Friday was my birthday.  Robert and I went into San Francisco and had a wonderful lunch at the House of Nanking.  I wish I had taken my camera to capture the restaurant set up with green and yellow bowls, red chopsticks, set against dark brown wood walls--very old San Francisco China town.  It was a gray and drizzly day to complete the cozy effect.

Went shopping and then home to watch Anders and Auggie so Gunther and Eliza could go out and celebrate his birthday, too.

Perfect day.

Tuesday night at 9 pm my phone rings.  I was in bed reading.  It was Anders.

"Hi Nana."

"What are you doing up?" I asked.

"I stole the phone.  I'm in bed, but I'm so excited about my birthday tomorrow."

"I know.  Me too.  We're going to have a wonderful party.  Better go to sleep now before your parents find out you have the phone."

Wednesday morning at 8:10 am my phone rings.  I was thinking about getting up and all the things I had to do for Anders' party.

"It's my birthday," he blurted out.

"I know.  Happy birthday, sweetheart."

"It's awesome being eight!.  I love you, Nana.  I have to go to school now."

Eliza and I did the party from 2 pm to 4:35 and 10 seconds.  We counted the minutes!  Ten eight-year-olds inside on a rainy day in high spirits.  It went very well--lots of screaming, games, popcorn all over the floor, presents, cupcakes, and guest booty bags.  The birthday boy was super happy.

It's been a great two weeks with family.  That's why I haven't been blogging!

After Christmas I had Trevor (8) and Chloe (7) here for three days.  They were a joy to be around.  We just did simple things--shopping for food, cooking, reading, playing basketball with the new hoop Gunther put up in my driveway.  Auggie and Anders slept over with their cousins, and I was in Nana-heaven.

On Jan 2, I went to Sayulita, Mexico with Gunther, Eliza, Auggie, and Anders.   Eliza's mom, Carmen flew down from San Diego, and Jamie and Paula Tipton and their kids, Eli and Lulu came too, (they are friends and also Harding School parents.) Berkeley landscaper, Heidi Becker also popped down. We all stayed together in a big place (Casa Blanca) that we rented right on the beach.  It was so much fun.  We cooked a lot of our meals--grilled fish, meat tacos, chicken pozole, grilled portobellos, polenta, cilantro sauce, salads, guacamole, salsa, corn salsa, with a few beers, margueritas, and pina coladas along the way!  

We also went for another boat trip with Darren--like we did last year. (If you want his details let me know!)  He and Gunther have become Facebook friends, so maybe he'll have our pictures up there.

I'm glad to be back home now, despite the unseasonal chill in the El Cerrito air...

It turned out to be a blissful day.

Anders and Auggie came over and Anders decided he wanted to make a crossbow.  I explained I don't have any proper material, etc. etc.  To no avail.  So we googled image crossbow.  Printed out a drawing by Leonardo daVinci of a plan for a huge (like a WMD) crossbow (with a little man sitting on the top)

I cut out a crossbow shape from a cardboard box.  Of course, it was flimsy and frustrating.  Then I remembered I had some little pieces of scrap wood in the shed.  I found the perfect two pieces.  By this time Auggie was ready to go home with Eliza, and Anders stayed on.  We worked on it for a long time--and I taught him how to hold a hammer, how to saw using the vise (I have one in the shed) and why it's better to hammer something on a solid surface rather than the table we were using.  I put garden gloves on him, and set him to sanding rough edges.  He did everything by himself.  Part way through the project, it occurred to me that this project was worthy of a cub scout badge (I told this to den leader, Gunther.)

At home Anders added a rolled up paper arrow, and attached rubber bands so that the thing actually did work--sort of!  It was an exquisite day spending time with a child who is so focused on making things.

Friday night I had Anders (7) and Auggie (5) over for a sleepover while Gunther and Eliza went to a party.  Life is sweet.

They both worked on cardboard projects involveing string and Scothch tape and booby traps while I made tacos and refried beans.

At dinner we talked about why cave men used caves for houses (their rock tools wouldn't cut down trees) and how people start inventing things and life changes.  We read three books from the new batch I got from the library.  (NOTE:  I highly recommend a beautifully illustrated and extremely imaginative book, Flotsam, illustrated by David Weisner.)  I just found the link if you are interested. I'm going to buy one for Anders' birthday next month.)

 http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/catalog/titledetail.cfm?titleNumber=111153

After reading books, they popped into the bath, and then we watched The Country Bears movie. 

This happened to be the second time that Anders lost a tooth on the day he slept over at my house so the Tooth Fairy left two silver dollars on the floor next to his sleeping bag or bedroll as I like to call it!

Life doesn't get any better than this!

A week ago yesterday, I had a cyst excised from my wrist.  Today the bandage came off, and it is great to be able to use my hand more normally again.

The day after the surgery, I was up and around.  In fact, it so happened that I went car shopping with Robert and my friend Zenobia. My Nissan Maxima was 13 years old, and has developed an almost unsolvable "evap" problem that makes the engine light go on and makes it extremely hard to pass a smog test.  Robert found an online group of other Nissan owners suffering from the same malady. Too bad.  I really liked my car and was prepared to keep it forever.  

Anyway, long story short, I bought a 2007 Toyota Matrix.  It's a silver hatchback.  I wanted something used, low mileage, small, reliable, and with practical cargo space.  I'm very happy with it! 

I received high praise from Robert on my negotiating skills--an unusual accolade from him.  As you may know, he's from New Zealand, and he tells me that they NEVER buy anything new there--you know, it's an island and all that.  One must make do.  Of course, they are entirely right and ruggedly green I should think.  By the way, New Zealand is found to be the least corrupted country (government) in the world, right in front of Switzerland and Denmark.  US is # 17.

I spent over an hour tonight printing off about 20 of Chef Anne Burrell's recipes from the Food Network.  We record her show Secrets of A Restaurant Chef, and have watched almost every episode.  She's the best--funny, wry, talented, and her food is great!

I always like this date  11 22--a time to reflect on one's life for a few minutes.

Robert is in the back yard feeding Blackie, our 2-inch long goldfish, bits of raw salmon.  Blackie seems to love cheese, broccolini, and peas.  He spits out blueberries and garlic.  We feel we have empiriacally satisfied our curiosity about whether fish have tastebuds.

Last Saturday I was in Studio City with Sigrid, Jim, and Trevor and Chloe.  Sigrid made a wonderful turkey dinner with exquisite creamed sweet potatoes.  Yesterday, here at my house, Gunther and Eliza, Anders and Auggie, and Carmen and Dwight (Eliza's parents from San Diego) gathered for another turkey dinner.  Gunther spatchcocked the turkey and it cooked in less than two hours (you cut out the backbone, and flatten the breast and roast it that way.)

G and E and the kids are going to Joshua State Part next week, so we celebrated early.

Robert and I will be having my oldest friends, Zenobia, Tyler, Roy Iwaki and his nephew and friend over for another Thanksgiving Day dinner on Thursday. 

Today Zenobia, Robert and I are going used car shopping.  My Nissan is 13 years old and the handwriting is on the wall.  

Robert and I returned home last week from the 10-day cruise we took from New York to Quebec.  It was fun walking the Red Line in Boston, and visiting Paul Revere's house (my second time.) 

We walked around Quebec City for several hours and had lunch at Aux Anciens Canadiens, very French and cozy. 

We did some ball room dancing onboard, watched movies and ship-board entertainment, and slid into lazy decadence.

We visited Province House in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where the Maritime Provinces gathered with delegates from the other Provinces to found the Candadian Confederation in 1867.  The short video showed a re-enactment of the initial meeting which took place in the building--and we toured the rooms fitted out with the furnishings of the time.  I found myself oddly touched by this piece of history, which I had never thought about before.

One of the couples we met on the ship (the Norwegian Jewell) live in Toronto, Canada.  They asked me, "Please don't be offended, but why do Americans seem to know very little about what goes on in Canada?  We follow US news, but Americans seem competely disinterested in Canada."   I had to admit it's true.  "Perhaps, I said, it's because we don't see Canada as a threat to us."  Je ne sais pas. 

As soon as we returned home, Robert checked on Blackie, our goldfish.  He's fine, but the piece of zucchini we left him was completely gone.  Devoured or dissolved?

Halloween was fun.  We got home in time for the neighborhood barbeque and pumpkin-carving party Saturday afternoon, followed by the movie we showed on the garage door in my drive-way Saturday night after trick-or-treating.  I made popcorn.  Neighbors want it to be an annual event.

9 - 18/9 - 09

Goldie died somewhere between 2 am and 7:30 am this morning.  We were astonished.  She had seemed so perky, always turning her head back and forth whenever we approached to gaze at her.

The water looked a bit cloudy--even though Robert had just changed it-- and there seemed to be some extremely tiny organisms pedalling through the water, which we had never seen before.  What could have happened to her? 

Now we are down to one fish, Blackie.  We cleaned his tank again today and moved him into a shadier spot.  Robert fed him some mashed cantaloupe.

On the plus side, I have my new compost bin set up.  We also painted the shed a taupe-brown and put up a wicker screen that looks great with my boxes of succulents.  Robert pick-axed the soil under the grapefruit tree, and I stacked flagstones around the base.

Yesterday Vernon McQueen came to spray the tree for aphids.  He's getting on in years and brought along his back-up guy, Stephen Williams. I was wondering what to do when Vernon retires.  I worry about people who have specialties that are kind of dying out--like my curmudgeonly shoemaker up the street.  Each time I venture in his shop, I know he's going to berate me about the chintzy shoes I bring to him.  He sneers at shoes not made of leather, and I have to allow him to vent his thoughts before I can timidly ask for an extra hole in the strap or to glue down some flap.  He charges me a dollar or so and sends me on my way, grumbling under his breath.  I always wonder how he stays in business.

Who will take up these niche trades like repairing shoes in this day and age?  

Grieving is in the air, after all.

On the fish report, we lost five fish altogether.  We are pretty sure we had a tank collapse due to the hot weather, which caused the fish to lose oxygen and suffer nitrate poisoning.  We euthanized them by putting them in water and then in the freezer.  

Yesterday Anders, Auggie, Robert and I had a ceremony for the second fatality--Trippie.  We put her in a toilet paper tube, into the ground, and placed a toothpick witha  flag decorated with little drawings of fish.  Since fire is always a ritualistic hit, of course, we had to burn the flag down. 

Well, we have Blackie left (4 inches long) outside in the pot pond, and tiny Goldie inside in the house tank.  We are thinking about our future with fish.