Also exciting

that i got to see the whole DB fam yesterday for a little bit as they made their way in from the japan! babies = ADORABLE. Grandparents also pretty cute. Sorry about the issues with everything, again anything i can do to assist, just let me know. :-)

It's just a collection of metal parts, right??

Seriously. Who mourns a truck's death? i do.

The truck has officially moved on. yes, technically it "moved on" well over a year ago but because i am proving to be frighteningly true to my New Mexico upbringing, i am all about leaving ones broke-down truck "up on blocks in the front yard" until such a time as I "get around to fixing it!"

Well, another truck came. Old truck never actually got fixed. Sort of became storage moving toward liability then thinking about high school for the big girl and massive house cleaning/re-arranging and "bulky stuff" set out on the curb for pick up and me thinking "it's time!" Time to donate the old truck. time to move on. time to embrace the extra space and let our two car driveway actually accommodate our two (working) cars for once. Very nice man came right on time. Sign here and here and here. I'll just attach these pully things here and here and viola! You're done. Thank you for your time/donation. Have a nice day. It looked sad. I'm sad too. Couple of things occurred to me in that moment, looking at the truck all propped up and about to be towed for the last time:

1) I love/d that truck
2) I had that truck longer than I've had almost anything else (kids, relationships, various homes, friendships -- the one caveat here being the Big Girl who beat the truck by just a few months)
3) Symbolically, that truck did a whole hell of a lot of heavy lifting (first major purchase after supposed partner for life broke up with me, nice/obvious indicator of Alt Girl identity, big and powerful and able to be lived in if necessary making actual allegiance to any one home pretty much unnecessary, cool reference item at parties, RED with a padded plush bed -- nuff said)
4) Almost all my really great pictures/memories involve the truck (even if they're defined by the lack of it for some reason.)
5) More than anyplace i've lived (remember we moved ALOT when i was a kid) the truck defined my (MY) space. Like a turtle. No matter where we were if we were in the truck we were home.

{blah} k. so.... now i feel like i'm getting (getting??!) maudlin. It's just a piece of machinery right?

I'll stop. Entered into the record though, the bumper stickers:

"We have enough youth -- How about looking for a fountain of smart?"
"I'm more invested in the fate of communities than I am in the catharsis of individuals"

YAY!

We just heard yesterday that the Boo is going to the High school she/we wanted (her) to go to! Whoo Hoo! Such a relief to have that sorted out. Also sort of pleasing/gratifying to find that she was accepted to some of her "Plan B" schools as well (Which given that these school were by and large other people's "Plan A" makes for a significant statement vis a vis her hard work applying/shadowing/interviewing/testing lo these last several months!)

yay again. so happy. so relived.

In other news, it would appear that the DB Fam is coming back to the States. Very lucky/fortunate for them/lovely for me that they were only minimally affected by the disaster/have the visa's citizenship/wherewithall to be able to decamp ahead of what is sure to be even harder times in that afflicted country but sad (super sad) that Mrs. K will be separated from her peeps (even if it's not for long.) Glad to have you all back, sorry for the circumstances. Let me know if i can do anything to make the US stay better/more fun!

So much to tell, so little ability to prioritize!

So, here's the thing with the blogging. If you're living a life like mine which is vast and rich and filled with fantastical heights of fun and excitement pretty much every waking moment, if you stop posting for even a second, you will soon find that so many wonderful things have occurred that it's practically impossible to give them their due mostly because they each deserve their own "accolade set" as it were. BUT, the flip side of that then you don't post and more great things happen and the original things never get documented so fifty years from now it becomes impossible to remember exactly who made the boots that Prince was wearing at the concert you went to with your lovely wife to celebrate her 40ieth (!!) birthday (Chanel, FYI). You also might not remember how delightfully poignant it was to see the very tiny, tininess of your buddy M.'s brand new Baby Boy as he sat blinking up at your 13 year old daughter as she held him on her (13) year old lap and instantly fell if not in love then at least in some very serious like. You might remember that you at some point did receive pics from the DB re: the newest Tex-Mex-Japanese-Mix baby girl to arrive in japan as well as LONG-overdue images from the alleged wedding but because you never posted them, they are now lost in the wilds of what used to be a sort of manageable wasteland of past e-mails.

(Yay!)

You might also, eventually, fail to properly recall the giggle inducing visits to the SPERM bank with your trying-to-build-a-family buddy and/or the shock/awe of coming across an online purveyor that featured "specials" on vials as well as urged you to "follow them on Twitter!" (???!)

Or what about documenting the AMAZING clock your BBQ gave you for your own birthday, there's the highly successful "making of the space" that occurred (and continues to occur) at the Orange House in the town of Oak. There's the new dog walkers, the finishing of the high school applications, the impromptu discussions re: SEX and "how you can get babies when you're 16!" with the 7.5 year old (she brought it up, not me!) and, of course the BRILLIANT cake boss parody assembled by the Big big Girl for her Sita's birthday....

[Case in point. We spent a wonderful 5 days in New Mexico with my adorable family at Christmas time and I have not posted peep #1 about the life-enriching fabulocity of that experience!!]

{sigh} It's funny because i thought I stopped writing because i had nothing left to say, but now, I'm actually realizing, I'm just incredibly lazy!

Yes!

happy Birthday little Akiko Mei! Welcome to the world and welcome to my birthday! (Thas right, baby, yet another fantastic girl child born on the 23rd! Whoo hoo! Congrats, DB -- yer a star (even though I know you didn't actually DO anything....!)

k. so, back to the primary reason for this particular post which is to say happy B-day to my favorite book-mark buddies the fantastic Mizz Tail and the always effervescent Mz. ERG (22nd and 24th respectively) as well as to give myself the proverbial pat on the back for having the foresight to surround myself with the kinds of friends/kids/marital companions that make birthdays GREAT! Seriously. 43 never felt so good! I'm going to upload the comic as soon as i get it scanned in just so everyone is specifically aware of how very extraordinarily lucky i am!

Lots to say, not enough time to really go into it all

1) went with the Big Big Girl on her 8th grade overnight trip to Yosemite. it was awesome. there was tons of snow. the kids were great. i don't think I embarrassed anyone too much. I got to think alot about a bunch of stuff and so. although the typical wake time was 6:freaking 45am in the G-durn morning, it still worked out o.k.

2) Went to my Little Big Girl's 2nd grade conference thingie to chat with her teachers about how awesome she is. It was adorable. She sat across from us next to her main teacher all businesslike, reading us a few selections from her "portfolio of work." {seriously dying!}

3) got a tree. Yay! I love, love, love X-mas and even though we're technically going to be in New Mex for the holiday proper, i still can't imagine late Dec./early Jan. without a tree twinkling in the "foyer"!

5) got tons of pretty material for the X-mas presents the Big Big Girl is going to make. The girl who helped us with all the cutting was name Jessica and was flippin' a-dorable. I totally imagine her as the kind of Gal my Boo is going to be buddies with in college. So cute!


6)freaking exhausted. me=tired. still tired. always tired. pretty happy in general, work is good, life is good, kids are good. just sooooooooooo tired.

k. actually, that's it for right this second. i'll try to find time for more in depth analysis once my head stops hurting. :-)

Happy t-Days!

We launched a new tradition this year which I think i like a lot! On Thursday we had the regular, delightful, hosted by the Wife's Fam traditional Turkey Day dinner (which was lovely), but then on Friday we had another Thanksgiving Dinner with all the favorites including scalloped potatoes, really amazing rolls, ham, brownies, stuffing we cribbed from the day before, yet ANOTHER turkey (which i learned to carve by watching the The Wife's sister, Maestro T. on Thursday -- i'm telling you, Friday so directly and totally benefited from Thursday!) AND still more tiny pies!!! {sigh} I could get used to this. really....

Where to begin

O.K. so i figured out that i'm employing two altogether different styles of parenting with my children:

1) Delivering instruction with a reasonable expectation that it will be considered if not actually heeded

and

2) Doing everything in my power to reduce collateral damage

Seriously, what does one do when one has a child who really has no interest whatsoever in doing something (anything) because you (the parent) "said so." Not just "no interest", but no idea as to why anything coming from my mouth/brain might be a good thing to try. Today instead of getting the typical stubborn face reaction to one of my parental urgings, i actually got a perplexed expression -- and this re:tooth brushing; something that happens every morning not some random wacky idea i had about maybe wearing our clothes backwards or something insane/that might merit further explanation.

Anyways.... that being said, things are going well i spose. I'm sick or tired or both so everything is very "grey" right now. [The Big Big Girl doesn't like that the color grey gets such a seemingly bad rap but i feel like i'm using it appropriately -- e.g. lack of brightness, quiet, neutral, drab-- so i'm standing by my assessment!]

Luckily we have some lovely things coming up so i think this little slump will be over soon and we will be back to our "normal" enthusiastic self. Hope so anyway. being "low" is annoying. :-)

In other news: got to go to the Little Big Girl's School Expo this afternoon which was awesome. The Big Big Girl came with and it was quickly made CRYSTAL clear who the most beloved person in our little family happens to be. Seriously, I think if LBG's other mom and i hadn't been co-opted by another parentless child for "expository" purposes we really might have had to wander sadly 'monst the fantastic exhibits completely unattended and sadly alone for the duration of the event! Sad, yes, but probably something we need to just get used to.

Shadow visits!

So, this is new too me but apparently kids today go on these things called "shadow visits." apparently the "shadow visit" is paid to a school at which said student would like to attend and is meant "to give the prospective student" a "glimpse" of what their academic and social life would be like should they attend said school. (!!) Seriously. one the one hand i think it's a grand idea on the other.... PRESSURE!!!

Anyhoo, today was the Big Girl's first shadow visit (coincidentally to the school she REALLY wants to go to) and it went "fine." meaning she survived it. I, on the other hand, [heh.] emerged from the entire ordeal with a bruised/squashed ring finger. Noone's fault but my own. Apparently i need to work on getting in and out of my truck without getting damaged. It's a process....

RE: SV -- I think she had fun. At any rate I'm glad it wasn't traumatic. (mainly because she has four more of these things to go. it would really suck if the first one was horrible!)

in other news, the BBQ was sweet enough to host me and mine for some fantabulous spaghetti sup-sup last night. Ostensibly, she was showing me how to make sp. sauce on my own but fortunately it devolved into one of those splendid situations which I love so much wherein i get quite a bit of credit for really doing very little work. A win-win-win as far as i'm concerned!

{sigh} o.k. my finger is starting to hurt a little so i'm going to go. Have say the current outlook is good. A solid B+! :-)

My Wife is insane!

Insane about the GIANTS, that is! Heh. sorry. i just think it's cute is all. Go giants. :-)

take your daughter to work day!

You know what i love?? having my kids at work, that's what! Really. Yesterday was Columbus Day meaning (weirdly) school for one of them but not the other so I got to see my Big Big girl basically all day which was AWESOME.

Having said that, however, i do have to also say this last several round of days/weeks is kind of kicking my bottom. I mean, who knew that getting a single child into the San Francisco High School System was so ... much ... work??? now don't get me wrong, i acknowledge that nothing good is just handed to one (although that hasn't exactly born up in my own life but i'm sure there are less freakishly lucky schmoes out there who have to work for the good stuff they get!) but really.... the planning and the schmoozing and the open-housing and the committee meetings and the "shadow visit" setting up and the "discussing" and strategizing with the co-parental peeps and the filling in of spreadsheets and the constant "on-ness" of it all...... {sigh} i do have to say, I'm sort of looking forward to Feb when it's all all be over but the shouting, as it were.

Aside from rampant busy-ness though, the week-end was quite nice. I totally blew my SB Volunteer Committee Chair person duties vis a vis the annual picnic (got lost going there for set-up, forgot a bunch of stuff I was supposed to bring, didn't pick up either of my kids on time or as planned and ended up missing all but the last 15-20 minutes of the actual event) BUT we did have a nice row about on Stowe lake and some quality playtime in golden gate park following the event so that was lovely.

Also not sure i mentioned this or not (heaven forbid i just look at the past postings on this thing) but we were in South lake tahoe last week-end for the Big girl's b-day which was also quite lovely. I dunno. i think sum total = life is good but individually, i do have to say i'm finding the days a little harder to slog along right now. Maybe i will begin scheduling time for actual sleep. that might fix everything :-)

Just checking in

We're off to Lake Tahoe to celebrate the Big big girl's entry in to teen-ager-hood (eek!) in about THREE seconds but i wanted to mention the very nice dinner me and The Wife indulged in to celebrate our anniversary at a fantastic little place recommended by the BBQ called Marica in Oakland (on college). It was AWESOME. The food was great (which coming from me is saying something!), the service was great, the local was great. Just plain great all round. Plus my girl was cute which was also pretty cool. :-)

Happy birthdays all round!

Seriously. First there's the b-day of the fantastic Wife's little niece, h. celebrated on Sundee, little Big Girl's Best buddy's baby brother K having his birthday today, Little Big Girl's Best Buddy, herself, having hers next week. then we have Our own Big Big Girl turning the big 1- freaking-3 on Sat. (!!) and My own Baby brother turning the big eh, HEM on Tuesday! Slide yet another super important big b-day for our very own moms to the Baby Bee-clan into the slot on the 1st and you've got (i think) the short list of all the fabulousness that saw fit to bless this short two week period with their arrivals! Happy B-days everyone! Mwah, mwah! My heart she ess delighted I have gotten to know you all!!!!!!

my current writerly obsession...

is with this man

"As for me, I'm valiantly studying French, go to work each morning, come home insane in the evening, expect letters, don't write any myself but still expect, every evening, at the very least three letters. They should be lying there when I open the door, white, dazzlingly white, with the dear stamps upon them, the sweet postmarks and all the rest. And when there aren't any, I get perfectly stupid and can't work, and then I say to myself quite sensibly: you never write any letters, but you expect them! You blockhead!

It isn't precisely that I expect letters, but now I'm always expecting something as dear, as tender as a letter. Every evening there ought to be some uplifting little surprise for me, just like a letter.

But one can live quite well without excitements, can't one, only one ought to be endowed with a bit less poesie and the like, should one not, should one not? What a babbler I am, am I not, am I not?"

I heart him. Plus, there's a new book of his "scribblings" which are extremely tiny:

"his works we have, are written on the backs of tear-away calendar pages or on the detached covers of penny dreadfuls and that the writing is in a script so tiny as to be nearly illegible."

besides which, i think it is rare/odd to be introduced [fictively] to a writer who so completely wanted to go unnoticed yet at the same time was so clear he would like his word-collections to be properly appreciated

"You must without fail be satisfied with me, do you hear? Without fail. And then that little mat. This reality. This treasure trove of in-fact-having-occurred-nesses. This car drove off, and he and she were sitting in the back. How do you like my "trove" and "drove"? Make a note of these words! They're not my invention. How could such delicate expressions have originated with me? I just snapped them up and am now putting them to good use. Don't you think my "trove" is ben trovato? Please do be so good as to think so. Accept my heartfelt greetings and do not forget the pride of that silly little dog. He was adorable."












Adorable.

My nose feels weird.

No, really. I have a cold/flu/some random disease and it involves me wiping my nose and it feels weird. I mean, how often do most people get a chance to feel their own nose. Like REALLY feel it. My nose feels like a small plum. only squishier. O.K. so maybe it's just me but seriously. I think it's a funny little shape.

eh hem... sorry. moving on.

in other news, me and the Missues are going to an actual grown-up cocktail party event on Saturday night which makes me pretty happy/excited/etc. Major big kudo-prop thanks to IHOEL for providing kid-coverage for half of our rapidly expanding brood! I owe you, Man! no, really!! ;-)

Feeling all happy and effective right now

I'm not at work (Happy Jewish New year, everyone!) which i think probably explains this particular sensation but i just finished sorting out this whole huge "phone call/contact chain" thing (I think) that i signed up for in a moment of intense enthusiasm combined with some pressure from a certain about-to-be-eighth grader last summer to support my kid's summer school program. Seriously. the fact that math was involved, i think explains quite a bit but, only two erroneous e-mails to my list of call volunteers, one completely wrong spreadsheet of student contact information and a phone call to the program coordinator later and i think i finally figured it out! Yay me!

in other news, week-end was grand. the girls made a batch of Dee-licious lemonade from the lemons on the tree outside -- which i've heard made the tree in question a lot less "stressed" so that's good. Noone wants stressed out lemon trees!

we also got our first batch of paperdoll cutouts back from the printer/cutter people and they are A-Dor-able!! Really, seriously. Amazing. Really, I'm so excited about this project, it's a little crazy.

Other recent developments: a number of school check-in affairs wherein I became intensely nervous as to the sheer amount of dates that are extraordinarily important and that I and my children need to participate in if they have any hope whatsoever of being successful in their future schooling endeavors and which I have no idea how i will accommodate... I mean, of course, they will be accommodated, it's just a lot is all. No worries, though! I've always felt that my time spent at work, with my family, friends and/or sleeping are vastly overrated and needed to be cut short anyway so I'm sure time will magically materialize in my schedule. ;-)

Go Giants!

K. just to keep those of you who know me AT ALL from scratching your heads in concern/confusion... the backstory.

We went to the Giants game yesterday (Sunday) and it was tres fun. The weather was lovely (even a little too hot at times); we took the ferry over which was sweet (yay, no exorbitant parking fees!) and upon which the Little Big girl made (yet another) lifelong, lasting BFF. Had some fry bread, slide on some massive (Scary)coca cola bottle slides oh yeah, and even watched a little bit of the game -- although, truth be told, there wasn't all that much in it for me and the Big, Big Girl as
1) I don't actually like baseball as it is too complicated and i'm never sure when i'm supposed to leap up and shout something (seriously, how is a "hit" sometimes not a "hit"??)
and
2) Tim-Timmy Linsecum wasn't pitching so really, what's the point. Regardless, the outing was by most account an huge success. Kudos to the wife for throwing it all together!

The rest of the week-end was also good. Little Big Girl's very, very best friend moved in down the street from us so that's kind of awesome and resulted in a seventh hour sleep-over for her on Sat. eve.

Since the absence of a child gave us some extra time Me and the Big Girl switched some fuses around in the truck and managed to fix my blinkers. Also very cool. Plus, i let the Big Girl parallel park on Sat. and she (o cor) was a Star! {sigh} i heart the truck. Also heart the Big Girl. sooooo much!

then, lastly school for the Little Big Girl starts today so fingers crossed that it will be as fantastic as the years before!

the there, there...

K. this week-end was great. Mostly it was great because the BBQ power lifted these insane amounts of weight in her first ever competition of that kind and we got to watch and it -- was -- awesome!

Additionally the Big Big Girl managed to finish her last of three essays that were due today (first day of school) and that required reading three incredibly difficult (in their own varied ways) books and sticking to an insane schedule to get through them all. She rocks! BBQ rocks. I'm so proud of them both! yay!

{sigh} I heart my people. I really do.

Well, i suppose i should say something here

Don't get me wrong, i am, of course, beyond delighted with the recent ray of sunshine that burst in upon our typically depths of winter-gloom San Francisco summer. I am delighted because i like it when thinking people take the time to think about something and who, additionally (especially if they happen occupy positions of power) don't feel that it's bad to put the conclusions they derive out there into the world. I'm looking forward to reading the decision though. (I tend to geek out on that kind of stuff.) I'm also excited about this decision being handed down on the very anniversary of our paper-nuptials! Sort of seems like the stars lined up for us and the other 271 couples who managed to get hitched at SF City hall that day!

Other fantastic things that are happening right this second include the successful ending of my Big Big Girl's summer program. It was swell. She had a good time (i think) and we just got home from the final celebration thingie wherein she was "tech" and got to run the spotlight. nice!

Let's see.... work today was the pinnacle of annoying but instead of regaling anyone with long (boring) stories of things i'd rather just forget right now, i will instead insert a few lines here from my new favorite book:

"Until recently it was thought that humans had at least one hundred thousand genes, possibly a good many more, but that number was drastically reduced by the first results of the Human genome Project, which suggested a figure more like thirty-five thousand or forty thousand genes - about the same number as are found in grass."

NOT too be confused with Graci-as!!

in shock...

Hello there. I am in shock. I am in shock because of a few things.

1) My buddy DB's baby-girl is essentially a grown-up [image re-printed with permission by DB]






2) July is almost over. WTH??! Seriously. it was JUST My BBQ's birthday and now it is basically done.



3) Big Girl school starts in like three minutes. Again.... where was I when they made school a "yea-round" event??




I got sleep (real, actual sleep) in what feels like the first time in a long while so that may be what's responsible for this sudden awakening to the realities of life but still... i'm feeling a little fragile right this second so maybe a colossal roll-back date/timewise is in order....