Teens!

They make you laugh, they make you cry, they make you crazy!

At 8:20, after dropping off Little Squid, I said good-bye to Squidette as she pedaled off to camp, 10 blocks further north, and I pedaled home in order to change and make a 9:30 meeting. She promised to call once she had locked up her bike.

I head home, coasting down Riverside Drive, grinding out the miles along the Hudson River and, finally, as I neared the Intrepid, started to worry. It had been too long. Had I missed the call? Pulled over, checked my cell phone. Nope, no missed call. Try Squidette's phone ... right to voice mail.

Pedaling on, I get to my exit, go through the cell phone ritual again and start to really worry. Was she hit by a truck? (Very few trucks on our route.) Did she wipe out on the steep descent to camp? And what about the violin on her back ...

Arriving in the apartment, I decide that calling camp is way more important than arriving at my meeting on time and, as I navigate the various options on the camp phone system ... my phone rings.

She forgot.

Oops.

I've forgiven her ... it is only the second time in over a year that she's forgotten to call. But it is amazing just how panicky I got for those few minutes.

Random Musings

It's amazing how dry my skin gets given that it spends hours and hours each day slathered in greasy sunscreen.

Squidette like humming Schubert's 8th Unfinished Symphony. She says the tune is "fun." How many teens can say that!

I can now say that I have changed the pedals on a bicycle. And the seat (though I'd done that before). And, I have a boo boo on my chest from changing said pedals. Don't ask.

I have survived 3 dinners without Mike and not had to resort to ordering in.

That said, we ate leftovers for two of the nights and I made macaroni and tuna for the third. Tomorrow is a bread, cheese and sausage picnic, weather cooperating. See, I CAN feed my children. Just not well.

It's sugar snap pea season and I'm in heaven! I eat them like candy.

The first skeins of Mike's new sweater are in their final soak in the sink and the next ones are mid-ply on my Journey Wheel. I had to stop to change the water for the skeins in the sink and decided to blog instead of going back to plying.

Squidette now has contact lenses.

The price variation for her lenses (on-line) was huge! There was almost a $200 difference between the highest and lowest priced suppliers for a 6 month supply. Phew!

Little Squid is playing John Adams in the camp musical.

Random enough for you?

A Squidly July 4th

For this year's 4th we put our own spin on patriotism. We rode our bikes and had a picnic breakfast at the Harlem Fairway ...
Mike and Little Squid continued learning how to play a symbol of American folk music ...

We all got excited at the prospect of a fire works barge visible from our apartment ...
Mama played her Little Sis in Wii tennis ... (finally, someone I can beat!)
We watched a lovely sunset as the barge floated in and out of view ...

And finally, we enjoyed a spectacular fireworks display on the Hudson River.

(There was also some shopping (Mama Squid, Little Sis, Squidette and Grandma Squid), some show-going (Grandpa Squid and Little Squid) and some computer repair (Papa Squid). All in all, a good day!

Start of Summer

For Mike and the kids, this weekend was the start of summer vacation. My summer officially starts on Wednesday, kind of, sort of.

To celebrate the start of vacation, I started the weekend by picking up my new BeBook from the FedEx drop off site.

(Shown with the road atlas for size.)

It came loaded with 150 classics and, after an hour or so of patient fiddling (during which came a point where I almost returned it), I figured out how to read library ebooks on it. That means that I can load trashy novels on it in addition to those mind expanding classics.

I also figured out how to format pattern PDFs and other pattern types so that I can load knitting patterns on it and be able to actually read them.

We did other things this weekend, besides play with my new toy. On saturday we found a geocache that had been eluding us (we have now found over 100 caches thanks to Little Squid and friend) and on Sunday we took an, unintentionally, long walk and then went kayaking in the Hudson River, right here in Manhattan.

No pictures of the kayaking because I did not bring my camera -- didn't want it to get wet.

The road atlas is out because we are trying to figure out our vacation route for this summer. With labor day being late, we get almost all of August for a change -- a full extra week! Possible destinations include: the ever popular Lancaster, PA, the newly popular but still unvisisted Pittsburgh, PA and possibly Toronto, Canada.

For now, however, it is time to put on some sunblock and pedal off to work. Mike will schlep the kids to camp later and we will all reconvene somewhere around dinner time.

Ahh summer!

Graduation Lessons

Everyone should learn a lesson at graduation. Since I sat through two* of them today, I have two lessons.

1. Backless shoes (heels) clang like a bell when worn while descending hollow metal stairs in a stairwell lined in metal. There is nothing one can do to quiet them short of taking them off. And given how grody our stairs are, this was not an option. Think ... thirteen stairs per flight, two flights per floor. My office is on the third floor, the auditorium is on the first floor. I had to make the trip at least 6 times not counting my initial ascent in bike shoes and my final descent in same. Needless to say, I had a headache well before the second graduation.

2. "Good, Better, Best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best." This is the lesson shared by my Principal at both graduations. It is a good one, a motto I unconsciously live by, and one that I think I will be repeating for a long time to come.

*We graduated both our 8th graders and our high school seniors in back to back ceremonies today.

Graduation Day

Need I say more?

Now on to high school.

Clueless

I had no clue. Fourteen years ago, when I held her in my arms for the first time, I had absolutely no clue of what was to come.

Of the smiles she would cause,

Of the tears -- of joy,

Of the laughter,

Of the pride.

It's true what teens say, adults are clueless!

Happy Birthday Batya!