBQ as she put some final coats of paint on the walls of their FREAKING NEW HOUSE (eh hem)

7) and just generally being so happy and impressed with my little set of family + friends. Sometimes it takes some traveling to realize how good one actually has it, but i do have to say, i'm finding us all quite great right this second!

it's not creepy if it's cute!

K. so i'm reviewing my list of "bands i love" and i'm coming to find that on average the boys tend to have been "born in 1983" which makes me older than god + some kind of cougar = still really, really into them... {sigh}.




and these guys too...

beyond that, not much going on. or rather SO much going on that i haven't found time to capsulize it into a cohesive post so i just carry on hoping that oat some point it will all slow down so i can Reflect or whatever but no... no reflecting. no slowing . just steady march toward ... {sigh}old, I guess.

Little Big Girl's 9th b-day is coming up fast. We're doing all sorts of building/painting etc. on her behalf so that's fun. i'll post pics once things are pulled together in her new "big girl room' -- big Big girl is so grown up and polished and cool and everything it makes me simultaneously proud and sort of in awe. I mean, she's already doing everything so much better than i did/do that i just don't know where she'll end up. I do know that it'll be amazing, though, that's fer sure. It's all kidn of like a really great movie that you're not sure where it's going to go but you don't' want it to stop either...


In other news/on the home front, married life is going well.I love my wife so much right now. it's actually slightly disconcerting. :-}

blah. anyways... i'm taking an opportunity to post here because i just got finished with some work stuff and don't need to be anywhere else yet but I think i'm going to head out so... love ya'all! oxoxoxox. I'll try to write more later. We'll see how it goes.

Status update

sad, because my Big Teen-age Girl is in Portland right now and I miss her.
happy, because me and the wife are getting along/had a nice night last night filled with friends and children and spaghettit/pizza.
relived, that this proposal i promised to do finally done/sent off.

all-in-all... things seem to be good. Still a little sad though.

Happy Birthday, baby!

Happy b-day to the Wife! happy being 41...er...ah.. i mean 25!!!!

bullits, please

the life is waaay crazy busy right now so i'm only going to note the highlights as bullited items

• I'm sick. nothing new but it's why i have time to sit in one place and write right now
• Thanksgiving was delightful. The A-Beane totally saved the day by going to pick up our turkey for us whilst i sat in unbelievable amounts of traffic. Then we had the co-rents over and had waaaay too much to eat and sat around and it was great.
• CP and the Other Pretty Co-Rent are preggos!! Yay! Couldn't happen to a nicer set of folks. Spark is beside herself excited. The Boo is pretty anticipatory as well. (Just between you and i, i happen to know for a fact that they're having a girl because i had a dream and my dreams are NEVER wrong. Except the ones where i'm flying and that just may be something that just hasn't happened yet....!) 
• Went to and came back from Israel. Amazing. I loved it. The trip was exhausting but so very lovely and inspirational and mind-expanding, blah, blah, blah but really -- soooooo glad i got to go and so glad i went.
• X-mas = also lovely. Felt a bit rushed due to the fact that I got back second before the actual day but the tree The Spark picked out was grand and i do love breaking out the x-mas decorations!
• Got the best boots for my B-Day from the Angel and the D-Boy in the Tex of As. They. are. beautiful.
• Heard from DB that they may be close to re-locating the babies and the grandparents back to Japan soonish. (Everyone is in NM right now homesteading whilst DB and the Little Lady work on making Tokoyo a more conducive place to grow up in/not die of radiation poisoning. Fingers crossed for them. i imagine it's hard to be apart for so long.
• The Teenager is going to her first High School Dance social thing and she has a FANTASTIC dress! Really quite spectacular that she selected herself and was sashaying around in just a little bit ago.
• I had a really serendipitous opportunity present itself over the last few days about which i am wildly excited but am not going to say much so as not to go jinxing anything (!!) {squeal}
• Dogs escaped from the backyard and somehow made it all the way to the tiny island-city next to ours before being brought to justice. Thinking of changing their names to Bonnie and Clyde.
• Adam Ant, who i was going to see in just a few weeks has re-scheduled his show for October making me sad but strangely o.k. with it.
• Pretty Boy is engaged to be married to his very lovely lady-friend, which is awesome
• My OTHER long-lost roomie buddy, R-Pick just recently wed his long-time GF as well -- also spectacularly awesome (although he announced it by changing his status on Facebook which does give me a rather slight pause/shiver vis a vis the world today but whatev...)
• Family is doing well in gen. Everyone is healthy and growing. (Basically i plan on being the shortest member of our little group by the year 2014)
• My and the Wife seem to be getting along. Not a bunch of time to actually see each other but when we do find it, it tends to be sweet. :-)
• Work, kind of a lot but predictably so. {sigh} Hopefully we'll get things a little more sorted out over there so everything doesn't have to be so silly all the time but regardless, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my new team. they = awesome.

K. that's it for now. i'm feeling the strain of being upright/need to be in a more fit shape later today to go pick up some childrens so.... Ta til later.

two weeks and counting

You know what's cute?? A crate full of pit bull puppies that's what!

Me and the Little Big Girl just got back from taking the kitten (and friend) to the vet clinic over on Broadway (which I LOVE, BTW) and in addiction to all the randomly just sort of generically cute dogs/cats that were there, some man rolled in with a crate full of Pit puppies - about nine of them, all about 4-6 weeks old! Seriously, there ought to be a law.

{sigh} So, we're getting closer and closer to that magical Nov. 29 trip to the land of the Israel and i'm getting a little panicky about having everything as sorted out as possible. I mean I know everything will be fine, but i'm also kind of a mess right now (inside, where you can't see it as opposed to my usual external squalor which i totally own/think is kind of cute!) ...

also just realized that i've not really sat down to document the life in a REALLY long time so feeling a little lacking on that front as well. Not lacking in the sense that i plan to do anything about it, just like maybe i should. :-)

broke my toof!

Doh! i cracked my tooth last night (chewing gum. that's right. gum. i am officially a mess.) and now it's all jagged and annoying and my dentist can't fit me in until monday. Probably need a root-canal crown. Blah.

Plus, i'm already all stressed out about money (or lack thereof). Double blah!  

the good the bad and the just plain sucky

This week-end was intense. All our bikes were stolen. This is less about me because i am a slug from way back but the Wife and the Big Big Girl and to some significant extent, the Little Big Girl LOVE their bikes. And they had really nice bikes. Sad. We do have renter's insurance and the Wife is busily looking into getting things documented and sorted through and eventually, i feel like we'll get replacement bikes but still...A weirdly annoying counterpoint to an otherwise normal Friday.

We also got a kitten. A little orange stripey one. it came from a semi-feral mom who produces litters every couple of months and this time she popped out a few orange ones which is like CRACK to my Wife so... The Boo and her buddy went and rounded one up and here we are! Cute coming out of our ears!

Then, I got to go on this nifty "three-hour cruise" thing with my buddy IHOEL which was fabulous. Really, the cruise itself was a vendor relation thing but the vendors happen to be adorable/super nice, the food was tasty (the big sized food at least. I wouldn't go near the tiny stuff with a ten-foot-pole but my erstwhile partner in crime assured me it was by and large "fine"), the view was insane/amazing and i met some other folks who were "in IT" but who also managed to not have soul-sucking careers so.... all very refreshing.

Also spent the week-end driving the Little Big Girl around to various parties which was good practice for me as it is what i will no doubt be doing all day every week-end from the point at which she turns 12 to the point at which she gets her license.

All in all, a busy, action-packed, kind of chaotic week-end. some good, some bad, not so much sucky really just lots of "lots"!!

Art and Soul

You know what i love? I love brown people. Seriously, this may be one of those "I can say it because i am it" but really, a BIG part of why I am so stupid in love with Oakland is, in large part due to the fact that it does things like host Art and Soul where large groups of fabulous folks sportin' myriad shades of brown skin, show up to just hang the heck out. I mean, there's singers, artists, community organizations, families, teens, hawkers, assorted 20-30 somethings with their screechey observations -- it's just loud and fantastic and cute as hell. Plus the ladies are BEAUTIFUL. All "done" hair and berry-red lipstick; pretty clothes, and sunglasses and smiles.... Man. Fun too. we went on rides (and by we i mean the Little Big Girl and her friend), had some garlic fires, watched some amazing dancing (Dance-A-Vision - i'm writing that in here because it's an awesome all-ages-dance company and i'm sure my Little Big Girl will someday own it!); ran into old friends (what up, AEG and O-GVers!) made some new ones - LaLaGirl, you know we're meant to be BFFs! cawl me! The weather was great as well. {sigh} Why can't every street party be like this?

Holy be-jezus!

Whew. K. so just back from a fantastic Hollywood vacay (Universal Studios, Madame Tussaud Wax Museum, Book Soup book store, World's Biggest reptile Show, oh my! Stay tuned for pics!); the Big Big Girl has started high school (eek!); the Little Big Girl had her Musical theater camp show (Honk, Jr.) (awesome-pants); we got to visit the Mistah L-L's (to help celebrate the King's 2nd birthday and finally get to meet his Little Princess month-old sister "Pea"!) and most recently, we just attended a super lovely last-bash-before-the-big-shoulder-surgery dinner party at the BBQ's where i, once again, was reminded why i love hanging out with my best-est and closest buddies soooooo much.

It's crazy that the life is so crazy but it's going so well i think it's probably worth the exhaustion!

SummerBridge, we hardly knew ye

And so it goes... tonight's Celebration marks the last performance/day of the kick-a** program that kept my big Girl off the mean streets lo these last three years and (arguably) eased her way into the high school era that will begin in a mere three weeks. I'm so proud of you, Miss Boo. You're such a trooper -- giving up all those lazy days for weeks of homework, fieldtrips, forced comradery and early rising! You were a star in that star of a program and while i'm glad you're (finally) finished i'm also a little sad to see yet another significant milestone in your lifetime of achievements go flying by. {sniff - pass the tissues please}

Good stuff has happened

and annoying stuff as well.

First, the good:

1) I'm going to Israel! Thaz right, Baby! The "largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth", birthplace of the guy who could very well have been the "last" Son of G*d to circulate freely 'monst da peeps (shhhhh! Don't tell the Mormons!); a nation-state which purportedly scoffs at idea of signing a nuclear non-proliferation treaty and yet was "the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as 'conflict free.'"

This is the highly debated; mostly unknown; I'm sure largely misunderstood place to which i am receiving an expense paid trip to visit through a grant/scholarship program thing set up at my work and I just have to say (again) that I count myself among THE luckiest people on the planet! Plus, and perhaps more importantly, by going to this beautiful/political hotbed of a land, I may actually, finally find out why "Kiss Legend, Gene Simmons" somehow figured into the results for every search i've done so far on the place!

2) Having the girls around at camp and coming over after the SB program ends all summer has been beyond cool and probably the biggest thing i will miss once school starts again in mid-August.

3) We're going horse back riding! Me and the Big girl. For a half day, right before school starts. Just the two of us because unfortunately the place doesn't accept younger riders (actually, they didn't accept my Big girl age riders but i called and begged/lied just a tiny bit to get her in!) but i think it will be fabulously fun.

4) I'm really liking our Flea Market Crew Faux-B-Q's (I tried that made up term on the Wife earlier today and she was unimpressed but i think i'm still gonna "use it til i break it!" or whatever that phrase is...!) I think the peeps on my FMC were all really quality people and i'm delighted we seem to be able to have figured out the "staying in touch when we don't have to" part of friend making. This week-end is our turn to host! Whoo hoo! I know, not sure why i'm so excited about that other than it sort of means the Wife has to come but still... i think it'll be fun.

5) we're going on vacation soon. A real actual vacation with the fam to HOLLYWOOD! yay! seriously. i am packing sunscreen, my shades and a bikini. (Ha! that was kind of fun to write seeing as i am currently not even remotely involved with ANY of the aforementioned [see item 4 below].)

6)My A-Tail got herself a delightful job at a fantastic place and i'm sooooo happy for her! Yay!

7) Dirty Boy is back in the states for the time being (and yes i realize this could rightfully go on either list but i'll put it here because i'm so proud of him for being a stand up kind of guy who takes care of his babies/his s***!) which means there is some likelihood of me meeting the children instead of just being treated to pictures of them that are at best five to seven years shy of "current".

8) My girls are awesome. they just are. the Big Girl is so insightful and funny and gracious and BEAUTIFUL and the Little One is suddenly moving into this very lovely mix of silly and sweet and super aware/explanatory (while still retaining the very real ability to make me crazy at a moment's notice!) -- I'm just beyond amazed that i get to see them and interact with them and claim them (on any level). I do not know what i did to deserve such fantastic-ness but i am in awe of their person-hood every single day at least once if not multiple times throughout!

...

And then there's the Bad

1) it's 81 degrees in my house right now. It's hot and not in a good way. sucks.

2) Cloudy the Rat passed away.

she put up a good fight but didn't quite manage to win her last bout. We still have the Daisy but Cloudy was a special little gal who will be muchly missed.

3) Work is hard. Seriously, it just kind of sucks right now. I think/am sure it'll get better soon but Holy-Jesus-to-the-Cristo, i don't care what anyone says, doing your job(ish) plus two halves of two other people's if freaking ridiculous!

4) I'm getting kind of pudgy. There. I said it. at the ripe old age of 43 i am admitting to being in a shape i am not particularly happy with. And we're not just talking "I wish i could run/walk up those stairs without having to stop for a lengthy rest every five steps or so" I really am at a point where i (I) am looking in a mirror or at a scale at the doctor's office where i have to go because i SPRAINED THE TOP OF MY FOOT doing....?! Yes, exactly! Doing NOTHING! and i think "whoa! really??? O.k. no more jelly toast/red wine for me!" [she says as she has another sip of the shiraz by the keyboard]. And it's not just that i'm thinking i'm a bit bloated or that I'm "letting myself go" due to my happily married state... it's more that the body has changed significantly while i was busy focusing on other stuff. I wasn't paying attention and now i'm all puffy. granted I may get fine with being puffy but for right now it's disconcerting having my "go-to" pants fitting all weird.

5) I'm tired. I feel like i always say this but it's always true. I need to get more sleep. i'm tired and i think that makes me grouchy/unpleasant. i know it makes me more yell-ey [she says, staying up late to continue typing]......

{sigh}

actually, i think that's it. I just wanted to try to capture some of what's been going on so it's not completely lost to The Record. Sort of sorry now that i started with good and ended on bad. Really it's a mix and things, in sum, are fine. really. S'all good. I'm happy. tired but happy. really, really happy. :-)

Today is the day my beautiful niece turns 21!!!

Such an awesome lady! So glad she arrived in our lives all those years ago, bringing beauty and sunshine and sweetness and continues to be such a freaking fantastic representative of all that is cool about the Magnet clan!

In other news two quotes from this morning bear recording

1) "It's a body splash, Mommy!" [uttered in a "sheesh! how are you gonna not know that??!" kind of a teen-agey tone]

and

2) ... [doh! i've totally forgotten the other one. I'll check with the kid in question and update his post at a later date. Sorry... back to your regularly scheduled programming....]

Happy (late) B-day BBQ!

Such a lovely gathering! such a lovely time! Congrats on reaching such a lovely landmark year!

In other news, Fireworks was grand! We went with IHOEL and the twins to the Emeryville Marina to watch the fantastic-ness and ended up getting to see like five different shows! Seriously. it was awesome.

We have the Big Girl here with us all week which is lovely. I wish I was less STRESSED OUT though. There's alot going on at work right now. Good -- fer sure for IHOEl, potentially for me -- stuff but seriously, so, so much that needs tending. {sigh} S'all good though. IHOEL is figuring stuff out and (IMHO) he tends to make pretty solid decisions so really for me it's just sitting tight as it were until things get sifted through.

k. back to work with me. Supper will not make itself. Nor will pages test their own code. Although, now that i'm thinking about it... why don't our pages test themselves??? Now that i know the guy in charge of these things, I'm going to see if we can find someone to look into that! :-}

Seriously!

exhausted does not EVEN begin to cover it! Still though, happy and exited that both girl children have now successfully completed their respective school years and have advanced into SUMMER!
Also happy that Big big Girl has new neighborhood friend to squirrel around with and that this last week at work did not kill me! yay, life! yay that my wife who was injured last week is well on the way to rcovery and is once agian walking dogs! yay promise of waffles at the K-D house tomorrow! Especially yay to see the Little Big Girl dance on Sunday! Whew. see, all that enthusiasm and now i'm even more tired. :-}

Ju-Jitsu!

Oh! I totally forgot to mention, the little Big Girl is all into Ju-Jitsu which, not only is she fantastic at, is a-DOR-rable to watch! Just sayin. :-)

Boo still gone. Me still sad.

Seriously. there's something wrong with me that i'm so mopey when really it's only been like thirteen seconds! I don't know how the wife deals with me sometimes...

k. me bucking up = now!

In other news, the rat known as Cloudy has a little respiratory infection. the doc says it's normal and that she should be fine but she has to take this nasty purple antibiotic stuff for two weeks. Those of you out there who have never been in a position to have to administer yucky purple stuff via syringe dropper twice a day for two weeks to a tiny, sick rat have NO idea what you're missing. REALLY.

Let's see.... what else.

The Big Big Girl graduated from the eight grade (fun! there were speeches, a dance and a special "parents only" event at which i finally met a whole bunch of the people who are responsible for my Daughter's friends and who I will probably never see again. FUN!)

Pretty much the *second* Boo graduation ended we shipped her off to L.A. to hang out with those crazy Gals about Town the Wedding Planner and Star (who, can i just say, is HUGE -- tall, gorgeous, still fantastic of course but still, can someone please stop these babies from growing up so d*** fast??!) for a week. She seems to be having fun. I am a wreck. Is this how parenthood is supposed to be???

Real quick-like!

Who got married??? My BBQ and her Lovely Former Gal-Pal-Around-Town Mizz Jill from the Block, that's who!

Now to answer all your questions:

1) Was it fantastic? Yes!!
2) Did you cry?? Yes!!!!
3) Did your feet hurt from all the standing, dancing, hiking (don't even ask) you were happy to be doing in those really hot, awesome-pants, PRADA sandals you got for like fifty cents at some consignment store? Yes, but who cares??! It was worth every "lost" toenail!
4) Was your hair really long/colorful? Why yes! yes it was!

Here are three pictures. One taken by my Wife, one by my Boo/Big Big Girl and one by my Little Big Girl. See if you can guess who took which (these are not from the wedding BTW, those will no doubt show up later):

And here's one more of me and the Little Big Girl just for giggles!

Seriously. It was all just so lovely and meaningful and cool (and Jewish! Who knew!!) My heart, she sings with happiness for those two. Really. couldn't have happened to two more deserving of and for each other people. Mazel Tov!

Happy Mom's Day!

O.k. so really this post is not about mom's day at all -- it's more about how i feel like i've been run over by a slow-moving truck but as it occurs on mother's day i felt it only right to acknowledge that fact before moving on. eh hem. now then.

Last week-end was the Little Big Girl's Birthday extravaganza. It was awesome. there was a jump house involved and some cake (although i let it get all melty and was duly chastised by The Wife who - to be fair - was only passing along info received from a parent-in-residence so really it was more of casual observation that i gave undue weight to/let hurt my feelings, but still....) Fantastic to see my peeps. lovely that i got to paint some faces. Also lovely that i got to catch up on the ML-L news (new digs, new baby due date - well *same* baby due date but news to me! - everyone doing well.) Still struggling with how *old* my children are but at some point, i feel i will come to terms with it and stop being amazed all the time.

The day prior to the B-day party was all about the Big Big Girl playing drums in Windsor with her band at their Cinco de Mayo festival. Again, the awesomeness was awe inspiring. I love love love watching that kid play. i love her band as well. There were some truly talented individuals up there (although there was one weird lady dancing like a maniac THE ENTIRE TIME in like 100 degree heat!)

The week-end before that was the Little Big Girl's debut prayer dance at the church she goes to (more on how an 8 year old gets to independently be a member of a church when her parents are essentially non-affiliated by choice and in some case sheer laziness at some later date when i'm less tired/more inclined.) which was awesome! seriously. i teared up. my cheeks hurt with all the smiling. really very fantastic.

This week-end (yesterday) was the Big Flea Market fundraiser for the Little Big Girl's school and while i was amazed that it went so well (enough vendors to make it "interesting" a line-up of really amazing DJs, live bands and Mexican dancers, great food, no rain) I have to say I was a bit disappointed by the turnout. We did end up raising close to the amount we'd set as our goal but still... I feel like we should have been able to get at least three times the amount of people to attend. Ah, well... Live and learn. [Quick shout out though to The Wife for helping tiny people paint mother's day cards all day and to my Buddy AEG for not only showing up in a "vendor" capacity but for also totally chipping in with helping with the other booths and just generally providing a sunny, useful presence through-out!]

Finally, this coming week-end which is the BBQ's wedding week-end and which will be soooo fantastic I will not be able to stand it!

After that - downtime. Hopefully. Please god.

This month is all about the Little Big girl's birthday

plus a bunch of other stuff! Excited that aforementioned LBG is taking Ju Jitsu (and is loving throwing her *Other* Mom around quite a bit! Also, lovely that the birthday theme has been sorted out (Monsters!) and that arrangements for the blow-out that will be the party of the year (well one of them anyways) is shaping up planning-wise (bouncy house! glow-in-the-dark-fangs! monster cakes! Anyone????!)Seriously. big fun is guaranteed to be had by all.

In other news, we are also deep into the planning/production of the first (hopefully) bi/tri-annual Fund Raising flea market for the LBG's school. I'm excited because i think it's going to be huge amounts of fun but also a little skeered because our committee seems to be shrinking a little more every week. no worries though! We have sooooo got this! May 7. 9-4. Manzanita SEED in Oak-town. Mark your calendars!

lastly, just wanted to remark on a fantastic movie i saw the other day called Soundtrack for a Revolution which showcased the freedom riders viewed through a lens of the music they took with them and drew strength from. It. was. awesome. Very well done and interesting. Good to remember how it is that i personally came to exist/be so blessed.