2009/07/26

Bagels

We sat on the steps of the house, looking up at the clear blue sky and the patterned white clouds.  The sun was setting behind the green mountain to the west.

"Allison, are you having fun on this vacation?"

She looked directly at me with her beautiful clear blue-green eyes.

"Yeah."

"Oh I'm so glad.  What do you like?"

There was a moment of contemplative silence.  Then, without any uncertainty at all:  "Bagels".

She got up and walked away, looking for the cat.

2009/07/24

Where Allie Chips her Tooth

Allie had a tough day yesterday.

Diana, her parents, Allie and I all left for the morning to head into town and kill some time while it was raining.  We went to the hardware store, library, and grocery store.  While in town, we learned that the road back home was flooded.  While others ate lunch, I drove to the road closure and asked when the road would be open.  The guy said "evening".  It was currently like 10am.  We immediately pictured a long day, questionable napping, and how we were going to kill time.

Anyway, after lunch we drove around for a while, and Allie fell asleep.  I just drove back and forth on the main road, driving one way to the road closure, and then turning around and driving the other way until it was raining so hard that driving was dangerous.  After about an hour of this, we headed back to the library to pee.  As the car stopped, Allison woke up.  Not an ideal nap, but not bad.

In the library, we learned that the road was still closed, but got the phone number of a road conditions recording, so at least we had a way to figure out when it would open again.  It was then that Allison fell while playing on a floppy bean bag chair.  She caught her foot while jumping off it and faceplanted, cutting her lip and bleeding in and around her mouth.  It wasn't too bad, but looked a little messy.

About this time, we learned that the road was open and we could finally go home!  (It turned out that the road closed an hour later, so we were lucky to get through in this window).

We hung around at the house for the afternoon.  Diana's sister didn't come with us, but instead when snorkling at a local beach, and saw Pierce Brosnan and his family there.  We agreed that she'd had a better day than us.

At the house is a steep stairway of uneven lava rock.  We insist that Allison hold our hands on that stairway.  That afternoon, she went down the stairs holding Diana's hand, but as soon as Diana let go, she turned around, tried going up the stairs, and tripped and fell again.  More blood, more crying.

It wasn't until bathtime that I saw that she'd chipped her tooth.  We're not exactly sure which fall (poor kid) did it, but she's missing the bottom portion of her fright right tooth.  I thought was was the bottom 1/5th or 1/6th.  Diana thinks it's more like the bottom 1/3rd.

In spite of these two falls and being stranded for hours away from home, she's really a trooper.  In the few situations where we find ourselves in some sort of strange or stressful situation, we're both really impressed at how well Allison handles them. 

She doesn't seem to mind her broken tooth at all.  All the events above were yesterday.  Today was all normal.  We went to the beach this morning, and she had a great time playing with her incredibly patient grandma in the shallow water.  She had a great nap, and Diana and I took the opportunity to check out Hanalei.  This afternoon she was all smiles and joy.  So, no apparent harm done.

I'm not sure what we do about the tooth.  Options are to do nothing, or perhaps grind it down to make it a little smoother, or even put some sort of cap on it.  I'm not really sure what's possible, but we'll think more about it when we get home.

So, that's the latest news.




2009/07/21

Success!

We made it to Kauai, and Allison was wonderful along the entire trip.  Probably hung in there better than her parents.  The two hour delay (after boarding, before departure) in SF didn't help matters, but we made through with no meltdowns or actually any tears at all.  Good times.

More later.

2009/07/19

Hawaii

Well, we're all set.  We leave to Kauai tomorrow morning on a 6:15 flight to SF, and THEN to Hawaii.

I haven't been able to focus on the actual vacation, really, as we've mostly been focused on the actual flight.  We have snacks and toys and books and everything else we can think of to keep Herself happy on the flight.  She's had a pretty rough weekend, meltdown-wise, so I'm more than just a little nervous.  Diana is THE most prepared person I've ever known, and I like to think I'm a pretty good helper, so if we can't pull this off... well, we're going to do our best.

We're meeting Diana's parents and sister at a rental house (with associated bungalows), so that should be pretty nice.  It will definitely be nice to have some other people around so we can hopefully get some more relaxation in that we might otherwise.

So, wish us luck!

2009/07/06

Rock Band Brown Bag...

I just gave my first of three "Rock Band Brown Bag" (meaning, casual lunchtime meeting)  The audience was business people who'd heard of Rock Band, and were interested in learning more about it and the upcoming company summer party (Rock Band themed).  There were about 10 people in the audience, all women.

I gave a demo of how to play each instrument, waaaay dumbed down for someone who'd never seen a rhythm game in their lives.  After talking about each instrument, someone asked "so what does it look like when we all play together?"  I exclaimed "That's an AWESOME idea... we should all play together!"

It took some arm twisting, but I was able to get some people up to perform, and by god, they actually were able to power through a song.  By the end, they were even doing little rock moves and stuff.  It was so awesome.  I'm still all pumped from the nervous energy of speaking in public, so just had to get this out.

Rock!


2009/07/05

4th of July

I tried my hand at taking pictures of fireworks. They didn't come out as good as I hoped, but a couple aren't too bad, I guess. Click on the images to see a bigger version.










And I like this one from a recent beach trip...



2009/07/03

A little while ago, I noticed something funny on the AC adapter of Allie's baby monitor. Lots of ants, and a big pile of what appeared to be eggs.
 


It wasn't until I unloaded pictures today, and looked at my close-up picture closely that I noticed how gross it was... Click the image to see it in full size.

 


Needless to say, the vacuum cleaner was put into full effect.