braces, countdown, living museum

Bits of news. Jackson got his braces on just this week. He's such a stalwart guy. I'm sure he's experiencing a lot of discomfort at the moment, if not pain, but he's been very positive about the whole thing. Shows them off. Today, only his second day, there's a blister in his mouth. He spends time on figuring out how to make computer apps and he continues to make stop motion animation with sound effects. Right now I'm borrowing his computer. Rylee has been taking piano lessons this summer. He traded with Brendon for a NY Yankees baseball cap, which he wears all the time now. It's now his favorite team. He's already packed and beginning the countdown to our short trip to visit Ariel in NYC. The boys constantly talk about what they want to buy in NYC. There is a Lego store, afterall, in Rockefeller Center, and Ry has some birthday money to spend. I try to advise them not to spend it all (and warn them that I won't let them), and Jackson seems to get it. He even has offered to pay some of the "bills" during our trip. Our neighbors are adopting a three-year-old boy from Uganda, and Cyndi and the boys took over some of their toys. The engine light went on in the car yesterday. It's been in the shop twice already.

The monsoon, or rainy, season is finally approaching but we still haven't had a deluge yet. On average we get 3 1/2 inches a year and we've only had about a quarter-inch in the past year. With all the fires around New Mexico before the Fourth of July, I told the boys we would not be buying fireworks this year. It just seemed the good citizen thing to do. They took it in stride. In the days before the Fourth, there was a big push to shame people from doing fireworks, and it worked. Stores removed fireworks from their floors and shelves, and the tents closed and were gone before the weekend. I would have liked to have seen the public display, but I was afraid it would be very crowded. We spent the evening as we usually do at Pete and Dorie's. We didn't do fireworks there, and looking out over the valley you could see that most people had also elected not to shoot off anything. Relatively quiet, and no local fires. The kids played with the water hose instead.

On the Sunday before the Fourth we went to Kristy's. On the Saturday before, I thawed a bunch of chicken thighs and grilled them and some veggies for a spur-of-the-moment family get-together. Cut up some watermelon. Opened a bottle of wine. We had a house full of family. Cyndi made a salad and a spinach dip. Others brought the veggies, bread, chips, mashed potatoes and gravy...I can't remember what all. It was very enjoyable, and the yard didn't look too bad after a little work before they arrived. The gym club had their annual get-together, too, with hamburgers and hotdogs, music, and children's games. The pool was packed and the small lawn was crowded. A nice weekend.

This past Sunday, we went to church and talked about a movie. In lieu of a movie, we went to El Rancho de las Golondrinas, a living museum just south of Santa Fe. We'd been there before. Originally it was a hacienda, dating back to the 1700s I believe. They've moved other buildings from around New Mexico to the site, including mills and a school house. It's next door to La Cienega, which I had learned meant swamp but which might translate better as oasis. Las Golondrinas was a stopping point, or paraje, on El Camino Real, between Mexico City and Santa Fe.

On the way from Albuquerque, I called my dad to wish him a happy birthday. That was a fun talk. Almost everyone was there for the weekend. We had a very good view of the white smoke still billowing along the ridges and canyons from the Los Conchas fire in the Jemez mountains, and there was a plume of black smoke visible from the Sangre de Cristos north of Santa Fe. We took the unmarked, shorter, back road through La Cienega. Las Golondrinas was very quiet and very hot. We hit it on the one weekend out of a string of five that there was no festival. Still there were some costumed volunteer docents, who were very helpful and also a bit aggressive about their topic. There being so few visitors, they tended to corner us. I don't blame them for that, but we only planned to spend a couple of hours there at most. It's about a 1 1/2 mile loop, but the heat made it hard on the boys and they complained about it midway. Cloud shade came late in the visit, and we even got a few drops of rain. I think the boys still enjoyed it, however, and Ry said something about going back when we got home later. And such a bargain: admission for us was $4.

We drove to Sunrise Springs next door and had a lovely lunch at the Blue Heron restaurant, sitting outside on their patio terrace overlooking the pond. We'd been there before and toured the grounds. The lunch was better this time. Jack had a grilled cheese and bacon sandwich; Ry a big cheese pizza, which looked to be made in a wood-fired stone oven and which Ry tackled enthusiastically. Cyndi had a very good enchilada plate with calabacitas and wonderful chile, and I a very tasty pasta dish. We ordered a bottle of New Mexico wine from the Ponderosa vineyard, our first Chardonnay of this summer. Someone left a Santa Fe Sunday paper and Ry read out loud the comic, The Wizard of Id, several times.

Honey, my mother's coming for a week
What?
Pop
Ping Pop
Pong
Roar
Do you always have to be so dramatic?

The boys walked down to the terraces below us (but didn't run around), Jack munching on the last of his sandwich as he circled about, the boys following two cats they discovered, and a girl from another table followed them. In all, maybe only a dozen people eating while we were there. We could hear a group rehearsing chamber music. A tranquil afternoon.

So soon we will see Ariel and Chris in their new place in NYC. Jackson says he shouldn't wear his Boston Red Sox cap there. I've only sketched our time there. One day very touristy: subways, Rockefeller Center, Fifth Avenue, Times Square and the Theater District. Another day hanging out near our Upper West Side hotel: markets, bagles, the natural history museum, Central Park, Riverside Park, maybe even Lincoln Center. Another day seeing Ariel's NYC: NYU, Washington Square, Brooklyn, maybe a water taxi to Governors Island to see the Statue of Liberty on bicycles. Somewhere in that mix, and with another full day besides those three, there's certain to be the Lego Store, FAO Schwarz, the Toys R Us flagship store, a bbq on the roof of Ariel's and Chris's new building, and shoes, maybe a show, probably a Today Show taping, maybe Top of the Rock and an exhibition at MOMA I thought Jack would like called "Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects", perhaps skateboarding in Central Park, chess and pizza in Greenwich Village, and some Sony Wonder Lab that's fun for kids, perhaps even free kayaking on the weekend. A couple of lunch spots yet to be named. I want to jog one morning in Central Park. Cyndi and Ariel would love that, too, I'm sure. We want to sneak peeks at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Grand Central Station, the New York Public Library and Bryant Park, and the Brooklyn Bridge. A full plate that doesn't take into account all the activity that is sure to surround us. We shall see.