9/29/2013

We had a pretty sleepy end of summer. Not a lot of activities and much hanging around. We took a day trip to the Ho rain forest and saw Tante Rachel at her chocolate factory. That was fun except the factory isn't gluten free, so Teddy couldn't eat any. Afterward we went for Thai food, and we all ate pretty much everything, and we liked it. As long as we can make sure the restaurant makes gluten free stuff (there's that thing again), we all had a good time.

The Hi-Ho's (High Holidays) came and went, and the Sukkot. We had four dinners in the sukkah, and only one got rained out. Papa still ate all his meals in the sukkah, but sometimes very very fast. Mostly he's been obsessively following his beloved Oakland A's on their march to the playoffs. The A's gave him a nice gift today, besides the 9-0 victory, thanks to Auntie Shelley--see below.

Sorry for the delay--no excuses, but here are pics of the last two months.

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Papa scored that OLD Color Classic Macintosh running system 7, which he loaded up an old favorite game called "Crystal Quest" on. It made really funny sounds, but the computer was wonky and eventually refused to boot up any more. Stinky 20 year old computer.

 On our way to the Ho, we stopped at what we thought was the beach, but it turned out to be a bluff.

 Papa wouldn't even let us climb down. Hmmmph.

 So we climbed over barriers and looked out over shear drops on perilous cliffs.

Then we got to the rain forest, and it wasn't raining. We want our money back.

There was a lot of moss however. Somebody is obviously falling behind on their tree tidying.

 Mossy moss moss. Or maybe they are green arms out to grab unsuspecting carbon life forms. Hmmm.

Okay, while this looks like a volcano, it's just a really cool could.

 This is glacial runoff on going thru the rain forest. It was all very picturesque. And we got to throw stones.

 Speaking of stones, LeeAndra came thru town on her way to Sharon, MA for the Hi-Ho's with Auntie Iris, and papa was inspired by the memory of LeeAndra and Bruce's delicious canned plums to harvest the plums on the backyard plum stump. Actually, he sent Mommy down to harvest the plums and put LeeAndra to work with a paring knife.

 Sukkot time--doesn't it look festive and inviting? We bring in chairs if we like you.

 So Shelley asked the A's Manager, Bob Melvin, to get a signed bat for papa for his upcoming birthday and celebrate how big an A's fan he is, and Bob came thru in a big way. It even made papa cry, but that's not so hard to do.

It's a beautiful bat that is going to place of honor in papa's man cave. Wow! LET'S GO, OAKLAND!!! It's October baseball for the A's, and that's the best birthday present of all!

8/4/2013

It's been how long since we posted? We missed July? Are you kidding me? I know we were doing stuff, now what was it. Hmmm, end of June, oh ya, Teddy birthday, and we were in California. Then skidaddled back home so Teddy could go to his friend Jules' bar mitzvah--good thing Teddy showed up because he was one of the torah readers. Okay, back to the timeline--4th of July papa smoked a bunch of stuff. I sense a meat theme. 4th of July smoking went so well that he did it again at then end of the month, but more this time to throw some in the freezer to dole out to the inmates every now and again. Funniest thing is the pulled pork labeled PP in the downstairs freezer. Either way, it's probably safe from intruders, but if they taste it, it won't be safe for long.

We've taken a couple hikes lately, both urban and mountainous. The urban one was just to Butch's Gun shop, er, Green Lake Games (next to butch's guns) and the mountainous one was to the east peak of Rattlesnake mountain. There isn't any rattlesnakes on the mountain, but we did see one crossing the trail. We tried to climb Mt. Si a couple days later, but somebody started a fire on the mountain and the trail got closed, so back to Rattlesnake mountain. That's it for that one for at least a year. Seen it, done that.

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Hmmm, In N Out nutrition facts--there is no nutrition here.

Mmmmm, quadruple burger and fries.

 Protein power. We don't think wrapping the burger in lettuce is to our tastes.

 Just give me the fries, and I'm good.

 Or maybe a cookie and a baguette?

 Ghirardelli for free chocolate, and maybe I'll throw this treasure in the fountain.

 Gluten free cocoa krispie treat birthday cake. Hooray.

 We did go back to Lawrence Hall of Science and went straight to building.

 Yes, it's as tall as it looks--7.5 feet by my estimation. The best was when Teddy knocked it over by kicking it down. We've got video but you'll have to come here and ask us to show it to you.

 Did somebody say something about cookies? Chocolate chip cookies? What is wrong with this picture? Teddy is eating a cookie? It's okay--don't get your panties in a bunch. There's a fancy pants gluten free bakery in the Ferry Builiding called Mariposa and Teddy was not harmed by this cookie. Swear to god.

Er, scouts honor?

Another day we got to go to the new Exploratorium. It was pretty great. We spent the first half of the day building a wall based marble drop contraption, and then discovered other nice things.

 Like free pinball!

 Oh no, uncle Michael also found out about the free pinball. C'mon, give us smaller people a chance.

 Thankfully some of the old exhibits made it to the new building. Mmm, toilet water.

 Hey Willie, I have a surprise for you.

Baguette, and it's gluten free, so it's MINE ALL MINE. HA HA HA HA.

 MINE, chew, MINE swallow, MINE, crunch, MINE.

 MMMM, ribs.

 Mmmm, meat on a stick.

 Mmmmmmm

 Pat the bunny.

 Just see how creative adults get when they want to? Who knew you could make a basket out of watermelon and melon baller?

 We got home from California, and Mommy said they needed torah readers in 2 and a half weeks so I checked to see if I could deal with the portion, and within a few minutes, I was up and running. It's a nice skill.

 Speaking of skill, I'm improving my collection of pork product related clothing thanks to our friend Ellie.

 Halfway up Rattlesnake mountain.

 This point is called Rattlesnake ledges.

 I don't see any snakes, I want my money back.

The top at last--now can we go home?

 Ya ya, the view, we get it.

 We developed a potato chip back holding system. Then somebody spoiled our fun by saying that's what we would look like in a couple years when we're carrying our babies up the mountain. Way a be a buzzkill.

And then we had pizza, so I guess like ain't all bad.

PRAISE THE MANUFACTURER--it's gluten free Joe-Joe's (or oreos by another name). Thank you Trader Joe's.

6/23/2013

We've been having a good time in California, but I (Willie) am a still a little steamed about the General Tso's incident, and that they seem to be closing all my favorite chinese restaurants in the area. How is a guy supposed to get to eat greasy fried gluten laden chicken and beef?

We went to the California Academy of Sciences and Steinhart Aquarium. It was extra fun because the alligator who normally never moves was super active. Treat. We've also been to our friends Nate and Jake's Bnai-Mitzvah which was a weekend long thing. We started with a meat and Magic fest Friday night, then down to the actual business of the event Saturday morning followed by a gambling dance party Saturday night. We were too worn out to go to brunch Sunday morning, so we took it easy, then met papa's friend Howie for dinner, and he did us right.

We've got another celebration Tuesday complete with a rice krispie cake. No more tweens for some person.

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I'm putting my money on the Alligator

 I'm putting my money on the Snapping turtles

 We are not putting our money on the catfish (see inside Alligator's mouth).

Behold--the reincarnation of Mouse! Two years ago I lost Mouse at Nana's at the end of a summer trip. This year, Willie and I were walking to Montclair and we were close to Nana's house and we saw this Mouse in the Street--it was meant to be.

Looks like mouse took a Las Vegas vacation with this costume he's wearing, and his eyes are kind of off center--too much Las Vegas.

 We celebrated Mouse's return with a side of beef--actually it's just a tri-tip that papa smoked (Nana joke: where'd you find rolling papers that big--wakka wakka wakka). It was delicious--perhaps we'll have another one on my birthday!

 No Mouse, you can't have any tri-tip because mice are vegetarians.

 Monsters on the other hand eat little children, or so they say. Contrary to the picture, we did not see Monsters U yet. We saw the new Star Trek movie, and Mike and Sully happened to be there.

 Magic is definitely the way to spend the aftermath of a guy's bar mitzvah.

 Oh, and Craps. Fergie taught us all how to play, and I (Teddy) made $800 at the Craps table. Too bad they didn't let me keep it.

I got to eat my weight in ice cream, whipped cream and red vines.

At Howie and Cheryl's house, they had these auto-opening garbage cans everywhere. How cool is that? Lid goes up, lid goes down. Lid goes up, lid goes down. Lid goes up, lid goes down. Lid goes up, lid goes down. Lid goes up, lid goes down. Lid goes up, lid goes down. Lid goes up, lid goes down. Lid goes up, lid goes down. This never gets old.