NETTY'S BRAG PAGE - THE BABY EDITION

Here's Kelly and Maya and new baby Emily. Richard's probably taking the picture.
Brief history: Kelly's from the PacNW and I got to meet her because (1) her brother Jordan is in Mick's dental class, and (2) because her brother Jason is a long-time close friend of Kai. She lives about 25 minutes from us and has turned out to be one of my favorite people here.

Brent, Becky, and Sawyer Smith Conklin in Oly. These two were made to be parents -- so glad they finally jumped in.

Steven (we met Steve and Glacier through Kai & Dana) and his new daughter. I want to say her name is Genevieve, but Steve's email attachments always refer to her as "cooing daughter" or "WigglePiggle" or "Papa Loves." Obviously, she's a lucky little girl. Mama Glacier must be the one taking this pic.

*Still waiting to hear from my friend Big Ed, who was over a few weeks ago from SF -- his wife Tine's due any day here.

NIGHT AT THE DE YOUNG
April 20, 2007

Maureen, Jackie and I visited the DeYoung on one of the museum's special Friday nights. We took in live music, a glass of wine, and the Vivienne Westwood exhibit. (Her fashion sense didn't fully speak to any of us though, which might not be any big surprise.)

Earlier that day, Aubrey and I had picked Maureen and Jackie up at the SF airport and taken them to Tennessee Valley Cove for a bike ride and hike up the cliffs. I hadn't considered how astounded they'd be by the landscape here; I forgot just how breathtaking that place can be to new eyes.

More to post later on their visit from Bellingham...

Quote of the Week

Mom, today I transformed myself from someone good
into someone funny.

-Dane, age 6

MORE POISON OAK!

It finally showed up on the kids -- ankles and knees and thighs. We think it was the weekend at the rope swing. We all rode it, but Mick and the kids played there longer and went into deeper weeds. If I recall correctly, they were in their shorts and I was in running pants.

So, we've got lots of itchies around here (they're like little blisters or a bunch of agitated mosquito bumps -- that burn). Mick and Dane bought Calagel this morning for all of them and that seems to help.

We'll certainly be studying up on what this plant looks like so we can avoid this problem in the future!

OAK and STONES

No, we're not talking about the natural world in an environmental sense -- more like a personal sense: That's right, we're talking about what's ailing Mick again.

Poor guy not only suffered a kidney stone passing off-and-on last Thursday from 3 a.m. to 3 p.m., but somehow a poison oak rash kicked in earlier this week, as well -- with its itchy little blisters.

What to do???
Still trying to come up with a urologist who takes his insurance and can schedule Mick soon to zap his stones. As for the poison oak, he'll have to ride out the symptoms for 2-3 weeks. (Not sure where he got it, but perhaps on a hike to ride a rope swing with the kids 2 weekends ago; seemed like it incubated for about 4 days, though, before rearing its head. The kids and I have no rash.)

HOMING DEVICE(s)

Two humpback whales are making their way up the Sacramento River, causing quite a stir among naturalists, fishermen, residents.

Elsewhere in California, a young woman in Sausalito has misplaced her cell phone. (Sorry if you've tried to call me...)

Bed In A Bath

The kids started the day by moving a number of their toys to a new secret hideaway: the bathtub.

Then they spent the rest of the day moving from room to room devising elaborate games and situations. (Lots of furniture moving, dress up, whispering, and laughing.)

Ended the day with an attempt at sleeping side-by-side, head to foot, in the bathtub -- with pillows and stuffed animals and blankets and a thick Hello Kitty sock over the spout above Aubrey's head.

That lasted about 30 minutes, with more laughter and whispering, but had to be stopped because every move in there sounded like a bottle of shampoo dropping to the floor -- which would ultimately make for unhappy neighbors below us, no matter how nice they are. Fortunately, the kids had had their fun and were game for sleeping on the floor of their bedroom next to each other, which is where those two little peanuts are now.

As for Mother's Day, nothing could've made me happier today than knowing my kids were having this kind of fun while I (1) spent the morning writing at Starbucks, (2) went for an 11:30 2-hour hike with girlfriends (fellow moms), (3) had a 3 o'clock marguerita outside in the sun on the deck of a sweet little taco shop with said moms, and (4) came home to be with my family and make bbq ribs while the kids still played and Mick studied for an oral cancer test.

MICK IS FAMOUS!

Click the link below and read halfway down the article to behold our very own amazing coffee geek.

Check out his complete review of our espresso machine here.

Post #209 - A basic, general, newsy news kind of post.

No pictures. I can't locate a single photo in iPhoto. Will have to see what Mick can scrounge up this weekend.

Busy weeks here, especially with visitors:

*Mike and Jan were here (Mike for 1 week, Jan for 3). You can read about that in previous posts.

*Jason Hickman squeezed in an Easter weekend visit, up from San Diego, complete with Saturday egg hunt with the kids and a Quentin Tarantino movie with Mick.

*My friends Maureen and Jackie flew into SF and spent last Friday, Saturday and Sunday in town. Mick watched the kids so I could be responsibility-free Saturday and Sunday, but our Willow Creek friends helped out, too. Dane and Aubrey spent the night at their friend Jake's on Friday night, and then did t-ball and the Discovery Museum with their friends Nick and Mia all day Saturday. Mick got them for the late afternoon/night, and then they played at Makayla and Garrett's from 1-4 on Sunday. (I'll do a separate post -- hopefully with pictures -- on the activities with Maureen and Jackie.) Mick studied for a Phramacology test.

*My friend Ed (from Fairbanks/Anchorage Gray Line days) came over for dinner the other night. He lives with his wife in SF; they're expecting their first baby next month. He was in Marin on business so he gave a call.

Non-visitor news:
*Dane's got an ear infection, so he missed school yesterday. He's on Amoxycillin now. (Have a feeling he got a little worn out over his busy weekend.)

*Teaching pre-school 4-5 hours a week is easy and fun. Sure beats the prep, essay grading, and conferencing required for teaching college writing courses! (I always hated to think of how my hourly wage diminished there...) Of course, the intellectual stimulation is different, though.

*Bluerectangle.com asked me to review 4 more books: High Fidelity, Now You See Her, Walking the Bible, and Talk, Talk. Have read them in the last few months so it won't be the mad dash to re-familiarize myself with lit I'd read 10 years ago -- like last time.

*Mick and I have maps hanging on our bedroom wall with sticky notes and notebook pages tacked up, starting to think more seriously about where we want to live/practice when he graduates in June '08. (Alright, feel free to cast a vote in the comment box...)

*GRAM & GRAMPS COOPER (MY MOM'S PARENTS) CELEBRATED THEIR 65TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY LAST WEEKEND IN YAKIMA, WASHINGTON! (Will try to post a picture soon.)

PROBLEMS POSTING?

If you can't post a comment with your regular sign-on name and password, do this:

POST ANONYMOUSLY
*Don't fill in any of the optional boxes (like website name, etc.)
*Just type in your text in the textbox -- with Love, Skippy or Chester or Fiona at the end, so we know who wrote it
*And Publish

Let's hope this makes it easier...

My friend Shannon just wrote this:

HEADLINES
33 Shot Dead in Campus Massacre

The headline stopped me for a minute when I scanned the online news yesterday afternoon. Then I returned back to my work. I didn’t think about it much the rest of the day ― I was busy writing, I had a couple of client calls, then I transitioned quickly into the usual evening routine with my daughter: dinner, bath, tooth brushing, and bedtime stories. It wasn’t until she was asleep that I thought to turn on the television. I watched the news for about 10 minutes or so, then switched to Jon Stewart. Like me, he opted to repress, focusing instead on jokes about the White House e-mail scandal and Alberto Gonzalez.

Why wasn’t I more upset by what has now been confirmed as the worst shooting spree in U.S. history? I remember when the Columbine murders happened – how disturbing that incident was to me, so disturbing that I felt physically ill. I watched the news for days afterward, unable to believe it had actually happened. But it did happen. And so much more has happened since then. September 11. Genocide in Africa. Daily reports from Iraq of eight dead by a road-side bomb, 20 dead in a market, 100 dead in a mosque.

All enough to numb your brain and your heart.

Motherhood has changed me ― sometimes in ways that I hadn’t expected. Instead of becoming even more sensitive to the tragedies of the world, I feel like I’ve become a little bit harder. I hold these events at an emotional distance ― not because I don’t care, but because it’s how I get by. Otherwise, I just couldn’t step up to making chicken fingers and reading Harry the Dirty Dog on a day when 33 mothers got the worst news possible. Somewhere, something bad is going to happen tomorrow, too. But I like to think that there will also be babies born and lives that are saved and long-awaited reunions. I have to believe that there is some kind of balance.

I say a prayer for those 33 families. Then I look at my daughter and say a prayer that she will always be safe and happy, and that all the other daughters and sons, brothers and sisters and moms and dads will be, too.

Logically, I know that this is a tall order. But it’s my small way of trying to balance out the headlines.

By Shannon Matus-Takaoka

Coffee with Grandad

The rest of us were at school -- Mick at dental school, Dane at kindergarten, Anjie at pre-school (teaching) -- so Aubrey and Mike went for some "coffee" together.

There, they worked on drawing a family baseball game (the big craze around our home) and took a self-portrait.

GRANDPARENT ART

his (Mike's) sketch -- with Aubrey's help


her (Jan's) cut-outs -- with kids' help

FACES WE LOVE

BEACH BABES

The goal is to get out with our fellow Willow Creek family friends on Friday nights a couple times a month -- now that the weather's sunnier. This is at our nearby Schoonmaker beach in Sausalito, great for impromptu bbq's or pizza delivery.

above: Dane and buddies, Marcus and Nick
above: Renee, Lu and Amy (and Marcus and Nick)
above: Mick and his dad w/ Mark, Chris and Pat
above: Mark and Luke
above: Mia, Aubrey and Makayla
above: Mia and Aubrey
above: Garrett

We've done several dinner/group activities with these terrific families: the Trotters (Lu, Mark, Marcus and Luke), the Lees (Pat, Renee, Makayla and Garrett), and the Kreuger/Pertschuks (Chris, Amy, Mia and Nick). The kids and parents always seem to have a blast. Last weekend we met at Corte Madera for a bbq; when the weather in Sausalito was windy and cold, the 10 minute drive north put us back in sun and warmth.

An Activist In The Making?

The Writing Mamas published another blog of mine. Aubrey's recent hospital stay stretched me to think a little more politically, which shows up in "Emergency," the April 11 blog at

http://www.writingmamassalon.blogspot.com

I wrote another call to action blog for the Writing Mamas on April 4, but you'll see I was just getting warmed up at that point.

OVER THE HUMP '07
Mick's officially halfway through dental school -- that's what his dance moves were saying anyway back in February.

3.24.07
SATURDAY MORNING
AT MUIR WOODS



Arrived at 8:30 to avoid the tour crowds, hiking (a gentle hike) out to Cathedral Grove and back.

Muir Woods is an ancient coastal redwood forest, a short 20 minute drive from our home. It's a great place to walk leisurely with kids (a couple miles round trip) and it's a cool place to jog hilly trails when I'm solo. (I jogged the Upper Hill Trail there just yesterday while Jan and Aubrey took pictures and walked below.)



Pictured:

Mike and kids at fallen tree.

Flower photo for Aubs.

Kids at an ancient redwood.

Mick and Anj self-portrait.

Grand-parents and grand-kids.

Mick, Anj, Dane and Aubs.

MUIR WOODS NATIONAL MONUMENT

'That Bike' To Air!

My 2-minute Perspectives commentary, "That Bike," will air on the Bay Area's NPR station, KQED (88.5 FM), the following dates and times:

Monday, April 2nd at 6:07 a.m., 7:37 a.m., and 11:33 p.m.
Saturday, April 7th at 7:37 a.m.

Listen to it live
*in the Bay Area on your radio at 88.5 FM, or
*at KQED.org by clicking on the yellow "Listen Live" icon and then selecting a "stream" (I usually choose RealPlayer but your computer might be set up to use another).

Listen to it at KQED.org on the Perspectives Archives (or search for Perspectives, click on the Perspectives A-Z home link and eventually you'll see info on the archives). "That Bike" will be available this way after it has aired at the 7:37 a.m. time.