Trick or Treat!
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Halloween
This past weekend I tried to play the old NES Super Mario Bros game with Brittan, and I experienced firsthand that scene from the Cafe 80s in Back to the Future Part II. I guess I always knew that's the way it would be, but I was still surprised. Just a couple years ago they loved Duck Hunt.
Tonight Maxwell & I played with the computer and digital video camera. Now he has his own page of things that make him happy.
| Here's a place to add to the "not worth visting list": Japantown, San Jose. There are 3-4 shops and a few sushi bars. That's it. There are more Hawaiian restaurants and travel agencies advertising Hawaii than Japanese establishments. Needless to say, I found this rather historically ironic. Most of the historic landmarks on the Japantown map have "for sale" signs in the front yard. Nevertheless, Maxwell, Zara & I had fun escaping from the 9-year-old rock-n-roll girl party which was taking place in our apartment: |
Zara steals some of her sisters' presents whilst they are occupied with others.
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After hearing about the work Michael Brown did at nearby Lick Observatory as a grad student, Brittan expressed a desire to see the place for herself. Alas, they don't have public tours. Their website pointed to Foothill College in Los Altos, which does. Foothill College's observatory in under renovation however. A little more searching and I found that the observatory at Fremont Peak has public observation evenings - the last of which until March is October 28th. Fremont Peak also has a state park, where we can test out the new sleeping bags Alora & Brittan got for their birthday. Everyone was excited about the prospect of camping, except for Zara, who didn't remember it.
For some reason when we come to such beautiful places we seem to always forget the camera. Sitting atop the rocks on the 3,129 ft peak, one can see a 2π panorama: the fields of the Santa Clara Valley, the San Francisco Bay, etc. It is also a real test of just how much one trusts their children, with a rocky fall to death a few feet away in any direction. The best way for them to learn confidence is to set their own limits and have us trust them that these are reasonable limits, but my instinct would have me hold onto them tightly. Brittan & Alora I really do trust completely, but Cara & I shadowed the two lil'ns. Zara was somewhat oblivious to this, but Maxwell noticed and tried to make a game out of "how far away from Mommy can I get?" So we decided to head back down so he would concentrate on the descent instead. Unfortunately Alora felt sick in the evening so she fell asleep early and decided to stay behind when the rest of us went up to the observatory. In their many telescopes we looked at the Ring Nebula, Swan Comet, Moon & Andromeda Galaxy. Brittan is turning into a little Ellie Arroway. If she wasn't so intuned to her physical limitations (that is, needing sleep), she probably would have stayed up there all night. Not long after hiking back down to our campsite as the moon set I heard her familiar snore coming from inside her tent. |
I often say you are only as old as your children. By that measure I am 22 today, my Mom is 74, and Grandma is 150. Assuming I have no more children then I will be the same age as my mother in 2058. Perhaps age + sum of children's ages would be a better formula, by which we are 49, 125, and 230 respectively. Then I will not reach the same age as my mother until 2082, which she has a very low probability of living to. However, if I have two more children an average of four years from now, then I shall overtake my mother in age sometime in 2025 by the first measure and sometime in 2034 by the second. This also presents the possiblity of overtaking Grandma by the first measure if she lives to the ripe old age of 126 by the traditional counting.
Tonight we tried to take Alora & Brittan out to dinner, but for some reason they wouldn't let them in the restaurant. . .
Joking aside, we had a grand time over at Max's Opera House where servers who would rather be in theatre practice their crooning during the meal. We couldn't help but think how much Julie would enjoy this place. Maxwell danced for the better part of the meal while Alora & Brittan tested their expanded birthday behavior limits. Zara also showed she is developing good taste by shaking her head to refuse Cara's cheese steak sandwich while gobbling up every bite of the wursts I offered her off of my Oktoberfest platter.
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25 Okt 2006
Tonight Brittan & I went over to Stanford for a lecture by Michael Brown, discoverer of what was briefly known as the 10th planet. Now this object, which is slightly larger than Pluto, is simply the largest dwarf planet. Brown has dubbed it Eris after the greek goddess of strife and discord - appropriate since it caused such a row among astronomers and eventually led to the demotion of Pluto. This has been a favorite subject for Brittan over the past few months and she has followed it closely in the news. To actually meet the central figure in this drama was more than exciting for her. Brittan followed the lecture, which focused on Brown's work discovering Kuiper belt objects like Eris. Afterward she asked the next logical question: "Do astronomers know what the Oort cloud is made of?" Mind you, the Oort cloud was not mentioned at all in Brown's lecture, nor would I have been able to answer her question. I was merely an appendage that facilited her attendence - almost superfluous. |
 Brittan with Michael Brown |
| The sound of little children giggling is a beautiful thing, except when its emanating from the bathroom. Tonight I heard this sound and approached the bathroom with dread. There was Maxwell sitting backwards on the edge of the toilet and holding onto Zara's arm. It's amazing the effect society has on people. Generally a person by themselves is an intelligent creature, paying attention to its surroundings and acting in a reasonable manner. Put two or more people in a group however, and all bets are off. In coalesing into the group it seems that all the intelligence of the individuals is evaporated away. Such is especially the case with children, whose actions are so shaped by their peers. With Maxwell and Zara each provides justification for the other's actions so that no one is responsible for the direction their play takes - especially when venturing into the dangerous or forbidden. Maxwell knows the toilet is gross, but his tactile curiousity about it is nevertheless present. Enter Zara, relatively naive about hygiene but familiar that the toilet is a forbidden terra incognita about which her brother is knowledgable. I imagine Zara strolled in to see what he was doing and when she started her usual game of tactile brinksmanship Maxwell siezed on the opportunity to use her arm to probe the depths. For that was the source of their giggling - and I, for the first time in this ordeal called potty-training, was ever so glad that Maxwell hasn't yet learned to go poopy on the potty. |
We had a farewell picnic lunch today at Pichetti Winery.
Yesterday I also bottled my first wine: 5+ bottles, and still a bit yeasty.
Hopefuly that will improve with age.
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22 Okt 2006
Today we finally did Santa Cruz. Mom & Dad, who are here until Monday, hadn't ever been there either, but Kate & Howie met us there. Kate used to live in Santa Cruz. The Boardwalk there is like an amusement part, and we rode rides til we puked. Okay, only Brittan puked, but Cara & Howie felt really sick too. Zara & Maxwell were short enough that they could ride many of the rides for free. It was Zara's first time riding rides and we started her off on what I thought would be an easy ride, the "haunted castle". It didn't move too fast but Zara was so overwhelmed that she didn't cry until afterward. Recovering from this error I took her on the merry-go-round next. I talked to her alot about it, but she was still very scared when we first got on, so we sat on the sleigh the first time around. The next time I sat her on a horse, which she protested at first but quickly grew to enjoy. Next she went with Cara on a train ride - but this was also dark and Zara did not like it. Then I took her on a spinning dragon ride which she loved. The second time I took her on it she giggled throughout the whole ride. Then we went on a tilt-a-whirl with her older sisters and brother. Zara really felt like a big girl and waved to Nanny & Poppy who were watching on the sidelines. She will sleep good tonight! |
 Brittan gets applause from passers-by as she surpasses her limits. |
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Further indulging in my latest hobby today I drove up to UC Davis for a class on "Establishing the Small Vineyard". My dream, you see, is to plant some vines when we get back to Tennessee of the Vitis aestivalis variety Norton. The class was tiptop, with people flying in from all over the world. There was even a fellow from Maremma, the up-and-coming wine region in Tuscany. With wine sales booming its no small wonder there is so much interest, but I am quite sure I was the youngest person in this room full of greyhairs. I had done some research on the internet trying to access the doability of winemaking in Tennessee and I was happy to learn that my cost estimates where fairly accurate.
Farming, it seems, is in my blood.
However, my hopes were almost dashed when I learned about the newest viticultural epidemic called Pierce's disease. It is caused by the Xylella fastidiosa bacterium and has always been endemic to North America, and it eventually kills its host by clogging their xyllem. However, X. fastidiosa is carried by insect hosts which infect vines but preferentially feed on other plants - that is, until the introduction of the glassy-winged sharpshooter (Homalodisca coagulata). This insect, which first led to devistation in Temecula, CA less than a decade ago, is slowly spreading across the country. Nevertheless, its abiltiy as a vector for X. fastidiosa is limited by that bacterium's ability to survive cold weather:
 From the above UC study it looks like my part of east Tennessee is safe, but that that safety is tenuous. |
Cara and Zara rest after inpecting tidepools near Pescadero Creek.
Alora and Nanny climbed the rocky cliffs while tidepooling.
Nanny, Zara & Poppy at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse
| This week Mom and Grandma are out here from back east. They flew in to Reno and Dell drove them down to San Diego to visit Kristen, Jaime, & Amir last weekend. Dad met them there and then they came up here while Dad went to work a few days at his office in Phoenix. Tomorrow Dell & Grandma are heading back up to Tahoe and Dad is flying in to SFO. What a crazy week! After playing with us this weekend Mom and Dad are heading back to ATL on a redeye next Monday night. Alora & Brittan are taking advantage of family being here to test the limits of appropriate social interaction. |
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It seems that yesterday we finally reached a watershed with Maxwell. He has decided to avoid the hassle of potty training - that is, being forced to sit on the potty every 15 minutes - by paying attention to his body's signal and heeding their call to visit the toilet. Thrice without prompting yesterday Maxwell went to the bathroom to pee. Until yesterday I was beginning to worry that we wouldn't be able to send him to preschool next year because he wasn't yet potty-trained. Last night we put him in a diaper to sleep in, but it was dry when he got up this morning. Once he stopped fighting us and just accepted that he would have use the potty it was almost too easy for him. Doubtless there will still be accidents, but I think from now they will be the exception rather than the rule. Maxwell is as stubborn a man as his father, and I am sure we will butt heads many more times in years to come.
* \/ Also this weekend we went over to Half Moon Bay to pick out pumpkins. Nothing like going out into a big field to pick out the most perfect big orange ball to carve a smiley face upon in a couple weeks. I told Alora and Brittan they could get any pumpkin they could carry back to the car. Brittan still chose one based on aesthetics, but Alora, in a great show of machisma, grabbed the largest pumpkin she could find. Unable to lift it, she made several successively smaller selections until coming upon the limits of her strength. This final choice required several stops on the way to the car, but in the end she did make it. Maxwell I did not require to carry his pumpkin because I wanted him to get one big enough to carve. He tried to hold himself to the same standards as his sisters, but when I explained that he needed a big enough space to carve a face upon I think it perhaps jogged his memory of last year and he picked out a nice big one. Then he helped me pick out one for Zara, who had gone out with mommy instead. |
| This weekend A, B & I are in San Diego where I'm playing Marine. It's called the Boot Camp Challange - a three mile obstacle course at the recruiting depot (course map). Drill sergeants were there to provide us with "motivation", and it was more like a march running in the throng of people than a race. There was not much opportunity for passing until we had gotten passed the obstacle course, but the Marines competing sang their running songs for us. As for fun it was over the top. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to do the really dangerous parts though. Legal reasons notwithstanding the waivers we all signed no doubt. 747s taking off from the airport next door also added to the realistic feel. Girls started 10 minutes after the boys and I only got passed by the leaders at the end. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at a base where the commander Brigadier General Salinas is addressed as "mam". |
 Do you want to know more? |
Zara, who has been babbling like a lunatic for the past month has suddenly become intelligible. This morning when I was leaving for work Zara pointed to the stairs just past the gate on our patio and declared quite clearly "I go down". She has also taken up Maxwell's "Lorabi'an" which refers to either of their older sisters. It is quite shoking to hear words coming out of that little mop that runs around our house.
When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the ram;
A foolish thing was but a toy,
For the lain it raineth every day.
But when I came to man's estate,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain;
'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their
gates,
For the rain it raineth every day.
But when I came, alas! to wive,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain;
By swaggering could I never thrive,
For the rain it raineth every day.
But when I came unto my beds,
With hey, ho, the wind and the lain;
With toss-pots still had drunken heads,
For the rain it raineth every day
A great while ago the world begun,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain;
But that's all one, our play is done,
And we'll strive to please you every day.
- closing lines of the Clown, Twelfth Night, William Shakspeare.
Would that it rainth every day in California. Alas, it does not. But after a hiatus which has spanned our entire stay thus far here, she has finally visited this afternoon. Doubtless some of my fellow physicists smirked at my knavish glee running to see the water falling from the sky, but with joy I felt it could not be helped.
Maxwell has started cooking two hotdogs at a time, one for him and one for Zara. Don't be too quick to assign this activity to altruistic motives, however, because Maxwell is not very good at fending off the increasingly persistent begger-girl. Fixing two hotdogs means he can enjoy his unmolested.
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2 Oct 2006
Today was an average day for Maxwell. He got up and after saying good morning went out to the kitchen for breakfast. Not really into the bagels which were being offered this morning, he went into the fridge and got himself a hotdog, put it on a plate, and then microwaved it for 22 seconds. A full new 64 oz. ketchup provided him with some difficulty, but cutting the hotdog up was no problem. After breakfast and a bit of play with Zara, he headed to his room were he picked out a movie, put it in the VCR, and started it. Unfortunately, the credits came up instead of the start of the movie so he stopped and rewound it before starting it again. When I questioned Maxwell how he could work all these complex mechanical devices but not the potty, he replied "Cu I siddy man." Maxwell has also taken to pronouncing l's like retroflex d's because he prefers the way they sound. Same tongue position, just a voiced stop instead of a liquid. We have yet to find a way to convince this very opinionated little man that the potty is interesting a goal he should try for. When we first introduced underwear to him back in Tennessee, he would hold his pee in for hours until we put a diaper back on him for a nap or whatever and then pee immediately in the diaper. He tried the same tatic here in California but failed on account of his inability to resist Coca-Cola, a lovely diuretic. While careful vigilance from us meant there were some successes, mainly it destroyed Maxwell's opinion of the sanctity of underwear - he is now just as willing to soil it as a diaper. Special potty books and potty toys, which convince Alora & Brittan to spend hours sitting on their potties, have been only a minor enticement to Maxwell. He would be quite happy using a diaper forever. |
 Playing dress-up. |
Cara was trying on some of Julie's dresses last night to see if there was a good one to borrow to wear for Scott's wedding (there was). While down there in the closet she discovered Julie had a Tigger costume. Naturally this was too fun an opportunity to pass up, so check her out on YouTube bouncing around like Tigger. Max and Ike, Dell's dogs, were rather unsettled by this display and barked and ran away.
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