juverna's Xanga

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Sat, 12 Nov 2005 15:28:21 GMT

I live at Livejournal now.

Kid Health Report

Thu, 18 Aug 2005 16:29:09 GMT

Rachel went to the eye doctor this morning. She was very nervous that they would put drops in her eyes, but they didn't. Her eyes are fine -- the glasses have actually improved her vision. I guess the doctor was worried about a "lazy eye" before, but wearing the glasses has helped focus her eyes and made the optic nerve in the lazier eye stronger. She will keep the same prescription for now. And her next appointment is next year.

Meanwhile, Ben will be getting braces soon! We went on Monday afternoon for an appointment where they reviewed his models and x-rays with us, and told us what his treatment plan would be. He has three appointments in the next two weeks, during which they will put in one of those palate expander things. (I think the first appointment is where they put little rubber bands between his molars to separate them a bit; the second appointment is to put the metal bands around his molars; and the third is to insert the palate expander thingy.) The palate expansion sounds totally excruciating, but Dr. S says it's not (and he's usually candid about these sorts of things. It's nice to be working with an orthodontist whom one already knows well). Also, apparently the palate-expanding part is over in as little as three weeks. Then Ben will have braces for a couple of years. He's actually looking forward to it. I don't think he realizes yet how uncomfortable it will be -- but on the other hand, it may not be as uncomfortable for him as it was for me. There was no one in his first grade class last year who had braces. We'll see if he's the first person in his second grade class to get them.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Wed, 17 Aug 2005 15:49:42 GMT

flickr is so wonderful. I'm in love with it. I want to marry it.

Just f'rinstance... Charles has a bunch of photos of theatre people that I know up on his flickr page. I didn't know they were there, or even that he had an account. I found them by searching for the tag "lamplighters". How cool is that? And now that I know about them, I can flag them as Favorites of mine -- and then they have a whole separate page all their own, on MY account. Awesome.

Okay, I'll stop hyperventilating with the wonderfulness of it all now, and go do some work.

(P.S. Thanks to Cyn for mentioning flickr and her cat in the same sentence, and getting my brain to thinking that I should go investigate. Cyn, you rock. But we knew that. Now that you're going to be on the left coast, I may have to come stalk you next time I head down to the southern part of the state.)

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Wed, 17 Aug 2005 05:19:57 GMT

I can now unequivocally state that flickr is the best thing ever.

For instance:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/gasprices/

and

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/flapface

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 21:44:37 GMT

As an internet addict, I tend to expect the web to amuse me at all times. There is an endless amount of stuff out there -- there should always be something going on that I want to surf or try or read about, right?

And yet, the fact is that I frequently go through long periods where the web bores me senseless. That's how it's been lately. I check Bloglines and nobody has posted (because I don't actually subscribe to that many sites); I check here to see if anyone has commented, and no one has; I read a news blurb or two, or not; and then I'm done. And five minutes later I do the exact same thing.

It's irritating. And yet, of all the information available out there, not that much of it seems terribly interesting, most of the time.

So it's refreshing when, every now and then, the internet becomes fascinating again. Usually it's about some cool new web service that I can subscribe to and play around with. In just the last few days, I have discovered (and established identities on):

43things
43places
Yahoo 360°
and
flickr

All of which are way cool applications, to varying degrees.

I think I'm hooked. Again.

And so, you know -- come link to me!

Friday, August 12, 2005

Fri, 12 Aug 2005 18:45:34 GMT

Ridiculously long
Yosemite recap
with way too many words and pictures

Sunday

On Sunday morning Paul and Ben went to church, and the girls and I stayed home and packed and cleaned. We left home at about 1:00 PM on Sunday. Paul set up the laptop again so the kids could watch a movie, which they did for the first part of the drive.

We drove and drove and drove and finally reached Yosemite Valley. We were scheduled to stay, not in the valley, but south of there near Wawona. Eric, Caroline, Emily, and Garry (Eric's mom) were getting there at 3:00, and the plan was for us to phone them between 4:00 and 5:00 to let them know of our progress. I tried dialing at about 4:01, but cell phone reception was very sketchy. At about 4:30, we got reception on Paul's phone, so called and said we'd be there in about an hour.

However, At about 5:45, we got our first glimpse of Half Dome, so we stopped and got out and looked out over the valley. The kids climbed on rocks and worked off some energy.

We got a nice woman to take a picture of us with Half Dome in the background. So this may be our holiday card, unless we come up with something else.

Drove some more. At 6:00, we were still driving. Tried to phone again, but the call got cut off by bad cell reception. Kids were manic and hyper for last half hour of trip.

Finally arrived at the house at about 6:30, I think. Parked, kids rang doorbell, hugs all around.

House we were staying in was gorgeous. Caroline said they hadn't left the house since they'd arrived.

We got settled in. Kids still manic and hyper. When we'd been there about five minutes, Lydia Jane got a boo-boo. No adults saw it happen, but we think she banged her cheekbone (just under the outer corner of her left eye) on a windowsill. You could tell immediately that it was a nasty one. We iced it, but she still got a big black eye. You can see the original owie, plus the black eye it created, it in this (not very good) picture. Poor girlie!

Eric and Caroline made spaghetti and salad for dinner, and we all ate a lovely meal together, with the adults at the dining room table and the kids at the island bar thing in the kitchen.

I had brought my iPod with me, of course, as well as my new speakers. I set it up in the living room, and we got to listen to lots of good tunes.

In the evening, Eric and Garry started a game of The Great Dalmuti, which I've been hearing about for years but never played before. It's fun, and it's not too hard, which is important for me in a card game since I'm not very good at them. After I joined in, Rachel joined in, and then Emily, and then Ben, and having all the kids in the game slowed it down a bit, but it was still fun.

After the kids were in bed, Paul and Eric and Caroline and I sat in the hot tub and gabbed for a long time. After that everyone headed to bed.

I was having trouble sleeping, so I stayed up later than was probably wise, reading the first third of Touching My Father's Soul: A Sherpa's Journey to the Top of Everest by Jamling Tenzing Norgay. It belonged to the house, and I didn't finish it during the trip, so I guess I'll have to find it at the library.

Monday

Monday morning, I got up at 7:00 to go out for a run. I think Garry was the only other person up. She said very sweetly, "I'd go running with you if I ran, but I don't run." I love that woman. I was out for about an hour, probably running for about 40 minutes of that, and walking for the other 20. I ran up to the end of the road, and ran up a challenging trail for a ways, but it was buggy and I didn't want to get bitten. Came back down, ran around a short loop, out to the highway, and back again. There was very little traffic (maybe six or seven cars went by), and the air was clear and cool. Around 7:45, the sun started to come through and it got quite a bit warmer, so I was glad I'd gone out as early as I had.

I got back to the house at 8:15, and by then Eric and Caroline were up. We ate breakfast and talked about the day. At about 10:30, when everyone was up and dressed and breakfasted, we went out for a group walk down to the creek. Ben played King of Pride Rock (it's a Lion King thing)...

...and later got soaking wet.

Rachel bonded with Eric.

Lydia Jane tossed small rocks into the creek (one of her favorite things to do) and got only about half wet.

Paul took care of Lydia Jane...

...and stacked rocks on top of each other...

...and took pictures of some passing deer.

Eric and Caroline sat and enjoyed the scenery.

I took pictures, and played with the kids.

Once the kids were wet enough and dirty enough, we walked back to the house. Ben carried a pile of wet clothes, and Lydia Jane wore just her diaper and sneakers. We stopped at the little convenience market to pick up a few things we'd forgotten, including laundry detergent. There was a washer and dryer at the house, which was great. We did three loads of laundry over the three days that we were there!

In the afternoon, Emily got out a jigsaw puzzle. It was mostly purple, and she spread it out on the purple and green tablecloth. It was quite disturbing to try to put it together, but we tried anyway. Several of us -- mostly me, Eric, and Garry (shown below) -- got a bit obsessed.

Once Caroline succeeded in dragging us away from the jigsaw puzzle, we drove over to Mariposa Grove. We hiked a little bit and saw some cool trees, including the Fallen Monarch:

Just yesterday I discovered online this picture of the exact same tree, taken over 100 years ago! I think this is incredibly cool. "About forty members of U.S. 6th Cavalry, Troop F, shown mounted on, or standing beside their horses, and lined up atop and beside the Fallen Monarch tree in the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias, Yosemite, 1899."

At the Grizzly Giant, the kids goofed around...

...and we took a group picture:

Here's Garry managing too many cameras:

Ben and Emily bonded.

The walk would have been very pleasant and relaxing if it weren't for managing the kids. As it was, it was still fun. And I think the kids enjoyed it. A little before 6:00, we headed back to the bus stop to wait for the shuttle bus. A butterfly landed on Garry's arm and stayed there for about ten minutes while we all examined it.

We made it back to the house. Paul and the kids and I stopped at a market and got a few grocery items we were missing. Then Paul made macaroni and cheese for the kids, and cooked a stir-fry for the adults. The stir-fry was very yummy. Caroline raved about how good it was.

Before dinner, we were still working on the puzzle, and had almost finished the outer edge. But in order to be able to eat dinner, we had to move the puzzle to the island in the kitchen. This worked out much better anyway, because the island was not purple, and it had tiles on it which worked very well as a useful puzzle-completion grid.

After dinner, Eric and Emily headed to the hot tub. Later, when Emily got out to head to bed, I went and soaked too for a while. Later Caroline came and sat with us. I think everyone got to sleep at midnight or before.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, I got up around 8:00 again. When I came out to the living room, Eric and Emily were up, and Eric had turned the iPod on to play tunes. I sat with them a bit, and we worked on the jigsaw puzzle. Then Caroline got up and cooked breakfast for everyone: scrambled eggs and toast for the kids, and a corn salsa egg thing for the grown-ups.

Eventually everyone was up, and we talked about the day. The plan was to drive into Yosemite Valley and see the sights. A little before 10:00, I finally felt energetic, and I went out for a run. I did just half an hour or so, down the road to the highway and back again. Eric, Caroline, Emily and Garry left for the valley around 10:15, and I saw them driving out while I was on my run.

When I got back, I got myself and the kids cleaned up and dressed, and the five of us left for the valley around 11:15. Our only specific plans on how to meet up involved everyone being at Happy Isles at 3:00, and since Eric and crew don't have a cell phone and there was no real way to track them down earlier, we were pretty much on our own.

We stopped several times on the way and took pictures.

At a few minutes before 1:00, we got to Bridal Veil Falls. We parked and walked the short way to the waterfall view.

Ben was having a bit of a tantrum, which detracted from the fun a bit.

He settled down after a while, though. Then Rachel, Lydia Jane and I walked back towards the car while Paul and Ben climbed over the rocks a ways to get closer to the waterfall.

We drove to Curry Village, arriving around 2:00, and got lunch there: burgers, nachos, and brownies. A squirrel wandered in and walked around under the tables for a while. The squirrels in Yosemite are utterly fearless.

At 3:00 we took the shuttle bus over to Happy Isles. We walked from the parking lot up to the Nature Center. Ben and Rachel were getting along very well, which is always nice.

We got there and found Caroline and Garry, who were waiting for Eric and Emily to come back from the junior ranger hike. Paul took the kids inside the Nature Center, and Ben and Rachel colored pictures.

When Eric and Emily appeared, a few minutes after 4:00, we all agreed to walk down to the creek and wade. It wasn't a lot of fun, though, because we were trying to keep the kids' clothes dry (since we knew we'd be in Yosemite Valley until after dinner, and we didn't have a change of clothes with us), and that takes a lot of work. Ben got wet anyway, and splashed me with a rock, and then got mad at me when I made him get out of the creek after that. At this point in the day, everyone was a little stressed.

All of us took the shuttle bus from Happy Isles to the Visitors' Center, except for Paul and Lydia Jane, who took the shuttle to Curry Village to pick up the car. At the Visitors' Center, we browsed in the bookstore, and I got some treats for the kids. Emily got her Junior Ranger badge, and the ranger at the desk made an announcement and everyone in the Visitors' Center applauded.

We walked from the Visitors' Center to a nearby pizza place. We ordered a cheese pizza for everyone, and several salads for the grown-ups. Eric and I waited in line to place the order, and got to compare notes on our respective days. The meal was good, and Lydia Jane devoured two pieces of pizza almost without stopping to breathe. Hungry girl!

At the end of dinner, we promised the kids they could have ice cream from the ice cream parlor downstairs, but it turned out that the ice cream parlor closed at 6:00 (which we all agreed was foolish of it). We decided to take the shuttle bus over to the Ahwahnee Hotel, which Caroline wanted to see, and try to find ice cream there. We got there around 6:30, explored the hotel a bit, and found a candy shop which sold both candy and ice cream. Emily got an ice cream bar, Ben and Lydia Jane got chocolate-covered raisins, and Rachel got gummy bears. Everyone was tired by this time, so we lounged in the hotel lobby for a while, doing a whole lot of nothing.

The kids ate candy. A squirrel wandered in, and the kids followed it around for a while. At a little after 7:00, we went outside on the lawn, and got a nice tourist to take a group photo of us.

Then we headed over to the bus stop to head back to where our cars were parked.

From there we drove in our separate cars back towards Wawona. At a little after 8:00 we stopped at the lookout to watch what was left of the sunset and to take some more pictures of Half Dome and the Valley.

The drive over the windy road at night was challenging. Paul did the first half and I did the second half.

When we got back to the house, we got all the kids into bed, and then worked on the puzzle for a while. I took some pictures. It was almost 11:00 at this point.

Eventually I decided that the hot tub was the place to be. Eric came out too, and we talked for a while. Then Caroline joined us, and we discussed schools and children and random other topics.

Paul went to bed around 11:30, I think, and Eric and Caroline turned in sometime around midnight. I decided I'd better stay up and pack, so I did that, and when I was done I worked on the puzzle for a while. I also ran a load of laundry through the wash. I finally went to bed at about 3:30 in the morning.

Wednesday

I got up around 8:00, I think. Maybe it was more like 7:30. I woke up to the sound of Eric talking and Rachel and Emily laughing. When I went out to the living room to see what they were doing, they were playing catch with Emily's stuffed animal.

Caroline got up not long after that, and cooked pancakes. I had been excited about the pancakes, but found myself without much of an appetite. The kids devoured the pancakes, though. Meanwhile, Eric and I carried the recycling over to the village recycling center to drop it off, and had a nice chat on the way. We also dropped off our keys and checked out of the house.

After breakfast, the grown-ups all resumed packing. My stuff was all packed up from the night before, but I packed the kids' things and the toiletry kit, ran the last load of laundry through the dryer, and folded it.

Emily taught Ben how to play backgammon. He ran into a streak of luck and beat her a few times in a row, and gloated about it quite a bit. Emily was pretty gracious about his gloating, though I think it started to get to her after a while. She used to be very sensitive about stuff like that and would cry if she didn't win. She's much more mature now, of course, being nine, but I could see that tendency starting to resurface a bit. Meanwhile, Ben wasn't being mean -- he was just completely delighted that he was winning, and wanting to celebrate loudly. We did ask him to bring it down a notch, though.

Eventually all the kids started to get a bit out of control. We were packing up all their stuff, and they had nothing to play with, and were bored. Finally I plunked them all in front of the DVD player so they could watch Aladdin and stay out of trouble.

Paul slept very late. I think the kids had worn him out. He got up around 10:00, just in time to eat one of the last pancakes and drink the last of the coffee, I think.

We never had succeeded in finishing the puzzle, so Eric tidied up all the pieces...

...and Paul took a few pictures of those of us who had been the most obsessed with it.

Then we took it apart.

We managed to leave by 11:00, which was check-out time. We agreed to drive to Tuolumne Meadows and meet there for lunch. So off we went. We reached a lookout for El Capitan a few minutes before noon, and took a few photos there.

We stopped for gas at Crane Flat. They had a little gift shop, so I got some treats for the kids. Ben got a book of campfire songs...

...Rachel got an activity book about birds...

...and Lydia Jane got a tiny harmonica on a necklace.

We stopped several times to enjoy the scenery.

A little after 1:00, we came to a big flat rock that Paul liked a lot.

Not long thereafter, we came to what we think was a view of Half Dome from the back. I got a picture of Paul and Ben showing where it was.

In theory, we were going to meet at the Visitors' Center at Tuolumne Meadows at 1:00, but we didn't actually get there until after 2:00.

We went into the Visitors' Center and looked around, but didn't see our friends. Paul inquired at the front desk, and the ranger told him that yes, the rest of our party had been here about 20 minutes earlier, and had headed down the road to the lunch grill. Paul didn't believe him, and thought he was joking. I was sure he was telling the truth, so off we went to the grill. And there they were. I told Paul what Greg told Dharma: "I'm not going to say 'I told you so' -- but I am going to make the face."

The others were just about done with lunch, but they very sweetly waited for us while we ate. Then we all headed off again. The plan was to caravan to Tioga Pass, take some pictures, and then go our separate ways. We got there a little after 3:30. Tioga Pass is 9945 feet high -- the highest elevation that Paul and I have been to so far. (The previous record was some 8100-foot pass that we drove over on one of our 1995 trips.) We took some pictures...

...and then said goodbyes.

Paul decided he was going to take the scenic route home. We drove east out of the hills, into Nevada (we got there shortly before 6:00), north to South Lake Tahoe, then west on 50, where we stopped for dinner at Taco Del Mar in Placerville. I drove the rest of the way home from Placerville, west on 50 to Sacramento (the kids fell asleep in the car), then west on 80, then south on 101. We got home at midnight, unpacked the car, watched an episode of CSI, and fell into bed.

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Sun, 07 Aug 2005 17:47:20 GMT

We're off to Yosemite! Back Wednesday night. Those who have our cell phone numbers can reach us on them, in case of emergency.

Friday, August 05, 2005

Fri, 05 Aug 2005 21:36:43 GMT

Okay, I don't get this. I'm checking the weather for Yosemite, since we're going there on Sunday. Apparently the high for today is 91 -- pretty toasty, but still tolerable. And yet, and yet, RIGHT NOW, the temperature appears to be 100. So explain this to me -- if it's 100 right now, how can today's high be 91??? Makes no sense.

Friday, August 05, 2005

Fri, 05 Aug 2005 11:11:19 GMT

This is from a few weeks ago. Lydia Jane apparently climbed up on the kitchen counter to get something (no, she's not supposed to do that), and then fell asleep there, using her baby doll as a pillow. Paul found her there, took photos, and then got her down.

Friday, August 05, 2005

Fri, 05 Aug 2005 11:04:57 GMT

Our new minivan. Isn't it lovely?