Marriage Proposals
Fluffy's class was dancing or something yesterday. When they were done, her classmate Joseph gave her a big hug and said, "You're so cute!" She told me it was "so embarrassing" and "it was a good thing he didn't do it when the fourth graders were around." (Scooter is a fourth grader) She said TWO boys like her, Joseph and Dale. Joseph has "had a crush" on her since the day she showed up at Scooter's soccer practice back in September (Joseph's brother John played on Scooter's team). But Dale wants to marry her.

In preschool, Fluffy was planning to marry Ty and Patrick. By the time she was five, she decided she no longer wanted to marry Ty, because "he always sticks his hand in his pants."

Party Animals
Another busy weekend for us Bunnies. On Thursday, Fluffy & I went to Lauren's house again to finish the scrapbook for Molly.

Friday, Scooter & I saw Harry Potter.

Saturday was busy, busy, busy. Fluffy, Scooter & I went to Thea's birthday party at our favorite place, Chuck E. Cheese. From there we went to the Rainbow Kiddie Cocktail party at Lauren's house and hung out for a few hours before we had to leave for Fluffy's softball team party and game. After that we went back to Lauren's house for a BBQ. Looking back, we left the house at 9:30 in the morning, and didn't come home until 11:30 that night. THAT was a long day!

On Sunday we went to the annual Cheyenne graduation / picnic / water war. We seem to get a smaller turnout each year. We had a great time, especially when it came time for the water war. I have a feeling I was the only mom running around and getting into the action. It's just a matter of time before my kids realize this and start getting embarrassed by it. Hee hee!

Interjections
Fluffy's latest favorite expression is "Oh dear!" She says it with a very even, ladylike tone. She sure isn't taking her cues from me; otherwise, she'd be saying "Oh shit" and "Goddammit!"

Possums from Heaven
Michael spent the last week moving out of his apartment into the new condo he just bought. He came back to work yesterday and started to tell us about his moving adventures. "You know how that possum fell into my kitchen. Well..."

"Wait!" we all cried. "How'd a possum FALL into your kitchen? And what do you mean, ANOTHER possum?"

Well, a few years ago, while Michael was away on vacation, a possum fell through a hole in the ceiling into Michael's kitchen. It was a big possum, which Michael's friend chased out of the apartment. You can imagine what the place looked like when he returned...

So last week Michael was watching TV and heard something in the kitchen. Deja vu... Another possum fell through the ceiling. This one was a little smaller, presumably "Son-of-Possum." Michael thinks he came to say goodbye on behalf of the big Possum.

Tiger Tournament - Memorial Day Weekend
Fluffy and the Sparklers played in a basketball tournament this weekend. The girls have come a long way since they started playing together last August. Some of them seem like naturals, while others have to put more thought and effort into it, but overall everyone has improved, and they seem to enjoy playing together.

We dragged ourselves over to Monterey Park early Saturday, Sunday and Monday mornings. On Monday, we found out that our team was working the shaved ice booth that day, and that there was an awards ceremony at 4:00 that afternoon. No big deal, we thought, we can stick around to help. It turned out to be really hot and a great day for shaved ice. We made around 500 shaved ices, and we even had to turn away customers when we ran out of ice. We were pooped by the time it was over, but we had a lot of fun, and we made a nice little profit to go into our gym rental fund.

Star Student of the Week
Every kid in Mrs. Henderson's class gets to be Star Student for a week. Since Fluffy's birthday is in July and she loses contact with her school friends over the summer, we made arrangements to celebrate her un-birthday during her star week. Notes went home to the parents letting them know that lunch would be provided for their kids on Friday.

So Thursday night I was in the bathroom and Fluffy came in and barfed in the sink. Turns out she had a mild stomach virus, just enough so she couldn't go to school on Friday.

So is it ironic, or is it apropos, that we celebrated an un-birthday for a guest of honor who didn't show up for her own party?

Pow Wow 2004
Spent another weekend with Fluffy and the Rainbows, this time in Idyllwild or wherever the hell we were. Actually, we didn't spend the weekend; it just felt like it. Stayed up really late Friday night, packing, preparing food, making nation t-shirts. Finally went to bed at 12:30, and got up at 4:00 in the morning! Vickey and Lauren picked us up and we were on the road by 6:00. We got to Hurkey Creek in time to make breakfast! Wow!

We made these really cool drums out of coffee cans. Fluffy painted my arm with paint that is not suitable for skin. I now have suntan on my arm in the shape of a flower.

We listened to stories told by "The Grizz," who is a Cherokee/Creek Indian.

The weather was much more pleasant than last year. The crowd was smaller, too, with about 25-50% fewer attendees than last year. I sure hope they have it again next year, because I wouldn't mind going. It was kind of nice to go just for the day, too, because we didn't have to worry about putting up and taking down our tent.

Camp Whittle
Spent the weekend with Fluffy and a couple hundred parents & kids at Camp Whittle. Weather was great. We didn't participate in too many of the planned activities, but the kids had fun. We let the girls plan and execute their own skit. I doubt anyone really understood what they were doing; our own tribe didn't quite get it.

A couple of chipmunks tried to take over the lodge, but they couldn't take all the screaming and left.

It was a very relaxing pace, but I still came home exhausted. You never heard such snoring until you've slept in a cabin full of tired children and women on sleeping pills.

Mix It Up?
Is it weird that whenever I stay in a hotel, motel, whatever, I always rearrange the furniture to my liking?

Chicago - Revisited
I was looking at a photolog site, and was reminded of my last trip to Chicago. Wow, I can't believe it was a year ago already. That was definitely a fun trip, although technically it was a business trip. Yeah, I did work during the day at a trade show, but even that was fun, meeting customers from all over the country, and getting freebies from other vendors. It was just me and a guy named Randy from Chicago working the booth.

At night I was on my own. It's different when you're traveling by yourself, rather than with a large group of co-workers. I wandered by myself up Michigan Avenue and down side streets. Stores closed a lot earlier than I thought they would, so I was usually back at my hotel room by 8:00 or so.

I spent one night hunting all over for the Billy Goat Tavern, which was recommended by the guy next to me on the plane. What a dive! Cheezborgers and chips. No fries! It was great! Another night I caught a cab and had dinner at a restaurant in "Greek Town." Caught another cab back to what I guess is downtown to find a jazz club recommended by the hotel concierge. I must have walked a mile trying to find it. Turns out he gave me the wrong directions. I finally found it, paid my cover, found a seat, and waited for the music. Slowly it dawned on me that the entire club was one huge lesbian birthday party. Oh well, I'm cool, I thought, I can still hang out and enjoy the music. I was a bit disappointed no one tried to hit on me.

Here in California, we have Japan Town (or Little Tokyo), Little Saigon, Koreatown, Chinatown. In Chicago, I saw Greek Town and Polish Town. We've got a lot of frou-frou restaurants catering to food snobs. They've got a restaurant dedicated to Weber Grills.

Scooter was on the Cubs last year. So he asked me to get him a baseball autographed by Sammy Sosa (I guess he's a Cub?). I searched all over town, and finally found a baseball with the entire team's autographs (rubber stamped). It was ten bucks. Scooter still thinks they're real autographs.

Happy Birthday, Scooter
I'm surprised Scooter didn't fling himself on our bed demanding birthday presents. Instead I found him and Fluffy watching cartoons.

Spent the morning doing tons of laundry and screaming at Fluffy. Scooter and Guido went out to spend the birthday $$ from Grandma on a skateboard.

That afternoon while Fluffy and I made Fimo flowers, Scooter practiced outside. Fluffy is so funny. She ran off to "see how the boy is doing with his skateboarding." This is what I hear from the back door:

"Are you okay?"
"Okay, I'll be right out!"
"buzz buzz...doctor...buzz buzz...hospital...Mom! Scooter needs you!"

He was okay. But now he hates skateboarding.

We had dinner at Shiro in Pasadena. You know you eat out too often when your six-year-old knows the difference between moose, mouse and mousse, and she can spell souffle.

They actually do have pretty sophisticated tastes, which is very nice for the rare occasions when we deviate from the norm of Rascal's, Curry House, Souplantation, and El Burrito Jr. Shiro does NOT cater to kids, so instead of macaroni & cheese, they enjoyed ravioli stuffed with shrimp mousse, smothered with a shiitake/shimeji mushroom cream sauce, and lobster/scallop/seabass springrolls in yuzu sauce.

It was technically a Mother's Day dinner, but the waiter stuck a candle in Scooter's ice cream, and he got his third Happy Birthday for the weekend.

Happy Pre-Birthday Scooter!
Fun weekend!

Friday after work I went to pick up Fluffy from softball practice to take her to basketball practice. As a surprise, the coach arranged for the ice cream truck to swing by the park and he treated the team to ice cream. So Fluffy had ice cream for dinner, and then we went to Adventure Plex to work it off, her on the basketball court and me on the machines. After practice, we had a REAL dinner at Panda Express with a few teammates.

We all had haircuts Saturday morning. It saves us time, and our hair guy gives us a little discount because we all come in at once. And we get the added benefit of playing with Riley the dog.

Guido picked up Scooter to whisk him off to his baseball game. As soon as Fluffy and I were done, we raced over to Ralph's to pick up a special order of birthday cupcakes to surprise Scooter and his team.

Although they lost, it was an especially good game for Scooter, because he hit a home run! The team sang Happy Birthday to him, and we all had cupcakes. I think he was pleasantly surprised by the overall turn of events.

That afternoon, after Fluffy's game, they both went over to play with Andrew, Caitlin, Steffani, Sarah, Connor and Sean.

We ate dinner at Ruby's and Scooter got his second Happy Birthday song.

Ole!
The fourth graders are on a field trip to Olvera Street. Scooter tells me it's supposed to be very crowded since Cinco de Mayo was yesterday. He's been on field trips to places like the Getty and the Long Beach Aquarium. But this is Olvera Street - downtown L.A., crowded, no hablamos ingles, a breeding area for all the infectious diseases that have crossed the border illegally. My only memory (and a quite vivid one) of that place is of a street vendor sauteing onions and hotdogs while hundreds of flies buzz around and land on the food, and the same hand that cooks the food also scratches a nose, runs through the guy's greasy hair, handles the money, swats at flies.

Side note - Mexican-born co-worker says the vendors will try to rip off the little white kids from Torrance.

Soccer Time
Scooter practiced with his friend's club team. I think that pretty much killed his desire to join a club. Those guys were so good, they just blew him away. He says he wasn't intimidated, but I think he was. Whenever something becomes a little more challenging, he gives up. Hate to say this, but the kid is kind of a quitter. He must get that from his parents.

Values
A friend asked Fluffy what her favorite part of her road trip was. I assumed it would be the Jelly Belly factory or riding a mud wagon drawn by horses or panning for gold. But instead Fluffy said the best part was seeing her grandparents. So it was definitely worth driving the extra one or two hundred miles, skipping Sacramento, and spending an extra day on our trip.

I'm not big on tradition or familial duty. But I am glad that we made it to see Gung Gung in the nursing home. Scooter and Fluffy were the first grandkids to visit him, even though we live hundreds of miles away. And even though Guido always complained every Christmas about having to take his parents to Sacramento to put flowers on the graves of relatives buried there, I'm glad that we did. Scooter is the only grandchild who has ever paid his respects.

What goes around comes around.

The Usual Weekend Stuff
Both animals had baseball practice on Friday.

I can't even remember what we did on Saturday. Oh yeah, I rode my bike around the neighborhood, nearly killing myself as I biked UP the hill by the little league field. I thought I was going to pass out. I was weaving back and forth trying to move forward and not fall off. Ha! I didn't have to get off and walk. And I had a nice ride down the hill after that. Wheeee!

That afternoon both animals had baseball games. This season Scooter has had a batting average of zero. Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration. But he always jumps back whenever the ball comes near, and then it's a strike. Many sessions at the batting case have not helped. I finally offered him money for this last game: a dollar if you hit the ball, and a dollar for every base you make it to on that hit. I got to the game a little late and he informed me that I owed him money. Seems he and Guido ran into the West High baseball coach at the cages before the game and got a few pointers. I am sooooo glad he finally hit the ball!

As soon as the games were over, we sped over to Laser Storm to play with the Coyotes and Crows. It was a lot of fun, even though we suck big time!

From there Fluffy went off with Caitlin and her family to the Fiesta at OLG. And wouldn't you know it, she "won" a goldfish. (This is how we got our first one: The carnival was packing up and they were trying to get rid of all the goldfish. They offered one to 2-year-old Scooter, who of course wanted it. That night Guido had to run out and buy all the stuff that goes with the FREE goldfish.)

Sunday morning Scooter and I went biking again. It was HOT. That afternoon Fluffy and I had to meet the Navajos at Michaels to get our potlatch stuff. More work.

We took Guido to Coyote Cantina for his birthday dinner. It's his new favorite place. Very nice, comfortable neighborhood place.

In between I did a few loads of laundry. Scooter remarked how I hardly do any housework these days. I should slap his head. He's turning into his father.

I noticed Scooter has a put a little more meat on his bones. He's been eating like a pig. Guido usually puts very strict limits on how much he lets Scooter eat, but recently I've been letting Scooter go for it, as long as he doesn't make himself sick. After all, he's a growing boy! He's still far from fat, but not the scrawny little Scooter we're used to.

My Boyfriend
Here's another one...

In preschool, Scooter fell in love with the new girl. I asked what she looks like, and he said, "Like you!"

Village People
Someone at work mentioned a street in Downey where all the houses on the street are really tiny. I said, "You mean it's like a village of midgets?" That got Belinda going. She thought I was weird to come up with the word "village." Maybe I read too many fantasy novels. I could picture it in my head. A street lined with little Victorian houses, each one home to a dwarf family. Looks like a village to me.

I had a journal. It was filled mostly with nonsense. So I threw it away. Before I had a chance to copy the really good stuff into another journal. So I have to write these things down before I forget them. When I'm old, and my children have left me to entertain myself in my own mind, I'll have these things to remember...

Fluffy calling her preschool teachers Mr. Jeremy "Mr. Germy" and Mr. Frank "Mr. Fink."

Scooter, who pronounced the TR sound with an F instead, and trying to say dump truck. Hee hee hee! (1-1/2 yrs)

Fluffy, when she heard that there were coyotes and bears at camp, exclaimed, "Coyotes?! Bears?! I'm not going!" But when asked, she didn't even know what a coyote was. (5 yrs)

Scooter, asking if those two little granny ladies in the bathroom at Macy's were idiots. (2 yrs)

Fluffy, singing every night while she blow dries her hair. (always)

Scooter, asking if maybe we're already in heaven and don't even know it. (5 yrs)

Fluffy, lying on the bed and saying, "Tickle me!" (6 yrs)

Scooter, saying he can't wait to see poison ivy so he can touch it! (9 yrs)

Fluffy, calling her pediatric rheumatologist Dr. Bernstein "Dr. Bernstein Bears." (4 yrs)

Scooter, telling me he's going to live next door to me when he grows up so he can take me to Souplantation and invite me to BBQs on the weekend. (4 yrs)

Fluffy, saying that the driver in the car next to us wasn't paying attention to driving because he was too busy saying to his girlfriend, "Oooh, you're so cute." (4 yrs)

Scooter, giving me a ring, announcing that we are married, and saying now we have to dance. (3 yrs)

Dr. Scooter
It's funny how little snippets of past events will pop up in my head and refuse to leave. This happened last year:

Scooter, brandishing a pair of pliers and chasing Fluffy's friend Thea through the house, calling to her, "Let me remove that for you!"

No idea what he was planning to remove, or from where. It's like walking into the middle of an ongoing conversation.