As those of you on Facebook know, Sunday began with Galen baking cream puffs! They were delicious. Unfortunately we ran out of whipped cream so I volunteered to leg it up to Trader Joe's to get a fresh supply. When the cashier thought I needed it for early morning coffee, I proudly explained that my son was baking cream puffs for the family.
I polished off several of these as I was finishing up Christopher Moore's
Bloodsucking Fiends the initial volume in his vampire trilogy. At Sean's urging, I have discovered his work and have been enjoying it immensely. In discussing all this with Galen, I had said that I need to get to Barnes & Noble to get the second volume,
You Suck: A Love Story. He suggested that I use his Kobo reader to borrow it from the Monroe County Library System back home. I could then send the reader back to him. I check the MCLS resources and the book is available for e-borrowing. I have downloaded to my laptop and will transfer to the Kobo today and start reading. This will be a good test for me of an e-reader. I probably wouldn't go with Kobo but the Color Nook looks promising. I just checked and think it will support my Rhapsody membership. I know that Meg just got a Color Nook and look forward to learning of her experience with it. With the android 2.2 upgrade, it is looking like a really good buy.
After breakfast, Galen got his second recumbent bike set up for me and I gave it a try. Once I got it going, it wasn't bad but clearly I would need more experience before I would bike with him to work along the Pacific Coast Highway. So on Monday afternoon we are going to some biking on some side streets and trails where the worst that I can do is run into something rather than run the risk of something running into me. I believe him when he tells me that it takes about 500 hours before you get really comfortable on one of these in traffic.
After a quick lunch, Galen and I took the three youngest to a program run by the anthropology department at Cal State-Fullerton at the Fullerton Arboretum which is on the campus. They got to experience presentations about the life of native peoples in this area, the Chumash: arts, crafts, games, and canoe building. They also were able to participate in a "dig" which they seemed to really enjoy. Graduate anthropology students were assisting as well undergraduates from the general education anthropology course. Toward the end, Galen noticed that the undergraduates were all reading different MLB caps. I noticed a young woman with a Royals cap. turned out that her family was from the Kansas City area and she was a Royals fan. We had a nice conversation. After witnessing the canoe launch, we drove home. Robert, by the way, had spent the day at Knott's Berry Farm with a friend.
After a brief recovery at home, we went out to dinner at Don Ramon's, a Mexican restaurant nearby. That's where we learned about the death of Osama bin Laden actually via a phone call from Robert who told us it was on CNN. This seemed strange to his parents until we realized that he had not returned home but to his friends house where he was informed by his parents. Robert is not that 14-year-old who comes home and immediately checks CNN for his news update.
We returned home to watch more coverage on CNN. This night I was the last one to go to bed. Quite a day!
Go to the updated Picasa album.
We are off to the movies: boys going to Cowboys and Aliens and the girls taking in Smurfs. The movies were very enjoyable; everyone enjoyed their choice. Once we got home, there was more work to do. Liam and Aidan husked corn in the back yard. You will note that Aidan is using a "husking glove." This is his own invention and its purpose remains a mystery. Liam cut the grass which is quite an operation, especially in this hot and humid climate.
My fourth day was Monday and everybody got back to their normal routines: school and work. Everyone except Robert who developed a nasty little cold over the weekend and stayed home. True he was not sick enough that he was unable to practice his guitar but sick nonetheless.
Galen, Laura, and I took Maggie and Thomas to Shipley Nature Center in Huntington Beach where the annual community event was underway. I went last year as well. We visited the booth for the Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve. Laura is active in the leadership of the Bolsa Chica Stewards, a group of volunteers that work in the reclaiming of the area for native plants. Galen and I hiked around some of the trails with Thomas and Maggie.
Then it was back home for some sliders. After dinner we all watched "Fantastic Mr. Fox" which was quite good with great voice talents: Bill Murray, Meryl Streep, and George Clooney. As usual I hit the sack earlier than everyone else and am now up at 5:00 a.m. writing this before even Galen gets up. Sunday promises to be big day as well.
We picked up Anola and then drove to Sweet Tomatoes where we met Louisa and Mary and Bob. We had a leisurely meal and good conversation. One of the things I learned was that the MAX bus system in Kansas City has been commissioning works of art in and around the major transfer points along Troost Ave, the main thoroughfare of my growing up in Kansas City. After dinner Mom, Anola, and I visited two of them: at 75th and Troost and 39th and Troost. There are a couple of more--one of which sounds spectacular--that I plan to visit Sunday.
The day began with breakfast in the dining room. Mom typically does not get going early enough or she just doesn't want to go through the hassle of going down, but when she has company we usually do go down. Then it was off to do some shopping. She is always concerned about getting her place organized and putting things where she can remember their location. She has decided that she needs another under-bed storage box. So off we went to Walmart. There were some but Mom thought they were too expensive so off we went to Lowe's. Same result, of course. However we did find some extra large film storage bags. These were reasonably priced and that sealed the deal.
I flew to Kansas City on Thursday April 7. Leaving Rochester was delayed due to low ceilings and visibility at O'Hare in Chicago. I learned that when a flight is headed into challenging weather, it takes on extra fuel in case the flight needs to divert and spend time in a holding pattern. As a result, my fully booked flight was overweight. Since I had a four hour layover at O'Hare anyway, I volunteered to take a later flight, still able to get my original connection. Result? I got a $200 voucher! An excellent beginning to the trip.
I am writing this as I sit in the United Red Carpet Lounge with Sean. He is leaving at 8:00 on a flight to Copenhagen and I am leaving at 10:30 for Rochester and home. I had a wonderful visit. I had some great times with Sam, playing indoor and outdoor games. He has quite an interesting personality and a nicely cultivated sense of humor. He and Julie left for a Tiger Scout pack meeting just before we left for the airport.
The big activity for Saturday was Sam's birthday pictures. We had a 10:00 appointment at Sears Portrait Studio. Sam is getting quite good at this. He takes direction very well and has such a sweetness about him along with a "big boy look" that the results are quite stunning. After that we all had the traditional after photo shoot lunch at Johnny Rocket's in the mall.
Because of the three hour time difference, I am up at a very early hour and learned of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Following that news was a constant all day. However, life went on here with Sammy getting off to school and Julie to work. Sean had a couple of phone meetings in the morning. Ana electrician came by to give an estimate on work they needed done as well as an arborist looking especially at the black walnut tree in back. Then Sean and I transported several cartons of books to contribute at the library.