My very first snow day!

I got one of my New Year's wishes: To get up at 6am, find out that school is closed, and crawl back into bed for another two hours. Delicious.










In any town where it actually snowed for real, this storm would not have warranted a snow day. However...


Number One Daughter and I rolled up this big snow ball. After we took the picture, we kept rolling it. Eventually we had rolled up all the snow in the park, and we started picking up the benches and the play equipment. After it got big enough to roll up cars and trees, we finally got to the point where we rolled up all the houses in the neighborhood. Then it turned into a star.

Politics

My daughter's career in public policy has begun.

I asked her this morning to put away all the toys on the floor in the Big Room. When she told me she had finished, I went in to check. What about all this stuff still on the floor? I asked her.

She replied: Those aren't toys.

Redefine the problem and the problem disappears.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHARLIE!

What a difference a year can make...
This...

...to this:

In this time of seasonal consumer madness...

Why, oh why, do people bother buying toys for kids?

Élan and flair, part two

She amazes me:

And now, My Guy:

Number One Daughter

I wish I could dress myself with the same flair and élan as my daughter:

This picture was taken last Sunday, when it was so sunny and bright and COLD, and we rode the Fern Ridge bike path out to the west end. We could see the snow on the Cascades over the foothills.

On another note, whoever it was who gave us the book If You Give a Pig a Party: Thank you! It is now number two on my favorite books to read list (just under One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish). I don't remember the book showing up in our house, I'm so sorry, but we've been reading it every night. It's wonderful.

Friends

The only time I really regret moving all the way up here is when I start thinking about how far away we've moved from some of the best friends I've ever had.

Ice, baby

We're having a cold and dry fall up here. The cold has brought out the bright colors in the trees, and every day I can see from my classroom window and on my ride to and from work bright yellows and reds contrasting with the dark green evergreens. Why is the sky so much bluer in the fall? Is it the angle of the sun? Or is it that, combined with how bright the fall colors are against the sky? Whatever it is, it is beautiful, though everybody up here is telling me that it is so unusual to be having this dry a fall.

The temperatures outside at night have gone down to the 20's the past couple of nights. This morning was the first time that my face actually *hurt* from the cold. There was ice on the bike path and in the creek, and frost covering everything and making the world white and sparkly. The sun was out, too, due partially to the time change and partially to the fact that there was no ground fog this morning. We get these ground-hugging tule fogs here, which are neat because of the way they absorb sound. Everything is muffled visually and audially on those mornings.

The rear brake on my bike froze on the way to work this morning. I know it was working when I set out from home, but there's a long stretch where I'm on the bike path and don't need brakes usually. When I got to the first surface level street I tried to stop for a car and found out I only had a front brake. Almost fell off the bike.

I haven't heard from some of my friends down south in a while, so LINDA, where are you? And VOLTAIRE has disappeared into the Phillipines and has not blogged in a while. HELLO??? Is there anyone out there???

Loose Ladies

Here is the Puzzle Pirates portrait of Marmy, Wimby, and Toothi (me).

Youth and resiliency

I was sitting at my desk, reading the SF Chronicle online and feeling depressed about this article, and this one, and this one...My office is right next to the second story to the gym, and suddenly I heard Michael Jackson's Thriller coming from there, very loudly. I went in and stood on the 2nd story track, and watch a group of about 20 students, some of them mine, dancing a choreographed and barely learned cute dance together, to that song.

They were adorable. It was wonderful.

AND FINALLY...

...an update.

I am in heaven.

My job is Fantastic. While my classes are crowded (I have something like 170 students, total), I'm having a blast. It's a little bit of an adjustment, working to the high-school crowd, but I'm working with it. The staff is awesome, and get this...

From our new house I have a 3-mile commute to work. I've been riding my bike, since we're on the Fern Ridge Bike Path. The bike path runs along Amazon Creek.

It's wonderful.

There's a pair of Great Blue Herons who I see almost every day, standing in the creek, fishing. And there's always ducks. OH, and nutria (blech, but there's got to be some downer, right?). But almost every day, I get the high of having either ducks or a heron taking off or landing in the creek right along side of me. This morning the two herons were flying right alongside me - They crossed the path from left to right, then from right to left...good thing they were a little ahead of me by then, because one of them let out a bit SPLAT right across the path on the way over.

Number One Daughter has figured out that she can go to the park almost any time she asks, because we're right next to it. And she met another girl, who is just her age, who lives just on the other side of the park. And her dad stays at home with her, so House Bean has somebody to hang out with, also.

So in other words, I seem to have the life I've always wanted. Everything seems to be just right. And I feel like the Universe is saying to me, Well, are you going to be happy, now? Because here's all you said you needed.

I am.

World's cutest children

s42339cb103767_6.jpg
Originally uploaded by pangolina.

No need to be modest, whatsoever.

Updates coming soon...

...but suffice to say, we closed on the house we bought. I now very briefly own two houses.

I have lots of pictures from the past couple of weeks that I would like to publish here, but the next few days are going to be pretty hectic. I'll get to it eventually.

In the meantime I have to call: floor people, locksmith, EWEB.

Jumping on the boob bandwagon

All the controversy over the BabyTalk Magazine cover has sparked a response from Mommy Bloggers who are posting their photos of Real BreastFeeding (see Jen's blog). I dug into my electronic photo album and found this picture, which was taken in January when my son was just a couple of weeks old, and my daughter was two-and-a-half:
The title for the photo is "Earth Mother."

So many people (women!) wrote into the magazine to complain about how "disgusting" their cover photo was. What?! Now I guess I can say I've been lucky. I've breastfed almost everywhere I've gone with my babies, including standing in the checkout line at Trader Joe's (when my daughter was an infant - I wore her in her sling and she fed right through the checkwriting and all). Nobody has ever said anything to me about it, and it's a darned good thing, too, because they certainly would get an earful about infant care.

Thanks, Jen, for posting.

Best Day Ever

I got the job.

Remember, the one where I felt like crap after I left the interview? I was certain I wasn't going to get it.

But I did.

And Number One Daughter, she's really starting to swim. She still hangs on, but she's starting to use her arms and let her face get under the water.

And I met some really cool people at the pool.

And this is a really beautiful town.

Oh, and my friend (and former colleague from Oakland) Voltaire has a blog up: Voltaire's Travels. I'm ever so slightly envious of him, but I'm glad he's having a good time too.

Eugene: Week Six, or Whatever Happened to Week Five?

We were taking swimming lessons during Week Five, that is what. And the week just sort of slipped away. Towards the end of that week I got a phone call from a principal for another job interview. Then we heard that the weekend was going to be murderously hot, so we opted to drive out to my parents' place on the coast for the weekend. I spent much of our time there working on The Gnome House, a photo of which I will post when it is done.

This picture is for Jess, because I told her about the house here that has the front yard all in sunflowers. I took this picture last week and I haven't been by since, but I'll try to in the next couple of days:














At some point during the week I took a long bike ride BY MYSELF, and rode out to the Dream House. Along the way I discovered a community garden, right on the bike path and not far from the new house. Note to Jess: See the TALL FENCE around the garden? There's a LOCK on it to keep Park Urchins out:


There also appears to be a little play area, located right behind the compost bins in that first picture.


















While we were out at the coast we got word that there was an offer on our house in Oakland, a good offer. We were, of course, pretty pleased about it (though I was at first trepidatious about the buyer). We spent the first part of the week signing various counter offers and faxing back and forth, and then on Wednesday - Dreary, dreary Wednesday - we learned that the buyer had backed out, cold feet or something. I say dreary Wednesday because that was also the day of my interview, and I felt so horrible afterwards. I just don't feel that I come across well in interviews. I have a very difficult time thinking of the responses that I need in order to sound competent and not like a bumbling idiot. How can I possibly communicate the sum of my teaching experience and knowledge in 45 minutes to total strangers? So Wednesday was bad, bad, bad. However, on Wednesday, Number Two Son produced two more teeth, the top two in front, thereby doubling his number of teeth in one day.

If you've ever been to Eugene, you know that Spencer Butte is visible to the south of town from just about anywhere. Here is the view of it we have when we're walking to the park from the place we're renting:


And here is the top of the bike/ped trail that leads down to the park from the top:




See the intrepid squash plant in the foreground? Methinks that's a community compost pile.

On Friday, I got a phone call from the principal from the school where I interviewed, telling me he has nothing to tell me yet. Hmmmmmm. But he doesn't want me to feel forgotten.

Today, Number One Daughter started another swim class, which she will be in this week and next.

And today finished with us receiving another offer on our house, one that seems MUCH better than the last one which fell through. ...Keep on Truckin' ...

An open letter to Amtrak

I just got on your website today to look up how much it would cost me to take my 3-year old daughter up to Portland to the zoo. I thought it would be fun to take the train and make a day of it. I was appalled to find that the round trip would cost over $60! Those prices are no way to encourage those of us who have cars to take the train as an alternative for short trips.

The distance between Eugene and Portland is approximately 111 miles. According to my calculations, in our moderately fuel-efficient car I would spend about $22 in gasoline, and that would take me straight to the zoo's parking lot (That's using a gas price of $3/gallon). Even if I were driving an SUV, with 14MPG, my fuel costs would still be around $40. So why should I take the train?

My prediction is that the gas prices are only going to go up. If they went up to $17/gallon, at your current pricing, the trip to Portland on the train would be worth it. But that will not be soon.

My advice to you, Amtrak, is to bring the prices down on the relatively local trips. They could be your cash crop - Right now you need something to pry people out of the convenience of taking their cars. If I got 1/2 price on the return fare, I'd take it, and that's not even being generous.

To sum it up: Cut those fares in half and agressively market the change. Make the changes convenient. I'm willing to be your customer, but I (and most of us in this economy) just can't afford it.

At the Pool

OK, folks have been reminding me to bring the camera places, so today I brought it to the kids' swim lesson.

(Note, all these pictures were taken in the space of time between the family swim session and the general recreation swim that starts at 2pm, so that's why there's nobody in the pools)

The 2 to 3 foot pool, where the two little ones have their swim lesson. That's the way cool waterslide behind it:
Here's the other little kid's pool:
The sand play area:

This is the area in between the sandbox and the mini-pool. You can see the really shallow baby play area (and my daughter) in this shot:


Almost ready to go home:



Ready to go home:


And finally, one small piece of evidence of why this is a kooky town:

HUH?

Wrap up to Eugene: Week Four or, Take me to the River

Here's the Medium and Small, this morning:









Then, House Bean and Large came home and said they'd found a swimming hole, so off we went.

This is Mt. Pisgah, from the road - We were driving to it's base. Mt. Pisgah is just on the other side of I-5 from town:
Small really likes riding in the backpack:

Here's the swimming hole itself, a section of the North Fork of the Willamette. Large is one of the blobs on the far bank:This is what House Bean (and Small) did for most of the afternoon - He really did have fun, despite the scowl:

And finally (and this one is for Jessica), here is Medium playing in the water. See how she's crouched over? She's probably taking that monster shit that I discovered leaking out the side of her diaper right after I took this picture. HAZMAT!!!!!