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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.
Perhaps Don Juan could have learned a thing or two from my 5 year old who this weekend told my cousin, 20 years his senior and his interest du jour, “I want you for Halloween. I want to eat you up. You are sweet like candy.”
I’m afraid that the 10,000 hours of hitting on women he’ll have logged before 5th grade will only mean a wake of broken hearts and miserable relationships for him. Maybe he’ll uses these skills to land the world’s perfect wife. I mean, he is actually sweet. But, he also appears to be the reason daddies own rifles.
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 that I’m willing to go back to sit about on the shores panning when I retire. I figure it would be more worthwhile than dumping my last pennies in slot machines and there is something zen about sitting in the water shaking rocks into the stream out of your pan. Oh and we’ve already made the major investment in plastic pans and shovels.
Our strategy was to send the kids exploring up the river to find where the locals were panning. Short of finding well-to-do looking locals, we simply dug and panned following the trail of bigs rocks along the riverbed. My Aunt Patty and cousin Kelly are in town, and as she is known to do, Patty bought the best stuff – a pick. Will quickly abandoned his pan and shovel to pick at rocks. Amazingly, we all still have the digits we started with.
After panning, Friday, we took in a comforting dinner at a local brewery, before heading back to the hotel for what my children will probably remember as the highlight of the trip – the hot tub! It was the last place we went before bed and the first place we headed in the morning.
A stamp press – to smash the ore and accelerate the natural process of freeing gold from the veins of rocks.
Saturday we followed an ancient docent around the city learning about local history. We checked out the local farmer’s market, played in the stream, collected acorns, and then bought an arrowhead at the Big Pow-wow. We’d have more memories of the Pow-wow had Sylvie not fallen victim to an overfilled poorly placed soap dispenser and ended the afternoon doused in pink soap. (God’s way of telling me she needed a bath?)
Sylvie’s free pomegranate. People just give her things…
What we saw of the pow-wow before the soap incident.
Apparently my children are outgoing, as parents at the preschool go out of their way to introduce themselves to us and (usually) explain how they share a special friendship with our children. I hear all the time, “Sylvie likes to hold my hand.” “Will is so cuddly.” “Sylvie and I are buddies.” I just smile and wonder if those parents know just how many other parents my children have cuddled up to that day.
At our school meeting last night, a mom came over to introduce herself and tell me that our children play really well together. She has two sons the same ages as my children. Our younger kids play mommy and daddy together, she explained. After a few moments of me silently smiling and nodding wondering how much she really knows about my daughter, she laughed and said, “But, I’ve heard Sylvie plays mommy and daddy with lots of little boys.” Yep, that’s my girl!
It appears Will’s latest plan to pay for college is to secure a defense grant to build flying cars. The world needs great minds like his. The car proposal, as translated by his after-school teacher, follows:
My dilemma – do we send the original so that he gets the thrill of a return letter from the President? Or do we send a photo copy and hope President Obama understands?
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.
there would be violin lessons in their future. Instead, I think I can only muster enough enthusiasm to promise them guitar lessons.
I’ve posted before about my music lesson dilemma. Both of my children are really singy, but I’d like to get them interested in an external instrument like, say, guitar. Maybe this video will inspire them (or you?).
The thought crosses my mind when I scan the sushi bill and my 5-year-old son’s salmon sashimi is more than half the cost of our dinner for four, “Am I raising a foodie?” Is it normal for a child to request carrots and hummus as a snack. To snub tootsie rolls in favor of a few raw cucumbers. Tonight he requested “the good brie” – the triple creme from the cheese store – on wheat crackers in his lunch. The normal grocery store variety is too much like gelatin for his palette. This child excitedly approached eggplant parmesan that I thought smelled like vomit and devours veggie packed stir fry. Is this child a foodie? In comparison to his future food requirements, I think college might be cheap.