Taking the Matching Thing a Bit Far

Monterey, CA
Memorial Day at NPS

The Day Bell's Head Exploded

While Lucy and I were living the life in Monterey, Bell was locked up in an office studying for his PhD exam. For four weeks he wracked his brain not once succumbing to the 4 complimentary HBO channels we received or the 2.00 bottles of wine at Trader Joe's. His exam took 2 days to complete from 8 AM until 4 PM without a lunch and only a bathroom break. At the end of it all he was beat, but not beaten. Bell found out recently that he passed and at that point his head was finally able to explode. Wouldn't yours? He just has to pass his orals and finish his dissertation and then you can call him doctor. But I think he still prefers to be called master.

Kids be warned! This is what you get when you subject yourself to higher education.

Papa Love

These jellies are huge. Their bell is about the size of a human head. They are gorgeous. Their dance is utterly spellbinding and I could stare at them all day. If by chance you can make it to the Monterey Bay Aquarium before September I highly recommend seeing the "Jellies as Art" exhibit. But it goes away come September.



We went ahead and bought membership passes to the Aquarium. Adult ticket prices are $24.95 and kids are $15.95. The yearly family membership pass is $120.00. Lucy and I more than made up for the price by the end of the first week we were in Monterey. Fortunately for us, the Aquarium was nowhere near as packed as last July but there were still many people especially young kids on field trips and everybody from Europe. Like last year, Lucy and I made it part of our daily routine to take the trolley down to the Aquarium and spend an hour or two there and do something else afterwards. I can't even imagine doing the whole thing in one visit--fighting the crowds and trying to catch all the animals. But I guess my parents did it many times going to Disney and Busch Gardens.

Lucy and the Sea

An idle spectator.



Amid the fury.







On to other things.

Why My Laptop is Now Located in an Airtight Fireproof Metal Box Covered in Bubble Wrap Protected By Lasers and a Guard Dog

Lucy, being a girl of three whose limbs don't quite do what she wants them to do, knocked a cup of coffee over. Many droplets of the black caffeine landed on my laptop's keyboard. Despite a fit of maniacal, overly dramatic shouting and gesticulating I was able to clean up the mess. I shut down my computer/my library/my address book/my photo albums/my resume/my portfolio/my connection to the world/my second child and hope nothing serious had been done.

By the next day I was in a better mood. I was sipping piping hot coffee and chuckling to myself how I was so silly the night before for so hastily pledging to give up this tasty robust black liquid. My daughter was able to sleep quite soundly in the closet and my computer seemed to be operating just fine. Until I hit X. XXXXXXX was no longer working. XXXXX the lifeblood of any PhotoShop/Illustrator user! Command X (control X for you PC folks) is delete! DELETE! Who cares if I won't be able to spell Xylophone, or type up an online prescription order for XanaX, or write a review about Xanadu (the best movie on roller skates, although Solar Babies wasn't bad). But never be able to shortcut Delete?!?! Life would no longer be the same.

Off to the shop it went. As was expected, Apple Care did not cover the replacement of a new keyboard and it took over a week for them to get the part. Do you know how close we are to Cupertino? I could have taken the short drive to Apple Headquarters, taken the tour, have lunch with Steve Jobs, rummage through the dumpsters for a mislabeled keyboard with a working X, all before closing time!

So for over a week sans a laptop, I did a lot of drawing, playing with Lucy, paying attention to Nanook, looking at Bell when I talk to him and lots of reading. Priceless.

On The Road Again

We just couldn't get enough of the 20 hour drive from Loveland, CO to Monterey, CA so we decided to do it again. This time we took Nanook with us. He is a 10 year old husky. How many more chances will he get to visit the ocean? He was an excellent rider, especially when he realized that we weren't going to dump him off at someone's house for a long period of time. Lucy was also a super traveller. I think she has it in her blood. She is already an expert plane traveller. She didn't complain once having to sit for 13 hours straight. She doesn't need to be entertained by movies and she only made the occasional request for Dan Zanes and The Alphabet of Nations by They Might Be Giants, but who wouldn't?
All she really needed to keep her entertained for many, many hours was her bike helmet and a stuffed cat named Mary Poppins, whose last name is Bubbles.

This time we decided to to take the I-80 route through Wyoming, Utah and Nevada. Not the most exciting stretch of America. We saw some bison and antelopes in Wyoming and a lot of wind farms but many more petroleum plants. We saw about 20 deer carcasses on the road in Utah, stopped at Echo Canyon that had no echo and much to my chagrin, Bell bypassed the only rest area located on the Bonneville Salt Flats.
Lucy at Echo Canyon with Mary Poppins Bubbles


Morton Salt Mines


Bonneville Salt Flats

Why I get all excited about salt flats and not, say, the Sierra Nevadas, I will never know. And Nevada, what can I possibly say about Nevada except, see ya. The only interesting blip in this state is Deeth Starr Valley.
Sadly, I come to find out that it is not a commune of overzealous Star Wars fans who were shunned from normal society for their fanatical need to dress up as Princess Leia and Chewbaca. No, all it is is a small town called Deeth located in Starr Valley. But seriously, what a coincidence, right? Or maybe Bell and I are the only people who get a chuckle out of this? Anywho... Instead of blazing through the night we made the decision to stop at a motel for the night. Bell said this made him feel very old. Spending the night in a somewhat clean motel with the family because there was just not enough mojo to push on until dawn--this is what Bell finds emasculating. It's better than hitting a deer at night. The bustling town of Elko, Nevada had little to offer us except video poker and $4.50 a gallon gas. That may have been the cheap stuff.

Finally we make it to California, in the throes of a heat wave, yay! First we had to make the prerequisite stop at the summit of Donner Pass where Bell had to tastefully (pardon the pun) reenact the tribulations of the Donner Party.
It was 86 degrees on the summit. By the time we made it to Sacramento it was touching 100. The drive through the Salinas Valley topped at 108. Then we made the blessed turn down Highway 101. The temps began to quickly fall and the scent of eucalyptus was in the air. When we finally reached Monterey it was sunny and 58 degrees.
It's good to be back.

Portrait of an Artist as a Young Girl

--Self portrait
(prismacolor pencil)


--The Owl Family
(watercolor)


--Java and Nanook (with a bird on his head) in the Park with People
(watercolor)


--Papa Toots
(ink)

The Stork is Working Overtime

Wow! Two more babes came into the world yesterday --twins, Niala and Maya, to bring the total to 3 babies born April 6th. We are seriously going to be broke come birthday time--five new babies in two weeks!!!!

Springs New Beginnings

How glorious is the spring time? Waking up to brisk morning air and a fresh dusting of snow only to be replaced by warm sunshine and open toes. Spring here in Colorado is rather unpredictable.
We can have snow one day



and too much sunshine the next day.



The birds are starting to build their nests.



And the Easter Bunny makes his annual visit.






And with the season springs many new beginnings.
Welcome to the world:
Serefina Fe
Dagan Elias
Forest Gray
and Avery Levine
and more soon to come!!!!
March and April is going to be full of birthday parties that's for sure!

We visited Mike and Elaina and the newest member of their clan, Forest. He was a real kicker and had an elf ear. What a cutie!!!









Unfortunately, spring is a short season here and soon the long hot road of summer will be upon us.



Rejoice in spring while you still can.

And So It Begins....

Our kid is growing up. I love it and hate it, all at the same time. No need to cue "Sunrise, Sunset" just yet, but I am getting to that point. And so it begins... Lucy had her first sleep over. You can read about it here and see some photos, too . The minute we dropped her off at Kaylynn's house she told Bell and I to leave. So we did. We had a nice dinner with big plans to watch a movie. One bottle of wine later, I promptly fell asleep by 11PM... on the couch. So this is how the other half lives.

Lucy also decided that she needed a new look.
The glasses weren't really doing it for her.


And so begins the trips to the hair salon for a shampoo, cut and style. She also wanted a mani-pedi, sheesh! Gone are the days of the free haircuts by Papa.


And so begins the day that Lucy has decided to take over all the cooking duties in the house. Inspired by her favorite movie to date--Ratatouille, Chef Lulu has made some memorable dishes such as Rat Soup and Sushi Cake. Delicious!


And so begins Lucy's days as a groupie.

We went to see Dan Zanes and Friends at the Boulder Theater today. Lucy loves Dan Zanes, almost more than James Brown.We as a family really enjoy his music. And I think Bell and I enjoy the concerts more than Lucy. A good time was had by all and there was a lot of little booties shaking.


Kaylynn and Lucy staking out a dancing spot.


Otis!


Lilly and Lucy getting down on the dance floor.


Dan Zanes!


"Catch That Train!"


Bubbles!


"Bye Bye, Sweet Rosyanna!"