Gold. All about Gold.

Sam's practicing public speaking

Today (actually, in 30 minutes!) Sam's class is having session 2 of the 6th grade family ed program, helping these monkeys prepare for their b'nai mitzvah. Sam is a typical kid, waiting until last night to do this assignment, given a month ago.

Here is the video of his practicing his presention, wearing his new slanket.

I find this kind of thing hilarious. I have a few outtakes, too, but those will have to wait to be posted until later today. "The director's cut"

Enjoy. Leaving for Sunday School now!

Preferation recall

Boy came in to tell me he had a "preferation" to request. Next time I make hash, please don't add onions. This led to a long convo about carmel, carmelized onions, carmel apples, fudge, etc. The leftover ham from xmas at Mike and Lisa's made an appearance in it, as did the last of the Penzy's breakfast sausage spice that I have been closing protecting since Kirsten sent it for Chanukah a few years ago. I used the last of it, and now it's finally time to put in my penzy's order. But that's later.
Right now, I am celebrating the fact that Sam just announced his Preferation Recall. He no longer needs to me to leave the onions out when cooking.

It's a good day for Sam's palette.

Now onto Eleni, who is trying to get into the Fast Lane to spend a high school semester in Israel. Yikes. Gotta go study the news.

Homecoming

SMHS celebrated Homecoming tonight, and Eleni and two pals went. (Kids go in groups now, more than paired in couples. As the parent, I like that arrangement!)

A leak in the shower.

It started out with my thinking Jake had spilled water in front of the bathroom sink. I had hated the carpet in the entire house, but in the weird closet/vanity area/hallway to the bathroom, it was just gross and dumb. I jumped at the chance to yank it and tile down some huge 18x18s that I could wet mop. 

The leak turned out to be a deep in the concrete bummer leak, and I sent Shane and Diana a mayday email in mid July. The kids were off at Summer camp, so timing was good. Also, we had houseguests coming from Tasmania in the Fall, (that made it seem so far off!), so we took our time and really thought things through. The planning phase was a few days-Shane is the fastest demo guy I know-and by the time he was ready to build, Diana and I had a pretty good idea of what we thought we would do. Or, more accurately, had 3 ideas of what we could do and we were stalled at deciding which was the best option.

It took a couple of loud dinners to agree on Option 3, which was the largest scale of the three. A leak in the shower ended up meaning a walk-in closet. Our toilet room doubled in size. We reconfigured a hallway and moved the door to our bedroom. (For several weeks, the only way into our room was via the back yard. Getting up to pee in the middle of the night was just like camping! A very fun Summer touch!

Beebe Louise & Olive

My new business is to be called Beebe Louise & Olive. First product completed today!

Lulu has taken the kids to her place for 2 weeks, and I poured all my love and gratitude into a shirt for her.  Before she left here with them, she cleaned the kitchen until it glowed. The combination of an empty, quiet house with a clean kitchen was more than I can describe. "The Ladies" had been here the Friday before, and, as Sarah would describe it, the house was "impossibly clean."

Back to the shirt.

Lulu chose the color scheme, and we collaborated a little bit on the design so I could know what she was envisioned, and here is the final product. 

Sanchez Adobe with the 4th grade

Today was a fantastic day. I spent 4 hours with 30 9-year-old kids who worked as rancheros and rancheras at a rancho called Sanchez Adobe in Pacifica.

The indigineous people in this were called Ohlones. They didn't practice warfare; they settled disagreements between tribes by playing a game much like Cricket. They were peaceful people who worked together with other tribes in the area (like Costanoan to the south and Miwok to the north.)

The first thing Sam did was make bricks out of the adobe clay in earth found by the coast. These bricks were used to make the hacienda where families from Spain lived after settling in the of California.