my soft spot

just a mom who plays hockey and knits

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Would have made more sense if it'd been black.

Your Nail Polish Color is Magenta

How you're unique: You're confident - and you show everyone the true you

Why your style rocks: You have the attitude to carry the most outrageous outfits off

What this color says about you: "Look at me. I know you want to!"


Hmmm, I dunno about this one.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Weekend with my sis

My sister's kids got out of school on Thursday, the same day that G did. They had enjoyed their last trip down here, and she asked them if they wanted to visit San Francisco again. They did. So we set up a weekend visit.

They had planned to arrive maybe 10ish and, with plans being what they are, arrived about 2ish. Unfortunately, they couldn't sneak in as we had planned, because I'd given her a set of house keys from before the Great Lock Change, whenever that was. So I woke up to a doorbell at 2AM, let them sleepily in, and stumbled back to bed, knowing they're quite self-sufficient as a group (and that I'd set things up so they could just fall into bed).

The next morning, I got G ready for school Y-kids and started to head out. My sister invited G to stay home instead and he was so happy to accept! She also did me the big favor of taking him to his dental appointment (this was huge, as I'd had various time off already this week for a random set of things--and because he had not been brushing well, something I'd suspected, so the cleaning was a nightmare). I got off work 12ish, and we set off on a massive shopping expedition: restaurant supply store, Cost Plus, a break for Ben & Jerry's (in which my sister bought a cone for the nice security guy at Cost Plus!), then IKEA, where we had dinner. I chose to have something other than the delicious meatballs this time, and it was a good gamble: really nice eggplant parmesan. My sister bought a glass-topped desk for my niece, and it turned out to be so big that we could only fit it in her van if we tilted some of the seats forward slightly. I was concerned, but she pointed out that the most-rear seat and shotgun were fine, so her driving home was safe. Hm, I don't think I ended up buying anything. That's a first! I did finally spot a sink and vanity I'm ready to buy for my bathroom.

Saturday, we didn't get going until about noon, and drove in to a garage near the Embarcaderos. According to what we'd read, we could get $3 parking when we validated (for free) for the North Beach Festival. We finally found the shuttle stop, which dropped us at the edge of Chinatown, but certainly near the NBF festivities. And just one block from Molinari's, where we studiously followed the Soup-Nazi-like rules we'd read: 1) grab number, 2) select bread, 3) hand over bread while giving order. Worked like a charm. I chose the South Beach Special, which was worth swooning, even though my first bite didn't even include turkey! I was just sad that it didn't work out to bring fresh ravioli home.

We walked up the street to Washington Square Park, found our way in (I hate barricades!), and selected some grass upon which to eat our tasty sandwiches. After lunch, we headed up to Coit Tower (my sister: "It's only a few blocks from here!" me: "It's straight up!" but it was fine) and took the elevator up. So not handicapped-accessible: stairs up to the main level, elevator up to the top, more stairs up to the very top. ? San Francisco, wake up! The view is amazing. My sister spotted some lovely tiny-forest area below that she'd read about. When we went back down, we headed into it down some worn brick steps. On the way back up, we heard a terrible screeching, and the "Parrots of Telegraph Hill" were there for us to see. Wow! It really was a lovely area.

After that, we headed back down Columbus, my sister stopping at an ATM and G and I heading farther down the block to get the parking ticket validated. Just next to the validating restaurant, we spotted Stella Pastry, which my sister had pointed out on the way up, mentioning that her bf thought it was wonderful and worth a visit. We settled there to wait for them, letting my sister know by cell that we were there. Managed to snag a table (by an act of God--those tables go FAST!) after perusing the offerings and choosing what we wanted. When they showed up, we all ordered, me with a cream horn with custard (very nice), G with a man-cookie sandwich with chocolate in between, the others getting a small fruit tart and an eclair with whipped cream (not custard? It's just wrong) to share. G's cookie turned out to be rather bland, so the gal who'd handled our order, who was just dealing with my credit-card slip, sold me some tiny round sandwich cookies for about half price instead. We also got some lattes that were... aaaaah.

We headed back to the shuttle stop through the festival, with me buying a subscription to the Chron for just $10--him: "blah blah blah" me: "I have one question: how fast can you write?" and we were done--and a switchplate from FIMO for G's room. G tried to get me to buy him cotton candy with the argument that he didn't remember what it tasted like (nice try, buddy).
We stopped at the Hunan Restaurant for takeout for dinner (walking past those strip bars on Broadway, some things never change) and headed to the shuttle stop. After waiting at least 15 minutes, my sister suggested we walk to the garage. "I don't think it's more than 2 miles," she says. "Really? I don't think it's nearly that far, even!" I said. "So why were we waiting?" she asked. I had no idea. We had a nice walk back to the garage, found the car, and the validation saved us, I am not kidding, thirty-three dollars. Yes, it would have cost us $36 to park for that long without validation. Amazing. What a racket!

Sunday, we decided to take the Alameda-Oakland ferry over and visit the Exploratorium. Once we landed, my sister discovered that we'd arrived without our SF map at all. She went into a store on Fisherman's Wharf and found one that included the bus lines--handy! We took the #30 down near the Exploratorium. We walked 2 blocks to the Palace of Fine Arts--it is so beautiful; I'd forgotten how beautiful. G chose that time to throw a tantrum about carrying his jacket, even though I pointed out everyone else was doing it. My sister gave me a break by handling his timeout and I walked a short distance away, sat down, and knit while gazing upon the lovely pond and a graceful swan in it. After a while, I wandered back to the group and G was calm and his beloved cousin was tying his jacket firmly around his waist. We headed out for the Exploratorium, which was as wild and ADD-inducing as I'd remembered. I most enjoyed a station where you could pull an enormous (like 3x3') square bubble out of a basin. If you blew on it, you could make a really long bubble punch out the back. Amazing. (and, I was thinking, not that hard to build on your own. Fun!)

We left there, hungry as anything, and ended up walking 12 blocks to Amici's, where Nephew got his birthday pizza (Oh, I forgot to mention, he turned 16 that day!) of "meat and cheese pizza." G and I shared a Hawaiian pizza, which was really delicious. We ate several slices, and then just the two of us set out to catch the bus back to the ferry building for our trip back, so that I could make my 5:45 hockey game. The bus came right away, we found our stop easily, and were nearly to the ferry building when... oh my god, where are my car keys? Called my sister, and yes, they were safely in her purse, way back in the Marina district. Dang it. We made a go of it, with me knitting away on the hour-long (!) trip back to Alameda (it stops at Angel Island), catching the bus right off the ferry, and walking the 8 blocks from its closest stop back to our house. When we got there, I did the math, and would be driving an hour round-trip to make the last period (20 mins) of the game. Andrea was very sweet at me begging off. We relaxed and hung out, eating cheese & crackers and watching TV.

My sister and her kids leisurely finished their lunch, walked down to the beach (there's a beach next to Chrissy Field! I honestly did not know that), up to the GG Bridge and all the way to the first tower, my niece holding my sister's hand the whole way. Then they misread the ferry schedule and went all the way to the ferry building to catch the ferry back to Alameda--the ferry that left Pier 41 (where they were) to pick them up at the ferry building. We had a fairly casual dinner (Nephew having his birthday steak) and shared chocolate birthday cake.

I just talked to my sister and they made it home just fine. It was a good visit, but G will be very sad that they aren't there any more tonight. When I told him they were on their way here, he asked, "Will they be staying all summer, Mom?" He is so cute.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Taking care of oneself

Lately, I've been noticing here and there how I'm not taking care of myself. My toilet has flushed slowly for it's-got-to-be three years now, my bathroom sink faucet just started leaking and that's been at least two weeks, I clean the house irregularly, and so on. The dawning realization has been painful. Awareness is good, but not always pleasant.

It has been suggested to me that my recent ex was a good distraction from all this (and implied that a new love interest would be the same sort of distraction), as I have to choose to take care of myself and not have someone else do it ("taking care" versus "caring for"). So, slowly, I am moving out of that mucky place into a much better one. And noticing. Noticing how crammed my bookshelves are and how pleasant it is to go through them quickly and weed out books I don't need in my house for whatever reason. Noticing how quick it is to load and run the dishwasher, and how satisfied I feel when I set it running. Noticing how happy I am when I sort the laundry and it isn't 6 or 8 loads.

It's like waking up from a bad dream. I'd like to stay awake.

It's the little things, part 273

Just checked my dryer, and the load of towels and sheets in there were dry.

Thank God! I shrieked.

You see, just last night I had the back off the dryer, trying to figure out what was making it not dry my clothes. While I was looking at the back, I checked the vent pipe to the outside. Saw a white circle. What is that? I thought, and reached through the pipe to poke it. It was the flap--but was sealed shut to the house. I pushed harder, and it popped open, reluctantly. Apparently, this was the key, as nothing I did in taking off the back of the dyer was successful at retrieving the hypothetical glob of lint I though was blocking everything.

Before unblocking the vent, it took 3 runs at 70 minutes to dry my clothes. Now, with a load of towels? 1 run. I was envisioning $200 house calls from appliance repairmen.

Phew.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

AreToo vs. R3: 2-1, yay!

Despite my feeling very foggy after being off the ice for, what was it, 19 days? our coach said I had good positioning and other nice things. She only once said to me, "I'll talk to you in a minute," but instead of a smack-down (she's so kind), it's only a "you did this part well, here's what you can do better next time" kind of thing.

And OH MAN, I love this game. Even took some shots this time. Hard and low but not well aimed. Better next time.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Oh. My. God.

You have to look at this. All 5 pages. And prepare to stifle a lot of laughter if you're at work.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

A great weekend

Why is it that, come Monday, I can hardly ever figure out what I did the previous Friday night? I think we got some videos and just had a lazy evening. Maybe that was the evening when we watched Nightmare Before Christmas, which was way better than I'd remembered it, Linda (long ago ex) and I having watched it not long after it came out, and getting bored very quickly.

Saturday morning, we slept in and lazed around for hours. Lovely. Then I got us dressed and out the door after I called and found that the hall tree I'd spotted at Salvation Army was still there. It had just made my heart stop, so I thought I really should get it. I'm so glad I did. Dharma's coming over tonight to help me clean, I hope enough so I can move it into place.













I think it is just lovely. Of course, two sweet guys loaded it onto my car at SA, and I drove slowly home, hoping and hoping my neighbor would be home. He was! He is so sweet. He also noticed that it is VERY tall and helped me to avoid smashing the top against the doorway (thank God).

That afternoon, I had to be at church at 4 for our dress rehearsal, and I've been late so many times lately, so I aimed for 3. We got there at 3:30 and I helped prep the dessert plates for our "Spaghetti" dinner, which this year was a "TV Dinner," serving lasagne instead of spaghetti, and the chancel choir doing TV theme songs (which really was quite fun), and the bell choir doing a PDQ Bach piece (sounds classical but is full of silly tunes snuck in) that was very fun--and we did a great job, thank God, as this piece has been a bear. I have stretches of measures where I don't play a single thing, and then measures where I play all or almost all of the four bells I'm in charge of.

Sunday, I threw together a short 2-minute talk on Jubilee USA, which I'd learned more about at Asilomar. I was so nervous, and felt like my voice went into a total monotone, but about five people approached me and thanked me for speaking on the topic. After church, I declared it was Yardwork Day, and G got into it right away. He found his work gloves, I found mine, and he decided he was going to trim the wisteria that was growing across the front steps. I watched him for a while with the trimmers, but he was totally safe with them (he always has been with scissors, so it shouldn't have surprised me). So I started trimming the lemon verbena (yummy smell!) and pulling weeds. He finished with the wisteria and decided he wanted to pull weeds, too. (No, you can't have him.) We pulled some weeds from the area between the walkway and the driveway, and then moved to the brickwork, which had become overgrown with 3' high weeds in some places. We filled the green bin and mutually decided we were completely done.

Then we decided to bike around and look at garage sales... except that my bike and the trail-a-bike were still at my work. So we got our helmets out, put them in backpacks, and walked the mile to my work. He decided he wanted a cheese stick before we set out there, so I got him set up in the break room and got the bikes hooked up. We ended up biking seven miles that day! Didn't find any good garage sales, but I found a box of free stuff that included two glass clamp-top jars (they keep the bugs out, which I really need, as opposed to mayo jars, which don't). G was not satisfied, so after some discussion, we went to our local toy store, and he bought two toys with his $4.65.

Relaxed with Sky High and had a good evening.

G woke up Monday morning, sobbing for "another day of no school." Soon enough, honey, soon enough. (Countdown to June 14 is on!)

Welcome, summer!

A friend gave me this tea because it could interact with a medication she takes. I had not used it much, as the idea of warm pink-grapefruit tea didn't appeal terribly often. Then, today, I came upon the idea of having it iced.

Oh, yum. Yeah. This is more like it.

Friday, June 01, 2007

Update on last two weekends.

Weekend of May 19
Weekend-before-last, we were in Asilomar for the annual meeting of our church conference. I am a delegate for our church, which means I'm a voting member (one of two adults; we have one youth delegate, which was a vote we brought in last year--that each church gets an additional delegate who is a youth--very exciting times!). Our minister, and any minister in the conference, also has a vote.

Being a delegate for our church means that I represent First Congregational Church of Alameda, UCC at meetings of our association, which sometimes involve voting on bylaw changes and more often involve outreach information. One meeting was all about the work an association church had done in New Orleans (and made me realize I need to donate money rather than go there--the mold blooms were astonishing, and would have done me in). I also represent FCCA at Ecclesiastical Councils, which are one of the final steps toward a candidate becoming a minister in our association. ECs are fascinating--not only a glimpse into what different ministries there are, but also a glimpse into folks' paths toward ministry.

Anyway, beyond local meetings (4x/yr) and ECs (scheduled 3x/yr but I've only been to one), the annual meeting at Asilomar is the pinnacle. The most exciting decisions get made, the most churches to get to know, and you get to stay at this breathtakingly beautiful retreat. It's not a fancy-schmancy hotel; it has almost a camplike atmosphere, with rooms from "historic" which are lovely and wood-filled and simple, to "modern" which are still charming but with wonderful upgrades like a bathtub, deck, and fireplace with built-for-you-fires each night. (Did we have a fire every night? You bet your ass! Just light the paper--could it be easier?) With sticking to G's bedtime religiously (har har) each night, I ended up with scads of Me time that were just delicious. I enjoyed the deck, drank wine, listened to podcasts, watched DVDs on my new-to-me laptop (thanks K!), and knit knit knit. Meals are provided in a dining room, the loveliest part of which is that I DON'T HAVE TO DO THE DISHES. Meetings are in larger buildings, most of which were designed by Julia Morgan, and as I took a moment to look up, they took my breath away. The details, the lines, the weathered wood... amazing.

I enjoyed most of the meetings (and gave feedback on the lame ones on the feedback form), and my main concern was that I knew K would be there. The first few times we saw each other, it was quickly, in passing, and I was able to say 'hi' and leave it there. Then, one time when I was in the Lodge using their wireless connection, she approached me, and we talked. And it was OK. She did say that it wasn't hard not being this year's Moderator (as she was last year), but that it was hard because I was there. I was grateful that hearing that didn't make me curl up into a guilt-filled ball (and I know that wasn't her intent, either), but I accepted it and moved on. It felt very normalizing to actually talk after 3 months of virtually no contact. We went on a walk through the beautiful dune boardwalks on the last night and that felt normalizing, too. I don't know what will happen between us, whether we'll be able to carve out a friendship, but it will be OK. That was really gratifying... and bewildering. I thought it would be more of an emotional rollercoaster than it was. Glad it wasn't.

G and I managed to make it to the Aquarium three times (the head of our company has 2 guest passes that she loans out happily), and only bought one tiny thing (a cute little sea turtle, which he christened Teeny). We saw stunningly large Sunfish in the Outer Bay tank--the larger one swam past as G was standing by the window, and it was taller than he is! There were also hammerheads that tended to swim around together, as in a school, and a Galapagos shark or two, as well as tuna that would kill you if they landed on you. (That's a lotta cans.)

Memorial Day Weekend
Then last weekend, we had our annual Memorial Day Ashland-plays weekend. We saw As You Like It, which I've historically liked, but it put me to sleep, literally at times; the other play we saw was a Tom Stoppard one, On The Razzle, which was enjoyable but not terribly deep. My sister still fondly remembers seeing his play Arcadia, which absolutely knocked her socks off. The next year, we all saw Rough Crossing together, and it was terrific, and the acting just tremendous.

I found myself steeled against the usual criticism, pushiness, and uninvited advice... and there was nearly none. As my sister has worked with this therapist, she really has become such a more enjoyable person to be around. Now I have to work on not setting myself up for the usual statements/reactions and just be who I am. I nearly said something, but how do you say, "You are so much more enjoyable now than your irritating, condescending former self" without hurting feelings?

I also had decided to make some time to see my ex-BIL. I still consider him family, as he is the father of my niece & nephew. Thought we could get together for coffee, but we ended up having lunch and then he took the kids to the reservoir twice that weekend. I joined them for a bit each time. Now, as he is going away for work soon, he had his kids for Sunday midday through Tuesday morning. G is so fond of his cousins that, when he heard they were sleeping at their dad's on Sunday night, he asked me if he could stay over, too. I knew Dan had enough room, so I had G ask him. Dan said, Sure! and my big seven-year-old slept over without me there! Apparently, he did great. I'm so proud of him!

The drive back was pretty hard--harder than usual, I think. Usually, I get up really early and get us on the road by 6. G sleeps 2-3 hours and then the trip just seems shorter. Well, this time, I wasn't pushing myself, and we were on the road by 7. We had Maddy with us, which was a lot harder than I'd anticipated. She is still just petrified of riding in the car--hesitates to get in, and while we start out, pops her head up nervously at each stoplight or pause, and pants. It was OK on the way up, as we drove in cool temps Thursday night as far as Redding (Vagabond Inn rocks) and then Friday morning, arriving noonish. On the way back, though, the weather was hotter, and when we stopped in Willows for lunch, I had set up sunshades and cracked the windows a couple of inches--and when we got back, the shades had fallen down and she was hot and panicky. I felt awful. Got water in her, and put some on her back and belly, and walked her around a bit. Then I got in the car, closed all the windows, cranked up the A/C, and aimed it at the ceiling. That seemed to do the trick, but she bounded out of the car at home, probably the one most happy to be home. G and I were happy, too... and tired. We got home about 2PM on Tuesday (I avoid holiday traffic at all costs, so we don't drive on Memorial Day), and just vegged all afternoon and evening. Which was good.

Oh, and I did some inline skating with my sister--man, that is hard work! I hope to do it more, as I'm thinking it'll help both my stamina and speed. Yippee!

Pasties?

Remember when pasties meant things you glue to your boobs to cover your nipples? Good times, man, good times.