nothing to celebr8

perhaps we should all have to have our personal lives regulated and put to a popular vote.

sandy, sunny, food-y family holiday weekend

after a busy week getting things checked off our sweden ttd list we had a fabulous respite with our visitors from the northwest--ryan, jenni and hans. i've posted the slideshow to the right and you can see where we spent most of our time--the beach!

saturday we got up early and went down to aliso creek in laguna beach. it's my favorite easy-access beach, and since they've renovated the bathrooms and demolished the grungy snack shack it's especially family-friendly. plus, parking is $4 for the day! we brought all the good gear--sand toys, soccer goals and ball, football, boogie boards, and a picnic lunch. we headed out after morning coffee and camped out on our beach chairs while the morning fog slowly dissipated.

we came home late afternoon to a fragrant dinner waiting for us--i made the southern pulled pork recipe from jasmine's wonderful picnic menu and it was a huge hit! michael seared the brown sugar and cayenne rub in the morning and we used the crock put to slow simmer all day. easy, inexpensive (8 lbs of pork shoulder at costco for $10!) and so tasty! we toasted some cibatta rolls and drizzled with tj's smoky bbq sauce. instead of baked beans i made a summery bean salad--also easy and tasty and worth the trader joe's trip! i followed the directions for one bag of trader joe's harvest grain mix (you'll find it with the rice--loaded with israeli cous cous, quinoa and lentils among other goodies) and right before i covered to simmer added the full bag of their dried fruit medley (golden raisins, dried blueberries and cranberries). after it cooled i simply drizzled my favorite blood orange olive oil and added some toasted walnuts. yum. for dessert i was inspired by jasmine's strawberry shortcake splurge and once again relied on my friend joe for their frozen biscuit/shortcake--also worth the trip!--with some freshly whipped cream (a bit of vanilla bean for decadence) and fresh strawberries (so sweet, no sugar needed!).

sunday ryan flew back but the rest of us decided that the weather demanded nothing less than another beach trip. we decided to leave the gear behind and stroll down to crystal cove. it's my favorite strolling beach--while the steep trails and low tide don't make for good sand play the steep cliffs and silty sand are perfect for breathing in ocean air and walking barefoot. we then headed over to the swanky crystal cove promenade and had a lovely al fresco lunch at bristol farms and then dessert and coffee at sprinkles and peets. really, a perfect oc afternoon. we then headed back to ladera for a neighborhood "throw your stuff on the grill" bbq--jenni had picked up some shrimp and i did a quick ponzu-style marinade and brought out the picnic leftovers.

after tucking in a tuckered-out owen we watched bottleshock--a film documenting the 1976 "judgement of paris": california's emergence in the french-dominated wine world. it's a great story with some great actors (alan rickman and bill pullman to name two) but the overall delivery was disappointing--perhaps it was bad editing as there were potential subplots (freddy rodriguez as gustavo brambila to name one) that were untapped and the love triangle was just silly. but it did give me another reason to be thankful for our california sun.

this morning we had a wonderfully lazy morning with our coffee and finally turned on the laptops (check out the boys' office below). we realized we couldn't let jenni & hans leave without having some tacos so we walked over to jalapenos (michael and ryan went on friday)--owen razored on the way there and then crashed out for a much needed nap in the stroller (good foresight mom! wink) on the walk home.

the house is quiet now, but the weather's still lovely and we have all the doors and windows open. i only wish we could share more of these moments with michael's family--casual dinners, shared beers (i didn't even mention all the microbrews those boys enjoyed: honeymoon, metoulis, wingwalker, and sierra nevada torpedo), and just laughing over a good IT crowd episode. until then we're just thankful for these indulgent, restful weekends. . .

slideshow update

keeping with the scandic flashbacks i thought i'd post our norway '08 "boat" pics (most of which were taken "boat watching" from our window)--everything from the little ferry boats to the massive cargo ships. . .

sneaking in california adventures

on saturday we met the innoue-snyder family at lacma (love the nexgen passes we discovered on our playdate with jasmine--which was already 8 months ago!!) and followed owen and sakura around the franz west exhibit. there were some wonderfully existential moments as the little ones discussed the meaning of life and deconstructed mammoth intestinal paper mache.

we then had a stroll up to the farmer's market at fairfax and third and (per matty's insistence) enjoyed an amazing (and quite reasonable) french picnic at monsieur marcel. owen's petite sirlon burgers were amazing--and when i asked for veggies instead of pommes frites (i know, i know, mommy is no fun) they served the sweetest, snappiest green beans lightly sauteed. after eating half of owen's meal i enjoyed a perfect chef's quiche with artichokes and lots of yummy french cheese. tomoko ordered us all the cheese plate and owen and sakura devoured the brie and divvy-ed up the crisp apple slices while we enjoyed the camembert with a nice tempranillo from rjoca-- a wine we've been exploring since michael's been working with some spanish and french wine saveurs.
nicely sated we bought some fresh blackberries and blood oranges and brought them back to the sloths and wooly mammoths at the bubbling tar pits before hopping back on the 405. owen, by the way, hasn't stopped asking when we get to see little sakura again!

overheard at the dinner table

owen: dad, what are you? an artist, a writer, or a science guy?

michael: a science guy

owen: oh, like me!

michael: what is mommy?

owen: she's queen.

swedish thursday 13

we have plane tickets! 11 june for travelers mr. owen f. and ms. cara f. from santa ana-chicago-stockholm! so here are my quick thursday thirteen things i'm looking forward to doing in karlstad:

1. scrapbooking. i'm longing to play with scissors and paper (and cancelled postage stamps and torn restaurant menus and bits of string and sealing wax.)

2. writing. both the academic kind and the keep you sane kind.

3. not being sick.

4. cooking dinner in a one room one stovetop apartment.

5. walking.

6. biking.

7. learning swedish words.

8. riding trains.

9. chocolate.

10. sleeping in one lumpy bed with both my boys.

11. taking family snapshots.

12. not commuting.

13. sending postcards.

mother's day



owen and i spent mother's day in san diego to witness lily's dedication at their uu church in san diego. owen got to ring the gong to start the service (he's always a lucky travelling companion--he gets keys to castles, cuts to the front of the queue, and now mallets for gongs!). we especially enjoyed the music and the reverend dr. arvin straub (who much prefers the archaic moniker parson). lily, of course, was all blossom and beauty!


afterwards we had lunch at the linkery a farm-to-table restaurant with tasty handmade sausages, salamis, bread and microbrews in north park. i brought home some links and hungarian salami for michael to enjoy (he'll be home tomorrow!).

and we ended the afternoon enjoying the fabulous san diego weather out on sal & jennifer's porch. i love this picture of my parents with their grandkids--

the best part of mother's day, though, was getting my mother's day present from owen--they had been working on this "secret" project all week at preschool and i just felt like a "real" mom getting my first signed handprint plaque! we found a special place to put it up in the office so i could be inspired by my big sweetbug... and of course, i get to celebrate swedish mother's day next week with michael ;)

look mom! i ironed!!

going back to scandi!

we're making plans for our (4th!) fidfam overseas adventure and owen and i are counting down the weeks. exactly a year ago we were in copenhagen for an amazing weekend before moving into our norwegian porthole nest--for nostalgia and to get that scandic fever going i've posted them on the slideshow to the right. details to follow. . .

paying up

a quick by the way--i woke up thursday with my left eye glued shut. yup, pinkeye (if you want to see pictures of that eerie virus check out malissa's blog--wink!). guess our day off at the beach caught up with me! luckily i had those nasty sulfacide drops from when owen had it last month--so i just wore some oversized joan didion shades to class yesterday and slathered myself in antibacterial gel. happy it's saturday though...

"owen can read this book!" and that one, and this one, and that one



my favorite part of being in mrs. running's third grade class was by far scholastic book day. and it wasn't just because i always got more books then would reasonably stay bound by the big newspaper rubberband, but because my love of books was always, always fed. there were two things in our house we never went without--fresh fruit and books. even when money was tight we still got apricots (the best were from our tree which mom then made into THE most amazing apricot pies) and blackberries in june. . . and every month when the scholastic book order came i got free run of the scholastic special-run paperbacks (we were also huge fans of the fremont public library--i always brought home as many hardy boys mysteries as i could carry and volunteered every august for those free a's baseball tickets). anyway, how excited was i when we started getting scholastic order forms in owen's preschool cubby?? yesterday when i picked him up from school the director grabbed me and said, oh, don't forget your books! we had to put yours in the box! now, i did order some for baby lily and at $2 a paperback set i couldn't resist! the best part though has been watching owen develop his own love and appreciation of books--he wanted to be sure and read 2 books (i, of course, love that he wanted both the "megatrux" set and the "i love mommy" set) before breakfast and after lunch wanted to read three more and now we'll read another before heading to trader joe's to buy blueberries...
note how owen inserted an"I" --he pointed out to me that "can read this book" isn't right. my little grammarian. hehe. oh, and i'll be posting our faves off to the left as i update our blog!

moral: don't race with your eyes closed


after breakfast this morning owen was peering under the couch where he spied his long-lost DHL airplane. after failed attempts to sweep it out with a library book we had to do a major rescue attempt and move the couch--aka the airport (now, the couch is john wayne santa ana airport and the reading chair is usually chicago or stockholm and the armoire is the jumbo jet holding area).

we found, along with the DHL plane: one red lego, one cars red ramone, the top of a cars stanley statue, a piece of popcorn, a half-chewed rawhide belonging to molly dog, and the plastic covers of two juice box straws. owen looks at the stash, looks at me, and then matter-of-factly says:

ooooh. mom. i KNOW what happened! DHL went under the couch to get Red Ramone and Red Ramone went under the couch because his driver was closing his eyes in the big race and crashed under there and Stanley went under the couch because Red Ramone's driver pushed Stanley there. And Molly dog put her chewy bone down and Papa wasn't being silly but he was doing magic and it rolled under the couch. And that's how it got under there.

seagulls' mother

owen and i called in sick today. and we were, kind of. not any less than the dozen or so students that were quarantined with colds or week six midterm overload. we've been sniffling, and coughing but mostly just needing some sea air. i turned in my application for a "re-appointment" at ucr and as much as i feel anxiety about my observation letter (my meeting with the director spent an awful lot of time talking about things like "directional preferences" and other things that aren't part of my pedagogical vocabulary)and whether or not i'll get "ranked" high enough part of me just doesn't care, half hopes i get cut out with chartruese photocopy paper in the budget overhaul. because i miss writing, and i miss, yes, my dissertation. i had a date night with briget and california the poet laureate and san clemente pier mist and it made me want to trade in our silver jeep commute on the 91 and 241 for a ride on the magic poetry bus.

anyhow, the sick day convinced me that owen is my poet laureate. and that days like today are why he's commissoned with the title. because when we arrived at aliso creek he asked: "mom, why are there so many seagulls at the beach?" and before i could think of an answer he jumped in with "oh, i know. because the beach is their mother." and we buried dinosaurs in the sand, found sea anenomes, and raced the waves.

tomorrow, i promise i'll grade those 1b essays. or not. . .



owen birthday fun

For Owen's 4th birthday this year (last week) we had a special visit from Grandpa & Grandma from the north.

We started on Wednesday with Owen's pre-school birthday party. I picked up some in-and-out burgers for the entire class, and Owen was one popular guy:


Next, we were off to disneyland with mom, dad, Grandma and Grandpa:




Saturday, we had a big bash in the park. Thankfully, the weather cleared up and we had a very nice day:





Uncle Ryan gives a classy shirt and the Mariners have one more fan down in the OC: