Only Granny Di Will Appreciate This One

As usual, in the half dark, talking about the wonders of the natural world as he falls asleep.

“Lobsters and crabs … dey’re not matching.”

“Mmm …”

“But dey have pinchers.”

“Yeah, they both have pinchers.”

“But dey’re not matching.”

Smirk to myself. Half a world away, my mother is the only one who would sing along with me, after I tell him: “Yes, crabs walk sideways but lobsters walk straight!”

Sabbatical Start

On Friday I started my month sabbatical – a paid month off for 8 years of service to my company. Tomorrow I start the road trip to Sonoma for some cycling and wine tasting, Sue and Tau will join me later in the week. From Sonoma, we travel up to Mendocino and then loop back home on the coastal highway through Santa Cruz, Big Sur and Solvang/Santa Barbara. Please check the blog for updates of our travels.

Easter Visit from Dad and Sybil

We had a great visit with Sue’s dad and step-mom over the Easter weekend. They were booked, with Sybil’s brother Ron, on a two-week Panama Canal cruise and so spent a few days with us before heading out on the seas.

The last time they’d seen Tau, he was three months old, so they had lots to catch up on – riding the Poway train, playing soccer at a nearby field, laughing at a seaside park, and making us all smoothies for breakfast. Grandpa is an excellent smoothie maker, so got to pass on the tricks of the trade to Tau.

On Saturday, Ron arrived from Toronto, and Dave fired up the BBQ to cook up some outstanding tri-tip, which we had with salad and rosemary oven potatoes.

Before heading downtown to put them on the boat on Sunday, we had not one but TWO visits from the Easter Bunny, who brought a total dud of a bubble-maker (fortunately, the Easter Bunny shops at Target, so I was able to return it), a new soccer ball and a load of the good stuff (our bunny has a habit of leaving Lindt for the grown-ups).

Their boat, the Celebrity Infinity was ginormous and very stylish. As I write, Dad, Sybil and Ron are almost half way through their cruise and, I believe, doing a hike in the Costa Rican rainforest today. We hope they are having a ball!

All of the Above

Craft night is all about:

1. Drinking red wine, and eating olive bread spread with brie.
2. A bunch of girls who clearly don’t get out the house enough chit-chatting more than working on their craft projects!
3. Working with your hands – gasp! – and proving that the right side of your brain is not missing-in-action as assumed.

The answer is all of the above. I recently joined a group of paper crafters who meet monthly to work on projects.

To begin, we are working on greeting cards we can use throughout the year, and so last night we thought it would be a good idea to make boxes to keep our cards in. Since most of my cards will be for extended famdamily, I thought it would be nice to decorate mine with small black-and-whites of the rellies.

And in an effort to talk about something other than the fact that I don’t always listen to everything my son has to say, I thought I’d post my projects on the blog every now and then.

I was really pleased with the way my card box turned out and will be posting ongoing craft-night projects in this set on Flickr. Enjoy!

Last Weekend in the Park

Last Sunday we met friend James, Vix and Harry in the park for a picnic, and Vix snapped a few family pics for us.

I haven’t had a chance to really work with them but will be sending them out throughout the year for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, birthdays and so on.

Rest In Peace

Sylvia Hayden-Thomas

Born 26 June, 1916

Left us with great love in our hearts
and many happy memories
18 January, 2009

Here is a little poem I wrote many years ago, after visting with Gran.

Warm and Still

We were finally alone, my Gran and I,
and I made her come out into the garden with me.
I was glad that I had for it was warm and still
and we sat drinkng large mugs of tea.

She was small and round in the old wicker chair,
and I lay to her right in the long summer grass.
She told me anything I wanted to know –
laughing and squinting into the sun.

The ants crawling over our fingers, we talked,
blind to the creepers growing up around us,
weaving into our past and our present,
for we knew that tomorrow would pull us apart.

When the sun at last dipped down the back of the house
and the grass turned cool and damp, we rose
and gathered ourselves drowsy from sun,
and hand-tight-in-hand, entered the house.

Isn’t She Lovely?

Happy birthday to our lovely Gran and Gran-Gran. She’s ninety-two today but to me she doesn’t look a day over seventeen!

We wish her good health and lots of love and laughs over the year to come.

Click here for last year’s pic
of the birthday girl.

Ten Days on Vancouver Island

This is way long overdue … but we’ve had visitors and a sick kid.

So. About our trip to Canada. We travelled up together, leaving Dave at a conference in Seattle, while Tau and I flew on to Victoria, where we stayed with Dave’s Mom and Dad.

We spent time visiting the extended family and exploring new aspects of our old stomping grounds … those that appeal to a two-year-old — the petting zoo at Beacon Hill Park, the Bug Zoo, feeding fish to the seals at the marina.

We also spent three days up at Dave’s parents’ cottage further up the island at Saltair.

Aside from visiting family, Dave and I also got to have a quick lunch (on our own) at our favourite restaurant. And a leisurely brunch on the patio of another favourite — again on our own while Tau played with his grandparents and cousins, a treat we don’t often get living away from everyone!

Here are a bunch of pics on our Flickr account.

Easter at Home

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!

Memories of Uncle AJ

 

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.

Back to Our Regular Programming …

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.

Home from the Land of the Long White Cloud

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! 

A Very Kiwi Christmas to All

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!”

 

Packing up, Getting Ready, Moving On

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.

Tomorrow

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