congrats to Ariel and Chris

I talked with Ariel yesterday. She got hired by IEEE Spectrum as an associate editor. She will start in a couple of weeks. Her area will be telecommunications. She is thrilled for so many reasons, not the least of which is the compensation and some good travel for assignments and conferences. She will remain in Manhattan. Chris was accepted at NYU, although I think he is still considering other options.

spring winds

We know spring is approaching because the winds have begun.

The boys are signed up for little league. Ry had an "evaluation" to determine if he should be in either machine pitch I or II. It consisted of some very little toss and catch and some batting. One of the fathers was tossing the balls into the kid's gloves, and when it was Rylee's turn I told the father Ry could handle an overhand throw. I asked the evaluator later when we would know the results. He looked Ry up and said he had already marked him for the second level. He'll be young for that. His fielding and throwing is great for his age, but I wondered about batting. The guy said the batting didn't matter because they were both machine pitch leagues. Jackson had to tryout for the minor league teams. The coaches actually draft the players. There were almost 50 other boys the day we went for the tryouts. Jackson did so well. He surprises me. He's very competitive, skillful, and he hustles. I found out that he did get drafted by the coaches he's played with for all of these years, and so we are very happy about that. It's a good group of boys, and the coaches are great and appreciate how well Jackson plays. In fact, I saw one of the coaches last night at the gym, and he remarked how everything changes this season with the players pitching. Lots of walks and therefore less defense. A transitional season for the young players. Last weekend, the boys and I went to the field for the annual cleanup. The fields have gotten so much better. In past years, there was lots of weeding and field maintenance to do. This year there was lots of painting, a lot of Altamont Blue I call it.

I went to Albertson's grocery store this weekend and found a copy of Scientific American Mind, and there's a story by Ariel in this month's newest issue. I gave it to Cyndi and said, page 46. Ariel? she asked. Cyndi loved Ariel's article and loved the entire issue. Ariel and Chris are excited about the wedding. Lots of work to do. She mentioned they went out of town last weekend to do some bicycle touring in the countryside.

Jackson stayed home from school yesterday. I came home early, while Rylee and Cyndi went to the day care at the gym. Jack is such a charming lad. He was supposed to take another test today for the gifted program at school. We found out he did meet the initial screening criteria from an earlier IQ-like test he did a couple of weeks back. I think he is very excited about it. Jackson and I went to the gym later. He and Rylee had a swim lesson with Jordan, a teacher there. Jackson is really getting the hang of the swim strokes. Ry is struggling a little, but Jordan thinks he's improving and Ry is developing a good backstroke. I really want to get them into the summer swim team season at the gym. It would make a huge difference in their swimming skills. I think they have practices every morning, and of course there will be a few weekend meets. I'd be happy with three sports seasons of baseball in the spring, swimming in the summer, and soccer in the fall. Ry would like to add basketball. We haven't been doing scouts this year, and we haven't gone skiing despite some great snow falls in the New Mexico mountains early in the season. Ry is doing a hip-hop class on Wednesday evening that he apparently loves. There's a small group of boys his age from his class doing it, too.

We are going to try a new homework and dinner schedule this week. It's time for the boys to have a bit more regimen, and it wouldn't hurt me any, too. We'll incorporate some chores, too, including kitchen clean up. I'm looking forward to it, and I'm sure Cyndi is, too.

Jackson continues to go to chess tournaments. Ry is losing heart in the chess club. I'm afraid he's not really ready for it. Ry and I continue our weekend mornings routine of apple fritters and donuts from Smith's, espresso and hot chocolate from the Starbucks next door, and the skateboard park at the new Domingo Baca park being developed a block down the road from the Starbucks. (That's a pretty exciting development well

underway, with a multi- generational center with an abundance of community classrooms and meeting rooms, a cafe, computers, a gym, an indoor track, and a workout room, a separate outdoor pool complex,  library, a playground, a dog park, several soccer fields, a natural habitat area, picnic areas, tennis courts, basketball courts, and the skateboard park.) Jackson has been joining us more and more, and the boys mostly use their scooters. Sometimes, there's one or two other families there at that early time. Often, we will see hot-air balloons, as many as twenty or more, over the valley below us.

This past weekend was pretty nice. I asked Jack what we should grill on Sunday, our first outdoor cooking of the year. I knew what he would say before he said it. Ribs. So I made two racks of ribs on Sunday. They loved the sauce. I cheated a bit by baking them first. I was afraid of charring them too much on the grill. I managed to work around the outside of the house the last three weekends, cleaning out beds, pruning bushes and cutting back ivy, even a little re-planting, and filling, sanding and priming the posts. I'm so glad the winter is nearly over, but I'm not looking forward to three months of wind.

yet another Saturday

On Friday evening after work, we went to Five Star Burgers. It's by Whole Foods and is very popular. We grabbed a couple of stools to wait and have a microbrew and Shirley Temples for the boys. We saw our neighbors at a table, and they came over to chat when we got a table. The boys wolf down the burgers there. Jack, in fact, orders two of the kid's burgers. I've tried the bison burger the last two times. It's not as exotic as I thought it might be. It's just a very good burger. I love the people there, I love the place, the food's good, the bartender is fun and energetic, but there's always some little screwup in the service. It's almost humorous how consistent that is.

Ry has been anxious for his Lego package of missing pieces, so he can complete his vintage fire station. Jack asked to download a voice changing software, and I think I convinced him there was something suspect about the source for the free download of the program. Ry fell asleep, as he usually does, in my arms. He asks me to put his arm around him as he falls asleep.

Ry and I got up early on Saturday. He wanted to go to the skateboard park. We woke Jackson up gently after a bit, and he came around to going with us even though it was still cold.

We went first to Starbucks--the usual hot chocolates for the boys, a coffee for me, an apple fritter for Ry, a chocolate doughnut for Jack. We sat down and started to play Uno, and a fellow asked if the chair beside me was taken. We recognized each other; somebody I worked with over 20 years ago who now lives in Chicago. We were talking when Don, Nicholas and Lauren came in, and we chatted with them for a while before they took off to see their grandmother.

The boys rode their scooters around the park, then climbed the ramps without their scooters, and then we went home. Cyndi went to a body pump workout, and I did some major clearing and pruning in the backyard, while the boys played on their computer. Ry came out for a bit to dig in the sandbox. After some lunch, we then went to Brendan's basketball game. He was pretty darn good and his team won.

I wanted to go to the Albuquerque Museum of Art and  History, so we drove to Old Town. The museum has really changed since I last was there. Very impressive inside. The history section was closed, a two year renovation had just begun. Another exhibition is due to open next week. There was an exhibit about social commentary and satire and in another gallery pieces from their permanent collection. So I procrastinated whether we should go at all. It was inexpensive and so we went ahead. I told the boys they needed to settle down and they couldn't run around, and wondered how it would go.

There were some photographs in the halls and a few historical displays and several small drawings of Old Town. The boys took some interest in the displays. The social commentary and satire exhibit really was pretty good, and I recognized some of the artists. The permanent collections exhibit was outstanding. The guards were watching us pretty closely, but not in that oppressive way, and the boys were good and not touching things or running around. After I saw most of the works, Jack showed me his favorite. It was a New Mexico landscape I really liked, with repetitive figures for junipers and an approaching storm in the sky. I agreed that was one of my favorites, surprised that he picked it out, too. Then Ry took me to show me his favorite, another landscape with an approaching storm, that I had also liked a lot.

Here is Ry's favorite.

I could not find Jack's favorite anywhere on the web. But here's one that's close. The one at the museum had more hills and mesas in the distance, more rows of junipers in the foreground, and the approaching storm was smaller in the composition.

Anyway, I was so thankful the boys behaved well and actually liked it. I enjoyed the visit, and probably the shorter visit was better for the boys before they tired. We walked through the sculpture garden and in the back there's a small entrance to an Old Town patio of shops. We found a magic shop, which the boys loved. The owner showed us a few things and the boys were looking around. Ry found a small prank in the price range I pre-approved. Jack found something, too, and then asked the owner what he liked, and the owner took out a magic pen and showed us a good trick and then when we bought it how it worked, using magician's words to describe how it worked (misdirection and palming), taking them step by step (but only once) through the act (which involved requesting a dollar bill from the audience, promising to return it with greater value, and then allowing the audience to examine the pen), and swearing the boys to secrecy. Jack and Ry have been practicing (it even came with a DVD), and showed it to Cyndi and Brendan today.

We grabbed a pizza from Dion's on the way home.

and through the woods

Jackson, Roscoe, Rylee

We drove to California in a marathon drive in Poppa's RV the day after Christmas. The boys were excited about the trip for many weeks in advance. The days leading up to Christmas and the trip were also full and exciting. First Terra and Karl and little Roscoe stopped by on their way to California. Cyndi and the boys loved Roscoe, who was so pleasant and just adorable. Roscoe signed for "more" and "enough". We would see them again in California.

Lauren, Nicholas, Brendan, Jackson, Rylee

The boys were off from school the entire week before Christmas. One morning they got  together with their New Mexico cousins and exchanged gifts during a breakfast just for them.

Ariel and Chris arrived Friday and they came over on Saturday. We exchanged some gifts. Rylee got a Lego game from them that he and Jack put together and learned to play. Jackson got a Tin Tin book, which he hasn't really discovered yet.

We drove to Las Lunas first to pick up Lola and then met Ariel and Chris in Belen for Christmas Eve. There was a ham and posole and tamales, and later we met everyone in Albuquerque's Old Town to see the luminarias and listen to the carols. It was very cold, which drained some of the fun. We mostly sat inside the church, listening we think to Handel's Messiah, and hugged and said goodbye to Ariel and Chris.

On Christmas morning the boys discovered the gifts from Santa, and we went to church.

Christmas day we visited Cyndi's family in Belen. Jackson took his new chess set and played. He brought it along everywhere and played it in California, too, as well as at the Grand Canyon. Rylee got a Lego set and we're just now trying to put it together, despite some missing pieces. Ry got excited about it once he found out from Nicholas that it was a rare set and it had over 2,000 pieces. I think we could have gotten Karl's help in building it, but we had to get home to find alternative pieces for the ones that were missing.

On the road

As I recall, now a few weeks even later than when I started this post, we hit the road about 3 in the morning and the boys stayed awake for a while until drifting off to sleep on the couch in the back. Cyndi nodded in the chair beside mine in the front while I listened to my ipod. Around Grants, there were signs of the serious blizzard the week before Christmas. We stopped at the usual place in Galllup, where the pumps were frozen and had to be reset by the attendant. In Flagstaff, we grabbed some McD breakfast and gassed up at the Little America. In Kingman, we got some Starbucks and more gas. Cyndi ran into a store for Christmas wrap.

 

Meanwhile, the boys played with their new Skylanders game on the Wii console Jackson hooked up to the tv in the RV. I think by the time the day ended, they reached Level 18.

We didn't stop in Needles or in the Mojave. Somewhere out there, Dad called to measure our progress. In Barstow, after some gas, we were going to look for the original Del Taco but missed it and found ourselves headed to Mojave City. Cyndi was desperate for a bathroom at this point, and I knew there was a couple of gas stations at a junction up ahead in the middle of nowhere. Amazingly, the traffic and the bathroom lines were jammed, a sign of desperation we were sharing with lots of post holiday travelers. In Tehachapi, we had our only good meal on the road and we made a reservation for a room for our return. In Bakersfield, we stopped at the Costco for gas, grapes and hot dogs and salad. The traffic was brutal now. The lanes filled with commuters and travelers, everyone going very fast. It was dark now. The country road to Paso Robles, such a pretty drive in the daylight, was scary. Our final stop for gas before heading up the Salinas Valley, and we were hanging by a thread. We limped into Mom & Dad's, some 19 hours after we began our trip that day.

Everyone was pretty much there when we arrived.  I don't remember Sarah's menu schedule, but there was always plenty of good eating while we were there. On Tuesday morning, I was desperate for a big breakfast, so I took the lead, after some warning, to cook up some eggs along with the spread Mom had set out. It tasted so good and there was enough for many more as we sat around the kitchen. At some point, we borrowed Beth and Gary's car and drove into Monterrey. We stopped first at their skateboard park near the Dennis the Menace park down by the beach to tryout the new Santa skateboards, and then we headed toward the fisherman's wharf.

 

 

We needed this. I missed the smell of the ocean and the dampness. We went to a different place than usual for our clam chowder and sourdough bread. And this time the boys also split a half order of steamed dungeoness crab.

We were joined for a brief walk before heading back for dinner. Mom had her wonderful brisket, and everyone gathered around that evening for some gifts and cookies. The boys played a little on their Wii, always asking for permission first, and played some new games, as well as chess, with Eric and Terra. The next day, before pictures and his wonderful ribs, David took us out on the bay on one of the boats he built.

While the boys played with Roscoe and some cousins, Cyndi had a nice chat with Sandra, and I got caught up with Jennifer and Jacques' life in Valdez and the times they skied with Ariel and Chris up there, with Emily and her experience in South Africa, and with Sarah in her new career phase in Chico. Eric parted with his favorite baseball bat, and his girlfriend joined us for a walk around the pond below the house. I chatted a bit with David, and Beth, and Lisa, but nowhere enough. Mom acted like she didn't see the stain I made, which Sandra helped me to clean. Jackson looked for rocks. He and Ry ran up and down the hill where the lupines grow in spring.

We left around noon on Thursday. It was sad to say goodbye so soon. It was sad, too, that Ariel and Chris couldn't be there and were about to leave Albuquerque for a wedding in Jackson Hole. I'm sure they would have arranged to be in California had I planned our trip earlier. We ended up breaking up the return trip into three days, but the days still felt long. We hit all our gas stops for the most part. We found  the Del Taco in Barstow. It's not the original but it's store no. 1 and it really was pretty good eats, even though not much distinctive to look at. We did our night in Tehachapi. The indoor pool was shut down but we had real beds for the night. After a decent breakfast there, we headed toward the Grand Canyon.

That day felt long again and we were a little under the gun to get into the campground before dark. It wasn't crowded at all, so we drove over to the historic district on the south rim, where we had an okay meal and played some chess, before claiming a spot for the night.

In the morning, after coffee in the RV, showers at the camp-
ground, and breakfast at the Yavapai Lodge, we drove along the south rim toward the east gate, stopping along the way and exploring the Tower.

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We searched in vain in Flagstaff for some more Skylanders, got home after dark, put our things away, and went to bed. It was New Year's Eve. The next day we went to Monroe's for some New Mexican chile.