Busy times, good times
Oct. 16th, 2008 10:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mamagotchaReal quick, I just wanted to let everyone know I'm alive and kicking.
First off... a couple of photos from a few weeks back. The week Bill was in Portugal, both the Japan Festival and his company picnic at Worlds of Fun were on the same day. Clay's friend Christian spent the night, and he tagged along gamely for the entire ordeal. Some Japan Fest photos:
At the welcoming arch (yes, Linc has a plastic purple sword. Don't ask.)
The big boys:
The Denver Taiko performance: They were scheduled to put this show in a much smaller theater that was already packed, while a second, much larger theater next door was practically empty and had a couple of martial artists practicing on the stage. I asked an usher about the possibility of moving the taiko to the free stage, and was pointed towards the Japan Festival director, who happened to be wandering by at the moment, quizzically surveying the huge line waiting for the Taiko performance (seriously... it was a couple hundred people). I showed him the empty theater and begged him to consider a quick relocation. He hemmed and hawed for a moment about how important it was to not change horses midstream, then he wandered off again. Soon, it was clear that drums were being moved to the larger stage, and I got to hear the emcee claim that the switch was her brilliant idea. Oh well! In any case, they were awesome:
We dashed back home to let Wiley have a pee-and-play session, then headed out for the company picnic at Worlds of Fun. This place has tickets priced at $40 per person; we would NEVER pay for something like that out of our pockets, so we wanted to take advantage of their invitation even though Bill was out of town. We brought Christian with us, and he rode all the Big Rides with Clay while I squired Lincoln through the kiddie area. We stayed until it closed, and the boys seemed to love every minute of it. Me... well, let's just say I survived.
Linc and Christian on the caterpillar coaster (I think Linc rode it five or six times; Clay took turns riding with him):
We stayed until it closed. I think the boys loved it... me, not so much. But hey, it's one of the things we sign up for as moms, right?
Here's a cute shot from another trip we made to an arboretum over on Kansas side with Jill and her kids:
Our road trip to Lincoln was great; turns out Linc is an awesome traveler and will be a delightful accomplice on further road adventures, I predict. First we visited the children's museum there:
After dinner with Team Rootberry (at The Oven, Indian food, two thumbs up), we wandered around the Haymarket area and found a train jungle gym that was well appreciated:
After the show, we goofed around at the theater for a bit (here's the Rootberries with visiting juggler Tony):
We rolled in at home around 4:30 a.m. Long drive but it flew by too quickly!
Saturday, I volunteered for a few hours at the KC Chocolate Festival, which was more about little kids running around and quantity of commercial chocolate rather than handmade quality stuff (although there was a bit of that there). Still... lots of fun and I think I was able to make a difference.
Saturday night, Bill and Linc and I headed to a little fall festival thingie at Lakeside Nature Center called "Magic Woods." Their hearts were in the right place, but every time they messed up a nature fact or process, Dr. Biologist grumbled over my shoulder. The EcoElvis dude made up for the didactic lectures, though, and it was a lovely evening for a stroll.
Sunday, we had a pile of people over to juggle and play with our visiting friend Bill Berry (guess what his favorite pie is):
Bill found a walking stick amongst the pile of props, and let us all check him out before putting him back in the tree:
Mr. Berry played very nicely with everyone, and then voluntarily led an awesome ball workshop, then coached local jugglers who were working on developing performance routines themselves.
Bill Berry and new juggler Jess:
I whipped up a pasta and salad dinner (from scratch) for 10 in about 20 minutes. The evening ended with the rediscovery of my egg-spinning board (hey, look: someone else spins eggs, too!.
Monday, my friend Monica and I got to hear the Yarn Harlot speak. We made an evening of it, with a lovely dinner beforehand. We spotted many knitter friends, and made some progress on our own pieces. Much gabbing happened, and it was good. To my utter astonishment, Stephanie remembered me from my comments and an email exchange we had a while back. Or maybe she just says that to everybody. It was still a happy thrill for me, anyway.
A couple of quiet days, and last night we met Bill and Jess for a goodbye dinner (he and Jonathan are off on a tour to perform for the troops in the Middle East) at Nara, a hip Japanese sushi place downtown I've wanted to check out for a while now. It was (as sushi places so often are) quite good but expensive. I felt kinda old in there. Linc ate the better part of an entire order of edamame. Then we came home and watched the debate on Hulu, along with catching up on the latest polls. You all know about this little toy, right?
Today we got ready to take off for St. Louis early tomorrow. We'll be visiting the City Museum, juggling at the StL Jugglefest (and staying at a funky old hotel) meeting one of my Mothering dot commune friends, maybe squeezing in a trip to the Magic House on Sunday, and back that night. Clay totally cleaned out the van, bless him... it's all bright and sparkly now, ready to hit the road first thing in the morning.
Time for some hay-hitting.
First off... a couple of photos from a few weeks back. The week Bill was in Portugal, both the Japan Festival and his company picnic at Worlds of Fun were on the same day. Clay's friend Christian spent the night, and he tagged along gamely for the entire ordeal. Some Japan Fest photos:
At the welcoming arch (yes, Linc has a plastic purple sword. Don't ask.)
The big boys:
The Denver Taiko performance: They were scheduled to put this show in a much smaller theater that was already packed, while a second, much larger theater next door was practically empty and had a couple of martial artists practicing on the stage. I asked an usher about the possibility of moving the taiko to the free stage, and was pointed towards the Japan Festival director, who happened to be wandering by at the moment, quizzically surveying the huge line waiting for the Taiko performance (seriously... it was a couple hundred people). I showed him the empty theater and begged him to consider a quick relocation. He hemmed and hawed for a moment about how important it was to not change horses midstream, then he wandered off again. Soon, it was clear that drums were being moved to the larger stage, and I got to hear the emcee claim that the switch was her brilliant idea. Oh well! In any case, they were awesome:
We dashed back home to let Wiley have a pee-and-play session, then headed out for the company picnic at Worlds of Fun. This place has tickets priced at $40 per person; we would NEVER pay for something like that out of our pockets, so we wanted to take advantage of their invitation even though Bill was out of town. We brought Christian with us, and he rode all the Big Rides with Clay while I squired Lincoln through the kiddie area. We stayed until it closed, and the boys seemed to love every minute of it. Me... well, let's just say I survived.
Linc and Christian on the caterpillar coaster (I think Linc rode it five or six times; Clay took turns riding with him):
We stayed until it closed. I think the boys loved it... me, not so much. But hey, it's one of the things we sign up for as moms, right?
Here's a cute shot from another trip we made to an arboretum over on Kansas side with Jill and her kids:
Our road trip to Lincoln was great; turns out Linc is an awesome traveler and will be a delightful accomplice on further road adventures, I predict. First we visited the children's museum there:
After dinner with Team Rootberry (at The Oven, Indian food, two thumbs up), we wandered around the Haymarket area and found a train jungle gym that was well appreciated:
After the show, we goofed around at the theater for a bit (here's the Rootberries with visiting juggler Tony):
We rolled in at home around 4:30 a.m. Long drive but it flew by too quickly!
Saturday, I volunteered for a few hours at the KC Chocolate Festival, which was more about little kids running around and quantity of commercial chocolate rather than handmade quality stuff (although there was a bit of that there). Still... lots of fun and I think I was able to make a difference.
Saturday night, Bill and Linc and I headed to a little fall festival thingie at Lakeside Nature Center called "Magic Woods." Their hearts were in the right place, but every time they messed up a nature fact or process, Dr. Biologist grumbled over my shoulder. The EcoElvis dude made up for the didactic lectures, though, and it was a lovely evening for a stroll.
Sunday, we had a pile of people over to juggle and play with our visiting friend Bill Berry (guess what his favorite pie is):
Bill found a walking stick amongst the pile of props, and let us all check him out before putting him back in the tree:
Mr. Berry played very nicely with everyone, and then voluntarily led an awesome ball workshop, then coached local jugglers who were working on developing performance routines themselves.
Bill Berry and new juggler Jess:
I whipped up a pasta and salad dinner (from scratch) for 10 in about 20 minutes. The evening ended with the rediscovery of my egg-spinning board (hey, look: someone else spins eggs, too!.
Monday, my friend Monica and I got to hear the Yarn Harlot speak. We made an evening of it, with a lovely dinner beforehand. We spotted many knitter friends, and made some progress on our own pieces. Much gabbing happened, and it was good. To my utter astonishment, Stephanie remembered me from my comments and an email exchange we had a while back. Or maybe she just says that to everybody. It was still a happy thrill for me, anyway.
A couple of quiet days, and last night we met Bill and Jess for a goodbye dinner (he and Jonathan are off on a tour to perform for the troops in the Middle East) at Nara, a hip Japanese sushi place downtown I've wanted to check out for a while now. It was (as sushi places so often are) quite good but expensive. I felt kinda old in there. Linc ate the better part of an entire order of edamame. Then we came home and watched the debate on Hulu, along with catching up on the latest polls. You all know about this little toy, right?
Today we got ready to take off for St. Louis early tomorrow. We'll be visiting the City Museum, juggling at the StL Jugglefest (and staying at a funky old hotel) meeting one of my Mothering dot commune friends, maybe squeezing in a trip to the Magic House on Sunday, and back that night. Clay totally cleaned out the van, bless him... it's all bright and sparkly now, ready to hit the road first thing in the morning.
Time for some hay-hitting.