Chinese Thanksgiving

 

Okay, this isn't really Chinese Thanksgiving, but we used to always celebrate my uncles birthday (November 11) by making gow-doos, a traditional chinese dumpling so the two holidays became linked in my mind. I think gow-doos might be traditional, but I've never seen anything much like it at any asian restaurant, store or cookbook. (It took me years to discover that my mom's "traditional" coconut bao were filled with a variation of German Chocolate cake filling that my Aunt Phyllis showed her once, so the gow-doo might possibly be an entirely made-up Lee family delectable.)

This process of squishing dough into rounds and making each gow-doo by hand is a mainstay of many Lee family gatherings. Traditionally, the youngest child is in charge of the dough squishing. In this case, it's young Nora who's very ably taken this on. 

Sister-in-law Carol and her daughter (my niece and Nora's mom) help fill, along with my mom, the family matriarch and keeper of the gow-doo secrets (despite pleadings, she seems unable to actually make the savory filling in front of anyone, preferring to do her chopping and cooking of mystery ingredients in unlikely early morning hours (4am)).

Later on, dozens of these little dumplings will be consumed, seasoned with soy sauce and washed down with hot tea.

Good times!

Lee Family Thanksgiving

Typically, the family spends Thanksgiving with the extended Lee clan. This year, the family was almost complete, was you can see in this video clip.

This extended tracking shot required many takes, as you can imagine, to simulate Lee clan life so realistically.

Careful! Your face will freeze that way!

Taffy pull

To celebrate the first apartment in college in which I lived on my very own, I threw a housewarming party. I designed the invitations (printed on my state-of-the-art dot matrix printer) and planned the refreshments and party activities.

Always the party planner, I wanted to go beyond the typical tipsy gathering that characterized college social life.

In retrospect, combining frozen daiquiris with a taffy pull might not have been one of my more brilliant ideas...

Last week, I pulled out that same recipe (from ever-reliable Betty Crocker) and shared the fun with the boys. 

Clearly this illustrates that the same activity in different settings can have wildly different results (Making taffy with little boys = fun for all, very rewarding. Making taffy with drunken college kids = kind of a mess).

Good times.

Kitty drinking fountain

Earlier this year, after years of Tad caring for it, I became, via a shift in our chore roster, the primary care giver of our acquarium.

Since my takeover of our little underwater biosphere, I've added multiple water plants, a snazzy little "moss ball" (like a green tribble), a cute little tiger-striped eel thingie, some shrimp and a frog to our population of mostly guppies and a flock of impossible-to-kill zebra tetras.

I've really enjoyed being the god in this tiny aquatic world.

I found it odd how often I had to replace the water in our aquarium, but chalked it up to evaporation, until I caught Joey, lapping up water from the little waterfall in the back, fountained up by the filter.

It actually makes a very convenient kitty drinking fountain for him.

It's about love

There are many who may disagree with the assertion that "it's about love," but I don't. Personally, when I see two people in a loving, committed relationship, I do not feel my own marriage threatened in any way. 

Keith Olbermann's statement that there's little enough love in this world already, so why would we take the time and effort to quash out love that doesn't meet our own narrow guidelines really has resonated with me.

I am very aware that it was not so long ago that my marriage to my husband would have been illegal in some states.

Behold.... Lockman!

Beware evildoers of Portland, Oregon... a new superhero takes to the stage to root out crime and protect the innocent.

Yes. It's Lockman!

As mild-mannered Colin Craig explains, Lockman has locks. You may see a few a few tucked into the waistband of what may appear to be simply a pair of Fruit-of-the-Loom underwear.

When pressed for details about Lockman's particular superpowers, Colin becomes a bit evasive. "He has locks," he explains.

Ethan immediately signed up to be the trusty sidekick, Lockboy, but only minutes later, Lockboy decided upon taking on the persona of Chinese Yo-Yo Guy.

It's a new day

Whatever your political affiliation (and it would not be difficult to divine mine), what happened on election day on Tuesday was nothing but absolutely historic.

To see, in the crowd, people who actually marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King in the civil rights era, who have experienced segregation and who have had grandparents who had been born into slavery, to see tears streaming down Jesse Jackson's face as he watched an african-american ascend to the highest office in the nation was indeed an absolutely monumental sight.

We have come so far.

I am so proud to be an american this week.

Obama's victory speech said it all for me, and still brings me to tears: "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer."

Jumping Beans

This was an essay that Colin recently wrote:

Jumping Beans

The day after Halloween our mom came back from running. She gave us a paper bag she found with jumping beans in it. Inside the bag we also found a piece of paper that told us how to care for jumping beans.

Jumping beans look like half an apple with a little ridge in the3 middle and a milky brown spot on top of the ridge.

Jumping beans jump at light and warmth. Do not expose your jumping beans to very hot climates. Do not drop your jumping beans it will hurt the larve inside. Once an a while give them a little spritz of water.


Get a jumping bean at www.jumpingbean.com

------------------------------------

Top photo: Colin with Beanie Boy. Bottom: Ethan with Junior Jumper, the livelier of the two beans.

Cats are creatures of natural dignity and grace.

Olimpia's Birthday Party

Our ex-neighbors, who moved in next door to us last Christmas eve and who have since purchased a big white house near Lloyd Center, hail from Italy, where children's birthday parties are a little different than here in the states. 

I first got a whiff of this when I learned, earlier this week, that Davide had gotten a good start on party planning by purchasing all the wine that would be served at the gathering.

We were among the first guests and when we showed up with a set of brightly wrapped gifts, Olimpia (Olympia if you're americanizing it) was given a choice of doing it as the Italians do (which involves ripping off the wrap on presents upon arrival) or doing it as the Americans, which involves waiting for an appropriate time during the party and all watching the birthday child go through the show of opening each present and having the parents say, from the sidelines, every few minutes: "Say thank you to Aunt Polly," or whatnot. After the first few gifts, this can be a somewhat tiring exercise for all involved.

Given that choice, naturally Olimpia chose the Italian method, which nicely spread the gift opening session out quite a bit.

In addition to the carefully selected wines and champagnes, Davide had prepared a nice selection of appetizers, including a hunk of parmegianno-reggianno about the size of smallish person's head. See photo with Mickey Lindsey's head near it for a handy frame of reference.

There was also an excellent aged goat cheese. How often do you discuss excellent goat cheese at a nine-year old's party?

The kids simply ran crazy through the house while the adults socialized and ate good food. The birthday kidhad fun as part of the big pack, rather than reigning as the supreme princess/emperor of some elaborately planned out day. It felt more like a large family celebration which was a nice change of pace.

My favorite part: getting Olimpia an Easy Bake Oven with all the trimmings (extra mixes, coordinating apron, etc). I think half the reason you have kids is to be able to live out your own childhood toy fantasies through them (0r their playmates). I may need to offer to babysit Olimpia sometime soon...

Video is here (but probably not of interest to anyone other than the family and friends, although one cannot help but admire Davide's ability to fend off little boys' hands as he cuts the cake with what looks to be a really sharp knife).

Trick or treat!

The boys' Halloween costumes this year were totally homemade. Colin decided to be the Headless Butler, a costume idea selected from a Family Fun book (always a reliable source of clever family-oriented crafts), and Ethan chose to be a squire, which, from the picture, was basically Robin Hood, only not green.

Tad, thankfully, constructed Colin's costume from posterboard. Ethan's tunic was simply a belted piece of black fabric with a slit. The dagger was a flattened wrapping paper tube covered with foil and electrical tape.

It was all simple and came together really well. The boys were very pleased, which was all that mattered.

Trick or treating took place with the neighborhood kids and involved going from door-to-door with some of the parents screaming "Say THANK YOU!" every few seconds from the sidewalk.

Back at our house, we munched on popcorn balls and cookies and told real scary stories about possible frightening results from the upcoming election.

Beef Shank

We recently split a cow with some neighbors and assorted acquaintances. Our neighbor, Dan, invited us to sample some beef at his home, provided by Cami Brown, the extremely congenial mom of the clan that operates JS Angus Ranch.


Carried away by the tastiness of the various steaks she grilled up for us (and totally sucked in by her descriptions of how all the cattle are raised (without hormones, antibiotics, in a very humane way), we decided to sign up. Officially, the smallest share of a cow you can elect to purchase is one-eighth, however, we found some folks to split that with and each purchased one-sixteenth of a steer.


We picked up the meat last week. After all was tallied up and we split up our meaty booty with our neighbors, we loaded up the freezer with dry-aged, natural beef.


In addition to an assortment of the regular cuts, we were given our choice of various other bonus bits, like the heart, tongue, shanks, etc. She had mentioned that the shanks make good stock, so I spoke up for that (I also claimed a tongue -- childhood thing).


Anyway, after asking for it, I found a tasty-sounding beef shank recipe online, so, that ended up being the first beef test case for us.


If you check out the the recipe, you might note that it calls for four beef shanks, weighing about 6 ounces each.


The sawed off piece of cow leg we received weighed probably eight pounds all on its very own.

This was a problem when I attempted to flour, then brown the meat.


Even in our biggest frying pan, only one edge of the thing actually rested in the pan, allowing me to brown a spot roughly the size of a silver dollar.


I ended up pulling out the griddle, which worked okay.


The rest of the recipe turned out tasty, although I wasn't able to serve each family member their own beef shank. Pretty much, I put the huge cow leg in the middle of the table and invited all to pull off pieces.


Yummy. I wonder where Emeril gets those miniature, dinky cows?

Economic Woes

This photo amused me (though, of course, I don't necessarily endose the sentiment)

The recent 700 billion dollar bailout has been so much on people's minds lately.


There are some who don't believe that we should have anted up the money, viewing the act as a handout to fat cat financial types who made poor decisions and got themselves into the mess to begin with.


My brother, who lives in conservative, rural Medford, has coworkers who've protested that action.


I don't pretend to know all there is about the economy, but I do know that everything in it is interlinked and troubles in one quarter can quickly ripple to other areas.

• The company that I work for has recently announced upcoming layoffs, will be closing two plants and is dropping and entire product line.
• My old workplace, The Columbian Newspaper, is facing possible bankruptcy.
• I ran into a coworker who I happen to know is very interested in his finances. In the course of conversation, it came out that his financial portfolio took a 40% dip in the recent financial downturn. As he is nearing the age of retirement he doesn't have as much time as the rest of us to allow his portfolio to again grow to where it was and beyond.
  

While I don't feel in imminent danger of losing my job, the truth is that no one is invulnerable to this possibility. If that were to happen, with the current state of the market, it might be tough to find something else.

No matter what your political views, our country is at such a critical juncture. If you haven't already, read up all you can and vote with an informed mind.

VOTE!!!!

Li'l American Gladiators

Tad enrolled the boys in gymnastics, which is great. They're not particularly interested in athletics -- they're protested loudly at any idea of signing them up for soccer or Little League or the like. Luckily, they didn't mind gymnastics too much, otherwise, their skinny little bodies might start to atrophy.

It's also, appealing to us, as it's an activity that they enjoy that doesn't involve whacking each other with toy swords or pretending to otherwise incite violence upon one another. I'm not one of those parents who get really freaked out if they want to shoot at each other with nerf shooters, however an entire weekend of gratuitous mayhem can get a little wearing.

That's one of the reasons we decided to bring them to their gym (The Children's Gym) one Saturday.

We paid for a full hour, but after a while, their interest began to wane, so I got the idea to set up a half-pint version of American Gladiators, which perked up their interest quite handily.

(if you're on Facebook, you won't see the video until you click on "View original post" and go directly to the blog)

Hmmm... a violence-free weekend?

What's a pirate's favorite kind of sock?

Aaargyle, of course!

I'm a little late with this post, but had to mention our fun day at the Portland Pirate Festival. We've been going for years, from its inaugural festival til now and we wouldn't miss it for just about anything.

The tickets might seem a little spendy, but you have to keep in mind that once you're in the gates, everything else (except of course, concessions and gift items) is totally free. This is especially a good deal for a family, as your children can indulge in as many of the bouncy, blow up activity thingies as their stomachs can handle, see puppet shows, juggling shows, check out some friendly parrots (left, Colin seems a little dubious, while Ethan gets a tickling), see Captain Bogg and Salty, likely the greatest pirate kids band in the history of the world, talk to roaming characters in amazing garb (we usually get gifted with some pieces of eight from one particular friendly buccaneer, but this year, we didn't see him. There was, however, a very credible Captain Jack Sparrow who was wandering the premises who very much thrilled my coworker Shirley Karr, who has, to put it mildly, a "thing" for Johnny Depp)(she would also drub me soundly for how much this sentence is running on, but she can complain at her own blog), play some pirate-ish games (whack the rats is one, pictured below) to earn a prize, watch a cannon battle, watch some swordplay and much, much more.


This year, we also got to see a real blacksmith and received some elaborate knotted things from a knot-master.

I couldn't resist buying the boys some wooden swords with some nifty black leather scabbord thingies, which have brought them a ton of joy already.

It was a long day (10 til 4) but we had a blast.

My advice: go early, before the lines form at the bouncy castle thingies (and get them out of the way first -- later on you'll see lines form). Don't miss the cannon battles or Captain Bogg and Salty.

Time Warp

We went home to Medford a few weeks ago to visit my mom's house, aka the home that time forgot.

My mom is a big proponent of weird, generic dollar store "bargains."

There were about a dozen bottles of "L.A.'s Totally Awesome Window Clean tucked away in a spare bathroom. Wouldn't most people make the assumption that any product called "L.A.'s Totally Awesome" anything might be slightly suspect?

Anyway, I put the cleaner through its paces and found that it was really pretty much blue food coloring and a hint of ammonia to make it smell useful.

There are also quite a few products that my mom seems reluctant to throw out, although I can hardly believe that she's keeping that petroleum jelly for sentimental reasons. I took a few pix of some various items.

It was only a few years ago that the threw out the bottle of Jean Nate that I had bought in high school... ummm.... a few years ago...

Anyway, take a look at a few of the things I found at her house.

Doesn't that Beef-flavored Smack look totally delish?

I swear we really do feed these boys.

The derelict look of this photo is enhanced by the work that Tad's been doing on the front porch, stripping, etc.

I mentioned how thin the boys look when they really suck in their guts, leading to this photo op.

Maybe I should solicit donations?

Perception Test

I was sent this video as a perception test. The presenter prefaced the video with remarks that there was a difference in how the sexes were able to catch the number of times the ball was passed between the people wearing white shirts.

Watch very carefully.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX2BJC12uXQ

This blew my mind away!

This isn't a political blog....

... but....

This blog was originally created to support my card-making venture on etsy. Then I got carried away adding in tidbits about the family and our goings on. I never really wanted to make any kind of political statements.

Until now.

I really hate being lied to, especially when it is so simple to check up on the facts.

When it was announced that Sarah Palin's teenage daughter was pregnant, I inwardly groaned. Another distraction from the things that really mattered! 

Then I was pleased when Barack Obama spoke against making this an issue. "Let me be as clear as possible," Obama said. "I think people's families are off-limits, and people's children are especially off-limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as governor or her potential performance as a vice president." 

He further said that "if I ever thought there was somebody in my campaign that was involved in something like that, they’d be fired."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/01/palin.daughter/index.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/us/politics/02PALINDAY.html?em

Finally, someone in politics takes the high road!

Imagine my surprise when I found out that Sarah Palin said this in an email solicitation after her nomination: "I  cannot tell you how special last night was for me and how enthused I am to be John McCain's running mate," Palin said in the email solicitation, adding: "Unfortunately, as you've seen this week, the Obama/Biden Democrats have been vicious in their attacks directed toward me, my family and John McCain. The misinformation and flat-out lies must be corrected."

Frankly, I was appalled. A search of reliable news stories online revealed her lie (and there's really no other way to characterize that statement) many times over:

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/09/04/1347741.aspx

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/09/04/Palin_ObamaBiden_Democrats__vicious/UPI-68551220578244/

http://mediamatters.org/items/200809050018

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/palin-accuses-o.html

http://www.postchronicle.com/news/breakingnews/article_212169879.shtml

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080904/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_palin

This is so disappointing to me. It is exciting to see a woman (and a mother) get ahead in the world, even if I may not agree with her views and policies, but when I see someone who should be an inspiration and a role model engaging in such outright falsehood, it makes me doubly discouraged.

It also disgusts me that a political figure has so little respect for the intelligence of the American public that they would tell a lie that is so easily checked upon.

I hope that these types of tactics do not prove effective!

School Days

Last week, Tad had told me that the first day of school was Thursday, so I blocked out that day on my calendar so that I could take the boys in and meet their teachers. I found it odd that every other parent I talked to thought that school started on Wednesday.

On the weekend, I asked him what sort of school supplies they would need on the first day of class. He told me that a list hadn't arrived with their teacher assignments and he assumed that we would receive a list when they showed up.

Luckily, over the weekend, we discovered the truth on both counts, otherwise, we would have shown up a day late, completely empty handed.

A fellow Glencoe School mom, Emily, pointed me to the Glencoe School Supply List online. (Emily and I both worked on the Glencoe School Foundation website over the summer, for which I am very grateful. Prior to that, we had launched her own website for her freelance writing after she purchased my services at the last foundation auction.)

The school supplies list is such a blend of old classics (24 count crayons, a Pink Pearl eraser (I remember wondering as a child WHY Pink Pearl???), wide-ruled paper, notebook) and new, unfamiliar ones (why do they need clipboards? What are the Post-it notes for?).

So, tomorrow's a big day for the kids! Third grade is when they get to go up to the second floor of the building, leaving the little kids behind on the ground floor.

Labor Day activities

This Labor Day weekend, I'm taking time off from endless summertime activities to do a little work, which sounds awful, but is actually a bit refreshing.

The past three weekends, we've been out of town, trying to cram the last bits of summer into our busy August. We've been camping near Newport (South Beach), camping at the Gifford Pinchot (Panther Creek) and hit the Kite Festival in Long Beach, staying at Toni and Jim's beach house.

This weekend, I am finally getting back to finishing up some things. My polka-dot party invitations are, finally, completely finalized and approved. Now I'm just waiting for the final transaction to take place before I can get these all printed up and assembled and mailed off.

A few months ago, the boys and I were walking through the neighborhood and saw some kids on scooters about their age. Always one to find new neighborhood playmates, we returned with their scooters and they scootered happily, side-by-side, without ever talking, as kids often do.

As the social experiment seemed to be working pretty well, I took the next step and located the overseeing dad and introduced myself. We exchanged pleasantries, names and the names of our kids. In reponse to his query about the boys' ages, I told him that they were eight.

This was followed by the inevitable question, "Oh, are they twins?"

Now, any parent of a new child gets a certain amount of attention, but when you have twins, you get a lot of attention and curiousity, especially when they are babies and adorable. Even today, though, I have a certain amount of odd pride in the fact that we have multiples, so I did as I often do, which is to look down, feign modesty and say, "Yes, yes they are."

This time, though, I was immediately one-upped when he told me that his kids were triplets!

(and, as if this weren't enough, both he and his wife were also identical twins)

Ka-zing!

Anyway, the triplets are over this morning for a playdate. They playroom door is closed and I don't hear sounds of destruction or anything, so I'm going to say that all is well. I went in a little earlier and was immediately pressed into building Lord Vladek(or something)'s castle, demonstrating how the Imaginext volcano worked and trying to pry hot wheels out of the hot wheels track. I quickly extracted myself and am making myself busy at the computer and things are a lot simpler now.

I might make a peach pie for dessert. Our neighbor, Tricia, is making us dinner tonight. Earlier this year, we started a dinner exchange program. Every week, one of us makes the other family dinner -- since it's often just a matter of doubling all the ingredients, it really is not that hard and it's so wonderful, every other week, to receive a home-made dinner, delivered to our doorstep. It gets us to try things that we normally wouldn't have ventured to try. The boys are more likely to give new foods a chance if they are made by her.

I love Portland Parks and Rec

I love my city. One of the wonderful things about living in the Rose City is our wonderful, active Parks and Recreation department. Among the things that it offers are free summer concerts. The Washington Park Summer Concert series, which takes place in August (and is sponsored, with a lot of pride, by Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA)) offers a fantastic variety of family-friendly musical acts. Above is some footage of the Lions of the Batucada. Can you spot the DTNA employee?

They were super fun, as was the Locust Street Taxi, that we saw at Employee Night the following week.

The Washington Park amphitheatre is a wonderful, grassy spot to bring a picnic dinner and relax while watching topnotch entertainment. The kids, if they get bored, can dance near the stage, purchase kettle corn or snacks and form those instant friendships with other children (why can't adults make friends so easily?).

In addition to the concerts (which they host all over town, all summer), they are also responsible for a number of other wonderful activities in which we've participated. The boys and Tad went to the Dive In Movie and saw The Bee Movie, while floating around in wonderful Creston Pool. This summer, the boys went from fairly tentative swimmers to boys who feel comfortable swimming in the deep end of the pool (for parents familiar with the parlance, that's going from penguins, zipping past otter and landing firmly as seals in this last session before school begins again).

In past years, they've taken classes (gymnastics, art, etc). I know some parents rely heavily on these programs over the summer while school is out.

We have such a wonderful city and the Parks and Rec department is one of the best things about it!

Panther Creek

This past weekend, we spent camping with our friends, Jan and Bill and also Val and Jim. We'd been out once before with Jan and Bill, who are old friends from way back. They are the boys' godparents, in fact (and have, indeed, sworn in front of a congregation to keep Satan's influence from our children). Swift Lake with Jan and Bill was delightful and we've meant to do it again, but we have not been successful the last few years.

This year, we decided to combine everybody and do one big happy camping trip. We were originally going to do Swift Lake, which is a tradition with Jan and Bill (who have a boat and can access the remote parts of the lake), however an earlier trip revealed that the water levels had overrun the beaches, the mosquitoes were rampant and loud, music-loving yahoos had invaded their sanctuary.

With just a quick week to figure out new plans, we settled on Panther Creek, in the Gifford-Pinchot, somewhat by accident.

The trip had the potential for disaster written all over it. Not only had none of us even been to the campground (and there were few reviews written about it online), but one of our party was overcome by nausea Saturday morning and spent much of the first day vomiting on the side of the road or trying to ignore the rest of us as we talked in hushed whispers and wondered if it were something more deadly than food poisoning. Eventually, he retired to his tent and felt chipper enough the next morning to make a run out to Carson for coffee and cigarettes at 5 in the morning, so all was well by then.

The other alarming development was the heat advisory for the weekend that was all over the papers the previous day. I checked the online weather reports and everything indicated that it would spike at 100 degrees or higher and that people were advised to lie low, check on elderly neighbors and to avoid going out in the heat as much as possible. It felt a little foolhardy to leave our nicely air-conditioned home for this type of extreme weather, but we could hardly back out of it by this point.

Happily, all the portents proved to be false ones.

For starters, the site was a very short drive from Portland (a little more than an hour got us there), the campsites were large and generously spaced apart from one another. Tall trees shaded our sites. We were a short walk to a lovely watering hole at the nearby Panther Creek. While the water was icy cold, the day was quite warm and those of us who dared the depths were rewarded with a feeling of pure refreshment.

While it was quite warm in the afternoon, it never felt that bad near our watering hole and we returned to the site only after the heat had subsided.

We hit the Panther Creek Falls, ably directed by our camp hostess, Jackie (dubbed "Calamity Jane" for her fetching pigtails and irrepressible attitude), who seemed to take a personal interest in all her campers. They truly were beautiful, but we decided to leave the Falls Creek Falls (given a spectacular 5 stars in one review) for another trip.

Dining was awesome, with Val providing a unique and spicy Cincinatti-style chili the first night with cornbread. We made pasta carbonara the following night, which is a favorite camp dish with us. By mixing up the goop and frying up the bacon ahead of time, all we have to do at the campsite is to boil the pasta and toss everything together. It was also very well-received.

Jan and Bill provided a truly wonderful breakfast fry up on Saturday morning -- potatoes, red peppers, sausages, onion.... pure yum! Sunday was more laid back: cereal and fruit.

Toss in killer brownies (Val) (definitely not South-Beach-friendly) and you have yourselves some very happy campers.

The verdict: Panther Creek rocks! And the group, which has never camped together before, may do it again next year.

South Beach Fun

We spent the weekend before last in South Beach, which is just past Newport. We had planned to come with our friends, Mark and Lisa and Ava -- we'd talked about camping with them for years, ever since we met them after Ava and Colin both ended up in Mrs. Abel's kindergarten class and all of us clicked nicely but things never really got going until after Lisa simply took charge and made reservations for us.

The weather, going in, looked frightful, and our friends decided to skip Saturday and show up on Sunday. Hating to miss out on even a single day's worth of vacation, we went down as originally planned.

There was some rain on Saturday evening and we were further inconvenienced by the fact that we managed to leave one of our two well-packed camping bins at home, which meant that we had no pots and pans or dishpan or dish soap. We did, however, have some metal skewers and a packet of hot dogs, so we made do with that quite nicely.

The beach was conveniently close. The next morning, Tad officially lost his title as "Safety Parent." This is the title given to the one parent who is quite a bit more safety conscious than the other one -- there has to be one in every relationship, otherwise the children would never survive to adolescence. In our case, I lost any chance at that designation when I was left alone with the boys one afternoon. When Tad came home, he came into the bedroom where I was relaxing and demanded: "You gave the boys KNITTING NEEDLES to play with????" In retrospect, giving a pair of active little boys two pointy steel rods with which to practice their swordsmanship may not have been the best choice of playthings.

In any case, on this day, I managed to drop one of our walky talkies into the soft, dry part of the jetty. It landed on soft sand and I could clearly see it about six feet beneath me. The hole was wide enough so that I could probably have shimmied down after it, but I would have been quite cagey about doing so.

I waited for Tad to show up and when he did, I outlined the situation to him. I fully expected him, as S.P., to simply write off the $40 G.I. Joe's walkie talkies, but instead, he said: "Well, I think Ethan would fit down there, don't you think?"

Now, the truth was, the same thought had crossed my mind, but I was slightly horrified, less at the danger to my second-born son, than the realization that we had, with one blow, lost the designated S.P. in our family unit.

The boys are doomed.

In any case, I pinch hit and convinced Tad that even though he felt like he was "pretty sure" that he could fish Ethan back out without any difficulty, the fact that he had to qualify his response might perhaps indicate that there was a small chance of not retrieving our child again without a lot of trouble. So that was abandoned, though Tad lobbied for it at length and probably only gave it up when Ethan showed a less than enthusiastic response at the scheme.

Eventually, Tad fished the thing out with a long stick and some string he found on the beach, so all ended without any significant tragedy.

On Sunday, our friends arrived and we spent a perfectly lovely day on the beach, marvelling that we actually felt a little hot (!) on an Oregon beach. It was wonderful, especially as they made us a lovely dinner that night. The boys had a lot of fun building dams and hunting for sea critters with Ava (Colin is shown at the top with a crab he caught in the jetty).

We did a few hours at the Oregon Aquarium on Monday afternoon and then vamoosed back home.

Sugar Shack gets an upgrade

I arrived home from work last week to discover that Tad had appointed himself the Sugar Shack's marketing manager.

As such, the Sugar Shack underwent a decided upgrade.

A colorful umbrella was set up to attract customers and shade our proprietors. Signs were printed up on the computer. The price of cotton candy was reduced from $1 to a much more reasonable $.25 for a small bundle. He even helped them purchase popsicles, which were very popular.

Colin came up with the Sugar Shack's slogan, which he shouted at bicyclists passing on the nearby bike path: "Get your snacks at the Sugar Shack!"

That day, the Sugar Shack raked in between $5 and $6 for each partner, which was a record high. They also disproved my assertion that the Shack would only be profitable on weekends.

Mommy isn't always right.

Ethan and Colin's Sugar Shack

The past two weekends, the boys have picked up a few dollars cash by selling cotton candy and juice out in front of our house.

Ethan, in particular, was motivated by getting enough money to purchase Bitil, a new Bionicle/Lego figure.

They needed help to get set up with an extension cord, seats, etc.

The cotton candy ended up being "cotton candy balls" that they rolled up and served in a bowl, like so many snow balls. I thought it was terribly overpriced at a dollar each, but they managed to sell enough (and got very positive reviews from kids) to make it worthwhile. The juice was only $.10 for a small cup and that sold fairly well. One day, I picked raspberries and they sold those as well.

Sales mostly went to neighbors and people that we happened to know, but there were some very kind passersby as well.

The name, "Ethan and Colin's Sugar Shack" was coined by Ethan.

The boys each made three or four dollars each on each day, even on the day that the neighbor girl helped out and the money got split out three ways.

On Sunday, we treked out to the Lego store and ordered a Bitil figure, which should be arriving in about a week. Well earned!

Campy camp camp

Well, I discovered the answer to the question of whether or not soap and shampoo is provided at camp: it is not. The answer to the question of whether or not a child would willingly spend money on toiletries at the camp store when they have a choice between something that would make them clean or, say, a disposable camera or a cunning little frisbee that folds into a tiny pouch is a decided "no."



When we picked up the boys, there was actually bits of dirt and goo crusted on their faces. The fronts of their shirts were well beyond what any industrial-strength detergent could possibly get out. The boys were not unproud of the fact that they had not seen the inside of a shower for three days (at which time, they simply rinsed off -- no soap or shampoo, remember?). Ethan had brushed his teeth once and Colin only twice. They were able to tell me, with some certainty, that it takes three days for face paint (as painted on them for Capture the Flag) to wear off your face if you don't wash it.



I sometimes will give them a sniff and pretend to be horrified at the funk, but this particular time, I didn't have to pretend at all. These were truly filthy children.



After their baths, which they were subjected to immediately upon arriving home (to avoid dirtying up the rest of the house), they left a crusty layer of sand and grime at the bottom of the tub.



They have come home with silly camp songs, stories of their camp counselors ("Bigfoot's favorite color is PINK!!! No, it really is! PINK!!!!"). (The counselors, by the way, all have made-up names, like Bam Bam, Bakes (the boys' counselor), Jingles, Seatbelt, Incoming and the like. It's like some teenage witness protection program designed to protect their true identities). They slept one night on the beach. They did Campfire on many evenings (singing songs). They participated in a Talent Show (somehow drinking two glasses of water constituted some measure of talent). They were thrilled to discover chocolate pudding in the salad bar one day at lunch, at which they were allowed as many helpings as they desired. This was lunch one day, followed by dessert.

Did they have fun? Oh, my yes! Here's some photographic evidence, as posted on the Camp Collins site.

One of the pix shows Colin holding up a tooth that came out while he was at camp, which he subsequently lost. Luckily, the photo that I printed off the website seemed to be enough evidence to satisfy the tooth fairy, who left him a nice silver dollar that night.

Vacation Begins

We (I) spent much of Sunday obsessing over the Camp Collins packing list and making sure that they had everything that they really needed (soap and shampoo weren't on the list -- does that mean it's provided????).

In the end, we got the boys packed in the car and got ourselves away.

As we drove towards Gresham, I was suddenly overcome by a very strange feeling of unease that centered in my belly. It took me a bit to realize that I was suddenly quite anxious about losing the boys for an entire week, in stark contrast to the fit of hilarity I'd shared just a few days prior with the postal clerk.

But then we checked the boys in, went out to a spontaneous dinner, then hit a movie at the local theatre/pub and I felt much better.

Summer Camp!

Tomorrow, we take the boys to Camp Collins, a YMCA camp not far from home, and leave them for a week of learning new skills, fun and becoming a little more self-reliant and responsible.

I'm a little freaked about the prospect of their first week without family supervision, but the boys are really looking forward to it and I think I'll be able to enjoy being child-free for the week with a minimum of guilt.

As suggested by the Family Handbook, I mailed them each care packages on Friday so that they would receive something from us soon after they arrived at camp.

The clerk at the Killingsworth Post Office (which I like because the clerks are always so cheerful) commented on the short distance the envelopes would be travelling and I explained about my kids heading off to summer camp. He asked what we would be doing while the boys were out of town. I explained that my children THOUGHT that we would be spending the week weeping, clutching photos of them and generally counting the minutes until their return (the truth is that we're both looking forward to some carefree days off this week).

He and I laughed out loud as we imagined the scene that might be staged upon the boys' arrival home: mom and dad, weak with grief, sitting, surrounded by family albums, piles of crumpled tissues scattered about.

Cat House for Rent

The boys built this cat house for Joey, who actually has slept in in. The sign, if you can't read it, says "for rent, cat haws."

Fat Squirrel

We spotted this guy at Milo McIver State Park, where we went for the day with the boys' friend, Elijah and his parents.

He, of course, disdained the carrots that we tossed him in favor of Doritos, which I forbade the boys to throw to him.

Even wildlife should eat healthier than that.

Family Reunion at Lincoln City

So, as I blog about personal stuff, I run up against the problem of showing images and talking about other people. It seems like there may be some folks who may object to having their pix shown online without permission and, of course, that's okay, but who has time to ask for every little posting? So, it's often expeditious to leave those pix off and try not to say anything too offensive about people.

Hence the many pix, above, of innocuous refrigerator magnets -- who can object to those?

They were a little art project that the boys' uncle cooked up that ended up being a lot of fun for all of us.

We all stayed in a rented house at Lincoln City, called Sophie's Place. It was lovely, with a beautiful gourmet kitchen and was only a short walk to the beach, which I very much appreciated (last year's family reunion house required a short drive to the beach, which complicates matters).

We ate a lot of food: lasagna (from Cooking Illustrated -- always a hit), pasta carbonara (with bacon from Gartner's, a real butcher in Portland -- to die for!), Grandma's special tacos, cinnamon bread, muffins, pasta salad, potato salad, sandwich bar, bagels, pecan pie, banana cream pie, strawberry shortcake and a whole lot of other things that weren't on my diet.

I gained three pounds over the weekend. But it was very delicious, nonetheless.

The boys introduced their innocent young cousin to the joys of gunplay and his parents very gamely purchased plastic doubleshooter rifles for all three children, who turned two armchairs into forts and bunkered down for the duration of the trip.

Great fun was had by all. We'll definitely do something like this again (though we're still looking for the perfect beach house that doesn't require a ton of driving from the airport (as some of us must fly to Portland, just for the first leg of their journey), is close to the beach and has enough beds and bathrooms to accomodate seven adults and three kids comfortably.

Hug Your Man

So, the other day, my husband and I had one of our typical little spats. We rarely ever fight, but we occasionally get tense at each other when one party begins to feel resentful over something like division of labor and the perception that the other one isn't pulling his or her own weight.

When you've been married for ten years, there are many things that can begin to irritate.

The day after that, I talked to a friend who confided in me that she and her husband were getting a divorce. She discovered that he had put up an ad stating that he was single and looking.

She is such a wonderful woman. This behavior seems so inexplicable and inexcusable. It really put the whole "you're not picking up enough around the house" tension into perspective.

When I got home, I gave Tad a big hug and let him know how much I appreciated him. Minor irritations aside, he is a really wonderful man.

Give Me Sexy

On Saturday, we went to two very different birthday parties.

Since having the kids, our social life got automatically curtailed a bit, by default, so it was unusual for us to be double-booked. Normally, I would simply have picked one thing and ignored the other, but both were quite important.

One was for my Uncle Charlie's 80th birthday party. The second was for my friend Jen's 40th birthday party. The two were in deep contrast.

My uncle's was at a Chinese restaurant (actually, it was a joint celebration for him and my Aunt Susan). I had thought that it would be a simple family affair with us having maybe three tables or so to accomodate the extended family, but they had booked the entire restaurant. There were probably 150 people there.

It was a full on Chinese banquet. If you've ever attended one of those, you will know that there is no shortage of food. We had, among other things: fish maw soup, peking duck, crispy chicken, whole sea bass, seafood stir fry in a crispy taro root bowl, long life noodles and several other dishes, to make up eight courses (plus soup, not to mention the sew bao (little peach-shaped bean paste buns traditional at birthdays).

They went all out for this celebration. At each table were goody bags for the guests with chopsticks, bowls and candy to take home. Balloons festooned the tables. They even had karaoke (I've never seen karaoke at a chinese function, ever).

Now, one thing about the chinese is that we (they) place a lot of value on things like color (red and pink are lucky colors and will always figure prominently at traditional weddings) and numbers (my mom had advised me to donate $30 to the institutions of my aunt and uncle's choice and I, not knowing the significance of this obeyed. All I know is that to give four of anything is very bad form, as four ("see") has the same sound as death in Chinese).

I'm pretty sure that it's because of the desire for lucky colors that our goody bags were pink Victoria's Secret bags. They were lovely bags, to be sure, but the slogan ("Give me sexy") was not something that I tend to think of when I think of my Uncle Charlie....

The balloons were also pleasingly inappropriate: Happy Birthday Barbie balloons.

I mean, "Give me sexy" notwithstanding, I can almost understand the Victoria's Secret bags (they're sturdy, glossy and perhaps some family member got a stack for cheap), but the Barbie balloons, with the big color image of Barbie on them were a little more inexplicable...

After hearing some somewhat painful karaoke (well, the important thing is to have fun, though, and I certainly could not do better, so I should just shut up), both in English and Chinese, and having some of the very beautiful cake (two giant sheet cakes with decorative dragon and phoenix, representing the husband and the wife), we departed to deposit the children at home with a babysitter and to go to my friend Jen's 40th birthday.

Two big milestone birthdays, but very different occasions.

John and Jen pioneered the Poetry Slam home party. They had the first one perhaps 10 or more years ago. The rules are that each guest must bring a poem, written piece, song or other material and read or perform it in front of the others. Guests are, by necessity, fortified with a certain amount of liquid courage before the curtain rises. Over the years, people have performed many wonderful, amazing and creative pieces, some better than others, but all, no matter what, received with great encouragement. They're always fun.

This one, as it was for Jen's 40th birthday (FORTY, I tell you! We're all getting OLD!!!!), had a slightly different crowd, but all still very fun, wonderful people. One man that I didn't know, that must have been a work person, shouted funny things from the back and reminded me of no one other than a prominent exec I know and admire. In very non-exec style, he and some friends did a very hilarious take on the old SNL Sprockets skit ("Touch her monkey!")

We had a great time, it was wonderful to see people that we haven't seen in a long time.

One of the great people that I always look forward to seeing at these types of events is our friend, Terri. Terri had some sort of stomach-stapling type surgery for weight loss last year and SHE LOOKED WONDERFUL. Her piece was about how her life was beginning to open up, that she was dating (and loving it) and how exhilarating this all was for her. She gave me a link to her blog and later I read, with great fascination, about the incredible shrinking girl. Check it out, she's funny and honest and it's a really good read...

My own piece focused on the birthday girl, but I have to tell you that it's sometimes not so easy to find rhymes for "Muir" (pure? cure? manure?)

Last Day of School!

A thrilling day for the boys: "No more homework, no more books. No more teacher's dirty looks!"

Off for the entire summer with nary a structured activity in sight.

I looked through some of the work that they brought home. I found this essay in Ethan's pile of papers:

Wuns I went too monotana. I canot remembr haw old I was. There was a rir and ther was a briige ovr it. The watre wusnt very swift and it has a litl sand. Then mom sau a frog and we cot it. We spent the hol day with it then we went to dinr. The necst day we went to the othr sid of the rifr. We cot a fatr frog. Then the thrd tim we went ther we did not cech a frog.

Yes, I know, tons of mistakes, but I'm still so proud....

Below a photo of the first frog, named Sweetie Pie.

Here is a journal entry from Colin along the same theme:

10 Best things About Summer

1. Camping
2. Sun
3. Swiming
4. no home worck
5. fishing
6. redeing

Apparently, he couldn't think of anything pleasurable after "redeing."

Spider Cake!

My coworker, Maria (henceforth to be called "Auntie Maria") is, in her non-corporate life known as The Cake Lady.

She was kind enough to make a birthday cake for the boys, check out how adorable her spider cake creation is!

The boys were delighted and it was truly delicious....

Her creations are truly spectacular. This summer, she has been commissioned to do a wedding cake in the shape of the Starship Enterprise. I am SO looking forward to seeing that one!

I'll post a link to her website as soon as I can!

May the Force be with you

Ideally, of course, children should be used as accessories to perfect their mother's best costumes.

Thirty some years after their mom was initially afflicted with a Star Wars mania that lasts to this very day, the boys were hit with the bug as well, resulting in easy store-bought Halloween costumes.

Happily, I was able to scrounge up my Princess Leia costume from the bottom of my costume box and -- voila! -- my very own Star Wars trilogy!

The pix were taken at a New Year's party, when the boys reprised their popular roles as clone troopers.

Best circus party ever

ll, in retrospect, the theme really should have been a carnival party, rather than a circus party, as any elephants, tigers, trapeze artists and other big-top attractions were sorely lacking, however, the carnie atmosphere permeated everthing.

Guests were greeted at the door and given a paper bracelet that read "Admit one • All games" on it. Tad's parents then offered them a balloon animal (they had practiced creating hats, swords and a basic animal shape -- they were quite good), then they were shown into the back yard to begin the fun.

(bracelet as shown on young party guest's wrist as she plays the duck lasso game)

I showed them their goodie bags, each marked with their names. I told them that this party was not one where they would simply be given goodie bags at the end, but that they would have to earn their prizes. As they did, they had a ready spot to stash their loot.

We had five games that the kids played to earn tickets with which to "purchase" prizes:

• Ring Toss (shown below), a lawn game that I picked up at Freddie's for 40% off. They got four tries and were given that many tickets.
• Duck Lasso, with floating ducks that kids tried to lasso out of a galvanized metal tub. When they got a duck, they turned that duck over to find a number (1 to 3) and were given that number of tickets.
• Clown Dunk. I hung a laminated clown face in a tipped over wastebasket and invited kids to try to bean him with a collection of water balloons that I'd spent party of the morning filling up.
• Go Fish. This was a magnetic fishing game I got for the boys at Target many years ago and which they never really played with much. My carnie counted to 30 while the children tried to get as many of the fish as they could.
• Bottle Splash. Party goers tried to knock over number of plastic drink bottles with super soakers.
  
  
  
  

One last game was the Candy Count. Kids could guess the number of pieces of candy in a jar. The guesses were written on tickets, so they could have multiple guesses, if they wanted.

I was very gratified to see how quickly the kids dived into the games and really got into the spirit of things. Of course, the big reason why they got jazzed so quickly over the games was that the tickets they earned could be redeemed for candy and toys at the concession stand, below.

My husband, Tad, manned the concession stand. You can see him spinning the cotton candy above (note: cotton candy does not keep well if you spin it and let it sit -- it attracts moisture and dissolves! You can save it in ziplock baggies, if you need to). Over the last few weeks, I picked up little things I thought kids would be interested in wherever I could find them cheap. Century Novelty was a good find. I got foam glider kits, body glitter, squirt guns, clown noses and other little things from them. At other spots, I picked up lip gloss, puzzle sets and a bunch of assorted candy. Some sparkley headbands with mylar flowers and technicolor feathers were a huge hit with the girls. Tad found some great party favors at Target and brought home wooden snakes and whoopie cushions. I sorted things into various baskets and marked them with tags that let the guests know how many tickets would be needed to redeem each item. Small pieces of candy were worth one ticket. The foam gliders and lip gloss were relatively luxurious and worth five tickets each.

Once kids got the idea, they dove into each game enthusiastically, quickly filling up their goodie bags (below).

A lot of the fun of the games goes to my enthusiastic "carnies," who are known, in their other lives, as the kids' grandma, grandpa, Uncle Johnny and godmother Sarah. They were great and kept the kids going from one fun activity to another.

My boys, above, are looking over the concession stand. Later in the party, the kids would virtually wipe it out (which was good -- I didn't need the sugary leftovers in the house afterward!).

I polled several of the kids after the party and even the most jaded of them pronounced the party a great success!

Thank goodness it's over for another year, though. And what a relief! I love the backyard birthday party (last year the boys had voted for a bowling party, which was not nearly as much fun for me to plan) and am soooo glad that this one was so successful!