The Full Catastrophe

Brian and Oscar ventured out this morning to bring back doughnuts. Such fine young men, right? Here’s my favorite buttermilk bar from Mary’s Donuts paired with a patriotic fruit salad. I love a good buttermilk bar for the contrast of the soft and tangy cake inside against the crunchy crust of super sweet glaze.

Brian got an apple fritter. Look at the size of this thing!

(Note from Brian: for any of you out there concerned about my health, I did NOT eat the entire thing)

Here’s our neighborhood 4th of July parade. It is a very simple event where everyone gathers at the center of our neighborhood and walks together for a couple of blocks. I was so excited to bring my crew down to the parade all decked out in red, white, and blue and with flags attached to our stroller. I started walking with my friend and realized that Oscar wasn’t next to me. After searching the crowd I found him:

He didn’t want to do the parade walk. Do you remember the loser horns from “The Price Is Right”? Wham Wham whaaaaaaam That’s what I felt like. Maybe I’ll get him in the patriotic spirit next year.

A while back I wrote briefly about my family tree on this post along with a photo of Laurel wearing a babushka. Our friend, Lydia, left a comment on that post mentioning a children’s book called “The Keeping Quilt” that I finally read for the first time. It is indeed an amazing book that felt especially poignant to me. My mom’s mom had a stroke recently (and is recovering well, thankfully) and it is my mom’s mom’s family that has the Hungarian heritage. Moses Herschkovitz and his son Emmanuel were born in Hungary and lived in Vienna, Austria where Emmanuel served as a rabbi. They immigrated to the US in the late 1880’s and settled in Denver where they operated the city’s only Jewish bakery. Emmanuel’s son, David, was my great grandfather.

In “The Keeping Quilt” younger generations possess a family quilt which is incorporated in the weddings, births, and other significant moments in their family history. I don’t have any keepsakes from the Herschkovitz’s, but I am so glad that do have my mom & grandma. Here’s a picture of my own Keeping Quilt. made by my mom to celebrate my marriage to Brian.

Laurel’s top two teeth are coming in and she’s been having a tough go of it. I can’t remember Oscar having this much trouble with teething–we were lucky. She’s just been really hard to please lately and she doesn’t just get cranky, she gets hysterical. She’s in pain, no fair! Tonight I was holding her and fixing to cook some frozen edamame for her dinner when she made it abundantly clear that she wanted the food NOW. I gave her a frozen bean and she loved it. I guess they felt good on her little teeth? Here she is with her frozen edamame.

The coolest thing to do in California is not going to Disneyland, it is going to a gay wedding. We got to witness our friend, Dave, marrying his partner of 15 years, Clyde. Dave and Clyde are the most romantic couple I’ve ever met and are a great role model for Brian and me. You would also be humbled to see the devotion that they have for each other. I don’t always cry at weddings, but I cried at this one because this is a couple that was meant to be legally wed YEARS AGO. Better late than never, I suppose.

We are trying to spend our Friday afternoons doing fun stuff for the kids this summer. Last week we went to the beach and today we went to Balboa Park for the zoo and for a ride on the Miniature Railroad Train. It is a simple and sweet ride around some landscaped grounds of the park. We always wave to people walking by like we’re royalty or something. Towards the end of the ride the track takes the train through a tunnel, which both of the kids adore. It was Laurel’s first ride on the train today…I can’t tell you how many times Oscar has ridden.

In honor of our afternoon adventure, Laurel and I read “Carl’s Afternoon in the Park” before her bedtime just now. The illustrations are based on spots in Balboa Park and the story even includes a ride on the train. It is a very sweet book, even sweeter because of our love for Balboa Park.

I was planning on blogging about yesterday’s good stuff* until Brian got himself posted on Lifehacker today! Earlier this week he submitted photos of his home office on Lifehacker’s “Featured Workspace” series and wouldn’t you know it, he’s been featured. More than 11,000 people have read this post already–he’s got his 15 minutes of fame we reckon! The shed-office is entirely his design and creation and he’s done a great job turning 120 square feet into a comfortable place to get work done. It is amazing to see his fellow webizens compliment his effort.

* Yesterday’s Good Stuff
1. I got a triple word score on a Scrabble bingo
2. Oscar decided that we was tired and went to his bed for a nap all by himself

Since we’ve lived in this house we have sadly removed five trees from our property. Brian has claimed that the Crape Myrtle was a mercy kill–it was sick and pitiful. The European White Birch was poorly placed and our lot is small so it had to go. Brian’s dad tied a rope around trunk and his bumper, the gave his truck a little gas in order to yank it out of the ground. Next out were a Lemon Tree and a Queen Palm which were casualties to our home construction project. Until this past winter we had a multi-trunked Melaleuca in our front yard which fell during a rain storm. That one was a tragic loss, it was gorgeous and it shaded our big picture window (we really felt the temperature increase inside during last weekend’s heat spell). We now have just one tree in our garden that we love and treasure. This 25′ Chinese Elm has received very expensive lacing style trim work and really is a pretty specimen. It gives us great shade and oxygen and I’m writing this tribute to our tree so that the universe knows that we want nothing to shorten its life. Today we spotted a hummingbird nest [an Anna's Hummingbird nest (Calypte anna), as a matter of fact] in its branches…I’m just saying that this is one great tree.

Here’s a look at my happy little morning routine. Brian goes to his Kosinski shed…I mean office…everyday at 5 am (Note from Brian: I’m not sure Ted Kaczynski would approve of my shed seeing as how he was calling for a “revolution against technology” - it might be more accurate to refer to it as the anti-Kaczynski shed)and usually I wake up at that time and snuggle in bed until about 5:45 when Oscar comes to find me. We have a thing where I pretend to be asleep until he gives me a kiss, and then I open my eyes and tell him good morning, ask him about his dreams and all that good stuff. Laurel is usually awake at this point, but I WON’T get out of bed until 6 am and once I do get up I’ve got to get a few things taken care of before I get her out of her crib. Stuff like using the bathroom alone and getting the dog out of her crate and loading the day’s podcast of the Bryant Park Project on my ipod. I just love listening to these guys give me the morning news while I make breakfast.

Today’s show included an interview with Richard Florida about his new book, “Who’s Your City?”. They talked about how cities develop and thrive and create these megaregions that are responsible for two-thirds of the world’s economic output as well as 90% of its creative innovations while accounting for 18% of the world’s population. That’s great & exciting news. Nice to hear positive information about the state of our world for a change.

Having grown-up in a rural area, I am surprised how well I’ve adapted to life in a city. I know that San Diego can’t compare to a true urban environment (somewhere I heard SD called a suburb by the sea) but it is a heck of a lot more city than Murphys, right? Anyway, I really do love San Diego and consider it home. The author of this book also has a website with some best-of type lists. I was pleased to see San Diego made it on the top 5 of three of the six lists (best cities for mid-career professionals, best cities for families with children, best cities for gays and lesbians). It is great to have a little outside validation of my hometown…especially when home prices are down something like 20%!

Oscar took his Uncle Matthew and Aunt Turtle to the San Diego County Fair on Sunday. This was their second annual fair trip. Matt & Turtle are really the best for doing this. I’m so glad that Oscar gets to go to the fair and even happier that I didn’t have to go.

After his morning of mini donuts and midway fun we spent the rest of the day playing in his good buddy Sammy’s backyard. On our way home that evening Oscar said out of the blue “I’m not tired.” Uh-huh, of course not.

We sent the flip camera along with the fair goers and Brian put together this highlight reel:

Here’s a quick clip of the fair goers last year. He was so little!