warming

so, we had a housewarming party last week-end that was fantastic! It rained a ton in the morning which made me both sad (because all of our nicely loaned tables and canopies were getting soaked) but also kind of happy because i've not yet been in the new house with the rain and it was really very lovely to feel so warm and tucked away. Regardless, the rain eventually cleared and the sun and my friends turned out looking adorable to a person and bearing lots of really delicious food. they also brought their adorable children which made me practically cry with happiness because, really, the only reason I keep most of them around is because i love their kids. After my adopted sister d and i put together a new grill for my wife to practice her cooking skillz on (and which i think she actually only ended up standing near while, again, My Adopted Sis, D handled most of the grilling!) everything sort of came together in a fabulous, chillaxed kind of cohesion which, although it was crazy stressful leading up to the event, just ended up flowing super well (IMO.) The ONLY thing i found lacking even a little bit was my inability to actually talk at length to all the super cute, super smart people in my house because i kept having to be all hostesy and greety and making sure nobody got too killed on the toys i provided-y.... Still though, all in all it was fun and I feel lucky and blessed to know such great people even if i only get to view them from a distance.

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In other recent news - the Big Girl Boo took her written driving test two days ago and, sadly, did not pass. I told her i totally flunked on my first go too but i don't know if that makes anyone actually feel any better. She's got the book now and will be taking it again on Friday and/or Monday depending on how well we understood or misunderstood the directions for re-taking and i feel like she will do better next time!

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then lastly, right this second, Me and the Spark have just returned fro a cute little event that my very lovely buddy A-girl had her handmade book at and it was both very fun as well a very inspiring to both me and my little angel. forget that i really like hanging out with her but to see her get o excited about book making and printing is just a joy! We missed IHOEL and the children but The Israeli was there with his a-flippin-dorable youngest girl-child o that was nice. :-)

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Oh! and i almost forgot - Pretty Boy and his beautiful Wife had their baby! I know! It is a boy and weighs a million pounds (10 to be exact) and was born about a little over a week ago. {collective "awwwwwww!"} Let's hear it for fabulous people having/raising kids!!!

back to school!

The Little Big Girl went back to school today. the Big Big Girl has been going for a week now. 5th and 11th grades respectively. oy.

re: that - I had a disturbing dream the other night. me and the wife and the little big girl were in a truck driving along and i took a corner too fast. the truck rolled over (completely!) and ended up facing the opposite direction back on all four wheels. we were all shook up but when i asked if everyone was o.k. everyone said they were. LBG said she "was scared." who wouldn't be?? i just freaking rolled the truck! so anyway, we're sitting there dazed and i look around outside and realize that noone else seems particularly concerned. in fact there are a couple of folks just sort of looking quizzically at us; one lady had her blinker on and was waiting (it would seem) to get into her driveway (which we were in/blocking). the other weird thing was that this shake-up had caused the truck to kind of split into two trucks. One was solid seeming and the other was sort of a spirit truck that was super imposed on the "real" one. in the dream, I'm trying to get the truck moving but i'm also really aware of the tenuousness of the connection between it and the spirit truck so i'm trying to move super slowly and carefully. the thing is, we're also sort of on a hill and as the truck (my truck) is rolling toward it, the other truck; the spirit one is moving faster. So i try putting on the brake but that just makes me slow down more and the other truck gets even farther ahead. THEN i think i'll try to catch it but when i speed up, the LBG and the wife get a little freaked out (because, let's face it, i JUST got us into this big ole accident which we are lucky we survived!) so i realize i've got to think of them and slow the f down. which i do which means though that the spirit truck keeps going faster and faster away from us until finally it turns a corner and i can't see it anymore. by the time i get to the corner, it's gone. :-(

i woke up feeling very sad and NO this dream has NOTHING to do with my now-junior-in-high-school Big Big Girl getting ready to leave me for college or whatever! sheesh. can't a girl just have a random dream!

Two incredibly important things

before i forget.

1) Mz. Sharon Ellison/my own personal idol/cult leader is here in the Bay Area/Oakland and is STAYING with us! I KNOW! can't really stand it.

2) I just had THE BEST idea for an art show. my dolls plus Boo's drawings (sketched on post-its) plus the "little Red Wagon" wooden piece all hung together with a show title of "Mixed Media: post-it-plank series" Genius!!

I'm gonna live For-evah!

My Little Big Girl is performing in Fame Jr. today/tonight! I am so excited to see her bounding about on stage i can not hardly even stand it. :-)

Also, not sure if i gave adequate page time to this information in previous posts but by Big Big Girl is just completing her first PAID summer work position as an intern at the SF Friend's school! Whoo hoo! Now that she is loaded, I am going to start figuring out how to retire early...!

Seriously Settled

Let's see, I'm pretty exhausted right now but still feeling the need to keep this thing at least sort of up-to-date so I think i'll give the expanded bulleted update and let it go at that.

1) in the new house FINALLY. The actual Movers helping experience was delightful. They were fast, reasonable and very, very nice. Also super nice was/were the ladies who cleaned the bathroom/kitchen/molding,  the guy who cleaned the carpets and the guy who took away the huge pile of trash by the side of the house. seriously, could not have asked for a better set of professional folks. That being said, there was also close to three weeks of post-move moving/re-painting/cleaning/storing in the new basement of stuff that still needed to happen and which resulted in at least one major blow-up at the Spark who when asked to simply accompany me/us on the LAST trip to get stuff  didn't feel like it/got all attitudey and in me throwing my back out [not the *same* incident but still]. {sigh} Still though, finally in and loving the new house. It's just so nicely laid out and has lots of space and the yard is really very peaceful and nice.

2) Spark and Da Wife and Da Wife's Big Sis and Spark's Cousin(s) and G-Ma are getting to see each other a bit more which is lovely. I know it's something that means a *lot* to both Spark and the Wife so, glad to see it's happening..

3) Got to go to the PNDC Summer Deepening in Sonoma where I hobnobbed with Canadians, got to surface some of my "stuff" and potentially made some really nice new friends. Also got connected to the folks who are setting up and trying to move forward with the PNDC institute which is where i'd love to end up working so getting in on the ground floor now is a great thing!

4) Am happy about the supreme court ruling vis a vis gay marriage and the DOMA act and folks being allowed to get (and stay) hitched, in this awesome state of ours!

5) Super thankful to have friends like A-Tail who hook a Chick's Boo up with some fancy paid internships at swankity-swank Quaker schools so she can have something to list on her college apps as well as making enough cash to support her fabulous 15 y.o. life!

6) Helped my Adopted Sister get herself moved the hell out of the place she was living with her (now ex) GF who as treating her like some kind of 50's housewife. I get that "s" has been super difficult what with moving in together right away and blending families and adding in a 14 month old to the mix *but* i also think that this lady has some issues that are hers alone and that it's not an entirely bad thing for ASis to see this as an opportunity to get herself completely out. She may be sad, homeless, broke and supporting two kids BUT she's also resilient and smart and sweet and i feel like she's going to be sooooo much better off once she finally gets to the other side of all this crazy.

7) Almost died from dehydration. Not really, but sure as heck didn't feel so great for a couple of days before getting yelled at by the advice nurse/my doc who are clearly sick of me and my lack of fluid intake: "your chart says you've experienced this before???!" [all raised eyebrows and whatnot] and getting myself a little more liquidated up. Nice, ultimately to stop feeling dizzy/headachey all the time!

8) Got the brakes fixed on the truck and (finally) the oil changed - Whoot Whoot!

9) "Insurance-gate" 2013 with the CP. nuff said.

10) Trying a bunch of different things with regard to the Spark since she continues to be both extraordinarily delightful and as frustrating/irritating as a human being can be; pretty much interchangeably. I'm really working on not letting her provoke me into crazy, intense screaming matches but dammit it's hard. The girl really knows which buttons to kick! Somethings that seem to be working are quigong as a transitioning/wind-down method and singing her her own sleep song (both of which i learned at Deepening!) not that i'm not still getting mad but at least they give me something to try instead of just sitting around being frustrated. And she does seem to respond to them a little bit so... that's nice.

11) and, oh yeah, I'm teaching the Boo how to drive(!!)!

so, that's where we are.

In general things are fab. still tired; still feel like it's all a little too much, but still pretty happy/contented/set so I'm gonna give the life "four thumbs up, Bob!"

Homeowners!

Thas right, folks we are officially owners of our very own a little-too-perfect-to-be-true housey-house in a great little neighborhood next to a great little creek right in the vibrant heart of this glorious city called oak-Town! {whew.} I'm kind of freaking out right this second because we closed a little later than we thought we would and have already set up moving dates and contractors and stuff so it seems like we have fifteen seconds to get everything done but I also know that things will get done (even if it kills me which would ultimately be a shame because it would have been nice to live in the new house for at least a little while...) and that everything will work out (continue to work out) jest fine so... super stressed right this second but knowing that this too shall pass

in other news, got treated to a really lovely Group Mom Tea Party  Social hosted by my lovely 15 year old and her pals as a consolation gift for their spending tomorrow (the actual Mom's Day) at a concert. Needless to say, more than worth it - totally awesome food and fine china and getting serenaded by the three of them playing "an acoustic set" of some of their standards... Priceless! And totally cool getting it a whole day early!

we are buying a house

WE. ARE. BUYING. A. FREAKING. HOUSE! k. just needed to get that off my chest. more later when the rest of the deal is done. (a HOUSE!!)

Househunting 101 - Part 2

Looking for a house to buy is extremely edifying. There are some basics that i feel like we need to have but then there are a bunch of things that come up that i didn't even think about - like what if you actually do like the multi-level house in the cute neighborhood and it's in your price range and everything and if you get it you get to evict the family of five with three kids under the age of five plus their cute, pit-mix puppy. OR what if the "fixer-upper" down the street is suddenly available and you're thrilled because that means you can stay int eh neighborhood but then you find out that it's actually not so much a "fixer-upper" so much as a paint- (please, dear god, let that be paint!) stained, crumbling mess of a place (with no central heat and a "shared" backyard which is still getting a million bids from "investors" whatever that means. OR you find a place that is great. you love it. it works and is basically move-in-able and the listing agent isn't thrilled with the type of loan you have or with your downpayment (she likes your letter though!) but she'll [grudgingly] submit your offer anyway. Just, you know, so you don't sue or something.... It is a very good thing that we have both a fantastic realtor and a stable rental place where we can continue living for the foreseeable future [knock on wood!] otherwise... well, i don't know what otherwise. It is interesting seeing what's out there though. Nothing like a crazy, mostly outside-of-your-control process to make you start thinking about your relative place in the world. [yes, pun intended.]

Househunting 101

Ah... so i'm out looking for a house for us to live in for the rest of our live and i'm realizing that this is EXACTLY like the worst parts of our adoption-of-the-Spark experience. Lots of seeing and not knowing and being told that "all you need to do is..." and finding out that actually, that's not entirely true, and finally finding a place that's PERFECT then realizing that a whole bunch of other people also think it's perfect and that they have more money to offer, bigger down payment, whatever,  than you and that you're not going to get that perfect (or practically perfect because, let's face it, the ones we can really afford are in the "fixer-upper" category. Sorry. Try again and remember to keep a hopeful outlook but don't hope too much. just enough to keep looking but not enough to get sad if/when you don't get it. We're even having to write "why we're great and super deserving and you should give us this kid - er- ah... I mean house!" letters..... {sigh} K. i realize everyone goes through this. i KNOW that. but it still sucks.

Santa Cruz!

Just got back from santa cruz where i took the girls for prezzie's day week-end. Super fun! The weather was grand. Plus the motel was adorable with "enclosed" pool, cute little hot tub, super kid friendly and dog-friendly as well! Spent Sunday on the boardwalk/rode all sorts of scary rides then watched the little girls chase some waves whilst me and  the teen-ager, relax-ie-pants on the sand/shoo'd away the seagulls. Very lovely time overall. A little sad it was so short but you takes what you can gets. :-)

Happy Birthday to Me!

Such a nice age - 45! So nice to have good old and new friends to celebrate the getting older with. I love pretty much everything about my life right now. :-)

Funny thing my big girl said to me pon the eve of my turning:

Her: "I saw a guy on the bus yesterday who you'd totally have a crush on. he'd be my best friend."
Me: i cannot have a crush on your best friend! that would be unseemly."
Her: "why not?" then, knowingly: "o.k. whatever. he'll just be my best friend. [pause] you'd totally have a crush on him though!"
Me: "yeah. probably."

{sigh}

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?