Rosedale Avenue Dinner

On Sunday afternoon Vivian, Evan and I met Grant at the docks with Alexandra. We sailed for the next few hours. For most of that time there was a very nice 20 knot breeze that made it a lot of fun. But we had to hurry back home. Jo had invited the neighborhood for a potluck.

We ended up having 10 children and 12 adults over. Great company, good food, wild kids. I'm not bragging but here's a snippet of my neighborhood. One interviewed Morgan Freeman that weekend. Another was down with pneumonia (not the infectious variety) and she went for a run, made out-of-the-world cake balls for the party and delivered a few babies while being 30 months pregnant herself. And third said "Sure -  the White House Easter Egg Roll is no problem".

Meghan took some great photos - I borrowed a couple.

Speaking of the White House (how often can I make that segue?) Jo signed us up for Obamacare a few days before the deadline. We should save enough for a nice vacation. While Jo did all the work I had a ringside seat. The website wasn't the problem. It's just that medical health plans are so darn complicated with so many moving parts and terms and definitions and gotchas that you have to be careful. And have some basic knowledge of arithmetic and probability to understand the risks and the trade-offs. 

A Good Start

The weekend started off very promisingly. By Saturday mid-morning, we had biked to Northwest Park (Evan: "Daddy - is it called Northwest Park because it is in the north and west direction and has a park?"), the kids had played there, and we biked back. That's almost six miles - the most Vivian has biked. Evan rode on my bike but he was sure to pat himself on the back too. In the photo below they are playing turtle on top of a concrete turtle at the park.

When we got home Spring jumped out and bit everyone in the ass all at once. Karen and Tim and Ava and Vivian and Evan and Jo and I weeded and trimmed and mowed and dug and did all kinds of other gardenly things. Evan sawed. It's a real saw. We went along for a couple of hours.

Then things fell apart but in a very nice way. And that's the next post.

Sicilian Lemon

By early afternoon we were all tiring from our exertions - having already toiled in the garden for many minutes. That's when Karen and Tim showed up with a very nice bottle of tequila, two bottles of Italian soda, one of which was Sicilian Lemon flavored, and four glasses half filled with sparkling ice.

The girls retired to the bamboo grove to sip Izzy. I'm not entirely sure where Evan wandered off. The adults settled themselves on the front porch. A little bit later Amy and Clara joined us.

Then the girls reappeared and sang Let It Go set to Chinese dance (do you like my inverted shadow interpretation?). And then suddenly it was six thirty and Essy was here to babysit the kids. And a bottle and a half of tequila had evaporated in to the spring sunshine.

Simran and Vivian

Simran and Vivian. Sometimes they barely seem to acknowledge each other. And then today when they were playing with cascarones I got these on camera.

 Note that Simran doesn't hug. Right.

Cascarones

Jeanne and Simran arrived with four dozen cascarones. It's a bit early for Easter. Slightly late for Holi. Perfect for a lovely sunny warm Friday evening. It took us about 10 seconds to run through forty eight eggs.

Bruno Crashes

A minute after I picked Vivian up from school this afternoon NPR started on a story of sexual abuse of prisoners somewhere (I switched stations before it said where). The next station was playing Bruno Mars.

I tuned out till I heard Vivian sing "She's so beautiful. And I tell her everyday"

A second later she stopped singing and said "Dad - don't you think that's got to be so annoying?"

Hope!

Yoga Shoga

Study this photo. Two cross legged swamis at the center. A semi-circle of yogis. Have we moved to Sedona?

It's a seminar on child development at Magellan. Vivian's school is anything but new age hippie. But here we were - doing yoga and meditating before jumping into a discussion of boys and their brains. This room is normally filled with chairs and speakers use wireless microphones and Power Points. These speakers wore pajamas and said "Namaste" and bade us to find a yoga mat we liked. Times are a changing. I feel like the frog in the pot of slowly warming water.

More Product Placement

I plugged the Clek Oober (what the fuck is that?) in the previous post. Now it's Evan's new bike's turn.

Evan is a shrimp. Back in December of 2010 when Vivian was two months shy of her 4th birthday she got her 16 inch pedal bike - her purple Specialized. She loved that bike and still rides it often. When I put Evan on a 16 inch bike back in December at Lost Pines he managed. But I felt like I needed to run along side him the whole time - which is great for my midriff but not very convenient.

So Jo found him a light fancy bike. Designed in England by Isla Rowntree and now available in the US via a very laid back lady on the phone in Portland, the CNOC 16 is just over 13 pounds and is an aluminum and cro-moly beauty. Shhh - it's Evan's birthday gift. Should be here sometime next week.

Evan never had a new bike. But I did offer to sand off Vivian's Specialized and paint it matte black with orange flames.

ps. once I got rolling I couldn't control myself. This post has a record of six links to previous posts! 

Meltdown

This morning we had a mini-Fukushima meltdown.

Backstory: Vivian has been riding around on a inflatable little pillow that passes for a booster seat. It's got a high safety rating that's hard to believe. On the other hand it's very portable and easy for Vivian to get into and out off (mostly because it's hardly there). Jo bought it for a trip when we were flying somewhere and we loved the idea of not having to carry a booster made out of lead. But yesterday we thanked our luck and Jo installed a new Clek Oobr - the cadillac of car seats/boosters. Clek is a Canadian company founded by automotive design engineers and their products are so cool - just like the names of their car seats. We thought Vivian would love her new hip-looking ultra-safe comfortable reclinable ride.

She cried.

Ava (neighbor often, cousin sometimes) rides with us and this involves adding a third car seat to the mix. Turns out Vivian really felt like she was the grown up because Evan and Ava have "baby" car seats while she had this hardly-there inflatable pillow. She was upset because it felt like going backwards. Being demoted back to the underages after having freely bought cigarettes and a whiskey at the bar.

The next ten years are going to be so much fun.

Rosedale Ride

At 1am early Saturday morning when I finally passed out on the couch all my weather apps said that there was a 30% chance of rain and lightening and thunder showers later that morning in time for the Rosedale Ride. The weather radar looked ominously green with streaks of red and yellow.

Five hours later it looks like they were right. I drove in a light spray through the foggy dark to Samsung. But then bit by bit by bit it started to lift. A little before 7am I dared to smile while we stood for a photo in front of the logo wall. Elizabeth is the principal and Nancy the assistant principal at Rosedale. They always smile.

By the time I took this photo of Nancy and Sara with Kenny, things were decidedly better. Sara is the new special events person at Rosedale and has done an amazing job. Kenny started this ride with Richard 20 years ago when his daughter Leila was at Rosedale. The first Ride had 54 riders. Leila is now 35 and the Ride is 20 today.  Kenny has ridden every Ride.

At Ride Start, the sky had big swaths of blue. The Longhorn band played the 1812 Overture and the crowd is ready to go. This 20th Anniversary Ride raised more money than ever before. The numbers are still not final but it will be close to $100,000. There are a lot of good people.

I started ridding with Richard. We soon ran into Mike and Stacy. And then we caught up with Nicolle, Jo, Greta, Tracy and Morgan at the rest stop. Tracy and I crossed the finish line together. Thanks to everyone who came out, in spite of the weather report. A special thanks to Tracy who drove all the way from Omaha.

You see that shiny new helmet on my head? I misplaced my helmet somewhere. On Thursday I bid on this helmet at the Silent Auction (it was donated by The Bicycle Sport Shop). When Jo saw it, she asked "you're not wearing that helmet to the Ride, are you? It's got sparkles..."

At the Ride a little girl came up to me and said she liked my helmet and asked where she could buy one. And Al - who is an architect and therefore has good taste - tried to buy the helmet for himself. So, yes - it;s got sparkles but I'm keeping it.

Animals

Cade and Evan are pretty grim as wolf and dragon (I've added a second photo of Evan so you can see the dragon's forked tongue more clearly). And then there's Kai's skull head. And Vivian's sweet peacock face. Good face painting by the teachers at the Rosedale Ride this year.

Yak Alert

Our new living room furniture includes a yak bench.Jo and I have noticed that Vivian and Evan love to lay on it and play with the yak hair. But it turns out that some grown-ups are taken up by the yak too. Avert your eyes if you don't like yakporn.

Contemplating Evan's Future

That's Evan and Vivian in the morning.
"Can you find us?"
"Nope - no idea. Give me a clue."

What decides where you end up? Some kids have a plan. I didn't. Just vague notions, parents who had resources and set the bar high, a great schooling, good friends, and lots of luck.

Can we as parents influence our children's chances of finding happiness? Probably not. But that doesn't stop us from fiddling. And time has come to fiddle with the knobs of Evan's life. Time to pick his school.

This morning I asked him. "Evan, do you want to go to Vivian's school or stay at Grace next year?"
Jo added "Stay with Rowan and Nora and your friends at Grace?"
Evan: "I want to go to Vivian's school"
We: "Ok..."
Evan: "No - I want to stay"
Jo: "But you can't do Taekwondo"
Evan: "No. No - I want to go to Vivian's school and learn Taekwondo"
Me: "They will speak to you in Spanish all day"
Jo: "So you will have to learn Spanish to do Taekwondo"
Evan: "I want to go!"

In Vivian case, we travelled for a year instead. And then Grace Garden was over and Vivian couldn't stay there any longer and we were forced to make the next decision. But Evan can go to Grace for another whole year. Or he could move to Magellan. For the last two years, we have kept our options open and had him test for Magellan. Today is the deadline for Magellan's 2014-15 admissions. Jo has signed the papers and left me with the checkbook. 

Holi

Last year Jo had invited Vivian's class and others to play Holi at home. But March 17 - the official date for Holi this year, came and went. It  was the first school day after spring break are there was a lot going on.

Yesterday while I was driving to get Vivian from school after Taekwondo I get this text: "Playing holi when you get home. Don't dawdle". Classic Jo.

She invited the neighbors. It was a small group but you couldn't tell from the mess we made. Nothing like a bit of impromptu craziness on a Tuesday afternoon.

Hike

When we left home for Canyon Lake on Friday morning Vivian had it in her head that her mother or her cousins would "soon" join her at grandma's. I was occupied with a certain subfloor (see below) so the kids were left to their own devices. Carol arrived a few hours later and then they at least had grandma. Jo, and then Nicolle's clan (The Cousins) showed up in the late afternoon. But meanwhile I was impressed. Vivian and Evan kept themselves fully occupied outside for the whole day - with a swing made from a flimsy bit of rope and an old riding lawnmower wheel. And the blocks of wood we trimmed off the two by sixes.

But later, once the cousins were there and everything was better, Vivian borrowed my phone (for it's camera) and some of them went on a "hike" past the driveway. When she returned my phone to me there were thankfully no photos of them smoking behind the woodshed. And at least a few pictures that could have been from a hike. They are good. Or smart. I'll take either.

Spring Break

Evan and I left for Canyon Lake on Tuesday of spring break week. Gunaraj met us there. My mission was to build a subfloor to cover the "sunken" living room at Carol's. We never liked it but after we pulled the dog-pee soaked carpet off a few months ago, the sunken-ness looked even uglier. Something had to be done.

Evan played with the older cousins who were vacationing there with Grandma. We didn't get much done by way of construction that day but by the next afternoon most of the joists were in place.

On Friday morning Jo took off at dawn to fight the imaginary mob at the theatrical opening of the Veronica Mars movie. The kids and I horsed around in bed with light sabers till it was time to pick Gunaraj and drive back to Canyon Lake.

Before we finished the floor, Gunaraj had a nice thought. The kids wrote letters to place in a "time-capsule" - under the plywood between the joists. Evan wrote his name and drew a picture of him and Vivian. Vivian sketched Gunaraj and me working and wrote:

"My Grandma's littlest girl's husband and his friend built this floor. March 2014"

The spellings could do with some help but I thought it was beautifully said. I added a full name and date of birth beside each person and they folded the letters and put them in the subfloor and we covered them up. Who knows - in fifty years my grandkids may decide to do something cool to the house like build a sunken living room and they'd find the letters. "If the house is still standing" added Carol.

By late Friday afternoon Evan got the very last screw in place and the subfloor was done. And that's what we did for spring break 2014.

Boys

On Sunday morning of spring break Cade and six girls (Jo, Nicolle, Michelle, Grace, Ava, and Vivian) drove off to Nebraska. You didn't know? Nebraska is the new South Padre Islands. The Mecca of Spring Breaks. Drunken frozen t-shirt competitions in the corn fields.

Anyway, Evan and I were left to our devices. He wakes up at 6:52am. My first order of business was to slow things down. Luckily we had just shifted to daylight time. I didn't tell him.

On Sunday morning we went to feed the ducks and grebes at Town Lake. And grackles. In this photo a grackle has skillfully intercepted the chunk of bread that  Evan tossed at the ducks. About 30 seconds later another one got brave enough to pluck bread out of Evan's hand. He kicked at the next one that got too close and then they kept their distance.

On Monday morning we had another leisurely start and fed the ducks from the boat ramp. Then we walked across the river and went for a ride on the Zilker Zephyr. For brunch we bought a large bag of cotton candy and ate it while rolling around on the lawns. And then we went and saw The Lego Movie again. Everything's awesome!

On Tuesday morning I loaded him up and drove to Carol's to start work on her living room floor. Evan summed it up with something like "Can't feed freaking ducks all week."

Puddles

On Saturday morning Jo roused us to go over to see Jen compete at the Battle for Bat City crossfit competition. While the athletes duked in out inside with "Death by Power Clean", Evan got the puddles ready for the outdoor portion of the event.

We couldn't stay due to wet kids (what?). I later downloaded a photo of Taylor and Jen in the same puddles. I'd say Evan had more fun. 

SX

South By is in town. Somewhere between two hundred and fifty to three hundred thousand hipsters, geeks and movie nerds are breathing up all our oxygen - including Lady Gaga, Eric Schmidt, and Edward Snowden. Though Snowden's video link from Russia didn't use up much oxygen.

Back in 2007 Jo used to rabidly watch a show on TV called Veronica Mars. A teen detective - scrappy, smart and funny. Vivian was about four months old when I posted something about the show.

Turns out the show got canned after three seasons. The fans wanted more, even a movie but the studios didn't want to pay. So the maker of the show and Veronica went to Kickstarter and raised $5.7 million in days to make it the most successful Kickstarter movie campaign. The movie premiered at SXSW. And because the universe is funny in that way Jo went as Karen's "plus one" and got to sit with the stars and studio bosses and see the world premier at Paramount.

I got Essy to babysit Vivian, Evan, Cade, Ava (cousin) and Grace. And Nicolle, Michelle, Claudia and I drove down in the pouring rain and joined Jo and Karen for dinner at the Roaring Fork next door to the Paramount and basked in their star studded glory. 

Oscar party last Sunday and this now. I think I'm ready for my subscription to People magazine. 

Teacher Conference

After Evan's gymnastics observation we hurried to Vivian's school for her parent teacher conference. The last time we chatted, her teachers were worried about Vivian's lack of focus.

Vivian can master new and difficult skills - like skiing and hanging up-side-down in the playground. But she seems to prefer chatting with friends when in the class room.

Jo set up a movie on the iPad for Evan and Vivian and we walked into the classroom to meet with Vivian's teachers. Her English teacher said nice things in general and praised her presentation. The Spanish news wasn't all that bad either. Vivian is apparently learning Spanish and has a lot of friends. But they are still working on the focus part.

Outside the class I saw this - nine kids intently staring at an iPad. It could be a motivational poster for "Focus!"