November 2008 Archives

This evening we went to In-n-Out Burger, the family-owned SoCal chain of fast food goodness. We get double-doubles regular style with grilled onions, freshly cut skinny fries and chocolate shakes. Naturally, there was the requisite parking problem—in LA, wherever you go, there everybody else is, too.

At our table (once we got one), behind us there was a latino family speaking spanish. Next to us was a middle eastern family speaking farsi. On the other side was an Indian family speaking hindi. Everybody with kids, just going about their Sunday night.

How cool is that!!

We spent the day with some old friends from SysGuy's childhood. The matriarch of the clan had injured herself with overzealous holiday preparation a few weeks earlier, so she is in a wheelchair. Do not be fooled, she was still running things and there was no doubt about that. The marshaling of the troops to move her up and down stairs was done with military precision.
She's on the mend, and will probably be back to her old self by New Years.

Dinner was at her daughter Sunny's new house, and it was lovely. Here are Sunny and her equally lovely daughter Flower. Can't believe how big she's getting. Sunny apparently has costumes for their poodle Rusty, so he got to be a Santa Elf for us after dinner. A command performance for the darling toddler of the day.
Here is Flower's brother, who is also growing like a weed, sitting near his Uncle with SysGuy
After dinner we were invited out to see the music studio that Sunny's husband Gibson built over the last year. He happened to be working on a drum track most recently, so there was a full drum kit out. You can imagine the result:
The kids had a great time, here are SysGuy and Gibson in front of the mixing desk. Note the plethora of Macs. Gibson seems to be having a lot of fun in here, the place is soundproofed to the nth degree, so the neighbors are cool with it. He looks pretty calm despite the cacophony.
Lastly, here is our own little Animal, Thing 2, rocking out:

Actual knitting content!!!

Here are the results of my latest cardigan effort, just in time for the sweltering evening of Halloween, which it spent draped over the back of a chair. Damn weather really does not cooperate with my hobby. This is Elann aran heathered wool, I'm hoping this color will go with just about anything. The pattern is Oblique from Knitty, Fall 2007. I like that the holes let a little bit of whatever color shirt you are wearing show through.

Here is a closeup of the stitches and buttons. I found some leather buttons at JoAnns, but they had a sucky too shiny finish on them that I sanded off, and I've been oiling them a bit whenever I think about it. Its moss stitch on the sides, so I didn't take a picture of that.

Here is me in the sweater. I like it a lot, I don't know that its terribly flattering, but its comfy and warm, and somewhat upscale with jeans. It was fun. I believe I have moved the buttons a bit since I took these photos.

I have been complaining to SysGuy about the ah, efficiency, of the commode in our bathroom. It seems to be pretty anemic, so I thought perhaps we could get a new one for Christmas. (I know, its a freakin' gift of the magi around here.)

Anyway, he went to Home Depot today to get stuff to mount the HD antenna on the back of the house, and came home with a new toilet. Which was a nice surprise, though I was taken aback at the almost total lack of anal retentive data analysis that went into the purchase. What the hell?

He pulls the toilet out of the box and sits it in the family room, while I'm saying, "well, toilet installation is not really what I had in mind for the day...". So he says "Pick your priority, the new toilet, or the HD antenna." Of course, I told him that it would have to be the toilet, since there it was, in the middle of the family room. His response "Hey! Its extra seating for when my sister visits on Wednesday!" Here is the obligatory extortion photo, you can tell he was real happy to take it, too:

The new toilet is very efficient at what it does. For those so inclined here is a video of various things I would have never considered flushing being flushed in great quantities down this thing. Who needs a garbage disposal?

Some things I meant to post but hadn't got around to. First, Thing 1 had a birthday slumber party a few weeks ago. It was a blast! I forgot to take photos of the mexican meatball fondue I made them cook for themselves, but here is the cake. Thing 1 blew out the cake candle and all 9 votives across the table. He insisted on the pointy hats because Cutie Pie had them at her last part-ay.

Before bed, and after cake, there was an epic balloon fight, here is a still photo, and a movie, for the sheer amazement of SysGuy's participation.

Here are all the monkeys crammed into the foldout couch, where we tried to bore them to sleep with a discovery channel dvd, but they stayed up till after 1am yakking away and trying to scare each other anyway. Somewhat successfully. 

Lastly, here are the monkeys eating the monkey bread they made and the scrambled eggs we attempted to get them to eat at breakfast. This was followed by an old Jackie Chan movie about Pirates. And naps for mom and dad....

Well, Thing 2 had a bit of a day today. Some kids march to a different drummer. Thing 2, in all his titian glory, has a syncopated orchestral percussion section devoted just to him.

Mostly, this is amusing and sweet. The overly loud resonant voice, the goofy faces and idiosyncratic mannerisms, the inability to walk in a straight line, or even consistently forward for long (think Billy from Family Circle). We're at a nice school—public even—where kids are very sweet to him in spite of the fact that in second grade he still bursts into tears at the slightest disappointment. For instance, when other kids change the imaginary game in a way that he doesn't like, or his teacher takes away the book he's surreptitiously reading during class time...but he makes up for it by being a soft-hearted and thoughtful little hug-bunny. Also, he's hilarious.

As a parent employed at the school, I happened to wander into the cafeteria for iced tea in time to see Thing 2 go through the lunch checkout. (I forgot some supplies, so he was breathlessly anticipating the holy grail of school lunches: Uncrustables and chocolate milk.) So cute. As got my iced tea, his li'l posse swarmed me "Mrs H! Did you know that there is a bad finger?! I didn't know before, but now I know!! What does the finger mean? Can you do it?" Yeek! Not my kids, so I'm not telling. I passed a message on that their teacher might want to gloss over this subject after lunch.

About ten minutes later, the teacher comes into the library, where I lunch in peace with the librarian. Oh my. Turns out, the issue had already been addressed before my arrival, given that Thing 2 was apparently flying the bird high and proud in the cafeteria line while asking the other kids if "it was the right way." Naturally, they all pointed to him and shouted "look!". He's so clueless, honestly.

His teacher, a darling East Indian lady, with a darling East Indian accent laughs at me "It was your kid! What do you teach him at home anyway?" (Imagine Apu saying this. Its funny.) She said that she told Thing 2 it was "a very impolite and rude gesture", and that "he must not do it again" (again, accent.) Then she told me that she had been in the US for several years before she even knew what it meant, "how do the kids pick this up anyway?"

After school, I asked Thing 2 about the incident with the teacher (which went strangely unmentioned before, he's clueless, but not stupid). He said that if he does it again, he has to go see the principal. He seemed a little worried, like maybe it was going to happen spontaneously. Which, knowing him, is actually possible.

Honestly, I have no one idea where he got this.
I just curse, I don't use gestures, they're too imprecise.

Oh, Barack. You had me at Leader of the Free World. The bicycle is just overkill.
(Apologies to SysGuy)

Well, we certainly did it. We got that man elected, and it is fantastic. We kept the Things up (admittedly, not terribly late here in CA) to watch the truly fabulous speeches after the dust settled.

John McCain's concession speech was touching. I was grateful he hadn't delivered speeches like that throughout the campaign, and a bit sad that he lost by such a great margin. It was one of the few times during the campaign that he seemed comfortable, and I think it was because he wasn't being "handled" to death for once. I will say again, he is and will continue to be a great Senator.

One of my neighbors was an undecided voter, basically until she voted. She never did say who she ended up voting for, and it doesn't matter, because what she did say was so much more what the whole evening was about. She and her husband were watching the returns at a sports bar/restaurant, where the TVs were set to ESPN on one side and various political/news channels elsewhere throughout the room. What struck her was that on one side of the room, there was a dreadlocked and irritated black sports star nattering on about his latest contract, while on the other side of the room the screen showed the elegant and articulate black president-elect delivering his acceptance speech.
The occasion is momentous not only because we have our first African American President, but because every young black man from now on will know that it really is possible for him to be President, and not just an empty sentiment we say over new babies. An eloquent black man who loves his wife, is involved with his family, and has the respect and admiration of billions, will be on constant display as the boss for at least the next four years. Barack Obama is a great example for anyone's boy, and I am grateful that our boys are old enough to pay attention to this. I look forward to seeing how this event plays through the next generation. (Maybe we'll even get pants that fit back! I miss the buns.)

As for prop 8. I did my bit voting against it. Already, they're learning what to do next time, how to organize to put it over the top. Next time. Sigh.

I feel like that moment on a rollercoaster, when you hear the ratchet clacking on the track as it hauls you up the big scary hill. I hope its a fun raise your arms and scream on the way down, as opposed to a gut-wrenching eye-covering nightmare.

For those in a position to put their money down (not US citizens), here are the odds:

Over the last month or so, things have really heated up on the Proposition 8 "gay marriage: to ban or not to ban" front here in CA. To a ridiculous extent. Many, many lawn signs have gone up pro and con, many lawn signs have been stolen or defaced, pro and con. The thing is, that the presence of all the signeage has made manifest one of the primary fears from the pro Proposition 8 (meaning anti gay marriage) side: that gay marriage would be taught in schools. I was unaware that the schools taught anything about marriage, family life, or frankly anything personally useful in either way. That might actually be useful, since a lot of parents seem to shirk that particular subject. Like the schools have time, what with all the unfunded mandates they've got to keep up with. I digress.

Well, hey! We don't have to teach gay marriage in schools now, because parents now have the thrill of explaining to their kids why grownups are so excited about putting up the lawn signs with the 8 on them. I guess I'm kinda glad I don't have one, after all. Not that it mattered....

The Things (ages 7 and 9) and I frequent a house that happens to have a couple of "Yes" signs on the lawn, and on several nearby lawns (we see lots of the signs, these just happen to be significant for this instance). These went blissfully unnoticed until someone spray painted "NO!" on them. That necessitated a discussion about vandalism. Bullet dodged.

However, when the "Yes" signs were replaced with shiny new ones the following week, this required an explanation as to why one would care that much about the issue to replace the signs (though I did try to steer toward "gee, the signs washed right off" at first). We got to talk about gay marriage, marriage in general, gay people, straight people, religion, etc. Yay!

I'm happy to discuss these things with the Things, and we have previously touched on these issues in age-appropriate ways, (at times when their father and I think it is appropriate, not apropos of political advertising). The thing I was having a hard time with now was explaining how adults are so small-minded, so heartless, that it is necessary to legislate which love is good love, and what we are allowed to call it. I'm not sure I understand that myself. It really does seem like a schooyard fight about who is better, Spiderman or Superman.

They both do the best they can with what they've got, different powers, same intent. Kinda like all the rest of us. Here are some examples from the LA times on Saturday, its not just my kids.

I guess I am just glad they're curious about the world around them, that bodes well for the future.

The Things had a good Halloween this year. They went up and down our street all by themselves. Sysguy accompanied them on the cross street, due to some overambitious interactive scaryness at a few houses on that street. Strangely, they're not into ToT for the big haul, more the short-term experience. They like to come home early and hand out goodies to other kids. Though it was warmish last night, so that might have had something to do with it.

I spent the evening with a good friend and a bottle of wine on my front patio, handing out candy to the trick or treaters while the guys were out, and apparently setting a bad example for public intoxication, according to Sysguy. I don't think my front yard counts as public. I think my friend was setting a bad example, since it wasn't her house. Nyah.

Here are the Things, just prior to the school parade, before the costumes made them hot and irksome. Ignore the person behind them, for some reason the best shot of them had me making an unacceptable Mrs. Kravitz face. Probably because of my itchy purple wig.

Aren't they darling! Don't they look like they could wreak havoc! It's because they can!!!