Another Reno Weekend

I headed back to Reno in late April with a song in my heart.  My brother in law returned from Afghanistan!  I volunteered to watch the kids so that KK and Mr. K could have a date night.

As always, Chloe made herself right at home at the K’s.

Yes, that is the half wall between the kitchen and living room.  And yes, that does mean that Chloe can access the counter tops.   Try not to think about that too much.

Not to be outdone, Cricket decided to engage in some inappropriate climbing of her own.

Monkey see, monkey do

Followed by an episode of wearing-clothes-like-hair.  This is probably a indicator of my maturity – I never fail to find that hilarious.

Comedy gold, people

The kids and I headed to a new-ish chi chi playground south of town.  Check out that three story climbing structure!

Complete with mini-zipline.

We played.

And I discovered that sometime in the last couple of weeks Cricket learned how to pump a swing by herself.

Rock on, sister!

Anyway, after the playground it was time for pizza at Grimaldi’s.

Our server this time was a little slow on the dough delivery.  More like glacier slow.  And he seemed impervious to my frantic child-on-the-verge-of-a-low-blood-sugar-induced-meltdown death stare.

(I was rather hungry.)

Fortunately I had back up entertainment:

Chapstick.

More precisely, fake chapstick made by Suburu.

She kept putting it on, then wiping it off.

And then putting it on again.

I’ve never been so grateful for a vendor freebie.

Suburu, I’ve never owned any of your cars, but I gotta tell you – the lip balm gets an A+.

Ball

Without further ado, a guest post by Chloe…

Who want play ball?  I got equipment.  Hard to carry on account of the no thumbses.

Come on Mama!  Throw ball!

Look! I run through field.  Peoples say I run fast.

It true.  I run fast.

See? I run too fast for camera.

Dis not run.  Dis just trot.  Not so photogenic.

Dis action shot. Peoples say ball big as my head.  I say peoples need to stop talking, throw ball.

I take break.  Lick paw. Not bring ball back to Mama.

Take time.  Survey my kingdom.

Hey.  What dat?

You in sky.  Dis my ball.

Dis my ball. I love my ball.

Baltimore, Part Two

As you can imagine, I crammed as much into my Baltimore visit as I possibly could.  Here are a few highlights.

1. Laughter and prayer with my Bible study girls.

2. A walk around the old neighborhood and breakfast with these ladies.  The both have super-exciting things going on in their lives right now.  It was so great to catch up in person and reconnect.

3. Lunch with one of my oldest friends in Baltimore (15 years of friendship) and rejoicing over how God has blessed her children.

4. A jam session with my former bandmates.

Rockin out in the basement

5. Getting to see my old house with new updates.  Look at the gorgeous stained glass the new owners installed over the front door.

6. Visiting with old neighbors.  I truly lived on one of the nicest streets in Baltimore.

Some of the old crew

7. Church at Lee Street Memorial Baptist.  Boy do I miss that church!

8. Lunch with my cousin.  It’s always good to see family and he is doing such interesting things these days.

9. Wandering through Fells Point and Harbor East with my good friend Jersey.  You know you have a good friend when she looks at you and says “You look exhausted.  Why don’t you go take a nap?  We’ll still have time to visit.”  I slept like the dead for two hours and woke completely refreshed.

It was a great trip.  I wish I could have had time to visit with more friends, but I think I made a valiant effort.

Baltimore, you still hold a special place in my heart.

Opening Day 2013

You didn’t think I’d miss Opening Day just because I’m on the left coast now, did you?

I had a glorious weekend (rain promised by forecasters; sunshine delivered by God) reconnecting with friends.

Look, here’s my friend Brooks Robinson with the scarf we made for him last year.  I think this has become an annual tradition.

I stayed with Ridgely and Mr. Ridgely for the first part of my trip to Baltimore.  Here we were doing a little pre-game shopping.

My gracious hosts

And here we were doing a little pre-game um, pregaming.  Ridgely had the brilliant idea to make our free swag into VIP passes.  It amused us to no end.

Bosslady and Ridgely = VIPs

Captain Dee-Fense was at the pre-game celebrations.

The best part was that this party was literally outside the Ridgelys’ door.

Seriously.

Here’s their door.

And here’s the party!

It was a beautiful day at the Yard.

We cheered the O’s on to a victory.

Beer was spilled (not by us, but on our friend).

This little fan has been at every Opening Day.  Even in utero.  She carried a sign that said “Hey O’s!  This is my 7th Opening Day.  And I’m only 6!”  Naturally that got her onto the Jumbotron.

This Knitting Ninja was smart enough to bring her Oriole’s Snuggie with her.  It was a wee bit chilly in the shade.

A photo opp with Natty Boh ended a perfect day at Camden Yards.

Plan B

Sometimes the best laid plans just don’t work out…

The other weekend KK and I had planned a full weekend with the kiddos involving snowshoeing, a walk in Sacramento, and tickets to see Cinderella.

But then someone got called to a mandatory work function and someone managed to sprain his ankle.

Which kind of put the kibosh on our awesome plans.

So we bobbed and weaved and ended up with a day in Reno.

Tank wearing my hat on the way to the library

Cricket in her new booster seat

How I managed to get through an entire story-time-complete-with-decorate-your-own-crown without a picture is beyond me.  Perhaps it’s because I was too busy trying to figure out the logistics of transporting two floppy paper crowns loaded with wet glue and heavy buttons.  Let’s just say it was a crafting fail.

I did manage to take photos at our next destination:

Lunch

At Grimaldi’s, our favorite pizza in Reno

Not only does Grimaldi’s have pretty awesome pizza, they also provide kids with a hunk of dough to keep them occupied.  Smart thinking there, Grimaldi’s.

Tank shows off a multimedia sculpture

My favorite part of the day was immediately following lunch.  The kids heard music out on the plaza and we indulged in a few minutes of interpretive dance.

With props.

Followed by a photo shoot entitled “Pretend to be a statue”

Sasha Fierce has nothin’ on Cricket

Man do I love being an aunt!

Longtime Friends

Another week, another friend in California.

High school friend K and her family visited California over Spring Break.  They were spending 2 nights in San Francisco, so I drove in to meet them one afternoon.

K and her family

K and I have known each other since middle school way back in the 1980s.  I was a bridesmaid in her wedding to R over twenty years ago!

It was a beautiful day in San Francisco.  We stopped for ice cream at Ghirardelli Square and wandered along the water.  Then we hiked over to the “crookedest street:” Lombard Street.

K’s eldest is climbing up to take a picture of Lombard Street, while her middle child (foreground) is content to take in the view from street level

Here K’s son expresses discontent at being kept from the view of Lombard.

How wonderful to catch up with faraway friends!

Mom Was Here

My mom came to visit the other weekend.  We had a whole list of fun activities to do:  a road trip to Santa Rosa, visiting the Charles Schulz museum, seeing the new Eames exhibit at the California Museum.

Except we didn’t do any of those.

Because I also had a list of mommy-dos.

You see my mom has a knack for the decorating.  She’s great at spatial stuff (ie rearranging furniture in her head), selecting colors and making things comfortable.  Plus she’s lived in so many houses through the years that she has great life lessons to share.

So while we planned on doing some apartment fixing up and some tourism stuff, we ended up spending the entire weekend making my apartment even cozier.

I may never move out.

This blog might turn into “the life and times of an old lady and her dog in Sacramento.”  And you’ll see me, all wrinkled.  And Chloe’s successor. And we’ll still be here in this cozy apartment.

Wanna see?

My living room in disarray as we rearrange pictures

Some new lamps and a different grouping above the sofa.  I was planning on hanging that door above the sofa, but we decided we kind of like it in the corner.

Mom added greenery to the top of the shelf unit to disguise the earthquake straps.  And yes, that smaller picture is too high.  I did that after Mom left.  Sigh.  It’s lower now and looks better.

See that box next to my TV?  Dad made that for me years ago.  It’s now repurposed as a remote holder.

The guest room got a new comforter, some rearranged furniture and bedside reading lamp.  It’s still in progress.  We’ve got curtains to hang, pictures to frame and that wall behind the bed will be painted eventually.  Even half done it looks way better than before.

Another shot of the guest room.  Doesn’t Debby’s quilt look nice in there?

A new nightstand and reading lamp for my bedroom…it is so nice to read in bed without a book light!

These big baskets are a nice change from my small laundry hamper.

This might be my favorite improvement of all:  knobs, knobs, glorious knobs!!!!

Seriously, there was not a single knob in the entire apartment.  I’ve lost count of the number of fingernails I’ve broken opening doors and drawers.  These knobs make me SOOOOOOOOOO happy!

Dear Knobs, I love you. Will you marry me? Sincerely, Juice

So there you have it.  Not a single picture of Mom, but a lot of evidence that she’s been here.

Oh, need more evidence?

How about an Easter jackalope all the way from Florida?

Feer de jackalope

Or some love for our Chloe?

Dis my Mr. Peepers. Dis my St. Patrick’s Day neckerchief. Gifts from Grambi. You no take.

I’d like to think that there may be an Eames exhibit in our future.  Then again, that patio could really use some attention…