The Wonderful Happens

Remembrance Day Walk

2009-11-11T20:27:00.000-08:00

Effie and I went for a little walk in the direction of the ocean today.

Oh look! What have we here? Remnants of a vehicle fire perhaps?? Look how close it came to endangering the sleeping inhabitants of our house!

Here's Eff with a spot-on impression of her Dad's grump face at the sight of the new "trail-o-destruction" that the marina has plugged in from the road.

This bridge has been affected by some floods and no longer fills us with confidence at its keeping-us-dry capabilities. A good quality in a bridge that.

Some of Eff's photos of the scenery...

Bizzaro Morning

2009-11-08T19:47:00.000-08:00

Advice for the masses :: if you are awoken to the sound of an explosion at seven o'clock on a saturday morning and then you look outside to see a massive fireball coming from the direction of the road and then you rush, half-naked, down to said road and notice a vehicle on the shoulder completely engulfed in flames with nary a soul around and then you scurry back up the hill to your house to call in the fire department and then you race back down, completely clothed this time, to check that the fire hasn't spread from the car and the grass to your trees... do not as a next step - and this is the advice bit - do not wake up your blissfully ignorant and slumbering spouse to inform them that they should not be alarmed when a squadron of fire trucks suddenly shut off their sirens outside your driveway.

Apparently it is not necessary or appropriate and furthermore, NO ONE CARES about your little so called emergencies!

You have been warned.

Random recent photos of a non-explosive nature...

Chicagoland vacation video

2009-11-03T19:36:00.000-08:00

Planes, trains, automobiles, boats and pigeons...

From Olivia Newton John to Fungus

2009-11-02T20:35:00.000-08:00

Effie’s wild Sunday of genre-flipping, movie watching madness consisted of 1980’s bizarre roller-disco trompe de Olvia Newton-John, Xanadu, followed by the 1951 version of Show Boat, then Bride and Prejudice - the bollywood-esque remake of Pride and Prejudice - and finally, BBC period piece/ mini-series, Cranford.

By the time she said good night she had perfected a spot-on middle class English accent circa 1840. I’m so grateful that she watched Cranford last as opposed to Xanadu!

Eff did manage to take a mid-movie marathon break and go on a mushroom hunt. I won’t post all 160 (ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY!) of the mushroom and assorted Fall scenes photos that she took, but here are a few:

Biggest Haul Ever

2009-10-31T21:19:00.000-07:00

We came out of our seasonal yuck just in time for Halloween. At one point the yuck found both Gillian and I zonked out during the daytime. To this, Fergus compassionately observed: "If you guys are just going to sleep all day why did you bother having kids anyway?"

We finally found the strength to carve our pumpkins this morning:

For trick or treating, Effie wore the wolf costume Grannie made 30 plus years ago! Yeah Grannie!!!
Gillian went as Anders Flanders from Detektivbyrån:

See! (Anders Flanders, far right)...

Our regular plans for a halloween trip up-island had been cancelled so we joined a group of fellow rural dwellers and hit a particularly active subdivision in town. This was the first time I had ever heard of trick or treating while it was still light out but it seemed to work. We actually had a rain free, warmish, full-moon night.

Here's the embarrassing haul. These pics also show the different styles between these two - one likes to sort and admire, the other likes to eat and ask questions later:

Pick a Pumpkin

2009-10-24T12:42:00.000-07:00

...but only if it's a small one! Rules!?! Next year we're invading Kristal's catapult-yer-pumpkin-at-a-cow patch - even if she doesn't invite us:

Travel

2009-10-21T20:22:00.000-07:00

Not only are we fortunate enough to have great Chicagoian friends willing to host and hang out with us for ten days but we also have great Everettonian friends eager to feed us and drive us to and from the airport at all hours. THANK YOU!!! Ahhh, unshcooling!

Sport -of-the-future: bench-cushion sliding...

Ferg got off the plane exploding with energy and had one agenda: concoctions with Ronnie...

Frank has great guitar playing concentration abilities:

Flying

2009-10-21T20:05:00.000-07:00

Now is the time for a shout-out to all those parents who experience air travel with their kiddos. Gillian, for one, impresses the hell out of me with her negotiating skills, patience and constant attention to our kids during the several medium-haul flights we have made as a family. Just like an average day at home then! Meanwhile, when flying, I’m reduced to a mere observer - a product of trial and error familial seat assignments: Ferg on the window, Gillian in the middle, Effie on the aisle... lonely ol’ me across the way. And there I sit listening to my ipod and reading magazines (and blissfully passing around what turns out to be the last remnants of our family’s anti-air-pressure-chewing-gum to my fellow row passengers). And although on our last flight, Chicago to Seattle, I did play some American Girl Go Fish (who knew?) with Effie and helped Ferg build a K’nex motorcycle this really is nothing compared to the continuous attention Gillian gives to Fergus.

For some reason Ferg has never been the type to sit back and watch a movie on the plane. He prefers building/playing with stuff and looking at books, all with Gillian constantly assisting him and pulling out new items from a seemingly bottomless supply of surprise in-air distractions. It is impressive, though I’m sure disheartening to Gillian, that Fergus can put together a Bionicle in under five minutes. I need a nap just thinking about how much work this is for her.

Cramming anyone into such a tightly confined space as a plane seat for four hours is annoying and uncomfortable. For someone as peripatetic as Fergus it is just plain cruel. However, Gillian has developed a rhythm that seems to work for our kids. Which is why it was a little deflating to have the lady in front of Ferg announce to us, immediately upon Ferg’s joyful arrival at his window seat, that she was very tired and needed her sleep and that we had to be quiet. It was 7:15 pm! Actually it wasn’t deflating at all – it was shockingly funny and, bwahaha, a call to arms.

At one or two moments during the flight I would say that Ferg wasn’t exactly playing “quietly” - he was, after all, deeply involved in a battle between two opposing transformers - but still, to hear him shushed several times by grumpy-puss was rather hilarious. Hilarious because it is not in Ferg’s make-up to even remotely hear “shhhhhh” let alone respond to it and, oh by the way lady, you should see him when he isn’t happy on a plane (Ferg bests Tim Booth)! And hilarious, as opposed to annoying, because little did she know that we had just spent ten straight days listening to many a strangers’ need to comment on his feet and you know what, poopy pants, we’re kinda hardened to all that now so why don’t you just shut up, plug some headphones in your ears and join our little society. We’ll continue having fun and meeting our kids needs here in the back.

Woops, this was supposed to be a kudos post and looky here, it’s turned into a rant. Must work on that.

Warmer day

2009-10-21T17:47:00.000-07:00

On our last day in Chicago the sun made an appearance and we took full advantage with a lengthy session in the playground and a trip to Margie's Candies - an old fashioned ice cream parlor. We even fit in some El Cid tacos at the 11th hour.

Rachel certainly gave Margie's its props but she failed to mention that they have hosted both Al Capone and The Beatles during their 90 years at the same location. I would have lifted my head up from my delicious milkshake more often.

It was nice enough out for the street vendors to do decent business as the school bells rang (pork rinds and cotton candy!?!):

Signs of Chicagoland

2009-10-21T17:18:00.000-07:00

Great combo:

Run Freedom Run:

Cute, cuddly AND fits in your purse:

Aaaaw:

"We've been spending most our lives/
Living in a munchies paradise":

Not quite:

Ferg Thoughts

2009-10-19T08:46:00.000-07:00

Fergus: "When I'm an adult like you, I'm going to live here"
Me: "Here? In Chicago?"
Fergus: "Yeah, in Chicago"
Me: "Okay. But you'll be so far away from me"
Fergus: "Why, where will you live when I'm an adult?"
Me: "I'm not sure. Hopefully still in our house back home"
Fergus: "Yeah, I'd live there... but I think it will be too worn out by the time I'm an adult"

Winding down in the windy city

2009-10-18T20:54:00.000-07:00

A trip to Chicago's chinatown was always an option and then yesterday Ferg really got it in his head to go there. Turned out today was a nice day for a boat ride to Chinatown down the river...

There is so much cool architecture and so many bridges along the river that it made my neck ache:

Chinatown:

The fancy Chinatown water taxi stop:

I've taken more darn pictures of the Sears tower than anything on this trip:

Here's a shot of the 103rd floor Sears tower skydeck balconies where you can look through the glass floor to the street below. We did not do this.

Here is Martin's office building (centre, with the boats at its base):

Along the river at sunset:

We made a full day of it by going to see the evening performance of Blue Man which has a residence in Chicago...

Chicagwegian Food

2009-10-17T23:05:00.000-07:00

Hachi's Kitchen is a most excellent local sushi place frequented by our hosts - we ordered take out from here twice:

Snail Thai Food in South Chicago - Obama's neighborhood Rachel says.

Rachel and Martin live, in seems to my rural west coast eyes, in a very ethnic community. Latino most notably. I had some excellent steak tacos the other night after a play I went to with Martin (the play featured their friend Wendi... it's from the writers of award winning Urinetown... hey, want good quality wackiness? check it out: Yeast Nation - "the world's first family, a colony of salt-eating yeasts, floats in the brine of the primordial soup under the rule of a tyrannical baritone"). Anyway, I went on and on to Gillian about the great authentic steak tacos Chicago has to offer and made us all stop in at a taco-type place down the street from Rachel and Martin's house (which they had never been to before). This place was out of steak. In fact, steak was thawing in a large vat in front of us on the counter (that, and the sign out front, should have been warning enough). So the taco filling options were down to tongue or goat's meat so obviously the three of us willing enough chose goat. Three of us got sick. I'm just saying...

We also went here a few times:

But, when it comes right down to it, our kids are not really all that well suited to the restaurant experience at the moment. We keep trying but one in particular is just too mobile and too busy. So Rachel fed us at home a lot and boy did we eat goooood!!!

Sites

2009-10-17T12:04:00.001-07:00

Rain

Flamingo

Soldier Field (home of da Bears)

Navy Pier

Willis (Sears) Tower from the Shedd Aquarium

Shedd

Gillian: "oh look, snapping turtles... like the one Grandad once shot"

Quake

2009-10-15T21:06:00.000-07:00

Rachel was right, this is the best store around for collectables - Effie tripled her star wars collection after a couple of trips to their massive bin o' used figures. Dave, Mr. Quake, is our new best friend. I guess it looks like we've been doing a lot of shopping while in Chicago, but Eff has been saving for this trip for over a year. Besides, we are doing other things as well. Like eating.

This is the inside of Quake. That's Dave on the right behind the counter. He gives us lots of free stuff. Dave is like a drug dealer and we are his junkies. The guy on the left is trying to cover his face from the camera cause he says he is wanted in Canada.

New dudes:

Chicago's MSI and Millennium Park

2009-10-14T18:49:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's still cold here. Today it was good to get out and do lots of running around - for Fergus especially since he had enjoyed an indoor day yesterday while Gillian, Effie and I went downtown to American Girl and the Lego store.

Catching the train:

The Museum of Science and Industry:

Millennium Park - running around Crown Fountain in front of the 50 foot people towers (in warmer weather, water shoots out their mouths):

The Bean at Millennium Park:

Pavilion art-work-thingy...

Pizza on the way home:

Trip to American Girl store

2009-10-14T18:40:00.000-07:00

Waiting for the train downtown:

Riding the 'L'

Outside the massive mega-store o' dolls:

Inside:

Negotiations:

Success:

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-10-12T16:55:00.000-07:00

...our second consecutive Canadian thanksgiving spent in the states. It's Columbus Day here - which doesn't seem to mean much to anybody. Martin has the day off, not because of Columbus but rather since it is Max's birthday! He turned 8 today - woo hoo!!!

Rachel has been planning our trip for quite a while. I think we have a 14 day itinerary and we are here for 10. We have knocked very little off the list so far but that suits us fine cause we're going at a pace that accounts for much at-home star wars and lego playing time. We haven't made it downtown yet but that will come quick enough because Eff's itching to get to the American Girl store.

Yesterday we tried going to a playground - it was locked:

Fergus' contribution to the photo journal - the bum tree:

Logan Square

We've been hearing about this restaurant for a looong time and it was as good as advertised. Rachel and Martin's favorite neighborhood restaurant - Lula:

Frolicking in a park:

Ferg got a new Mario outfit...

Max's Leaning Tower of Pisa birthday cake:

Lego seance

And here's Rachel and Martin's 100 plus year-old super cool house - in mid-attic reno mode:

Rush... live in chicago!

2009-10-11T21:10:00.000-07:00

...that'd be folk legend Tom Rush - touring his first studio album in 35 years!! He was pretty good. A nostalgia trip for Gillian. The two of us saw him at the Old Town Music School. We were the youngest people there.

Tom's guitar!

Mr. Rush and a fan:

Welcome to...

2009-10-10T18:47:00.000-07:00

...unseasonably cold Chicago! It dipped to 4 celsius here today. Never mind, we're enjoying the big city sights and the big city food options greatly. Not to mention our big city friends and their awesome home. Some fool wore shorts out today...

Yikes!

2009-10-06T18:42:00.001-07:00

... someone turned 10 today.

Desire

2009-10-05T23:54:00.000-07:00

The above shows a spreadsheet that Effie and I created to monitor our progress in financing the purchase of the greatly desired Rock Band Beatles. Trading pop bottles for a Wii game also helped to clean out the garage of sticky stacks of orange bags. I’ll just accept that we are procrastinating hoarders and see the positives in the fact that we found over $100 worth of recycling in there!

We didn’t quite make our total before succumbing - but there is only so much of a head start we could give certain other rock band playing families:

Catch and release

2009-10-02T19:55:00.000-07:00

Today we learned about that great Canadian pastime... softball! Or rather, we discovered another example of doing things your own way. When it was suggested to him that one normally, for maximum effectiveness, throws with their dominant hand and catches with the other one, Ferg replied with "who cares". I do admire his style. Eff also employed her own unique style:

Down at the shore

2009-09-26T19:09:00.000-07:00

We had a nice do-nothing Saturday planned until Kristal called at the crack of 11 offering up the idea to go birding at the park down the road from us. This is the time of year that the turkey vultures gather, circle around a bit and ready themselves for their annual migration across the strait - how could we resist!

We saw some orcas go by as well (and on the drive home a big ol' black bear ambled across the road in front of us):

Climb

2009-09-24T19:40:00.000-07:00

In her own time, she shines!

This past spring Effie first met the climbing wall at our nearby Adventure Camp and couldn't get past the harnesses and helmets she would have had to wear to join in the climbing. So she watched, taking it all in, storing it up.

Monday morning we talked - did she want to go, it was the climbing wall scheduled for today's session? Yes. We go. Yes she wants to put on a harness & helmet. Yes she climbs the easy wall - about halfway - a couple of times. Then the groups change sides and we are on the team climb trying to get 4 kids up a pole to the tiny crow's nest platform. Four other kids volunteer first. Effie watches. One kid drops out, and Lindsay, our phenomenal instructor, encourages Effie to join the lineup, saying she doesn't have to climb, but can just hold the space and see. Effie watches. A couple of other kids try, get partway, then want down and out of the whole enterprise. Effie watches them get boosted up on an adults shoulders and reach for the first staple. She decides she'll give it a go. Lindsay calls me over to man the belay rope as Effie has requested. Effie gets manhandled up onto Lindsay's shoulders and boosted up the pole. She reaches the first staple and goes up a couple more, looks down, and says she's done. But she doesn't unclip, she wants to watch and wait. A couple more kids get partway and then are done. A little monkey named Hannah finally makes it up the pole and waits on the platform. Effie wants to try again. A different parent boosts her up, and she gets about the same distance up before coming back down. She watches another couple of kids get partway, then come down and unhook. She tries again. This time we can see she wants to go higher but can't quite find handy staples to move to, so Hannah's mum suggests starting at a different spot on the pole where the staples are placed more like a ladder, the route Hannah took.

Effie comes down and moves around the pole and gets hoisted up again. She gets to the wooden part and stops, waits, thinks, listens to the suggestions and encouragement being called up to her. It isn't clear to any of us whether she wants to go higher, but she isn't asking to come down, she's just waiting. Eventually she moves up the ladder one rung. And waits again. She does this about 4 times, waiting each time, giving no indication how far she is wanting to go. At one point her rope gets caught and she has to let go with one hand to free it. The wooden ladder part leans out from the pole so making that last move up and over onto the platform means leaning back and feeling like you're going to fall off. Lindsay uses the rope to boost her a bit for the last push and Effie gets onto the platform. I am crying, everyone is cheering, and Effie later admits she was so scared she almost cried herself.

She was one of only 6 kids in the entire group who reached the platform. She inspired all those watching and got lots of shout outs in the closing circle. Her own contribution to the circle was that she was proud of making it to the top. But since then she has not really wanted to talk about it at all. Her process is so internal. But when she is given space and the freedom to use it when she is ready, man, she can really blow you away!

Steven manned his camera to take shots at both the climbing wall and the pole... woo hoo: