mama’s sewing circus

We ran the Napa marathon, today. I’ve been joking with Doug that when our friends go to Napa they get spa treatments and drink wine, and when we went, all we got were stinky tshirts and in my case a little soul in my stroll. We must be doing it wrong.
So it went. We set [...]

I was home alone with the kids, today, so after a trip to REI/Target/a local thrift store to refresh the rain gear, a rain walk, some leaf races, a bath, and while sucking back hot chocolate, I gave the kids pedicures. Will insisted that I paint his nails a dusty rose color despite my insistence [...]

So there has in fact been sewing, crafting, running, cooking and interesting things going on in our lives. BUT, I’m not feeling up to sharing, as there has also been viruses galore.
Something that made me smile:

It is officially winter around here. Last weekend, we took the kids ice skating. Apparently, there is a window in our lives during which ice-skating comes naturally as Sylvie was sure footed and Will was like Bambi on ice. My back still hurts from trying to get him to stand up.
Sunday, we went to Fort [...]

In celebration of Sylvie’s birthday, we had the neighbors over for some mad science. The kids made glow in the dark slime and screaming balloons while the adults ate quince liver, deviled eyes and mummies.

Yes, those are real meat.

We had the requisite ear (grow your own) and eyes (olives) in a jar. As well as [...]

Chalk this up in the list of topics I can’t believe people spent time researching, but this is amusing – apparently, males who voted for John McCain showed a drop in their testosterone levels after the election. Read all about it.

We spent the weekend in Auburn, Ca learning about gold country history and trying our hand at prospecting. We had our best luck with the guaranteed gold-flecked bags of sand that we bought for $2 a piece at the gold museum, but the goldless shores of the American River brought us great amusement. Enough amusement [...]

I find humans really interesting, enjoy a good social experiment and have a weakness for the advertising that delights (it is, afterall, at its best well endowed art). Here is a Volkswagen ad that for all of those reasons gets to me. Enjoy.

We are planning to take the kids to the Gold Country to pan for gold in mid October. My internet research has been much like panning for gold. Many cities in California share the 49′r history, and most of them are proud to mention that in their chamber of commerce page, but very few still [...]