something like this

Things have been grim here, summerwise. It’s unseemly to say this, in the face of the East Coast heat wave, but we have been freezing all week. So much so that Tom has considered turning ‘fog’ into his own three-letter expletive. I guess we’re supposed to expect as much from a summer in San Francisco, but this has been a little over the top.

Anything that breaks up the chill is welcome, so when Tom asked if the kids and I could spend some quality time up at the Civic Center renewing the Fictional Business Name for our office, we thought, “Why not?” At first, I was a bit concerned about two kids in a county office not particularly known for zippy service. Once we got up there though, I was won over yet again by the building itself, which is Frank Lloyd Wright’s last commissioned building. I only have some quick shots taken with my phone, but fortunately there are lots of images on the interweb, like these over at  GreatBuildings.com.

There’s an excellent exhibit on the ground floor with the history of the building and some early models that are spectacular.

Architectural models rock, and this one was inspiring.

The kids and I spent some time wandering around and looking for recurring shapes – circles and long long ovals – and admiring the original signage. Oh so beautiful. It hurts a bit to see the gorgeous original doors and windows taped all over with laser-printed directions and notices in a clutter of colors and fonts, though. I’m afraid some of our friends who work as graphic or industrial designers might just start crying softly at the sight of it.

These are the gates that fold out and lock at night.

There was a classic Frank Lloyd Wright moment when we were walking out of the ground floor atrium, and Honey noticed that this garden ended outside the exterior glass wall. She did a double take at the whole indoor-outdoor design and her delight would have made him cross his arms and cock and eyebrow at any critics – “See? I told you so.”

This is actually one of the driveways – the building manages to be retro and futuristic at the same time.

All in all – foggin’ incredible.

Honey had an excellent intuition yesterday to swing into a consignment shop where our friend Ruth used to volunteer. We strolled in, and in the first 30 seconds we made two important discoveries: our neighbor Barbara, who was working there that day, and a set of sterling silver animal birthday candle holders. Shall I break that down? Birthday candle holders. Shaped like animals.

They were so lovely we bought them up, just like that. And then when our friends came over for dinner, we knew what we had to do.

Our friend Sean said it was a little like choosing your monopoly piece – it was fun seeing which animal each person wanted most.

We’ll all have extra birthdays this year!

Confirmation that we live in Pleasantville came this morning in the local Police Log.

Suspicious Vehicle:

———– Highway Frontage Road at 3:30 a.m. On routine patrol, officer saw a vehicle with one subject. Contacted subject, who was fishing, caught one striped bass.

I hope you get to go to a parade.

We’ll be having a barbeque with some great friends, but a corner of my heart will be at the parade in Needham along with my family, watching 3,742 fire trucks wail their way along Webster Street. Wherever you are, I hope you have a terrific day, and I hope you get some pie.

Ok, raise your hand if you like Mythbusters. We’re all fans here – it’s a tasty blend of curiosity and craziness with a dash of scientific method. Plus it’s good to support your local team.

Well, the other night we saw the episode where the myth was if you interleave the pages of two phone books, you can’t pull the phone books apart. If you haven’t seen it, the whole episode is fun and surprising (at least it sure was for me). Turns out I have a new appreciation for phone books. Scratch that – turns out I have an appreciation for phone books.

If you’re the type who likes to read the ending first – this clip on You Tube will show you how it all turned out.

The best part was that we got to the end of the show, there was a pause, and Hot Wheels asked, “What’s a phone book?”

Amazing how some events feel like they’re forever in the planning and anticipation, and then they’re over in a flash.

It was such a fun time – a beautiful day and a whole bunch of great friends. We counted 115, but there might have been a few extras. There was one gorgeous little boy that we all thought came with somebody else and in the end we think he might have just wandered over from the playground. It was such a gift to see all these terrific people we know from different areas of our lives all coming together. It was like a wedding, with bouncy castles.

And cupcakes!

(We had some serious icing and decorating help from our friends across the street.)

Here’s the thing – we’re insanely fortunate to be surrounded by such fun, generous friends and family. It’s ridiculous. Tom was the happiest birthday guy in the world yesterday, and we’re just so grateful to all our friends for making it a real party.

Happy Summer. (At least if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere!)

We had our first play in the creek behind the library, and it’s the 21st, so summer must really be here at last. Here’s to late light and slow days!

Here’s to all the great dads out there. Thanks for all the stories you tell, the problems you fix, the performances you encourage, the time you make.

This is what you call a soft-focus Father’s Day photo. We were walking through the outdoor mall after we saw a matinee (!) of Toy Story 3 (!!) and there was a guy handing out balloons. As we approached, he looked at Honey and said, “I’m wrapping things up here today – would you like a balloon, or all of them?” It’s like asking a kid if she’d like a puppy. Oddly appropriate, seeing as we’d just walked out of the latest Pixar wonder, to walk around under a huge bunch of balloons. Hand me my cane, Russell, we’re off to South America…

Happy Father’s Day!

Or at least one of them! Last day of school yesterday. WAHOOOOO!!!!

We’ve talked about teacher gifts here in the past. This summer we hit the same dilemma and ended up with the same solution – money into the general gift pool and sampler bags of our favorite types of cookies with thank you notes attached. Thank you notes are not easy, which is what makes them worthwhile. That’s my opinion, anyway.

Here we are, heading off on the last school day of the year.

We love our crossing guard. He’s a professional pianist who travels back to China for competitions every summer.

The last day of kindergarten sure is bittersweet. Does it get better than kindergarten? At our school, the 5th graders have a ‘graduation’ ceremony on the last day. (Let me just quickly get it over with – I’m a curmudgeon about this, I realize, but I just don’t like graduations before high school. There.) Anyway, the school does a lovely job with the whole thing; beautiful slideshow, a brief thoughtful statement about each student, great decorations on the walls with the kids’ pictures. Very nice. This year the 5th graders passed around a microphone and each told one memory of her/his time at the school, with a small takeaway at the end. Some were absolutely hysterical, and one kid told a story about his mother having to drop him off early before school one day when he was in kindergarten.

He said he was the only kid waiting outside the classroom, but his mother had told him people would be coming along soon, so at first he didn’t worry. Then as time passed and he’d been waiting and waiting with no one else showing up, he started to cry. “Then,” he said, “like a knight in shining armor, the lawn mowing guy walked up to me, put his hand on my shoulder, and said, ‘It’s going to be alright.’” That how this student summed up what he’d learned so far in school – it’s going to be alright.

Turns out she was catching up on the Netherlands/Denmark game and got so caught up in the Denmark own goal that she, well, she got a bit distracted.

Stay on target, TF! Step away from the vuvuzela.