sharpening my home skills

mike was kind enough to give me tuesday night off so that i could attend a class on fermentation sponsored by an old friend that i hadn't seen in years. it was great to sample ginger beer and cider while learning and catching up with old friends. the class fit nicely with my interests in the food preservation (planning to pick strawberries and can them this weekend). i suspect that there is a batch of pomegranate sparkling wine in my near future.

now for a little insight into what i do at work.

my favorite project in the last five years was working on the design for the Pulse Smartpen from Livescribe. i got to work on a few different aspects of the interface on both the pen itself and the software you use to interact with the files on your computer. i find the pen very cool, as well as very useful. the pen records both what i write, along with the corresponding audio, so you can both see what was written and hear what was said at the same time.

i used the pen to take notes during my class on tuesday night, so i thought i'd share them here to give you an idea of what i'm talking about. click around in the notes to manipulate the audio playback - and let me know what you think (but no comments on my handwriting!).

urban peasant - fermentation class
brought to you by Livescribe

old friends

old friends
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

mel, eli and brighton came for dinner on sunday night. they were visiting sf from new mexico. we hadn't seen them since a visit in january, so it was great to catch up. brighton turned two last week, and is such a little boy. he and evie had a great time together.

they were having so much fun, that brighton decided he wanted to get in the bath with evie. i decided to oblige and stripped him down and was putting him in the tub when evie exclaimed "brighton's got the penis!"

well, i guess she's got that body part figured out.

a happy monday

i came home last monday to a very loud banging in the stairwell. when i got upstairs paloma and evie were sitting on either side of the drum banging out their abc's in unison. pretty impressive. of course when i pulled out the camera, mayhem ensued.

evie and mom's big adventure

moss beach
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

mike was away for the weekend, his first time since evie was born. he left on friday morning and got back on sunday evening. evie was a champ, and mostly took it easy on me.

we started out our weekend with a trip to moss beach to explore the tide pools with our friday friends. there were fish, crabs and anemones to see, but evie was most partial to being barefoot and splashing in the water. she was tuckered out by the time we headed home.

that night she and i went out for pizza and ice cream. big fan of ice cream, it turns out. all was well and good until the ice cream hit her system, then it was time to beat a hasty retreat - on piggyback of course.

saturday we went to the bakery for breakfast. then gaurav came up to the city with zyla and his sister cheri (visiting from india). it was all so much fun that we headed down to los altos to do it all over again on sunday.

evie taught zyla the joys of watching sesame street videos on youtube.



some really great time just hanging out and playing in the sun.



evie was in the bath on sunday night when mike pulled up out front. normally i have to pry her from the tub after a bath, but not that night. she hopped out of the tub and ran to see daddy. i think the best way to end our special weekend.

the joys of womanhood

being a woman just gets more and more glamourous all of the time.  last week i got to experience my very first mammogram, now that i have passed the age of 40 (yes, i realize i was a little late getting to this).  

let me just say what every other woman who has had this test already knows - if they did this to the penis, they would have come up with a much better way to perform this test by now.  

uncomfortable, but not awful.

then on friday afternoon i get a call from my doc that i need to go back and have it done again - and apparently this happens all of the time.  joy.  more squishing this morning.  this moved beyond uncomfortable.  but all is good, so at least it's all out of the way.

such glamour.

mmmm. crawdads!

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

the weekend before last was my friend dan's 50th birthday party. dan is from louisiana, so his partner, claire, decided a crawfish boil was in order. they shipped in a ton of them in for the party, which was in golden gate park on a gorgeous saturday afternoon.  

evie had a good time playing with them pre-boil.  she was not so keen on them post-boil.

evie picked out her prettiest christmas dress to wear to the party. and when i say she insisted on wearing this dress, i understate it a bit. she did look cute, snowmen and all.

evan and lena come for a visit

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

we had a nice treat last week when margaret stopped by for dinner with evan and lena. we hadn't seen them since our trip to LA for christmas. evie had a blast playing with the kids, and we had a nice time catching up with margaret. as a bonus, we had pizza and ice cream. good times.

easter fun

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

sorry, it's been a while since i've posted anything. i've got a big backlog, but uncle sam was really wanting me to finish those taxes.

we had a really nice easter here. our friends claudia and frank threw a birthday party/easter egg hunt for their son marlon yesterday over in golden gate park. there was a great group of people, gorgeous weather, and a whole lot of eggs and goodies to find.

evie enjoyed it all. especially the chocolate.



claudia proved herself the hostess with the mostess. dying 4 dozen easter eggs, making packs of homemade play-doh, wrapping up little toys for each of the kids, and bringing baskets for all of them.

i want her to plan all of my easters. scratch that, i want her to host all of my easters - her way sounds like too much work for me.

we kept things a little more low key over at our house. evie and i dyed some eggs on saturday. then i "hid" three of them on sunday morning when i heard her wake up. it took her a surprisingly long time to find them, considering exactly how hidden they were, but she did find them all eventually, and then expected to eat them all on the spot.



by the way, that very cute dress she was wearing at the easter egg hunt was a present from auntie kim. great taste!

party time

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

we were invited to my friend juniper's mom's birthday party on saturday night. costumes were recommended, and we decided that only meant for evie (and it did). not having any actual costumes, we let evie pick between her dress from india and her dress from china.

she went with china.

she looked gorgeous (in my opinion).

the party was a lot of fun, and evie had a blast playing with juniper's niece and nephew. there was a great deal of extended laughter. oh, and confetti eggs. here she is experiencing the joy of breaking a confetti egg on daddy's head.



being in a sweetheart mood, she decided she should clean him off afterwards.



evie's new best friend hetta (juniper's six-year-old niece) took good care of her all night long.



and to top off the evening? a pinata! evie's first. she really enjoyed it. enjoyed it so much that we were up two hours past bedtime. she let us put her in her jammies before her last go at it.



thankfully, the late night of fun didn't translate into a grumpy mood on sunday. that was another good day. we headed over to the embarcadero to look at boats and sit on the giant spider statue.

evie's birthday weekend

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

evie's birthday celebration began on friday. we had a party for evie and her friend laura at the presidio firehouse. lucky for evie laura's mom was into planning and put this together, as well as baked some great cupcakes for the occasion. all i had to do was show up with evie and snacks and a good time was had by all.

the firefighters gave the kids a great tour, where they got to hold the fire hose (evie was too scared) and sit in the fire truck.


(this is the other birthday girl, laura)







we continued the celebration on saturday morning with a trip to tartine, a great bakery in the neighborhood, where evie managed to polish off about 95% of a very substantial ham & cheese croissant. then we were off to the academy of sciences and some fish time. after nap, we headed off for chinese food where evie consumed a whole lotta birthday dumplings.

on sunday she and i headed out for some mommy/evie time. we walked to the subway and took a train over to another neighborhood, where we got bagels, picked out some books and got a very cool dragon.

then tony and kimberly came up and joined us for another celebration, and her official birthday cupcakes. plus they got her a copy of "where the wild things are" and her very own wild thing.



monday was playing with paloma and gladys, more cupcakes and pizza for dinner.

evie now wants presents and candles all of the time.

i can't believe how fast this year went.  it's been tough on occasion, but more than worth it.  she's such a treasure.

the birthday girl in action

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

it was a whole weekend of celebration for the end of ms. evie's second full year. i'll post more pics details later, but here's an action shot from dinner last night.

evie's favorite part of a birthday?

blowing out candles. she made me keep relighting them, so she could blow them out over and over. this was probably the third time thru (there were probably three more times that followed).

not so sweet dreams

evie woke up early this morning and was crying a pretty distressed cry. i went in to rub her back and soothe her back to sleep when she looked up at me and said "i scared", then she mumbled something about "ice cubes".

hmm. she did munch on a bunch of ice cubes last night. some clean, some out of our glasses. wonder if we got all the margarita off of those first ...

that's our girl

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

so last night, in case there was any question, i got just a little more proof that evie is our girl.

last night mike had rehearsal, so evie and i went out to get a little dinner. she was her usual enthusiastic self while eating (see picture from another recent meal of lamb chops). then on the walk home we walked past a coffee shop, and she pointed in and said "people eating food." i confirmed "yup, people are eating food."

she looked up at me earnestly and said "i love food."

her first unprompted expression of love.

i totally get it.

viva california

viva california
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

the rain has stopped, and the clouds have parted, so we headed down highway one to the beach today. first it was just walking on the beach and watching the surfers, then we spotted some kids swimming in a stream that runs into the ocean.

evie wanted in.

we started with wading. more water! then it was the strip down. evie had a blast splashing around and knocking over sandcastles carefully constructed by mom (the kid's part godzilla).

click on the pic to see some more pictures from the day. and if you're in michigan, this might just be the incentive to come out for a visit!

go ahead, take my picture already

go ahead, take my picture already
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

i wanted to post a picture of evie wearing her favorite new jacket (thanks grandma!), but she didn't seem very excited about having to pose. i want to see myah in hers now!

sugar?

sugar?
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

evie and mike had a little tea party before work this morning.

bouncing her troubles away

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

last friday was evie's friend inara's second birthday party. i was again reminded that other moms are much more willing to plan and prepare for this type of thing. evie's pretty much going to get a candle in a cupcake for her birthday, though her friend laura's birthday is at about the same time - and laura's mom wants to throw a party together, so she may benefit from that.

the party was at a place called pump it up junior. lots of inflated things to bounce on, run through, and slide down. evie had a blast. she especially loved this big slide.



after the adrenaline of the jumping, accompanied by the sugar from the juice box and cake, evie was amped. when you add this to the fact that she only napped for a half hour on the way to the party, you'll have a little more insight to four of the seven tantrums she had that day.


(the birthday girl, inara)

grandma and grandpa!

homossassa springs
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

evie definitely warmed up to grandma and grandpa on this visit. when we arrived in orlando and were coming down the escalator to baggage claim, she managed to pick them out of the crowd. grandma saw this and i'm pretty sure it made her whole year. made me pretty happy too.

during previous visits, she'd been pretty tentative with them pretty much until we were ready to go home. she'd warm up on our way out of dodge.

this time they were friends right out of the gate.



grandpa introduced her to the joys of french fries, so i think they will be friends for life.



and the best part of all of this (beyond evie having more people in the world to love and support her)? mike and i got two afternoons away to see movies, have conversation, and do a little bowling.

where's a band of gypsies when you really need them?

we have been in the throes of the terrible twos around here ever since our trip to florida. it started with a trip to a mall in ocala florida and evie's discovery of what i'll call "satan's rides". you know those coin operated little rides in malls. they look so innocent, but now i know.



once the child has had a taste of the rides, there is no stopping her jones. in this particular case she got to ride on three different rides, and easily agreed before the third that this was the "last ride".

hmm, she did seem to agree a little too easily.

the removal from the ride and the walking away resulted in her first mall tantrum. she was on the floor kicking and screaming yelling "evie ride choo choo train".

now i know what you're thinking. where's the video? well don't think i didn't want to get some for you. i had my camera in my purse and would have put my foot on her back and taken a video for you all if i didn't think that someone would call the cops on me, so my memories will have to suffice.

i finally carried her out of the mall screaming and pleading. people were staring at me, but mostly with the looks of people who understood.

since that time the tantrums have not really subsided. the trip home from florida could have been titled "tantrum at 37,000 feet". we were not loved on that plane, even though grandma gave us plenty of stickers to entertain ourselves with.



once we were home things seemed calm, for a while. the tantrums now seem to be over two primary issues:

1) evie be naked - she no longer wants to wear a diaper or any clothes, no matter the occasion

2) evie ride here - she no longer wants to ride in her carseat when there's a perfectly good console she could sit on in the car instead

mind you, these are not the only events that can trigger a tantrum, but there are pretty much sure things.

so, i ask again, where is that roving band of gypsies my parents always threatened to sell me too?

abc's, sort of

evie would sing her abc's for you, but there are just too many distractions.