Wes Strikes Again!! Or so I thought....

Yes, he deliberately wanted THIS picture taken.

Wes, dear, dear Wes (aka "I'm Why Mama Can't Have Nice Things") may have a reputation for breaking things.  I'm not saying it's not well-deserved; but occasionally something breaks that's not his fault, even if at first all evidence points to the Usual Suspect.  

I'm not one to complain about doing laundry--other than physically putting clothes and soap into the machine and turning it on, there's really very little work to it except remembering to ask the kids to put the clothes in the dryer for me and reminding them to sort and put away their own clothes before bedtime.  This time, Wes was closest when I remembered that the Piper's bedding had to go in the dryer.  He cheerfully did as I asked and I forgot about it for another few hours.  

When I went to get the laundry out, the blankets and sheets were soaked. As in dripping with pounds of extra water.  I looked at the washing machine, realized that the load had become unbalanced and stopped during the cycle, and Wes had taken items he could barely lift out and into the dryer without mentioning the unusual weight.  As I put the items back in the washing machine, my feet got wet.  So much water dripped out of the dryer that it had created a puddle on the tile floor and was already ruining the cheap baseboard in the laundry room.

Humph, Wes strikes again.  And this was worse than it first seemed.  Every time I ran the dryer, another huge puddle seeped out from the dryer.  It got to the point that I ran the dryer empty to shake all the water out and catch it immediately in the dozens of towels under the floor.  

After a few days of this, I stopped and forced myself to think differently about this.  Is there truly a never-ending source of water coming from the dryer?

Sigh. I spent so much time assuming Wes had Struck Again that I never looked at the washing machine right next to the dryer.  The one whose cold water hose was leaking behind the machine every time it ran a load, roughly correlating with the dryer usage.  

Within 30 minutes of making the discovery, I had returned from the hardware store with replacement hoses, and then Dwayne and I had to decide who replaced them--the man who had the strength to turn the wrench, or the woman who could fit behind the dryer.  We moved the machines.

So ends another week of suburban surprise.

We Play Hooky

I don't know how to play hockey, but hooky I can figure out!  The girls are going to get big, fat W's on their report cards (for Withdrawal), regardless if they go every day this quarter or not at all.  So when Kyla asked if we could go to Seattle this week, I couldn't think of any reason to refuse.

My dad joined us on this gorgeous day as we first did the Underground Tour. Piper and Wes were determined to hate the tour; unfortunately, the guide was funny and talked about exploding crappers and I caught them laughing.

After the excellent tour, we walked to Pike Place Market, which my kids have never seen before.  We had lunch at a German café and played cribbage while waiting for our food. My hungry kids were falling apart, but perked up with the lady brought them candy as an appetize, and the sugar helped them start appreciating the blue sky, and ferries crossing the over the sparking Sound.  

I treated myself to a bouquet and the kids to a pastry, and as we started back to the car, I finally discovered Gum Wall on Post Alley.  It is a grotesque monument to...something.  By the best of luck, I had a pack in my pocket, so the kids commenced to chewing furiously.

What a great day to spend as a family (though Piper probably would like you to know she didn't mind about 5%, and hated the other 95%.  I think she had a miserable time for only about half of it.)

Just a book aside: The catalyst for this field trip was The Many Reflections of Jane Deming, about the beginnings of white settlement in Seattle. Really great story!

World Trip 2020

We've been dreaming about how to spend Dwayne's eight-week sabbatical, probably before Wesley, aka Baby Omega, was born.

We had three requirements:
1) Go overseas, 
2) before Kyla was in high school (high school credits are a lot less negotiable that middle school courses), 
3) but after Wesley was old enough not to break any UNESCO sites...and not be too whiney.

Well, two out of three ain't bad.

After 23 years are Microsoft, Dwayne is taking a well deserved sabbatical.  To exploit a copyright, we're taking a sabbatication!*

Dwayne has managed to turn his eight weeks into sixteen, so we are finalizing our plans of a four month Round the World adventure.  As you can see from the map, we'll be circumnavigating the globe, while mostly staying in the Southern Hemisphere.  Not including airports, we'll be visiting 4 continents and 12 countries.  You can see pictures and more links by exploring the interactive map we've made.  

We leave Seattle at the end of March and return mid-July.  Most of the details are under control, even if differing luggage requirements for ten different airlines keep me awake at night.  It's really important to me to travel with one international-sized carry-on and backpack per person. Packing (the house and our luggage), visas, and vaccinations are in my wheelhouse, finances are Dwayne's, and VacationKids does the really heavy lifting. 

Details are coming to a head, as I figure out that Dwayne and Wes both need light-weight puffs and I learn to live without a curling iron. Just today we were at the only place in the Pacific Northwest that has the Yellow Fever vaccination--Costco in Redmond!

This is an exciting adventure for us, one that we have been looking forward to for a long time.  We ("we"?) will be updating this blog as we travel, though until then, I will still add the usual family and book inanities. The kids will be posting on their own blogs while we are traveling to keep up academic appearances--while exploring the interesting world of complete sentences, acceptable grammar, and proper punctuation.

At the bottom of this page is an option to subscribe to the blog updates via email, which is pretty convenient.  You can unsubscribe at any time, of course.  Join us... with glee!

PS 😷 We are obviously concerned about the coronavirus outbreak. We started planning this adventure 6 months ago, and while our route skirts the most impacted areas, the situation is fluid and hard to predict months ahead of time. We are monitoring the situation and may have to make last minute adjustments as we go. Thank goodness for good travel insurance!


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*Thanks to Daniel and Talinn for a great name to steal.

PIper Turns 12!

I've been thinking of Piper as 12 for the last half year, as that's the age I much put on our all travel documents, as we will be traveling with a 13, 12, and 10 year old.  Piper was more reluctant to not be 11, as she's enjoyed this preteen year.

Archetypical Piper.... 

….gnaws on Papa's shoulder daily, as a sign of affection,

...teaches herself to latch hook on a random evening before bed,

 … creates knitted outfits for Sam,

...loves her BFF to extremes,

… "loves" her siblings to other extremes,

… and finally, is mostly feline.

For her Valentine's birthday, the Friday before a week-long break, could have been an ideal party evening, but with her BFF already vacationing across the border, Piper decided against a friend party and voted for Daddy to make crème brulee, after a crab-with-butter-and-I-mean-butter dinner.  She made the chocolate dipped strawberries, which she liked so much that she incorporated it into her outfit.

  

Wes was so excited by it all that he figured out a new way to do push ups.  (Piper had just shared how terribly she did on the PE fitness assessment.)

Kyla. Chocolate. Strawberries.  Her happiness is always contagious, and it takes little to make her happy.  

This is not the time to detail the extreme sullenness and spitefulness episodes of our middle child, or other standout personality traits. My go-to with any of my children is simply to say, "Well, I'm excited/happy enough for both of us."  I have lots of Piper story-snapshots that will give her glimpses into her younger self.  This year I will remember as when she spent several weeks failing the School Success class every 6th grader has to take this year.  "F*CK you, External System" is not part of her spoken vocabulary yet, but it is certainly is part of her body language.  I've always believed that, if I could survive her childhood, she will be the most remarkable adult, and nothing this year changed my mind.  Watch out world, Piper is growing up!  

Books Read in 2020, so far

Almost Everything: Notes on Hope, by Annie Lamott. I need to buy my own copy so I can underline and note take to my heart's content.  St. Anne, indeed.

Drama, YA graphic novel by Raina Telgemeier.  Meh. Not written for me.

The Mighty Odds, by Amy Ignatow, from Sasquatch list.  So disappointing.  Maybe the age group (tweens) it was written for will find it funny and clever, but I did not.

Shouting at the Rain, by Lynda Mullaly Hunt (who wrote Fish in a Tree).  Also a Sasquatch, and now I will permanently add Hunt to my Must Read Author list.

Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout (there's a sequel and a 2014 miniseries...what?!?!)

Look Both Ways: A tale told in ten blocks, by Jason Reynolds, YA
Jason Reynolds gets a lot of well deserved credit for being a voice of urban teens.  Urban is often code for "black", and yes, Reynolds and many of his characters are black, but the books 
Jason Reynolds and Jacquiline Woodson are masters of lyrical prose. 

Golden Tresses of the Dead, by Alan Bradley, YA-ish chemistry/mystery. 
Flavia DeLuce gets another book out every year or so. The schtick is getting a little old, but it's been revived a bit as Dogger's character comes out more.  I do appreciate that for a book about small English village tropes, there are very few stereotypical elements to Bradley's acclaimed series.

My Fake Rake, Eva Leigh, NPR had a review of this https://www.npr.org/2019/11/30/783294614/my-fake-rake-turns-the-makeover-trope-on-its-well-coiffed-head.  Could have been frolicky, but I don't have the stomach for romance-stories-for-the-sake-of-romance anymore.  (Though, if you are going to write a thousand page book, I'm am going to need a love story or two woven in.)

Beside Herself, by Elizabeth LaBan.  Meh.  Got this title from something, but the story falls short.  To get over an unfaithful spouse, a wife decides to have her own affair as they stay together.  

Forever or a Long, Long, Time, by Caela Carter.  Wow, a Sasquatch book that I read aloud to the 5 of us over a series of weekend car rides together.  We were all really engaged in this story of siblings who had been recently adopted out of the foster system.  So much depth in this book, and I am really impressed by the author's ability to get deep into the heart of family and particularly this heroine. 

So You Want to Talk About Race, by Ijeoma Oulo.  One of the top books for white people to get a real conversation about hot topics and long, long standing racial injustices and perspectives.  Worth it.

The Many Reflections of Miss Jane Deming, by J. Anderson 
From this year's Sasquatch list, this is the story of a Piper-aged girl who makes her way over to baby Seattle with the Mercer girls.  The geography might be a little inaccurate, or I am misinterpreting information, but as a read-aloud, it was an entrancing story.  No Pollyanna, but with a pioneering spirit, we Pacific Northwesters all learned more about our history.  

One for the Murphies, by Lynda Mullaly Hunt. I how this YA author tackles problems--a 6th grade with dyslexia, and preteens tackling what it means to be family, especially when you have been abandoned by your mother. This one is close to my heart, as a girl is entering foster care after a brutal betrayal by her mother and stepfather.  

Red at the Bone, by Jacqueline Woodson.  Woodson is a master of lyrical writing--her novels read like free verse and powerfully compacts a story of every member of a family in a generational transition.  

Mrs. Everything, by Jennifer Weiner. "I think this book changed my life," said BFF Susanne, and she might be right.  Her story telling talent has been contained in novels that were maybe a decade in duration--and could rightly be considered chick lit.  This, though, this is Every Women's life, told over an entire lifetime with the generations before and after.  I'm still buzzed over this book, several days later.  


Ordinary Grace, by William Kent Krueger.
I had just read the forward to an Ivan Doig novel, and then pressed play on this William Kent Krueger story.  Dreamlike, Krueger’s 1961 Minnesota intertwined with Doig’s historical Montana and I was lulled into teen Frank’s brain and life.  The trestle outside their tiny town where Frank’s father is a minister is a more than an allegory of the trains and river that continually flows through their lives, both taking an extraordinary number of lives during this stranger summer.  I can’t quite dissect why I couldn’t put this story down, but as soon as I finished it, I bought another one of his novels.

Wesley Discovers Hot Pockets....and Marketing

I don't dwell on it in my daily thoughts, but Wes spends A LOT of time thinking about Minecraft, and does the equivalent of fanfiction for 10 year old boys and their passions.  In this case, it's finding youtube videos about Minecraft, song parodies about Minecraft, and "adults" that youtube about Minecraft as a way to taunt the parents of little boys who say "but you can't grow up to be a Minecraft video star!".  Anyway, his two youtube-Minecraft heroes just made a big deal about how much they love pepperoni pizza hot pockets.  He had to have one so badly that he was willing to spend his own money at the grocery store.

It was everything the marketing had told his brain it would be.  Sigh.

Feb. 2: Better than Groundhog Day, and WAY BETTER than the Super Bowl

From CNN's Emma Reynolds,

Palindrome day: Today is 02/02/2020 -- the first palindrome day in 909 years
Today is a very special occasion -- the date is a palindrome, meaning it is the same when read forwards and backwards.

It is February 2, 2020, or 02/02/2020, in both the MM/DD/YYYY format and the DD/MM/YYYY format. At just after 2 a.m., it was 02:02:20 on 02/02/2020.

This is the only time such a date will occur this century.

The previous palindrome date came 909 years ago on 11/11/1111. The next will come in 101 years on 12/12/2121 and after that there will not be another until 03/03/3030. Solihull School Maths Department wrote on Twitter: "Today is a Palindrome Day in all date formats (UK, USA, ISO). It's also a palindrome day of the year (33) and there are a palindrome number of days left in the year (333). Quite a unique day!"

A Practically Perfect Saturday

There are few Saturdays that we don't have plans, either dinner or going away for the weekend, or anything that requires getting dressed.  After a long morning snooze, eating a Piper omelet is a great start to a day to a day of organizing taxes.

Kyla just Kyla-ed all day, which cumulated in a becoming an elegant queen by the day's end.

Wesley, doing vertical push ups earlier in the week at martial arts, enjoyed a day of Lego-ing, building his new 3-in-1 kit.

Piper taught herself to latch hook this morning, and has happily spent the day doing that while listening to the Wings of Fire series, again.

I had a sign up that said "Shhhh…. I'm working on taxes" that everyone characteristically ignored.  And Dwayne spent the day in the office working on, then breaking, then fixing our finances.  Phew!

Excepting the taxes, which are still incomplete, it was a really, really good Saturday.