Rainbow Closet

Geek Girl is in charge of putting her clothes away.  Since her room is now on a different floor, I haven't really been paying attention to the state of her closet.

Yesterday I decided to finish unpacking her box of clothes.  We sorted through her clothes and found more hangers.

Later in the day I took a peek at her closet -- now it's a lovely rainbow:

Haven't I blogged about this before?  Yep, back in December 2009.

End of summer excitement

How did it become September 1st already?

We've had a busy summer, including trips to Pittsburgh, Cape Cod, and Milwaukee (post coming on that sometime), and business trips for Daddy Geek to southern California and Japan.  Geek Girl continues to grow like a weed -- she's only about one centimeter shorter than Mama Geek -- and we discovered that 10-year-old girls use email like texting (ack).  Geek Girl has also been learning to ride her bike, and has taken a few 10+ mile rides with me, including her first group ride.  And she has read 84 books so far this summer (she just asked: "Do you think I can make it to 100?!")

Oh, yeah, and we moved houses within the same town.

But this post isn't about any of that.

Rather, we've had an interesting weekend already.  We decided to things off right with a family bike ride along the W&OD Trail, and it was going to be lunchtime while we were on the ride, so naturally the destination was Nielsen's Frozen Custard in Vienna.  We had been there for custard before, but we learned on this trip that they also make some pretty good sandwiches.  Mama Geek and I shared an Italian grinder, Geek Girl had a salami sandwich, and we shared a coffee custard and a "concrete" - vanilla custard with Oreos.  Yum.

On the way back home, Geek Girl had her first real bike accident.  I was right behind her and still don't know exactly what happened, but down she went and ended up with a pretty good scraped knee and elbow, and lesser cuts and assorted bruises.  A kind stranger offered us bandages and such, and we got her patched up for the ride home.  To her credit, Geek Girl toughed it out for another four miles to get home with only minimal complaints, and by the time we got home, she thanked us "for making me ride home, Daddy".

(Memo to Daddy Geek: remember to make a small bike first aid kit and bring it along for future rides, since grace seems to run in the Geek family...)

We'll spare you the wound pictures, but here's a picture of Geek Girl giving me the Pre-teen Death Glare after we got her cleaned up and the injuries properly dressed:

Geek Girl is displeased with being asked to model her bandages

Saturday was another beautiful day, so we walked over to the farmer's market for fruit and Geek Girl's post-accident breakfast treat:

Breakfast of Tough Geek Girls: freshly made mini doughnuts with sugar

The library is closed today and tomorrow, so a visit to drop off some books and pick up a few more was key as well.  Geek Girl's definition of "a few" leads to a stuffed backpack, and my back being 2" shorter than normal...but we wouldn't have it any other way.

Just for the heck of it, and to stretch out her arms and legs (we wouldn't want them to stiffen up after the injury, right?), Geek Girl and I went off to Sportrock Climbing in Alexandria to try some bouldering.  We traded back and forth and she did pretty well despite banging her knee into the wall a few times -- my grandfather's genes at work, I guess.  One unexpected treat: they had a slackline for folks to try, and Geek Girl made two round trips with me giving her a helping hand.  It seems Geek Girl had fun: she wants me to refresh my belay training so she can top-rope.

Today is yet another beautiful day, and less humid, so I indulged in a long solo ride on my race bike (thanks, Mama Geek!), through the northern Virginia suburbs, down into downtown DC -- this was perhaps unwise on Sunday of Labor Day weekend -- and up the W&OD trail home.  It was the longest ride I've done since before I injured my Achilles back in March, and it was great to get out for so long, but something tells me it's going to be easy to fall asleep tonight.

Our last bit of excitement will be this evening's block party -- finally a chance to meet our new neighbors.

Oh, and it appears Geek Girl is excited about school starting on Tuesday; she spontaneously wrote the following poem this morning:

School starts! It's
Exciting! Our classroom has a
Periodic
Table of the
Elements!
Ms. M is my teacher
Boxes of school supplies
Exciting colors on the floor in
Radial symmetrical patterns
(c)

(The copyright symbol is important, apparently.)

Have a Happy Labor Day Weekend, folks.

Woods Hole Visit

Geek Girl and I went to Cape Cod to visit friends while Daddy Geek was in Japan.  These friends have a son who's 2 months older than Geek Girl.

Remember these cuties back in August of 2003?

Here they are almost ten years later:

There's also a little brother who has the same birthday as me!

If you want to see pictures of Geek Girl and Friend in 2004 and 2009, click here.

Geek Girl and I had a great time.  She learned how to play chess, participated in the extremely geeky Woods Hole 4th of July parade, and enjoyed looking for sea creatures when not playing in the sand and surf.

No more baby teeth...

Tooth number 20 came out tonight!

Mother's Day 2013

My Mother's Day Wish List:

1.  Have someone else make baked french toast for breakfast.  Done.

2.  Have someone else do the dishes.  Yep.

3.  Take some family pictures.  Here they are:

Kayaking with Daddy

On April 27th, Daddy and I went kayaking at Fletcher Boat House. We got two-person kayak that was a color that I called "mango". We had orange lifejackets. I sat in front. We couldn't go kayaking on the river, but we were able to do it on the  C&O Canal. Here is a picture of me in the front of the kayak:

We saw some turtles sitting on a log. Here is a picture:

          We went under a bridge. Here we are coming close to it:

And here are some cool reflections on the bottom of it:

We saw two vines that grew into a corkscrew shape. Here is a picture:

At one point Daddy randomly started going fast. After he did we coasted a little. We saw some ducks, but we couldn't get any good pictures. We were kayaking for about 90 minutes. We had lots of fun and thought about coming back with Mommy.

Pittsburgh Road Trip

At the end of March, we took a short trip out to visit Mama Geek's parents near Pittsburgh, PA.  It's about five hours' drive each way, which is a bit too long for an extended day trip, so we turn it into a mini-getaway and spend time in Pittsburgh itself.

First, we dropped by their business, where Geek Girl gave a brief concert for her grandfather:

Geek Girl plays clarinet for her grandfather

We visited for a while, and then headed off to the hotel and dinner in town.  The next day was sunny and beautiful, so we went to Schenley Park and the Oakland and Squirrel Hill districts for a sightseeing walk.  I had visited the area for a business trip to the University of Pittsburgh last fall, and thought Geek Girl and Mama Geek would enjoy it -- they did.

Our first stop was the Phipps Conservatory, where we spent a few hours wandering through the lovely gardens, stopping frequently for pictures

Geek Girl and Daddy Geek at the Phipps Conservatory

Pretty Geek Ladies with pretty flowers

This was yet another demonstration of the differences between how Mama Geek visits museums and how Geek Girl and I do.  As usual, Mama Geek was content to meander through, taking in all the lovely flowers

and other sights, while Geek Girl and I had a great time going slowly through the rooms, with Geek Girl reading all the scientific names for all the plants and trying to sound them out. She also liked connecting different kinds of flowers based on their scientific names, and was fascinated with being a botanist at the Tropical Forest India exhibit.  We all enjoyed the visit to the spice shop, which nearly triggered a visit to an Indian restaurant for lunch...

Instead, we did the touristy bit and headed off to Primanti Brothers on Forbes Ave, where we split a variety of sandwiches and chili.  Geek Girl even tackled an adult sandwich - grilled chicken - and ate most of it.  (She is definitely developing more of an appetite these days...)

We also dropped by the Heinz Chapel for a quick break, including a trip up into the choir loft.  It's quite pretty, and the stained glass windows have scenes and figures from American history, including George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

View from the choir loft

We ended the day with a trip to a playground in Schenley Park before heading off to dinner and dessert in the Strip District.  We picked the right day to visit, as the next day was grey and drizzly - sometimes we get lucky!