Tuesday, January 23, 2007

it's been awhile...

i know, i know....let's get on to the present. with Jeff back in school after holiday break, there is little time for blogging. but here it goes.
G finally got to try her hand at archery, which she has been wanting to do for a long time, she loved it, and now it will be part of our weekly routine. it was a little weird because i looked for awhile to find an indoor facility and when i did, they were usually mixed with shooting ranges for hunters, etc. i was glad to find a place that was just archery. but i informed her that she might not like the environs, seeing as how she is a vegetarian by choice. in my L.A. girl naivete i warned her that there might be posters of hunted animals, etc.....uh, posters..it's laughable now but i should remember that now we live in OREGON--uh, posters? as we were about to walk in Jeff reminded me about the actual heads (there were also enormous bodies- of bears, cougars, moose, etc) that might be on display!!! i hadn't even thought about that..its not part of my reality. she did fine and when she was asked if she was interested in it because "her daddy goes huntin?" she said that her inspiration was Robin Hood. now L has inherited her old dollar store bow and arrow and also loves it.

she has also become part of a modern dance/ childrens choreography company-Sparkplug Dance. the rest of her week of classes includes drawing& painting, clay, gymnastics, archery.
L started his dance & art class, he enjoyed it, art the most. he is really into building things. and he loves and needs to have the freedom to do things with no time constraints. he will go to his workbench and emerge with amazing pieces. one of the ones i will include in the photos here(if they download to blogger. this doesnt work well for me for some reason!) was amazingly symmetrical. he is really loving the rubiks cube, and thomas, and blocks, and learning to read and shapes and robots. he will be THREE one week from today. our sweet, brilliant little Aquarius wants a bowling party with vanilla cake and chocolate frosting. he has known this for some time. and this is our plan.

try to check out my other blog, Baikalogy. ill be working on that alot more soon.

well, it seems im having trouble with pics right now, so enjoy this tidbit.

Monday, October 23, 2006

what we REALLY got in our CSA this week



it's always so exciting, getting our csa box every wednesday. it really gives us a feeling of being so blessed to live in this Willamette valley, where we can get all kinds of fabulous organic produce and not have to worry about weirdproduce from humongous processing plants. especially now that we are truly in our "student salad days" and we eagerly await our weekly allottment that will be stretched out for a week with the addition of rice and tofu. it is wonderful to have G read me the list of veggies that came in our box on the way home after picking it up......

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

cake

oh, by the way, that is a bullseye cake for her Robin-hood themed birthday party at the local gymnastics place. she is a Robin hood FANATIC!! it was a wonderful vegan scrumptuosity from Sweet life and if i could figure out how to do links, that is WHEN i figure out how to do links, i will link SW.

happy birthday

birthday girl


lots of stuff

more pictures of the cute hamster...







my cousin came to visit with her family. she has a 3 year old son. we havent seen them in 2 years! they had fun playing. we took them to fabulous Sweet Life Patisserie. they delighted in Thomas the train together. they cimbed a tree..

Friday, October 06, 2006

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

blogger image retrograde

there something awry..im having lots of trouble uploading photos. sorry.

Monday, October 02, 2006

look what we got from our CSA!

so happy to have a hamster and if you look CLOSELY you might see her in that cage!


your hat should match your solar system poster

"we throw away lots of food"

L and i were slated to spend some time together just the two of us while G spent some time with her dad wherein she probably stared at her new hamster *see post below.

so L and i walked over to Barnes and Noble mere moments after exhausting hamster aquisition, again see post below. B & N is next door. we were going to go over to play at the Thomas train table and L was going to try to get Deisel 10 or terrence or some train for the fortythousandth time.
i alluded to a possible treat.we approached the coffee bar. there was a peculiar scene: a harried mom ( not so peculiar) a small child and a big blue shopping cart! i knew it wasn't going to be business as usual. again, see post below. starngeness was afoot, it had been hovering around us all day like the fruit flies that had been everywhere lately.
so the mom was all over the place, but i could totally understand. her daughter was freaking out. the mom was trying to move the GIANT blue shopping cart( from the nearby-ish Toy's r us) out of the b&n cafe area and couldn't figure out what was so upsetting to her daughter. ah....she had ordered the chocolate cupcake,but had gotten the VANILLA! o.k. this is where you understand why im writing about this. so the momwanted to exchange for the choc one. the barista manager asked if she had touched it. the mom said no, and i saw that she did NOT open it, the to go container. then the manager told the other barista to just toss it and give her the chocolate. wait, toss it? the mom was upset. there was no reason to toss it. the manager said she could not resell something that could have been touched. this was absurd! so i piped up. after all, i had said to L he might get a treat. perfect, save the cupcake and everyone will be happy, if they are going to throw it OUT!!!! anyway! L was happy, he was getting a cupcake.
then they said i would have to pay for it. for something they were going to throw out anyway??? a perfectly good cupcake, when people are STARVING, when mothers are watching their babies STARVING to death all over the world.???? this was so sad.
then she said "we throw food out all the time. it's no big deal"

read that statement again. now think of how many people, people you may know that are needing food. how many mothers have to watch their children die of starvation, malnutrition? it's really appalling that people can say something like that and reallynot feel the weight of it. nothing against that cafe manager, she's doing her job which is putting food on her table, and i have worked in many food environments where there are strict regulations and food gets thrown out. but, oh my god, people die for lack of food and when people are o'k with just throwing it away, people are losing touch.
so there was this big misunderstanding, as per my mental state , again, see post below and i said i would just pay for it, whatever, and i was shocked when they retrieved a new cupcake from the display case! what?!!!
because, guess what, in all the confusion they had already "tossed it"

the manager later laughingly came over to me and apologised for "all that"

and all i could even begin to say was " you know people CAN change things"

how do the mountains breathe? in Bhutan or anywhere?

we were talking about a law in Bhutan. it is illegal in Bhutan for people to climb past a certain altitutde on the mountains. this is because they are sacred and maybe more special the higher it gets. i'm not sure of the deatils, we were discussing this on the way to G's tap class. then L said "how do the mountains breathe?" good question.

G's early birthday present!

so, G wanted her very own pet, other than her fish, for her birthday. we did some research and after entertaining thoughts of a ferret(no), a dog(no, not right now), a guinea pig(no), a rat (uh, no, never ever ever) we decided a hamster MIGHT be a wonderful and easy animal for her to take care of. we have allergy issues and lack a back yard, so a hamster sounded great. and then we caved and got it for her early because she had already picked out "pumpkin" and didnt see the point in letting her sit over there at petco, when she could be keeping our daughter awake right in our very own house. hamsters are nocturnal, by the way, and now G wants to stay up and watch pumpkin in the wheel which by the way sounds the the garbage truck coming to our house and driving in reverse and driving forward and on and on again seemingly ad infinitum. this little tidbit we did not know.
we spent an hour picking out cages, opted for the one she "really wanted" because it had the pop out carrying case for all those times we would need to tote pumpkin all around town with us. this cage happened to be the most expensive one, about 5 times the cost of said hamster. we start to put the cage together in the van in the parking lot. of course it broke, it being made of that rigid plastic that breaks if you sneeze while holding it. so, i took the neon monstrosity (monstrosity in a cute way of course)and waited in a long line of people requesting flea control products that for some strange reason are kept in a vault in the back of the store. i went back to the aisle where the dad of the family, in his infinite wisdom, of which he constantly reminds me, suggested the "starter kit". it's not as flashy, much cheaper. and has everything you need, or so it seems....i found myself examing the attaching clippy thing at the back of the wheel of the floor model. this would be fortuitous!
at the register i filled out all the paperwork, blah, blah, and got $15 back. and said"i really hope i don't have to return anything else." and i really did hope that. again, fortuitous.
got back in the van, yes, it was all put together and little clippy thing was, MISSING! god, i didnt want to go back there. but i did. i explained it all, after waiting for more closely guarded flea control products to be distributed, walked to the aisle, the hamster aisle. and got a replacement! she almost paid me $5 more to never come back.

so pumpkin is home and i will post the pictures later tonight, when the garbage and/or recycling truck comes. we love her. hamsters are really cute