The Kinfolk Descend

Mom, Sylvia, cousin & mother-in-law, Betty and I dropped on brother Rhys and his wife, Christy, and kids, Rhys (aka Bub) and Dom this week. Taking advantage of the one day off brother Rhys had to recover from surgery, the grand dammes and I (grand damme-in-training) made our way over to the Sierra foothills, which were resplendent in greens and flowery carpets this time of year, to Plymouth for a couple of days. It was amazing to see the boys...Dom with a red goatee and braces, but some of these things are temporary...Rhys the younger safely back from Iraq and now in his own apartment with good, if slobby, friends. While we were there, we had lots of homey pleasures. Note: in the photo where Rhys and Christy are trying out their "shakas," the Hawaiian hand sign for greeting and all good things, my goofy brother is purposely trying to get his hair to look as weird as possible. Good job! We assisted in a junk removal/driveway makeover project one day. Betty got worn out watching us from her post in the lawn chair.

Beer Garden Party

The usual all-family mix went to a little German pub, the Tyrolean Inn, for a last get-together before Sylvia flies home to Anchorage and Angie swims back to Maui. We had kartoflpuffer, wild boar, jagerschnitzel, apfel strudel and some "interesting" beverages, like sprite mixed with ale. I liked it and Sylvia and Stan gagged. This little restaurant will be right around the corner when Debbie and Gary and Parker relocate to Ben Lomond in June, so it was a good chance to check it out. Stan managed to join us, but Gary was too wiped out from a week of what amounts to 2 jobs....his regular one and then working on the new house.

Recumbent Gals

This week my mom, Sylvia, and daughter Angie came to visit and I had the week off. At one point we took a test ride of some bikes at the Easy Racer showroom in Watsonville. We rode around the parking lot on these trikes and some recumbents and generally had a bunch of fun goofing off. We also really liked these things for transport, though. It is so comfortable on the "tadpole" trikes that Angie and Sylvia are on here. You would really have to be careful about the sunscreen riding these, though, cause it is just like laying out in the sun in terms of exposure to UV. You can see I am having a little difficulty getting started on the bicycle model I am testing. The usual tricks of riding a bike don't apply as well to these cause your leg action doesn't go up and down, but in and out.

It's Your Birthday

On Tuesday Angie turned 27 years old...three times three times three she has been a delight in my life, and in the lives of many others. From the very beginning she was determined to do things in her own inimitable way. I think I was giving her little books on manners up until she was about 10! But in some bumbling way, I helped raise this girl to be a responsible, vivacious, intelligent, accomplished, compassionate woman, who just happens to be stunning. I am more proud of my two daughters than I am of anything else I have managed to achieve in my life, which is not inconsequential. Buon compleanno, tesora! Here she is in Maui, where she is happily ensconced for the present.

A Visit From Livie

Last weekend was a special treat, cause I spent it with daughter Olivia, who flew in from Chicago for a special friend's baby shower. That would be Lisa, the barefoot and pregnant one in the middle of the group. We had a little technology session, getting to be a standard feature of any family visit wherein a member of the younger generation gives some important usage tips to a member of the older generation. I do this with my mom when I visit her, and my girls do it with me when we get some time together. Livie and Laura had a nesting theme for the shower. And there had to be cupcakes, one of Livie's new passions. I instantly booked a visit to Chicago this summer after she left. I am becoming one of those caricatures--mothers who just can't get enough time with the kids. How did that happen? Life is just full of these little ironic twists. You just gotta laugh.

A Cat Can Teach Itself New Tricks

Baker used to be such a frivolous cat. She specialized in chasing dust motes, imaginary prey or gnats. That's OK, cause we have a very serious cat, too, Blue. She is in charge of mice, moles, also birds, sadly, and on occasion a squirrel or a snake. She offers most of these up to us, her feeders, although she can't really resist munching most of the mice beforehand. So when Baker waltzed into the room last week with a mouse in her mouth, you might imagine my surprise. She did let it go and fail to recatch it, though. Only natural for a beginner. I was so impressed! This week I found more evidence of Baker's new skills. It was another mouse, completely unmunched, with its little eyes open and every body part in good order. I know it must have been Baker, because Blue would at least have eaten the yummy head. So, what do you know? How funny the little thing looked, just like the toy catnip mice that are scattered about the floor.