A Face Only a Son Could Love

Rafa drew a picture of me a couple of days ago. I was taken aback when I saw it, and then a bit dismayed. Do I really look that bad these days?



The thing is, this simple drawing is amazingly accurate. My new glasses are square-ish, and at least I thought, fashionably bold. Rafa has chosen to give them special emphasis in his rendering of me.

My mouth is in fact a bit wide, and my eyebrows are quite dark. I always felt a special affinity with Brooke Shields, and Rafa seems to have looked into my mind and understood that about me.

And most days I do push my bangs off my forehead and over to the side, usually by about 10 minutes after I have done my hair in the morning. So, you see, he is easily able to portray personal habits as well.

It's a bit different from looking like Daphne, but I guess the lesson here is about beauty being on the inside. Although he thinks I look like this, he loves me even so.

My Dream Team

This is my dream team. I live with them. They are something to behold, their grace, their style, their strength, their smarts.



They work so well as a team, as if they could read each other's minds.



Here they are with their game faces on, trying to look like a tough bunch.



But I have them wrapped around my little finger.

Summer-time Art Projects

It's summer time. Time for playing and running and drawing and coloring and fun stuff in the kitchen. Getting up a little later and staying up a little later each day. Thinking about vacations coming soon, and swimming pools, and barbecues, and visits with cousins.

Stanford University Commencement 2009

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Dance Party

Even if you have a headache and dinner is burned...



even if people have been complaining to you all day and your socks don't match...



even if you didn't sleep well last night or you can't find your favorite train...



even if there's no milk in the house, and no gas in the car...



there is nothing that a good dance party won't cure!

Event Planning

I've always enjoyed planning parties and events. In fact, I'm planning a major event at work right now, not because I'm an event planner, but because it was assigned to me! On top of all of my other duties! Yippee!

Here is one of my secret resources for a successful event, every time!

Platinum

I remember the sound of the foghorn at night when I was a child drifting off to sleep. There were real foghorns in those days, posted at the entrance to the Bay, and they would begin to sound as soon as the fog started to roll in.

I can remember the sound of my grandfather's footsteps on the backstairs. The wooden steps with their black plastic covering would creak as he went down to his workbench to shine our shoes and have a smoke.

I can remember the steady whoosh and click of the pressure cooker in my grandmother's kitchen, and the tick and bell of the old white kitchen timer on the counter.

I can remember the sound of the seashell windchimes at the front stair.

I can remember the high pitch of the engine of my father's truck warming up on cold winter mornings.

I can remember the click of the loose ivory on the piano. The ivory pieces that had fallen off and been glued back on would click against the ivory keys next to them. The keys were made of real ivory. My grandmother was very proud of that.

What childhood memories do children have if they can't hear things like this? What will trigger nostalgia later on for them? Smells, perhaps, and patterns of light. When Rafa watches his babies grow and learn, what will he remember most?

A New Garden

We are cleaning up our backyard. Rafael has been thinking and drawing, working on a solution for a big space in a cold climate.



We are going to be able to reuse much of the brick and the pavers that were part of the original garden in the 1940s. This makes me happy, because it's green and resourceful and shabby-chic trendy and all that, but also because it preserves the choices of the original owners who left the house to us, and I like to think that they are pleased by the changes.

Dinner Party

We had a lovely dinner party a few nights ago, but we only took pictures of the kids. Great food-blogging skills, Mama!

First course:
Avocados and vinaigrette



Main course:
Baked Tilapia with Ginger-chili Mayonnaise



Sides:
Zucchini Fritters
Roasted Asparagus and Mushrooms



Dessert:
Pear Tarte, again!



Drinks:
Cosmopolitans
Russian River Pinot Noir



Big girls love cosmopolitans. Little girls love grandpas, even when they are not their own.

Solitude

Does it mean that I'm a bad mother if all I wish for is some quiet time alone?