Another Whirlwind...

On Saturday night, I was feeling a bit listless: I didn't want to work on Brainready, I didn't feel like a language lesson, I didn't want to write music... so I confided in my spouse that I was feeling a little like a loser... Shouldn't I be DOING something? She had a good long laugh and talked me out of the tree. She reminded me that my life in the past year has been something sort of crazy - with the language, blogging, writing music, exercising, making books, working multiple gigs, AND being a great dad who is there for the kids AND taking care of a lady with a bum finger AND whose back went out... She demanded that I cut myself a little slack. So slack has been cut... just a little.

I just wanted everyone in blogland to know that I do have moments of human weakness and tiredness. It DOES happen. And who could blame me after yet another busy busy weekend?

On Saturday we had won in the church auction (which means more "bought" than "won" but why quibble on semantics?) a morning of bowling and bagels. It was in a school basement in St Paul, the CUTEST little bowling alley: 6 lanes, very old equipment (but curiously, the scorer was totally high tech - but you could see the old pinsetters clanking away). We had the run of the place with 6 other couples with kids who also "won" with us.

Bella was very shy about bowling, but got the hang of it by the 5th frame, and was crawling around like a tiger, growling at the pins, daring them to stay standing. Of course the kids had bumpers in the lanes, and the kids learned some cool billiards-style "banking" maneuvers to help them maximize the pinfalls. It's telling that Bella got a better score in the end than I did (the parents played in non-bumper lanes).

We tried to hit Cossetta's afterward, but there was a line out the door, so nuts to that. We then went to our former neighbors' new housewarming party. It instantly became clear why they moved out of the neighborhood: The house was AMAZING, and very perfect for them. I made some contact with Japanese speakers (see the other blog on that), and learned where the best sushi in town REALLY is (Kabuki in Eden Prairie!).

After my freak out in the evening, we went to bed good and early.

We all got up a little late (around 8) which was very nice. Bella and I passed on the funnies and drew our own, which is one of my favorite things to do now. Bella is still exploring the hilarity of the "Sneeze" gag, so this morning, the comic was about a girl eating sausage for breakfast, sneezes violently, and is amazed to see she has blown the sausages clear off of her plate. I'm really thinking these are pulitzer material. We'll see.

Today was MUCH MUCH COLDER, and we did get some rain in the afternoon thank goodness. But in the cold cold morning, my biking Bella decided she needed to take a ride. So we went up 4 blocks to the toy bench... and back slowly. She is VERY afraid of "coasting" at all, and would much prefer to work up a hill than enjoy the ride of the downhill. So she was getting off the bike and walking it in all the areas where any NORMAL kid would coast, and really working the pedals on the hard uphills that any NORMAL kid would ask for a push on. I love my mutant daughter.

Isaac woke up today with a glint in his eye, and a taste for trouble. He must have got an extra half inch on his bones, because he was getting into EVERYTHING today. He reached up to a table and spilled juice. He reached into a bin and took out CDs. He found a closed door and pushed it open. He stood up against a wall without any handholds (walking his hands up the wall), grabbed a picture taped to the wall and ripped it down. So today the GATES went up.

We are now living is a home with closable zones. And he has ALREADY figured out that this is for his benefit/imprisonment, and he howls at the outrage. Bella was the same way whenever we tried to close her into a room with a gate, it didn't matter if she was happily playing clear across the room: She heard that gate and she ran across, grabbed the bars, and wailed at our cruelty... when in fact we just wanted to keep her in one place so we could maybe grab a shower? Isaac has the same tendency, 4 hours into it.

Pamela's back was still hurting (she is going to the Chiro early this week...) so she passed out around 8, perhaps asleep even before Bella. So I've been knocking around... not actually being productive mind you, but enjoying a little relaxation. I hope the readership doesn't mind...

Though I did just make a bet that I'd finish Book 4 of my exercises for brainready in 10 days, or I'm buying a sushi feast....