Sunday, December 9, 2018

Fall 2018



In August, we celebrated Tyson's 42nd birthday. I thought Tyson didn't want us to celebrate his birthday, so instead planned to celebrate the 42nd anniversary of the day Anne Marie made the world a better place. But somehow the cake landed in front of him.


So did the presents.



Tyler's first school project for 3rd grade was to photograph plants. He did a great job!


Such a relief that he once again has a teacher who inspires a love of learning, and seems to enjoy the pleasure of his company! BASIS is known for being a very challenging school, and since Tyler doesn't enjoy doing anything that wasn't his idea, homework time can be pretty rough. But any time of day when I approach the school yard, I hear children's laughter, and the kids are never in a hurry to leave at the end of the day.

Tyler earned his youth purple belt. He is great at grappling - he's strong, he's solid, and he has good technique. I have a video of him grappling with his arch rival, CJ, and Sensei Tony is heard encouraging CJ, "Good job CJ, just try to survive." Meanwhile, Tyler is known for being gentle and kind to the younger, smaller kids.





I'm still studying krav maga, and just starting to get ready for my Level 2 test. This request requires sparring. I was given advice from a Level 4 (brown belt) - a grown up version of Tyler named Amir - large stature, skilled, intimidating, yet kind. He told me, "I'm just going to keep wearing you out because I can outreach you. You need to move in." I answered, "I'm afraid of you. You could kill me." He replied, "You're going to have to learn to eat some punches. Move in." I wrote down this advice several months in a row on my fitness calendar. I also overheard my instructor coaching a new student, another big guy, who had years of experience but was out of practice, to work with me, saying, "She is brutal - do NOT go easy on her." Hearing that made me realize, I better always stay on my game, or else I risk getting seriously hurt. So I wrote that down to, to help motivate me to keep training hard.

The training paid off - in my first sparring class, when I went up against a black belt, yet another big guy, I took Amir's advice, and kept advancing upon my opponent. I smiled the whole time to remind him that I didn't have a mouth guard. Amir was right, by staying close to my partner, he couldn't hit me as hard. The teacher was filming, and he exlaimed, "Cheryl's a brawler! She doesn't give a f---! She's all, 'I will punch you in the face, even if it means I get hit.'" At that point, my partner performed a take down, and down I went. But you just gotta get back up and keep going. One minute feels like a long time. Four minutes is exhausting. The last level 2 test, they sparred for 26 minutes. I have my work cut out for me. Guess it's time to buy some equipment and start sparring on a regular basis.


For Halloween, Tyler decided to be a World War II soldier. He found a jacket at our local Walmart. I found camo cargo pants at a different Walmart. We ordered what we thought was a helmet from e-bay, waited for it to ship from China, only to discover we had paid $8 for a net. Our oversight. So we ordered a helmet from Amazon for $13. Tyson found Tyler a toy M-16 at Miller's surplus. I helped him paint his face camo colors. Overall, we probably spent $50, but, he wears the jacket every day to school, he wears the pants at least once a week to school, the jacket came with a tshirt that he also wears, and he seriously wears the helmet and plays with the gun for at least 30 minutes a day on school days, and longer on the weekends. Our front yard is perfect for sniping and ambushing, as is the truck.


We used to go to either Buckelew Farms or Marana Pumpkin Patch to select a pumpkin, but we realized the price of admission for 4 people was out of control, not to mention the long drive. Brian & Kelly's pumpkin patch works just fine for our purposes.



Tyrien decided to dress as Pocoyo - a little boy who wears all blue. We ordered a hat, sweatpants and hooded jacket online from Amazon. We spent about $40. But, just like Tyler,  he's wearing the clothes to school on a  regular basis. Tyson's strategy of avoiding store bought Halloween costumes is paying off.



To entice more trick or treaters to visit our house, I put up purple lights early in October, all the way around the Holmes and the Irving side of our house. This way, students attending Peter Howel Elementary School and people driving along Irving would know that we are big on Halloween. I also taped black construction paper bats up on the wall. Unfortunately, it rained quite a bit and they fell down. I never got around to fixing it. But still, at least we got the message out there early.

Next, I listed our house on the Next-Door Trick or Treat map as a "haunted house" instead of just "passing out candy." This forced me to up the ante, in case people believed that it really was a haunted house. I bought a skeleton, named him Javi (short for Javier). Tyson was concerned that he would get stolen, so I used a cable lock to secure him to the bars on our front window, and then added Christmas lights. I also got a guy who Tyler named "Null" who I hung from our roof. Unfortunately, he did not show up very much. I'll have to do something else with him next year.

At some point I installed the blacklights in the carport light. Then I waited until the Sunday before Halloween to add the tombstones and cobwebs, and began measuring white streamers, so that Halloween morning I could hang them up quickly.  Halloween morning I work up early to make brains using gelatin and tonic water. I also made jars of eyeballs with gelatin and tonic water, and other specimen jars with tonic water and food coloring.  Halloween morning was still too early to hang stuff - it rained and was very windy, so I had to re-hang alot of stuff Halloween evening. I left work at 4:15 to do so, and wished for more time. I added more cobwebs and spiders and put out the other black lights and the fog machine. Finally, I set up the spider spotlight and added spooky music.









These strategies worked. Cars stopped in front of our house, I'd see people looking on their phones and saying, "Yup, this is the one." Parents and kids alike expressed appreciation for the house, with some kids telling parents "This house is awesome!" as they walked up the driveway, before they could even see the decor. Kids dissected the brains, they quickly dissolved into a mess. Next year I should make several and replenish them. We did a good job of forcing kids to walk through the streamers this year. One kid complained, "This is not a haunted house!" and then the fogger went off, scaring the crap out of him. He thought a spider was on his neck and frantically tried to get it off his back.

Happy Fall!

Sunday, September 30, 2018

Keith Family's Summer Vacation 2018




San Francisco!

Tyson suggested we go to San Franscisco for our vacation this summer. It was the best vacation we've had in years!

This was Tyrien's first time flying since he was a baby. He packed his red ladybug backpack and was ready to go well in advance of our departure time. He was pumped! So pumped, in fact...


Same for Tyler.


So excited!!!


Tyler has flown more than  any kid I know his age, even though this was his first flight in three years. He's a pro.


I can't get the video to play on hear, but Tyrien's reaction to take off was priceless.
Tyler - "Tyrien! Get ready for takeoff!"
Tyrien - "Okay! I'm ready!"
Tyrien - "Mom! I see the plane! We're going too fast! Stop! Stop! Turn it off! I can't! I can't! Turn it off, please stop! Just stop it, turn it off!"

It's not on the video, but after his initial terrorized yet joyful panic attack, he said, "Oooh, I like it!"

Tyler did a great job teaching Tyrien how to travel.


Starting with baggage claim...



Ground transportation via Uber...


We arrived at the hotel just a few minutes before midnight. We ordered delivery for dinner, and barely ate before crashing out. Hotel Zoe. It was a great locale for us - close to everything we needed. The room was small, but got us through the week. And they had delicious coffee, infused water, and hot cocoa every morning.

The next morning, Tyson got us up and moving, walking four miles to the Golden Gate Bridge.










Our attempt at a family photo was foiled by low blood sugar, scraped knees, soggy pants, and the general irritability that comes with windy conditions and lack of sleep.


Yeah...we took a bus back.

But chose to get off early enough to walk by Ghiradelli Square.



We realized we needed a cheaper and more timely source of sustenance. We didn't have a kitchen, but did have a mini-fridge. Peanut butter and bread, and rotisserie chicken. Meals for days.

After a much needed nap, we walked over to Fisherman's Wharf and found a cool house of mirrors.



And a carousel. Tyrien still blisses out on carousels.



The next day, we took the bus on a scenic route (code for, got distracted by cool buildings and got on the wrong bus, so ended up in the financial distric, desperate for a bathroom, then finally were able to get on a bus going the right direction...) to the Museum of Science.




The next day was our adventurous journey to Walnut Creek!


Tyrien experienced his first subway ride. Again, can't show the video, but it's pretty funny.
"What's going on? What's going on out there? What is that?"




My Aunt Carol picked us up at the subway station. This was the first time I'd ever been to there house. Funny, sending Christmas cards to the same address for 40+ years, and finally seeing the house for the first time.

Aunt Carol and Uncle Chuck told us wonderful stories of childhood, coast guard years, about their kids and grandkids. Seeing photos of my cousins, Steve, Amy and Gary, was so fun. And so was seeing a familiar photo of my dad's parents - Florence Irene and William John Glass.


Next, they took us to their neighborhood park.




Then a trip to their neighborhood pool. We had a great time swimming.




Then alas, it was time to go back to San Franscisco. Aunt Carol gave us a ride back to the subway station. And soon enough...


We spent the Fourth of July celebrating our independence by visiting Angel Island and Alcatraz. We took the ferry from Fisherman's Wharf.



Tyrien's first ferry ride!



We passed by Alcatraz, then headed over to Angel Island.


We took a tram around Angel Island.


We wished we had more time there and that we could have explored the island on bikes. It was beautiful. Angel Island is the west coast version of Ellis Island, and the tram tour included translated readings from poems and writings found in the walls inside, where immigrants were kept for years, waiting to "prove" impossible-to-prove facts about their ancestors, such as where their great-grandparents were buried so that they could gain entry to the country. Being here on Independence Day seemed particularly poignant given the current political climate.



Angel Island had also been used as a military base, to defend the Golden Gate bridge.





At Alcatrez, we started with a tour. I think Tyler was confused as to his role.


I loved hearing the docent's stories, but realized Tyrien's attention span was overspent. We headed inside and received headsets for the audio tour. Tyrien had a hard time. He wanted to be carried, he kept ripping my headset off, squirming non-stop,  he couldn't get comfortable. He was so hard to carry that I set him on the floor. He proceeded to have a fullblown tantrum  on the floor in one of the cell blocks, so I took advantage and put him in time out in one of the solitary confinement cells, because at moments when you feel frustrated with your child, and frustrated with yourself, and aware of people glaring at you with facial expressions that say "You're RUINING my vacation" - you have to find SOME humor in the moment. He slept soundly in my arms for the duration of the tour and for most of the ferry ride home. Three year olds just aren't built to recover from lack of sleep and changes in schedule the way eight year olds are!  Had it been Tyler at age 3, we would have brought the BOB (jogging stroller), because we would have known he couldn't walk 4 miles or stay awake for long hours. But Tyrien loves to run, and is so small that he is easily carried, it never occurred to us to bring a stroller. We'd forgettn that he'd fall asleep with ease in a stroller instead of trying to find a comfortable position in our arms as we walked. Sorry, Tyr. How quickly we forget. (Hey, remember that time when you were 15 hours old and we took you to the doctor without bringing a diaper bag? Yeah. You'd think second-time parents would have their act together...)

Lombard Street!





I just can't get over this bouganvillea.


Seriously.


We also walked to the Cable Car Museum.


Here's a cute picture...


Here's the realistic one.


Next, we had to catch a cable car! Easier said than done...


Tyrien's first cable car ride!


Tyler's too, but he enjoys standing.




Our adventures continued in Chinatown...








And the Imaginarium...



We learned that it's best to explore a museum in groups of two due to the age gap and difference in attention spans. Three year olds want to stay on the same display endlessly, while 8 year olds want to see what's next! Tyson and Tyler went one direction, Tyrien and I went another. Made for a much more enjoyable experience!

We reconvened for the trip to Coit Tower.




And decided we didn't want to wait 45 minutes AND pay $11 per person to ride the elevator to the top.


One last look, and it was time to prepare for the journey home.


By prepare, I mean, stop at a local brewery. Tyrien was...upset.


Fountains fix everything.


One good night's rest, a 3:30am wakeup call, found an Uber driver with ease, and boarded the plane with time to spare. The boys chose to ride together for the journey home...


 We loved San Franscisco! Tyrien keeps asking, "Where's my hotel?" He can't wait to go back. Time to start planning the next adventure. Yellowstone? Niagara Falls? Who knows?