Two Things I Learned Before 8:05 This Morning

1. “Mom, eggs are very FRAGILE.”  As if he was telling me something I couldn’t possibly know. “That means that they can break very EASILY Mom.”
2. That in the 20 seconds (I exaggerate not!) that it took me to charge up the stairs to check that I hadn’t left a light on in the bathroom or walk-in closet, my three-year-old boy child can open the garage door by himself.

Yes, THE ROLL-UP GARAGE DOOR — the one that opens out to the street.

In 20 seconds flat, he carried a pine stool from the dining room into the garage, climbed up on it and pressed the button, which is WAY up the wall.

I heard the squeal of the garage door rolling as I reached the bottom of the stairs, and my whole body ran COLD. My face must have said it all because he immediately blurted out, “Sorry, Mom!”

Whereafter proceeded a very stern lecture about NEVER opening the garage door. Not until he was at least 26 years old.

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!

Ha! Better Late Than Never!

We were slack about getting Christmas cards out this year — and so we didn’t. Didn’t even write our usual blah-di-blah-blah holiday letter.

Instead we were crazy busy in the weeks leading up to Christmas and then spent yesterday leisurely opening gifts, cooking and eating way too much food. Dave and I did a delicious Moroccan Lamb Tagine with couscous and two North-African veggie dishes. All with a lovely bottle of British Columbia Blackhills Nota Bene 2005 (thanks Stu-ee), finished off with a apple, pear and berry crumble for dessert.

Our Christmas photo set is here.

We plan to take the rest of the holiday period easy, and do some clearing out of cupboards before the new year starts.

We hope your Christmas was warm, cosy and full of love, and that the coming year brings many happy surprises your way!

Love,
Sue, Dave and Tau

Weirdest Request from My Husband … Ever!

As I leave yoga class on Saturday, I dial to return a message from Dave on my phone …

Sue: Hey.

Dave: Hey.

Pleasantries ensue as I’m turning out of the parking lot, heading out to go grocery shopping. We’re having friends around for dinner that night.

Sue: So whatch’you need?

Dave: Do you think you could stop and pick up a bunch of aromatherapy candles?

???

Stunned silence on my end of the phone.

Turns out, he’d shampoo’d the livingroom carpet the night before and it hadn’t quite dried and the whole downstairs smelled like miffy carpet.

The Circus is Coming to Town

One of the not-so-thrilling aspects of living in Southern California is dealing with termite infestation in our wood-framed homes.

Our townhouse development (about 250 units in all) is being fumigated this month, which means double-bagging all our food and medicines, moving all our houseplants out into the yard, packing up everything we need for work and daycare, and moving out for three days while our home is tented.

We’ll be living it up in a local budget motel — watching junk TV, eating out and swimming in the hotel pool.

With all the packing, living out of bags and then unpacking again later in the week, I think I’m going to take a little holiday from blogging. Our hotel has wireless Internet access but I think we’re going to take those three days to just hang out!

See you all next week!

The Hood

I took Tau to the park to ride the train yesterday and took a few snaps along the way.

Thought I’d post them for the family who haven’t had the chance to visit. They are in our La Casa set on Flickr.

Enjoy!

The Big Boy Bed

After our recent crib-jumping escapade we decided it was time to move Tau to a toddler bed.

So, after hunting the Internet high and low, we decided on the KidKraft Modern Toddler Cot because it could take Tau’s existing crib mattress and looked to be the lowest to the ground of all the beds we saw.

As Tau watched Dave assembling it, we talked about the new BIG BOY BED (!) and how wonderful it was and how he didn’t have to sleep in the crib anymore because that was for tiny babies.

Quite sweet and gullible, our child. He has taken remarkably well to sleeping in the bed and has only slipped onto the floor once in the month or so that we’ve had it. Dave found him, still wrapped perfectly in his blankets, on the floor in the middle of the night.

He does push his luck some nights by getting out of bed before he falls asleep and walking to peer over the railing to see what we’re watching on TV. But generally, a firm “Get back in your bed, NOW! please …” sends him back under the covers.

In addition to the yellow sheets I originally made for the bed, I bought a cute Safari fitted sheet from Target to match the Safari monkey pillow and lamp already in his room.

Had to move the lamp up high recently when Tau burned his hand on it. He decided it would be a good idea to touch the light bulb to see whether Mom was right when she said it was “HOT, Tau! Don’t touch!”

And so begins knowledge of the fact that Mom is usually (always?) right.

Oh, and in case anyone is planning on sending Tau a lion for Christmas? A subtle hint in the picture above. Let’s just say the zoos and wildlife preserves of the world have been calling, requesting the return of their beasties.

We are Home Safely

We are home and all is well. No damage to our immediate neighborhood. We’ll add more news once we are settled and rested. Even though we are home, we have been told to be ready to evacuate in event things change drastically. Basically, it would take a new fire for our neighborhood to be affected.

Tuesday p.m. – Good News

We are at James and Vix’s place and had a great day — unplugged from media.

Just checked the web and learned that they are reopening areas in our neighborhood, and we called our answering machine this morning and it answered, which we took to be a good sign.

Will probably spend the night here and head home tomorrow.

Top Priority for the Next Home We Buy

This post is part of Blog Action Day, a day of environmental discussion and participation by bloggers around the world.

 

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

No, it’s our laundry. Our humble jeans, shirts and towels hanging on a $9.99 clothes horse, saving us a bit of money and helping to fight global warming.

Did you know that dryers use five to ten percent of residential electricity in the United States? That cutting the number of times you use your dryer by just one load a week reduces CO2 emissions by 200 pounds a year? Hard to know what that means in the global scheme of things but every little bit helps, right?

Dave and I were both raised in South Africa, where the hot, mostly dry climate means that the vast majority of people dry ALL their laundry outdoors in the sunshine on washing lines. Our childhood memories are of folding crisp, bone-dry towels, of chasing our siblings through lines of flapping bedsheets and of learning to hang t-shirts so that they didn’t dry all pulled at the peg marks.

A Very Laid Back Birthday

On Sunday, after the annual neighborhood bike ride, a bunch of riders and friends came over for a barbecue. The last time we hosted this event, two years ago, I was just over eight months pregnant with Tau. He was born a week later.

Though we decided to dodge a formal birthday party this year, I did make carrot-cake cupcakes, frosted in different colors and arranged as a bunch of balloons. And we sang Happy Birthday, which Tau was prepared for because he’s been singing it to himself for over a month!

Because our place is small, it’s always hectic having so many people over, and this time it felt even smaller with toys littering the living room carpet. That said, I think everyone had a good time — I know we did!

My friend Declan had just bought a new camera lens, and so he brought his camera over to try out the lens on the birthday boy. A set of some of my favorites is here on Flickr.

Revenge of the Aloe

Dave here …

So Sue had been bugging me to cut the dead flower stalk off one of our aloes for some time. Didn’t bug me but the untidiness of it was getting to her, so last night after weeks of asking (begging … nagging?), she sauntered into the garage and came out with the shears. 

I’m in the kitchen and I hear snip, then “Hey! Help!”

The half-severed branch had hit Sue’s head and the dried flower husks stuck to her hair like velcro. Yes, the whole aloe plant was stuck to her head.

The more she called for help, the more I laughed and then ran for the camera! To make amends, I came home from my trip to the hardware store today with DQ Blizzards.

Note from Sue: Uh huh. The only picture he’s taken in the last ten years (I kid you not) is when my head is stuck to a plant. In my swimsuit. With hair scraggly from being in the pool. All sweaty and hot. Nice one, honey. The Oreo Blizzard did make up for it though. He knows how to get me. And by the way, the garden is his thing — dead aloe stalks aside, I don’t touch it.

In other news, we had a great weekend. H-O-T here — upper 80s F (30 C) today. We went to the pool three times this weekend, Tau overcame his beginning-of-summer “what the heck is this pool thing?” fear, and we had a picnic dinner tonight on Moonlight Beach. Yay! Summer is here!

Pitter Potter Patio

 

Isn’t She Lovely?

 

Euphorbia tirucalli

We bought this Pencil Tree, along with six or seven other succulents and cacti at the local farmer’s market this Saturday. And so I spent a couple of hours this afternoon potting and arranging them on the patio.

Our tiny garden is coming along nicely and should by pretty lush in a month or so. Dave has worked hard on it — pulling out stuff killed by the frost this past winter and adding plants that will hopefully handle both the heat and cold a bit better.

I’ve started two new sets on our Flickr page: One for pictures taken around the house, including some of the new plants, and one for Tau pics 19 to 24 months. (Yes, I’m a cheapskate — have a free account, which means you can only have three sets at a time. The old sets get deleted but the pictures in those sets are still available in your photostream.)

Silly Saturday: Drumming