Christmas too soon

Christmas decorations are going up everywhere, including home. The boys have been making Christmas wish lists for weeks now, and for the first year they are perusing toy catalogues. Their lists are very long. Electronics are a big item on Jack's; Ry is more interested in skateboards and bakugans. Jack and I saw an ITouch at the Apple store. It has a ton of apps and you can use wifi, without having to sign up for phone service on top of it. He's been discovering more apps on the computer, and he figured out the paint program. Jack made some presents already, wrapped them and put them under the tree. Ry tells me Jack wants to knit a scarf for Cyndi, but it's a secret. Ry's been making me ornaments and gifts out of paper and glue and markers. Ry asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I thought of things he could make out of paper. So I said sailboat and a few other things. No,no, he said. What do you really want? So I said, socks. (My stock answer for a gift. The thing is I really think that is a great gift. Only Ariel gets it.) What else? he asked. Music. What else? Running shoes. So he said those things over and over to etch them into his mind. What was that other one again? The next day he asks me what kind of socks do I like. He says he's getting me some tomorrow, Mom's taking him. The next couple of days, he asks me, what kind of music do you like? I said, well, lots...jazz. Do you like Raffi? Yes, I do. That's his favorite music, he says. Yesterday he said maybe he should get something different from Raffi since we already have some. We curl up together almost every night, the last to go to sleep. He reaches a hand out in his sleep to touch. Jackson is getting very lanky. He's sweet with people. He took a break from playing with his cousins his age on Thanksgiving day last week and quietly ate while listening to his older cousins talk. His oldest cousin there is in his early thirties. The others ranged from teen to twenties. The conversation was cynical, boisterous and adult. When Jackson learned his oldest cousin's age, he was surprised. I thought you were a teenager, he told his cousin. Later Jack and I played chess. He is quick and sure now. Ariel called, too. She was visiting Terra in Boston. We talked about getting out of New York the evening before Thanksgiving, time with Terra, and her first staff meeting as editor. She will be here in about two weeks.

stuffed animals

Jackson got his cast off yesterday. He can't bicycle or play soccer at his daily three recesses, which he really loves, until the arm has a chance to heal more. He's so happy to take a shower again. I'm sure he'll bang his arm, however, as he loves to run madly about and slide on the floor and crash into people and things. We went to a pack meeting last night after his catechism class. He never sits still at the meeting. He loves it. They are fun meetings, with songs, cheers, skits, awards and lots of boys to play with. His cousin, Nicholas, is in the same pack, too. Jackson has also been busy with his computer apps--maps and such--and we set up an email address for him, too. The other day he spent drawing a floor plan of an RV he wants us to get. It does have some pretty cool features, including a dumbwaiter from the outside. His room above the cab looks like a suite, and I think the RV may actually have three floors.

Ry has been busy making stickers for his skateboard. It's an old, beat up skateboard of his cousin's, who had put on some new trucks, bearings and wheels, so that despite its appearance it rides pretty smoothly. It's a big boy board. Santa is likely to bring him one, and Ry doesn't want the mini boards for little kids. He watches the video clips of skateboarders online and knows all the top skateboarders by name. Everything is "dot com" to him. If you want to see bicycles, well, you go to bicycles-dot-com. Baseball? Go to baseball-dot-com. As you can imagine, there actually is a skateboarders-dot-com, and he's found it. He wears his bicycle helmet--along with his skateboarder shoes and clothes--and he will also likely get a helmet that's specific for skateboarding when Christmas rolls around.

The other day, Ry showed me a turkey stuffed animal. He carried it around a few days, went to bed with it, kept it by his side while watching Disney Playhouse in the morning. Right now it's sitting with some Thanksgiving decorations on the credenza, so I don't know how much he's become attached to it. Jackson never seemed to get into stuffed animals until one day I noticed that a little rabbit, called Bunny, started showing up in the pockets of backpacks and suitcases whenever we took a trip. Ariel had several favorite stuffed animals, bears especially and Brown Bear in particular. There's a series of drawings of her playing with her bears, having tea parties, raking the leaves, playing in the sandbox. I'll have to find those.

Ariel is doing well in New York. There's some links in another post below this one. She has a birthday coming up, and I think she is planning to visit Terra and Karl in Boston for Thanksgiving.

We will have Thanksgiving in Belen. Benny is getting stronger. Cousin Lauren is dancing in a half time show for the Lobos football this weekend, so there is a plan to attend the game. Rylee wants to see a live game. I think the Lobos are 0-10 this year, with lots of controversy. It's cold, too, so I think it will be a sparse crowd. Cyndi wants to finish painting the boys' room, too. A potluck for Ry's preschool tonight; Jack's parent-teacher conference Monday morning. Think that's it. No birthday party that I've heard of.

weekend of birthday parties

It was back-to-back birthday parties this weekend. Ry's friend from preschool had one at a McDonald's; a friend of Jack's since kindergarten had a slide in the his backyard (over 30 kids and good fixings for frito pies); and a cub scout had friends for bowling. Last minute gifts to get, and Jackson wrote some great cards.

Halloween 2009

a link (or two) from Ariel I'm sharing, updated

Ariel's first story and first published story while at NYU. Just added another link: this one to a fun blog post ...and also heard she will be the editor in chief of the online publication. Check it out!

Halloween weekend

After a couple of days of snow flurries and cold temperatures, the weekend turned sunny and warm. The hunter's moon was nearly full. Jackson was a couple of days into his orange cast on his left arm. Rylee was busy coloring Halloween pictures. The weekend began with school parties on Friday and a fright when Jack tried to retrieve a paper pumpkin in the street in front of his school.

Friday evening we went over to Dorie and Pete's house to carve pumpkins. There was a huge spread of food in their kitchen. A neighbor of theirs came by and a couple of their friends. "Hocus Pocus" was on. The pumpkin carving took place in the garage, where Ry circled on a scooter around the tables covered with plastic for the pumpkins. Jack began removing the seeds from his pumpkin and after I cleaned Ry's out I helped Jack finish scraping his. The boys were anxious to carve their own pumpkin. Jackson had made a design for his at least a month before, and he brought his drawing with him to the party. They both drew their designs in marker on the pumpkins and proceeded to carve out the faces. Cyndi helped Ry; I helped Jack a bit. Don did his usual meticulous work. Brendan, Nicholas and Lauren, along with another friend, each did one, and at some point Pete carved a couple. When they were all done, candles were placed in each of them and lit and the houselights turned off to view the glowing pumpkin faces. Then they were judged by paper ballot. Jackson declared a rule that you could not vote for your own. I voted for Jack's; Cyndi voted for Ry's. Ry's tied for the most votes with three or four.

On Saturday, we did some errands and we put a stop to all the pre-trick-or-treating candy eating and other sweets, but not before we made some cinnamon buns. I tried to fix the dryer and while Cyndi took Rylee and Jackson to a birthday party I started the traditional potato soup and croutons. For a change, Halloween was at Elley and Don's. Their neighborhood was more promising for trick or treating, as each year in our neighborhood more and more houses were dark, declaring no one was there to answer the door. The cousins had decided that we should have a haunted house, so Don draped sheets and black plastic in the garage, along with strobe lights, eerie sounds and an amplified microphone, to create a maze that was foreboding to enter. We all contributed some things we had: stuffed witches and scarecrows, masks, and such. Ry contributed a plastic shield to put on the back door. The Sanchez Sisters all dressed up as witches, becoming the "Sanderson Sisters", and their friend Ann was there when we arrived, sitting on a bench by the front door, in a very scary, and very professional, witch's costume, complete with prosthetics and makeup, which she applied herself. Other friends and family arrived. Don and I took the kids around the streets, while Pete spooked the trick or treaters daring to enter the maze. There was lots of good food inside and the usual libations. Jackson ate some good food before the candy. The children did well and spread out their bounty on the floor and did a bit of trading. The boys asked permission before they ate any candy, but I never refused them that night. Thankfully, Cyndi hid the candy afterward and it may have been forgotten.

The clocks lost an hour that night so we woke up early. We made coffee, and the boys and I went to get breakfast burritos. On the spur of the moment we thought we'd go to Santa Fe, even go to the basilica for mass. We thought of taking the train, but the Sunday schedule for returning wouldn't bring us home until late. The bells were ringing as we drove by the plaza and La Fonda. We arrived for the noon service a few minutes late after finding a place to park. The closest door took us to the south transept, the right arm of the cross on the church's floorplan, so we did not sit in the central nave. The cathedral is beautiful with paintings, statuary, and stenciling. The choir was heavenly. The archbishop sat with his crook and high hat and was attended by many clergy and laity. There were bells and incense. The archbishop gave the sermon, tying the 400th anniversary of the founding of Santa Fe with All Saint's Day and all of the ancestors who were buried beneath the floor of the cathedral.

We drove along Paseo de Peralta and Marcy afterwards to our usual Santa Fe stops--Toyopolis and JCrew--and walked about the plaza. We always are a bit unsure where to eat near the plaza on Sundays. The Shed is closed. Pasqual's, named for the patron saint of cooks, is nearby and good for a hearty brunch. Other favorites are off the plaza. So we often end up at the Ore House. Marble Brewery, from Albuquerque, has opened a new place, upstairs, near the old Woolworth's and overlooking the plaza, but they only serve pizza. I try not to go to the Ore House, but it is always pleasant to sit on their terrace overlooking the plaza. We ordered amber ales, two shots of reposada tequilla, which they served in a tall glass on a plate with salt and lime wedges, cheese quesidilla, a side of beans, french fries, a hamburger and posole. We sat in the hot sun, trying to shield our eyes. We talked with the couple at the neighboring table from Colorado. Rylee played with his new jet transformer, and Jackson and I played checkers and chess with the new magnetic travel games we bought. Afterward, we stopped at the Plaza Bakery for kids' scoops of ice cream while Cyndi walked to The Sign of the Pampered Maiden. The boys each had chocolate with rainbow sprinkles. I had vanilla almond fudge.

We ambled around the plaza. The boys ran around the obelisk and climbed up the gazebo, where a man played a flute. As Jack says, there is always something special going on at the plaza. Jack bought a beaded zipper pull from a woman across from the portico where the jewelry and pots are sold. Behind the Palace of the Governors is a new addition to the history museum, so we took a peek. It turns out Sunday is free to residents. Jackson talked with the receptionist for several minutes about where he lived, and what schools they attended, and what they bought at the toy store and on the plaza, and how he beat his dad at chess the very first time he ever played, and how something special is always happening on the plaza, and then we walked through the first gallery, which gives a fast timeline from the Anasazi to Mabel Dodge Lujan and the Taos Art Colony (about late 1920s). From there we drove home. Ry fell asleep. There was a world series game that night. Yankees won, I learned later.

I had a nice conversation with Ariel. She was at a convention at M.I.T., something to do with biological engineering. She had a press pass, and was enjoying talking to people there. She was on a break when we talked, and later Terra would pick her up to stay with her and Karl. Ariel was in good spirits, and maybe the initial overwhelming work at NYU had settled a bit. She had a few good stories about meeting editors and other people through her program, and we talked about plans for Christmas, including time in both New Mexico and Alaska with Chris. I also talked with Mom & Dad, back from a couple of days staying along the coast near Capitola on a bluff.

This morning, after my alarm went off several times, I crawled into the bed with Ry and Jack. Poor Cyndi has been battling a vicious cold. I nestled beside Ry and draped an arm across him onto Jack's leg. Jack turned in his sleep to face Ry and the two continued to sleep within an inch of their breaths. Ry placed a hand softly on Jack's cheek and a few minutes later kicked off his own covers.

Hallowed Eve eve

We had snow flurries yesterday, and it is cold this morning. It may hit 40 by afternoon, but it is sure to be sunny. The Sandias are dusted with snow. Flowers wilted from the cold, and leaves are gathering in piles, swept by the winds we had before the the cold and snow came through.

Jackson got a cast on Wednesday. It is bright orange. He carries a permanent marker in his pocket so his cousins, classmates and friends can sign his cast. On Wednesday evening, Jack got his bobcat badge at the pack meeting. It's the initiation achievement. He was very excited and happy about it. We had the complete uniform for the meeting, all the badges and patches on. Last night he studied the wolf handbook and made a list of all the "belt loops" he can achieve.

Rylee is very excited about Halloween. He is already talking about next year. He has a costume parade at school today, and a couple of his buddies at school have birthday party plans. He is making skeleton hands out of paper and glue. Cyndi made candy corn and popcorn hands, with plastic spider rings, using latex surgical gloves, for both Ry's and Jack's classes. They will have a busy day.

Bare Loon Lake

I'm going through some documents in my office today, and found this poem Ariel wrote in the summer of 1996. She may be cringing a little, knowing I'm about to set it out here. She was 12 when she wrote it and about to go into 7th grade. I recall she submitted it and it was published before. We were returning from our hike with David, Terra and Jennifer along the Chilkoot Trail when she wrote it. The night before we left on the hike, David directed us in packing our provisions, quick eats like gorp, bagels and cream cheese. I think I drank iodine-laced water, flavored with Tang, on the trip, as we had no purifiers then. Most of our party had external frame backpacks. Ariel had a blue junior-sized one we bought at REI, filled with gear and clothes, her sleeping bag and mat, and food and water. A ridiculously small bell dangled and tinkled from her backpack to protect her from bears, a dubious safeguard no longer recommended. She usually wore shorts, big boots, wool socks, a couple of layers on top, sunglasses, and a floppy hat or bandanna on her head. David had the only stove, which we used to boil water. We took the ferry up from Juneau to Skagway, slept overnight at the trailhead in our only rainfall of the trip. The trail took us through the rainforest and then we entered alpine and snowfields, following 33 miles of the trail the gold seekers took during the Klondike Gold Rush to enter the Yukon in the late 1890s. Before the Chilkoot Pass there was a hard climb up a rocky slope, covered with snow near the top. There were switchbacks of boulders marked by poles, but it was mostly scrambling. There is a famous photograph from 1898 showing an endless train of stampeders, each carrying hundreds of pounds of provisions on their backs, hiking straight up to the summit along steps carved into the snow. These are the Golden Stairs. Once you reach the summit of the pass, you enter British Columbia. A Mountie (probably a warden, or ranger, actually) was stationed there. A man portaging a canoe passed us there. We saw very few others, usually only at a camp site or at the pass, discussing bear sightings, but more often we saw no one. Several miles later we made our second or third camp at Bare Loon Lake. We were alone. Our two tents sat on a rocky ledge at the edge of the lake. The night never became dark, and we listened to the cries of the loons on the lake. I recall drinking hot coffee in the morning, standing near the lake, and Ariel bolting from the tent, pack on her back, ready to go. Here is her poem, which I think she began on the ferry back to Juneau and worked on as we flew back home. She also made a pastel painting, a Christmas gift, which I have but I must repair the glass.

Bare Loon Lake

I wonder if the loons sang those nights
The nights it was windy and cold
The nights stampeders hiked through mountains and snow
To find but a handful of gold

I wonder if the loons sang those nights
Sang their eerie song
On a lake with waters as clear as glass
Glistening in the quiet dawn

From the lush rain forest in Alaska
To Canada with lands full of light
Gold seekers reached a peaceful lake
Where the loons may have sung that night

I heard the loons sing last night
The night after climbing The Golden Stairs
The same stairs stampeders made in the snow
The snow that covered many rock layers

I wonder if the loons sang those nights
Sang for the travelers sake
I wonder if the loons sang those nights
Those nights on Bare Loon Lake


Here is an official web site for the Chilkoot Trail.

David has pictures and an account of a recent trip along the same trail here. David has other links, pictures from another trip, and photographs.

Finally, here's the wikipedia page.

When I have a chance, I'll scan photographs from our trip in 1996. Someday, there'll be another.

injury

Cyndi had a girl's night out in Santa Fe on Friday. They took the Railrunner and went to Canyon Road and the plaza. The boys and I had hot dogs at Costco and went to an indoor putting course. On Saturday morning, we went to the skate park, meeting Pete and Brendan there. In the afternoon, we went to Belen. I put bratwursts on the stove, Ry was still asleep in the car, and Cyndi and Jackson went riding on their bikes. I'll let Cyndi describe what happened and how she managed to find a cell phone, but I got a call that Jack broke his arm. I drove with Ry to the park where they were and we took Jack to an urgent care. We managed to get there two minutes before they closed; otherwise, we would have had to drive to Albuquerque. We got xrays and saw a doctor. They put his left arm in a splint and a sling. At this point, it doesn't look like a fracture, possibly a dislocated elbow, and probably a severe sprain. Cyndi will take him in tomorrow, but it doesn't look bad. Jack was pretty tough about it, and he helped his mom in the moments after the accident.

sailboats & golf

The boys got costumes for Halloween this week. Ry is a "scary ghost" and Jack is a magician. There's talk of the cousins making a "haunted house" at Nicholas' and Lauren's house, where we'd meet for trick or treating this year.

Jack's cub scout pack had a sailboat regatta on Saturday. We met on Saturday afternoon at the middle school, and the boys raced their boats in rain gutters set up on sawhorses and filled with water. The regatta was followed by an ice cream social, with big bowls of ice cream and lots of toppings. Jack and I started building the boat from a kit on Thursday but the last coat of paint and glue were still drying just before the race. Jackson painted the boat in blue and yellow and put stickers all over the sail. The boat could have sailed better, but Jackson had fun.

Ry and I went to the skateboard park early Saturday. It's pretty amazing to watch him gliding along. Later he asked to use a golf club and decided that golf was his new favorite sport. He wanted to watch the golf channel that evening. Ry will only wear sports clothes, because they're "cool." Lately, he's been adopting a skateboarder look. He said he wasn't interested in the "handsome" clothes his mom ironed and set out for him for school. We told him he could be both handsome and cool. When he said he wanted to wear golfing clothes, I told him golfers wore "handsome" polo shirts, just like the ones Mom set out for him. So now he's wearing a polo shirt.

a weekend

The weekend began with the boys off from school on Friday. They went to the balloon fiesta with Cyndi, her sister, Elley, and their cousins. Later they rode their bikes on the ramps at the skateboard park. On the way home, I picked up some crates of halloween decorations from the storage unit. After Cyndi went to restorative yoga, we went to Monroe's. I talked with Ariel on the telephone. She was about to meet Chris. He was flying in that night and they would meet at Penn Station in Manhattan and have a pizza at about 1 a.m.

Saturday, the boys and Cyndi set up the halloween decorations around the house. Ry remembered where they were placed in the house last year, and Jackson found decorations he had made in school in years past. I worked in the yard a bit. Jack helped me plant some mums that were still in pots and rollerbladed on the sidewalk. Ry dug a little and skateboarded in the driveway. I fixed a sprinkler head that broke, mowed, trimmed, swept, watered, and cleaned the grill. The day was beautiful, sunny and warm. We invited Elley and family and Dorie and family over for dinner that night. We spent the afternoon making corn chowder and marinading the tri tip. Jackson set up the Polar Express and Ry drew pictures of a figure-eight train track. Ry practiced his counting and addition that day. He counts past one hundred and can add a string of numbers. He understands that two million plus two million is four million, that three plus one is the same as one plus three, and that 2 + 2 + 2 is 6. This year in Jack's second grade, there doesn't appear to be much of a push or challenge and the teacher, on instruction, she says, of the school system, is sticking to a pretty low level of a curriculum. We're not impressed, but Jack still loves school. He checks out Junie B. Jones books from his library, which are a hoot to read, and says he wants to know history.

The families came over, and we had a really nice pot luck dinner. Cyndi made a salad and an apple cobbler from the last of the apples from Mom's and a few from a friend at work. Her sisters brought garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, bread, ice cream, and more wine. We opened some wine, and I grilled the steaks while Pete and Don and I stood around the grill, talking about football, the balloons, and I don't remember what else. Brendan, Jackson and Rylee skateboarded in the garage before Nicholas and Lauren came over. Ry practiced his ollies, a move that lifts the board off the ground so he can jump over things. At one point in the middle of the meal, I watched the kids playing in the living room. Jackson was playing hearts on the computer at the moment. Lauren and Rylee were drawing pictures of a haunted house. After dinner and dessert, we all sat around watching "Hocus Pocus" and then we were all ready to crash for the night.

The meal and the wine were heavy sedatives and Cyndi and I woke up from deep sleeps the next morning. We all played a couple of hands of hearts. Ry shot the moon, although I was playing his cards while he was playing with a bicycle catalogue, and it was an open-handed play. Jackson and I spent some time figuring out how to network all of the computers in the house, and we discovered that we could access recorded tv shows and movies on the desktop to play on our laptops anywhere in the house. This came about after fixing the wi-fi router. It was all I could do to convince Cyndi not to do chores in the morning.

She planned a bike ride and we said we'd meet at the Academy. The tire stem on my back wheel had broken off in Monterey. I found an old innertube in the garage, changed my tire, pumped it up, and it seemed to hold. The boys and I rode up the street and along the bike path--an uphill climb--to the Academy. I contacted Cyndi by phone, and we decided to meet at the Starbucks, so the boys and I kept riding on the path toward Starbucks. Many walkers along the path smiled at the boys and me bicycling. It was a beautiful morning. Jackson took the lead and would wait for us at any intersection. The boys each wore their helmets and an unzipped sweatshirt. Rylee pedaled along at an easy speed. When we arrived, we parked the bikes in a rack, ordered our coffees and hot chocolates, and Cyndi arrived smiling. I walked to get bagels, and when I returned our friend, Paula, was sitting with Cyndi and the boys. We talked for a good while, sitting outside in the shade. While we were talking with Paula, the boys rode around the sidewalks. One lady watched them and told us how amazed she was to see Rylee weaving around the tables. On our way back, stopped together at a curb, two women commented to Rylee about how he wasn't using any training wheels. Rylee answered by jumping the curb. Jackson and Cyndi took the lead going back, and Rylee and I pedaled behind them. (Those little wheels only go so fast.) Ry said that from now on we can ride our bikes to Starbucks. It's better than driving, he said, 'cause he doesn't have to sit in the car. I agreed. We coasted downhill to home on the bike path. Maybe four miles total. Jackson complained that we were so slow.

The balloons didn't go up that morning--the last mass ascension and the last event of the fiesta--due to the wind at dawn. The wind died down somewhat but it still felt cool that day. It was very sunny, though. I shut down the cooler, and we had a fire in the fireplace that day.

The ride was so fun, we decided to go out again later in the afternoon. Cyndi thought we should try going to the driving range. I grabbed a few irons of my Dad's, and some old tees from his bag. We got a big bucket of balls and borrowed some junior clubs and ladies clubs. The boys loved. A group of teenage boys stopped to watch Ry hit. Both boys did great for their first time.

Ry is anxious to get his halloween costume. He's changed his mind so many times, and I think he really wants a ninja-star wars-transformer-action hero sort of costume, with a mask, from a store. I've been trying to talk him out of being a zombie skateboarder. But lately, he's also been back to where he started from after last year's halloween: a ghost. He talks about getting a sheet and cutting holes in it. I like that idea so much better, although I don't think Ry likes my idea of cutting a whole face out. That's not the way he knows it's done. He got interested after a friend of Cyndi's dropped off some old, bygone Albuquerque Dukes stuff, and of course Rylee put it all on and looked good, and he and I joked about being The Ghost of the Albuquerque Dukes. Jackson has pretty much gotten it down to a magician's costume, which is mostly a cape and a hat. He's been practicing magic tricks to perform, and he and Rylee joke about pulling his stuffed bunny from a hat.

A great weekend.

added...

a couple of links for kicks. A little more information at Post a Message on sidebar.

a little hike

I was just re-reading the recent blogs after my dad wrote me an email, and it reminded me of this past weekend somehow.

Janey was in town during the weekend, so on Sunday after a breakfast of eggs and bacon and toast with the strawberry-rhubarb jam we bought on Saturday and after church we met Janey and went on a short hike along Piedra Lisa, which is near the La Luz trail in the Sandias. The first part is a dirt road, almost a half-mile. Jackson brought his water pack, with a few essential things, and it wasn't long before I was carrying it. But you know that's going to happen. Rylee was running on the road, and he was sure to be tired soon. The trail itself was much steeper than I would have thought, and very gravelly, which makes it slippery going down. It was a very rocky, narrow trail, bordered by pinon and fir, cholla and yucca. Jackson hiked with Janey and Cyndi, and he would occasionally stop so Ry and I could catch up. As the trail became steeper, Rylee and I would sing songs. The songs we know don't really drive us to march up the hills, as a cadence, but they distract us. Rylee forgets that he just asked me to carry him up the hill, and it's way too early to be doing that. There was "I've been working on the railroad," "Take me out to the ballgame," and the Alphabet Song. On the way back, we sang songs again, holding each other's hands to keep from slipping on our butts, but Ry didn't want to repeat songs, so we had to think of others. We do our own variations of "Numbers Rumba." Ry appreciates the new rhymes. (Ariel and I would do a variation of this on our hikes when she was young.)

Later that night, we learned to play hearts and uninstalled some gadget apps that Jack had placed on his sidebar and were causing some havoc on the computer.

A different weekend of sorts. We went to Great Wall on Friday night. The food is very good, we were able to avoid the Balloon Fiesta crowds, and the bill makes me happy. I sound even to myself like a curmudgeon when I get on this soapbox, but it's really upsetting me these days to pay up to three or four times the amount I paid on Friday night, get food that the owner thinks deserves to be charged the same as the food prepared by a chef in a fine dining restaurant but is almost always suspect if not horrid, or too much is served, and then you end up tipping three or four times the amount I tipped for my Friday night bill for service, let's be honest, that was the same, or worse. It doesn't seem right. The problem I see when taking family out for dinner is that there are very few places that are reasonable. The simple family restaurants are long gone. I can count good, affordable restaurants on one hand. The franchises are charging near high end these days and they don't even make the food. I suspect that even locally owned places must operate like franchises to stay in business and share the same high overhead. Fast food costs about the same as a night out at the affordable family restaurants, unless all you're getting is a bean burrito, but unless you only ate a bean burrito you feel sick afterwards. Still, when we do have a very fine meal out, ahh, it is so good.

I was a curmudgeon at the arts & crafts show, too, and it got to the point where it embarrassed Cyndi, but when we got in it really was a good show and worth some, but not all, of the price of admission (including the exorbitant on-site ATM fees). We ended up having fun that morning and enjoyed a little lunch there. This was the day we went to the balloon fiesta, where I'm sure I complained about the coffee. But that's all.

No, I also complained about the carnival atmosphere at the balloon park. The carnival is a half-mile strip of tents selling baubles and trinkets, pins and calendars, candles and every sort of balloon ornament imaginable. Before dawn, half awake, it is a strange world lit up by flood lights from above and from television crews, with the smells of pork and hot oil, coffee, burnt sugar, and barbecue, crowded with hundreds (growing to thousands) of the other undead wrapped in blankets wandering about with styrofoam cups and wearing jester hats. There is an inane commentary going out over the P.A. speakers. The carnies are present, too: "get your programs," "get your memory cards." This is great stuff but only before dawn. All of a sudden, the entire crowd is silent. A woman sings "The Star Spangled Banner", a cappella, as the mayor, up for re-election this week, floats above the hushed crowd, their upturned faces gazing at the flag draped from his balloon. One man behind me dares to sing it loudly, but the crowd doesn't join in.

The real magic of the balloon fiesta comes when you walk on the field, the grass of the park is lush now, and go among the balloons just starting to inflate. If it is cold, you find a gondola for that moment when the propane burners are ignited. You listen for the whistles permitting lift off. You are surrounded by colors and the sky is now blue. It's just past seven in the morning, and your day feels complete already. It wouldn't matter what you did the rest of the day. A nap is in order.

I have to say that the drive to park was not bad. We picked the right streets, maybe, or maybe we were just lucky when we left. We watched a full moon setting as we drove. We were in lines a mile deep, but the lines moved quickly and we were directed to a space to park three rows from an entrance.

Later in the day, we cooked hamburgers for Janey, her daughter and Kristina, and Elley and Lauren came over, too. We tried out a new vending machine at the supermarket to rent DVDs for a buck. There are no clerks at check out any more. Jack and Ry run the packages through the bar code scan and key in the produce numbers stuck to the tomatoes, which now have vines still attached to them. The Blockbuster, we discovered, has closed. (The end of that era. What a racket. Banks are next.) Yesterday, I downloaded a bunch of stuff on Bennie's new IPod after having to install a new version of software and marveled at the podcasts, audio books, movies, shows, and even educational courses that you can now download.

This is really enough.

balloon fiesta 2009

A fun morning at the balloon fiesta. On the road by 6 am, joining the line of cars into the park. Breakfast of a great green chile breakfast burrito, sweet roll, horrible coffee, and two hot chocolates. At dawn, joined Jack's friend, Hailey, and watched the first wave of balloons go up. Afterward, we went to the arts & crafts tent, enjoyed more food, listened to some music, bought a couple of small things, and made sand art. Went home and took a nap.

The weather was great. Cool, almost no wind, a bit overcast so not the usual crisp, blue skies for the photographs. An expensive proposition over all. The number of balloons is down, a little over 500, from years before. The grass fields are such an improvement, and when you are on the field, next to the balloons, feeling the warmth of the propane torches, being enveloped by the balloons as they fill up, and then watching them lift into the air, there is no more magical way to start a morning. Still, the carnival boulevard is a disappointing way to leave. Talk of winter weather coming soon, maybe even tomorrow.

the boys

Here's some things I've seen in the boys and keep meaning to write about, if I can remember them all. Cyndi, of course, is with them more, and would have plenty of other stories to tell about. I'd like her to do that sometime. I suspect she may have some observations very different from mine.

Jackson is in second grade. He goes twice a week in the mornings to run with the school running club. He fell once while running last week. I just noticed the scab on his thigh, and he told me he wants an inhaler without a mask to take with him. He does get asthma indications after running hard, but it doesn't stop him from being very active on the playground, where he plays a lot of soccer with his friends. For him, playing sports is a social event. He's still taking piano lessons, but that may come to an end soon. He's started cub scouts. At the pack meeting, he couldn't keep still. I can see that he loves it. He smiles a lot, he's quite charming, he's developed a loud, open laugh whenever he finds a story or a movie or something Ry says funny, and he still talks with everyone, whether a child or an adult. Sometimes I'll be looking for him and he'll be in some involved conservation with someone. Often, he'll be the one to start a conversation. He likes to get involved in activities. A good example is when we saw him playing volleyball with some college-age people at the beach. Noone knew who they were, but there he was in the midst of their game, rotating positions on one of the teams. He's doing a lot of paragraph writing in school and lots of addition and subtraction. He reads everything, but I've yet to see him reading a chapter book. Cyndi reads to the boys every night. He likes to do arts and crafts projects. He wants to be completely computer literate. He organizes his study desk, what he calls his office. On trips, he'll pack all sorts of useful and fun stuff to take along: a flashlight, a penknife, a whistle, hand cleanser, a game, his stuffed bunny. His wallet is fat with dollar bills and coins, and he wants to buy things on his own, counting out the money. He's planning an island, which has replaced his "Train with the Magical Wand." He loves the tween shows on Disney.com. He doesn't much like to go to the movie theater. He eats well, and loves to go out to eat. He's always trying to get us to go to Trombino's. He's getting very good at chess. He plans moves ahead and sees traps. I have to be more alert now when I play with him. He loves playing with his cousins, and he always remembers Ariel. He always greets his relatives, giving them a hug and a cuddle, and always remembers to tell his Papa, "Dios te bendiga y buena suerte." When I leave in the morning, he hugs me, if he's awake then, and says, "I love you. God bless you. Bye."

Rylee is counting and learning to add and subtract and spell words now. I'll hear him singing the alphabet song. He writes his name clearly. He loves to draw and color. He's learning big concepts, and he'll often repeat something he's heard or explain something he's figured out, just to see if he's gotten it right. Whenever I say, "that's right," he repeats it again or says, "yes, that's right", to etch it into his mind. Whenever I say, "well, that's not quite right", and tell him more, he'll say, "oh, yes, that's right, that's what I meant to say" and go on. One day he explained to me that he could be a "professional" (his word) anything when he grew up and then listed all the things he could do professionally. Many of them were sports. He is very accommodating, and is easy-going about sharing things. Likely, it is because many of his things are usually hand-me-downs. Lately, he's been insisting on his own things. He will discover old toys and then sit down with them on the floor, sort them out, and play with them, making them move about, talking and singing to himself as he does so. They will become his favorites for a time, to be replaced by another or be rediscovered later. At the same time, I've seen his temper whenever Jackson crosses the line with his teasing. Ry will unleash kicks and punches then, and his face gets red with fury. His physical and sports abilities come naturally. He observes other players, talks about what they are doing, and repeats their actions. I've talked plenty about his infatuation with baseball. Lately, it's been skateboarding. He has a bookmark on his computer home page that directs him to videos of skateboarders. Cyndi took him just yesterday to the skateboard park for the first time. He used Brendan's old skateboard. And now he skateboards in the kitchen every chance he gets. He says he knows five tricks; one is jumping up the threshold from the garage to the kitchen. His favorite sports at the moment are skateboarding, skimboarding and surfing, so he's been saying the last two days. That list changes, though. I've noticed it's not pride or selfishness that drives him in sports. When he picks up a skill on his own that others haven't yet mastered, he just remarks that the others haven't learned it yet. He knows how to set up the chess board, and he knows all the moves, except the knight is still a little puzzling. For Ry, there is a clear distinction between what men do and what women do. Some shows on tv are girl shows. When he eats, he eats well, preferring things like fruit and yogurt. Usually, when presented with a healthy alternative, he will take the healthy food. He'll relish a glass of water or milk, even if he had asked for something sugary. This is even more true lately because he's also excited to be trusted with a glass. At night, he and I are the last to sleep, and in the morning we are the first to get up.

Oh, there are some negatives, to be sure. Ry is going through a stage of whining, especially about toys he wants whenever he shops with Cyndi. Jack has been going through a stage of attitude and even anger, but I haven't seen it in a little while. He can be merciless to Ry with his teasing. Their play can get rough and, as anyone would guess, there comes a point when somebody gets hurt, someone cries, or one or both of the parents starts yelling to knock it off and it continues anyway until somebody gets hurt or someone cries.

They are very handsome boys, too.

the wedding time

wedding trip

We went to Terra's wedding in California this weekend.

We drove all day Thursday. I loaded the car in the wee hours with our bags and our bikes. The boys woke up as we put them in the car, and we drove along the vacant highway in the dark. I think we played Raffi, which we just rediscovered, 'cause I remember the "Numbers Rumba," which Jackson loved to hear in the car when he was little and Rylee is just now listening to. The boys eventually fell asleep again, and Cyndi tried to sleep, with little success. We were in Flagstaff so early that the place where we wanted to have breakfast wasn't open yet, so we gassed up and drove on to Williams. We had slam breakfasts at a roadside Denny's, which Rylee loved, and drove the short main road through Williams to see what we had missed. The center of town isn't that far from the highway. It sits on the south side of the highway, and there's a depot and a "resort" for the Grand Canyon train and a couple of local spots where we could have had breakfast. We started playing travel bingo somewhere between Kingman and Needles and that helped several hours go by. There aren't many cows, tollgates, or birds-on-a-wire as you travel across the Mojave, so it takes a while to get a bingo or fill in your entire card. (We worked on our travel bingo the rest of our trip, shouting "bingo" every time we saw another smokestack, flag, or bird-on-a-wire; we didn't see a "tollgate" until the parking lot at the wharves in Monterey.) At the Essex rest stop in the desert, about 40 miles outside Needles, we pulled the bikes off so the boys could ride around, and we stopped again at Ludlow, just for a little gas and the Dairy Queen.

It was there that we had our first trouble with a general block put on gas stations and a few other businesses in Arizona and California by "My Financial Institution" in New Mexico, or so the rep said on the phone on Thursday, but he said I should be able to use my bank card with my pin number for debit transactions. I never heard of such a thing. About two hours later I get a call on the road on my cell phone from the card service provider, checking on my use of my bank card. Great, I thought, thanks for checking. No problems using the bank card again until our return trip. I wanted to put some gas in as I passed through Needles, and the card was denied for both debit and credit use. It was 109 degrees, and I was with my wife and two small boys in a packed car on the road in the desert. It was a Sunday, and, of course, My Financial Institution was closed. I had passed on getting gas in Barstow, and I didn't have enough to make it to Kingman. The card service told me there was nothing that could be done about it, and I would have to talk to My Financial Institution on Monday. I was being left stranded in the desert in Needles without access to any of my money. My Financial Institution is going to hear about this in much more detail. A clerk at a gas station knew the trick: key in the amount of the purchase before running the card through as a debit. Of course, when we got to Kingman, there was no problem at all. I ran the card through the machine. It automatically went to credit and I keyed in my zipcode. I got all the gas I could ever want. At another stop, I didn't even have to key in the zipcode. So, My Financial Institution decided I could not get gas in the Mojave Desert. This is something I just would never have expected.

In Barstow, we stretched our legs at a new section of the outlet mall there and grabbed an In and Out Burger. In Tehachapi, the only mountain pass to Bakersfield, the highway was closed because of a tanker accident ahead. We pulled into town. There were hundreds of semis parked all over, waiting for the highway to re-open. Someone told me it would be at least two more hours before the highway would open again. I got some gas (the debit worked, but not the credit), and we were on our way to a park to bicycle and wait it out when I saw the city police station. I went in and asked if there was another route. Oh, yes, but it sounded like it would be a slow and tortuous drive behind a line of vehicles, or I could drive toward LA. A woman was there and offered to draw me a map of the route. Cyndi thought we should go for it, so we got the map and took the back road. There weren't any cars to speak of, no semis, and the winding and narrow road along the edge of the hills turned out to be a beautiful drive. We rejoined the highway quickly in Keene and headed to Bakersfield (or Bleichersville, as Rylee says), where we stopped at a park. There was a spray park there, too, and the water was running, but by now we had lost time and needed to keep going. The road out of Bakersfield in our direction is a nightmare of traffic signals. We hit every one, but we eventually connected to the highway to Paso Robles, where we had a really good burrito and a quesadilla underneath a sidewalk umbrella and I got Cyndi a cold beer. She had a good headache going, something unusual for her, that she thought was from the trouble she was having from her contacts. The boys were great on the drive, all things considered. They kept themselves amused and played a few movies on their player. Jack likes the "Home Alone" movies, and I heard his loud laugh whenever the boy hero outsmarted the adults. The laugh infected Ry, who would repeat the lines and laugh.

The place where we stayed in Seaside, at the city limits of Monterey, was very nice. The room was cramped but it was surrounded by a lovely lagoon. There was fog that night and the next morning. After we got all the stuff into the room, Jackson and I took a walk at night, exploring, and then went to bed.

The next two days were pretty packed with wedding events. I hadn't taken into account a bridal shower that took up the morning and early afternoon before the rehearsal, so there wasn't much time that first morning. We first walked to the Starbucks. Jackson was thrilled with the breakfast bar at the hotel and spent several minutes making a plate of scrambled eggs, a cinnamon roll, a banana, and toast and jam, along with a bowl of cereal and a cup of hot chocolate, all the while chatting with the other guests. The boys got to ride their bikes for a few minutes on a part of a path that goes around the lagoon. Beth picked up Cyndi and several other ladies staying at the hotel for the long drive into the Salinas Valley for the bridal shower at a winery. Lisa knew the owners, so I imagine it was very nice. Meanwhile, Jack, Ry and I stopped off at a Costco to get another warm layer for Cyndi. We knew it would be cool along the coast, but it was cooler than we imagined. The boys had their parkas from our last visit to Monterey, so they'd be fine. We got a nice red quilted vest for Cyndi to be comfortable in later that night and picked up some snacks and chocolate-milk-in-a-box. Costco has Christmas toys out already, and the boys checked those out and really wanted them NOW!

When we got to my folk's place, where the wedding was going to take place, a crew was setting up the tent in the parking area. My father was the only one there, and when the tent crew had finished and left, the boys, Dad, and I drove to get a sandwich together. That was just about perfect, I thought, but I made the mistake of letting the boys each have a bottle of Gatorade. They did eat a little. At the house, Rylee played with the dogs, while Jackson went exploring about the house and the spaces and outside areas underneath and in the back of the house.

Everyone arrived for the rehearsal. The ceremony itself was going to take place in Papa's Park, the area under the oak trees at the top of a little hill. Rylee was the ringbearer, and he took his role seriously. He had some knowledge about his role from a book Terra found for him, and Cyndi had been reading it to him several times before the trip. He made up a little song about it that ended, "and that's the way the wedding goes."

Ariel, meanwhile, was en route from NYC. Gary and Eric would be picking her up in Oakland that day (Friday), and when the rehearsal ended Beth told me they were on their way and may even arrive to the rehearsal dinner before we did.

The rehearsal dinner was going to take place at the Monterey State Beach, and it was our plan to ride our bikes to it from the hotel. The beach park stretches along the bay, and we have picnicked before at the same spot, just across from the Dennis the Menace Park, whenever I was doing the Big Sur Marathon. Back then, the cousins would wade into the ocean until they were soaked and we learned to bring towels and extra clothes along to change into. So after the rehearsal, we headed back to our room, taking Karl's mother (the groom's mother) back, too, dressed warmly, and took off on our bikes toward the spot at the park. It was foggy at the start. Our hotel is on a little spur of a bike trail that goes underneath the Pacific Coast Highway and then joins the main coastal recreation trail. The trail follows Del Monte, along some old railroad tracks, alongside sand dunes, and through groves of eucalyptus trees. I'd say we went about a mile-and-a-half, maybe a little more. Just as we arrived, Ariel arrived, and there were many hugs. There were tables at the spot, and a good crowd of wedding guests, drinking wine and beer. The caterer had hors d'oeuvres and an excellent spread of food there on the beach, and a bonfire was set inside the grates of a raised grill for people to gather around in the cool coastal air. We met many of Sandra's family, some of whom we hadn't seen since Dave and Sandra's wedding some 30 years ago. The fog had arrived with the night, but as it settled in it did seem to get a little warmer. We talked with Ariel, who was happy but also very tired from her journey and a bit overwhelmed as her program at NYU had just begun and it was intense, as well as exciting. She was already conducting telephonic interviews while on the road during this trip, and had another one scheduled Saturday morning, or maybe it was Sunday morning, before heading back to NYC on an overnight flight. Jackson climbed the trees and then joined a volleyball game with some twenty-year-olds nearby who were not part of our party. Cyndi was snug in her vest, and the boys rode around the bike path in the fog under the lights. We rode back to the hotel in the dark and the fog. There were street lamps on the path along the way, and the boys had their headlamps. I thought they'd be too tired, but the ride was great. Cyndi loved it. Jackson would cruise ahead with Cyndi. Ry would snake along the trail, while I'd tell him, "Stay on your right," and then he'd stand on his pedals and take off. Ry really needs a real bike, as he has to do a lot of work to keep that little bike, with its little wheels, going. It's fun to watch other people's reactions as this little tot zooms by on his bike, bouncing over the bumps. He later learned to spell "right."

Saturday morning we had breakfast again. Ry had banana, cereal, yogurt, and eggs, and Jack made his plates of toast and everything else while chatting with the other hotel guests again. We planned another bike ride, but Cyndi and I weren't sure how the boys would do again. So the plan was Cyndi would take the bike trail and head up the big sand dune where our spur joined the main trail and ride north for a few miles along the ocean on her own, while the boys and I would start a bit later and head towards Monterey again, and we would meet up somewhere after Cyndi turned around. This time, the boys and I went beyond the spot in the park where the beach luau had been held and continued to the Fisherman's Wharf, which wasn't that much further, and we arrived just before Cyndi arrived from her trip. It was early. The shop owners were outside, razzing each other about their fish, and delivery trucks were parked along the wharf. We walked our bikes along the wharf to the statue of the fisherman to see the marina and the pelicans, and then thought we better head back to get ready for the wedding...but not before stopping at a small restaurant on the wharf and getting a cup of clam chowder. The boys were upset with me for making them walk their bikes on the wharf, but got over it once we were riding again on the trail. Cyndi loved the whole morning.

The wedding was beautiful under the shade of the oak trees. Cyndi wore a beautiful midnight blue dress. Jackson had new clothes, with a button-down Oxford shirt and tie. Rylee wore the tux we got mail order through Amazon: a vest and matching slacks Cyndi had hemmed, a shirt that matched the bride pretty closely, a tie, and new shoes he can wear to school now. We met Ariel there. She was so beautiful. Stunning. Jackson and Ariel sat together for the ceremony, and Rylee lined up in front of Jenni and Terra carrying his ring pillow for his part of the procession. He did a short run at the back of the "aisle" between the chairs set up outside, regained a walking pace, and took his place next to the best man at the front. He didn't fidget during the entire ceremony, and he didn't snap his fingers. (We talked to him about that; it's something he just taught himself and practices all the time.) The bride was beautiful, everyone was beaming, and the ceremony was perfect. Mom sang a "pretty song" during the ceremony.

The reception took place below the hill in the tent and around the lower parking level near the house. It was hot. A heat wave had hit California in the past couple of weeks, bringing fires to many areas, but when finally the sun set below the trees and cast the reception in shade, a light breeze stirred and the temperature began to fall. Rylee, who had insisted we bring our baseball gloves, played some catch with Eric on the hill above, and Jackson joined them. Rylee did tricks with the little fans that were on the seats at the ceremony. Jackson showed Cyndi around the back of the house. He later laid down, not feeling well. It might have been a combination of the heat, the trip, the bike rides, the peanut butter M&M he ate, everyone thinking it was chocolate, or the Benadryl he took as a precaution afterwards. (Fortunately, he didn't have any manifest reaction, and I and others thought maybe it was because there wasn't actually any peanut product in the M&M.) It was a shame Jackson was not feeling well, because he was missed on the dance floor. Ry wouldn't do it. Ariel danced, Cyndi danced, even I danced ("We Are Family"), and we watched Dad, Sandra, and all the older crowd (over thirty) dancing the night away. Cyndi was radiant and in her element.

Cyndi had met some of the women at the bridal shower and had a chance to talk with Mom a bit then. A good group of family and friends of Sandra's (and Dave's) had come from several states, and I met several of them the night before. They were a fun and friendly group. I chatted a bit with Sandra's friend, whom I also knew in Panama, and we caught up a little on the passing of time and a few mutual friends. Ariel and I talked a bit about NYU. As I said, she was feeling a bit overwhelmed but so happy to be there at the wedding. I talked with Karl's father and stepmother to thank them for the luau. Gary and I shared a couple of glasses of good wine. And I snuck a few good moments with Beth and Lisa here and there. David was fairly preoccupied, but I remember a couple of nice moments with Sandra, who was busy introducing everybody to everyone. All in all, we didn't get a lot of time with family. There were no other children, but the boys seemed to have fun wandering about the crowd and ordering drinks at the open soda bar.

We began to say our goodbyes long before the shuttle arrived to pick up guests and take them back to the hotel. (We had driven.) I had a few minutes at the very end with Mom, who seemed very happy and well. David shook my hand, and we lamented not having much time to talk. Dad got us a box of picked apples, and I gathered up all of our stuff. Terra and Jenni had gifts for the boys. The gifts were a big hit that night in our hotel room and on the road. We said goodbye to Ariel, which was the saddest moment.

So we packed a little and went to bed and before dawn we were on the road again. It was a long, long day. The Starbucks in Paso Robles was open...just barely...and I wish I had picked up a NY Times there. Cyndi drove a couple of times, and I got two moments of actual sleep along the way. Ry was busy drawing and making a creative mini scrap book with the stuff he got from Terra and Jenni. Jackson did his school work. Ry wanted to go to a Denny's again for eggs and pancakes. When we passed Tehachapi, we drove in again and stopped at a bakery on the main street. A nice town. We later found a Denny's in Barstow, in that oasis of restaurants, gas stations, and outlet malls on the highway between LA and Las Vegas. Jack was in the mood for a grilled cheese. Cyndi and I swore that would be about the last time we made that stop. The temperature rose in the Mojave, and then we had that dreadful moment in Needles that began as we were buying fruit at the grocery store there. From there, we tried to make good time, stopping outside Flagstaff for just a few minutes in the cool mountain air, grabbing popcorn chicken from a KFC in Holbrook, pulling over at the closed gate to the Petrified Forest National Park, but still it took a lot of hours before we saw the lights of Albuquerque from Nine Mile Hill.

What was I thinking? I pushed this method of travel on Cyndi and the boys. There were some natural moans and groans as they tried to stay comfortable in the car, but no one really complained.

state fair

One good thing we did on Saturday was go to the fair. We saw the baby animals in the barn, the rabbits, guinea pigs and chickens, the sheep and goats, and the 4H cows. We had corn dogs and icees along the street, and a frito pie with green and red chile in the Hispanic Village, listening to music from the stage. We visited the exhibition hall and we looked for Lauren and Nicholas' lego entries. The weather was pleasant, cloudy when we started and sunny when we sat to eat. It was busy, lots of sideshows and street shows, people walking about from all the corners of the state. It's a good place to see what makes up New Mexico, the mix of native, Hispanic and Anglo, the people from the towns outside Albuquerque, from farms and from the pueblos and rez. The trio of ten-year-old boys in their boots, jeans, pearl-buttoned western shirts, and cowboy hats. The teenaged girls with big belt buckles. Lots of families with strollers. Nothing is cheap--the parking fees and gate fees, the hot dogs and sodas and Navajo tacos, a souvenir or two, add up--yet they come to spend their hard-earned money at the fall's big show.

Rylee soaked it in. He walked, holding his dad's or his mom's hand. Jackson brought his bag and desperately wanted to buy something, but he didn't. We kept it simple.

There was talk of rain this weekend. It is cooler today.

Labor Day (with postscript)

It’s Labor Day, and the boys and I are swimming. We’re meeting Elley and Nicholas and Loren any moment. Cyndi is working in the day care this morning at the club. The day is sunny but cool, probably in the 70s. The boys and I went to the park earlier where Jackson and Rylee rode around in circles for about an hour. Ry cranks his little bike (14”) hard, and Jack cruises in an easy gear at a fairly fast speed around and around the park. Some people were already saving tables for bbqs and get-togethers later in the day. Ariel is catching the train to Long Island at this moment for a party. Cyndi and the girls will go to the Bernalillo Wine Festival this afternoon. I don’t know what the boys and I will be doing. I hear there’s a family potluck and birthday cake for Dorie later this evening.

The weekend started with a little infusion of cash, so we could do a Costco run and catch up on a bunch of bills. The boys and I ran to Target, for nothing really, just toothpaste and shampoo, but we checked out skateboards there and a school backpack with wheels that Jackson wants but I’m working to discourage. He hasn’t mentioned it this weekend since I gave a little talk in the car. We stopped by a skateboard shop to scope out real skateboards. There’s a real difference in price, and I’m sure there’s a real difference in quality. We asked a lot of questions. We’re not in a hurry to get them...yet. We splurged a little by going to Bravo in ABQ uptown. I’ve talked about the place before. It’s a fairly good place for Italian. It’s a franchise, like PF Changs, and at under $100, with the least expensive bottle of wine, the bill and tip were about as much. I have to come up with a name for these kind of places. The boys had pasta and pizza and ate a bunch of bread with the olive oil served with sundried tomato paste, Cyndi ordered a few appetizers, including a lobster bisque, and I ordered a decent rosemary grilled shrimp on orzo, a salad with gorgonzola and bacon, and a tomato bisque. We checked out the Apple Store (Cyndi’s Anthropologie was already closed) and went to the Eddie Bauer’s, where Jack found a $24 headlamp on sale for $9. He got one with his birthday money (he took the wallet Ariel gave him for his birthday) and Ry got one, too, from his leftover birthday money. That was about it for our Friday night.

Saturday morning I attacked the garage and the yard, cleaning and reorganizing and pruning and weeding and even fertilizing. A lot of things have been neglected this summer. The boys loved it because they could play outside in the front yard all morning. After a small lunch, we headed down to Belen. Bennie’s doing much better. He still can’t walk, but you can see noticeable movement where there was none before, and I’m guessing there’s much less pain. We loaded up his ipod shuffle with a book on tape we got from the library (I’m going to load it on mine for the car trip to California) and grilled some brauts and hot dogs for supper. The boys got to ride some more.

Bennie and I talked a long time. He told me about going to California when he was 15 and living in Santa Monica with a friend who didn’t know how to cook. He had to go to school one day a week in Glendale, and he worked in a plant doing finishing assembly on B24s. I asked him when he first met Ursula. It was just before and after that time, but they hardly talked. He talked about the long hours he and Ursula spent upholstering in a shop smaller than his den. He told me a little about his brothers and sisters and the war. He told me about buying the movie theater that’s now his store. The building is over a hundred years old, and it was once the American Legion building where they held dances. The theater owners were asking something like $30K and sold it to him for $9K, but it took a lot of loans from family, friends and neighbors, many of whom agreed to co-sign the loans even though no-one had any collateral. He sold off the seats, seat by seat. People bought them to use outside their homes in Belen. He used the lumber from the raised floor to build a loft for more inventory.

It reminded me that I should write down the story my dad told me one lunch in a Salinas restaurant. It’s a classic story I tell: how he described himself as something of an underachiever in the Jesuit high school he went to and then worked for the American Can Company; how he and his friend went down to Chicago and enlisted in the Army; how his father was disappointed; how he went to Korea and met a guy there who liked to talk about how he was going to be a dentist, and my dad thought, well, if this guy can do that, I can do that; how he got accepted to Marquette (I think I remember another story how his dad, my grandpa, went with him to apply) and he studied hard and achieved top grades, got accepted to dental school in three years and started the program before ever completing his bachelor’s. Well, that’s one story.

On Sunday morning, Rylee and I went to the grocery store. I think Jackson stayed behind to do some crafts projects he designed on his own. We cooked up some bacon and eggs and cinnamon buns. The boys rode again in the front. (They can only go to the next driveway and back.) Then the dreaded shower and church. I took the boys to the children’s eulogy. Jackson has such a negative attitude about the whole church thing…except for the donuts afterwards, of course. I thought taking them to the children’s eulogy downstairs during mass might help. Maybe it will. I doubt any fellow churchgoers are reading this, so I can report that the children’s eulogy isn’t very interesting for the children attending it. The material and commentary are way over their heads, not to mention all over the place. Maybe it’s worthwhile if the boys learn a little church manners and etiquette. There isn’t much interaction among the children, which is what Jackson would love. The one thing I think is interesting is the few moments the children raise their hands to give intentions for prayer: an ill grandparent, a friend who broke their arm, a trip somewhere, a missing cat.

After the donuts, we went to the Explora museum near Old Town. That’s a good place and it was very popular, but not too crowded, on Sunday. The exhibits are fun and well-designed and constructed, and the boys can move at their own pace from station to station. There’s a puzzle café, a bubble pool, and a marble maze that were especially fun. A pretty top quality place. We spent a little over an hour there, and then had lunch at the Slate Street Café, a relatively new place near the courthouses downtown. I think I’d call it “creative comfort food.” Cyndi and I split a really nice fish and chips, with homemade chips and batter-fried salmon, served in a open paper bag. I also ordered a corn chowder, because I love a good corn chowder. The boys got a grilled cheese. It wasn’t on the menu, but the cooks graciously made one. The bill was quite reasonable for a nice Sunday lunch. It seemed like a good place for an evening beer and wine in the loft, and it had an outside patio, too. Locally owned, it’s not far from the Marble Brewery, another new place on the north side of Lomas downtown.

At this moment, I’m having trouble remembering what we did the rest of the day and it’s time to move on. The boys have played in the pools, Lauren and Nicholas have left already, and we’re ready to go.

P.S. I heard from Ariel as she was returning on the train. She sounded happy, and maybe a little anxious about starting a new life there, figuring out where everything will fit in. Later that night, the Albuquerque families got together, and the cousins played magnificently together, with a lot less shrieking, whining, and hurt feelings. The four boys played football in the grass for a while, which Loren opted out of. Ry skateboarded with Brendan, of course, making his first attempts at an ollie on the back porch. It's quite a thing to watch him kick and step on the the board with so much confidence, and I can imagine him in a skate park much sooner than later. Don told a story about how Jackson is helping Nicholas, his cousin, at school. I guess Nicholas has been telling Don how Jackson is showing him around and including him in things on the playground. It's Nicholas's first year there, and from what I hear he's really enjoying his new school and appreciates seeing his cousin there. The cousins are in different grades and don't share the same recess time, so I gather it must be before school that they can be together. Don mentioned that it was good to see all of the children growing up to be such good cousins to each other. I was proud of Jackson when I heard the story. He's going through a stage when sometimes he'll be mad and say harsh words and tease Ry (tho Ry is not afraid to fight back), but both of them are such sweet boys who show a lot of affection and appreciation. Bennie remarked again this weekend how good Jack's pronunciation of Spanish is.

it's fall, almost

School has begun and a new rhythm. Jackson is into his second week. We met his teacher last night at curriculum night, and the night before, after school and piano lessons, we went to a cub scout meeting with the idea to join a den. Rylee's second day of school is tomorrow. He drew pictures of bicycles and skateboards on his first day. Cyndi says Jack is also interested in a chess club at school, and we mean to get Ry into a YMCA sports program. Ariel is almost a week into NYC, hanging pictures in her room today when I called her. Some transition as she moves in and another roommate arrives very soon. Classes begin next week, but she is doing a workshop now to become familiar with the technology. Normally, we would be thinking about Dixon apples in a couple of weeks but Nana says there will be lots in California when we go for the wedding. The State Fair is around the corner, the Fiesta in Santa Fe, too, and then the Balloon Fiesta will be here before we know it. Already there is the great smell of green chiles roasting around the city (a sure sign of the season changing) and noticeably more produce, including the sweet corn from Moriarty. We may get some rain, judging from the darkening sky and the wind in the trees.

skateboarding [updated]

Well, after weeks talking about coaster brakes and handbrakes, 16" and 20' wheel bases, number of gears, kickstands, mountain bikes and road bikes, and suspension, not to mention the color selection and even drawing our own designs, Rylee's thinking maybe he should get a skateboard for Christmas and save a new bike for a birthday. This comes after an afternoon with Brendan teaching him to ride one. Ry says, afterall, he has a bike, and getting a skateboard now is part of the natural order of things. Ry made a book of paper in which he is drawing skateboards, and he is watching youtube clips of skateboarders.

No word from Jackson, who got his knee and elbow skinned last week crashing on his bike.

As Ariel remarked, these boys are going to scare us more than she ever did. I said they'll likely do all the same things, only upside down, too.

Cyndi's in Phoenix for the day, and Ariel's settling into her new place in NYC.

Mom & Dad received our new family portrait this week, after Cyndi mailed it off. It arrived quickly. A scanned copy is below. (I didn't do a good job scanning it, and I should replace it with a better scan in the future.)

Think the boys and I are going swimming soon.

recent pics

Coyote Creek in New Mexico

We went camping at Coyote Creek State Park this weekend. After stocking our food supplies and packing, we managed to pick up Jackson from school on Friday only a few minutes late to drive up to the campground, almost a three-hour drive north through Las Vegas, then to Mora, and up the road toward Angel Fire. We were meeting Ariel there. She was on a 350-mile bicycle ride through Cuba, Chama, Tierra Amarilla and Tres Piedras. We heard from her Tuesday night (and later a message from a pay phone) but until she got back to the Gorge outside Taos she didn't have any reception. She went over some pretty tough passes. She called just before we left home and said she didn't expect to get to Coyote Creek until about the time we arrived, which would be just before sunset.

The campground was pretty full. Daniel, one of the rangers, greeted us on our arrival. I had talked to him on the phone the day before. The campsites with the shelters were all taken, so we drove up to an auxillary loop, called Encino, up the hill on the other side of the ponds. No shelters and no water on that loop, but we found a nice site at the tail end of the loop we decided would be nice. We dumped our stuff to claim the site and went back down to the entrance, next to the showers to pay the fee. ($10 per night.) Cyndi rode her bike down and waited for Ariel at the highway entrance. Ariel rode in, her lights on, exhausted I'm sure.

The boys and I went to a little store about a half-mile up the road. It was more like a little living room (one of the teenagers was studying), with shelves lined with ketchup bottles and other picnic goods and a freezer of ice. We bought a couple bundles of wood for the campfire and a soda. On the way back to the site, we filled the water container.

At this point, the sun had set so we set up camp in the dark. Ariel took Cyndi's bike down to shower and by the time she got back our tent was up. Ariel remarked it was a mansion. I didn't put the fly on the tent. There were millions of stars in the sky, and thankfully no sign of rain. You could see the Milky Way. Ariel set up her backpacking tent. In the middle of the night we heard the strangest sounds, like an animal distressed by a pack of coyotes, but later we figured it was some crazed bird. We heard it the next night, too. We were told a couple of times that there were bears visiting the campsites several times this summer. We even heard there was a bear sighted during that night at the ranger's station. (I had put the food in the truck overnight.)

We brought along Cyndi's and the boys' bikes. Cyndi did some loops around the park and once or twice the boys rode theirs down with her. There was a small playground along the way to the showers complex. Saturday, our only full day, we spent most of the day preparing three very full meals, beginning with coffee, hot chocolate, eggs, bacon, hasbrowns, oranges, and bagels and jam in the morning. Ariel relaxed by the fire at night and in the morning with her book, filling up with water, carbs and protein after her trip. I had some time to sit between the meals, talk, and watch the boys riding.

From our campfire, we could watch the boys take off down the road on their bikes. The mountain road was dirt, of course, dusty, with rocks and some ruts and a slight downhill from our site. They both flew down the hill, with their helmets. There was an outhouse at the bottom of that first long hill, which Cyndi made their limit, and the boys would turn around there and race back up the hill. Jackson learned to change gears on his new bike, and the whole weekend there turned them into accomplished mountain bikers as they would ride almost the whole day. Ry told me this morning that he dreamed all night about mountain biking.

When clouds came in during the afternoon, I put the fly on and put things away before an afternoon shower. We took advantage of that rain to take naps. Cyndi and Ariel took a few hikes. There was a single-track trail that lead from our site a little less than a half-mile down to the group shelter next to the creek and across from the half a dozen spots with hookups. Another trail took you higher up the canyon. The boys and I went to get more firewood and refill our water supply. That night we repeated cooking in the dark, sitting by the fire, and looking at the stars.

Ariel and the boys fashioned sticks for roasting marshmallows, and Ariel and Rylee played a few games matching dinosaur cards while Jackson was scavenging for kindling or riding or hiking with Cyndi. Both of the boys were very impressed with Ariel's headlamp and all of her gear.

In the morning there was time for more bike riding and hikes. We had breakfast and then packed the camp. That took a while but by noon we were packed. A car top carrier held a few things, a bicycle rack off the back held three of the bicycles. Ry's bike fit inside at the back of the Durango, with plenty of room for Cyndi and me, the boys and Ariel. We had showers again (the water was hot but very slow coming out) and took off for Mora. We thought of taking the road toward Sipapu and then driving the "High Road" down to Chimayo and Santa Fe. Instead, we took the same route back. We stopped in La Cueva at the Salmon Ranch raspberry farm. It was a week too early for fresh raspberries, but we had an excellent tamale and really good raspberry soft serve ice cream. The boys and Ariel, who was between them in the back seat, watched the Hannah Montana movie until it ended and the boys drifted off to sleep.

It rained when we dropped Ariel off and continued raining. There was a little rain this morning, too, as we got up. Jackson had school this morning. I imagine Ariel would sleep in this morning, and then get ready for leaving at the end of the week.

bicycles

Yesterday, Jack got a bike for his birthday. Ry is riding the small one and is making his Christmas bike list. Ariel's touring northern New Mexico on her bike and will meet us tomorrow evening at a campground. Bicycles are going to the campground and we plan to take all of our bikes to California with us to ride along the bay. Ariel got the boys bike gloves, and they can't wait to ride with her this weekend.

Jack loved his birthday. He had a party at the Explora Museum (a hands on, fun, chilren's science museum), where he and his friends did polymer experiments and ran around the museum. He wanted to have a science experiment party. I think his original idea was to invite scientists to our house. Last night, his actual birth day, was a small family party, with hamburgers, brauts & hot dogs. And, of course, cake. Jack was glowing during "Happy Birthday to you."

Ry had a fall last week. Turns out it was nothing serious, but a fire engine and an ambulance were home when I got there after the call. He's pretty tough.

Last night when we all said goodnight, we all remarked it was a "school night." Today is Jack's first day of school. He's excited to go. He met his teacher the other day and tried to strike up a conversation with her. He'll be in second grade. His cousin Lauren will be in the same school this year, and maybe his cousin Nicholas, too. Ry doesn't start up until after the holiday. Ariel leaves next week.

There's lots of pics to transfer from the camera. I'm due to post some.

[Mom & Dad: my cell won't recharge & my emails to you are getting returned; will try to reach you.]

no training wheels

Ry has been talking about bicycles. He carried around a catalogue for over a week, and he only wanted the ones that didn't have training wheels in the pictures. On Friday, he started taking the training wheels off the small bike we have and I stopped to get a wrench and help him. On Saturday, we finished painting and Jackson, Rylee and I went to a park, after first stopping for ice cream. Jack roller bladed. He's very good. Ry started gliding on the bike, getting the feel of it rolling while keeping it in balance, and then he just started pedaling. He fell over a few times, but nothing I'd call a crash. The narrow sidewalk intimidated him. It was hot and after a while the boys and I sat in the shade. Then the boys started playing catch, running around in their bare feet. On Sunday, Ry and I went up to the Academy, where there's broad sidewalks, a covered walkway, a brick plaza, and even a little road blocked off from vehicles. One little push got him going, and after that he rode and rode, going in circles, up and down the slight slope, pedaling and cruising and even learning to brake, looping around the road, and then riding back up on the sidewalk. When he started to speed downhill, I'd start to think I needed to race after him, but he slowed down, made a nice turn, and pedaled back up hill. He never panicked, even when I thought he was about to fall off the back the first few times he tried to slow himself down with his feet. He learned to start himself, kicking the ground until he could put his feet on the pedals. I started to stand in the middle of the plaza, and he did figure eights and cloverleafs around me, turning left and right, uphill and downhill. Finally, I just found a bench and let him ride.

first august clips

School begins in about 10 days: time to meet new teachers, get school supplies. We're planning our trip to Terra & Karl's wedding in California, looking into Ry's clothes as ring bearer, and wrapping a gift for mom & dad. Jackson's birthday is coming up. We're planning a weekend camping trip with Ariel before she goes to NYU. She may tour the state by bike and join us at the park. A painting project is also coming up in the boys' room, beginning this weekend. They may get a bunkbed soon, which will free up a lot of play space. Jack wants a rainbow added, probably on a wall opposite the lighthouse. "In the new home" they want what they call a "circle room", a common room to play and study. Rylee's now talking about a bicycle for Christmas and just asked me to take the training wheels off the little one we have. Jack will probably get one for his birthday. Jackson, who has a liking for arts and crafts projects, has decided to learn how to knit. We think there's Christmas possibilities.

We just made a little book about our trip. (This will be a surprise for Cyndi.) I wonder what it'll really look like when we get it next week. I wonder especially about the quality of the photographs when they're printed on the larger format. I'm skeptical about that, given our little camera. I probably need to learn more about digital picture resolution. A marvelous idea, however, with fairly decent software, and the company looks good so far and may have special, first-time deals to attract new customers. There's a link for a preview on the Kauai journal webpage.

end of July (revised)

Cyndi, Ariel, the boys, and I drove up to Santa Fe on Sunday and had dinner with Jean, my cousin, and her husband Warren at La Boca. It was Spanish Market in Santa Fe, so we strolled the plaza area, viewing the retablos and other art, and had obligatory stops at J. Crew and the Plaza Bakery (for ice cream), but we missed Toyopolis, which made the boys very unhappy. We shared some good wine at La Boca, tapas, and even tried their paella. It was good to see Jean and Warren and we caught up a bit on family.

Jackson is planning a "science experiment" birthday party, and so we've arranged to go to the Explora Museum. This helps to dissuade him from thinking he'll get a Wii for his birthday. I don't want to get one, especially for his birthday. Meanwhile, Rylee is already making Christmas lists, because he's decided he wants his own set of Thomas the Train toys. He found a little product booklet and carries it around all the time.

Ariel is here for a month before she takes off, and we hope to go camping with her some weekend, probably the one after the coming one. She found out that she received a grant that will help out. She was especially pleased as it was a very prestigious one.

We noticed the vacation may have matured the boys, especially Ry. He's very enthusiastic about explaining things. They are both attending another vacation bible school this week and talk about the songs they are both learning. ("Son Rock Kid's Camp.") They took another private swim lesson from a young guy who works at the club, Jordan, and there is a noticeable improvement in skills and confidence in both. They've taken about three of these lessons, spread out over the summer, and one more may really make a swimmer of Jack and allow Ry to play in the water safely. Ry learns the physical things fast, and I can see rudimentary swimming skills already. Jack is so close.

Kauai: next (revised)

I'm have added more pictures and narrative about our trip to Kauai on a journal page.

It was a great trip, and we want to return with Ariel next time to see some of the places we loved and some of the places we missed. We have to return to swim in Queen Emma's Bath, to hear a slack key guitar, and to grill on the beach at sunset. Queen Emma's Bath, as well as some other Princeville Beaches we didn't visit, was close to us but I was a little concerned about the climb down this time. Once you are on the island, it's easy to find posters of concerts and even local luaus. Listening to KKCR online before leaving would also help to learn about goings on. (Their site has a couple of calendars, too.) I really wanted to go to Black Pot Beach just before sunset with a grill, some ono or opah, some hotdogs and buns, and a thermos of maitais, but by the evening we were exhausted and stayed on our lanai watching the sunset reflected in the pink clouds or walking over to a vista at The Cliffs to see the sunset, while the boys rolled on the grassy hill behind our place, playing with other children.

When the boys are old enough, a sailing trip to Na Pali, with sidetrips to snorkeling beaches, may be right. There was an easy trail at Nounou (Sleeping Giant) Mountain that we still could do, or some other trails and excursions near that mountain and the Wailua River Valley, which we barely glimpsed. There's a bike trail to tour Kapa'a and beaches north. We would probably skip Po'ipu next time and go further west, exploring Waiamea and other towns and beaches, or keep going to the Mana coastal plains and the Barking Sands and Polihale beaches. We also intended to golf at Kukuoilono, a 9-hole course that costs about $9 for the day. That's also on the other side of the island. There's another area I've heard about south of Lihue, with Mahaulepu Beach, and more beaches near Anahola, above Kapa'a. The boys would be ready for some real boogie boarding and surfing. Several places in Hanalei offered lessons.

We had a fantastic opportunity to stay in Princeville at a friend's place, for which we are very grateful. I liked the Princeville and Hanalei area, and I would make that area the base for any return. One could also, with some planning for equipment to bring or rent and the necessary permits, stay cheaply by camping at the many beaches or backpacking in the interior. There are inexpensive cabins in Koke'e. It might be good still to rent a car (for which you pay a premium on the islands) and begin and end the stay at some nice resort. I can see us doing that, too. There's even a trail that traverses (north/south) the entire island. [Edit: this may not be true. I was thinking the Powerline Trail ran north and south, but now I think it really lops off only the northeastern corner of the island. Still sounds like a good hike, though.]

I heard on KKCR a few days after our return that the island had severe thunder showers and storms and the water rose so high that the bridge to Hanalei was closed for a day. Imagine the waterfalls that day.

Aloha.

Kauai: home

We're home. It's Sunday at 2. Or is it 10?

Saturday morning we ate a big breakfast, cleaned up, swam in the pool, and said goodbye. On the way to Lihue, we stopped at a roadside burger stand. We did a quick tour of the Kauai Museum in Lihue. After several hours at the airport, we left Saturday night but it was already Sunday morning in New Mexico. Tough way to go home.

Here's the bridge to Hanalei.

Kauai: Ke'e & Kalalau Trail

We left early for Ke'e Beach at the end of the road and got a parking space next to the showers and the trailhead. Found a shady spot on the beach. The few that were there were either beginning their hike or snorkeling above the reef. If you walked down the beach, you could get a peek at the Na Pali coast. I took a jog, and Cyndi took several walks. As the morning progressed, a crowd showed up. We spent most of the day there but hiked a bit before we left.








On the trail toward Na Pali, a small, windy overlook about a mile in. A very steep ascent. Thankfully the weather couldn't be more perfect, so the trail was not slippery and muddy.





We picked up some juice and smoothies at Aloha juice stand and some produce at Papaya's organic market, in Hanalei, and now we are appreciating the last our maitais. Cyndi's got some local sweet potatoes, salad and mango salsa, and I'll cook the opah. Some of our pineapples on the kitchen sill.



Tomorrow is the last day. Our plane leaves in the evening.