Tidepooling Begins! Regular Tuesday with Irene Resumes...

I was not in the zone when I woke up this morning. In fact, I could feel it was going to be a lazy 4 cup of coffee kind of morning. That is until I looked out the window, saw the incredibly low tide and yelled, "Quick Everyone! Get in the Car! We are going to miss the tide!"

It was a great hunt this morning. We didn't get out far, but Falcom and Marina found plenty of goodies. Falcom found a full sized shrimp

along with several gunnel fish. He also caught a baby cod. Marina caught many tiny flounder and halibut and a baby hermit crab. Janet Fink brought over her tide pool exploration group to Falcom's bucket to show her group the treasures the kids found.

It was a grey day as you can see from the photo. The kids spent an hour just daydreaming in the flowing streams running down from the bluffs.

Then we went to Priscilla's to mow the lawn and check on her after her surgery. (It was on her hand and she is fine.) No, she can not relax and even invited me and the kids in for a cup of coffee. I couldn't believe it! Other people give themselves a day off when they have a surgery. Not Priscilla! The we left for a visit with Irene...

Regular Tuesday with Irene resumed today! Maya was asleep in the next room so we had to kick out the children. Once they were outside playing, Irene poured me a nice Vietnamese coffee which I enjoyed heartily! She told Matt about Priscilla embarrassing me last night at the movie. He wanted to know if I explained it to her...you know, like how and why it works. I got embarrassed again, and then, job fulfilled, he went outside to putter so that Irene and I could really catch up.

I can't remember all the topics discussed today, mostly because DeeJay has pulled up a chair. Right here at the computer and is just sitting over my shoulder talking, just for the sake of talking, talking talking...I can't think what it was that Irene and I talked about! Because he is talking and talking and talking. This is multi-tasking to the extreme!

You know, the world DeeJay was raised in was not child proofed the way ours is. He just told me two stories about falling off a bike, loosing a toe nail, stepping on a nail. Saipan is like America in the sixties. I wonder if I will be there for the pending cultural revolution.

Can you find the sleeping baby? I took this with my night vision goggles.

And for all my foodie friends out there I have to take a moment to brag about the kick butt vegetable dish I created tonight...

Since the Fiddle heads are just peeking out of the earth here, Marina, Falcom and I picked a bunch this past week. You know anymeal becomes braggable when you cook something that can be mistaken for worms and yet the kids still LOVE IT! Tonight I stir fried them with onion and garlic and carrot and when they were done I poured a sauce on them made of pressed fresh ginger, oyster sauce (maybe a tablespoon) soy sauce (maybe a quarter cup) less than a quarter cup of coconut milk that was left in a can by the side of the stove last night while I was at the WW, and then a large squirt of lime juice. I only continued cooking it until it was heated through.

Oh yea, I hit this one out of the park totally! They were perfect, crunchy goodness. Marina had thirds. Both kids are going picking again tomorrow night. That is how much they loved it. I have no idea how many points that has. But it was worth it.