Turns out that they are listening to the radio when it’s on in the car and they are ignoring the adults to read a book or play on an iPad.

C & L and I are having a late random assortment of dinner after they both get dropped off from soccer practice.

C: so as we were driving here, we smelled smoke.  Karen said it smelled like burning rubber.  and we saw tons of fire trucks and ambulances from the field.  What’s up?

me: I don’t know.  We were hearing lots of helicopters just a few minutes ago.  We’ll look it up after dinner.

L [quietly, but w a little hint of glee that he’s dropping such news so casually]: probably had to do with the body parts in the suitcase.

C: OK, this we need to look up now! please?

Turns out there is a 3 alarm fire at Mission and 22nd (4 blocks from here).  Recent enough that all Mission Local has is 2 paragraphs, including a note that their offices are on the second floor of that building.  “Please check back later; we’ll be updating.”

And, SF police were called to investigate a suspicious bag on 11th at Mission (same corner as L’s aikido dojo).  Opened it and found human body parts.  Searched the area and found more body parts.

We skipped the commute to Tahoe this weekend.  C was interviewing at Lick-Wilmerding, her last high school admissions application task.  Plus Olivia’s and Julien’s birthday parties.  L lined up continuous social events once he knew we were staying.

[Gregg, C’s head coach had emailed at the beginning of the week outlining the upcoming kick-off comp for the freeskiers.  I asked C if she wanted me to try to figure out the logistics of getting her there vs staying for O’s party.  She said she’d rather stay in SF for interview and party.  Bob and I each internally reset the whole “Olympic dreams” concept.  Though I think she’s still thinking more seriously about LWHS than Bob and I are.]

Bob’s in Taipei.  Or perhaps en route from Taipei to China.

This was my “Saturday off” from Tahoe:

7:30am L pops his head into the shower to announce he’s hungry.

7:32am L’s back to ask where the bread knife is

8:45am  Drive L and Adam to Taravel and 27th for Julien’s Magic the Gathering birthday party.

9:45am return home to check on C getting ready and make sure she brushes her teeth to get bread out of braces before her interview

10:30am drive C to Lick for interview.  sit in sun outside cafeteria, in light sweatshirt in January, and wonder why we’re contemplating buying a ski cabin.  C reports it was “nerve wrecking,” but she got the English teacher and talked about the stories she’s writing, so it went well once she relaxed.

11:45am drive C from Lick to art supply store to buy present.  stand on sidewalk wondering if they are really planning to open today,

12:30pm drop C off at Olivia’s party.  sit down for 5 minutes

1:15pm top off rental car gas tnak, marvel at March for Life (in SF, really?!?) traffic near Market St.  drop off rental car, get blow-by-blow of repairs to my car, hand over obscene amounts of money to SF Honda (well, charge obscene amounts to visa), get car, stop for gas again, buy overly salty Fritos at minimart because I haven’t eaten yet

2pm pick up L.  discover he’s sold some of his magic cards to the store where party was so he can buy a whole new set of duel decks.  and that he won every game he played

2:45pm arrive back at Meurk’s.  Abby feeds me potstickers.  Terry feeds me cake from Japan Town market that has exactly the same consistency as the Chinese bakery cakes of my childhood.

4:00pm arrive home and let kids play xbox and iPad for rest of afternoon while I sit on couch, instead of taking them to the park as I’d threatened/promised.

6:15pm decide I don’t want pizza (that L asked for), and Mission Chinese sounds good but would be rejected by kids so I’d end up making quesadillas, so heat up left over chicken and mac & cheese (and cook the baby shanghai choy that I bought days ago)

6:30pm Convince max to try the mac & cheese because he always says he doesn’t like pasta then asks for seconds of the mac & cheese.

7:30pm let C run to Fayes for Megamind DVD

8pm movie night

9:45pm lights out.

some where around heating up dinner, opened wine