Normal

Home from the mountain. Work and school and homework and dinner and Gilmore girls and bed.
Mali wrote a play from a book Susy gave her, and Andrew typed it up for her.

10 inches of new snow

While we play poker, Whistler gets eight inches of the lightest powder I've ever seen. Two more while we ski. Visibility gets tricky around noon, and soon my legs want to drop off my body. I know this because they tell me so, loudly.

Skiing

A good day on the mountain. Cold though. Sunshine in the morning.
We left a little early, and spent the afternoon in the Westin's hot tub (courtesy Bob's Mountain Club) and then at Earl's, drinking and enjoying the views. Now everyone is napping. Poker at 7:00.

Whistler

I am here, safely ensconced in Bob and Meg's condo. Bob and co. went tubing, but I'm relaxing and catching up. Tomorrow we ski. No new snow here, but tomorrow promises sunshine and fun.
Update: After tubers return we go to Dublin's Gate pub for dinner, then return to play Hearts where I win a close game after getting a perfect hand and taking all tricks.

Off like a dirty shirt

I'm heading up to Bellevue, then to Whistler for my weekend of skiing and poker.
Kids are coming up with restaurants to go to in my absence.

President's Day II

The museum trip turned chaotic very quickly. We all saw a marvelous old carriage, with technologically cutting-edge leather suspension and a coat-of-arms on the door. Then Susy got a phone call from work and had to leave to come home and get on her computer so she could explain things to people. The kids and I wandered the museum, meeting back up with Pablo and Co. at closing. There wasn't room for all of us in Pablo's car, so Mali and I rode the Max back to Bellevue, which was fun and different.

We had dinner at Paul and Nancy's. Hot dogs for the kids, and Paul made a delicious chicken curry for the adults and Matias. Pablo brought a great spinach salad, and Nancy made peanut butter and jelly cookies out of the S. Beach diet cookbook, and the adults were each allowed two (= one serving). Nancy hid the plate after I stole a third. I appreciate that now.

President's Day

To celebrate President's Day we are going to the Portland Art Museum with Pablo, Rocio, and Matias. Susy is on her way home from work now, and we'll soon be out the door. Free tickets today, courtesty of Fred Meyer.

Last night was dinner at Pablo and Rocio's: a delicious roast pork with apple compote. Alana brought a great salad, and Susy made little chocolate bombs that we ate with raspberries and whipped cream and ice cream. All good. Then we watched an episode from season 2 of the British The Office. It always makes me squirm.

Basketball victory!

Mali's basketball team had a great game today. Mali scored the first basket on a putback, laughing later because it was so easy. Andrew came with us and and watched, and Susy made it there from work in time to see the entire game.
Susy has to work again tomorrow, with a 7:30 AM meeting to start her day.
Hooray! We were just invited over to Alana's for chile.

Valentine's Day

A little late, but here's the story:
Mali brought a large, heart-shaped mug filled with chocolate coffee beans to her teacher, and of course a Valentine for each kid in her class. They had an hour-long party at the end of the day, but nothing amazing happened.
Andrew brought Valentines for the folks who sit at his table at lunch. Nothing special.
Susy got cards for the kids, and gave them a little note worth $10 at Moonstruck Chocolates. We went there last night after dinner at Subway and the kids got milkshakes.
I cooked dinner on Valentine's Day: Chicken stuffed with spinach and goat cheese. It was pretty good. The kids picked out all the spinach, but Andrew at least liked the cheese.

Burning Thumb.

We had the neighbors (A's and S's) over for a South Beach dinner Saturday night. Susy made a wonderful chicken and eggplant dish, similar to an eggplant parmeson. Pablo made a delicious curried tomato soup that he was sure was too bland but was really very good, and Paul made a wine-poached pear salad that was delicious too.

The big event of the evening Occurred just before Paul, Nancy and the girls arrived. Susy ventured into the oven to remove the broiling eggplants, and brushed the oven mitt on the burner without realizing it. She then removed the mitt without looking. Neither of us realized the mitt had started burning and melting, and she pulled it off with her thumb on the melting part, covering her thumb with melting polyester, or whatever the fabric is. It took us a minute to figure out what was going on, so her thumb got badly burned before we got some cold water on it. She thought she had just touched a hot part of the mitt, and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't stop hurting. The melting fabric was clear and difficult to see. It wasn't until I saw the mitt, burning and smoldering, that we knew it was bad.

Dinner went on, but she did keep her thumb in ice all evening. Paul nicely brought some French-Canadian burn ointment, which Susy was sure the non-sting claims had been mistranslated.

Trouble

Mali and I got thrown out of the school gym today. I was expecting it, but she was quite shocked. I told her we'd go see if we could sneak in and play some basketball, and we did, without any actual sneaking. Then the monitor from the Y showed up and was puzzled by us, but let us play for awhile, then finally told us we weren't supposed to be there. Mali ran to the nearest exit. I told her to wait, and she did, but the minute I turned she was out the back door.
We got a good half hour of practice in. She finally did a layup correctly, hopefully she'll do it again. She is getting better.

We got Andrew's application to Summa faxed in. I made him redo his essay a couple of times, and he ended up very happy with it. I didn't help him, except to tell him to give it some organization. It started out almost stream-of-consciousness. (Kind of like this blog.) He wasn't happy with me, I think, but he was very impressed with the final result, as was Susy. He has a much snappier tone to his writing than anything I've ever done. I should post it. I'll see if I can get his soft-copy tomorrow and hide it online somewhere. UPDATE: Here's his essay. He had to answer 4 of 6 questions, and he picked: special skills, favorite subjects, career plans, and why Summa?

Mali's birthday list

Mali has posted her birthday wish list at www.xanga.com/pinkypox

Andrew's Choice

Last night we went to an open house at Whitford, the middle school that contains Summa, the middle school for all the geeky smart kids. It was impressive, and Andrew has decided to go there next year. He still has to fill out the application (due Friday, of course), but there are openings, so he should be accepted.

We didn't tell Matias or his parents beforehand, as I didn't want to give them any false hopes, but they were at the open house. Matias had, of course, been chosen to be a tour guide for Summa. They were happy to see us, and excited that Andrew might go to Summa - they've been trying to talk us into it for 2+ years now. But Andrew's been happy in his mainstream middle school. Possibly it was the horrible behavior witnessed at Highland's science fair that prompted his change of heart.

Mali was bored through much of the open house (actually, we ALL were bored silly during the Whitford portion of the talk, before they got to the tour and then the Summa discussions.) She livened up later, and thinks maybe it wouldn't be so bad going to Summa. Of course, she hasn't had any of the standardized tests yet, so so far only her parents (and close relatives) know she's brilliant.

Superbowl weekend

Beautiful weather, and I did not go skiing. Instead, we went to Tsulan, Tom, and Tiana's house for a superbowl party. Fun, except the wrong team won and I didn't win the office pool even with great numbers. Mali won $5 for the first quarter of the party pool, but that was the only victory for anyone from this house.

Last night we had a South Beach Diet dinner at Paul and Nancy's. Paul cooked a roast beef and some ribs, Susy brought a capri salad with roasted red peppers, and Alana brought sugarless cheesecake.

Science Fair

Andrew's team (A + Tiana and Kyle) pulled together a nice project, but they did not win a prize. The competition was surprisingly good. Here's a couple of photos.




We saw many familiar faces, but mostly hung out with Tom and Tsulan, and Alana, and Annette G. Afterwards the kids picked Subway over A&W, which we ate at home while watching Gilmore Girls. Now I am off to Bellevue for work.

Sunshine gone.

Mali attributes yesterday's sunshine to her wearing her sunshine socks, which she picked out in just that hope. She is not wearing them again today.

No lawn mowing was accomplished yesterday, of course. Instead Mali requested we go to the gym early, so we shot hoops for half an hour before practice started.

Tonight is Andrew's science fair. I mentioned the electricity from produce project? I love their title, something about the project being a lemon. I'll try and remember to take a picture of it tonight, for posting.

Sunshine!

The sun is out, so I ventured outside and cleaned the gutters. If it stays out I may mow the lawn later. Mali has basketball practice at 5:00.

Uneventful, typical week. I've been cooking dinner and breakfasts from the South Beach Diet cookbook. Susy is rigorously sticking to it so far, and the beginning is the hardest. I'm trying at about half speeed. Monday was Steak Au Pauvre, last night chicken capri. It sounds good, but you really crave carbs. I've made toast and pasta as side dishes for the kids, besides the usual green item. Leftovers tonight. Breakfasts have been omelets or frittatas. I'm tired of eggs. Tomorrow I may try some low-carb blintzes.