SportyLondon

Kate's big show

2011-12-10T16:44:00.002Z

Nova Scotian (is that a word?) bliss

2011-09-01T22:37:00.000Z

Just another fantastic trip to see Len and Shoshana and their three supergirls (the full gang of five shown below) and as always hosted impeccably by Diane and Harold. Best of all was the now becoming normal instantaneous picking up where they last left off amongst all of the girls - to be honest, there were some periods of multiple hours when we just didn't think of them at all (can child services read this thing?) because they played so well (and so independently) together.It was another week of perfect weather, great company (even a little bit - never enough - of bridge), and (again topping what have become very high expectations) food fit for gourmet, but of course the best of all were daily, or more frequent, trips to one beach or another. My girls learned to love their borrowed wetsuits, as it made swimming (sometimes actually seeming quite like) forever possible. To wit:
But let's not forget the real purpose of the trip - wicked good tennis, again at least once and often quite a bit more each day - of course, you have to get last night's rain off before you can play. Thankfully we had some relatively (pun intended) cheap labor for this.
And it wasn't all communing with nature either - here are the boys taking care of business at the Keltic Lodge's bar during Buddy McDonald's concert (all five girls got to sing backup on one number)
buying Shirley Temples for younger Kate and Abby, amongst other less innocuous concoctions.
And Len/Mr. Pretty-darn-capable-at-all-trades of course provided nature's bounty, again per tradition...

Summer vignettes so far

2011-08-13T21:16:00.003Z

Even before the big adventures to South Dakota and Nova Scotia, it hasn't been a bad summer for the Kimholms. Since school let out in July, the girls have enjoyed plenty of days where you don't get dressed all that quickly...
...and the rest of us all got to see Kate's drama class perform "Robinson Crusoe in Space." The basic narrative was obviously modernized a bit, and the production including lots of music and dance, as evidence by Kate getting jiggy in the below.
Not all fun and games, of course, including the usual piano practice for both girls plus some study on maths, English, and logic tests that Kate will have to take this coming fall and winter in her applications to secondary (11+ exams) schools. Don't worry that Abby's left out, though - she's got her own study books at age appropriate level. Finally, Kate's cracking on to music theory as in the below - something that neither Alice nor I have ever studied so we're little help.
And I shouldn't forget their gymnastics show, either - if I knew more about iMovie I'd put some video clips out here, but at least for now here is Abby doing her up-and-over on the single bar,
Kate pleased that her dad made it to at least one of these events,
and both girls after the certificates and medals were handed out.

Best day ever

2011-08-05T08:23:00.004Z

All reportage secondhand here, but Al and the girls made it back to South Dakota and according to daughter number two their first day of vacation was as titled. At one point Abby commented that she really didn't want the day to ever end.

You make the call - the list of activities included breakfast with one set of grandparents (after rising painfully early still on GMT), piano practice, playing Sorry in a crawlspace/clubhouse, lunch with more grandparents on gourmet treats from Taco Johns (sigh), visiting the Humane Society to see the cats, dogs, rabbits what-have-you, the swimming pool complete with waterslides for which Abby is tall enough this year, and the public library for reading material and movies. It sounded pretty good to me.

Country weekend - with no pictures

2011-08-02T06:00:00.004Z

We didn't even bring a camera, and even our mobile phones weren't handy when we needed them to capture Kate and Abby fully kitted out in riding gear on their respective horses for an hour long riding lesson, but the above is what the manor house looked like (stolen from their website) - it will tell you everything you need to know about the place that our rooms were in the old stables. Those horses had it good.

Just an overnight escape from the city (all of 20 miles away from our house) to spend a little time as a family before Al and girls head back to South Dakota for a month, but in a 24 hour period we accomplished...well, lots of swimming in the pool, borrowing mountain bikes for a spin around the 240 acre park (Abby made it the whole way, using handbrakes for the first time but still stuck on a one-speed bike), spa and massage for the adults, the first time ever the girls actually wanted to stay in a 'kids club' - and they really didn't want to leave it either - plus the aforementioned horseback ride, where of course Abby and Kate's trotting skills put me to shame. Alice on the other hand seemed like she belonged up there. I shouldn't forget to mention seeing some of the polo players warming up on their ponies - what a crazy sport that seems - or the fact that Range Rover was demoing their new small SUV there on a constructed hill that allowed them to show the power to alternate wheels as they swayed and tilted, driving with only three wheels on the surface. Can I use crazy again so soon?

Needless to say, we'd like to go back as soon as possible, and the rest of the weekend wasn't bad either, including my first ever professional tennis lesson (much to unlearn, per Yoda) and a family trip to the Barbican for its animated film expo and a big screen viewing of Studio Ghibli's "My Neighbors the Yamadas." Same group that did Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away - this was a comedic take on modern family life that had the girls in stitches again and again.

All of this in uncharacteristically beautiful sunny summer weather - aaaaaah.....

Sports Day

2011-06-28T15:29:00.000Z

It was a rainy sports day, but the kids did not care!

Abby carefully handles the spoon and potato race.

Who knows what Kate's doing here, but I thought this was a cute picture of her. I think she's cheering on her relay teammate. Go! Go! Go!!!!!
Here's a tornado race, where the team holds a bar and runs to a cone, around the cone twice and back to the start.
Victory! For what? Who knows, but she's pretty happy.
Noah, her schoolmate got himself into this picture.
Lining up for the 400m dash (it's not really a dash, says Abby)...
After the first turn, the girls look good.
Kate accepts her certificate and medal.
And so does Abby.
It was a great day!

Abby's missing teeth

2011-06-23T15:26:00.000Z

Abby's missing quite a few teeth!

Queens

2011-06-12T16:03:00.005Z

From Alice's vantage point on quarterfinal day at the Queen's Club pre-Wimbledon tournament on Thursday - happily only interrupted once by brief rain delay as she watched Roddick, Murray, and Nadal all win successive matches...

"It was a pretty good day" - Alice Kim

10. (You cannot be serious!)

2011-06-10T16:08:00.006Z

The best story from the day had little to do with the now de rigueur rituals of pasta carbonara, Winnie cake, and of course presents (like the string bracelet making kit you see below - quite a crafty birthday this one, as dear sister Abby also came through with a full suite of facepaints as well - hmmph).Rather, it was the morning dialogue between mother and elder daughter over breakfast. Alice remarked "I can't believe you're 10" to which Kate replied (in complete innocence, I think, but still rather gutshottingly) "I can't believe you're 40!" Ooooooooooh - 41 year old yours truly could only choke back the belly laughs.
She did get her cake, as per usual, even a double layer deal this go-round, but I would be hard pressed to say whether the meal, the dessert, the presents, or the below - assembling the new shelves that Al bought at IKEA on the day - was the most fun part of the evening for birthday girl and sister. We almost finished the first one while Alice finished the dinner, and it was a win all-around as we managed to get most of the collected detritus off of the living room floor (it's still here, but nicely organized in the shelves now) plus found some new places to play.
Slightly later bedtime than usual, but softie of a dad still read a few pages of Diana Wynne Jones sequel to Howl's Moving Castle, Castle in the Air. (Both very strong recommendations for anyone with even a hint of imagination)

PS. Title reference is just a nod to this rather classic Wimbledon footage, which has nothing to do with Kate's birthday except that the decade has gone by awfully fast.

Italy and the Cinque Terre

2011-06-07T18:13:00.002Z

This one might just sum it up, and please feel free to skip all the blather that follows - most of our faces shared this expression for most of the week in Milan and 'the countryside' as the girls described our idyllic escape to Montemarcello and several days of adventures in the Cinque Terre.We started with a bit of civilization, however - mostly to visit our old friends Mary and Matteo in their home in Milan, but we did get in at least a minimum level of sightseeing...
...including not just a quick spin through the Duomo but also a look through the Giro d'Italia finishing area that encompassed the whole Piazza del Duomo.
But mainly we were catching up with old friends from college and London, which as you can see below involved a lot of stress in the logistics...
Not only did M&M - and their offspring Leo (in backpack) and baby Madelena (Abby really liked pushing the stroller) - show us all over their city, but also hosted the whole family at theirs for Saturday night's predestined-in-outcome but still rather exciting Champions League final between Barcelona (and the wizard Lionel Messi) and Premier League winners Man U. One guess who took it...

Here we are reading up on the notes of a preserved ruin of an imperial palace just a few streets from Mary and Matteo's...
...which we saw on our way to a lovely park, including both regular playground as well as mini-fairground kind of rides that went over pretty well with the rank and file.
After the city weekend, we struck out in our rented Fiat Bravo for the Italian Riveria, mostly to see the Cinque Terre as in the below pic...
Nice, eh? About the only downside of the whole week was a rather stupid suggestion from one JG that we try dining al fresco the first night in our rented house. The mosquitoes were not Minnesota-strength, true, but they bit us all and no one more than Abby, whose ankles received so much mosquito love that for the next two days they were about double normal size, which made anything but hobbling around impractical. For the first day, we just took it easy on the beach, but by day two, I was pushing for some hiking (no cars (or even bikes) allowed) between some of the five cities of the Cinque Terre. The above picture is about a quarter mile (and countless steps up cliff and hill) outside of Vernazza, and while Abs was quite a trooper about it, I ended up providing piggyback rides for some real cardiovascular workouts much of the time.

The unspoilt beauty of the waterfront, the little villages, and centuries of handwork that went into all the terraced agriculture impressed us all. Exhibit A for my case right here...
...and the fact that on every day of the week we found a different beach to play on didn't hurt either.
When Abby's ankles returned to normal, we went back for more hiking, this time between Manarola and Riomaggiore.
But it wasn't all hikes - when asked for their highlights of the trip, both girls unequivocally said "Maggie" - or the lovely dog of our equally lovely landlady (she stayed in the flat next door during the week, so Maggie was available for playing pretty much every morning and evening). When pressed for a favorite thing that wasn't a dog, they thought for a while before giving me Terry Pratchett's Nation, the current book we'd been reading out loud together (and another good one for slightly older kids (and great for adults too)). Sadly, neither had much to do with Italy.
I think the feelings were mutual. It goes without saying that we were sad to leave after the week, especially as the weather started good and kept getting better. Below was the view from the top floor of the house, also known as the desk where Alice sat while reading shot by shot commentary on the matches at Roland Garros on a stolen Wifi connection.
This was the view out of the neighboring window on the last day as I was running through the house for final check - they were waiting with incredible patience below...(Abby had the car running down the path)

More May Updates

2011-05-27T17:03:00.003Z

Kate's self-portrait

Abby's mad-drummer pose

Ah, finally some downtimeAbby enjoying Ender's GameProcrastinating piano practice. Well, it is half-term.

Other April/May Happenings

2011-05-15T14:38:00.003Z

We celebrated Easter with our friends from school

In April, we went to the zoo, and John was a hit in the butterfly house
We made minestrone soup, which was very tastyThank goodness! We cut some hair. And although Abby was not excited about the haircut, she's putting on a happy face.

Granholm and Guinea Pigs Visit

2011-05-15T14:31:00.005Z

The girls hosted their school's guinea pigs, who are in the cardboard boxes. Kate and Abby are eating their lunch while the guinea pigs eat some carrot shavings. We didn't quite get the guinea pigs in the picture...

Grandma Dee came to London for a visit. We are heading to the Unicorn Theatre for the Three Musketeers play.
We are waiting patiently for the tube

At some point, we had pancakes

We went to Kew Gardens, one of our favorite places

Kate's new job is holding up this tree in the Palm House
She's still there. We'll go and get her when she's found a replacement which will never happen as she has to hold up the tree.

April Gardening

2011-05-15T14:29:00.000Z

March 2011

2011-05-15T14:23:00.008Z

Abby celebrated her birthday in great style

She requested a Totoro backback, and here it is

We also gave her a donut punchcard because she loves donuts

We had a great time

Abby got modeling clay and this is what Kate made with itKate also made this

End of xmas, and a little Frank Lloyd Wright too

2011-01-05T21:14:00.005Z

It was a bit of a solemn day today, as everyone went back to the non-vacation routine - girls to school (and they would have happily ridden right back home in the car with mom had she not locked the doors very quickly), John to work (and it was a little style-cramping to be putting on lace-up shoes again after almost two weeks of slip-ons (or just slippers), and Alice dropping her folks off at the tube stop for their train to Heathrow and flight home. Sigh.

Before it was all over though, we had a couple more nice days of relaxing, including some limited sales shopping (it was absolutely thronged on 3rd January, which we only figured later (we being Alice) was because of the next days 2.5% jump in the VAT on every transaction) at the Westfield before the girls' first gymnastics of the new year and then yesterday a trip into Chinatown for the favorite old Golden Dragon dim sum and roast duck, returning home to finish the last xmas present - a Lego model of Falling Water (pictures below) - and the girls' first ever viewing of the original (and best - sorry, Scientologists) Karate Kid movie with copious amounts of popcorn. The Lego is a stunning recreation of Wright's iconic house, and I apologize in advance for overkill on the digiphotos - here's a proud Abby after about three and a half hours worth of effort (I was envious that I only got to be there for the start and finish)...
...but how about the faithfulness of the model? Sheesh - Grandma was impressed too as you see below. I also thought to include this next photo because so much of our vacation was spent on that sofa, with 1-3 people normally there and engaged in various reading clubs (I think the best reviews were given by Mrs. Kim to Lionel Shriver's So Much for All That, and Alice read Conroy's latest South of Broad compulsively but wasn't completely persuaded by some of the overwritten description and stilted dialogue in places, while Kate's on Fearless by Tim Lott (ooh, is that good - a sort of young adult 1984 - no kidding) and the usual collection of Jacqueline Wilson novels while Abby's reading some from the Ottoline series by Chris Riddell, who also illustrated the abridged Don Quixote that Kate's moved on to and did all of the Edge Chronicles, which I'd also recommend for kids and adults - oh, and me? I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I played a LOT of Zelda on the Wii, always with Kate and Abby as armchair advisers - and not bad ones, either - and too much Plants vs. Zombies too, but when I could be bother to subscribe to old school paper and ink technology I unregenerately devoured the new James Bond novel (Sebastian Faulks writing 'as Ian Fleming' - unfortunately he did rather too good a job of imitating Flemings cut down and overprosaic prose stylings - don't waste your time)...
...and finally, here's the project lead in front of my favorite old print of the same (click the image if you want to geek out even a hundredth as much as yours truly).
All in all, a corker of a holiday, but I suppose all good things etc etc. Alice and her mom were equally ambivalent about its ending on the bus ride home yesterday.

A prodigiously happy new year

2011-01-01T14:48:00.007Z

Given the Brit penchant for understatement, we were a bit surprised to hear the Lord Mayor of the City kick off the New Year's Day London Parade with the above words. However, if the parade was anything to judge it by, 2011 is looking pretty good so far. Al and I, the girls, and Kim grandparents got there 20 minutes early to secure a good spot (already shades of Hobo Days past) where we could see Dan's MDI High School band go by - my pictures below aren't great because I was a little engaged in cheering like a mad person, but here you go...
From a distance, marching up Piccadilly (click image for bigger view - Dan's back to us)

Mr. G looking good, despite all of the momentous travails of weather, delays, and almost missed trip
Just some of the chaperones marching behind the troupe
Abby's favorite part, especially after reading "The Silver Donkey" from Jaytsuko (highly recommended for young readers)
Hundred plus strong US cheerleading corps (incongruous much?) who stopped and gave us a show - when I asked the girls maybe not to take up cheerleading Kate said 'yes' and Abby...'why not?'
...and then home again by Tube, attempting to warm up a little and solve the latest mini-game puzzle on PvZ at the same time.

Barcelona with Kims

2010-12-31T16:23:00.002Z

Obligatory Gaudi photo (don't worry, there'll be more)

Travelling after the christmas holiday proved to be just the ticket as all of the snow and cold-related travel mess was resolved and we had no problems at all, except for the one of my own making (we'll see if I'm brave enough to cop to that later). And the choice of destination also turned out to be perfect - Barcelona is a magnificent city and one that all of us would like to return to soon. Pleasures ranged from the architectural/aesthetic to the gustatory - here we are about to enjoy a meal that eclipsed our old birthday bashes at Aquavit in Minneapolis...

...and while I'm not a food writer, this first evening deserves a couple of comments:
1) of course, we had the earliest possible reservation (starting at 9 PM) so that the three course meal (with one of those courses being multiple plates of tapas) didn't end until 11:30 - two girls slept pretty well that evening
2) aforementioned tapas were increíble - some tempura squid and another garlic squid gnocchi caused a few swoons around the table, and not just from the histrionic yours truly
3) we really lucked out in meeting some natives (their daughters were at school with Kate and Abby while the mother was doing a sabbatical law course in London) who provided this and some delectable restaurant selections, all very cosily located right by the Plaça Catalunya where we got this on the way to dinner.

But it wasn't all white tablecloth kind of thing either - the hotel was only a couple of blocks from the Mercat de la Boqueria, which I won't wax on about since you've got the link. Suffice it to say Mrs. Kim was sad we didn't have access to a kitchen because the seafood on display would have inspired anyone to cook (needless to say, I was sad too not to be able to benefit from her inspiration - maybe next time it's an apartment rental).

The weather cooperated too, even running to 50 F some days, but invariably sunny even when brisk, which showed off the city in very good light

Two separate sections follow - as usual, Al had the public transport sussed out and where we couldn't walk, we Metro'ed, but as is becoming a habit, we also used the open-topped city bus tours for the info and orientation. And while I'd planned to hold the Barcelona aquarium out as carrot for the girls so they'd have some incentive to suck it up during our day of Gaudi touring, a slow start on day two (see late dinner notes above) meant we spent an afternoon in a superbly equipped aquarium down on the waterfront by very pretty mirrored shopping center (used by Granholms for loo and McDonald's fuel-up).

The girls had seen the advertisement for the aquarium a year and a half ago on their previous trip, and it lived up to both its billing and the 18 months' worth of anticipation, with obviously 'wow' features like a huge shark tank which you walk under...

...but also slightly less showy but fascinating jellyfish

and octopus tanks, where both Kate and Abby would have been content to spend a few hours. Had there been a cot nearby I might have assented.

Hard to be a complete bear about crowds and too much standing on my feet though when both girls were clearly soaking it all in - Abby even had to borrow Alice's notebook (with all our trip info) to make sure she remembered it all.

And at least I thought I was making some deposits in the Stephen Covey-esque emotional savings bank since I was expecting them to hang around while I ooohed and aaahed at the architecture on the next day - turns out they liked it too, from the attic spaces

of Casa Mila/La Pedrera

to the grandeur

and almost insanely detailed small scale work

of the Sagrada Familia. For the wannabe architect, this day had both the nature of a pilgrimage to Mecca but also - I feared - potential for disappointment, as how could the reality live up to my expectation? Needless to say, it surpassed all of mine and had the girls and Kims rather awed as well.

Some of the other highlights of the trip were the outdoor pet shops on La Rambla - Kate would have visited each of these 17 times a day, but we kept it to a manageable 3 on average - the wonderful shops in the city, and of course the food. There was one particularly curious moment when I returned from a visit to the gym one morning to find Kate and Abby still abed (about 8:45 local time) but watching Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs on the big screen. I think I turned it down (Alice was still asleep) and in so doing, noted the big green "PayTV" letters that popped on the screen. When I asked (probably not as calmly as I'd like to think I did) if they paid for it, Kate immediately rushed out "but Mom said we could!" I didn't explode or anything, but there was a short talk about how I didn't think I'd EVER paid for a movie in a hotel, and certainly not in the Super 8s or Holiday Inns of my own childhood. They weren't impressed - neither by my deprivations nor their own luxury.

And just so it doesn't sound like all sweetness and light, on our last day - after a quick trip to the contemporary art museum (rather cool space designed by Richard Meier)

I managed not only to have my blackberry stolen (or lost) in the central train station but also to get us all onto the train in the last minute before it departed (feeling pretty smart, even a tad heroic, at this point) only to understand the Spanish announcement too late that this in fact was NOT the train to the airport.

Instead, we were on a lovely express into nowhere (the scenery was nice, but somehow that hardly helped), which didn't stop for 45 minutes or so (Mrs. Kim contemplated pulling the emergency handle but Alice advised against it) and necessitated a rather expensive and nail-bitingly close taxi ride back INTO town and the aeropuerto. Oh, well - what's life without a little excitement, no?

Christmas 2010

2010-12-26T13:55:00.001Z

In process now....

End of half-term, and Hallowe'en

2010-10-31T21:44:00.006Z

What a lovely day, attested here by wife, kitty and witch - after last night's sleepover with Kate's pal Lisa from Southbank days, Alice hosted another superbrunch for Jasmine and Tom's family which was followed by indoor trick-or-treating to five separate rooms/"houses" (we couldn't be bothered with the whole rigmarole at night, and to be fair, it's not that many houses that actually are ready for trick-or-treaters).

Here are the girls planning their day this morning (nicely rested after extra daylight savings-end hour)...
...and here once in dry run with full costumes. Ahem...that is a tail you see, and to Kate's credit, she made all the pieces there herself, including sewing cool black ears that turned out to be way too much bother to affix to her hairband. However, the tail is a couple of my old socks stuff with cotton balls and also sewn into shape.
This is just one of doors they visited during the post-brunch candy gathering - Jasmine as benefactor and her children Alex (purple and black striped witch) and Michael too (completely masked in orange as I believe a Naruto anime character). After a quick trip to the office in the afternoon (on the Barclay bike - love that thing and probably subject for another entry), I saw a few houses on Stratford all lit up with jack o'lanterns etc and figured we could try a quick outing. The girls were almost instantly back into costumes (that's actually the photo that started this entry) and we found a number of either American or at least decidedly American- influenced houses within a four block radius for a very fun recap of Halloween's past (if you're reading this, Uncle David and Aunt Katrina, I was thinking of going up and down Kipling Avenue during our last US halloween, and the girls remembered their costumes but not the actual evening - as Abby pointed out "I was only 2, Dad."). At least half of the homes with lights, pumpkins, and usually some spiderweb or skeleton props as well - this was far more serious than I was expecting - seemed to be British, too, at least judging from the barely heard accents since I tried to stay well out of the action.

And just a few non-halloween pictures to round off the week - on the one day that there wasn't scheduled athletic or enrichment activities on the calendar, the girls decided they wanted to go over to the south bank of the Thames and see the street performers, so off they went with Totoro in hand. After a good hour of viewing the living statues, mimes, and one gentleman who unicycled on a six-foot tall rig in a straitjacket (no kidding), Alice got 'em over to the...

...Tate Modern for both lunch and some art - Totoro didn't mind this either.

And then back across the bendy bridge for tube home.

Random October Photos

2010-10-27T20:43:00.007Z

October half-term is here. The girls enjoy the Ecology Centre in Holland Park. The instructors there are great. In addition, the girls love wall climbing at the Westway. Here are a few pictures from our week so far.

Kate getting ready to climb.

Abby also ready to climb.

Girls enjoy the playground after climbing.

Kate pets the snake at the Ecology Centre.

The girls make sea and woodland habitats in boxes.

Running errands wearing neck fleece in an interesting way.

Word choice

2010-10-06T11:52:00.001Z

Second hand entry here, but seemed to be worth recording if only for Abby to look at decades down the road. She and Kate were so absorbed in their reading this morning they couldn't even be bothered to say goodbye to dear old dad on his way out, and I only heard later that Abby (it was 'The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins' when I left, but part of a Seuss compendium so I can't say what story) finally replied to Kate's repeated yelling at her to "Brush your teeth, Abby!" with "Kate, you would not like me BELLOWING at you when you're reading!"

Alice turns 4..., er, 30-something

2010-09-30T09:09:00.002Z

The girls got all dressed up for Al's big day. We went to our favorite restaurant and the girls and I treated Alice to a wonderful dinner of fresh made papardelle with wild boar ragout (Kate and I went a little meatier, to be honest, with the veal cutlet and beef fillet respectively - oh, yes) at Locanda Ottoemezzo - Abby wasn't sure if it was in fact yummier than her other favorite yummy restaurant, Il Portico, which is right down the street from our place. The funny thing was that the maitre d' and part owner Francesco, who we've been chatting with for the last three years or so, turns out to have exactly the same birthday and joined us for a nice glass of prosecco. All of the staff wondered if we were off to theatre or ballet since the girls looked so fancy, but no - in fact we didn't even stay for dessert because Kate and Abby called the party at about 9 PM - well past the usual bedtime. Here are all three of ladies pre-dinner...

Park pictures

2010-09-26T20:31:00.004Z

A really nice weekend just past with much more exciting football game than the 0-0 result suggests (Abby very much into it, and even Kate getting slightly more excited than her usual zero), dinner at Jay and Itsuko's with the Beddows too, and then a successful half marathon run for Alice and me today (not even hurting that bad tonight - whew) where we both made our wildass guess goal times.

However, none of that's the reason for this entry - I wanted to thank Uncle Chris for some really great shots he got one day in the park during their visit, and include a couple here.

The thinker?

Aloft

Abby/dinner dictator

2010-09-09T09:35:00.002Z

Alice made a homely (and very comfort food-y) meal of hamburgers and roasted potatoes last night, but ol' Abby was a bit bothered by the lack of hamburger buns (did we really need more carbohydrates on top of the taters?).

In any case, her response certainly got a laugh from us (later, of course - not right in her face). As she picked up her plate from the pass through window, she had only these four words for us:

"Next time get buns."

Cousins visit

2010-08-30T22:05:00.005Z

Al's sister Amy and family visited at end of our summer break, and as you can see, the girls all had quite a time getting used to each other again. I think this was day 2, to be honest, but the first day was the same - house afire trite but true description. Sadly, the below is taken in Chinatown about two blocks from my office but I was working first and then at the gym over lunch hour and so missed both the crispy duck and Chupa Chup lollypops.
They also visited the British Museum (JG still working - sniff) and that was rather well received too.
Amy, Alice, and Libby observing some of the debatably stolen Grecian marbles...
Part of the visit included a day at Legoland Windsor (longtime readers of this blog won't need further pictures) and after overnight hotel stay, visit to the seat of the House of Windsor (good old QE II, and I don't mean quantitative easing) as well, where all four girls enjoyed the recorded audio tour and the traditional hijinks too...
As soon as the Kim/Mins arrived, we took them to their first ever Premier League Football match. Fulham amazingly held their own against Manchester United to draw 2-2 - below are the sisters on their way down to Craven Cottage.
Chris even captured the blocked penalty kick from Man U (Nani took it, and I have to agree that they should have had my friend Sam's hero Ryan Giggs take it - duh!)
And I couldn't resist including this one of Abby - Chris's camera (and I think the subject matter too) is of very high quality, no?

Make-up, Summer Fair/Sleepover

2010-07-18T20:52:00.004Z

As John and I were leaving for a date, Kate asked if she could put make-up on Abby. I believe I agreed. This is the picture we found on the camera in the morning.
The girls enjoyed their first school summer fair. We missed last year's fair due to what may have been swine flu (it was not a confirmed case because the NHS said not to come into the clinic to get tested-gotta love that). This year's event was quite nice. Here the girls are getting ready to present flowers to the teachers. There may be video coming with the girls singing and Kate playing the piano.
Some school buddies came over to ours for a sleepover.

I am so happy the school year is over!

Gymnastics Show

2010-07-12T20:48:00.001Z

The girls had their gymnastics show last week. I'll try to get the videos on here eventually...

Here is Kate getting ready for her tumbling run.

Abby does good work on the beam.

and the bars.

Ta-da!

Tree Climbing

2010-07-05T20:45:00.000Z

The girls enjoy tree climbing. Here are few pictures from a recent adventure.

Wimbledon

2010-07-02T20:33:00.000Z

I won the chance to buy Wimbledon tickets from the Westway, where I play tennis. Our tickets were on Court 1, but we checked out Centre Court before the action started.

John is doing a little work from his cushy seat.

We saw the women's semi-finals doubles matches and one mixed doubles semi-final match. Here is a picture of the first match.

This is how close our seats were. It was fantastic to see how fast the players hit the ball.
Here's Henman Hill, now named something else, where people sit and watch the Centre Court matches on a big TV. The men's semi-finals were on that day.

Kate's Birthday

2010-06-09T19:01:00.006Z

Time flies by as we celebrate yet another year of Kate's life. Kate shared Winnie cake with her classmates. Here are some pictures from her birthday celebration.

Kate with her cake
The cute photo
The goofy photo
Making her wish
Blowing out the candles
In her new blouse
What a great birthday!

Running Baby

2010-06-09T18:54:00.004Z

During Uncle David's visit, he taught the girls a song, which they have recorded.

May Happenings

2010-05-31T19:10:00.001Z

Abby loses another tooth.
Abby practices yoga.
Kate and Abby make a diorama.

First Chess Tournament

2010-05-24T20:42:00.003Z

Kate, Abby, and I attended our first ever chess tournament near Wembley on Sunday. It was an experience - sheer number of kids participating, girls and boys don't play each other, weather was hot, hot, hot, interesting parents, and 6 rounds of chess with 30-40 minute breaks between.

We got to the tournament early and scored a picnic table in the courtyard outside of the where the girls played their games.
Here's the gymnasium where the Under 9's and Under 8's played. There were over 100 tables in this room alone, and at the tournament, there were at least 10 age groups plus boys/girls represented.
Here is Kate playing her last game.

Uncle Dave's Visit

2010-05-24T20:38:00.003Z

Uncle Dave visited at the end of May. He brought nice gifts for both girls. Abby shows off her new cookbook and chef's hat. Unfortunately, the picture of Kate and her gift (a lovely framed picture of Jude) did not turn out.

The girls and Dave mug for the camera.
We made the Best-o Chicken Pest-o for Jay, Itsuko, and Kate's schoolmate for dinner. It was huge hit! The girls had a great time with their Uncle.

London Moonwalk

2010-05-24T20:32:00.004Z

A couple of friends and I participated in the London moonwalk for breast cancer awareness. We walked in our decorated bras for a 1/2 marathon, which started at 11 PM on Saturday night. It was an amazing event with 15,000 walkers. Kate and Abby model the bra I decorated to wear for the walk.

I admit...the bra looks better on them than me.

Hampton Court

2010-05-12T20:14:00.006Z

Especially after reading Wolf Hall, I wanted to visit Hampton Court Palace, which was the one time home of Thomas Cardinal Wolsey and eventually one of King Henry VIII's country home. The girls and I ventured out there for a May bank holiday. The draw for the girls is the maze, which they wanted to do over and over and over.
The girls enjoy the interactive kitchen where you can turn a spit, watch people cook, and see all the equipment.
Kate enjoys a rest in one of the many gardens.The girls take a seat in King Henry's apartments.
The girls play the Nine Men Morris (aka Mill) game. They want to stay and play forever.

Derby Visit

2010-05-12T19:59:00.010Z

We went to Derby in April for another lovely visit with our friends. We had almost summer-like weather. Here is part of the gang getting ready for a strenuous bike ride to... a pub.
Kiddies rest on the posts.
Wow! Gorgeous.
Abby poses outside the pub.
John claims he can get all the kids on his back for a piggyback ride. Nick offers to assist.
Ooooh, the last one is on....
...and they all fall off.
Kids, don't try this at home. John tries to leapfrog a hunched over Nick. John did not make it over but was quite close.
Ah, another rest stop. This time includes ice cream.
The girls chat and walk on our walk into Ashbourne for Sunday brunch.

Jamaica

2010-04-19T08:25:00.007Z

We went to Jamaica for the girls' term break this year. Here the girls prepare for our flight.
We played Monopoly during peak-burning hours.
And napped (my idea of a great holiday).
John enjoys the sun!
Abby gets ready for more Monopoly.
Kate looks fresh after the morning swim.
Finding peace is a joy.
And pretty easy with an icy drink.
John and Kate doing tricks.

Abby and Kate found a floaty, as they call it, and wanted to bring it home. Sadly for them, it did not make it back.
Abby hanging out.
The girls pose with their gummy worms.

Waiting for the taxi to take us to the airport.
Goodbye, Rose Hall!
Abby reads a great book to John
Ah, back home in an outfit designed by Kate
Abby summed it up in the taxicab home from Victoria station post Gatwick Express - this year was a nine instead of 10 like last year, because first the lack of grandparents definitely was felt, and second in her exact words, "you weren't as shocked by its goodness." Hedonic adjustment indeed!

March Happenings

2010-03-28T20:51:00.007Z

Abby turned 6, and she took cupcakes to school to celebrate with her friends and teachers. We had our traditional spaghetti carbonara meal plus winnie cake for dessert. Maggie, the girls' piano teacher, was the special guest for the evening. We all played Beattles Rockband after dinner. Here is the birthday girl before school.

Here she is opening her presents (and wearing one).

Kate, Abby, and I are knitting. Kate and I are doing traditional knitting, and Abby is knitting using a French knitting bobbin that Mrs. Whalley gave the girls. Here is a hat Kate and I created. Kate added the denim flower.
Kate won her school's chess tournment. Here she displays her trophy.
Abby's been sick since Saturday with a fever, but she still looks good.
Another exciting happening is we saw a fox in our garden this afternoon. It looked lost and confused with good reason since there was nothing yummy to eat. John and Kate saw it jump onto the wall and disappear.

Here is Kate's poem Wild World that she wrote for her homework assignment last week:

Flowers sway gently in the breeze,
Wolves howl at the moon,
Birds soar through the sky with ease,
And a platypus swims through a lagoon.

Daffodils are golden in the sun,
Nothing is as busy as a busy bee,
Wild horse on a wild run,
With nowhere to flee.

A tree laden with snow,
In summer the snow will melt,
A mountain spring has yet to flow
And a hunter hunts a lion for its golden pelt.

Piranhas swim in a stream,
A puma's tail curled,
Things that you'll never dream,
In the wild, wild world.

Baking

2010-03-05T21:46:00.005Z

I'm addicted to baking right now (ok, tennis and baking). Dave and Katrina (maybe more Katrina) gave me this bread cookbook over a year ago, and recently, I took it out thinking, "I'm going to try this." And I love it. The book is called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes. I challenge the five minute part (seriously, when did they start the stopwatch to get the five minutes?), but the bread is good.*

The girls helped (licking the bowl with the butter/sugar/cinnamon spread and cutting the rolls) with the caramel rolls:

I made Challah/Hallah bread tonight. Here's a pre-baked picture:

John was integral to the process as the patient finisher. I read the baking instructions to him, and he held firm - "It's not resistant to the touch. Give it a couple of minutes longer." Meanwhile, I'm Odie from Garfield, hopping about saying, "Is it done? Is it done?" It takes a village...Here's the out-of-the-oven picture:
John and I hacked off a piece, and he said, "It tastes like Whole Foods Challah." And I said, "Good job to me."

Tomorrow, we're making french toast with the Challah. Woohoo.

*If you want straight up caramel rolls, ask my mom for her recipe or John's mom for Grammy Ellyce's recipe. Both are superior. Abby said, "Your rolls are good, but Grandma BJ's are better."

Stockholm apres ski

2010-02-21T15:22:00.005Z

Leaving Åre was sad, sure - we'd gotten quite used to skiing all day AND sleeping for 9-10 hours at night. Aaaaaaaah....but there were huge compensations as we got to see not only my host family from 20 years ago in the Swedish Program but also as you see below, Matty K's host mom Brittis as well. Cocktails at the Hotel Diplomat - the girls after bustling around a bit (hard to get used to sitting after a week's worth of high energy activities) enjoyed their varm choklad and new Uno game while Alice and Britt-Marie and I caught up on families, life, even a bit of literature too (not just Steig Larsson, although he did come up!). And then it was over to dinner with my host family - didn't do a lot (/any) posed photography, but you hopefully get the idea below that we had a reunion with all of the siblings except Martin and his wife Susane, who happily did Skype in from Goteborg too. Of course I've captured our hostess Marsaili in the back of the head, but there is a pretty good view of patriach Borje and two of his three kids, Cecilia and Nicola, plus Nicola's husband Andy who made a wicked batch of lasagne for the fest, not to mention the classic NJ-styled banana cake among other desserts. Everyone's doing well - we only missed meeting Cecilia's other son because he was feeling a little under the weather, and this a day before big tennis tournament too, but the five present grandkids had probably too good of a time romping around the flat, playing games and of course, finding a few cartoons on the telly. Kate and Abby weren't sure if they remembered Alastair and Jeremy from the last visit, perhaps forgivable now that I look up and see it was more than two years ago!

The Saturday we left was wicked cold and just showering with snow - our attempt to sightsee in Stockholm in the morning was wisely cut short about two blocks into our walk to the National Museum (seriously - colder and much more snowfall that it'd been for a week up at the Arctic Circle) and we found ourselves at the airport with a little time to kill. Happily, Olympic fever was in full swing, and we found all kinds of games to play (including Mario and Sonic at the Winter Games below, naturally), events to watch, and snacks before heading off to the airport lounge where the girls...

advanced their educations with a couple of episodes of the Simpsons. Luckily, this was only subtexted in Swedish, so they got the full benefit of American English snark - I will note that most of the giggle explosions seemed to come from larger sight gags rather than subversive political or cultural shtik, but there's plenty of time for that.

Skiing in Sweden

2010-02-21T14:59:00.008Z

We thoroughly enjoyed our first family ski vacation. After weighing our options of where to go, we decided on Åre in Sweden, and it turned out well. It's family friendly, and we could stop in Stockholm on the way home.

Here is a picture from outside our hotel. There is ski lift to the hotel's door.

This is the hotel.Abby and I preparing ourselves for skiing...we think we can, we think we can.
Our friend Itsuko came with us.
The girls getting ready to go out.
Abby showing off the girls' bunkbeds.
Abby and Itsuko watching the Olympics.
One of the best parts of skiing is enjoying a hot chocolate break.
Kate loves skiing.
We rode the bus down to the bottom of the hill on ski lesson days.
Kate is on a slope near the top of the biggest mountain.
Itsuko and Kate near the top of the biggest mountain.
Kate and Abby found a nice place to watch tv during a break from skiing.
Abby works on stopping.
Itsuko and Abby pause for a photo op.
Kate and mini-Itsuko pose for the camera.
It's family ski (thanks for the photo Itsuko).

Abby's Gym Performance

2010-02-21T14:52:00.004Z

Abby's gym performance in pictures:

Waiting to start the show
About to do a cartwheel
On the bars
Executing a difficult jump
Reaching for the sky on the beam
Dismounting
Watching someone on the beam
Oh my, how did he get on the bars?
Nobody puts Jay in the corner

Fashion, Lego, and Foam Book

2010-02-03T21:44:00.004Z

Kate created this look for Abby.

Kate and Abby make Legoland.

The girls got this foam book a year or two ago. There are all kinds of foam stickers that you can use to make pictures and designs.
This is what Montessori kids do for fun with the foam pieces...

Kate's Little Gym Routine

2010-02-03T21:40:00.002Z

Kate performed her routines on Monday. Here is her roundoff.

Another Lost Tooth

2010-01-27T22:37:00.002Z

Well, this happens...kids lose their teeth. Abby is particularly happy with herself, as you can see for yourself.

Holidays

2010-01-27T21:43:00.019Z

It was one heck of a holiday season for us!

Here are the girls on one of their sleepovers at the twins' house.

Alex and Abby pose for the camera.

Kate and Libby display their Lego garage...

and store and more.

Grandma enjoys her new headphones and the girls.

Who's toy is this?!

On the way home, we enjoy dinner at the airport lounge and

a pajama party before boarding the plane

We make it home in fine fashion and enjoy breakfast with the Feiners the following day.

A few days later, the girls greet grandpa. Grandma's trip over put her out of commission for a bit.

The girls work on birthday presents for John.

Everyone enjoys John's birthday, who, despite not feeling very well, rallied. We like going out for dinner on John's birthday. This year we went to Locanda Locatelli, which was fantastic.

The Feiners and part of the Kim/Granholms visit Windsor Castle.

Grandma and grandpa enjoy a game of Minotaurus with the girls...

and Mario Kart.

With Grandma looking on, Abby and Kate make a card for Dave and Katrina's baby shower.

Happy holidays!

Christmas Party

2009-12-17T22:55:00.009Z

Well, it's been one heck of a year. Here is a picture of Abby at her school's Christmas play.

Kate's school did a French and English play for her Christmas play. Her part of the play is about proverbs. They say the proverb in French, the English translation of the French, and English. Please excuse my laughing. I'm a novice at filming videos. Also, the sound is not great, but for an ipod video camera, it's pretty darn good.

Haircuts!

Merry Christmas!

December adventures

2009-12-15T19:34:00.005Z

We had two tickets and no Beddows (or babysitter for that matter) so Abby got to attend her very first professional football match at Craven Cottage - Fulham v. Sunderland - which happily Fulham managed to ease in ahead of a clearly superior (that's right, JP) Sunderland side 1-0. Abby was quite interested in the game (or maybe it was the true foot-long hot dog) until the 2nd half of the 2nd half - they left with about 15 minutes remaining 'to go to the toilet' as they told the surrounding Fulham fanatics. So what if they never came back?

The fairness doctrine demands a little Kate action too here - just took this one tonight as we're cleaning up the house to show off what happens when she lets me part her hair on the side (not the usual, and favorite - sigh - center part). Ladies and gentleman of the jury, it's your case...

Back to V&A

2009-12-14T09:19:00.004Z

We hadn't been for too long, and the Victoria & Albert not only has a entirely new wing of galleries to showcase their collection of medieval and Renaissance art from 300-1500 A.D., but also a wicked good Sunday roast that Kate in particular enjoys. We managed to get out of the house by 2:00 PM (seriously - it'd been a morning of recorded X Factor from the night before - thanks a lot, Nick and Diane - newspaper reading, Legos, and yes, some Wii Sports Resort) and into the V&A's restaurant for a very late lunch. The girls both lingered long over theirs, so that by the time we were finished there wasn't that much time left to explore the totally renovated wing - instead, we spent some time designing jewelry in that collection's rooms (below you see Abby's creation)...
...and taking pictures with Ella P's 'Flat Ella' doll as she finished her tour of London's environs at both V&A and Natural History Museums. Kate and I had only a very whirlwind tour of just the first gallery (of what seems like many) on the gorgeously sited new exhibit, and will perhaps come back after the holidays with our visiting friends and relatives from the US.

Maybe we are going to stay here a while

2009-12-06T10:08:00.005Z

Since Alice went out and bought a car (whoohoo!) which you see below.
Kate and Abby haven't settled on a name yet - I think it's either going to end up Storm or Cloud - but personally, I call it convenient, and economical too. With gymnastics one weeknight and coming up on swimming lessons for another in the new term, the calculus of rent vs. buy shifted slightly in favor of the latter with more hours of renting. It's not a Lexus hybrid, sure (those are free of congestion charge) but in terms of both size and environmental impact (not to mention not having to walk to and from, and put two car seats into and out of each trip) it seems like a pretty darn perfect London car.

Growing up/adventures in hairstyling

2009-11-30T16:35:00.002Z

This was a very nutritious breakfast of banana bread back when Al's parents were here, with picture taken mostly to record the grown-up hair styling. Abby's still not quite there yet with her plan to grow it out long enough for simple ponytail behind like big sis, but...
...they both clearly have enough length for the samurai topknot below.

Thanksgiving '09

2009-11-29T11:04:00.000Z

Alice laid out a beautiful table for 15, including our ex-London friends who came down from Derbyshire for the weekend. Yours truly failed miserably at the pictographic evidence, so the reader will simply have to trust the narrative that it wasn't just a great feast, but also a good mix of personalities, from old college friends to parents of Kate and Abby's chums to our lovely neighbor whose backgarden puts ours to shame but is of course so kind that the topic would simply never arise...

Part of the magic was having the nine adults sit down to table first, while the six kids entertained themselves upstairs with both real world (lots of mini-tramp tricks that I'm glad I never saw) and virtual acrobatics on the Wii
Alice not only handled all the details on the day (my only contributions were to 1) take Abby to gymnastics and 2) mix the garlic mashed potatoes) but also all of the prep work as I'd been in the US and Canada the entire week, including flying on the day before Thanksgiving (stupid John, stupid) from Virginia to Montreal. Below is just a small piece of the spread (what's not visible, A&G, is the sausage fennel stuffing - mmmmm)...
...including the 9 kg bird itself.
Dessert was provided by Amherst pal Laurel - wonderfully crusted (maybe I'd be less impressed if I'd ever had one of these work myself) apple pie plus a poppyseed cake.

And the kids were great too - Kate and Abby were so happy to see Sarah and James again that 10 minutes after they'd arrived on Friday night Kate appeared downstairs where we were having a glass of wine to ask why we hadn't left for our dinner date yet - they certainly didn't need us around.

Hallowe'en

2009-10-31T12:59:00.004Z

Costumes from the US, yes, but witch's hats from the Non-Stop Party Shop right up on Ken High Street...
And Alice and her mom took them trick or treating with a whole troop of Kate's schoolfriends up in Hampstead, after very nice Halloween party at Hannah's.

The Griswalds do Rome

2009-10-31T11:07:00.010Z

Alice's parents arrived on a Saturday, and after giving them plenty of time to rest up and get over their jet lag, the whole party took off for Rome on Sunday. All credit to Al for the logistics - from the very civilized mid-day flights (why exactly did we ever do early morning ones???), a wonderful flat a couple of blocks off of the Spanish Steps, and the pre-ordered tix for both Vatican Museum and Villa Borghese, the first visit to the eternal city for all of us couldn't have been better.
One of the only questions was spending money, and as you can see, after finding that Brookings First Bank & Trust cards worked in the ATMs, everything was copacetic.
About halfway through the labyrinthine Vatican Museum, Abby made it quite plain that "I want to leave" but 1) she wasn't too put out to pose for a few shots like the above, 2) none of the rest of us were going anywhere until we'd seen the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and 3) not a lot of choice in the matter anyway since once you're in, you're in for the whole schlemiel and we didn't get out until about an hour later anyway. No problems that a big ol' serving of spaghetti carbonara couldn't help...

...as we had a fantastic lunch at the Amalfi restaurant near the Vatican. This was only the first carbonara for the girls and of course, they loved it. Abby said, "It's as good as yours, Mom."
Here is the dome in St. Peters.
Here's Kate in St. Peter's. She's such an angel (hahahaha). She told me to write that.
And all of the above was just day one. On Tuesday we took it a little easier, wandering southwards from our apartment past Spanish Steps (still an active debate within the fam as to the number of steps - after several times up and down with multiple, independent counters, we still can't say if it's 136, 137, or 138 steps in all), Trevi Fountain, and finally down to Trajan's Column and the Forum. Al and the girls took a little break - see if you can spot Abby's orange t-shirt to the left of the Arch of Titus in the below photo - while John and the grandparents walked up and around the Palatine Hill and into the Farnese Gardens (photo above).
After that, it was off for another meal (carbonara, anyone?) overlooking the Colosseum, and then into the massive amphitheatre for our last big sight of the day (Abby counted 9 in all that day, perhaps too much for any human).
The girls had read a book about the gladiators while we were touring the Palatine Hill, and Kate was happy to explain here about the multiple levels of basement and sub-basement (visible below) through which the gladiators, lions and Christians, and all else could be channeled up into the arena for the enjoyment of 50,000 or so spectating Romans.
After days like this one, you can imagine that we were perfectly happy to settle in for an evening of wicked fresh salad (Doc in particular) melanzane parmigiana, and of course...
...a little Professor Leyton on the dual-headphoned DS.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the, well, uncounted number of gelato stops during the week, this one directly outside the Pantheon.
And by popular (i.e. Kate and Abby's) demand, we even returned to the Trevi Fountain by night, where of course it looked as cool if not cooler than in daylight and also had about as big a crowd - tourists, huh?
We were sad to leave, but as with our Paris adventure last year, it was clearly felt by all that this would not be our last visit to this incredibly beautiful, historic, and welcoming city.

(PS - forgot to mention that there was also lots of time for reading aloud Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - we're about 3/4 of the way through it now and both girls and Pop are getting quite curious (hey - I can admit it) to see how it all turns out. And while we're on the subject of less-than-high culture, we also managed to get in viewings of School of Rock and Hairspray during flat downtime, frequently accompanied by some wildly good (and creatively popped - there were no large pots with lids that fit, so it was always chancy) if decidedly over-peanut oiled popcorn. John and Alice respectively devoured Lustrum, Robert Harris's new novel about Cicero and Caesar, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, Stieg Larsson's thrilling conclusion to the Millenium trilogy of Swedish...ummm...mystery/political conspiracy/anti-skinhead/feminist/computer hacking/socialist novels. Easily worth reading, and easily read too - Larsson is not a literary master, but as far as plotting and page-turningly good narrative crafting go, look out. To round out the roster, Dr. Kim was working on a biography of a past Korean president, and Mrs. Kim absolutely loved Richard Russo's Bridge of Sighs (a book with Venice connection, yes, and not Rome, but at least the same country...) while Kate's doing another Dianna Wynne Jones book, The Lives of Christopher Chant - here ends the media review)
[Posted by John, Alice, and John again]

We're back!

2009-10-10T10:07:00.005Z

The internet lives again - lots of blog catch up work to be done, but at the very least, here was our Saturday morning with Abby finishing "The Gruffalo" on her own for the first time. Kate helped only silently, pointing to words or pictures as assist - Dad was not quite so restrained, and got called on it. It was a nice lazy one - Al and I on the papers, and the girls reading away. No laptop in sight, true, but they've been pretty hard-used since Wednesday when the light came back on the router...

Jimmy's still down!

2009-10-05T07:28:00.002Z

After believably farcical calls all Saturday with the "escalated" tech support team, we were finally told that the line modification which took place Friday would require further steps – that would take 1-2 business days! – to restore service. I’m not proud to report that I noticed my hands shaking with poorly controlled rage at this point. So now we’re expecting – maybe – to have the connection working again by end of Tuesday, or precisely two weeks of downtime.

I’m just waiting to have a working line again so I can fire BT and switch over to Orange, O2, Virgin broadband etc. but of course the problem is that no matter which I choose, they’re all going to have to come over the monopoly BT phone line which I fear can always experience little snafus like the current one – sigh.

The coup de grace was a call Sunday morning from another well-meaning but completely powerless “escalations” team member who I think thought he was doing us a favour by calling but since he had nothing more to say than that we’d have to – surprise! – wait until Tuesday night at the earliest for service, it seemed more a matter of rubbing salt in our wounds than anything else. I was taking a brief Sunday morning nap (CrossFit workout the previous afternoon – ask for details if you want to get buried in ‘em) and only heard of bit of the drubbing this poor guy took from Alice: “What exactly needs to be done? Is it one step or ten or fifty? When will this happen and who will do it? Just for my background, please – what’s the critical path?” Of course he didn’t have answers for any of this…I only wonder if the CEO of BT would be experiencing the same thing if his broadband had a similar fault. Alice rather cynically suggested that he probably has a redundant backup with another (if not several) other providers.

Unconnectedly yours….

Apologies for radio silence/monopolies suck

2009-10-01T13:34:00.005Z

It's not all BT's fault, really (just mostly, the bat rastards) - ever since getting back from a wild and wonderful August of travelling in North America (have to say that since we had such a spectacular visit to Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia - aaaaaaah) we first've been too busy to upload photos and stories on the page here and second (it's day nine and counting) since 23 September have been completely without broadband/internet access at home. God bless British Telecom - seriously, it's now past comic, past tragic, and well into Zen "you'll only get what you want when you truly don't want it anymore" stage when Alice calls 'em up every day to say that whatever fix they thought did the job yesterday (the day/night synch is off because it seems most of the "work" is being done from India) well, didn't.

[Horribly obvious thought coming, but...] Who would've thought even 10 years ago how tricky life would be without always on access to things like email, VOIP phones, web banking, Al's hourly car rental service, Tube service updates, or silly little things like BT's customer service (hah!) website - not to mention the vast infopaedia that is the global information superhighweb.

Sometime, someday, we'll be back on line (if anybody's been wondering why the Skype phone's not working or why we haven't been ringing you either, well...) but for now, let's say that this has been a hell of an instructive object lesson in monopoly power. And from the decidedly inconvenient first-person perspective, I can confirm (along with Warren Buffett - he loves these) that it is just so much better to be on the side of the monopoly, rather than, say, the absolutely trapped rat of a customer of same.

Oh, yeah - and Alice is a year older! Funny how that goes...

Too brief SD interval

2009-08-06T23:28:00.005Z

In between a US business trip and this week back in the office in London, I managed to steal a precious two days back in Brookings with Al and the girls, who've been visiting the grandparents for the last week and a half (and having just a bit of a good time at it too). They've got four grandparents providing attention and love, not to mention cooking up a storm or chaperoning to the pool, waterpark, fitness center (this is an encouraging sign, I think, that that's an attraction), Zesto's, etc.

Even better, Al's sister Amy, her husband Chris, and their twin daughters are now in town so there's even more fun - the twins are just between Kate and Abby and the four of them (thankfully) are fast friends. I didn't have my camera with me, but Grandma Dee sent along a few pictures from the visit so far...
Growing up, yeah, but still game for Anne Geddes-like poses with the nasturtiums out back
Saturday morning rolls at Hagman's Secret Garden, and...
...two girls almost as happy to see their dad as he was to lay eyes on them. Soon enough, I get to join them for a week on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, but it's not the most fun calling in to hear from 4200 miles away all the shenanigans they're getting up to.

Derby and Chatsworth

2009-07-27T00:38:00.009Z

Another incredible weekend visit with our friends out of town - the highlight of which was visiting Chatsworth House, recognizable to any Austen devotee as Austen's own inspiration for Mr. Darcy's family estate Pemberley and also used in both the BBC/Colin Firth (hurray) and Keira Knightley (not so much) film versions. I actually missed the bust statue of Darcy/Firth sadly - with good cause as I was trying to shepherd four kids, but too bad nonetheless. As beautiful as the house itself is, the gardens are even better - above Alice stands at the top of the "Cascade" fountain with a wing of the house in background.

Just to give you an idea of the scale of the place, this is the same water feature from the other direction - Alice was standing where that group of little smudges is in the upper left of this photo. All four kids - Kate, Abby, and their hosts Sarah and James - spent a lot of time here, but only until they found the 8 foot tall hedge maze to rampage around.But I'm getting ahead of myself - regular readers of the blog will recognize (facing from left) Nick, Sarah, James and Diane who have been kind enough to host us any number of times at their house right outside the Peak District in Derbyshire.
Not everybody was super excited about touring the house itself, although they did find lots to interest them inside, including...
...the old looking up at the ceiling trick.
In this case, though, no trick - there was something worth attending to, captured here by KAG.
The most exciting part of the day for me was watching all four kids scramble up some rocks that they found after crawling through the coal tunnel (back to website if you're curious). This shot (Abby's red face gives some idea of how much running was going on, and she was determined not to be left behind by the big girls) was taken after the successful climb to the top but just before Abs almost pitched down and hurt her back or bum - thankfully it was only almost as her sister had a firm grip on her hand and managed to swing her rather gracefully down to the next stone, with the only cost a doozy of an abrasion on her own thumb from rubbing up against the granite. Somehow my description of it as a badge of courage didn't make the hurt go away - that only happened when we'd got back to the bag check and Alice dug out (how's this for prepared?) the first aid kit from her backpack complete with bandaids - presto! All better...

Sports Day 2009

2009-07-27T00:31:00.002Z

I didn't get to attend Kate's latest sports day - early July - but Al and the girls took some pretty nice pictures so I didn't miss it all. Unlike Southbank's (Kate's previous school), this set of events was much less competitive (and I was (vicariously) disappointed too that there was no parents' race, to see just how fast Alice's wheels still are).

Kate demonstrates her jumping rope skills.
This is a relay race and Kate is checking out her friend's progress.
Kate holds the finish line.
Abby demonstrates her catch-the-paper-bag game (she invited this game for her own sports day).

Kate takes a break to pose for the camera.
Abby takes a lovely picture of me.
The girls the cool off in the paddling pool.
Ah, bless, we're on the way home from sports day after a quick and wild trip through Camden Market.

Lucky dad and husband

2009-07-21T07:20:00.000Z

And they're off! A few weeks of loneliness before joining the ladies in SD for a brief spell - they were kind enough to pose in bed yesterday morning for me - does it look like somebody's ready to go visit the grandparents? I swear Al has gotten younger over the last few days as she anticipates a few weeks of relaxing/being taken care of again by her mom...
I cropped Kate out of the above photo, but even with her eyes screwed up it's still not a bad scene of the girls. This morning they're a little more haggard after a very late night of 'All's Well That Ends Well.' Kate and I made it to the end (and home a bit after 11!) but Abby called time at intermission, and told Alice on the way home that "You know, Mom, I just couldn't take another hour of sitting still and not moving and listening."
These are the kind of antics I'll be missing - Kate copying Al's headstand pose from yoga class. This actually lasted a fair few seconds until she giggled herself into collapsing...
And her sister looked on, only slightly pleased with herself for wearing two pigtails and one of her cousins' dresses.

Sports Saturdays end (for now)

2009-07-12T10:48:00.004Z

Yesterday was the last of the super sports Saturdays for the term, and for once, parents were invited into the gym proper to watch all of the routines prepared for their final demonstration of skills. Clearly Kate and Abby are better at the below than I was at capturing it on camera, but at least there's some record of first Abby on the beam and then Kate on uneven parallel bars.

Pictures to follow in separate post...

More gymnastics

2009-07-12T08:30:00.000Z

The girls quite enjoyed their lessons, and were bursting with enthusiasm to show off their skills to Al and me - it was great fun to see them up close too after having been on the outside of the glass wall for almost a year now. You're already seen the video routines, so here are just a few stills to show 1) Abby doing a front support on the lower bar...
Kate in same position after swinging up to the high bar...
John and Kate watching another child while we waiting for Kate's turn to do her floor bit,
Abby doing the "pizza"/straddle on the bars, and...
Kate in the same position after swinging down from the high bar - she especially liked the trolli hair effect in this photo.
After each class was done, they invited the parents to come and try some of the skills. Alice was too smart for this, but for my part, I managed one feat of strength - the pullover over the lower bar to swing up into a front support (of which I am still shocked and unreservedly proud) - and one huge embarrassment when I bounced up off the springboard only to kick the receiving mat out from under myself and end up arse-down and endlessly noticeable. Sheesh.

May-June Recap

2009-06-14T19:55:00.008Z

John studied for and took the CFA Level III exam June 6th, so Alice and the girls hung out. Here are some of the things we did.

The girls and I went to Kimchee, a Korean restaurant, for Mother's Day and then off to a birthday party for Kate's friend.

John's parents came to visit in May. We were quite busy with school and activities that we didn't have much downtime, but the Granholms came to swimming and gymanstics and enjoyed an outing with the girls to the VA museum and Hairspray. The Granholms traveled to see friends near Manchester, went to Brussels for a few days, and went to Deal Castle.

The girls love to get into these pjs that my mom gave me. They entertained their grandparents while I prepared dinner one night.
Also during May, we finally cleaned our two front windows. Abby shows off her Montessori window cleaning skills. We only have 17 more windows to go...

To give John space to study, the girls and I went to a beautiful beach resort in Spain, about 40 minutes south of Barcelona, for half-term. Here they are on the beach.

We made it in to Barcelona on the train with the help of two very nice people along the way. The destination in Barcelona...the zoo. We spent 4 hours there and both girls loved it. We saw a dolphin show.
Hmmm, do you think they enjoyed the show?
Back at the hotel, here is our nice bed with Kate demonstrating how she sleeps at night.
Here is the gorgeous view from our room.
Ah, and we celebrated Kate's 8th birthday. John and I are amazed how quickly 8 years have gone.

Today, we had a lovely picnic in Holland Park with friends. The kids ran around the adventure playground for a few hours while the parents conversed, and then we all enjoyed some food.
Only 5 more weeks left of school! Hurray.

Bank holiday weekend

2009-05-04T19:32:00.006Z

Alice wins wife of the year (and it's only May! (oh, crap...)) by taking the girls to the London Zoo for the entire day while John studies best execution and implementation shortfall, strategic vs. tactical asset allocation, and in general how to best suck up to the poor overworked CFA grader who'll be looking at his exam paper come June. Seems like I missed a heckuva day, with stories from the monkey house, adventure playzone, arts and crafts (they made fridge magnets), learning center, and of course the sea otters too.

Kate said (no embellishment) that "This is the best day ever!" and I'm guessing she meant it (until the next one, sure). Talk about living in the moment...

More bank holiday weekend

2009-05-04T19:22:00.001Z

Lots of home work/play this three day weekend - the parents got to see Fulham lose to Chelsea at Chelsea's home ground on Saturday with Jay and I-chan, but aside from that there wasn't much going on until the big zoo adventure Monday. Re: Stamford Bridge, it was fun to hear some Fulham fans excited - it's normally very quiet at Craven Cottage but that is clearly NOT the norm for fans who are motivated enough to buy away tickets (thanks, Jay). We learned a lot of new cheers, and while perhaps all of the words (colorful metaphors) in them weren't unfamiliar, there certainly were some new combinations. Back at the ranch, Abby is addicted to Harry Potter books on CD, which she listens to with and without headphones - here while Kate is practicing piano (and note that you don't even need TV to mesmerize, eh?)...
And there was plenty of time for fort-building,
which clearly didn't displease either one of 'em.

What I've been missing

2009-05-04T19:10:00.000Z

It's getting close to the end of CFA level III study, and I've been busy with revisions sessions most nights of the past few weeks. It's nice to know that I've been missed - Abby says this more than Kate - but I've also clearly been missing lots of fun stuff too, as evidenced below. Abby took the shot of Kate and Al (not bad at all), and I think the only other required explanation is that ever since we saw a piece of Hairspray in Jamaica, the girls have been rather focused on it, to the extent that we watched it again (good ol' Kensington Central Library) on DVD and even checked out the soundtrack too, to which the girls were dancing in this last shot...

Guests and London Marathon

2009-05-04T19:00:00.001Z

It was a busy two weeks preceding the London Marathon - first the arrival back from Jamaica with about 10 days to go and then the next week with 3 nights of 3 hour long revisions classes in the City of London for CFA III - yeesh. The good news is that none of this stopped our social whirl - first we got to (sniff) see our friends Mary and Matteo and of course, baby Leo...
...before they move to Milan with Matteo's new job. The girls loved having Leo over, and actually this time were quite sensitive to a baby's delicacy (although Leo has grown a ton since we last saw him and delicate isn't the first adjective that springs to mind). We also were fortunate enough to see old Schwabbie Kate P on her way back from a family trip in Scotland - she stopped in for just a few nights to catch us up on all things Minneapolis/St. Paul, and get treated to (almost) the full beauty shoppe treatment by the girls (we stopped them from doing the blue eyeshadow).
And then it was the marathon weekend. After training up nearly religiously (40-50 miles a week, lots of speedwork and cross-training too) since the Royal Parks Half back in October, Jay and I and London escapee Nick Moses were all set to kick off from Greenwich park on Sunday morning. Alice hostessed without breaking a sweat (I just wish I knew what her magic technique was - she keeps using this word....'planning?' but I'm not sure if it's English) including bringing off a wicked good pasta feed/carboloading session for all the Granholms, Moseses, and Beddows on Saturday night. Kid table is below with James and Sarah Moses on left.
The race itself proved to be ultimately disappointing for yours truly - Nick ran a successful first ever marathon and Jay B did his personal best on a gorgeously sunny (maybe too hot, but that's whining) day - but only from the time perspective. I'd set my heart (and head, and pride, and...) on cracking 3 hours, and from both the amount of training and preview time in the Reading Half Marathon 5 weeks previous, thought I could do it, but the wheels came off the bus somewhere around miles 17-18, and while positive self-talk and fear of embarrassment Monday morning got me another couple of miles still on goal pace, I ran out of energy and any kind of voodoo substitutes for same about mile 21, and sort of walked/ran from there. There was a particularly low moment when, after going through that cycle a couple of times: that is, running until I couldn't run anymore, then walking to try to get some life back into my legs, then running again - I worried briefly that since each period was getting shorter and shorter (after some time walking, my quads and calves also rebelled and it got nearly impossible to keep doing that too) this could be a function with limit=0 and I'd not even finish the damn thing. However, thankfully Jay picked me up around 22 miles and carried me through almost another mile, and I hobbled in the last three after that in about 9:30 pace by walking and running (goal pace was 6:52 for reference) to finish in 3:11. Ah, well - it could just be the happy gene talking but I also think my overwhelmingly triumphant feelings after that finish had more to do with the fact that even though this wasn't sub-3 hours or even my best time, it certainly was my most effortful attempt of about 10, and while I may have been able to run it a little bit smarter, I couldn't have worked much harder - what more could I really ask? It's also possible that being 39 (versus 34 when I set my PR, or 27 for the first marathon back in Duluth) did have something to do with it - hmmmmm.....

Back from Jamaica - aaaaaaah

2009-04-16T23:46:00.002Z

Sad but true - all good things come to an end, yes? Well, it's too late for any attempt at deathless prose, but cast your eye down the page if you'd care for a few moments from Spring Break 2009 with the Kim-Granholms. For one, I think we can think Mrs. Kim for snapping this likely xmas card photo of the fam...
...and the astute blog reader has already figured out that we all had the benefit of extra grandparental hands with Alice's folks - and Al and I enjoyed that as much as the girls clearly show below.
I think Dr. and Mrs. Kim enjoyed themselves not a little bit too.
Not least when they got to do some serious playing, here on the one "cloudy" day we experienced.
It wasn't all beach and pool and waterpark (all part of the lovely Rose Hall Resort in Montego Bay (and no, I'm not getting any commissions for your clickthru - we'd just recommend the place highly, especially for families. Dude, it has its own waterpark) because there was a lot of eating too, of shockingly good cuisine considering they were preparing three cruise-ship-like extravaganzas a day for who knew whether 750-1500 people each time. Kate and Abby ate more than just the Froot Loops, really!
We didn't even make it out to the resort tennis courts (this was a very laid back trip) or golf course, except for a couple little walks around the roughs in the morning, including this outing of Grandpa and the two girls so they could show him the shortest palm tree in the world - this is not an optical illusion or anything (not that I'd put such things past photographer Kate) as the trunk was right around three feet tall.
Despite the SPF 30 and 50 we were all wearing all of the time, Kate managed to acquire a nearing savage tan - this was only day 4 or 5, if memory serves.
And after 3 or 4 hours of swimming, watersliding, and swimming some more each day (plus a hour or two of marathon training for yours truly) early bedtime was actually more of a desired outcome than anything forced by the 'rents. Al and I usually turned out the lights at the same time as the girls (yep, just about 8:30) but this was the rare night when Alice was working on "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" and couldn't put it down (seriously - read this book).
One thing that was enforced was inside time during peak burning hours (wonderfully innocent, the girls didn't even think to question this, and I don't want to lay any bets as to how long that state of affairs will last for fear of hastening its end) but there was no shortage of indoor activities too, from the 'teen zone' with every iteration of home video game console (Kate's particular favorite was Ratatouille on the PS2, in which she showed early promise as a gamer - is that Alice's or my genes? - and an arcade standup combo of Ms. Pac Man and Galaga - sweeeeet) but also board games as in the below...
We also checked out (in order) Monopoly, Life, and even Candyland from the Activities Center, but the girls had also brought along a good selection of Puppy- and Jungle-in-my-Pocket toys that accounted for a couple of days worth of play, plus one day Abby decided that vacation time was a good time for tidying (she literally labeled it 'helping Mama') and while I listened to pre-recorded CFA lectures on my laptop, the two of them picked up, well, everything in the room, from the shampoos etc. in the bath to folding and putting away clothes to making each bed (and fluffing each pillow - yeah, it was done on the floor by punching them, but I wasn't about to stop that kind of momentum) and arranging every pair of sandals/shoes by order of size in the "shoe corner." God bless Montessori school. But that's enough (yes, I know - too much) praise for one entry - let's end with a picture that won't surprise most parents (or anyone who was ever a kid in a hotel room)...
Oh, yeah - one more thing. It goes without saying that we were all sad to leave (Abby wanted to live there, thinking that finding a new school and all new friends was a small price for paradise) but also missed home in London. It didn't hurt that the day after our return Lisa, one of Kate's best old Southbank friends, was coming over for a sleepover. I got home from what seemed quite a long first day back in the office (shoes are a bother after 10 days without, you know?) to find the three girls once again playing house/family in a bathroom. At least this time they'd moved upstairs to the larger one!

Jamaica mon!

2009-04-13T08:34:00.000Z

It's our last full day in paradise - off to the pool (or beach) now to enjoy...

Brother (and brother)

2009-04-04T22:05:00.000Z

Uncle David got over for a too-brief one night visit right before Jamaica, which was cause for celebration in and of itself that included a big round of hors d'oeuvres...
...that ended with a big surprise for David when another 'brother' - this time our old friend Andreas Kleist, an exchange student from Germany who stayed with us for a few weeks in the summer of 1987 and just happened to be in London popped in and provided a real candid camera moment since he and Dave hadn't seen each other in the intervening 22 years!
All the adults then had dinner (Jay and I-chan joined the party to catch up with Dave and things SD and MN) + (2nd parenthetical - after the requisite tucking in from Uncles David and Jay and of course, Itsuko too) from the Star Kebab House (thanks, Dave) and we even managed to get in a little Wii (here, ski jumping)...
...before Andreas had to get back to his brother's house and do his parental duty with baby Justus. Just the next morning we said goodbye to Dave as he walked back to Earls Court and the tube to Heathrow, just a day before our own departure to Jamaica.

Weekend Update - 22 March 2009

2009-03-22T21:23:00.001Z

Uncle Craig and friends

This first picture is actually the end of an action- and guest-packed weekend - however, Sunday afternoon was thankfully a little bit of downtime for the four of us after an even more packed than usual super sports Saturday. It's also true that Abby's only now recovering from a four-day fever, stomach bug, viral cold sort of thing - she managed to rally for gymnastics yesterday (amazingly, but after three days of missed school, including her birthday, it was time) and the proof was definitely in the meat course today as she knocked down not only two Belgian waffles at Jay and Itsuko's but also far more than her allotment of bacon.

The not so sickie on Sunday afternoon, enjoying Winnie the Witch read by mom.

Saturday was wild, starting with buttermilk pancakes with Uncle Craig Beddow (aka Kate and Abby's godlessfather) - he's visiting us for a few days on either side of a business trip over to Switzerland, and when he arrived Thursday morning with both girls staying home sick (well, Kate not so much but it's pretty hard to drive her to school with a feverish and non-functioning Abby) it was just like old home week. So back to Saturday, all five of us bussed off to the Westfield mall for gymnastics lessons, and from there Craig and Alice (I rather stupidly, as you'll see in moment, gave up my ticket to the Fulham-Man U game) walked down to Craven Cottage to meet up with Jay, I-chan, and two more visitors (these staying at the Beddow's house) - Jay's sister Jana and her husband Brendan. What transpired was without exaggeration monumental - not only did Fulham beat the league leaders 2-0 but the second of those two goals was scored by Zoltan Gera with a crazy bicycle kick (can't find a link to video or you'd have it here) but he's absolutely our least favorite player, hasn't scored the whole season and just is generally pathetic) - and I'm hearing about this from Alice on text messages to my mobile while watching Kate dolphin kick around during her swimming lesson. The whole party then went out to the Kensington Arms for high and low class pub fare while watching even more sport - the finals of Six Nations rugby featuring Wales v. Ireland - but made it home by 8 PM to see the girls off to bed after they ran downstairs to see all the guests and play with Itsuko's sunglasses.

We all went upstairs for a last round of drinks with popcorn and the recorded Arsenal-Newcastle match (not kidding about sports Saturday, no?) and then got Jana, Brendan, and Jay and I-chan off to their place while the three of us finished up both the popcorn and the end of Big Trouble in Little China - what a classic.
Sunday morning saw the usual long run for Jay and me, today maybe 17-18 miles, while Uncle Craig rode to Richmond Park with us on Jay's commuter bike and then circled it twice while we made it around once, burning lots of calories in anticipation of the super waffle brunch to come, and then only after that when Craig had bussed off to Oxford for some sightseeing and Jana and Brendan taken the tube to the Tower of London did we have time to crash - Abby and Alice slept for nearly two hours in the afternoon, and when I went to wake up Abs so as to hopefully allow her to get to sleep tonight I couldn't do it, as she looked so peaceful - however, you can see it didn't stop me from doing some flash photography (which didn't wake her either, for the record). One other NB: check out how long that arm looks - she's grown about three inches in the last half a year, and is really stretching out...

Wicked Wicked

2009-03-19T11:27:00.004Z

Abby's birthday matinee was a bit of a high wire act, and that had nothing to do with the performance on stage at the Victoria Apollo. I took the afternoon off Wednesday in order to pick up Kate from her school and tube down to Victoria, where we met Al and Abby, the latter looking so pale and wan and feeling so ill that she turned up her nose at not just lunch (even a McDonald's happy meal, about a once in a year kind of treat) but also the offer of a chocolate chip cookie for dessert. Should give you some indication of how poorly she was feeling, eh? Thankfully, she perked up about 15 minutes into the musical, and after that sat on the edge of her seat (or Alice’s lap) for the rest, ending by coming over to my chair and saying something like “I’m glad I organized this for my birthday.” Whew. The only other bad news was that Jay couldn't make the show - too much going on at UBS - but Itsuko did and enjoyed it with the rest of us. On the way home Abby did decide that chicken mcnuggets might be just the thing, so we stopped for a record 2nd visit to McD's in one day at Earls Court.

Abby turns five

2009-03-17T22:09:00.004Z

It actually happens tomorrow, but we celebrated with her favorite dinner (spaghetti carbonara, for those keeping score at home), chocolate Winnie cake, and of course, presents on the eve of the big dealymabob - a matinee performance of Wicked (the musical) tomorrow. As Kate's teacher asked rather perspicaciously when Alice informed her of why we needed to take Kate out of school for half a day "Who exactly is this a present for?" But, believe it or not, Abby rather resolutely requested the show as her birthday event - it was that or a party at the Little Gym where they take gymnastics lessons, and after some thought, she decided it was better to carpe carp on Wicked now and plan on gymnastics next year because you never know how long shows are going to stick around (no kidding). Alice prepared a wonderful feast, including as you see here some 36 cupcakes for Abby's schoolmates tomorrow - the girls had no trouble 'helping' me clean out the frosting pan.

Uncle Jay and I-chan came over to help us celebrate, and if you click/zoom in on this one, you can almost smell the crispy pancetta and pecorino...

Getting prepped for the big blow...

...and in case you were wondering about those candles, well, here's a close up of birthday girl and cake before the dinner started.

This was just the first of too many plastic pony, jungle, and puppy in my pocket (TM) presents - I keep hoping that at some point she hits the point of diminishing marginal satisfaction on each new addition to the collection, but clearly that hasn't happened yet.

Thanks to Jay and Itsuko for not just the puppy stuff, but also the make your own popup book - I'm looking forward to being asked to consult on that one!

Pancakes and pumpkin

2009-03-17T21:53:00.006Z

In no particular order, we've been entertaining quite a bit in the last couple of months and here's a little photographic evidence - just last weekend we had my old Alliance colleague Johan and his wife Verena over for pancakes and a little Wii - this is just after Kate had KO'ed Verena in Wii Boxing, and I have to say, she's taking it pretty well...

Another weekend, our friends Mary and Matteo brought both their babysitter and new baby Leo over (let's just say the girls did not exactly dislike him) so we all could go over to Ben and Kylie's housewarming. Aside from Kate asking too many penetrating (ok, awful pun) questions about Leo's fontanel, 1) everyone got along swimmingly, 2) Leo barely even woke up when it was time to go home, and 3) Kate and Abby only manipulated the babysitter into an extra hour of movie watching - nice.

And, yes, we were back to the pancakes again (but when it works, why change it?) for a wonderful brunch with Jay and Itsuko and Divya and Rajiv, parents of Abby's old classmate Arjun and his sister Inika (she and Kate used to take swimming lessons together too). They're all watching Nintendo DS action here, but there was lots more than that, mostly running around the house and whooping like banshees from what I could tell from the kitchen/dining room.

Buddies

2009-03-17T21:40:00.000Z

As I've been shamed into blogging, here's one of three to come out tonight - this from more than a month back, but clearly Abby's not given up on Halloween even in February...

New favorite book

2009-03-16T22:48:00.001Z

For what it's worth, this one just might have leapt to the head of the class - if you've got some free time, you won't regret looking up "The Elegance of the Hedgehog," by Muriel Barbery. Here's the review I did on my Facebook "books" app below:

I'm not certain yet, but I think this book might have just displaced such treasures as A Prayer for Owen Meany, Catch-22, and Mark Helprin's Soldier of the Great War as my favorite book. I'm still blown away by Ms. Barbery's writing style, the description, characterization, and layers within layers that exist in a novel that is, well, so intensely and brilliantly observed and recorded by the author in the form of a collection of writings and thoughts on all manner of lofty philosophic and quotidian matters that are _also_ intensely and brilliantly observed and journaled by the two main characters (an autodidact concierge and a precocious 12 year old girl in Paris). It's not the hall of mirrors that my own poor prose seems to suggest here - rather, it is a work of art that I will be thinking about and re-reading for years to come. For now, at any rate, this one goes smack on to my list of greatest hits. Wow.

See what you think, and let me know, please -

Sleepover

2009-02-22T17:56:00.004Z

Kate and Abby had another sybaritic sleepover at Jay and Itsuko's on Friday - whether it's the kids' shows on TinyPop (love that Sky television and its plethora of options), the grape juice that magically appears almost before they ask for it, or nutella on bagels for breakfast, when I arrived Saturday morning to pick them up neither wanted to go, and Abby very plainly said just "Yes" when I asked if she wanted to live there.

This picture is actually from the next evening, when Jay and I-chan took pity on the Alice-less family and had all three of us over for some cracking good minestrone soup - as you can see below, the girls were not too high maintenance, as both Jay and I had refused to read another word of Summer the Holiday Fairy (it's really tripe, although I note that the sole reviewer at Amazon loved it - oops) so Kate happily took on the job.

Snow day - no kiddin'

2009-02-02T08:18:00.003Z

The great arctic blast of 2 Feb 2009 - this was a doozy, and it's still going - schools are cancelled, no bus service in London, and all the tubes with severe delays (or just suspended). Hence the ability to post this real-time - I'll be on my way to the office in a few minutes, but the girls, needless to say, are delighted by this turn of events...
And you get the idea that the snow accumulation isn't half bad by even South Dakota standards - it's certainly the most we've seen in two years here by orders of magnitude.
It's still cold too, and still snowing - who knows where we end up?
I think by now they've moved on to snowman making, but to start with, they had a few short-range snowball skirmishes, as in the below.

Weekend in the country

2009-02-01T11:05:00.007Z

Up to the midlands to see our friends Nick and Diane for the weekend - here's a auto-timer pic gone wrong from the top of Stanage Edge (seen oh so briefly in the Keira Knightley version of P&P, not far from Darcy's estate Pemberley/Chatsworth, which we also walked around on Saturday). The only two we're missing from this photo is Nick (having trouble behind camera) and James, who didn't want to be a part of it - he wasn't too sure about the whole adventure by this point...

We managed to catch Nick (the official weekend photographer) only in an unguarded moment as he prepared the Sunday brunch...

Here's one (I think forgivable) nature shot of the edge itself - it was wonderfully majestic (40-50 ft high cliff and some 3-4 miles long) if a bit cold once up at the top and out of the shelter from a wicked east wind the that Edge itself was providing.
Sarah and Kate don't look too affected, but yours truly was getting wicked cold if not close to frost-bite.
Please don't think it was all nature adventure, of course - the girls found lots of time to glom onto Nick's big screen telly (this was Sleeping Beauty, I believe, with only Sarah not riveted to the tube) and the adults enjoyed the Haven's recently fitted out games room, with pool/snooker table and dart board, not to mention turntable and collection of classic rock and pop (from Bowie/Queen's Under Pressure, Yaz's Only You single, Bob Geldoff to Jesus Christ Superstar).
But the beautiful scenery was certainly a highlight, including these shaggy Highland cattle, including a new one if you look in the lower center of this frame for its hindquarters - very very cute.

Fashion

2009-01-18T18:15:00.003Z

Kate and Abby didn't mess around for our inauguration party - ball gowns galore (and we didn't even get invited to any of the balls - sniff)

Videographic proof

Ab's self-selected outfit for the first day of term 2009

Holiday card 2008/9

2009-01-08T07:53:00.005Z

2008 was another wild year for the Kim/Granholms in London, but most of the highpoints have already been chronicled somewhere or another on this weblog. So rather than list all of the mindblowing developmental milestones of the two wondergirls (or worse, depict the opposite kinds of achievements in financial markets and say, financial-related careers), instead we're doing a brief pictorial of the christmas holiday which saw visits from not just all four blood grandparents but also two more grands (Jean and Jim Beddow) so that Kate and Abby could be spoiled by six, count 'em six, grandparents for a couple of weeks, not to mention their newly adopted Aunt and Uncle too.

Here we all are, another year older, on the day after New Year's, which we devoted to touring Brussels with Alice's parents (and eating mussels, artisan chocolates, and of course (this was just Kate), whipped cream smothered Belgian waffles).

This summer, we were very fortunate to have Jay and Itsuko Beddow move about 0.3 miles away from us (a lot easier to visit them there then in their old stomping grounds in Tokyo). Jay's an old friend of both of ours (Alice has known him for some 24 years, I've had the benefit only 2 years fewer) and we both (this sounds cruel, but it's pretty universally true) love I-chan even more. As you can see here, both of them are at least passably well-regarded by the girls (to be fair, I think they'd rather live with Jay and I-chan on your average day):

I don't have pictures of any of the excellent feasts that Alice created - you'll have to trust me (or not - it's your life) that they were. However, you can get a feeling for the size of each one of said food extravaganzas from the following photos - first is a shot of 5 of the 6 grandparents at a pub in Rochester (where they'd gone for a day of sightseeing at the 2nd oldest cathedral in England, and then just for the hell of it went another 40 minutes of the train to Canterbury for the 1st oldest - the funny bit there is that they happened to enter at the precise moment that Rowan Williams, current Archbishop of Canterbury (and head of the Anglican Church worldwide, for those keeping score at home) was leading the commemoration service for St. Thomas a Becket, Archbishop back in 1162). The only one you're missing here is Jim Beddow, so...

...here are the Granholms and Beddows in the piano room.

And here are the ladies cleaning up after just one of the feasts - 12 people for uncountable meals makes for a lot of dishes, y'know?

And then we were off to Brussels, enjoying a very nice and fast transit on the high-speed rail of Eurostar.

Everyone had a pretty good time...

...although it wasn't all sightseeing.

And even some of the sightseeing could not be in any way classified as highbrow - here is a physics lesson, and you see the balance wasn't too far off from even with Kate and Doc vs. Abby and John.
Hope you all had as nice a time over the holidays and in 2008 - best for the new year and beyond.

Bedtime chat on Christmas day

2008-12-25T22:07:00.005Z

[Location: bottom bunk of Kate and Abby's room, third attempt to tuck them in after what was a pretty good feast and family day with all four grandparents plus Jay, Itsuko, and both Beddow parents too - South Dakota in London, and at least Abby was totally wiped out as I tried to get them to lie still for the 30 seconds it would take to fall asleep, 8:07 PM]

J: What was your favorite part of the day?
K: Getting the DS from Santa....and playing it.
A: Getting the [pause for effect] Panda Hut!!!!! It was exactly what I asked for.

[some desultory commentary from me about how smart that Santa guy is - not worth recording]

K: Why didn't you and Mom get anything from Santa?
J: Maybe we weren't good enough this year?
K&A: Nooooooo!
J: Well, you know - I didn't ask Santa for anything this year.
K: You don't need anything.
J: I do need one thing.
K&A: What? What's that?
J: The love of my two daughters.
A: You already have that! (said as if to a very dim student)

xmas 2008 photos

2008-12-22T12:20:00.009Z

Abby trialling xmas pageant costume

Kate's pageant - she's a third of the tipi

Grandma and Gramps looking pretty good after 36 hour transit and straight to Abby's pageant

Abby's big speech - unto us and all that

Mmmmmm. Buffet afterwards.

Candyland on the Mac with Grandma - a dream comes true (at least for two of the three)

Airmat madness at Little Gym

Abby does the straddle hold

Up on the big girl beam

Chillin' afterwards - check out rosy cheeks

The happy family (photo by KAG)

Abby's self portrait

In between gymnastics lessons

Kate's arabesque (sp?) on beam

Relaxing during Kate's lesson

More airmat madness

Lunch at Yo! Sushi post-Little Gym [more spending at the Westfield Mall by me - gar]

More dreams fulfilled - Candyland with Itsuko

Christmas tree 2008

2008-12-14T21:46:00.006Z

The girls and I brought home the tannenbaum in a visit that was quite reminiscent of last year, right down to Kate helping me carry the thankfully not too large tree home. Alice was busy cooking the au gratins for dinner (more on that later) but as you can see here, it didn't take the girls very long to get it all dressed up, and I can only hope that trimming two inches off the trunk and immediately submerging it into the water-filled stand will give us better odds than last year of having needles on it up through the holiday.
In a completely unrelated note, here you see an example of Kate's homework for Maria Montessori - and this is all her idea, work, you name it, except for Alice handling the physical printing of the pictures. Is it just coincidence that it turned out to be a bit of research on mice? (Click on the picture to zoom in) Inquiring minds want to know.
Tonight was the culmination of another longish weekend, and this one included a lot of media (Kung Fu Panda was the selection for Friday night pizza and movie night, although Jay and Itsuko's attendance at same was met with roughly equivalent enthusiasm, Alvin and the Chipmunks the entertainment during the usual Saturday date night after gymnastics and swimming, and today the girls spent a good hour or more playing Dora the Explorer Candyland on the Macintosh, a game which I not only forced Alice along to the Westfield Apple store to buy during aforementioned Saturday date but also only had to because of ol' Uncle Jay allowing Abby to play it in store last weekend while he made his own purchase of Call of Duty - nice work, sport). Happily, it wasn't all screen time (although I loved Kung Fu Panda) - as you see here, the girls tucked right into their gourmet burgers Sunday night - only Kate ate the potatoes - before...
...cracking each other (and us) up with stories from Abby's friend Nina's birthday party today. (PS - for the squeamish, that's definitely NOT a cage of pet rats from Abby's school in the right of the picture above).
And we were all tired - girls in bed (and asleep - aaaahhhhh) by 8:15, and I can't believe I've lasted this long.

Al and Abs

2008-12-13T10:07:00.001Z

Lunch on Friday (Abby only has a half day Fridays) was spent efficiently sussing out the new Japanese restaurant on Earls Court Road which just happens to be owned by a Korean gentleman and thus provides a mean bibimbap (Alice was happy to be the guinea pig) but only during the lunch hour. Abby was also pretty happy to have some girl time alone with Mom.
And while she didn't go particularly Korean, the miso soup with tofu was a big hit - check out the highly effective (if equally unorthodox) chopstick work here.

Chefs

2008-12-07T08:42:00.006Z

Al and I-chan had a pretty good day cooking with Yotam Ottolenghi (this while Jay and I chased around on the usual super sports Saturday plus Kate's tap exam and the Fulham/Man City football). We'd got the class as a present for I-chan's birthday three months ago, and thought it would be for her and Jay, but since someone had to take the girls from gymnastics up to Notting Hill for another party while I sat on my duff at Fulham, Jay kindly fell on his sword and let Alice go along for the finer points of lamb meatballs among other things - thanks, sport. Al said some of the high points were Yotam coming over first to press the button on their food processor and at another point check on their rice (when two Asian women need help with a rice steamer, you know it's a serious cooking class) and I'd say the result was great but somehow didn't get a chance to sample any of the leftovers - sigh.
Here's a quick crackberry picture about the time of my departure from Little Gym.
1) you can see they're real concerned that I'm leaving
2) the headband is the vestigial remains of Kate's tap dance exam earlier - still waiting on the results
3) I only heard this week (7 days later) about how wonderful my 'brother' was with the girls (the proprietor and her daughters have befriended the girls and me), first sitting and reading (alone together) with Kate, then reading to Abby during Kate's lesson, and generally being super-Uncle. He is clearly welcome there anytime.

Thanksgiving 2008

2008-11-30T20:50:00.006Z

Belated, sure, but tasty just the same. Two days after the official holiday, strangely unobserved in the UK, one set of friends couldn't make it (sick, sadly) so it was just the four of us plus Beddows for an excellent meal from Alice and successful dress rehearsal for the next larger feast with all the grands come Christmas. I was kinda famished, which is my excuse for not getting photographic evidence before the meal, but here in the after shot, you can see how much people enjoyed their superorganic turkey, sausage and fennel stuffing (Alyson & Greg), Uncle Minnow au gratins, superb gravy, and salad with beets (mmmm) - the girls are already long gone by this point, but check out their plates on the left.
and of course, the poor bird himself, before getting converted to soup...
We all took a recess before dessert because Super Sports Saturday hadn't wrapped up yet - Jay and Itsuko graciously came along to the health club while we waited for the girls to do their lessons. Here's Kate's front crawl coming along...
And little sassy pants getting ready for her turn.
When she wasn't mugging for the camera (with the chef, who doesn't look half bad for having slaved in the kitchen all day)
Not all of us were quite so fresh, and the only reason I don't show up in one of these (Jay and I snoozed while Itsuko read the paper and Al got the girls showered up) is that I was lying on top of the camera.
While waiting for the ice cream to soften, there was a nice break in the action in the front room. Abby's got Jay reading the incredibly painfully punning "Shampoozel" while Kate is right back at the next iteration of window art. We then went back for more calories with a wonderful fruit tart courtesy of the Beddows/Whole Foods (actually one of the founders of the feast since no British groceries start stocking big turkeys until the christmas holiday) and some Ben & Jerry's for the girls. Kate wasn't sure at all about the adult dessert we were all ooohing and aaaahing over, but finally decided to try a slice - which was rapidly followed by "More fruit tart...........please?"

PS. Thought I'd better include these too, since Abby got all the gymnastics glory last weekend. I got to watch both of 'em do their thing this week (while Alice did the aforementioned slaving) and it was great fun to see Abby get up on a real handstand this time around and watch Kate throw herself with wild abandon into each exercise. I won't do my normal gushing about how good the teaching methodology at the Little Gym is (nothing has changed) but I will say how pleasing it is to watch my usually lost-in-a-book older daughter listen to her teachers with rapt attention and then proceed to do (pretty much - nobody's perfect) precisely what they've said.

For the record

2008-11-30T20:26:00.004Z

Kate and Abby's swimming teacher Marco has to return to Brazil for a couple of reasons, one of which is signing his divorce papers, and this is sad for all of us because he's been a fantastic tutor for the girls. Sadly, we missed him on Saturday at what we thought would be his last lesson - he was sick - and the girls made him this card, which I wanted to preserve for their memories at some distant future date. For the curious, then...

Front of card, with Abby on her noodle

Inside card - if it's not legible in the photo, text reads: Dear Marco, we hope you have a merry christmas (if you have christmas in Brazil) Sure hope you are doing well. How do you feel when your getting divorsed? Love, Kate & Abby

Weekend activities/Window Art

2008-11-27T07:53:00.004Z

The girls loved their new Klutz kit from Aunt Katrina and Uncle David, and spent a good bit of the weekend making these kind of designs:
Zoom in on the sea turtle...
And they're not just decorative either - here showing some utility in case the girls forget which bottle is whose:
Of course the whole weekend wasn't spent on the window art (mostly because you have to wait a bit after each design for the paints to set) - there was plenty of time for building a huge fort under the stairs...
...and getting massively bundled up to brave the cold on the way to swimming lessons.
Happy Thanksgiving, all!