Some of the This and Some of the That

It's been a week, it has. We've passed into March like a like a fleecy bouncy lamb ("L-l-l-isa. I thought you l-l-l-loved me. L-l-l-loved me!")** so I know there are certainly dark and liony days ahead. But for now I'm enjoying the warmer temperatures (trying NOT to look ahead at the forecast that promises 60s and maybe even 70 by early next week), and revelling in the wonderful springy sights and smells that my walks around the neighbourhood and to and from the bus stop are kind enough to provide.

Last Sunday the family and I headed off to the International District for a cool little mini-adventure based on a recent episode of Postcards From Buster. Yes, this is the cartoon series that our got Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings' old lady panties in a bunch because one episode dared to show a lesbian family in Vermont. I know, I know - whenever you mix lesbians and maple syrup unspeakable horrors result<rolls eyes>. Anyhow, I work in the ID and am very familiar with many of the places they showed, including Uwajimaya, the grocery store and food court that is directly across the street from my office, so we had a lot of fun watching the episode and felt an in-person trip was in order.

We ate in the food court, pilgrimaged to Pokemon and Hello Kitty sections of the store, and then set out to find a geocache in the nearby Waterfall Park. We did find the cache (yay Stephen!) and also found another pair of geocachers who were visiting from California and passed on Rattles the travelbug to us. We're hoping to send her on her way this weekend. By the way - if you're not yet hip on geocaching... check out the links. It's a very cool geeky treasure hunt and the perfect reason to buy that GPS you've been wanting. Thanks to Jenn for turning us onto it!

Nathan started a new adventure this week - he had his first two sessions in the early prep class for the Northwest Boychoir. It's an activity that came out of the blue - he saw the call for auditions on a flyer that came home from school and decided that he'd like to give it a try. A nicely-performed rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" later, and he got the call. If it's something he enjoys and stays with for a while, it will give him a good musical education and plenty of performance and travel opportunities. We shall see, but so far so good... this week they're starting with solfege (I KNEW that getting the kids hooked on The Sound of Music would come in handy!), and his homework is to memorize the 7 hand signals for the basic scale. Who knew there were hand signals?

On the Sophie front, we're in the planning stages for her 5th birthday party <falls over> which is less than a month away. After last year's combined swim party extravaganza that almost did me in, I was very clear that henceforth we are doing separate and much smaller parties for the kids. So now we're trying to decide whom (read: how many) to invite and where and what we're going to do. This causes me no end of stress as I attmempt the fine line between trying to have few enough people so that we're not overwhelmed and enough people so that nobody's feelings get hurt that they didn't get invited and so-and-so did. Any cool ideas for fun party activities for 5-year-olds would be greatly appreciated. We're hoping to do it outside, but the weather this time of year is so unpredictable that whatever the plan it has to be mobile and not so messy that it will ruin the dining room floor.

And that's it. Other than the fact that I had/have an eye thing going on which is requiring me to have my contacts out for a few days and wear my glasses. That would be fine if my prescription was accurate - which, or course, it's not. Nothing is quite in focus for me today which is a great metaphor for something that I'm too busy to think about right now.

**Props to the first person to identify the quote!