“There’s something really satisfying about eating unhealthy food after your game”

Max, at Pig & Pie, digging into hot dog & fries. 
So we have had Enzo, the world’s shyest exchange student, living w Liberty, the world’s least talking 10 yr old, for the last week. Enzo speaks almost no English. I speak almost no French. Pretty much, I say something, he thinks for a sec then says, carefully, “I do not understand”, then I prod Lib to translate, he says 2-3 words. If Clem’s around, she elaborates w a paragraph. Then Enzo nods or says “no thank you”. 

Today I took Lib, Enzo and Max to the Randall Museum. We had about an hour after lunch and before we had to meet Abby and the girls for their game. Figured the Randall was basically on the way and the animals would entertain them for a few minutes at least. 

We get there and stroll to the lawn in back for the view. All are appropriately impressed. Then Lib, my quiet and reserved boy, decides today is the day he will become a bad influence and starts trying to climb over every fence and trots off up the path to the Corona Heights rocks. Enzo is game and follows. Max declares he is afraid of heights and won’t be going to the top but follows. 

I swear, every time I turned around, Lib is leading them over a fence or off the path down some scree filled side trail. Or picking up a rock to toss over the side. If you’ve been there, you’ll recall that the reason the path is lined with fences is that the cliffs drop off a few stories to the playgrounds below. 

Later corralled them inside (after Enzo wanted to go down another cliff and Max pulled him back before he tromped through poison oak).  I guess it’d been a long time since they were there. Surprisingly taken with the animals. Even wanted to pet the bunnies in the enclosure. 

Less impressed with the model train. Big, yes.  Cool, eh. 

sitting on the decrepit bleachers at Polo Fields soccer pitches in Golden Gate Park. Sun’s out. Good. Light breeze. Good. Have interesting book to read. Good. 

So done w hanging out at soccer practices. Not good. No other parents hanging out to chat with (we all gave that up about 2nd, 3rd grade). Bored.  Been in cranky mood sense driving home from school drop off this morning. More not good. 

Maybe I’ll stop writing since I’m really just whining. 

was reminded how awesome our location is yesterday. 

Forced the kids to get out of pajamas and go to park yesterday afternoon. Walking to corner, passed by hoards of people from all over the city. 

Park is so crowded that kids decide it’s actually too crowded for ball tag. Hatch plan to run through blanket to blanket picnics a with a kite to reclaim our park. Instead, walk past block long line for the ports potties to home. Make ice cream sundaes (w Creamery ice cream) and pour a beer into a plastic cup. Walk back to playground and have our treats sitting in the sun on the (really sorry excuse for a replacement) boat. 

The crowds really didn’t matter at that point. 

im about to get in the shower this morning (at 9:45, it is Sat of spring break), when I hear from the other side of the door: 

“Oh mamma, oh mamma? My hunger stirs me from my slumber”

Which leads, of course, to mac & cheese pops. Cuz good food is even better if you can eat it off a stick. 

Mac & cheese pops. The things I do for that boy.  

Salted caramel ice cream+ricanelas ice cream+Abby’s lemon tart+chocolate cake+chocolate sauce+sprinkles+m&m’s

Then he mashed it all together.

No, he didn’t finish it, yet

If you asked my son his favorite food, not sure if he’d say spam mash I or mac & cheese. If it occurred to him to say Mac & cheese w spam, I’d be in trouble.  Only his sister and dad think m&c is kinda gross.  So he and I have developed a minor tradition: when she goes Out of town on a school trip, I make him a pan of m&c. He then eats it for every meal until it’s gone. Yes, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sometimes I get a little fruit into him at lunch. 

His sister left for Paris on Saturday. Kinda surprised he let me get to Wednesday before we broke out the cheese grater. 

today’s project:

Preserved Lemons, thanks (as is so often the case in projects involving large amounts of fresh produce) to Abby and Terry’s garden. 

Who knew preserved lemons were so easy?  Well, I say that now. Having just made a mess of my counter and now having to wait a month to find out if these are nearly as tasty as the bottle Abby delivered with the 3 pounds of lemons. 

Next time, must remember that the carafes counters don’t like being bathed in lemon juice. 

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

Back in Tahoe. A little bit excited, but mostly just zonked from dealing w the failing fridge, packing the car, picking up the kids on a rain day with a bake sale, driving, stopping at McD’s of all places, more driving (in the rain), unloading car, unpacking kitchen, getting kids to help, and to make their lunches, getting them to bed.
Makes me more tired just writing that. I realized as I was packing the car this morning that I was totally thinking about this weekend in terms of bringing the kids up the ski, and getting the house open and set up. Not at all about me skiing, which is really the point. The haul them up here and turn them into skiers (check) so that I can ski more.
So tomorrow we’ll see what my right leg can do. Wish the snow was going to be better.