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.

Dress Twirling

New Dress. Yes, she always wears mismatched socks.


And it's fun to twirl!

Windy Mother's Day weekend

After a very hot week, it was nice to have a cold front cool things off. However, there was also a lot of wind. On Saturday, we had planned to go to a state park with Long Lost Cousin and family, but when we talked in the morning, we realized that might not be the best plan. So we met them at their place and then went to a local park to play, then an Indian Buffet for lunch, and then some more playtime while Daddy Geek helped build some tree supports.

On Mother's Day I received lovely gifts that Geek Girl had made in school. A card, a paper flower, and a book. We had our usual Sunday pancakes and I went to the store while Daddy Geek helped Geek girl finish her homework (my choice to shop rather than supervise homework). After lunch we decided to go for a hike on part of the Fairfax County Connector Trail. We had a nice leisurely stroll along Dangerous Run (a run is a stream) through a heavily forested trail.

Daddy Geek and Girl Geek went to get some Peruvian rotisserie chicken and sides for dinner (yuca is yummy) and we were good to go.