Pictures from the Weekend

With Vince taking the kids to the Wild Flower Cabin for the weekend and DeeJay and Willie each being fully employed, this weekend found me in fine spirits focusing on that which I do best: Drinking coffee, playing sudoku, hanging with friends, and laughing. The weather (as documented in above photo taken from my living room window) was stormy, and the wind blew more strongly than it has all summer. I felt no guilt in partaking in indoor activities. Mom and I took the opportunity to go out to dinner together to Cafe Cups and then to a movie. Valda joined us. At Cups, I chose an unusual selection; Cuban pulled pork on a cooked banana. It is hard to know how something so unusual is going to turn out. I would like to say, for the record, that it was fabulous! It was like a sweet and sour pork South American style. It was spicy and yet not overwhelmingly sweet. I loved it! I also loved the fun company. Getting to spend time alone with my mother and with Valda (without kids) is unusual and a real treat.

Afterwards we went to the movie theater where we watched 'The Proposal'. It is one of the first films I've watched that include an Alaskan that don't use the same overdone Alaskan stereotypes. (This reference to stereotypes also includes the stereotype of knuckle head Sarah Palin.) Thank you Mom and Valda for a great time.

I've been considering a blog posting about delayed gratification and it's role in developing successful adults. This post would focus on the inability of Alaskans to model delayed gratification. This is an entire blog post onto itself, but the example I was going to use revolves around Vince bringing fish home from Kenai."The fish are in." When the fish are in you get the fish. You don't wait for your schedule to clear. When you have fish, you must process that fish, even if you don't get home from Kenai until 10.30 pm. Even if you know that you won't be able to fall asleep until 1.30 because fish takes 100 minutes in the pressure cooker. Even though you know that you have to get up early in the morning to take your children to the wild flower cabin (and you have to go to the cabin now because the marsh is dry-ish and you will be dragging a post hole digger out there with you to dig holes for the new sauna that you have to drag the wood out for when the ground freezes).

This lifestyle can be exhausting. Rewarding but exhausting. Why do I mention it?

I had fruit that was going bad and decided that instead of fulfilling it to those ungrateful chickens, I should make jam. Maygen and Iris came by to talk with me while I was processing the blueberries. When my jam was successfully processed I got to take Iris (and Maygen) out to dinner.
We tried to go to Wasabi for sushi, but for some reason, even though the restaurant was only a third full, the wait was going to be over ten minutes. That lead me to think just how long the wait for the food was going to be, and so we decided to go to Lands End. The place was crowded, but the staff was excellent. Iris did some food explorations of her own by challenging her taste buds with a maraschino cherry dipped in Clam Chowder. She didn't seem to mind it, but chose not to re-experience it for a second dip.

With Mars being closer to the Earth now than it has been in the past 75,000 years, Maygen and I have both been feeling it's influence on our personal lives. Fortunately, the good omens are with us. One of these omens being Maygen finding money in the bathroom stall!
After dinner, Iris played her music for us while Maygen drove me to Mema's Shack. Iris said, "Mus ta ma." Translation, "Thank you Grandma for this great birthday music."

Mom and I then went to the movies with DeeJay, Willie, and Suzanne and saw Year One with Jack Black. In this reviewers opinion the best part of the movie was listening as the jokes hit home with their intended target audience, the 16 to 18 year old male. Poo eating and foreskin jokes were especially appealing to this demographic.

The next day the family returned from the cabin, happy and filthy from the experience. We got them cleaned up and ready and rushed them out the door for the annual Aziza Bali Birthday Bash!

Ziza has a magical relationship with nature. Each year, regardless of what the weatherman proclaims, the sun comes out for her birthday.

What a fun birthday it was. The yard was flooded was friends and family. Kids were slip and sliding. Kids were balloon tossing. Parents were having cocktails. Mindy said, "I must face my chair toward my Goddess." and so we all turned toward the sun and baked! Fabulous. Thanks everyone for helping me have such a terrific weekend!