Remembering Lacey

Yesterday, I received word from my childhood best friend, Lori Burch, that one of our class-
mates, Lacey Delmont, died tragically, in a car crash, leaving a very devoted husband and two young girls behind.

Lori, far left, said that she and Lacey still saw each other about once a week and would often talk about the fun we had a slumber parties. I remember Lacey, quite fondly and remember having fun slumber parties but somehow didn't remember this one.

But there she is, the blond angel in the front of the picture my mom found. Lacey is the third girl from the left. (I'm in the back of the picture, with the braids, the fourth girl from the left. This must by my 11th birthday.)

I remember Lacey as a warm, kind, loving, lovely person. I always wished we were closer but, for the most part, we seemed to be in different groups of friends. I'm so sorry to hear she is no longer with us and for her family's loss.

Sam is the Walrus.

A couple of weeks ago, while Sam was spending the night at Leo's, Cam and I went out to dinner then we came home and watched a movie I've wanted to see since I saw the first preview. I loved Across the Universe.

Honestly, I'd never been much of a Beatles fan but the compelling story and arresting images combined with talented performances of their songs brought the Beatles' music to life for me.

Putting a new spin on something old has made it new for me. All of a sudden, I am interested.

Later, I wished Sam had been able to see at least parts of the movie. (We'll probably watch the whole thing with him another time.)

That weekend, I kept singing, I am the Eggman. They are the Eggmen. I am the walrus. Koo koo ka choo. (It appears the actual lyrics may be goo goo g'joob but that isn't what I was singing.)

I never even liked that song, before watching Bono perform it in the bizarre world of this movie. The next thing I knew, Sam and Leo were singing it.

We sampled the song then bought the soundtrack on itunes and have been singing Beatles songs together for the past week. I am reveling in learning them alongside him.

I'm sorry I missed the 60s and the Beatles. I'd have loved to have been part of a revolution about peace and love.

Maybe I'll get the chance yet.

Gracefulness

Cam liked what Glen Hansard said during his Oscar acceptance speech, "Make Art."

But I thought Marketa Irglova was the epitome of gracefulness. "No matter how far out your dreams are, it's possible. And, you know, fair play to those who dare to dream, and don't give up."

"This song was written from the perspective of hope, and hope, at the end of the day, connects us all, no matter how different we are."


If you haven't seen it yet, see Once.

Resourcefulness.

Recently, on our first open door Sunday, Sam and Timila came up with the idea to construct their own eco-
friendly bowling alley.

We appreciate having tolerant neighbors as we aren't sure it was acoustically friendly to have plastic bottles fall from the second floor balcony.

They had a blast and played for hours.

For more photos, go to this Flickr set of Sam and Timila bowling with plastic bottles.

SF Pillow Fight '08

On Valentine's Day afternoon, our neighbor and friend, Gaju generously offered to bring Sam with him into the city (along with three of our pillows) so we could meet Cam and his class from the Academy of Art at SF Pillow Fight '08.

Sam and I had fun warming-up by hitting people in my office and strangers on the street, on our way there.

Then, Cam told us we were supposed to be non-nonchalant and covert with our pillows until the fighting started at precisely 6pm.










We sat on our pillows for a bit, then took a few runs through the fountain. Soon it was 6pm.



I loved the first 10 minutes of the pillow fight but you know how you can get too much of a good thing? I think that's what happened. I was feeling so exhilarated on the periphery that I decided to move further into the swarm of pillow fighting.

Suddenly, I was whapped hard in the face. Ouch. I stayed in a bit longer but the next blow to the head hit my glasses pretty squarely and hurt. I checked with Cam and Sam to see if they wanted to move out with me. They didn't.

Sam stayed in the mix for 30 minutes, before checking in with Cam and I at the meeting place. He was ready to go back for more. We took him for a quick dinner break. When we were done, at 7pm, the fight was still going.

I jumped back in with him and we enjoyed wading through the crowd, waging little skirmishes along the way and made it safely to the ferry building in plenty of time to whack the nice man who takes our ferry tickets, before boarding.

Cam came up with the idea and wrote about our experience here. Other people posted their pillow fight pics here.

Check out this Flickr set for my favorite pictures from our '08 pillow fight. I say we go back next year.

Sam & Leo's 1st Sleepover

Leo is in Sam's class this year. They are in Robotics together and have been having fun playing at school for awhile. Recently, the school directory came out and we had Leo's family's contact information. We gave them a call and shortly afterwards, Leo was at our house for a sleepover. They had lots of fun.

Sam's been invited to a sleepover at Leo's house this weekend. He's excited. We're thankful and appreciative of nice people and new friends.

Check out this Flickr set for more of their silliness.

Fortunate Mistake

This week, I have been inspired by Will.i.am's "Yes We Can" video (which was inspired by a speech given by Barack Obama). We sang parts of it, when we needed encouragement, during our 14 mile hike yesterday.

On Friday night, I set about trying to identify all of the performers. I wanted to know more about them and to support them as a way of thanking them for supporting Barack.

Cam found this MTV article that listed several of the performers.

Next, I searched for images of them and was able to identify some of the artists who had given my favorite performances from the video but I couldn't identify everyone.





Finally, I searched itunes by the performer's names.

I sampled and bought music by John Legend, Esthero, Kate Walsh, Common, Harold Perrineau (Michael from Lost), Nick Cannon, Nicole Scherzinger, Scarlett Johansson and Ed Kowalczyk from Live.

So far, of these purchases, the music I have enjoyed most is by Kate Walsh. Today, I tried to find out more about her and realized there is more than one Kate Walsh. One is an actress from Grey's Anatomy, who supports Obama and was supposed to be in this video.

Kate Walsh, the folk musician, lives in the United Kingdom. I don't know how she feels about U.S. politics.

I do know I am happy I found her music.

To paraphrase a line from Your Song, "It is so pretty, to me."

Wildcat Camp Hike

When we set out on this hike, for some reason, I thought it was going to be a 10 mile hike.

Already, that seemed like a very serious hike (for us) but I was excited about it.

It ended up being 14 miles and we are out of practice taking long hikes.



I am sore today but not miserable and some of that soreness is in a good way.




I'm happy for the exercise and am looking forward to longer, more active days.

We're enjoying our first front door open day, today.

Check out my Flickr set of our hike to Wildcat camp.

Cam wrote about it and posted pictures too.

I hope you enjoyed your weekend.

Seeing elephant seals with Amy & Sebastian.

During their recent visit to the Bay Area, my cousin, Amy and her husband, Sebastian paid us a visit.


Since they were here while the elephant seals were migrating, we suggested we head out to Pt. Reyes and see them.

We lucked out and saw an elk herd too.

It was a beautiful day and I'm glad we were able to spend it with them.

Go to this Flickr set to see us making binocular face.

Our first Waterfill Hike of '08

For our first big hike of 2008, we returned to Cataract Falls on the north side of Mt. Tam.

It was as lovely as last time, maybe even a bit fuller.

Visit this Flickr set for more pictures from our Cataract Falls '08 hike. I took a bunch of videos, to share the waterfalls in action, but most of them are sideways and I'm not sure how to rotate a video image yet. Maybe I'll learn and post them later.

For now, I need to get going. Cam's taking us on a 10 mile hike, to a waterfall that flows into the sea, today.