Christmas and Chaos

The desktop computer's hard drive died about a week and a half ago. The same day the cold water tap wouldn't run in the morning and the day before our first significant snow of the season. And Daddy Geek was in California for the week. But, we don't think the pipes burst (cross fingers) and Daddy Geek's Christmas project is to install a new hard drive.

But Santa came by on a fire truck! Here's the decorated and music-blaring fire truck going one way down the street -- see Santa in the upper left corner.


And coming back down after turning around in the court. Fireman walked alongside handing out candy canes and fire safety reminders.


This is what happens when Geek Girl (with a little help from her friends) has free rein of the empty basement bedroom. Just a little bit of chaos.


And here she is on Christmas morning, playing with her new HexBug nanos and Zoobles.


Happy Holidays everyone!

Brrrrrr....

25.5 deg F with a wind chill of 17 deg F. I think it's okay to drive Geek Girl to school instead of walking. Dear Canada, you can have your cold winds back.

Rant: Fairness

If you spend any time with 7-year-olds, you'll know that fairness is an important concept. Unfortunately, life is not always fair. But it really gets me frustrated when unfairness is due to the thoughtlessness of another adult.

When a kid has a birthday, they often bring treats to share with their classmates at lunch. This is easily done since the kids sit together by class. Well, today a kid in another class must have had a birthday and brownies were brought in for the class. I don't know if what happened next was by design, or spur of the moment, but then the mother in question proceeded to dole out brownies to kids in the other six classes, if they rode the same bus as her child! That means that some of the kids in Geek Girl's class received brownies, and most of them didn't. Excuse me, what are you thinking lady? If you're going to hand out treats to a table, you hand them out to everyone at the table.

Four hours later, the first thing my kid says to me when I pick her up after school is that something not fun happened at lunch and proceeded to explain to me what happened. Part of me wants to complain to the school or hunt her down, but I'm hoping maybe this mom just wasn't thinking. So, thank you for allowing me this chance to vent and now it's time to move one. (Well, I'll have to complain to one more parent tomorrow and then I will move on, promise.)

Fun with tile grout

What do you get when you mix one part paint to five parts Elmer's tile grout? Frosting! Or at least, something that looks like frosting.

Geek Girl and I went to the National Gallery of Art on Sunday for one of their Family Workshops. We had fun looking at and discussing Wayne Thiebaud's painting Cakes.

Then came the fun part. Icing and decorating a cardboard "cake".

Here is Geek Girl's masterpiece. I helped a little with the icing, but she did all of the decorating herself. Doesn't it look yummy?




We were both pretty hungry after the workshop. Luckily we had Halloween candy waiting for us at home. Where was Daddy Geek? After driving us in he went for a little 11-mile run home. He had a little bit of Halloween candy too.

Halloweens Past and Present

I can't resist posting old photos of Geek Girl. At the end of the post you'll see that after many easy years of creating costumes, we actually put some effort into this year's costume.

Eight months old and a happy elephant. (Thanks Jen!)


One year later and the head still fits!


Okay, 2005, let's be a Chinese princess.


2006 was a rough year. Geek Girl was an American Girl in Florence, Italy.

In 2007, Geek Girl wanted to be a friendly ghost.


In 2008, we were in Zürich, and she was Sleeping Beauty.


Last year she was a pirate fairy.


And this year she decided to be a dragon. Thank goodness for the internet. I found a cool pattern here. The whole family was involved in creating this costume. I cut out the pieces from foam board and cardboard and glued the easy bits. Daddy Geek and I worked together to glue the head (thank goodness for hot glue guns). Geek Girl did most of the painting with a little bit of help from me. I think it turned out pretty well, what do you think?



Geek Girl has been anxiously waiting for trick-or-treating all day. We had an afternoon ice skating birthday party to distract her and an early dinner. By 6 pm she was very happy when her good friend next door finished dinner and came over to start trick or treating.

Walking on liquid

This past weekend was the first USA Science and Engineering Festival. How lucky are we that we can just take the metro in and "celebrate science at over 1500 fun, hands-on science and engineering activities?"

We made inheritance bracelets (Daddy Geek and Geek Girl can both taste PTC); used maggots to spread paint around and create works of art; used licorice, toothpicks, and marshmallows to model a DNA molecule; built a catapult; and had to drag Geek Girl away.

The highlight of the day was running across a non-newtonian fluid -- if you step on it slowly you'll sink, but if you run across it, you won't.

Geek Girl will demonstrate.

Scrambled States

Last week was the book fair for Geek Girl's Elementary School. One of the books on her wish list was "The Scrambled States of America Talent Show" a sequel to "The Scrambled States of America." We've checked both books out the library, but she was excited to get a copy of her own. While Geek Girl was at soccer practice, I helped out at the book fair, and when I mentioned to the organizer how much Geek Girl liked the Scrambled States books, she suggested the Scrambled States game.

So on Saturday we open up the game and play. Then we decide to test how many U.S. state capitals Daddy Geek and I can remember. Back in the day, I knew all of the U.S. state capitals. I'll have you know I was on the Academic League too! However, all those old bits of trivia seem to have been replaced by new random facts, because I could only name 29 state capitals. Daddy Geek, on the other hand, remembered all of the state capitals except for Bismarck, North Dakota. Maybe that's why he can't learn new tricks?

How do you know if you're hurt?

Geek Girl had her fifth soccer game today. It was a perfect day for soccer -- cool and sunny. It's time to look for a long-sleeve shirt for her to wear under her uniform. For the first half of the season the parents were seeking the shade. Now we hang out in the sun.

Geek Girl has a lot of fun in practice and is learning new moves. She likes to "mark" other players on throw-ins, but she still doesn't always go after the ball like some of the other kids. Her coach has given her the assignment of practicing not to stop once she gets the ball and also to run at players with the ball.

Even though Geek Girl is pretty strong, a lot of times she acts like she is a delicate flower. We've been wondering how she would react the first time she got up close and personal with another player. Well, today she took a ball in the throat. There was a collective gasp from the sideline and then we asked her "Are you okay?" When she answered "I don't know," we knew she was okay and told her so and she continued to play. Later on she did take a pretty good tumble, but she got up and kept playing. Go Geek Girl!

Another tooth gone

Geek Girl lost her eight tooth this week. The new tooth needs the other teeth to move out of the way, so she has quite a big gap in her smile.


Here she is with Daddy Geek looking over her classwork from the week.

Opera in the Outfield -- Daytime version

This year's Opera in the Outfield was on Sunday, the 19th at 2 pm. That was the only time the Opera schedule overlapped with no games at the Ballpark. We knew we would have to leave early for a soccer match at 5 pm, so we planned to arrive when the Ballpark opened to snag seats and try the family activities.

It was a gorgeous day (maybe a little hot) and the Redskins were playing later, so maybe we didn't have to worry about getting there early, but it was nice to have a choice spot on the outfield (which we moved to the shade in the seats). Long Lost Cousin and family met us there and we had lunch and then went to try on some opera costumes and make some masks in honor of Verdi's "A Masked Ball."

Geek Girl decked out.


Daddy Geek and Girl Geek.


Geek Girl and friends and their creations.


I was a little worried that Geek Girl might not stay interested since A Masked Ball is more serious the Barber of Seville. However, she definitely enjoyed the opera.

Soccer Season

Geek Girl has decided to try soccer this year. Last weekend she had two matches. The team consists of twelve girls. When they play another team, they get split up into two smaller teams playing the opposite team on two small fields. After two quarters, one of the teams changes fields and they play two more quarters against the other half of the team.

Here she is in uniform with her ball.


And here are some action shots.



This afternoon's game is during the neighborhood block party. Also, at least four girls will be missing, so there definitely won't be any subs. When asked how she likes soccer, Geek Girl replies "I get hot and tired." Hopefully this afternoon won't be too bad...

First Day of Second Grade

Geek Girl started second grade at a new school this week. The school was new to all of the second graders, because all the kindergartners and first graders go to one school, and the second, third, and fourth graders go to another school. In the apartment we were out of the walking perimeter and Girl Geek could have taken the bus or walked. Now, we are 0.3 miles away from the school and the bus is not an option. Which is fine with us, since Geek Girl used to suffer from motion sickness on the bus ride to school.

Daddy Geek and Girl Geek at the corner. Daddy Geek would have loved to walked Geek Girl to school on her first day, but he had jury duty.


Geek Girl with her bag of school supplies almost at the school.


Geek Girl in her classroom.

Row, row, row your boat

Last Sunday we rented a canoe from the Thompson Boat Center and cruised the Potomac. We went upstream under the Key Bridge to the Three Sisters Islands for lunch, went a little further upstream, and then furiously rowed back hoping not to get a ticket for exceeding the parking meter time. (We made it in time). Here are some pictures from the adventure.

Daddy Geek and Girl Geek with the Key Bridge behind them.


Some silly geeks.


Lunch Break.


Then we drove over to the Tidal Basin to find a shady spot to read and nap under the trees before coffee and treats on the way home. A lovely Sunday.

Last week of summer vacation

We're on the final stretch of summer break. All of the outdoor pools close on Labor Day. No more sleeping in until 9 am -- we've started waking Geek Girl up at 7:15 am. Tomorrow we go meet her 2nd grade teacher.

Right now we have about a third of the local library on our bookshelves. Here's a picture of Geek Girl reading in the local cafe after a trip to the library. She's reading one of the Cornelia Funke's Ghosthunters books.

Geek Girl Projection of the Earth

Geek Girl received some art supplies in the mail today and she is happily drawing.

Here is one of her creations. Keep in mind that this is a 5 in x 7 in piece of paper.


I'm pretty darn impressed. She's disappointed because she forgot Lake Michigan, but she did this all from memory!

If only there were a way...

Today, I had a lovely experience on my morning commute. I decided to express my displeasure using the WMATA Metro comment system. Here was my letter:

Dear Metro folks,

I am a regular rider of the X and Y bus lines.

Today, at 7:09 AM, I used the NextBus system to check the next scheduled arrival at stops A and B, which are the two closest stops to my house. In a spirit of unrestrained optimism, I believed the NextBus system when it reported a line X bus would arrive at stop B in 9 minutes - perfect timing for my 5 minute walk there. The sheer joy of starting my week with such luck lifted my spirits more than I can tell you.

My optimism was rewarded by a glorious 25-minute wait during which NextBus cheerfully informed me the bus would be there in 5 minutes, then 3, then 2, and then 1 minute. Wonderful, except that the bus it was reporting never actually arrived. I assume the system was tracking the Lost Dutchman bus, which drives Route 29 like a spectre, never actually being seen, but still being reported.

Had I known the real timing, I could have walked (good exercise) or taken a different route, or even perhaps waited to see my daughter wake up. It is exceedingly frustrating to have a "NextBus" system that in fact does NOT report the next bus - which came on time according to schedule - but tracks an idealized version of reality.

Perhaps you could fix this. If only there were a technology available that would allow real-time positioning of moving vehicles, and if that technology were widely available, perhaps even in small hand-held devices that any consumer could purchase for under $100. What a wonderful world this would be.

Sadly yours,

Daddy Geek

I don't know...maybe some kind of global way of positioning one's vehicle...some kind of system...naah, that would never work.

Weather Report

At 6:50 pm it is 95 deg F and 50% humidity -- heat index of 107 deg F!

Daddy Geek was sent on errands this morning and then we spent the late afternoon in the pool.

Did I mention the air conditioning failed yesterday? Thankfully it is working again. Because we need it.

The Importance of Diversification

Scene: Geek Girl's bedroom. Evening. A game of Monopoly Jr. is underway.

Daddy Geek looks down at the distribution of $1, $2, $3, $4, and $5 bills he has. He has no $5, but lots of $2. He decides to swap 5 $2s for 2 $5s.

A Geek who shall remain nameless, um, expels gas.

Daddy Geek: [looking at bills] I think I'll diversify.

Geek Girl: Does that mean fart?

Both parents burst out laughing.

Must stop saving stuff for later

I am not a hard-core hoarder, but I definitely have hoarder tendencies. Fortunately a lot of stuff has been eliminated after two international moves. We're about to move (two blocks to a rental house) and it's time to purge again. And I've discovered Swiss Easter chocolate that friends gave us when we left in April 2009.

I have a bad habit of saving toys and other stuff for a rainy day. And then the pen dries out. Or I can't find those darn growing dinosaurs that have been carefully hidden somewhere. Must stop this bad habit. And eat little chocolate chicks. Before Daddy Geek reads the blog.

Rain and Rain Forests

We've been back from Puerto Rico for a week and after a week of endless heat, we were happy to wake up to some rain this morning. Why don't I show you some photos from the rain forest El Yunque?

After spending some time at the visitor's center, we drove to see some of the sights. It was warm and humid and not enough time to hike to the farther out waterfalls, but we did stop to see Coco Falls.

Here are Daddy Geek and Girl Geek.


And then Geek Girl insisted on climbing the rocks to get closer, so here they are in front of the waterfall.


That night we stayed in an ecolodge on the south side of the park. It was a long and winding road and fortunately Geek Girl was so tired from waking up early and the heat that she was asleep for most of the drive. I had trouble sleeping because of the waterfall, so in the morning, we decided we had to go see the waterfall that had kept me up all night.

Pretty plants on the walk.


A great big snail!


And the Geeks in front of the waterfall.


We saw many lizards on our trip. Geek Girl proceeded to name them.

Here's Eagle.

This is Summer.

This one is Dotty.


Bark and Branch were also named and sketched, but not photographed.

Summertime!

Last week we had a couple of visitors -- One of many favorite aunts (OOMFA) and Dear Friend.

OOMFA was here on business and kindly drove up on a weeknight for a burger with Daddy Geek and ice cream with all of us. Girl Geek showed OOMFA her toys and read some new books that OOMFA gave her. It was a school night and OOMFA had to go back to work, but we had a good time catching up.

Dear Friend was here for a meeting. She had Friday night free so I picked her up and we went to the pan-Latin restaurant in town. We enjoyed saltenas, peanut soup, and arepas. The arepas were so good she couldn't decide if she wanted another arepa or the quattro leches cake for dessert. We had the cake, but the frosting was kind of weird. I picked her up after her meeting ended on Saturday and we decided to have more Bolivian food. More saltenas and peanut soup and I even got a couple of saltenas to go for Daddy Geek. (Note: I tried ordering in Spanish but kept saying bitte instead of por favor. Agggghh!)

We ran into Daddy Geek and Girl Geek when we got back to the apartment. They were on their way to the library and to get a summer hair cut for Girl Geek. We wanted to go to the baseball game and Girl Geek was also keen to go. However, Daddy Geek wisely realized that a 4 pm game on a hot day was not a good idea and only Dear Friend and I went. Our seats were in the blistering sun, and after three innings of trying not to get burnt by the plastic seats and sweat dripping down our legs we decided to try to find a better place to watch the game. We ended up standing at the back of one of the field-level sections on the first base line. The Nationals pitcher held the White Sox to only one run, but the Nationals hitters were held scoreless. After the game we met Daddy Geek and Girl Geek in Clarendon for dinner.

The next day, after I took Dear Friend to the airport, Girl Geek gave Daddy Geek his Father's Day presents -- a book she had made in school, the pinch pot she made in art class, homemade card, and more. Daddy Geek packed for his trip to L.A. and then took Girl Geek to the pool for some fun. Then we took him to the airport.

Now it's summer break and you'd think we'd be having slow, relaxing days. However, I scheduled dental and eye appointments for this week and we have to run around collecting supplies for our vacation in Puerto Rico next week. As long as I don't plan too many errands on each day, Girl Geek has been reasonably cooperative. We've been ending the days with evenings in the pool before dinner and bedtime.

Ne-va-da, Ne-vah-da

Aggggh. Our West Coast kid is getting corrupted by these East Coast types. And now I can't remember if it's Ne-va-da (va rhymes with bad) or Ne-vah-da (vah like father).

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a fun and busy Memorial Day Weekend. Saturday morning, Daddy Geek went for a long bike ride -- the Arlington Loop. You can click to see a map of the ride and keep in mind that he had to ride from our apartment to the loop. We did a little shopping in the afternoon and then we met our dear friends in Arlington for dinner. They've moved to Paris so we're sad that they're no longer here, but we look forward to visiting them!

On Sunday we knew that if we wanted to do something outdoors we should go before it got too hot. Both Daddy Geek and I had noticed on separate bike rides that there were nice walking paths by Four Mile Run (ie the creek). We parked in Bluemont Park and followed the creek down through Glencarlyn Park. We found a frisbee golf course, stopped at a playground and watched happy dogs playing in the creek. The bike path is in the sun, but there was a parallel shady walking path.

After lunch it was time to get down to business. The pool had opened the day before and we needed to check it out.

Here are Daddy Geek and Geek Girl ready for the pool.

Last Spring was unusually cold and I don't even remember the pool being very warm until July. However, this year's warm Spring resulted in a very comfortable pool.

On Monday it was time to go to the Memorial Day Festival and Parade. Well, maybe go to the parade. Last year it was too hot to stay for the parade and we had a feeling it would be that way this year too.

Geek Girl wanted to get her face painted. If you didn't know, she is currently a dragon, so here she is with a dragon painted on her face. Notice the horns and the fire breath.


And here she is on the pony ride.


Unfortunately, we forgot that you can't go on the inflatables with face paint on and so Geek Girl chose to wash off the face paint. She attempted to climb the mountain, but it was too hot in bare feet so Daddy Geek went home to get socks while we waited in line for the Obstacle Course. Unfortunately the inflatables were just too hot, so we need to remember that you need to go on the bouncy things while they're still cool.

Daddy Geek returned with the socks and Geek Girl scaled the mountain.

(Note: we have video but isn't loading so if we can get it to load we'll put it in another post.)

It was hot and we decided to head home. However, Geek Girl wanted a bubble drink. However, I made the mistake of not realizing that the drink would have both mango juice and tea and Geek Girl did not like the tea at all. By this time many of us were getting cranky, so we decided to stay and get some lunch and listen to the concert band play. The parade was only an hour away, but we decided to go home and spend more time in the pool.

The Eagle and Pigeon

Yesterday, Geek Girl and I went to the library and checked out some books. One of the books was called The Old Woman and the Eagle by Idries Shah.

Description of book by Geek Girl:

"There was an old woman who never saw an eagle. An eagle was flying by and took a rest in front of the old woman's house. The old woman thought it was a pigeon because even though she had never seen an eagle she had seen lots of pigeons. So she took the eagle inside and she trimmed its claws, and she straightened its beak, and she brushed the tuft of feathers down. Then when she let it go the eagle sat on a branch wondering what to do. Then another eagle came and brushed its feathers back to a tuft and curved its beak and told it its claws would grow back soon. The two friends flew to their nests and never went near that silly old woman again."

Here are some drawings inspired by the book.

"Four pigeons are having fun."


"Two eagles saw the pigeons and decided to make the pigeons look more like eagles. The box holds the stuff they need."

Sunday Stroll: One Dog, 13 Ducks, and a Ham

Today, we took advantage of a lovely spring Sunday to wander around the National Mall and enjoy the sights. First, we had a picnic lunch along the Ellipse just south of the White House, enjoying the view of the futbol players and the Washington Monument. Then we had a leisurely stroll to view the south side of the White House and glimpsed a member of the First Family playing with Bo on the South Lawn before we, and all our fellow gawkers, were shooed away by the Secret Service.

Next, the Mall proper, starting at the Washington Monument and heading toward Capitol Hill. We kept being passed by tons of folks leaving the 2010 commencement ceremony for George Washington University - where the speaker was the First Lady. (We never saw or heard her.) Our second, very distant brush with the First Family today...

Afterward, we visited the Sculpture Garden for the National Gallery of Art (Geek Girl loves House 1 by Roy Lichtenstein) and watched lots of happy grads taking pictures there and on the steps of the various museums.

Eventually, we ended up at the Capitol Reflecting Pool, where we had some unexpected sights. First, we came across a mother duck (let's call her Suspicious Duck) with four juvenile ducks. Suspicious Duck was quite vigilant for people - any time someone came a bit too close, she craned her neck, started quacking in a low growl (if you can imagine such a thing), and spread out her feathers. Here is a distant shot:

What are you lookin' at?

Geek Girl wanted to sketch Suspicious Duck and her young ducks, so we walked around the pool to sit in the shade of a big tree. While we were sitting there, she drew quite a nice picture and Mama Geek and I chatted. We were pretty oblivious, but eventually we realized that a crowd had gathered, so we looked around and down. Here's what we saw:


That's Trusting Duck with her seven baby ducklings! She was quacking quietly and they were quacking back - almost cheeps. Really cute, and quite literally within my arm's reach as we sat together.

Trusting Duck wanted to take her babies to swim in the Reflecting Pool, so first, she had to get them off the planter and down onto the ground about two feet below. Here's what that looked like:

Ready...

Set...

Go!

All seven ducklings made the big hop and followed Trusting Duck around the edge of the pool. She kept quacking to guide them, and they very politely waddled along behind her. (How does she get them to do that? Never works for us...) Soon, it became apparent that Trusting Duck didn't really know how she was going to get her babies over the decorative edge into the pool, as it is about two feet high, and the babies were definitely having trouble getting that high with their stubby wings. In the end, Trusting Duck and her babies got a helping hand, or four, from me and two of the other bystanders - we each lifted some very soft, fuzzy duckies onto the lip and they slid on down into the water. Yes, Nai Nai, the hat you gave me does double duty as a duck carrier.

Here is a video of Trusting Duck and her babies swimming around in the Reflecting Pool:

It was time to start heading home, so we wandered past the Air and Space Museum to take in the planet walk along the sidewalk. Geek Girl was fascinated and read every sign in detail, and we talked about some fun facts for each planet, like the fact that a Venusian day is longer than a Venusian year and that the tilt of Uranus' axis of rotation is 82 degrees with respect to the plane of the ecliptic (this involved a pen and some twirling).

Between Uranus and Neptune, we stopped off to see some of Geek Girl's favorite art at the Hirshorn Gallery:



Pluto comes at the Smithsonian Castle, which meant we saw the lovely rose garden - and our Ham in Chief wearing The Giraffe Hat Nai-Nai Sent:


We walked on back to the car, stopping along the way for a snack while watching people play kickball at the Washington Monument and then to toss a certain rubber duck around like a baseball (it's a therapy thing). A yummy zvieri with good coffee and yesterday's dessert leftovers, a really yummy dinner made by Mama Geek, and time for this post.

The postscript: I have just been informed that I am #3 on The Official Geek Girl List of The Best Things in the World, behind drawing and reading ("Because you're sooooo funny, Daddy!"). Mama Geek is none too pleased with being #4. If Geek Girl knows what's good for her, she'll bump Mama Geek up to a tie for third. One thing's for sure, Mama Geek and I will never take the top spot.