New Years Eve

We haven't really thought much about new years eve in the past three years -- my theory is that it has something to do with children. However, since we had parental support tonight, Chloe and I made our first NYE sortie in a long time! We put the kids to sleep, took the cell phones with us and instructed the parents to call us in case of kid problems. Despite the temptation, we did not hop on a plane to Kalymnos at this point, but went instead to an old friend's place, where they were having a party. It felt good to get out and be child free for a few hours.

Catch up

A combination of being fully committed to vacation mode and not having fully figured out how to deal with the increased volume of files from the K-5 have conspired to prevent me from posting updates. I will gradually get through the backlog, but the posts will be dated with their original times, so wont appear at the top of this page.

Discovery museum

Today we met some friends at the Bay Area Discovery Museum at Fort Baker. There are a *lot* of things for kids to do there, but what I liked most of all was that there were fun and engaging activities for young children (e.g. Alex!). Usually Alex doesn't escape from the stroller very much during museum visits, but this time he was able to do a lot of crawling over fuzzy things and exploring. In one section there is wall-to-wall carpeting as well as random stuffed animals. Alex ignored all of the dogs, cats and piggies and went for the vulture

After a lot of high speed crawling and cackling, he ran out of steam.

Zoe, of course, was in heaven and ran around like a little crazy thing. She was repairing a mini Golden Gate bridge:

Playing some music:


Playing in the sand box:

And doing the Hula Hoop.

She was not especially successful in this final endeavor: Chloe would fling the hoop around her, and Zoe would swing her hips frantically, but completeley out of sync with the hoop. The hoop would then clatter to the ground and she would shriek "MORE!"

Anyway, a big thumbs up to the Discovery Museum. If we still lived here, we would definitely buy a membership. As soon as we left, we got swept into a classic bay area traffic jam, like almost every other time we have taken the freeway anywhere here.

Rivoli / Bridges

We had babysitter support today and headed to the Bridges gym, next to the asian mega complex near the freeway. I'm not sure how they stay in business with so much gym competition, but chloe and I both like it there a lot. The route setting in particular is superb -- some of the best we have seen. It's also very cool that the boulders top out. At our gym in Grenoble, they have banned volatile chalk, which after some initial bristling, I fully embrace. When you get a lot of climbers chalking up in an enclosed space, you very rapidly find yourself in a giant lung destroying white cloud. We both climbed well considering the fact that we have not climbed in two weeks and have been eating vast quantities of food.

And speaking of food, next, it was on to an excellent dinner at Rivoli. Chloe and Kenji had the scallops, my mom had the duck, and I had leg of lamb. Everything was wonderful, and I particularly liked the appetizer -- fried portobello mushroom fritters. Dessert was also exceptional -- warm chocolate budino for me, and meyer lemon cheesecake for CZ. At the end of the meal, my mom was talking to us about Opentable.com, and I mentioned that a lot of restauranteurs hate it. It's true that it can be a hassle to make reservations by phone, though.


appetizer:
portabella mushroom fritters, aïoli, parmesan, arugula, caper vinaigrette

scallops:
grilled dayboat scallops, potato and anaheim chili gratin,
baby spinach, sherry gastrique, quince aïoli, marcona almond picada

duck:
Sonoma liberty duck cooked two ways, winter vegetable soufflé,
lydia’s brussels sprouts with pancetta and pine nuts, black mission fig marmalata

leg of lamb:
grilled rosemary leg of lamb, roast eggplant, tomato and goat cheese tian,
garlic and olive oil braised tuscan kale

desserts:
warm chocolate cake, vanilla ice cream,
chocolate and caramel sauces

Meyer lemon cheesecake, citrus compote

End of an era?

I sold my first piece of film gear (Fuji 645zi) to fund the purchase of a lens for a digital SLR.

Picante/LHOS

Loud, slightly yuppie, long lines, but some of our favorite mexican food (and best chilaquiles).





Zoe and I went to Lawrence Hall of Science, which like all science museums in the bay area is a little overpriced, but still wonderful. First, there was a giant orange pushy thing:

which consisted of orange pegs that could be pushed to one extreme or the other. Kids were in constant motion pushing the pegs to one side and then running to the other side to push them back. Sometimes teams of kids would arrange themselves on either side for more efficient pushing. The patterns varied from the ever popular hand, to the full body body slam, to subtle lines traced with a finger.

Next: another zoetrope!

And then an excellent set of activites on roller coasters, where you could push balls down tracks

Next, the Zoe Show

And Kaleidezoe

When I was a kid, I went to several classes at the LHOS, and had memories of the huge double stairway that led to the lower level. Hoping that there might be something worth looking at down below, we walked down the stairs and into a lab. They were doing a workshop on walking/drawing machines. The idea is to make a "walker" that moves by an imbalanced motor (a DC motor with an asymmetrical weight attached to it). Then you attach pens, and have it draw as it "walks". Zoe loved it, even if I had to do most of the work. What gave her particular delight was to attach the leads to the motor while I was trying to repair the walker (it fell apart every 10 seconds or so), which would send another piece flying. Then the cycle would repeat, with hysterical Zoe giggles in the background.



From this room, it was on to the room full of animals, where Zoe got to pet a chinchilla,

look at snakes and crabs, and then leave when a busload of kids showed up. Next, we walked down the hall and saw a full sized cast of a T-rex skull. Zoe was starting to flag at this point, so we went upstairs to a display that had a wind tunnel that you could feed various cups, string and paper into, some more orange pushy thing action, and then finally to the Bane Of The Parent: The Museum Store. Here, it turned out that Zoe wanted pretty much everything, but especially a flower printed canteen. However, while in line, she saw a kid playing with a Hoberman Sphere, and it was as if the whole world had descended into night, except for the sphere. She looked at me seriously, put down the canteen, pointed at the sphere and said "That one, daddy". And then beckoned for my hand to bring me to the toy. Who am I to resist that? I looked at a Lawrence cyclotron on the way out. We've come a long way.

Longs

Chloe, my mom and I went to the fabulous Rockridge Long's today to buy flowers and a lemon tree. Zoe chose these

and my mom left the truck lights on, so I had to roll start it. thank goodness for manual transmissions.
Here Zoe is, helping Kenji to plant some flowers on the deck

Xmas!

This was the first Xmas that Zoe could really understand what was going on, and it was weird talking about Santa Claus and cookies and milk again, after all these years. Here is Zoe figuring out that Pere Noel had stopped by:




Shortly after the unwrapping of presents, it was cooking time. A few weeks earlier, my mom had floated the idea of cooking a turkey on her brand new fancy Weber, knowing full well that I will not say no to any grilling project. Unfortunately, it had started raining during the night, so she was now less sanguine about the idea, envisioning a Turkey Disaster. Kenji predicted, with his usual subtlty, that the turkey would be "burnt on the outside, rotten and raw on inside". Happily, he was wrong, and it turned out great: one of the most moist and flavorful turkeys that I have eaten. I was a bit worried about the size of it, since grilling seems to be used for smaller turkeys, and this one was 16 pounds. The medium indirect heating method works very well though. It took four hours and more than half of a bag of mesquite briquettes.


Meanwhile, in the living room:




My Mom's friend Bonnie came over for lunch/dinner, and it was on:




We were all a little worried that Zoe insisted on using her great-grandmother's crystal

but she did not mange to destroy it. It did require frequent refillings, however.

A day to relax (and cook)

Zoe cooked with the parents


AND chloe


Alex kept the beat


Oh, and there was a last minute high speed run to the Paramount for Chloe, Zoe and Gail to see the tail end of the Nutcracker.

Last Day in Las Vegas

Jon had to leave quite early in the morning, and Stephanie

and Christa were going to the airport earlier than us as well, so we went to the Venetian again, in an attempt to get Zoe on one of the gondolas. It turned out to be kind of a hassle (you need to make reservations and buy a ticket at some random place), so we skipped it, walked around for a while and then had lunch.

Alex mysteriously got ahold of a slice of lemon, the taste of which did not meet with his approval







We made it back to the hotel with a few minutes to spare before the airport shuttle showed up (Note to self: try to find a hotel with its own hotel shuttle in the future) and spent an hour driving around the gridlocked strip picking people up from five other hotels. In computer science, there is a famous problem that is called the "Travelling Salesman Problem", which refers to choosing an optimal route between geographically distinct locations. I am pretty sure that we managed to achieve the most un optimal route possible during this voyage. None of it was really the driver's fault: he had a list of people to pick up at specific times, and kept receiving more calls on the radio. Additionally, there was a several foot deep river running through one of the parking garages, which he was reluctant to ford in the van.

At the airport, Kenji and Gail split from us and the two kids, since Kenji needs a wheelchair to get to the plane. Things were a little less well organized here than in OAK, and we did a lot of standing around before it was finally time to take the shoes off our fifteen month old child, etc. etc. Getting two adults and kids through the checkpoint is kind of painful. So anyway, I was midway through the process, when I looked up and saw that Kenji was at the metal detector. He usually causes some kind of stir, so I wasn't really surprised to hear him talking to the TSA people manning the machine in a confused voice. He was talking about his suspenders and starting to stand up. The next thing I knew, the entire line of passengers was getting mooned by Kenji. One of the TSA women shrieked, and Gail looked around confusedly for several seconds before either she or Kenji decided that the show was over and it was time to pull his pants back up. I was a little surprised by it all, and haven't actually seen him expose himself during security before, but events like that are not unusual when traveling with Kenji.

The wrap up: Rain played a big part in our Vegas experience, which is annoying, seeing as the LACK of rain is a big reason why climbers go to vegas in the winter time. However, it was great seeing Jon, Stephanie and Christa, and especially great for them all to have some time bonding with the kids. Happily, Christa would rejoin us in san francisco later in the day.