The Party's Over....

Actually, there were two of them. The first was for mostly long time family friends. We would include family, but neither of us has any family close by. So, people that I have known for years, in one case since I was 6, and others that I hope to, show up and eat and drink while the kids play. And play they did. The boys were mesmerized by the Star Wars Wii, complete with light sabers, that we bought Ariana (she is in a Star Wars phase). Jack, the oldest at 11, was an expert and Ariana looked on with admiration. I explained, like I do almost everything these days, that he is good because he practices (hint, hint, hint). The other big draw was the Bay Blades, a gift from her friend Ryder. They started playing the night before, as part of the birthday celebration was having a sleep over. Little tops that spin furiously, she got the hang of it right away.

The girls mostly occupied themselves outside with paddle balls and other hand held games.

They tried Whiffle Ball and had some success (we may have a softball player on our hands) and then ended up downstairs in the playroom. At the end, everyone enjoyed the cake, made by a former coworker who decided on a career change - a great move if you ask me.

On Wednesday, we had a school party for all the kids in her class down at the beach. Luckily, the weather cooperated, so while the kids were running around and making their little backpacks, the parents got to sit and chat. Since it is the beginning of school, it was nice to be able to meet the parents of the kids Ariana would be in class with.

So now we are home playing with all the gifts - other than the Potty Training Barbie complete with 3 little puppies that wee on a pad (I mean really, is this a life skill one has to learn from a doll), they are all fairly useful. Her love of crafts and games has made her forget about the "boy boys" for a little bit, as she sits creating a masterpiece with her new watercolor pens.

She has questioned why no one got her the StarWars Legos. I told her to ask Santa.

“Mommy, what if they bring me girl presents?”

My daughter, while petite and delicate looking, prefers Stars Wars to Barbie. When given a choice, she will pick the blue, the black, the red over pink every time. About to turn 6, she has begun to face the disapproval. “Why do you play with boy toys?” she is asked at school. “Those shoes are for boys,” they say when she arrives wearing her Star Wars sneakers at camp.

Our policy for a long time has been that as long as she dresses herself, she can wear whatever she wants. That has led to some truly bazaar fashion choices, but so be it. I have learned from experience to take her shopping if I want to buy her clothes. Many times, after returning from a store where I thought I made a most appropriate choice, she would look at my purchase and exclaim "I don't like it". Thereafter, the offending item would hang limply in the closet, begging to be taken off the hanger. Now, she comes with me, and after the briefest visit to the girl section to search for things with cats (her latest thing), she heads to the boy’s section for t-shirts with pictures of trucks, dinosaurs and superheroes. Dresses are worn only when circumstance demands and are put on with not an ounce of enthusiasm. Last year, there was only one day, late in the school year, that she put on a dress on a weekday morning. I think it had something to do with her best friend, who was in a dress phase. We got an email from her teacher, exclaiming her shock at seeing Ariana in a dress for the first time, but complimenting her on her adorableness.

This year, in a concession to the comments, she wanted a pair of “girl shoes” too. So, in addition to the sneakers, she picked out a pair of sparkly pink ones. It is those she has been wearing to school, slightly disappointed they don’t light up and flash as she steps. I notice now that she chooses her footwear depending on where we are going. It saddens me to see her caving into her peer’s ideas of what is appropriate, though I smile as she pairs the pink sparkly sneakers with the Spiderman shirt.

As her birthday approaches, she is concerned that because she is a girl, she will get lots of “girl” stuff and not the building sets, light sabers and other Star Wars paraphernalia she craves. “What if I get a lot of girl presents?” she asked the other day. Rather than explain the concept of the “re-gift,” I talked about being grateful for any gift at all. I told her she should just say thank you.

A Lotta Chompin' Goin On

Scratch Scratch Scratch. Itch. Itch. Itch. Ariana and I were both eaten alive last night - our feet and ankles grew swollen and red with each passing minute. Antihistamine, ibuprofen, even little Ampanman mosquito stickers didn't help the itch. Try to imagine the effort involved in trying to get a 5 year old, who had already slept 3 hours in the car, to go to sleep at a regular time. Now imagine that child whining and writhing in pain as the scratching she was doing was not helping one bit and every time she fell asleep, she would then wake, having been bitten one more time. What is most annoying is that we couldn't see the little culprit. Finally, after midnight, she was sleeping peacefully.

This summer has been mostly mild as far as bites go. Other than a couple of feeding frenzies on my feet - one at the beach and the other at a friend's house, I have not been uncomfortable. Ariana has not suffered at all.

Until last night. Comfortably on the couch watching TV, we were time after time, gnawed on by something - spider perhaps? mossie? who knows? At first I thought it was poison ivy, as my toes started to itch furiously and I couldn't see any bite marks. but then, I found first one, than another. Ariana's were easier to spot. Searching the air for anything flying, I couldn't see a thing. Staring at the couch, perhaps to spot something crawling, I found nothing.

All I do know is that here I sit, 6am after getting up around 5am because my feet were on fire. Already ingested the Benedryl and Ibuprofen and patiently waiting for either of them to kick in. Thankfully, Ariana is still asleep.

Somehow, I don't think it is going to be a good day......

Fish and Chips and Croissants and Pies and lots and lots of walking to make it all go away...

Soaking up culture, getting ideas for the house and generally luxuriating in the multi-cultural paradise that is London and Paris, our vacation has been an infusion of soul-feeding sights and sounds.

It has also been a reunion of sorts, meeting up with old friends from Tokyo as they visited with family and celebrated birthdays. We were glad to be able to share in some of these celebrations, which ranged from a large family and friend gathering outside of the city of London to a posh dinner party at the trendiest of restaurants and finally to a small gathering at a Vietnamese restaurant in Paris.

Some of my favorite sights....

I think they made these road signs just for me......

Arny wondered why they didn't just say "Exit", but we are in the UK and mostly we saw these "Way Out" signs. The subway and Underground are not the same thing, as we discovered as we were looking for one to take us back to the hotel and saw a "Subway" sign, only to discover that after making our way down the stairs, down the path and up the stairs on the other side, we were not at the train, but merely across the street.

I loved this - even Londoners with no back yard find space for a garden - this one happens to be in the river on a plot of floating land.


And yes, we have been doing the tourist thing - my own Holmes and Watson.

I tried to get Ariana to go to Hogwarts, telling her she could meet up with Harry and the gang, but she was having none of it.

We are off today to the Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood and the Spitalfields market, after a brief stop at MI6 headquarters - can you tell who wants to go where??

Floor. Done.

After 9 hours on my hands and knees, one sliced finger and two people banished from the house, we have a kitchen floor. I really have to stop saying "that doesn't look hard".

It was.

Hard.

I started Friday; a very hot and humid Friday, after dropping Ariana off at camp. With the air-conditioning blasting, I had about 5 1/2 hours to finish before I had to pick her up. Assuming that would be enough time (ha!!), I got the supplies all ready and applied the glue to the sub floor, using a brush on the sides and a roller for the rest of the floor. After an hour, it was dry and ready for the tiles. "Wait, how do I do this again?", I thought as I stared nervously at the floor. I quickly realized my first mistake; gluing the entire floor when I need to put the border around first. After a few sticky moments when I thought I might be attached to the sub floor forever, I finally got enough new tile down to make the rest of the installation glue free. The cutting though, seemed to go on forever. Given I was using cork, it was pretty easy, but still, it was a relief when I hit an area when I could lay down more than two tiles without having to cut.

Sticky and sweaty, a quick glance at the clock made it obvious I was not going to be able to pick Ariana up - luckily, baba-san was working from home, so he went and got her and her friend and took them out for ice-cream. The last thing I needed was two 5-year-olds wanting to "help". I was getting tired and the brisk pace now was slowed down by bad cuts on the tile and one slip that resulted in a Sponge Bob Squarepants band-aid on my thumb. I had just changed the blade on the knife, so at least the cut was clean. And really, I was putting in the sweat and tears (almost, a few times when I thought "I can't do this"), why not a little blood?

It was after 5 when baba-san returned and I was not nearly finished. We had a birthday party to go to and I sent them on without me; needing to finish before the glue lost it's stick. I have to admit some of the tiles are a bit messy, but by the time it got past 8pm, I just wanted to be done. Finally, at 8:15pm, the last bit of tile was placed. I grabbed a quick shower and went off to relax with friends, physically exhausted.

Sunday morning came with a soreness I hadn't felt since I had a really good workout (which hasn't happened in eons). It took me awhile to get moving. Wishing I could just lounge for the morning, I knew I had to varnish the floor, sealing the cracks (some a bit larger than intended) so water wouldn't ruin the floor. That was easy and only took about 20 minutes.

We left for another birthday party, spending the day away, leaving the floor to dry in peace. When we returned late last night, the floor was shiny and dry.

Today we will put the house back together; tomorrow after everyone has left for the day, I will put another coat of varnish down and then take myself out; a massage perhaps?

Back to the Kitchen

After a few diversions, some pleasant, some really sad, I am back to the kitchen. In particular, putting down the cork floor.
Myself.
You see, I have this habit of thinking I can do something. Something I have never done before. "It can't be that hard", I usually think before ordering all of the supplies and preparing my family for the fact that I am going to be handy.
So far, the gathering of the supplies needed has been more work than I imagined. The difficulty started after I found the flooring I wanted. The initial contact with the company was great - the pleasant guy answered all my questions and sent me the samples I requested. The problem started when I actually wanted to order the tile. I sent the hand drawn, fairly accurate floor plan thinking I would get back an estimate on the tiles I wanted. Instead, I got an estimate that was about 50% more than I needed; based on the total dimension of the room, not just the area I needed covered (no I don't want to tile under the already installed cabinets, thank you very much!). A few more emails went back and forth with the final "you can order what you want" coming from the less than helpful salesperson. I ended up making a phone call to try and get the guy I spoke to on the phone. Yes, I know I need to order an additional 20% for mistakes, etc., I just don't want to order 2 rooms worth of tile for 1 room worth of work.
My order, finally made, is sitting in neat little piles in my living room waiting to be installed.
Tomorrow.
Yesterday I spent the day prepping the plywood base with the cement based filler that took 6 trips to 3 different supply stores to find. I pray it is the right one. I just now know that any cement based anything dries faster than you want it to and the harder it gets, the harder it is to move around the floor. My entire body is achy, so today, instead of putting the tiles down, I took the day off to recover. Other than carefully marking up the floor and quickly covering it with anything I could find to prevent things little and big from making a mess, I did nothing. Floor related that is.
Tomorrow I will be on hands and knees again - attempting to lay tiles down in a straight line.
Wish me luck.

Channeling Taylor Swift

Lights......

We finally finished the lighting - under cabinet, inset and these beauties, which hang over the penninsula. They are made of Murano glass, with a brushed nickel wire going up to the ceiling.

I did most of the painting last week; what I thought would take a day took a few, as several coats were needed for both the ceiling and the walls. We ended up going with a pale shade of blue, which took applying several samples to get right. Ariana was very helpful, not only helping me paint the walls, but in weighing in with her favorite. The trim needs another coat and then I will be done.

Today though was Father's Day, so well all took a well deserved break and went to the Pepsico Sculpture Garden.........a visual treat of beautiful gardens and some amazing sculpture. Having to go to work there every day can't be all bad, especially if you have a view from your office.

Pizza!!!!

The test - homemade or ready bought crust. The homemade wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. And, with the granite counters, rolling and kneading were easy. Ariana decided to "decorate" the store bought crust, so I completed my homemade specimen.

Diligently working, Ariana slowly placed the pepperoni (her new favorite food) around the pizza. She ended up lifting my own diligently placed peppers thinking they would make a good addition. Then, into the oven and -


OMG!!!!! - See something wrong with this picture - no cheese!!!!!

That's better.....
Baba-san thought the home made crust was better than the store bought one (honest or just "knows what's good for him"???) In any event, the meal was decent. But now of course if I am going to be making pizza, I need a pizza pan!

It's All In The Details

More than a week after getting all the appliances working, we have moved on to other things. A few replacement cabinet doors arrived, now sitting still in their boxes in the garage. We will get around to putting them on, eventually. Right now we have more pressing things.

The shelves that were delivered were the wrong size. We have been informed that the correct size doesn't exist (salesperson's error) and so we have two choices - have the originals cut down and stained (for another couple of hundred dollars) or buy wood and do the whole thing ourselves. This week I will price out the wood and make a decision.

Baba san picked up the under cabinet lights, which are now installed and doing their job wonderfully. The soft blue glow illuminates what needs illuminating and eliminates the need for the overheads much of the time. I took a trip into the city and, thanks to friend and design expert Kevin, finally found and ordered the small pendant lights that will hang over the peninsula. We celebrated the purchase with cocktails at the W Hotel on Union Square and a short and thoroughly disappointing visit to the Nordstrom Rack that just opened there.

After a frustrating time with the cork manufacturer, I finally ordered the tile for the floor. If I didn't like the tile so much I would have gone elsewhere for the actual tile - where oh where are knowledgeable and helpful sales people anymore? The next three weeks will be spent painting the ceiling and walls and preparing the floor for the installation.

Tonight we will use the oven for the first time - making pizza, also for the first time. It was Ariana's idea. I just found a recipe online for the dough and have a bunch of toppings already to go. With it will be a salad from our garden, or more accurately, the lettuce plants I bought to plant in the garden that have grown so much we can actually eat them - I am so excited!!!

More on the garden and the pizza another time................manga tutti!!!!