Boomvang

How would you spell it?

2011-09-14T21:26:00.001-07:00

Living with a six year old you realize how many words SHOULD be spelled. Take, for instance, pirates. Lucy's spelling makes much more sense (pierits). I also like her stylized skull and cross bones. She also makes pirate hats to go with this flag, constructed of a giant leaf petiole and construction paper.

Three Things

2011-09-14T21:03:00.001-07:00

1. Yes, let me say it again, I still love OBAMA and so should you. Read this HILARIOUS article from SF Gate on Obama and what he needs and we all need.

2. Mitch got the highest compliment ever yesterday. At lunch, one of the second graders who was in Lucy's class last year asked Mitch if he would come to his birthday party and bring science demos! Mitch is his own Just Ask Why? I'm the Science Guy and has become something of a cult hero to the little people of Open Classroom (especially the extra nerdy little people...although i must say that things like rockets do resonate with all)

3. Mitch just learned a new song on the acoustic guitar. Can you believe it? Just now while the girls were in the bathtub. He just busts out with a lovely and rocking rendering of Whats So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding in honor of an article he read on Nick Lowe in the New York Times. Rock on Mitch!

4 out of 4 Brigham Allens Still Strong on Obama

2011-09-05T12:25:00.001-07:00

L.A. Times headline today:

Obama strongly leads GOP candidates in California poll

Allie and Tom come for a visit

2011-09-05T12:10:00.000-07:00

Allie and Tom took the train up for a day long visit yesterday. It was great to see them - we haven't seen them since they came back from their Seattle sojourn. Lucy called most of the shots for the day so we all spent time at the mermaid store, played at the playground on the beach, read stories, had tea, played at the neighborhood playground, played a quick game of chess, and played Don't Let The Pigeon Ride the Bus. We also went out for a yummy sushi dinner.

Allie and Tom are such good sports that they played several board games with the girls which can be frustrating since JoJo never actually knows the rules and Lucy frequently conveniently "forgets" them...

Allie and I talked gardening and both she and Tom listened to me rant about all my many issues. We all spent some time deconstructing climate change and talking peak oil (one of Tom's many specialties).

Good times were had by all.

Some Things Never Change

2011-09-05T12:05:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we went to our friend Evan's fifth birthday party. It was a great party and the girls had tons of fun jumping at the bouncy place for two hours on a Saturday (a rare treat since the place isn't open to the public on the weekends). As we were getting ready to leave and the girls were looking in their goody bags, all of a sudden Josie realized that her goody bag did not contain army men, like the boys goody bags did. So JoJo asked Mary (Evan's mom) if she could have some army men too and Mary gave her a whole handful.

So JoJo is now happily playing with her army men (she has divided them into "lookers" - ones with binoculars, and "shooters" - ones with machine guns and bazookas).

It is amazing how similar these army men are too the ones that we used to melt against our bicycle tires, turning them into piles of plastic goo. Army men are apparently frozen forever in WWII era garb and weaponry. Fine with me. I prefer playmobile pirates anyway.

The Family Jewels

2011-09-05T11:50:00.000-07:00

Growing up I loved to go downstairs to my parents bedroom, open the accordion doors to their closet, and get out my mom's two jewelry boxes off the top of her orange dresser. I would set them on my parent's bed and spend a good half hour to an hour looking through all the shiny rings, the charm bracelets with my mom's high school graduation date, the cupid bracelet with hearts with red jewels, the brown seed necklace from the sixties, the flower pins. It was all marvelous. My mom hardly ever let me wear any of her jewelry because she was afraid that I would lose them or break them (and I probably would have). After my mom died, I inherited all the "jewels", none of which are actual jewels.

Now the girls love to look through all the rings and necklaces and bracelets. Last Sunday I let them wear some necklaces and pins around the house while they were playing dress up. It is so strange and nostalgic to watch them doing the same thing that I did 30 years ago...

JoJo Says

2011-08-25T20:43:00.000-07:00

To Mitch as he leaves for a garage sale that Jojo has decided not to go to,

"Please bring me back a beanie baby of any kind."

To Mitch while riding in the van,

"Cobras squeeze people up and then eat them."

Mitch to Josie, "No they don't. You are thinking of boa constrictors. Cobras are venomous snakes. They bite animals and inject them with venom and then eat them."

JoJo, "NO!! They squeeze people and eat them up. My friend in the green shirt at the park told me so."

Lucy Says

2011-08-25T20:42:00.001-07:00

While out hiking with her buddies and her dad at Arroyo Verde Park,

"Raise your hand if you think this is TOTALLY AWESOME"

To Josie while riding in the van on Saturday, "Witches and ghosts aren't real. And most certainly not mummies."

Feeling the Love

2011-08-25T20:34:00.000-07:00

Tiffany gave me this painting last Thanksgiving. I believe I may have made derogatory remarks at the time and tried to get Elise to switch with me since her heart painting had more orange in it. But now I found the PERFECT spot for it. It is a most excellent addition to my ofrenda for my mom.

Sorry for being such a heel Tiff and thanks for the wonderful painting.

20% yoga 20% rock and roll 40% kids 10% work

2011-08-25T20:19:00.000-07:00

This is my current hypothetical ideal recipe for a happy life (20% yoga 20% rock and roll 40% kids 10% work). Don't get me wrong, I love all the things listed above (yoga, rock and roll, my family, my job). Last week I went to a Old 97's concert and it was so AWESOME it made my head explode. That got me thinking that all lives would be better with more rock and roll, especially more live rock and roll. The head exploding aspect made me think well, it's probably good to have head exploding balanced out with a little grounding, which is what the yoga asanas do for me. Once I had yoga and rock and roll on the list, I had to add family and work.

I think really 50% work and 50% kids would be ideal but then it all adds up to 140% which just isn't right. And that's not even including reading books, tea, petting dogs, gardening, eating cookies, making cookies, and all that jazz.

So I guess I'm really saying, here's for more rock and roll. Here is a short list of the bands I would LOVE to see in concert over the next couple of years:

1. The Pixies
2. Bruce Springsteen
3. Ozomatli
4. No Doubt (Mitch says they aren't together any more so low probability on this one)
5. Gomez
6. Rancid (see number 4)
7. David Lindley (could happen in Ventura this summer)
8. Go-Gos
9. Lucinda Williams
10. The Rolling Stones

Addressing the maintenance backlog, buying down the deficit, etc.

2011-08-25T20:14:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I finally got some of my historic burdens off my plate. Here is a list of the things I FINALLY accomplished in the better late than never category:

1. Caught up on the two birthday letters that I was behind on for Lucy. I didn't write one last year and had not written one for this year yet (I write her a letter on her birthday every year to help her remember what she was like as a little person). Now I just have to write the one I am behind on for Jo-Jo.

2. Finally mailed my dad's birthday presents. They have all been wrapped for about a month but I just couldn't get to the post office. Yes, his birthday was in June.

3. Refilled the bird feeders. We've had lots of young birds eating out of them and I have felt guilty that they have been empty for several weeks.

4. Paid all the bills. None of these had been sitting around for too long but still I do feel good about getting the bill paying out of the way for another month.

Sleep Gets in the Way

2011-08-25T20:11:00.001-07:00

I keep meaning to write some posts on my day to day existence but falling asleep between 9 and 11 every night gets in my way. Then once I wake up I end up only being awake for an hour before going to bed. Hmm not sure what that is all about. World weariness? African sleeping sickness? Fainting disease? "female troubles"? Or perhaps just genetics. When I was growing up my mom would come home from work every day between 1 and 3 PM and immediately go into the living room to take a nap on the couch (I would go play in my room for "quiet time"). My dad also immediately retired to his bedroom for an hour nap before dinner every day after work. So I get my need for extra sleep from both sides.

Anyway, I'm trying to stay up tonight and write a few posts to catch up. So here we go.

They Picked These Outfits Themselves...

2011-08-12T21:26:00.000-07:00

Big thanks to Chloe and Hannah for the hand-me downs. The girls love them!

Speaking of Gandhi...

2011-08-12T21:12:00.000-07:00

Growing up with two intellectuals for parents, we occasionally played games as a family or with friends. Games like scrabble or Trivial Pursuit. And when we visited our friends the Bushells on Camano Island every summer, we played lots of games like Hundred Thousand Dollar Pyramid and pen and pencil games where you write a word and think of as many words that start with each letter as possible. Perhaps because this week on Camano Island was always one of the most fun of the summer, with lots of kick the can, shell collecting at the beach, crabbing, blackberry picking, book reading, back scratching and eating of chocolate turds (waxy chocolate donut sticks), I have fond associations with these types of word games even now as an adult.

And now I have a group of friends from graduate school who are similarly enamored of these types of games. When we get together every Thanksgiving we typically play a round or two of Celebrity (where you write down the names of famous people and then play three rounds of guessing them - one round where you can say anything but the person's name, a second round where you can say one word, and a third round where you can only pantomime) or some other game. But we have had to take a hiatus for the past couple of years due to the deep rancor that can develop over who, exactly, is a celebrity. Is Elvis Schmeidecamp, the local used car dealer with billboards along highway 80, a celebrity? What about the author Ann Patchett? Similarly folks have gotten seriously pissed during the game over mistakes such as describing John Wayne as a fictional cowboy. Needless to say it took a long time to guess that one.

Among a bunch of competitive, overly educated, obstreperous ecologists, these things can get ugly. But they can also get very, very funny. Here for your amusement are two of my favorite ever moments from Celebrity:

1) Who wears a Diaper?
One year someone put Gandhi's name into the pool. When it came time for the round with a single word, my friend Rob chose, not India, not peaceful, not non-violent, not bald, or many, many other things. But in the spur of the moment, Rob chose "diaper". And then, for the entire remaining 59 seconds (you only have a minute to guess), he basically grabbed his crotch to simulate a diaper. If you guessed that we never correctly guessed Gandhi from this display, you would be right. But when we found out who he was imitating, I literally peed myself laughing and to this day, merely thinking the words Gandhi and diaper put a huge smile on my face.

2) Old Candy Eye
It is round two of Celebrity that brings out all the gems. One time someone put Sammy Davis Jr in the hat and during round two, my friend Tiffany said as her one word clue, "Candy" hoping to jog our memories with a reference to his nickname, The Candy Man. Unfortunately, candy, in and of itself, was not enough to remind us of Sammy Davis Jr. from round one. Then Tiffany started vigorously pantomiming and settled on pointing to her eye as the best clue (because he had a fake eye). Yep, we couldn't figure out who "old candy eye" could possibly be.

Pearls Before Six Year Olds

2011-08-12T21:00:00.000-07:00

The following conversation took place yesterday as reported by Mitch:

Josie to Lucy, "I love Hannah more than you."

Lucy starts to cry.

Moments later, Lucy to Josie, "I love Dylan more than YOU."

Mitch to Lucy, "Gandhi said, "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

Lucy to Mitch, "Who is Don?"

The Roborovskis

2011-08-08T21:11:00.001-07:00

I was leaning towards guinea pigs, Mitch was leaning towards nothing. The Roborovskis seemed like a perfect compromise. They are the size of a furry marshmallow and they live in a ten gallon aquarium that thus keeps their paper strewing capacities to a minimum.

Although I cannot explain why I wanted even more pets, especially ones that need their cages cleaned, I fell in love with these little guys at the pet store a couple of weeks ago as did Lucy. I think Lucy would have forgotten about them but she had her mom to advocate for her position. JoJo is agnostic on the mini-hamsters and declares that they are "too jumpy and fast." Honestly I think guinea pigs would be better pets for the little people because they are larger and calmer (and they make all those adorable squeaking sounds) but they need a lot more room (modern guidelines say several square feet of cage per guinea pig and you shouldn't have just one given how social they are) and their cage has to be cleaned daily. So with limited room and limited time for cage cleaning, mini hamsters it is.

I have had several moments where I thought, "I am crazy. What have I done? Why? why? why?" But overall they are super cute, soft, fun to watch, fun to hold, and very low maintenance. The girls and I take them out of their cage at least twice a day for handling and exploration time, I give them small amounts of fresh fruit and veggies, and I watch them redesign their bedding every day or two. The sound of their running on the wheel at night is actually soothing and the dog thinks they are dog t.v. for her. I am teaching her they are only for looking at, not touching (there's a lot of "off" right now. no dogs on the bed while the hamsters are running around on the bed).

I will keep you posted on the comings and goings of the world's smallest hamsters. If you live near Ventura and are thinking of guinea pigs, there are many nice ones up for adoption here. If you want to learn more about Roborovski hamsters, look here. If you want to know why I am so crazy and like to have so many pets, I blame my grandma who lived on a farm with chickens, cows, cats etc.

And if you are wondering what their names are - I pushed hard for Charles and Alfred for the fathers of evolution by natural selection but Lucy picked Rocket and JoJo named hers Cutie. I call them Charles Rocket Darwin and Alfred Cutie Wallace. Yes, they are both boys.

Ruby Pancake Eating a Pancake

2011-08-08T21:09:00.000-07:00

Every Sunday the girls and I make pancakes and we always save one for Ruby.

More Backyard Upgrades and the BBQ

2011-08-08T20:46:00.001-07:00

I couldn't resist the little owl with a snail on his head - Lucy does love the snails...
My new bird house from Tiffany. Isn't it awesome! Mitch is going to climb the tree for me this week and hang it up in the backyard.
The flower lights were joined this weekend by a string of small paper lanterns, not pictured here.

Well I think I have finished my attempts to jazz up the backyard for this time around. Bird feeders are all up, candles are in the trees, the small yard decorations are scattered about and that is enough for now. Eventually we want to replace the astroturf and the patchy grass with a small area of sod but not for awhile (too much digging for now and too much little people foot dragging for the stuff to actually survive). And I still need to hang up my new super awesome bird house from Tiffany (see pic).

This Saturday Seth and Elise had a big biologists barbeque that was hosted in both our backyard and theirs so we got to sit around in our mini-paradise and drink beer and talk to folks. It was very nice. Of course most of my conversations were interrupted by either the girls needing something or Ruby trying to lick someone but it was still nice to see folks and hang out.

Although I still wish the backyard was more filled with flowers of all shapes, colors and sizes and had more of the feel of a Balinese courtyard garden, it is good enough for now.

When Wilson Came to Visit

2011-08-08T20:21:00.001-07:00

Day One: Ruby isn't sure about this guy - he needs to stay in the living room...
"I'm not looking at you," they both say to each other.
Here's Wilson! Look at that handsome devil. He says, "This is what a real beagle x basset hound looks like!"

You can't see her head, but Ruby is making sure Wilson doesn't get her bone.
Day three: now Ruby is watching Wilson chew on her bone.

Day Four: Ruby is sleeping on Wilson.
Day Four: More watching.
And finally, Ruby decides to give Wilson a kiss.

A couple of weeks ago we dog-sat for our friends dog Wilson. Wilson is a real beagle basset mix (not a total potpourri of breeds like Ruby). Wilson is extremely sweet and soulful and was the perfect house guest. At first Ruby wouldn't let him leave the living room (there was no barking or growling, Ruby just stood in his way any time he tried to go down the hall). But after a few days she really warmed up to him and he was given full permission to roam the house and yard.

At first he was such a good house guest that I started thinking, "hmm, what a good dog. Maybe I should look for a beagle basset mix to keep Ruby company." But Ruby kept getting more and more enamored of Wilson until the last two days they would spontaneous break out into neck chewing sessions in the evening or how full blown chase games up and down the hall which is all fine and dandy until Ruby accidentally knocks down JoJo while she's chasing Wilson and then Ruby accidentally chews on Lucy's foot while she is chewing on Wilson's neck under the coffee table. You see how it is - Ruby's enthusiasm for Wilson overwhelmed her good sense.

Lucky for all of us, her craziness help eliminate my craziness of considering getting another dog. The anti-dog-bite book, "Living with Kids and Dogs" analyzes the dog bite statistics and finds that families with two dogs living together are more likely to have kids bitten than families with just one dog (there are many other interesting statistics and good advice in the book). I think this is because with more than one dog you are more likely to get caught in the middle of the dogs fighting over something or inadvertently get knocked down or bitten in the middle of dog horse play.

Anyway, we had a great time dog sitting Wilson and the whole family loved him. Even our elderly cat ignored him. Even Mitch (who isn't always the biggest fan of adding to the chaos with more animals) loved Wilson and said he could come visit any time.

Best Dad EVER v.2

2011-08-01T20:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Lucy called out to me that Josie had ripped off Tinkerbell's wing. I hoped that it was a wing that was meant to come off and could be easily re-attached.

When I got home from work tonight, what was sitting on the table but one superglued Tinkerbell with two wings back in place...

Ticks

2011-08-01T20:17:00.000-07:00

On Friday I took Ruby, Wilson (a totally sweet Beagle x Basset Hound that we were dog sitting), JoJo and Lucy at RSV. A great time was had by all. We saw lots of birds (the girls brought their binocs) including the Lazuli Bunting (I swear it is the same one), white tailed kites, black Phoebes, and we heard bush tits. We climbed to the top of a hill (Jojo's request), visited the pond (Lucy's request) and smelled some good smells (the dog's requests).

The girls also enjoyed playing in the Ap (a replica Chumash village house) although we really need to finish it. It is kind of disgraceful sitting their half-finished as it gets older and older...

The only downside was that the small deer trail that we took to the edge of the pond was rich in ticks. I picked 6 off Lucy, 2 off Ruby, 1 off Wilson, 2 off of me, and 1 off of JoJo. We later saw one roaming in the car that eventually got on Mitch's leg on Sunday (not embedded just crawling around).

Hopefully this won't put Lucy off hiking forever...

Best Dad EVER

2011-07-25T20:40:00.001-07:00

You may not recognize Mitch Allen, guitar player, rock climber, bike rider, ecophysiologist, science educator, and much much more in this photo. You may ask yourself, what, pray tell, is that man doing? What is he, some kind of girly man playing with dolls?

He is, in fact, combing the hair of Lucy's baby doll so that he can braid it for her. Only the best dad EVER get out an actual brush to brush his daughter's doll's hair so he can braid it for her so it doesn't get tangled.

A couple of months ago he actually took the time to make NEW hair for some cheap ass mermaid doll that Lucy got at the dollar store and then promptly ripped all her hair out while brushing it. I would have just thrown the damn thing away as her tears streamed down but Mitch got out some pale yarn and cut and GLUED new hair to this piece of junk doll. He didn't want Lucy to be part of the throwaway society and he wanted her to have her precious mermaid doll restored.

All I can say is this guy is honing some new skills with this whole parenting two girls thing. There are few lengths he won't go to as super dada.

Rock on super dad.

Rhode Island

2011-07-25T20:32:00.001-07:00

Somehow in all the rhapsodizing about the cruise, I failed to mention the fabulous week we spent in Weekapaugh, Rhode Island. Yes, this is a real place. Seth's family had a summer house built here in the 1950's and he grew up going out to visit for a couple of weeks each summer. Although the house rents for a fortune, Seth used his Riley credentials to get us all a week for FREE! Well, Seth and Jake did some door sanding but the rest of us just sat on our butts and worked on the impossible jig saw puzzle pictured above.

It was beautiful and relaxing and reminded me of a combination of my grandma's house in Battleground, WA (yes, another real place with a ridiculous name), and the Bushell's place on Camano Island, WA. Both were wonderful places that I used to visit with my family in the summer and both had overgrown tangle of yards. The house on Camano Island was, similar to Weekapaugh, a short walk from the beach.

For our R.I. week, our family and Seth and Elise were in residence for a few days and then we were joined by Becca, Rob, Ava, Max, Tiffany, Jason, Jake, Katharine, and even David Riley for a glorious lobster dinner. It was really fun to convene everyone on the east coast and it was wonderful of Seth to share his family treasure with us. The girls loved it - all the shell collecting, the playground equipment in the yard, the bugs, the birds, etc. It was very relaxing for us because there was so much for the girls to do that required little supervision (like playing in the yard).

I had a great time shooting the breeze with everyone and working on this puzzle with mainly Tiffany and Elise. Somehow I managed to take almost no photographs the entire time although I did take some video footage that someday may appear at a Thanksgiving get together.

We had a great time. Big thanks to Seth and his family for sharing their summer idyll.

Ruby the Best Dog EVER

2011-07-15T20:27:00.000-07:00

Ruby helping JoJo open her presents on Lucy's birthday.
Ruby "creeping" in the living room. One of her many hilarious features.
Ruby says, "I am a good dog!"

I feel I have given Ruby a bad wrap with my post on her swath of destruction while we were gone on vacation. Two mea culpas here. First, the photos of her with all the stuffing are actually taken after she chewed up a completely approved, given to her for chewing, stuffed animal from the thrift store. They were just too illustrative to resist for the post. Seth, Elise, and Mary actually cleaned up the vast majority of the filling and paper left from her binge while we were on vacation.

Second, all of her destroying was done while we were gone for 18 days on vacation. She hasn't chewed up a single thing since we got back (except see dog bed comment bel0w). She does love to rip the stuffing out of things but never does that activity unsanctioned. I give her one or two thrift store stuffed animals a week to eat up (60 cents a piece). She will go into the girls room when it is littered with stuffed animals and retrieve her one toy buried in there to bring to the living room and chew up. I've tried lots of expensive dog chew toys and she destroys them in minutes.

Also, aside from the one time right after we got back, she has also not peed inside since we got home.

So she really is a good dog (as you can tell from her photos!). We had a second incident of a dog biting a child at our local park so I am more thankful than ever for my tolerant and licky mutt. I have been pinching her like crazy lately as I pick fleas off of her (she still has some fleas despite two different flea treatments) and all she does is look at me with concern as I poke, prod, pinch, and move her around trying to get any fleas I see. She is currently sleeping peacefully on her dog bed (which we did have to glue back together two weeks ago after a bout of chewing but really, she is a good dog! that was the only thing she has eaten since we got back and since we fixed it two weeks ago she hasn't done a thing!).

Here is a list of some of Ruby Pancake's wonderful attributes:

1. does not bark at, growl at, or bite people
2. licks the girls faces when she wants them to stop doing something (a very gentle way of saying, "hey, could you stop doing that?"
3. also licks girls faces when they are covered with peanut butter
4. loves, loves, loves people
5. submissive, rolls over immediately upon greeting people
6. gets along great with 99.9% of other dogs (she did boss Lisa's dog Shasta when Shasta came to visit)
7. does not chase the cat
8. does not eat food off table or counters
9. Anyone can take anything away from her - you can even take food out of her mouth if you don't want her to have it and she just looks at you as if to say, "hey, aren't you going to give that back?"
10. humorous body shape and personality - likes to lay on back and kick legs into the air, likes to creep across the floor.
11. not very big - fits well in our house and could be carried in medium suitcase or very large pocket (o.k., maybe not a pocket, but check out these hamsters that I am thinking of getting - they definitely fit in a pocket).

I don't really need a list - ask Lena, I love this dog. even if she did eat three pillows while we were out of town.

The Mermaid Store

2011-07-15T20:15:00.000-07:00

Today the girls and I ran errands which included a visit to "The mermaid store". We call it the mermaid store but it is really called Sea Things. Lulu, Jojo and I love this place. We visit about once a month and I always let the girls pick out a shell or a small plastic fish to buy. It is never a quick stop as it takes Lucy 15 minutes MINIMUM to make her selection. Meanwhile Josie will be on her fourth version of what she wants.

Lucy loves all the shells and the various paintings, christmas ornaments, and statues of mermaids. Jojo loves the little plastic fish and starfish and more recently has gotten into the shells.

For me it is a total walk down memory lane as it really reminds me of little shops that I would visit with my family whenever we went to the Oregon coast or Olympic peninsula during the summer. Tiny shops packed with shells and turtles made out of shells and plastic dolphins and salt water taffy.

I worry about the shells and wonder if we are contributing to ocean decimation by buying our monthly snail shell. And then I hold out hope that people somewhere are eating these mollusks and that we are basically buying their trash. The truth is somewhere in between.

During today's visit, Lucy took so long to make her pick that I actually shopped. I decided to spend some of my combined Dad/Jim/Barbara birthday money to get a couple pieces of shell jewelry. I picked a super cool shell choker and then I selected a neat silver ring with a big piece of shell. I looked at the ring and read the price tag as $8. When I was checking out the super nice shop lady said, "oh I'm going to give you a deal on this ring. I think it was priced wrong and it has a little stain on it here. I'm going to charge you $28" And I thought "$$28?" And then I saw the full price tag on the counter and it said $48 (the $4 had been wrapped around the back). While there was no way I was going to pay $48, I decided it was worth $28 to me to support our funky local beach store and take home my funky beach ring. I'm not sure how to evaluate the deal though - as a super great bargain - $28 rather than $48 or as a crazy splurge at $28 instead of $8.

Ah, the soccer

2011-07-13T23:51:00.000-07:00

Mitch and I just watched the women's world cup soccer semi-final game between France and the U.S. It was a great game and France outplayed the U.S. for a large portion of the second half. France dominated the mid-field and showed a lot of skill in ball handling and maintaining possession. Somehow, through will, a much better goalkeeper, some key substitutions in the mid-field during the second half, better defense, better training and endurance, and the amazing head of Abbie Wambach, the U.S. managed to win the game 3-1.

It was a super fun game to watch. The players were very collegial to one another, the refereeing was decent and there was plenty of excitement (not always true in a soccer game).

Mitch, Lucy and I watched the quarter final game against Brazil on Sunday and that was quite a nail-biter. It wasn't as fun to watch as tonight's game because the teams got aggravated with one another and the refereeing wasn't that great and really interfered with the game. It was still an exciting game to watch and it was one that the U.S. seemed to deserve to win (better overall play, some bad calls against us), looked like we were going to lose, and eventually won in penalty kicks after 122 minutes of playing time (much of which we played with only 10 players since one of our fullbacks got red carded during the second half).

All this soccer watching plus Lucy taking soccer at the YMCA for the first time ever this summer takes me back to my own long personal history with the game. I do love soccer even if I spent much of my early years of playing standing in the back field picking flowers, much to my dad's dismay. I played from age 5 through fifth grade then stopped in middle school when all the good players left the city league to play on select teams. I started again in high school in the very first years of the girls soccer program at Pullman High. The program was kind of a shambles since very few girls had ever even played before but it sure was fun to have a focus for all my teen angst. We pretty much sucked as a team and I don't think we won very many games but it was a great outlet for my personal ferocity and I'm glad I played.

I didn't play in college although the Evergreen women's coach asked me if I wanted to. My skill level was nowhere near that of the team players but I probably could have practiced with the team and been a bench warmer. Sometimes I wish I had done that. At the time I thought, "Oh when I'm in my thirties I'll get back to soccer by finding a groovy group of adults to play pick-up games with." But here I am almost out of my 30's and still no soccer as an adult. Hmm hard to say what the future holds but I will say that it is harder to find a group of groovy adults to play with than you might expect.

Anyway watching the world cup games has been great fun and I'm looking forward to Sunday's final game between the U.S. and Japan. I hope Lucy keeps playing if she likes it and that it anchors her teen years as much as it did for me. Big thanks to my dad for introducing me to the game and encouraging me to keep at it even though I was never really a natural (not to say that I was a complete soccer moron either dudes, I can still pass, dribble, and pound one into the goal on occasion - I'm just not a master of the fancy footwork...).

Barn Owls and Shifting Baselines

2011-07-12T23:22:00.000-07:00

I just heard a barn owl call twice while I was out with Ruby for her nightly pre-bed stroll (to hear a typical barn owl call on youtube click here). It made me realize that while I used to hear barn owls and horned owls calling all the time in my neighborhood growing up and regularly heard barn owls calling in Davis, I haven't EVER heard them calling in all my night dog walks in our current neighborhood in Ventura. It might be the lack of mature street trees for nesting and perching in our neighborhood (we only have scattered crappy palms as our street trees and some smaller deciduous trees scattered about). Or maybe its the lack of abandoned lots, grassy meadows, or other areas with abundant small rodents for them to eat.

I don't know why they aren't here but two things struck me tonight. First, until now, I never noticed their ABSENCE. It is so much more difficult to notice the absence of something than its presence. It reminded me of a slightly related concept in ecology called the shifting baseline. With a shifting baseline a change in the ecosystem happens so gradually (sometimes over several human generations) that people don't even notice that a shift has occurred. The classic case of shifting baselines is in ocean fisheries where if you look at historic photos from fishing contests the prize winning fish are all huge but in modern photos they are wimpy little things. Yet despite this major change, people didn't really notice because it occurred gradually over decades. So the baseline value of the biggest fish may have gone down by an order of magnitude in terms of length or weight but we don't even notice.

My failure to notice the lack of calling barn owls felt like an unnoticed shift in my personal night time ecology.

My second pondering re:barn owls calling is regarding my recent interest in soundscapes - their value to people (especially soundscapes in our park), how they may have changed over time, and questions about how to monitor and manage soundscapes as a resource of the park. Hearing the owl calling at night made me realize (duh!) that one of the possible reasons why people are so interested in being out in the park at night may be because of all the cool sounds you hear at night. Plus the added value that you hear sounds more clearly at night (at least I think you do but I'm not sure why. If this is actually true I'm sure Tom or Mitch could explain it to me but I would likely either a) immediately forget the explanation or b) not really understand it in the first place. so take this bit with a grain of salt).

Anyway regardless, night sounds are AMAZING and natural sounds in general are one of the resources of the park that both people and animals value (animals need to be able to hear each other calling, hear predators approaching, etc.). I am struggling with how to monitor and manage our soundscapes as development occurs around us. I also think soundscapes are another area where shifting baselines could sneak up on us and our resources could be degrading without us even noticing.

One last random thought before bed - thinking about animals needing to hear predators approach takes me back to when I had a job walking through the sagebrush in the dead of night with a tape player playing snow mobile engine noises so I could sneak up on sage grouse and they wouldn't hear me bashing through the underbrush. Urban noise can really throw off the creatures, that is for sure.

P.S. Did you know that barn owls are in their own family (Tytonidae) and that they are the only species in that family? Also their cool facial disk (the crazy feathers around their eyes and bill) is designed to focus sound to their ears so they can hear the quiet squeaking of mice and their tiny footsteps (or so the ornithologists think anyway). All the better to hear you with my dear (and then to eat you!).

P.P.S. Mitch asked me once whether there are any cases where the female is showy than the male in birds. Typically females are inconspicuous and if anyone is going to be colorful it is the male. Ecologists think the bright colors of males both make them visible to mates and are a measure of their fitness. For females, who typically have to sit on the nest, blending in is key. At the time Mitch asked me I said I didn't know of any cases where the female was showier and there might not be any for the reasons above (in many raptors the female is bigger than the male, but not typically more colorful). It turns out that barn owls are one of the rare cases where the females are "showier" than the males although it seems like a bit of a stretch to me (the females have more rusty coloring and more distinctive spots). Check out pictures on the cornell lab web page and judge for yourself.

Here birdy birdy

2011-07-12T22:08:00.000-07:00

I like birds and cats and plants and bugs and beasts. I like watching birds and I like the convenience and the natural history charm of having a bird feeder in my yard. However, I used to have cats that ate the birds that came into my yard and hopped down on the ground to eat the seed that spilled out of the feeder. So no bird feeder for us for the past 15 years.

Now my addled senior cat is an indoor only cat and one upside to that situation is that now I can have bird feeders again (downside - cat pee smell in bathroom - see previous post). So about three weeks ago Lucy, Josie and I went to Lowes and bought two bird feeders to hang in the trees outside their bedroom window. Lucy also had a make your own bird feeder kit from a past birthday that she and Mitch put together. So we got our bird seed and our sunflower seeds and filled up our bird feeders and waited. And no birds came and no birds came and no birds came.

We went on vacation for two weeks and when we got back, all of the bird feeders were empty. I wondered whether a squirrel or opossum or other creature had come along while were gone and snarfed up all the bird seed. So last weekend I refilled all the feeders thinking we would see who came to visit.

And in the middle of the afternoon on Saturday I heard this, "Mom! Mom! Mom! Come quick, there's a bird at the bird feeder." By the time I got there it was gone. But Lucy was very excited. I missed another bird visit on Sunday. But after Sunday's visit I said, "Lucy, what did the bird look like?" And she goes, "it had red on its belly and some red on its head." And I asked, "What color was the rest?" And she goes, "Oh kind of a dull brown/black" Then I told her it was a house finch and I congratulated her on her fine powers of observation that she noticed enough about the bird that I could tell her what it was. Mitch asked her if she wanted to look at a picture in a bird book and she said, "No. Why would I want to look at a picture? I saw the real bird."

I am seriously digging her powers of observation and her keen interest in nature. Even if both of these attributes totally disappear later in life, I can still enjoy them now.

Speaking of Pee

2011-07-12T21:56:00.000-07:00

You may know that we used to have two cats, Katafanga and Kathmandu. Kathmandu is the nice one and Katafanga was the one with lots of personality (who also bit people a lot). Both cats were fifteen years old. Katafanga died of cancer in his face about six months ago. About three months ago poor little Kathmandu had a major stroke that left her lying on the ground pedaling her feet in circles in Seth and Elise's yard. After approximately $1200 worth of vet tests and two months of intravenous fluids, we discovered that her stroke was apparently idiopathic (they don't know what caused it) and she has regained 98% of her mobility.

So that is all great - we have our sweet little old lady cat back. The bummer part is that she is still a little addled from her major brain episode. She used to be an indoor/outdoor cat and although she spent much of her time inside, she did all her pooping and peeing outside (and has for the past 14.5 years). When we tried to let her outside after her stroke, she wandered around looking confused and the one time she got out accidentally she was gone for two days and we only got her back by scouring the neighborhood and crawling under a nearby apartment building to retrieve her.

So now Kathmandu is an inside only cat. Which means that not only is she inside but her poop and pee are also inside. She has been great about using the litter box but we have a tiny house and there is no "out of the way" place to put the litter box. Thus it is in our bathroom. And even though I try to clean the box every day (I don't always succeed), there is always scattered about cat litter on the floor of the bathroom and it constantly reeks of cat pee in there. It doesn't help that Kathmandu is old and addled and basically walks into the box and immediately pees with her butt facing the door (she often misses and ends up getting pee all over the floor). It also doesn't help that with her balance being slightly off since the stroke, we took the door off the litter box and have just left the opening open.

If any of you more experienced indoor cat people have recommendations for how to reduce the litter scatter or the pee smell... let me know. I love Kathmandu dearly and I will continue to put up with a bathroom that smells like pee and a situation where I get cat litter on my feet after a shower or during my midnight visits to the loo. But my quality of life would significantly improve if someone had a genius solution to this problem.

Yours in pee,
c.

Ruby the Destroyer

2011-07-12T21:37:00.000-07:00

Three couch pillows, a dog bed, two shoes, a packing envelope, two books, an Xbox game, and much more went down under the wrath of Ruby.

We have only had our new dog, Ruby, for about eight months. She was a year old when adopted her from the animal shelter in Camarillo last October. She is a hilarious little dog and has many wonderful qualities (can you hear the but...coming?). Before we left to go on vacation for two weeks last month we had to decide what to do with Ruby. The past two times that we had left town and could not take her our friends Sarah and Rick dog sat her at their house. Both Sarah and Rick are big dog people and Ruby loves their dog Choco. Despite the fact that Ruby pooped on their rug one time (it was raining outside...) and ate one of their son Jonas' toys, overall her visits to Chez Rutherford went rather well (perhaps I stretch the definition of the term "well" but they did have her back after the pooping incident and on the second visit there were no other accidents).

However, this time when we were gone Sarah and Rick were also going to be gone to Nicaragua. With my two previous pound dogs, taking them to a kennel proved to be too stressful for both me and the dog - too reminscent of their stay in doggie prison. Also both of my prior dogs were so depressed to be left at home alone with a visiting dog sitter that they mainly slept on my bed and moped. So when left with the decision of what to do with Ruby for two weeks, we asked our friends Seth and Elise to come over and let her out twice a day for the first week and our friend Mary to come over with her dog Chelsea twice a day during the second week.

I would definitely say that we are still learning a thing or two about Ruby Pancake and she occasionally sends messages loud and clear. With respect to the whole plan to leave her alone at home with twice and even thrice daily visits, she was clearly not a fan of that plan. Her jack russell terrier components came out very clearly as she systematically ate/chewed/destroyed anything she could get her teeth on including DVDs, books, couch pillows, her dog bed, shoes and more. Thankfully she didn't eat any of the actual furniture nor did she ingest anything that resulted in a trip to the vet.

Clearly while we were gone she got bored, possibly pissed off, and found ways to entertain herself. Poor Seth, Elise and Mary were at their wits end trying to put up anything she might chew up and trying to come over with enough frequency to keep her busy. Mary made herculean efforts to come over three times a day and bring her dog Chelsea for half hour play dates. Still the Destroyer reigned. By the end of the two weeks, Ruby was peeing on the floor after just having been outside - sending a message perhaps?

Now we have been back three weeks and we've got the potty issue reigned in again (knock on wood). She also hasn't chewed up anything she wasn't supposed to in at least five days (she did eat round two of her dog bed but Mitch glued and sewed it back together). Mitch did a yeoman's job shampooing our carpets so I think we may not have to spring for new carpeting for another couple months or so. And I even replaced all the couch pillows. The only remaining task is to go to town with the Nature's Miracle to try and get rid of that last remaining lingering pee smell (not the fragrance I really want to be greeted with at home).

Suffice it to say that next time we go out town and can't take Ruby, she's either going to stay with friends or she'll be visiting the k.e.n.n.e.l.

Weekend Update

2011-07-10T23:51:00.000-07:00

Ruby next to the trash can full of her dog bed and three pillows that she destroyed while we were gone on vacation. She had a great time at the beach this weekend.
Lucy talking on the phone to Grandpa Tom. She is surrounded by the pillows I got to replace those Ruby destroyed. Yes, she is wearing her swimsuit. We were on our way out to the swimming pool at the Y.

The girls enjoyed their lunch under our new patio umbrella thanks to my birthday money. The odd lump to the right is Ruby's dog bed drying after its flea bath.
Yes, this is the infamous astroturf and the swinging bar. Believe it or not, it looked worse before the astroturf. Not to mention the huge clouds of dust the girls kicked up with all their swinging. Before all the yard needed was a car on blocks, now all it needs are two pink flamingos or a chihuahua.
Post-pedicure. I picked Blue Grosbeak/Lazuli Bunting blue.Yay! The hammock is back.

Weekend highlights:

Pedicure with Elise. Totally relaxing, great chitchat time. Only the second pedicure that I have ever had. Only removed approx. 20% of my intense foot calluses, thus leaving my hard working feet still protected from the evils of the world. I picked blue for blue grosbeaks and lazuli buntings.

Went to the beach with Rick, Jonas, Elliot and Leona. Lucy continues to rule the waves in the boogie boarding department. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon. We all had a good time, including Ruby Pancake.

Yard work. Picked up a years worth of leaves. Covered the insane dirt field with... astroturf since nothing else will withstand the girls foot dragging while they play on the swinging bar. Perhaps more on the yard woes in another post but for now, rock on astroturf.

Bought yard stuff. With birthday money got a new yellow umbrella for the patio table. Also put up fun flower lights and generally improved the backyard grooviness.

Played Dance Central on the XBox Kinect with Mitch. I don't crush him in this game like I did on wii on the cruise ship but it is still fun.

Cruising

2011-07-08T10:19:00.000-07:00

Three weeks ago we went on a seven day Caribbean cruise with the Allen family, Jim, Barbara, Kelly, Stuart, Aidan and Vincent. I've never been on a cruise before and it was super fun and relaxing. On the ship there were activities for the little people every day from 10 AM to 10 PM at camp carnival and the girls liked going there for a couple of days each day. There were swimming pools, hot tubs, a jogging track, mini golf, magic shows, dance clubs, etc. for the adults and the little people.

It was great to not cook or make my bed for seven days. And being greeted by a towel animal and mints at bedtime every night was pretty sweet too. Jogging with a view of the ocean was nice and standing in the pool with a mimosa in hand while the reggae band played "No woman No cry" was fun too. It was great to spend time with Little Jimmy, Barbara Jo, Stuart, Kelly, Aidan and Vincent. We had great snorkeling in Grand Cayman and Cozumel and the beach in Jamaica was beautiful.

Two enthusiastic thumbs up.

Stream Survey in Temescal Canyon

2011-07-08T09:59:00.000-07:00

Can you believe this waterfall is only 30 minutes up a trail in Los Angeles (technically Pacific Palisades)?

The stream survey involves surveying 250 meters of stream for amphibians and other creatures. Many of our streams have been heavily impacted by urbanization and channelization but this one, in Temescal Canyon, is still incredibly beautiful and diverse.
Even though the camera is foggy, you can still see that I am very happy to be holding an adult California salamander (Taricha tarosa).

About ten years ago Seth, Lee Katz, Ray Sauvajot, crazy Robert Fisher, Rosi Dagit and a few other folks got together in the Santa Monica Mountains to figure out how to study possible impacts of urbanization on stream communities in our area. They started surveying streams for amphibians and stream invertebrates and they've been doing it ever since. They've published one paper on their findings (that a watershed with more than 11% urbanization has reduced native diversity and more invasive species such as crayfish, fish, and bullfrogs. Also that streams that no longer dry up in the summer have more invasive species. And of course, invasive species appear to have large negative impacts on native species such as frogs and salamanders. Crayfish are brutal predators.)

These guys are continuing their work and starting to look at other factors like long-term trends in population sizes and diversity, impacts of fires, and possible impacts of vineyard development within watersheds. Katy Delaney is running the NPS part of the program now with Seth and yesterday she took Lena and I out to do a stream survey in Temescal Canyon. Steve Bustamante was there as the actual field assistant while Lena took data and I helped look for creatures.

It was super neat and it was amazing how beautiful and wild this stream is considering how close it is to Los Angeles. We parked in the Temescal Canyon parking lot in Pacific Palisades and hiked in about 30 minutes on a dirt trail. Then we hopped into the stream and spent a couple of hours hiking up the stream. It was very quiet with only bird song and the sound of the stream. We heard lots of Pacific slope flycatchers, Spotted Towhees, Jays, Wrentits and Canyon wrens. It was sunny and warm and the water was cool. We saw adult California salamanders, larval salamanders, larval frogs, and lots of dragon fly larva and toe-biters.

I hope we can keep streams like this in good shape because they really are an amazing resource. We saw lots of people of all ages and ethnicities out enjoying the beauty of the area.

Some of Lucy's Gifts

2011-07-05T21:12:00.000-07:00

Lucy had a great birthday party at Marina Park where she and her friends frolicked in the waves, played on the playground and ate many, many cupcakes. She also received many wonderful gifts from friends and family. All of the birthday party pics are on Mitch's camera and I can't be bothered to download them right now.

Here are some pics of Lucy enjoyed her gifts from friends and family far away that I wanted to post so those folks could see how much she loved her presents. The otter is from Grandma Jo and Grandpa Jim. The mermaid dolls in the case are from Grandpa Tom and Grandma Sue, the tree with stuffed animals is from Tiffany and Jason, and the bino picture was just too cute (the pink binos were from me).

Uncle Jerm's Visit

2011-07-05T20:30:00.000-07:00

Uncle Jeremy came for a visit for his and Lucy's birthdays (his birthday is 6/5, Lucy's is 6/6). We had a great time during his visit although I think I am getting a reputation in my family for subjecting people to little kid birthday parties. When my dad visited a couple of months ago we went to two birthday parties including one that involved glow sticks, disco music and bouncy houses. This visit Jeremy "got" to attend not only Lucy's party but also her friend Ben's party. Uncle Jerm was, per usual, a great sport about the whole thing.

I also took Jeremy and JoJo on a short hike in beautiful Zuma Canyon. We saw a few birds and even some butterflies. During his visit, Uncle Jerm gave the girls a cake frosting lesson (see pictures above). It is always great fun when Jeremy visits and we hope we can arrange more visits soon. We love you Uncle Jerm.

Spring Birding is Over

2011-07-05T20:17:00.000-07:00

Well it's official, as of this morning I declare that spring birding is over. I'm sure that summer birding has something to recommend it but I think to experience its charms you have to get up earlier than I am accustomed to. I've been birding some this spring, inspired by a training that I went to put on by the Western Foundation for Vertebrate Zoology (which totally kicks butt and deserves a visit if you are ever in our area on one of the days that they are open to the public).

This morning I went out to Rancho Sierra Vista with Lena and Seth at 7 AM and it was already getting hot, very few birds were singing, all the grass was dead, only sticky madia and mustard were blooming and there were tons of bugs. Woe is me. It was still beautiful out there and, best of all, we saw:

BLUE GROSBEAKS!!

What a cool bird. I've never seen them before. They are very beautiful, very blue, and as Seth commented, their bills really are silvery. A lovely bird to end the spring birding season with.

No pictures but at least some words

2011-05-24T21:07:00.000-07:00

I decided that setting the bar too high is preventing posting. Loading photos is a big pain in my world (have to take card out of camera, put in computer, process photos, whine, whine, whine). So instead, some words.

We had a fabulous action packed weekend. One night camping with 22 kindergarden and first graders at Carpinteria state beach. We all walked around Carpinteria, explored the beach, ate burritos, and went on a night hike. Ruby Pancake had clearly never been camping before and dragged me all over the campground. In the tent she ran circles around the inside of the tent rubbing herself against the walls. The tent is now covered in dog hair...

For day two we packed up the tent, unloaded the camping gear and drove down to San Diego for Becca's 40th b-day. Becca and Rob through an AMAZING party in a local photography studio in North Park. We ate thai food, sang a couple of silly songs that we wrote for Becca ("Here's to You, Becca Lewison" to the tune of Mrs. Robinson) and DANCED the night away. Big thanks to Becca and Rob for such an excellent party.

We spent Sunday at the luxurious del Mar house that B and R were renting. We got to spend time with Tiffany and Jason, Tim and Caitlin, and more and meet some of Becca's friends from other parts of her life. We went to the Del Mar dog beach in the afternoon and had dinner with Tim and Caitlin.

A good time was had by all. After spending a few hours in the deluxe del Mar house now I'm trying to figure out what small home improvement projects we could do around here to up the swank factor...

the end.

Farewell Mr. Charismatic Furry Pants

2011-01-25T22:03:00.000-08:00

Last Monday, January 10^th, we had to euthanize our one of a kind, evil genius cat, Katafanga. Katafanga was born on a dark and stormy night in October 1995 in Woodland, CA. I adopted him as a furry “female” kitten named “Sassy” from Animal Control in Woodland in 1995. He was a character from the start and more than lived up to his original moniker. Although it turned out that he was not a girl, he was indeed, very sassy. Katafanga was adopted as a buddy for both me and my elderly dog Miya who had always lived with cats. Katafanga didn’t mind dogs at all and liked to go on walks with all of our pet dogs through the years.

For those of you that knew Katafanga, you know what a unique individual he was. He was extremely feisty, independent, intelligent, and confident. He owned the world (our world at least) and he knew it. He would bite you if you petted him in a way he didn’t like, he would bite you if you moved while he was laying on you, he would bite you if you forgot to fill his food bowl, and he would bite you if you annoyed him in any way. He loved to play with toys but after a few minutes of play his eyes would dilate and he would stop looking at the toy and start looking at your hand or arm. That was the time to stop playing with him if you wanted to emerge unscathed.

Katafanga was a very wonderful and quirky guy and he brought so much enjoyment to our lives. He is irreplaceable and I miss him every day. He did so many fabulous crazy cat things like hanging in the window of the door to be let in (5 feet up in a wooden door), play fighting with our other cat Kathmandu for hours on their cat palace, eating cat food with his paw so he could keep an eye on things, laying on our chests to keep warm and get petting, kneading his beloved blanky when he was happy. I could write a book just about him and all his wacky ways. If you left a drawer open a centimeter he would reach in with his paws and pull everything out. He would get in the kitchen cabinets and wander around. He used to drag himself along the back of the couch between the couch and the wall with his claws.

We lost him for two weeks when he was a kitten. After several rounds of posting flyers he was eventually returned to us from the home that he had wandered into. When I tearfully greeted him upon his return, he bit me in the face. That’s the kind of guy he was, loving, frightening, independent, a furry genius, and always wanting everything on his own terms.

Katafanga got bone cancer in his face about two months ago and the tumors eventually closed one of his eyes and started to interfere with his breathing. It was terrible to see him not feeling well and we feel we made the right decision to end his life. Even in his final hours he was imperiously inspecting the inside of the car as we waited for the vet and periodically curling up to purr on my lap on his blanky. For all of you that knew, loved, feared, or loved and feared Katafanga, thank you for being his friend. He could always use a good pet while eating or a warm lap to be in charge of. He will be missed.

By the way, this eulogy doesn’t really do him justice. I feel like he could have written it himself and it would have been more like the Gettysburg Address, or the I have a dream speech, or maybe more like Ginsberg’s Howl. Suffice it to say that I miss him like crazy and he can never be replaced.

Meet Ruby Pancake

2010-12-13T21:32:00.001-08:00

The long dog search is over. Six weeks ago Elise and I went to the Camarillo animal shelter and temperament tested two dogs (out of the over 100 dogs that were there, only two passed my initial cage inspection). One of the two we took out was a beagle basset hound mystery mutt mix. The shelter didn't know how old she was but I guessed a year and half based on how clean and sharp her teeth were. She seemed wonderful and passed our battery of tests (interested in people, highly social, affection seeking, no food aggression, more interested in people than playing, etc., etc., etc.) with flying colors. We adopted her on the spot but she had to stay at the shelter another week to get spayed. We brought the girls to visit her and make sure she was good with the little people. She did fine with them although they were terrible (fighting, ignoring the dog, knocking dog training appparti on top of one another, getting a bloody nose).

We brought her home five weeks ago and despite her tendency to escape out the window, chew up random objects, and bay/bark when overly excited, we're keeping her. She is cute, loving, extremely tolerant, loves, loves, loves people, plays well with other dogs, is fine when left alone, house-trained, good with the cats, and very trainable. She is also very funny. Here are some pictures of her. Now that I'm not spending all of my time searching for dogs on the internet (and am instead spending lots of time exercising and training the dog), I have more time to update the blog. So more blog posts later.

Welcome Ruby!

HippieKindergartner Thanksgiving

2010-12-13T21:27:00.000-08:00

Hippie Kindergartner Thanksgiving involves:
yummy potluck (we brought cornbread. Parents and teachers barbequed many turkeys).
playing hand drums
hearing a Chumash Elder tell stories
Making butter
Making cranberry sauce
Playing Predator and Prey freeze tag
Singing "Imagine" by John Lennon as well as other similar genre songs
Being thankful for the green and growing things (from LuLu).

Piggy Gets Invited to a Party

2010-12-13T21:23:00.000-08:00

If you read Mo Willems then you know what I am talking about. If not, just enjoy the photos. I imagine that this is what the girls would wear if they were invited to a fancy costume pool party. Fabulous!

Jo-Jo Fashion Queen

2010-12-13T20:57:00.000-08:00

Here's Jo-Jo wearing my new french scarf that Seth and Elise brought back from France for me. Doesn't she look nice?

I love snails

2010-12-13T20:49:00.001-08:00

Well I don't really, but Lucy does. I don't because they eat my lettuce and they are non-native and they are kind of slimy. But they are o.k. I guess. They do have cute antennae and their slime trails are shiny and some of them have attractive shells. And the ones in our fish tank are eating the algae that was building up on the walls. So they aren't all bad.

Lucy really loves snails and periodically does nutty things with them, like brings them inside (against the rules!), carries them around in the bucket of her tricycle, builds houses for them, and takes pictures of them on our coffee table. We always let them go before they are harmed so they can go and eat more of my lettuce. Here are some of Lucy's snail pictures.

Lemonade Stand

2010-09-30T20:47:00.001-07:00

Foster Dogs I Have Known

2010-09-30T20:38:00.000-07:00

Birdie was such a sweet and soulful dog...
Tiffany and Birdie really hit it off.

We fostered two dogs over the summer - Lola a dachshund pit bull mix who we almost kept forever until she started growling at the girls - and Birdie a lovely lab mix who we took camping for a week but didn't keep because she wanted to chase all small creatures and seemed to be aggressive towards other dogs on leash. Tiffany and Birdie fell in love and Tiff and Jason and Seth and Elise helped take care of Birdie. Both Birdie and Lola have now found their forever homes and we are still on the search for the perfect family dog for us (good with kids, good with cats, can be left alone without incessant barking, good with other dogs, no food aggression, no toy aggression, not aggressive to other dogs...).

What's a Pirate's Favorite Letter?

2010-09-30T20:24:00.001-07:00

Arrr! The girls love dressing up as pirates. Here they are on two different days. The elaborate costumes were for Owen's pirate birthday party. The other pirate bandanas were more your regular every day pirates.

Lucy's Birthday Bike

2010-09-30T20:14:00.000-07:00

Lucy had her birthday a couple months back. I am pretty far behind on the old blog so I'm just going to post some cute pictures that I found on our digital camera. Here are Lucy and Josie riding their new push bikes (called park racers) that Mitch got off Craigslist. Grandpa Tom and Grandma Sue sent Lucy some money for her birthday and we used it to buy the girls these bikes. They love them! Lucy is doing great on hers and we are getting close to taking the training wheels off her strawberry shortcake bike. Josie can actually stand and push with hers now (in this picture she is a little too short and has to stand on tip toe).

Starting the Narration of Her Life

2010-06-21T21:28:00.000-07:00

Today Josie said the following to Mitch:

While climbing on top of Mitch:

""This is my hideout" said the Pirate as she climbed up"

On Vacation in Santa Cruz

2010-06-17T21:01:00.000-07:00

We're on vacation in Santa Cruz with Jim and Barbara. It is always fun to visit Santa Cruz because there is so much to do here. We've been to Loch Lomond and rowed boats, built sand castles on the beach, and today we went to the boardwalk. Josie and Lucy piloted some little boats in a little kid ride. Josie was captain of the Crabster (quite appropriate I think as she can be occasionally crabby). While Lucy steered Little Charlie. Josie couldn't see Lucy's boat from where she was as the central pillar of the ride (a lighthouse) was in the way. She spent the whole ride craning her neck and asking where her sister was.

Being in Santa Cruz makes me miss our friends Tiffany and Jason even more than ever. They lived here for several years and we always had fun visiting them here. I agree with Tiff's assessment though, the many people here who ride their bikes on the sidewalk despite a plenitude of ample bike lanes, are annoying. This town is also very serious about its recycling. Amazing that you can't go more than ten feet without encountering a recycling bin.

What I did last weekend - Santa Monica Mountains Science Festival

2010-04-22T21:44:00.000-07:00

This is what I did last weekend

It was AWESOME. We spent months preparing although Lena Lee and Cathy Schoonmaker did most of the work. I designed some of the science activities for kids, called community centers to arrange buses, and helped put up flyers. On Friday I ran 32 fifth graders through a hands-on science activity comparing native plant diversity in native and non-native plant communities. I even had them make and analyze bar graphs to draw conclusions. On Saturday I staffed the nature illustration table having kids draw bugs as accurately as possible and took a two hour shift at the story telling booth.

It was GREAT! Over 2000 people came on Saturday and all the kids had a blast. The event was incredibly diverse with a ton of first time park goers. We really fulfilled the mission of an urban park with this event, introducing thousands of people to THEIR national park.

A news article on the event can be found here
A few more photos here

Little House Update - New Deck to Connect to the Big House

2010-04-22T21:34:00.000-07:00

I think we are finally in the home stretch on the little house. Here are some pictures from two weeks ago when Mitch finished up the deck to connect the little house to the big house. The color of decking that we used on the deck several years ago when we made put it in so we picked a color that would look good with our original color.

Since then, Mitch and Seth installed the hardwood floor. I kept asking Mitch if he wanted to rent a nail gun. Finally the bending nails annoyed him so much that he did rent a nail gun. The compressor crapped out at first but once he got a new compressor, they had the floor done lickety split. It looks great. I'll take some photos this weekend.

Remaining tasks: paint trim near roof; finish metal siding; fix door stop; put back in door locks; put in window sills for outside upper windows; touch up paint on doors and inside; put in molding on hardwood floor; install fancy plywood under eaves.

Maybe two more weekends? Maybe three. Then, finally, fix up the yard!

Painting

2010-04-22T21:10:00.000-07:00

This morning I took some time off and hung out with the girls. They decided to paint in the back yard. You can tell their age differences and maybe a bit of their personality in their paintings and also how their paint trays looked when they were done. Lucy is so neat these days she didn't even get any paint on her clothes. It cracks me up that she now draws more of your stereotypical little kid pictures. She loves drawing hearts. This is the first time that I have seen her draw one of those classic kid sun pictures. I don't where they get the idea to draw a sun like that. This is also the first time I have seen her draw a rainbow.

He's not trying to cause any trouble...

2010-04-22T21:06:00.000-07:00

JoJo reading one of her four different versions of Peter Pan.
LuLu still loves princesses. Here she is with her Easter unicorn.
My little princesses....

Lucy still loves the princesses. She wants to have a princess party for her birthday and recently went to a princess tea party at Barnes and Noble with Mitch and JoJo. Josie also likes the princesses and likes to dress up and wear one her 30 princess dresses and 4 tiaras. BUT Josie's real love these days is...Captain Hook. She has talked to his family and reports that they say that they are all "good pirates" She told Mitch that Captain Hook is not a bad guy, he's not trying to cause any trouble. When I asked her why she likes Captain Hook so much she said that he is a little bit scary and she likes to be scared.

Mitch is convinced now that in high school she will date tattooed smokers and will be convinced that they are simply misunderstood...

Loving the Baritone Guitar

2010-03-31T20:52:00.000-07:00

Mitch loves guitars and plays lots of them. Many of them, when played, are loud and involve lots of distortion and although Mitch does a really good job of trying to play loud, distorted guitar very quietly, it isn't always my favorite thing. Sometimes a person doesn't want the rock and roll gods in their living room at 9 PM at night when they are trying to read their book and drink their tea.

Periodically, though, Mitch makes a guitar purchase that brings me fully back into the 100% all the time fan of Mitch's guitar playing (while regularly I am more of a 85-90% of the time fan). About ten years ago that purchase was a complicated electronic delay pedal thing that resulted in Mitch spending hours with melodious noodling that was great to listen to any time. Similarly, Mitch recently purchased a baritone guitar. The purchase process actually sucked severely and involved multiple trips back and forth to the guitar store and technical experts and trying to get it fixed and being insulted by the purveyor of the guitar store.

But now that the guitar actually works, when Mitch plays it, it is AWESOME. It is super mellow and sounds really beautiful and I could listen to it any time.

What Happiness A Dollar Can Bring

2010-03-29T22:01:00.000-07:00

Lucy and Josie got easter cards from Grandma Jo and Grandpa Jim today and surprise of surprises, they each contained a dollar! Mitch took the girls to our new dollar store which is a cut above our old dollar store and actually has a carpeted floor. Thank goodness for the patience of Mitch because I've been to the dollar store with these girls and it is hell - they spend 45 minutes agonizing and going back and forth over what little plastic chotsky they really, really, really want and somehow they end up getting mad that they can only each get one thing.

BUT Mitch did great and he and the girls had a FABULOUS time picking out their treats (great idea Grandma Jo!). You can see that Lucy selected a wonderful bargain of three miniature pinwheels for $1 while Josie selected some fine dental hygiene products which include not only a yellow toothbrush but also a pink one (both with Snoopy on them). They are both extremely pleased with their purchases. Mitch let them each pay by themselves. He said Josie couldn't see up to the counter and stood there saying, "Hey Person, hey person" while she waved her dollar in the air as the conveyor belt went by over her head.

Rest In Peace Caramelo Guinea Pig, We will miss you

2010-03-29T21:53:00.000-07:00

The Boys enjoying a feast of grass freshly weeded from the side yard. We will miss Melo.

This weekend after an incredibly brief lethargic period, Caramelo guinea pig died. On Friday night he had some extra eye crusties and I thought, "hmm, we might need to take this Guinea pig to the vet." Saturday morning he was lethargic and only perked up after I held him and petted him for fifteen minutes but then he seemed to feel better. I called the one Guinea pig vet in Ventura but they were closed and by 3 Pm when I checked on him, he was dead.

I'm very sad to lose one of the Boys. They have been such good pets for all of us. We had a good thing going, what with the grass eating, the eating of all the left over fruits and veggies, the petting, the running around on the bathroom floor, and the eating carrots and watching t.v. together. I would say that losing a guinea pig is in between the gold fish dying (hey, we haven't lost a goldfish in over a year...) but below when one of my soul mate dogs has died. It is still a pretty seriously big bummer for me as an animal lover.

We had a funeral for Melo on Sunday afternoon. It really seemed to sink in for Lucy that he was gone and we wouldn't see him anymore. Josie totally doesn't get it and keeps asking to take him out of the cage.

Now I'm worried about Oreo and am keeping a close eye on him. I also got him some new toys and a wooden house and crawl tube to try and introduce some variety and distract him from the loss of his brother. I hope he will be alright. He doesn't show any symptoms of being ill...But I worry because Melo went so quickly from seeming fine to being dead.

We also have to decide now whether to get another guinea pig companion for Oreo. We will keep an eye on him and see how he does.

Bring on the mud holes and pristine desert landscapes

2010-03-29T21:51:00.001-07:00

That's How I Work

2010-03-29T21:48:00.000-07:00

Classic Lucy Moment:
At dinner:
Lucy, "I want a piggie bank like your green frog one Mom except I want one that isn't breakable."
Christy: "Well, maybe you should tell the Easter Bunny that you want a piggie bank."
Lucy: "Haha Mom, you're joking. A piggie bank won't fit in an egg!"

Classic Josie Moment:
Christy hands Josie a napkin, "Josie, wipe your hands on this napkin."
Josie: "My hands are clean. I wiped them on the table."
Christy: "Oh, well it is better to wipe them on a napkin. Next time can you wipe them on a napkin?"
Josie: "No. I wipe my hands on the table. That is how I work."

Little House Update

2010-03-29T21:42:00.000-07:00

I think when I last posted a little house update Mitch was just finishing up the drywall. Since then he spent three weekends painting the inside and outside trim. We chose several bold colors that took many, many layers of paint. After the paint was done, then there was a weekend for installing the ceiling of plywood veneer. I actually helped with that a tiny bit by varnishing the plywood and then holding up pieces while Mitch miraculously drilled and screwed in the pieces one-handed while using his other hand to hold up the wood. It was an impressive site.

We still have a few details left on the ceiling like the molding but that should get done next weekend. Mitch spent this past weekend finishing off the deck to connect the little house to the rest of the deck. It looks great but I haven't had a chance in daylight to take a picture of it since Mitch finished last night at 8 PM.

Next weekend our friends Christopher and Rachel and their family are coming for a visit so aside from finishing the molding on Friday, it will be a short break from little house servitude. Then on to installing the oak hardwood flooring and finishing up the outside roof overhang and window sills.

Unfortunately, both Mitch and I are seriously sick of this project but it will be beautiful when it is done. And, I have to believe that we are in the home stretch...

Spring is Here!

2010-03-29T21:36:00.001-07:00

It has been sunny and beautiful so I finally weeded all of the mint out of the front yard and added new compost and soil. Lucy and I planted watermelon, beans, peas, marigolds, more strawberries, cucumber, and basil in our small four feet by seven feet front yard bed. We'll see how the plants do against the snails, earwigs, and roly polies. We're making the most of our small space.

I weeded the amazing grass re-growth out the side yard and filled in with some ranunculus and other flowers where our winter lettuce beds failed to thrive (the darn snails again).

In a month or so when the little house project is finished I should finally be able to start working on transforming the backyard away from plywood covered hell hole to green paradise.

Ring Pops!!!!

2010-03-29T21:35:00.003-07:00

The happiest day ever - eating ring pops!

The Best Birthday Party Ever

2010-03-29T21:32:00.000-07:00

Lucy and Josie's friend Dylan had his fifth birthday at Marina Park two weekends ago. The weather was beautiful - clear skies with views to the Channel Islands, warm and no breeze. Dylan's parents (Mary and Ryan) organized an awesome party with pizza and dinosaur egg hunting and a pinata. The Brigham-Allen clan LOVED it.

Nine Pirate Girls

2010-03-29T21:25:00.000-07:00

The girls are really into pirates these days. Josie, in particular, is obsessed with Captain Hook and can't decide if he is a good guy or a bad guy. Mitch has been training them to be good pirates including these outfits (with jeweled eye patches no less) and choice phrases like, "Avast ye scurvey dogs!" I also hear the They Might Be Giant's song "Nine Pirate Girls" in my head whenever I look at these pictures.

You Have Got to Be Kidding - I need ALL this to go jogging for 30 minutes?

2010-03-29T21:22:00.000-07:00

This is all of the crap that I brought for a 30 minute jog on a Friday morning. Even with all of these snacks, coloring books, crayons, etc. the girls still got in a fight about 15 minutes and ended up spilling crayons all over the road... Oh well. This is the price I pay for exercise.

Old Man Mitch

2010-03-29T21:20:00.000-07:00

I got a preview a couple of weeks ago of what Mitch will look like when he is seventy. Courtesy of all of the drywalling dust, here is old man Mitch for your consideration.

Monkey Bar Hands

2010-03-29T21:18:00.000-07:00

Lucy loves doing the monkeybars so much that she gets blisters on her palms. Lucky for her, her rock-climber dad has a lot of experience taping up athletes hands. Here she is with her monkeybar tape job so that those pesky blisters won't interfere with her getting in her required reps on the monkeybars. Note the pink nail polish...

Home Makeover

2010-03-29T21:13:00.000-07:00

the color. slightly out of focus, it is hard to take pictures of your own head.
The color #2, note longish shaggy hair.
The cut. Can't really see the hair color in these photos.

I got bored and frustrated with my mid-length brown hair. So I bought a home dye kit and died it a dark purple and then went to a local mid-range salon ($25 hair cuts) and got a haircut. I also ordered new glasses online but they haven't come yet. I wouldn't say that I feel like a new me but it does take less shampoo to wash my hair these days.

Vegan Dinner for Six

2010-03-29T21:06:00.000-07:00

In mid-February our friends Allie and Tom and Tim and Caitlin all came up for the weekend. Allie went to a native plant gardening workshop and the rest of the gang lolled about (ate breakfast, went to the beach, etc.). Allie is on a vegan diet so we made a big vegan feast on Saturday night. It was delicious. It was great fun having all of the gang up for a visit but we were sad that not everyone fit in the little house. Apparently four adults is a few too many to cram into 80 square feet. Allie did fine sleeping on the couch though because she is such a trooper.

One unexpected outcome of the weekend: after showing Allie and Caitlin the dog adoption sites that I check regularly for the perfect family dog for the brigham-allens, Caitlin and Tim ended up adopting Pickles from a local lab rescue group. I haven't heard any recent updates - I hope Pickles is settling in (last I heard he had peed on the rug, several times...).

After LONG day, 1.5 hour commute home

2010-02-17T22:09:00.000-08:00

No I did not take this picture with my non-existent camera phone. This is a photo from the web (taken by lynac of Kuala Lumpur and posted on flickr) to illustrate the hell I experienced tonight, in the dark, as I drove home. CalTrans closed a lane on the 101 and I spent 1.5 hours on my 22 mile commute. Totally sucked. I missed dinner and bathtime and had Mitch worried sick. We will now be getting a headset so I can call Mitch hands-free on my cell phone if this ever happens again which hopefully it won't but inevitably it will...

Katafanga

2010-02-17T21:58:00.000-08:00

The girls LOVE Katafanga and he actually likes them now too. The other day we went over to Seth and Elise's and Katafanga was there and Josie goes, "Your Katafanga looks just like my Katafanga." I think she actually thinks that Seth and Elise have their own Katafanga that is different than our cat...

Tuesday Night Dinner

2010-02-17T21:56:00.000-08:00

Josie LOVES her tutu

2010-02-17T21:54:00.001-08:00

Building Sand Castles on the Beach Last Saturday

2010-02-17T21:52:00.000-08:00

I took the girls to the beach last Saturday to search for shells, eat snacks, and build sand castles. Mitch worked on sanding the drywall in the little house.

Cream Cheese Beard

2010-02-17T21:51:00.000-08:00

Ojai Hiking Last Friday

2010-02-17T21:45:00.001-08:00

Lucy with prickly phlox.
Josie looking through "noculators""
Mitch happy to not be working on the little house for one moment on the weekend.
Hannah, Josie, and Lucy stopping for snacks at the farm.
Lucy getting a short carry.
Ian and Lucy enjoying their hike.
Los Padres hills of chaparral.
Jojo hiking.

Last Friday we went hiking up in the Los Padres National Forest above Ojai. It was a beautiful sunny day and we went with two different family friends with their kids. The girls loved hiking and actually hiked almost the whole way themselves. We even forded two streams and for one Lucy took off her shoes, socks, and pants and waded across holding my hand. The rocks were super pokey and she didn't even complain. Lucy is excited to go back and camp there one day soon.

Rock Star

2010-02-08T20:56:00.000-08:00

Josie and Lucy decided to wear their swimsuits to the YMCA on Sunday for our weekly family swim session. After Lucy put on her swimsuit and selected her hand me down black boots as footwear she proclaimed, "I look like a rock star." Then she went and got out guitars for her and Josie and they had a little concert before we went to the pool.

Monkeybars and Troll Bridges

2010-02-08T20:46:00.000-08:00

Lucy is so fast on the monkeybars and sliding down the pole, all you can catch is her hair.

Crazy hair swinging on the rings.

LuLu's hair again as she flies off on the rings.

Lucy hiding from the camera.

Lucy launching off the monkeybars.

Lucy in motion on the monkeybars.

Lucy on the rings.

JoJo on the "tightrope"

More tightrope walking.

Josie posing on the tightrope.

Josie playing "troll bridge".

Lucy really kicks butt on the monkeybars and the rings these days. She started practices the monkeybars about six or eight months ago and now she is a pro and LOVES to race back and forth on the monkeybars and the rings. She actually has callouses on her palms from all her monkeybar work. Josie loves to play troll bridge from Dora the Explorer and will run back and forth on the bridge about 30 or 40 times as long as you play the "troll" trying to get her. Pictured here is also JoJo's "tight rope walking" on the metal supports of the bridge. She gets up and down onto these supports all by herself and then walks back and forth up there.

New Toothbrushes

2010-02-08T20:44:00.000-08:00

The new toothbrushes were too exciting to wait to open until we got home so we had a brief brushing session in the grass at the park.

Coloring Together

2010-02-08T20:39:00.000-08:00

LuLu coloring Hello Kitty.

JoJo coloring a mouse from Cinderella.

Sisterly love.

One of those moments of sisterly togetherness that never seems to last long enough but is wonderful to behold when it does happen. JoJo wanted to color while in "diapy butt". Check out the close-ups to see the world of difference between two-year old coloring and four-year old coloring.

Little House Update

2010-02-08T20:29:00.000-08:00

Mitch has been working hard non-stop pretty much every weekend since New Years. It's tough going trying to get work done in a few days each weekend that are always interrupted by nap times or dinner time or what have you. He has persevered though. We have had several heavy rain storms which luckily allowed us to find the gaps and figure out waterproofing needs. Mitch has now waterproofed one side (the one with the two windows and the metal siding). Mitch had to use a clever combination of metal flashing and roofing tar to seal up the bottom of the house and then a bunch of sealer around all of the window and siding seams. I actually did a tiny bit of work on the house myself - painting the two sides of the house that are covered in siding and face the neighbors yards. Now they are painted tan to match the big house although no one except the neighbors ever sees this part of the house. I also filled the nail holes on the front of the house with putty but Mitch did all the sanding to perfection. You may notice that the lovely wooden panels from the front of the house are off. They started to warp in the sun and we had to take them off so they could dry straight. The front of the house was also leaking so now we have a big tarp over the front until we can get the boards straightened, back on, and the front all sealed up. Mitch has also been working on painting the outside and doing the drywall inside. All the drywall is up and now we are in the extended mud, putty, and sanding phase before we can put on the primer and paint the inside. Ah, the never ending process.

Still Enjoying the Boys

2010-02-05T21:02:00.000-08:00

Despite all the poop, we are still loving our guinea pigs. They are very friendly and eat lots of leftover compostable goods like orange peels, banana peels, and produce.

Gave Up on the Autoharp

2010-02-05T20:56:00.000-08:00

I gave up on being able to short cut to my dream of a female science rock band that sings lots of awesome songs about photosynthesis and ecology and evolution (like a bad they might be giants) by learning the autoharp. I decided that for me the autoharp was not going to be a rocking enough instrument. Instead I started guitar lessons with Mitch three weeks ago. So far I know two chords and I already had my first live gig, playing along to Test It Out played through the boombox by they might be giants. I sang and strummed after Mitch tuned the guitar into an open tuning that went with the song. It was great fun and the kids loved it even though my playing was somewhat, shall we say, amateurish? One fifth grader named Luis actually said to me later, "You weren't playing the guitar." And I said, "Yes I was! Did you see my stellar bar chords!" Then I told him, "You actually know how to play the guitar don't you?" To which he replied, "Yes." And I said, "How many chords do you know?" And he proceeded to count on his fingers and finally came up with 25. I asked him how long he had been playing guitar and he said two years. So I told him that now I had a goal, two years and 25 chords. Rock on. Katafanga is unsure of how he feels about the guitar lessons but he does love the guitar case.

Warm and Cozy

2010-02-05T20:51:00.000-08:00

Several years ago a bunch of us female botany types who also kill weeds were at a meeting together and in the evening we all took out our knitting and knitted hats and discussed the best herbicide for killing yellow starthistle and other evil weeds. It was delightful. Since then I have subsequently learned that the stitches that I learned in my mommy and me knitting group somehow are not actually knitting. I swear I have actually made at least three baby hats, three scarves and a baby sweater, none of which fell apart. But still, my knitting is in somewhat of a hiatus. So when it started to get chilly here and even chillier in my office and my friend Sylvia e-mailed me that she was doing a lot of knitting (she is one of the botany knitters), I asked her to knit me a hat. Imagine my delight when this beauty arrived in the mail! I LOVE IT. Thank you Sylvia! I took these pictures myself, can you tell?

Finally All the Old Medicine is Out of the Fridge

2010-02-05T20:41:00.000-08:00

Josie has been off of antibiotics now for about six months. She is doing great. No new infections and she seems as healthy as some animal that is very healthy (horse? donkey? llama? What is an opinionated small animal that is very healthy? Pygmy marmoset?). We had been storing all of the leftover antibiotics in our refrigerator until we could take them to the pharmacy to be properly disposed of. Finally I couldn't take it any more because we needed the room for more olives and curry paste so Mitch looked it up and found out that you can properly dispose of old medicines by mixing them with kitty litter and putting them in the trash. So that's what I did. Here are all the bottles ready for recycling.

Fifty Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do)

2010-01-26T19:30:00.000-08:00

Fifty Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do)

Sometimes life can be too safe. Yes, I am extremely happy that I live in a neighborhood, town, country, where things aren't blowing up on a regular basis and I don't feel like I or my family is going to be gunned down in the street. I am fortunate to have been born into the middle class in the United States. But having said that, maybe it is o.k. to let our kids superglue their fingers together on occasion or try that hard trick on the monkeybars or play in the drainage ditch. Those two thoughts may seem completely unconnected. What I am trying to say is that I am very happy that I live a life that has no random violence and very little real danger and since that is the case, maybe it is o.k. to let our kids experiment a little bit with life.

2010-01-21T21:12:00.000-08:00

Lucky

2010-01-13T21:19:00.000-08:00

I have a pretty pedestrian life. I work for the government. I have two little girls. I spend lots of time reading Dora books and pushing people on the swings. The other day after writing a post on my blog I looked at a couple of the blogs that are located near my blog on blogger. It was a dark thirty minutes of reading. After a blog focusing on dealing on a daily basis with a personal disease where your brain grows too big and squeezes out the bottom of your skull there was a family blog for a family whose two year old daughter is dying of a genetic nerve disease. Holy crap. Pedestrian ain't half bad.

This Is What My New Years Resolution Looks Like

2010-01-13T21:08:00.000-08:00

This is what I see for thirty minutes (I also hear yelling, singing, and lots of talking).

This is what you would see. Sometimes they look happier. Especially when they are covered in chocolate donut.

Becoming a Cosmopolitan

2010-01-13T20:50:00.000-08:00

Even before recent events in Haiti, I have been thinking about how to be a better global citizen. As we were driving to San Diego for New Years, Mitch and I heard an interesting interview on On Point where Tom Ashbrook interviewed this woman who recently made a documentary on philosophy and its relevance to modern life. The movie is called Examined Life and features interviews with a bunch of modern philosophers. It sounds like a very interesting movie and in one of the clips Kwame Anthony Apia was talking about what it means to be a good person, a good citizen, in the global age. He talks about how it is relatively easy to do right by your friends, your family, and even your local community, but what does it mean to be a good citizen when we are all connected now globally? Kwame terms this new form of community and citizenship cosmopolitanism.

Other things I have run into recently have reinforced the idea that trying to do right by ones fellow global citizens is a worthy, if complex, goal. Believe it or not there is a small diatribe on this concept in the Elliot Pattison mystery that I am currently reading. And last night while watching a documentary on Joe Strummer, Joe philosophizes on the idea that we are all running around in our own little worlds and not doing enough to support our fellow humans everywhere.

It is a bit overwhelming to contemplate when it is all I can do to get my teeth brushed every day and keep up with the flossing. But I also feel like I'm not being a very good parent if I'm not modeling for my kids how to be a humanitarian and how to make the rubber hit the road in terms of supporting people in need and not living on the backs of poorly paid laborers worldwide. Somehow buying fair trade goods seems like a good start but not enough. So while I can't say that I have actually accomplished a single act of Cosmopolitanism recently other than buying fair trade tea, hats, and jewelry for Christmas, I am starting my research - looking into gleaning locally, habitat for humanity building vacations, donations to Haiti, and more.

If I actually get anything done other than staring into my navel, I'll let you know. And if you have good ideas for things to do as a global citizen, you let me know.

It May Be Arbitrary, But A New Year Nonetheless

2010-01-13T20:37:00.000-08:00

I like the turning over of a new year. If the previous year was crappy, it's a good chance to say "the hell with all that, this next year will be different." If the previous year was good, it's a great time to remember all of the grand adventures of the past year. I like burning things or having things be washed away in the sand or rain or snow on New Year's Eve. I like making collages of my hopes and dreams for the coming year. I like drinking champaign with friends, meditating on the past and picturing the future. And, of course, I like making lists.

Top Five of 2009:

Personal:

1. Camping in Joshua Tree with Lucy, Mitch, Josie, Allie, Tom, Brian and Alba.
2. Cama Beach. Peter and Nathalie’s wedding, berry picking, swimming, shell collecting.
3. Mississippi. Tiffany and Jason, free range bacon, meeting their friends, seeing Clarksburg and other sites.
4. Disneyland! I don’t know how many times we went, maybe as many as seven or eight. 2009 was definitely the year of Disneyland and I loved every moment of it. Even waiting in line for the Princesses every time. Ray, Sandy, Becca, Rob, Rick, Sarah….
5. So many fantastic holidays – Christmas in Colorado, Turkey Day in the mountains, New Years Eve in San Diego. Good friends, good family, good times.

Professional:

1. Working Together Against Weeds seminars at Joshua Tree, Death Valley, and Olympic National Parks.
2. Finally getting the diversity ecosystem function paper resubmitted.
3. Giving so many academic seminars to promote research in the national parks all over California.
4. California Invasive Plant Council Symposium, two posters and two talks, and tons of fun.
5. Finally getting the Guide to the Invasive Plants of the Santa Monica Mountains written and published thanks to the major efforts of Irina Irvine.
6. The science strategy working group!

Aspirations for 2010:

Personal:
1. Adopt a dog that will be happy and fit into our crazy family.
2. Re-do the back yard so it is pleasant to look at and functional.
3. Keep up the pilates and run more.
4. Get a group of friends and family to go on a short Mexico cruise out of Long Beach.
5. More camping!! Mount Pinos, the east side of the Sierra, the beach, and more.

Professional:

1. Keep working on paper submissions – submitting and resubmitting until at least the three current papers are published.
2. G.A.D.J. I’ll explain that in 2011 (c.s.p.)
3. Get the weed management plan to the public comment phase.
4. Keep learning new things.
5. Get the carbon offset project done.

Remembering the Holiday Season 2009

2010-01-07T20:26:00.000-08:00

The girls with Santa at the YMCA.

Lucy on her first time out on cross-country skis at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Look at that smile!

She tried to ski off into the sunset but I had to go get her when she got to the bottom of the hill. Look at how deep the snow is...

She did have a few falls but was still smiling. The next day she skied a 1/4 mile loop up on the mesa.

Bye Luce, see you back at the house...

Here we are at Santa and Mrs. Claus tiki hut at the Harbor. Note Lucy's cool fluffy pink boots - thrift store score!

The polar bears and their palm fronds helped us welcome in the new year in San Diego style!

We had a great Christmas season this year and I was too busy enjoying it to do any blogging. So here is what I can remember of this year's Christmas. This was the first year that Lucy understood Christmas well enough to be excited about Christmas long before it came. I have fond memories of all the buildup to Christmas from my childhood including advent calendars, cutting our tree, decorating the tree, and playing lots of I spy to find
Christmas ornaments on the tree.

This year Lucy and Josie shared an advent calendar from Trader Joe's. It includes a piece of chocolate for each day which they shared and were delighted with. We didn't go out and purchase or cut down a tree but instead re-used the small artificial tree that Grandma Jo brought out for last year's California Christmas. It fits in our tiny house perfectly and the girls loved decorating it.

Early in December Mitch went to San Diego with his brother Stu for a weekend. The girls and I baked Christmas cookies while he was gone including a Brigham classic, cookie press cookies. The cookie press cookies were their favorite because they involved SPRINKLES!! The first ones I let the girls decorate were solid sprinkles. They weren't a ton of help with the molasses or the rosemary lemon shortbreads because, you guessed it, they didn't involve sprinkles.

While Mitch was gone we also went the YMCA for breakfast with Santa. (pictured above) We brought unwrapped gifts for needy families and were treated to pancakes, bacon and orange juice with Santa. The girls loved it.

A couple weeks after Mitch came back, my brother arrived and we all went to the harbor for the parade of lights. We rode bikes down and Seth and Elise came too. The parade was hit or miss as usual but it was fun to be out at night and they had fake snow which Lucy and Josie loved.

Soon after it was off to Colorado for a blissful ten days of snow, snow, snow. We did lots of sledding, helped decorate the big, beautiful, real tree and ate way too many Christmas cookies. My brother was a perfect guest and did lots of cooking and niece-watching. It was great fun to have him with us for Christmas. The girls had a blast opening their presents and even got a second visit from Santa on Christmas Eve night. Lucy went cross-country skiing for the first time and she did great! I got to go for a half hour ski by myself in the quiet of the snow and had a great time.

After a lovely Christmas then we went to San Diego for New Years and had a great time visiting Caitlin, Tim, Tom, Allie and the bunny. The bunny that Caitlin and Tim were house sitting was a big hit with the girls. It is always great to visit the SD crowd - they are all so hospitable, fun to be around, and in general most excellent people. We went to the zoo twice this visit.

That about brings us up to date. Sorry that I am leaving out all the details like how we got the van stuck in the snow approx. 4 times (depending on how you count), seeing all of our cousins and Aunt Judy and Uncle Jerry, and on and on. Maybe I'll remember to write during Christmas next year, but I doubt it.

Candy and Carrots

2009-12-07T21:05:00.000-08:00

One of the joys of the Christmas season for Josie and Lucy is... double desserts. I got them an advent calendar from Trader Joe's that has a small piece of chocolate with some Christmas image on it behind every door. So every night the girls get to open a door, split a piece of chocolate, and have their regular dessert (if they ate a good dinner). Lucy is pleased as punch at this arrangement. I don't know how she will ever go back to single dessert again.

Lucy is holding up her lolly pop which on this night was her "regular" dessert (in addition to the advent calendar chocolate). Note that in this picture Jo Jo is holding up her carrot which she is very pleased about. She just recently started eating carrots. I say, hey, whatever makes you happy as long as you're not hurting anyone. Happy Holidays!

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells

2009-12-07T21:03:00.000-08:00

Mitch is forming his new rock band but all of the participants aren't sure whether they want to be in the band. Everyone was a fan of Mitch's rockin' rendition of Jingle Bells, however. The silver guitar may not be as pretty as the blue sparkly guitar to the untrained eye, but it is Mitch's current favorite. Say hello to the G and L ASAT.

Bed Time

2009-12-07T21:01:00.000-08:00

This is what I found a couple of nights ago when I went to get in our bed. The dolls are better than the truck loads of sand that we frequently find between our sheets that has fallen out of the girls pants cuffs. When your house is only 900 square feet and it is dark and raining, it is hard to make any of the house that is safe for playing, "off limits". Thus we often find trucks, dolls, sand, and fake food in between our sheets.

Avocado and Khaki

2009-12-07T20:55:00.000-08:00

After a month of replacing the fascia boards and two months of debating paint colors, we finally had a contract crew here for a week painting our house. When it was all said and done, a miracle occurred and all of the residents of 613/619 were pleased with the result. Lucy was a particularly difficult audience since she wanted the house painted rainbow colors. It really does look sharp. Now we just have to get the front yard in shape, finish the little house, and get the back yard fixed up... But not until after Christmas.

Offset This Baby!

2009-12-03T21:07:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to figure out the best way to calculate the carbon offset values for all the plants we plant every year at our park. We typically plant between 10,000 and 15,000 coastal sage scrub plants (California sagebrush, purple sage, buckwheat, etc.) into degraded annual grassland. Our average acreage per year is pretty small, between 2 and 3 acres I would estimate. The park service is climate change obsessed these days and one of its obsessions is getting all its parks to be climate friendly (I say, "Howdy climate! How you doin?"). One of the goals of climate friendliness is to get to zero net carbon gain per park by some absurd year like 2016 (right around the corner people, right around the corner...).

So I thought I would try to do my part by coming up with some back of the envelope calculation for the carbon sequestration value of all of these lovely little plants that I plant each year. The complicated part is that it turns out that it is pretty darn tricky and somewhat controversial to calculate these types of values. Since people are going to pay for carbon offsets in many areas of the world (including ours) scientists and policy makers want these carbon sequestration estimates to be rigorous and not just b.s. Which is all fine and good except that all of the fully developed models are based on TREES (How many times do I have to tell you people that I don't live in a forest, SHRUBLAND I tell you, SHRUBLAND).

So anyway, I'm going to sit in my office for a few hours over the next couple of weeks and try to figure this all out or at least take a good stab at it without actually going into the field with a gas exchange analyzer. Wish me luck, and if you have any genius ideas (Sarah Otterstrom, I know you do this kind of thing for a living...), let me know. Right now what I have is some published dry weight data for coastal sage scrub and annual grasslands, some published soil respiration rates for coastal sage scrub and annual grassland, and a bunch of data on number of plants of what type that I have planted. I could also actually measure plants of different ages in the field since I know when I planted all my plants.

I know this is really exciting for all you non-scientists out there but I just had to share.

Unexpected Snow Storm

2009-11-28T17:06:00.000-08:00

Despite a zero percent chance of precipitation in Big Bear Lake this weekend, this morning we woke up to four inches of snow. It has been snowing off and on all day. We were pretty unprepared for snow and had to go out and buy chains. We've improvised with the old plastic bags in your shoes for the girls for snow wear. It has been very old school... We've had two great sledding, snowball fight, snowman sessions in the back yard and one walk through the snowy neighborhood. I managed to fall on my butt and konk my head on the concrete. Despite that, it has been great to play in the snow. We're looking forward to more snow in December at Grandpa Jim's and Grandma Jo's and even more snow in Mammoth in March.

Thankful

2009-11-27T14:32:00.000-08:00

We're spending Thanksgiving break with a group of our friends from graduate school. They have been spending Thanksgiving together for about 16 years and we have been joining in for the past seven years. We always rent a house somewhere in California, usually in the mountains or at the beach. This year we're in Big Bear Lake. It is nice to be up in the trees. Yesterday we went to Moonridge Zoo and saw some neat animals like Fishers, brown bears, a snow leopard, and others. It is a sort of wildlife rescue facility. One of the coolest things that happened while we were there. A fire engine drove by and and all of a sudden the whole wolf pack (two adult females, one adult males, and six young wolves) started howling. They kept howling for about fifteen minutes and it was the most amazing sound to hear and even to see the wolves putting their heads up high and howling. I could close my eyes and imagine that I was in the middle of some dark spruce woods in Canada somewhere in a small cabin at night listening to wolves outside. It was definitely a highlight of Thanksgiving 2009.

Here are some other highlights of Being Thankful 2009:
- the great bug hunt of 2009 (Rob's invention of an easter egg type hunt for rubber bugs)
- talking health care with the peeps
- delicious food as usual including fabulous spice cake
- the kids playing money with poker chips
- the girls learning the underarm slide at the park
- seeing our friends!!!
- Disneyland as always plus Rob, Becca, Ava, and Max (B referred to Disneyland as the seventh circle of h*ll).

And we still have two days together left!

By the way, here are some things I am thankful for:

- good friends, especially ones that I have known for more than ten years- longevity counts!
- healthy families
- fun kids, even when they are grumpy
- wild animals
- wild plants
- knitted hats
- fleece
- good wine and gin drinks

Relaxing Weekend

2009-11-08T09:53:00.000-08:00

After my busy trip to Seattle, it is nice to have a relaxing weekend at home. On Friday we took the girls to Arroyo Verde park to play on their three different playgrounds. On Saturday we took the girls to Storyfest, our local reading festival. And today we'll go to the swimming pool and maybe squeeze in a trip to the grocery store. It may not sound like much but when you pencil in breakfast, getting dressed, twenty UN negotiations over toys, snacks, changing diapers, doing laundry, naps, lunch time, a two hour search for a missing Ariel doll, and some other day to day activities, it adds up.

We had a scare this weekend with Little Jimmy making a trip to the emergency room. But after surgery to correct a bizarre structural anomaly of the intestine that 2% of the population has, he is now recovering well and will be fine. I don't envy Barbara, Judy, and Jerry the next two months though as they hang out with Little Jimmy during his no exercise period... I think of Little Jimmy as someone who maintains his strong grip on reality and overall good humor through regular doses of nature and exercise via bike riding. Good luck Barbara Jo, Judy, and Jerry - we'll be thinking of you (and you too of course Little Jimmy)!

Why Don't You Just Color Yourself Then?

2009-11-08T09:42:00.000-08:00

Here's a recent pic. of JoJo emulating her favorite Lightning McQueen face (when Lightning jumps the cars in during the race).

Mitch and Josie were coloring together in a coloring book while they waited at UCLA for Josie's test last week. Josie was showing some pictures to Mitch. Mitch noticed that one of the pictures was of a frog holding a crayon in each hand. So Mitch says something along the lines of,

"Hey Josie, look at this one. The frog has crayons."

And Josie replies,

"Oh! Then he can color himself!"