We spent Easter Sunday yesterday with Dave’s sister Trish, her husband Bruce and family. Tau loves haves having his teenage cousins Greg and Jess around to play soccer with him and do Thomas the Tank puzzles (thrilling for them, I’m sure!).

It was so hot here that the Easter Bunny had to drop his eggs off very quickly after brunch and we ran out and find them before they melted into globby, gooey little messes.

Pics are over at Flickr. Enjoy!

Mitch, Tau and AJ at Omaha Beach House

It amazes us that even after two months back from New Zealand, Tau still raises things that we thought he would have long forgotten.

When we catch and hold his swing in mid-flight at the playground, he knows that saying “AJ’s password” (”Love ya, AJ”) is the only way to get the swing going again. He also remembers that the “AJ hug” requires a “tap, tap” of his hand on our backs.

The third thing he “remembers” cracks me up: I recently told him on the way home from daycare that Mommy would be home when we got there. “What are you going to say to Mommy when you see her?” I asked. His response? ” Hello gorgeous!” I almost drove the car off the road. He tells me AJ taught him this.

Getting ready to ride the neighborhood train
(Tau with A. Mary and Mom in foreground)

We have been busy these past ten days visiting with Dave’s Mom (aka Nanny) and his Aunt Mary, who has been visiting with Dave’s folks in Canada over the holidays.

As always, it was wonderful to have them in San Diego. So great for Tau to have time with his nanny and wonderful for us to have other grown ups in the house. What? You want to read NOW? Go see if Aunty Mary’s awake … she loves reading digger books at 7:00 a.m. ...

Unfortunately the weather wasn’t the best — we had a storm move through that meant three days of grey and rain. So those days, we took them shopping and down to our favorite dessert place, Extraordinary Desserts.

On the sunny days (and we’ve had a few hot ones recently), we went down to the beach and to various parks. Mom and Aunty Mary also ventured out on their own, spending a day exploring greater downtown SD on Old Town Trolley Tours.

And Tau had a great time, playing trains and bat-and-ball with two ever ready volunteers. (more…)

Perfect day on the beach at Matauri Bay, Northland  

We flew home from New Zealand the evening of December 26th and flew into Los Angeles around lunch time the afternoon of December 26th. No, I’m not suffering from jetlag — it’s all about the international date line!  

We had an absolutely fabulous three weeks in the land of the long white cloud. Spent much of our time with my brother AJ and his family but also did two trips — one to Nelson-Tasman on the northern tip of the South Island and one to Paihia and surrounds on the northern tip of the North Island. We also spent a relaxing two days with AJ and Julie up at their new bach on Omaha Beach, just an hour north of Auckland. 

New Zealand is a fascinating country and we have LOTS to tell. So much in fact that I’ll probably spend much of the month of January posting on NZ-related topics.

But in the mean time, I’d like to point you to a set of our holiday pics on Flickr. I’m without my favorite photo-shrinking and editing software, so photos are posted in full res and without any cropping or editing. C’est la vie! Apologies to those of you with slow Internet access! Also, some are pretty fuzzy — holding out on replacing the camera ’til some time next year.

Click on the mosaic below to view the set in sequence. Once you’ve done that, clicking on the individual pics in our photostream will show the title for each, which should give you a hint as to who’s who and what’s what.

Enjoy! 

Art by niece Jaimey,
aged 6 

L to R: Julie, Dave, Daddy (AJ),
Tau, Sue, Jaimey, Mitchell

All around the Christmas dinner table,
our picture being taken, hence the “Cheese!”

Apteryx Australis 
Giclee Print by J.e. Gould

If things have been quiet here on el rancho nobaddays, it’s because we have been busy with two big decisions.

Number one, I quit my job. Without another to go to. And on purpose. Yes, I did. 

It’s no secret that while I love what I do as a technical writer, I don’t love spending two hours a day in the car in order to do it. It was time for me to find work closer to home.  And time for something new. So yesterday, Friday, was my last day in the office.

I have a history of finishing up jobs on Friday only to start a new one on Monday, with zero vacation time on hand. This time round, I’m taking a month or so off so that I can rest, work on a few things around the house and then start looking early in the year. Ah!

Having the month of December free (FREE!) and Dave having enough vacation time saved up, we also decided (second big decision) to take a good long vacation. Three weeks in New Zealand!

Yes. On the spur of the moment we decided this! Those who know us well know how we agonize over things. Well, this decision took a matter of days. Days, I say! And we are thrilled and excited.

We will spend much of our time in New Zealand with my brother AJ and his family just north of Auckland. But we will also spend a good chunk of time touring around — just the three of us – toes in the summer sand and carefree.

And seeing my brother, meeting his wife Julie and kiddies Mitch and Jaimey, introducing them to Tau, will be truly thrilling for me. I haven’t seen Andy in over twelve years. Twelve! Can you say overdue?

We leave next week. Eek! And while we are away I’ll be taking a break from el blog – but I promise to take lots of pictures and I plan to keep a journal, so we will have lots to share on our return.

Tuesday 2 a.m., but it still feels like Monday night. Can’t sleep so thought I’d send an update. If all is safe to travel, and if we need to move, we’ll probably go to stay with friends not too far away tomorrow late a.m.

Will let you know when we are “settled.” Don’t worry if you don’t hear from us; there are sporadic power outages and so Internet access is spotty.

- S

Just a few days old 

Introducing our newest nephew, Tait Everest Walsh, born to Stu, Kristi and Kai on August 28th at 7:19 a.m, weighing 6 lbs, 7 oz.

Yes, this post is long overdue. It took a couple weeks for the busy parents to send pictures and then even longer for me to remember to ask them if they were cool with me posting them.

We haven’t had a chance to meet him yet but from what we can tell when we talk to them on the phone, the young man has a healthy set of lungs on him! He’s gonna need them for family get togethers!

Welcome to our world and family, baby Tait!

Kai with his new little brother

Grandpa Gerald and Tau, January 2006

Happy birthday, Dad!

Hope you had a nice time celebrating at the ‘Berg.

Compact and demure looking, isn’t it?

When I posted the contents of my handbag, making reference to my Mom’s bag (aka Le Pantechnicon), I had no idea.

No idea.

Either I’ve forgotten just how much crapola my mother carries around or she’s anticipating a string of global disasters. Those of you living in the path of hurricanes take note.

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Posted by Dave

L to R: Aunty Boo, Aunty Joy, and Gran

1. It’s no longer safe to move the paper recycling from the large African basket in the kitchen to our recycling blue box in the garage without checking the contents. Last week it contained two cans of salsa verde (green salsa) and a tennis ball — in with all the paper to be recycled.

2. The exact same evening, I find a certain 22-month-old’s juice cup, with juice, in the cutlery drawer.

3. Last week to calm the screaming 22-month-old down, we all step outside onto our quiet patio to say hello to the stars and moon. Over the fence we hear a group of (likely) 22-year-olds joking and messing around with each other, liberally using the F-word, on the way to their car. The 22-month-old stops mid-tantrum and mutters, “Kids!”

4. And later that same week, as we pass by the black-and-white family pictures on the way up the stairs, he spots the photo shown above of Sue’s 91-year-old gran with her sisters when they were little. “Kids!” says the 22-month-old.

5. I am told by the daycare teachers that he has grown 3 inches … since May. He barely fits on the change table at daycare and can reach up and grab the fire-alarm lever while having his diaper changed. Great.

6. The 22-month old is known affectionately as Taco at daycare. This goes back to when he was wrapped tightly as an infant in his sleeping blanket. One of the teachers, Gaby, still calls him Taco. Nothing to our young man to turn it on her. Even though he clearly knows her name, if you ask him what he calls Miss Gaby, he’ll tell you “Taco” with a big, warm smile. Apparently this has caused enough amusement among the other teachers that they now stop by the toddler room to elicit the response from him.

We won’t say who but here’s a hint …

I love the resemblance between this picture and this naughty one of Tau at about 10 months.

And here is the life-sized birthday card we made for him — note the outline of the little guy’s bod! Tau and his buddies at daycare decorated it with Crayola markers and a whole lot of frenetic toddler glee.

What did the birthday boy do on his day? He took the day off to do some chilling and cycling, and then last night we all went over to friends Gerhard and Evi’s for a wonderful dinner!

Hey! We’d love your feedback.
So if nothing else, skim down to the indented bullet point below.

Well, dear readers, this is blog post number 101 over here at nobaddays. Can you believe it?

Those who know and love me will tell you what a Luddite I am. I carry the cheapest pay-as-you-go brick of a phone, have a cassette player (you know, with the stretchy tapes that melt in the sun?) in my car, and still haven’t found a good enough reason to sign up for cable.

So, as with many things in my life, I came to blogging late. The first blogs I ever saw were those of my technologically astute friends Erika and Declan. And I remember thinking, “Why mess with all this complicated on-the-fly stuff when you can make a simple HTML page and update it by hand?” Embarrassing, I know.

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The beach at Manzanita looking North

Just kidding! Wouldn’t put you through that and I doubt anyone’s interested in a blow-by-blow of our week away.

But I did want to add a link to a small set on Flickr and give you a few short takes on our time on the Oregon coast.

Note: If you view the Flickr pics as a slideshow, click the [i] to see descriptions. Can you tell I write user manuals for a living?

And please pardon the lazy bullets. It’s been a brain-frazzly week.

• McMenamin’s Kennedy School Hotel (Portland) – So unbelievably cool! I added a few of pictures of our room and the hallways to the Flickr set but please also check out their web site. Beer and pizza in their movie theater and the kids are allowed? Woo-hoo! And about that lovely reflection pool? Tau started backtreading as soon as he got near it: “All done … no-no! … Waaaaah!” No amount of coaxing would stop him crying so we had to leave. Of course, once he spotted kids swimming in the pool through the window across the hallway from our room, it was all, “Pool … pool … Mama! POOL!” And pulling our sleeves to go back.
• Mish Mash — The house we rented a couple blocks away from Manzanita Beach with Dave’s brother Stu, his wife Kristi, nephew Kai, and Dave’s Mom and Dad. Mish Mash had everything we needed including beautiful views, a big garden for the kids to run (well, actually, more like ride … on Nanny’s back) and a great comfy kitchen and fireplace. Thanks to Stu and Kristi for organizing and bringing all the kid gear we couldn’t fit in our luggage: booster seat, Pack ‘n Play, rain gear, gumboots, kites, and lots and lots of fleece!

Mish Mash, Manzanita, OR 

• Time and space — This is what I love about a vacation with no agendas. Most days we had a late breakfast, went for a walk to the beach or into the village for a coffee, ate lunch, napped, cooked dinner, sat by the fire and then crashed around 9:30. And most afternoons, I went up to “nap” with Tau. In truth, I lay on our bed watching the waves crashing on the beach or reading a book. Yes, I read a book, with printed words and a cover and everything! A travel memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert called Eat, Pray, Love. Highly recommended.
• Cuzzling rivalry — Lets just say that the boys were not too keen on sharing. Not one bit. Which lead to a fair bit of squabbling and, “I don’t want him to” from Kai and “No, NOOOO! MINE!” from Tau. But of course the minute they were out of each other’s sight …. “Kai? Kai? Dad-dee … Kai?” and ”Uncle Dave, where Baby Tau?”
• Hanging out — Dave and Stu took off winetasting in the Willamette Valley all of Tuesday, just the two of them, which was great because they don’t often get that kind of time together. Which is a shame because they are close. That day, Kristi and I took the boys to the beach. It was the one truly warm, sunny day we had and Tau and Kai had a ridiculously happy time in the “river” at the top of the beach. Tau stood in the freezing cold water for 45 minutes and threw rocks. Ecstatic.
• Celebrating – Kai’s third birthday back on June 1 and Tau’s upcoming second this October. Grandad hung balloons, Kristi made a cake and the boys blew candles … and vied for who got ownership of the orange and the pink and the green balloon.
• Did I mention all the time and space? – Time for early morning yoga at the community center in nearby Nehalem. Slow, stretchy asanas and gentle light filtering in through the tall windows. And on the Wednesday, a delicious hour-long sea-salt scrub and massage with green tea and mint. Double AH!
• And finally, lovely walks on the beach — because what’s a week spent on the Oregon coast without long walks on the beach, all bundled up cosy?

Snug as a bug! 

Now go and look at all those pics!

To my precious Granny Sylvia!

Gran and Sue,
Johannesburg, circa 1969