Friday, April 24, 2015

SoCal Birthday Visit

On April 6th Vivian turned one year old and on April 25th Dan turns 32. Frank and I flew down to Southern California this past weekend to celebrate . We flew down on Saturday morning April 18th just before the party and stayed for four days. We had two weekend days with Dan, Carrie, and Vivian and two days when they had to go to work and daycare. 

This is the party invitation that started it all. The festivities definitely had a daddy/daughter theme.


Saturday, April 18th:
Vivian is all dressed up in her tutu and "1" onesie, ready to party.


Her daddy was all decked out, too. Carrie had purchased Dan a custom shirt from Etsy sporting his year of birth, with the citation that it was a great year. The shirt was especially appropriate since Dan loves wine, too.


The party venue was decorated with balloons and a festoon of photos.


The string of photos was really cleverly implemented. Carrie had paired photos of daddy and daughter in similar situations, interspersed with the adage Like Daddy, Like Daughter. What is really fun is that none of Vivian's photos were posed. Carrie just happened to find ones like Dan's.



In the photo pair on the left, both Dan and Vivian had their encounters with a roll of toilet paper. In the right pair, Dan is wearing Mickey ears during his first trip to Disneyland and Vivian relaxes in his lap as she and her daddy drift through Disney's "It's a Small World" attraction.


Dan and Vivian have similar fashion sense with their black hats. Dan enjoys his ride-on duck and Vivian likes her ride-on vehicle, too.


"Hiya. I am waiting to come out of my crib now," say both daddy and daughter on the left. On the right, they both seem to chill quite well in their infant seats. There was a pair of poses with Santa and a pair of poses with toes in the sand but the wind would not cooperate with me getting pictures of them. In this case, action shots would not have conveyed the information!


People brought gifts for Vivian and Dan. It became obvious without looking at labels that "pretty in pink" was for Vivian and "tall and wine bottle shaped" was for Dan.


Of course there was food and drink at the party. There were lots and lots of Fajitas, lemonade, and of utmost importance, birthday cake.


The birthday cake was in the form of many, many, pretty cupcakes baked and painstakingly iced by Carrie's mom and sister.


Vivian can attest to the fact that those chocolate cupcakes were g-o-o-o-d!


She even begged extra off of Dan's former roommate Stan. How could Stan resist sharing, giving his cupcake to her?


Sunday, April 19th:
Sunday started with church in the morning. After dismissal from Mass, as the congregation filed out, Vivian manage to crawl underneath the final pew of the church and wedge herself between it and the glass wall it backed up to. Behind that flash in the center is a reflection of me, climbing in and amongst the shrubs and bushes of the outdoor landscaping trying to get a photo of her from the outside looking in.


For the evening meal we had tri-tip and asparagus that Dan grilled down at their home development's community center. Here are Dan and Frank enjoying the pool together. I really like this father and son shot.


That evening we walked with Vivian on her tricycle to a local park where she played on the climbing structure. Dan and Frank played H-O-R-S-E on the basketball court there. Even though it was Dan's birthday celebratory weekend Frank was merciless. He beat Dan at the basketball game - twice!

Monday, April 20th:
During the day on Monday, Frank and I  ran a few errands for Dan and Carrie while they were at work. These errands helped us learn where their local Home Depot, Target, and Ralph's Grocery stores were. We did some grocery shopping for some meals we were going to cook and I "helped" Carrie with some laundry. Due to a mixup in the notes she left me, I managed to fold and hang up a pile of dirty laundry and re-wash a laundry hamper full of clean stuff. Oh, well. It was an excuse for a good laugh. Other than that, we just hung out at their place.

Per Dan's request, Frank made Tuna Noodle Casserole (TNC) for dinner Monday night. Frank still set out a bite size portion of tuna on a plate for me like he does when he makes TNC, but to some extent I was I replaced. Instead of ILY sprinkled in paprika on top, the casserole read VIV.


As is the tradition, the TNC was accompanied by tiny sized peas.


Vivian approved wholeheartedly with the peas, the TNC noodles, and the bits of tuna. She scarfed them all down in record time, barely coming up for air. Her dad approved, too. Dan came home for lunch Tuesday to finish off the leftovers!


After dinner was bath time. This was up to Dan, and Frank helped, since Carrie teaches at CSULB (California State University, Long Beach) on Monday nights. Here is Grandpa reading to Vivian in the tub.


Once Viv was in bed and asleep, Frank, Dan, and I played a few games of Swish and a game of Set Cubed.


Tuesday, April 21st:
Dan and Carrie went off to work again. It was the last day of our four-day visit so Frank and I decided to take a tour of the USS Iowa, docked at San Pedro in the Port of Los Angeles. It was just over an hour's drive away and we left late enough to avoid morning rush hour traffic. It was interesting seeing all the offloading cranes and containerized freight not far from the roadway. We did not see any of them in action though, despite it being a weekday.


The sheer volume of goods that enter and leave this country is amazing.


We had an even better view of the containers and cranes from onboard the USS Iowa.


The USS Iowa battleship is known for its three turrets each with three 16 inch diameter guns. Seeing the way the highly trained and practiced crews loaded the packets of powder and shells was very impressive, especially when we were told that the process had a repetition rate of four times in two minutes! The range was 25 miles with an accuracy of several feet. This photo shows the hemispherical depression made in the surface of the water beside the ship from the shock wave when these were fired.


As we left the ship, I turned around and took a final photo. We had toured most of it that was above the water level – upper decks, overlooks, mess halls, galleys, sleeping quarters, gun turrets – in a self-paced tour with docents stationed throughout to answer questions. We enjoyed ourselves. I learned a lot and Frank was pleased to see first hand a lot of what he has viewed on television in some of the WW-II documentaries he watches.


I took a slew of photos of some examples of craftsmanship onboard the ship and posted them in my quilt blog. Please see them at the link http://dianeloves2quilt.blogspot.com/2015/04/craftwork-aboard-battleship.html. We exited through the gift shop (of course, there is one) and picked up our photo.


We got home in plenty of time for me to make Dan his second meal request – my spaghetti with sausages. We stopped and bought a cake for him and had a small, low-key celebration after Vivian was in bed.


After a rousing, enthusiastic, rendition of Happy Birthday, subdued in volume so as not to wake Vivian, Dan blew out his candles. We cheated just a bit by not loading the cake with 32 candles. We spent our final evening hours visiting by watching a few recorded episodes of Jeopardy, acknowledging how little we knew. Then Dan  switched to Saturday Night Live's version of celebrity Jeopardy so we could all laugh more and feel smarter.


Wednesday morning, April 22nd:
Frank and my flight left at 12:45 pm so we would not need to leave for the airport until after rush hour. The Orange County airport is only about 20 minutes away, anyway. We said our good-byes to Dan since he was off to be in at work by 7:00 am. We enjoyed some last moments with Vivian while Carrie got ready to go off to work herself.  One of Vivian's gifts, primarily from Grandpa, had to be a train of some sort, so here is her first remote control toy.


I felt she definitely needed a pink engineer's cap and apparently she agreed.


Frank and I took her outside on her tricycle for twenty minutes or so and then Vivian had a few last minutes of play at Frank's feet. "Oh Grandpa, what big feet you have..."


After Carrie and Vivian left, we finished our packing, loaded the car and headed to the airport. Frank actually liked the car we rented. I took a photo of the brand so we maybe could remember what it was  - a Hyundai Azera. I did find it strange that we got a car from Nevada when we were near Los Angeles. At least the plates made it easy to locate in the various parking lots.


Okay. This is it the last picture I made Frank pose for on this trip. We had a great time. We really did. I think the reason for the expression on Frank's face is because I dared to pose the question, "Would you consider parting with your 1997 Chevy?"

Friday, April 10, 2015

Ponder Post: the Husband's Secret

I just finished reading the Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty and really, really liked it. The plot was intense and the characters were well developed. I highly recommend you give it a try. The back cover of the book reads:


Chapter One opens with Cecilia, wife of husband John-Paul Fitzpatrick, finding an envelope in her husband's handwriting addressed:

For my wife, Cecilia Fitzpatrick,
To be opened only in the event of my death

From out of the blue, in Chapter Two, there is this discussion among Will, his wife Tess, and her cousin Felicity. "Okay...", I confusedly think, as I flip back to the first chapter to see if I'd missed something " ... who are these people?" No. I had not missed anything. These were new characters. I plunge on to Chapter Three where I read about Rachel and her grandson Jacob. Now I am really getting annoyed. "Why didn't this @#$%^ author write three books instead of rolling them all into one? Couldn't she generate enough pages? Is this some new publishing gimmick like the overused practice of flashbacks?" I rant on to myself, pretty annoyed, but I forge ahead. By Chapter Six I was absorbed in the book and fascinated by how all these characters became interrelated and how the life of each affected the others. It was really well done. I was glad I'd hung in there. 


The Husband's Secret is set in Australia at Easter time, which lends a bit of extra interest, since Easter comes in the fall season in the land Down Under. Chocolate bunnies and Easter eggs amongst fall foliage is a bit unexpected so the unfamiliarity kept me on my toes. Throw in a dose of Catholic religion and guilt and it was one great book.

The book also had several passages of pithy thought sprinkled throughout that made me stop and think. For example, this one about the grandmother Rachel:

She always pretended to herself that she didn't let Lauren help because she was trying to be the perfect mother-in-law, but really, when you didn't let a woman help, it was a way of keeping her at a distance, of letting her know she wasn't family, of saying
"I don't like you enough to let you into my kitchen."

Or this example about the wife Cecilia:

She knew what was giving her that little blip of pleasure. It was because she had made a decision. Something was clearly not right. She had a moral obligation to do something immoral. It was the lesser of two evils. She was justified.

So – good plot, great characters, clever interrelations, unique setting, pithy thoughts, not to mention a shocker of an ending – need any more convincing to read this book?

Oh, and when you do read it... do not, DO NOT, skip the Epilogue!

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Easter 2015

Frank and I had just returned from bowling three games with Alex. It is our Sunday tradition, but today was different. I beat Frank, two games out of three, a real rarity so I must document it here. Ok, I did choke in the third game but I almost always do. I think my arm gets tired or my concentration drifts. We should have quit while I was ahead!


We drove home to have Easter dinner in Livermore rather than eat at the bowling alley. Rain was predicted for Easter Sunday – yes, of all days –  and when we pulled up in front of out house, there was a small reprieve from the drought. For a brief, less than five minute time chunk, the sky opened up and there was a positive deluge of rainfall. Alex and I had made it inside just at the start but Frank was a few seconds later and got soaked! It was humongous, but oh, so brief. The water level was rising so quickly in the streets, the storm drains could barely keep up. I scrambled to get my camera and the downpour was already tapering off when I took this photo from the shelter of our front door.


Everything got rinsed really clean, almost like it had been power washed, which I guess it had. Our red maple was so pretty, glistening with tiny droplets of rain clinging to its ruby leaves.


As we entered into our living room I had posed a big bunny lounging in the wing chair. Doesn't he look exhausted after his job of delivering chocolates? I'd bought him in a Cracker Barrel Restaurant in Oklahoma when visiting Robin many ears ago before she'd even met or married Jeremy or had Autumn. That bunny had experienced a very cozy flight home in my suitcase nestled among my clothes. I still remember trying to cram him in there. Good thing he was very flexible.


On our dining room table, this trio of bunnies from Costco greets guests and offers chocolate. Of course there is not just one bunny. Frank claims that at Costco everything comes in a three-pack.


Each bunny is holding some Dove® Promises. These 1 inch squares of super smooth milk chocolate are a step up from Hershey kisses, even though kisses are delicious in their own right. Robin introduced me to Promises at Christmas time when she stocked the peanut butter filled variety. Each individually wrapped piece of chocolate also has a phrase on the inside.


Alex's Easter basket was carrot-themed this year guarded by a plush bunny holding a carrot. From left to right, first is a carrot shopping bag for his weekly grocery store foray to purchase carrots for his bunny. Next is a paper maché carrot filled with Hershey's kisses. In the far back are two carrot shaped cardboard containers filled with a variety of chocolate bunnies and other chocolate candies inside.  In the middle are sunglasses (more than carrots are good for your eyes) and some plush stuffed carrots. At the right of the basket are snack packs of Annies cheddar bunny crackers.  Near the front are two packs of Reese's pieces packaged like carrots.


These bags are just so cute! They feel good, too, in a squishy kind of way, just holding them your hand. I think they are on their way to becoming an Easter tradition around our house, so I hope the Hershey company decides to bring them back seasonally in future years.


After only a brief glance at his Easter basket Alex was off to peruse his extensive collection of VHS tapes. This time I had a laundry basket at the ready to corral them when he emptied out the entertainment center.


While the ham baked away in the oven Alex enjoyed doing his 100 piece giant jigsaw puzzles.


But I think the best feature of the day was the candles. Alex loves to blow out candles. I set up five tea lights and a glass jar candle for him to extinguish at will. He would notice them, ask us to count to three as he blew them out, and then go back to his puzzles and videos. When he was not looking, I would light them again and wait for him to notice. When he spied them he would get a little grin on his face, and trek over to the kitchen counter to blow them out again... and again... and again. Frank and I became very skilled at lighting all six with one match.


We collected the used matches in a small dish of water. After Alex left, we counted the matches. We had done the whole light and blow out cycle over one dozen times and Alex had had a ball with it. Frank and I were bemused and agreed to do this again his next visit. It required very little effort for a lot of enjoyment.


After a dinner of ham, sweet potatoes, applesauce, cole slaw, and mandarin oranges – and chocolate, of course – we set out for our default walk, a roughly one mile loop that includes the bike path behind our house. Sunday we traversed it counterclockwise started out on the street adjacent to our court. Our cul de sac empties out onto College Ave. I just learned that cul-de-sac is a mid 18th century French word, translated from the term "bottom of a sack". We began walking west into the sun, our eyes intermittently shielded by the houses we passed along the street.


We made two left turns to continue east on the bike path behind our home that parallels an arroyo. Arroyo  translates from mid 19th century Spanish to mean dry creek bed. Our arroyo really is dry this season with our drought.


Since I am being so cosmopolitan this post with the French and Spanish word etymologies, I'll touch upon post-Edwardian, early 20th century England, too. For fans of the award winning period drama television series, Downton Abbey, there is the familiar opening scene with a closeup of a dog's butt out for a stroll on a beautiful sunny day.


Here is the Downton Abbey stroll, Livermore style...


The total scene is in the next source photo. To paraphrase Horace Greeley, "Go East, young man, go East."


Looking west from whence we'd come, the sun-dappled bike path stretches out behind us. After our walk, we took Alex back to St. Denis. Then I chilled with my book and Frank chilled with an unintentional nap during his book.  Afterward, at night, we watched one of our Netflix. It was a very contented Easter Sunday.


Today as I write this we just had a brief shower. We are expecting heavy rain and thunderstorms tonight and the weather report is even predicting some hail. But for now the weather is gorgeous. Here is the view out my kitchen window. I do not mind doing dishes looking out on this. And being retired means I have many opportunities to enjoy our home at all hours of the day. What a perk!