"All these things I should keep to myself
But I feel somehow strangely compelled...."

- Neil Finn, Sinner

My daughter's second grade put on a musical version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears; she'd been practicing singing along with a CD of the music for several weeks. She's right in the spot where the sun coming through the window is whiting everything out. I had taken a sick day and still felt pretty awful, so we sat in the very back row and I tried not to breathe on anyone.

2nd grade play
Huntington Beach CA
Motorola phone camera
13 May 2009

( She is... )

Avalon attending a birthday party at one of the last bowling alleys around here (along with ice rinks they seem to be going the way of the condor, around here at least). Nothing like a gaggle of squealing 2nd graders bowling in their pajamas. Also (funny if you live here), not only was there an Avalon, there was a Catalina, too.

Floating round things
Fountain Bowl
Fountain Valley CA
Canon EOS 1000D
2 May 2008

( Later... )

We found out this week that Gareth's mission model had been entered by the school in the county Youth Expo at the Orange County Fairgrounds. That's his, closest to the hay bale on the lowest level. The one just behind him is a classmate's; she decided to make hers out of gingerbread, with red licorice for the roof tiles - pretty creative, but it was looking a bit tired and crumbly after all the travel. I brought along the Big Camera, but unfortunately forgot the spare battery; after a few rabbit and chicken pics in the 4-H section, it died, so had to rely on my phone.

OC Youth Expo
Costa Mesa CA
Kyocera Switchbach phone camera
18 April 2009

By the way - the Fairgrounds really needs to label their entrances for events a little better. There was a Pet Expo going on at the same time, which took up most of the grounds and for which there was a $12 admission. There were signs on the main street for the Youth Expo (which was free), but no other direction. We parked at OCC, the community college across the street, and walked to what we thought would be the entrance, but both the main fairground entrances were to the Pet Expo. By the time we figured out the entrance was in the back, near the Equestrian Center, we had had to walk all the way around the Swap Meet (also going on, and charging admission so we couldn't take a short cut through it), and up Newport Blvd., nearly a complete circuit of the entire Fairgrounds. Which I wouldn't have minded so much, but it was HOT!!! and I hadn't brought any water with me. Plus three kids who weren't necessarily wearing walking shoes. Also, when we finally found the correct entrance, there was no sidewalk and very little allowance for pedestrians; I did not feel real comfortable with three kids, dodging cars to walk in the driveway.

( other youth crafts, animals and balloons! )

runsamuck volunteered (or was volunteered, I was never quite clear on that) to fix up Avalon's teacher's backpack bin/rack over the kid's spring break. He tightened all the loose joints, gave it a new coat of paint - which his friend who works at a hardware store donated - and installed all new hooks and handles on it. Avalon is doing her "pretend I'm a kittly - meow" pose. For some reason, the kids can't bring their backpacks into the classroom (takes up too much room, maybe), so all the teachers have either boards with hooks installed, sets of plastic bins, or these sorts of things.

He's told me between this and sanding all those damn horseshoes for 49'er Day, he thinks he's done his volunteerism for the year.

Backpack bin
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
11 April 2009

We had a trip to the shoe store last night because a) the boy's shoes are getting worn out, b) we have gift cards needing using, and c) Angus needs a shoebox for a diorama - jeez, everyone is having to make these lately! Well, Gareth had to make a model mission, but similar thing...

Avalon pleaded for a pair that she liked (only seven and the shoe accumulating tendencies are starting, tch tch), and as they were on sale for $6 and there was a bit left over from the boy's sneakers on the cards, we got them. They're a little big yet though, and I told her she needed grow into them a bit before she wore them to school. This morning she tromps down the hallway wearing the new shoes - sort of like loafers but with more of a heel, and a little chain across the vamp with a butterfly charm - and was quite disappointed that we told her to take them off and go put her sneakers on. As she stomped (a little) back down the hallway, we both noticed her jeans, purchased fairly recently, were already migrating up her ankles, exposing her white athletic socks in a quite nerdly fashion, exacerbated by the loafers. She'd be horrified, but she loves those pants, and the effect is mitigated somewhat when she wears her sneakers with them. Hopefully, won't be too long before they're capris...

*Sigh* Well, it's high tide somewhere on the planet...

Lessee, what lately...

• I donated blood again Friday. When I pulled up to the park, the police helicopter was hovering directly overhead and shining its floodlights on the front door of one of the apartments in the complex across the street. It was really low, and people were standing outside the complex and the park building, shading their eyes in a "WTH?!" manner. There were no police cars on the ground or in the vicinity as far as I could tell. runsamuck tells me they will often focus the lights on one thing as a distraction while they are using the heat sensors (or whatever the hell they have) on something else.
  
  
  
  Lake Park
  Huntington Beach CA
  Casio EX-Z80A
  27 February 2009
  
  
  
  Another man and I were the last people there; although all the staff were polite and still trying to joke around, you could tell they were tired and anxious to get out of there. The nurse cleaning my arm was scrubbing so hard with the iodine swab it felt like she was using sandpaper. Then the jab seemed quick enough but my elbow felt sore for the rest of the evening. Equipment was being broken down and packed while we were lying there being drained. However, after we were done and had sat sipping juice for our requisite 10 minutes, they told us we could take as many snacks along as we liked as perqs for being last of the day. I grabbed a package of cookies for each of the kids. I wound up going to sleep much earlier than usual just because my arm was achy and I could not make it comfortable. I still have a bruise.



• Avalon came home from school last weekend with a temperature, and not really any other symptoms last weekend. It faded over the weekend, but then she started complaining of sore legs, so much so that she was barely able to walk. She thought she felt well enough to go to Dismalland Sunday evening, but after two rides she did not want to walk anymore, and kept wanting to sit down. runsamuck took her to the doctor again, and they couldn't find anything wrong, but had her bring back a urine sample to make sure of anything else. She couldn't manage it herself and he wasn't allowed to go in the restroom with her (this presaged a whole rant from him once home, on how if he were a single parent he wouldn't be allowed to help his daughter buy clothes - father's rights really being one of his sore points). Anyhow, she was nearly in tears walking to class the next couple of days; it finally faded but we're at a loss to figure out exactly what caused it - she swears she hadn't done any exercise to make her legs that sore. And really she's the most active and athletic of our kids, so stuff like that usually wouldn't bother her.



• I went by myself to Angus's IEP, because one of us had to get the other two fry ready for school - I wish we could both go, because runsamuck is much better at coming up with questions than I am. However, I take better notes than he does. Angus has been making progress on all of his goals, although he's still behind in math, which is frustrating because it used to be one of his better subjects. His writing has improved dramatically, which I noticed on a social studies project on Native Americans he had done (which really he only got marked down on because he didn't label some of his illustrations). One of the goals, using cartoon bubbles to describe what characters in a story were feeling, was not made by the teacher who was supposed to be applying it and she didn't really understand how she was to go about it, so that one was going to be modified. I know he reads better than he lets on; I know this because he knows all kinds of random facts on his favorite topics (notably Bionicles), which I know he's read off one website or other. However, at home he'll come and ask me to read something to him, when I know darn well he can read it himself; then he makes frustrated noises when I have him read it to me. Also, he often spends recess in the library (so he doesn't have to interact, so it's quieter?) and they are trying to get him to interact more - which makes me think of this blog entry by an autistic person and this one as well. I don't know that the same thing is occuring with him, but I know I sometimes feel like I'm slogging through syrup when I'm expected to be a part of a conversation - either things don't occur to me or some one else will get to it just before I open my mouth to say the same thing. It's better just to listen, sometimes. In any case, there is supposed to be another IEP before the end of the year to meet with his upcoming middle school teachers, since he'll be in sixth grade. I think it'll be nice that he'll be closer to home, and that there will be people from his old school that he knows, that he's missed, may make some things a bit easier for him.



• Been seeing Western bluebirds around the office again; I think this is the third year in a row. I didn't even realize we had them in this area before I saw them here, but I'm told they always have been. There were two great blue herons on the lawn as well, hunting gophers. One of them must have been a juvenile, as his plumage didn't look quite so sharply defined between gray and white.



• I have really got to get to work in the yard...(and the house, and our room, etc. ad nauseum...)

...returning you to your regularly scheduled ELJaying...

Two fillings today. I needed three vials of anesthetic - I don't know if that's normal or not. The dentist has to keep stopping and giving me more because I start wincing; my mouth didn't get completely back to normal until about four hours later.

Dentist
Westminster CA
Casio EX-Z80A
18 February 2009

( end product... )

Helping the daughter start her animal diorama assignment. She wants to make a harbor seal out of clay, but they didn't have gray. So we tried mixing black & white; however, with only half the black and all of the white, it still turned out very dark. Oh well, harbor seals range in color from very light silvery to almost black (with spots), so that's all right. The clay is this really light stuff made by Crayola®, almost like rubbery foam - very odd stuff.

Clay
Huntington Beach CA
Casio EX-80A
17 February 2009

John just got back from taking Avalon to the doctor - she's been complaining of a sore throat for a day or two and last night she had a fever; strep has been going around. Sure enough, that's what it is. Last night she was really disappointed to be missing a class field trip to the aquarium, but today she's feeling sick enough I don't think she cares. We're there fairly often anyway. Hope she feels better.

I hope I'm only imagining my throat feeling a bit scratchy. I have a hellacious deadline to meet tomorrow and I can't possibly be sick.

Doug called me to ask for some of Avalon's measurements - from the back of her neck to just below her elbow - because he was making her a poncho, and he was almost finished with it. It sort of looks gray below, but it's actually pink and blue; that sort of yarn that gradients from one color to the other. Then he emailed these photos to ask how she would like the little flower decorations put on.

( Just for fun, I thought I'd ask you, too... )

The kids wanted to fly kites and Gareth wanted to test out his little remote control plane he'd gotten for Christmas, so we went over to the softball fields a block or two away. The wind was intermittent at best, and keeping the kite in the air required lots of running - which I was perfectly happy to let them do. After we'd been there for half an hour, a couple teams of soccer players arrived for weekend practice, so we left as not to get in their way.

Worthy Park
Huntington Beach CA
Sharp VE-CG30
28 December 2008

( moar... )

So a week or two ago, Doug called to see if we wanted to go to the Mouse Place, and I told him we couldn't because the passes had expired the week before. He declared that was a perfect time for him to renew them (as what's become his traditional gift), and then we could watch the tradtional Dismal Xmas Show, which they only do the first or second weekends of December, with an orchestra and various choral groups from local schools and churches. I guess the kids can handle at least one performance of the Story, and we hadn't been to the Drive-Thru Nativity yet. So we met at the ticket windows (Doug was actually standing there buying them when we walked up), and handed one to each of us, me and the kids, that is. He also bought our parking and we will get runsamuck's pass later ourselves. Which comes out to about even for paying him back the difference between the cheapest passes (which is what we did last year).

( some blurry pictures from last year... )

Finally getting a tree. This is not late - runsamuck actually prefers to get them on Xmas Eve - sometimes you can get one for free!

Home Depot
Huntington Beach CA
Sharp VE-CG30
22 December 2008

A peek inside my fourth grader's classroom before everyone trooped in.

1st day of school
Huntington Beach CA
Sharp VE-CG30
03 September 2008

Back to school - Angus goes to a different school now, so he's not in this pic.

Went to Mimi's for dinner as a last hurrah before school started; my daughter seems to have mastered the stick-your-spoon-on-the-nose trick (which I can't even do).

Mimi's
Fountain Valley CA
Kyocera Switchback phone camera
02 September 2008

Seven candles
Huntington Beach CA
Sharp VE-CG30
21 August 2008

PhEEr two posts with my daughter in a row.

Well, on last Monday, two days after getting stung by the bee, Avalon started throwing up, and felt absolutely awful, plus her foot was still swollen and incredibly painful. runsamuck had me make a doctor appt. for her, and took her in. The doctor's verdict was she was having a delayed reaction to the venom - this was her second sting, and the next one might put her in the hospital. So in addition to other medications, no more running around in the park barefoot, and she now has to carry an EpiPen around with her, in case she gets stung again. We do, rather. It came with a needle-less trainer to practice with. We don't forsee her having to use it herself for the time being - she's six, so she pretty much always has an adult nearby, but we had her practice with it anyway - and practiced with ourselves too, so she could see us doing it and not be too scared herself (but damn, you have to hit yourself pretty hard - I had bruises). Step 1 - pull the cap off.

Patio
Huntington Beach CA
Sharp VE-CG30
26 June 2008

( Step 2... )

Avalon was invited to a Build-A-Bear Workshop™ birthday party for one of her classmates. Everyone met at the Downtown Disney store, trooped upstairs and got to pick out an unstuffed bear to put together. She's holding the little heart that you are supposed to make a wish and then put inside the bear (the birthday girl's bear got a heart from each guest as well - so her bear has 8 or 10 hearts. Quite a transplant, hmmm?). There wasn't any cake or ice cream or games, but everyone got to take home a stuffed animal with an outfit. I am really hoping that she doesn't ask for a party like this herself, because we sure can't afford $25 per kid - and besides blowing out the candles is the fun part, right?

Build-A-Bear Workshop
Anaheim CA
Sharp ve-CG30
05 April 2008

( duck in the fountain... )

A sea cucumber puckers up. Well, I did it again. It was a special kid's morning in early February at the AOP, and as per usual I took 119 photos that I have trouble deciding on. Ooh, 7 am is way too early to be at the Aquarium!

( more critters )

One of kids got a coupon for a free meal at Islands from school - coloring on the menus while waiting for food to arrive.