The Husband is teaching The Boy the rules of hockey. He starts 4 on 4 this Sunday….

(I know, I owe you part 2 of our vacation…. I’ll get there….)

Hello from San Francisco! We rolled in a few hours ago and our Air BnB has smokin’ fast WiFi, so a blogging we will go!

We started our trip in dairy style – the Tillamook Cheese Factory!   

And would it be a legit family vacation without some currency destroying? I think not… Then off to a lighthouse for some whale watching.

    
 We watched…no whales. Oh well. Better luck at the next stop – a hike! (Aka a “leisurely nature walk” since The Girl is suspicious of the “H” word.)   (Yep – we went all the way up there)

    
     Tuesday was more nature walks, except this time on the beach and with the redwoods!   

    
    
 (Sorry, out of order – the app is rudimentary. And spacing issues. Oy.)
Today was mostly driving. The Girl loves driving! Give her Mom Teddy, some tunes, and some scenery, and she’s happy for hours.   
The Boy prefers to ignore ancient trees in favor of movies on his phone.

 But we drag him out for touristy things as necessary.

 
Now we’ve moved from the country to the city – cable cars and Fisherman’s Wharf and Alcatraz, here we come!

This right here is why I’ve long stopped wishing I could go along on The Husband’s trips:

Oh dear. We’ve reached the point in the blog journey where, absent daily moving van and new school excitement, things tend to take a bit of a downward turn. Without something super important like “OMG you guys Portland is so weird” or “Guess who found the grocery store??” to mark each day, there seems to be less reason to post.

But this is a not terrible thing, yes? We haven’t even been here three months yet and already our lives are hum-drum and same-old-same-old – that’s pretty amazing, I’d say.

However, in the interest of  catching you up on the quotidian:

What we’re doing: School (The Boy), Schoolish (The Girl – she’s had a stomach bug she can’t seem to shake lately – fortunately she has a fair amount of wiggle room in her current schedule, so she’s not falling behind), Work (me), Traveling (The Husband – some pleasure, some work).

How we’re wasting time: Screens, always the screens.  The Boy discovered The Walking Dead (bad parent for letting a 13-year-old watch it? Yea or nay?) and The Girl does a fair bit of Minecrafting. I finally tried Downton Abbey for the first time over the weekend (and the fact that I’m already on Season 2 probably indicates how good of a fit it is for me). I also finished a book in there – The Husband was away, so we pretty much hibernated.

What’s providing the drama: Metal shop! Remember how I told you that every time my phone rings around 1:30 on alternating days, I worry a bit? Well, I finally got the call! “Hi, this is Kim the school nurse. The Girl is fine. But there was an incident in metal shop….” Here’s the damage:

A bit tough to tell, but that finger on the right got a good singeing. She’s taking it in stride, though:

What we’re planning: Spring Break! It’s next week and for the first time ever, we’re going away! (Take that all those years of “but my friends are going to Disneyland for the FIFTH time and we never get to go anywhere….“) Now that we’re on the Left Coast, we suddenly have way more within driving distance than in the Midwest (where you’ve got Chicago and Mount Rushmore and that’s kinda it). We’re going to San Francisco! I’ve never been, so I’m pretty excited.

Aaaaaaand that’s about it. Until our next riveting installment!

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One of the side benefits of working from home and having no friends close by is that the only people I interact with in real life during the week are my hubby and kids, the Fed Ex guy, and (if I’m feeling particularly adventurous), the grocery store checkout clerk. There’s no awkward bus conversations, no meet-ups with other school parents, and (thank you Jesus) no parties.

There’s also a limited number of new experiences that can happen when one works in the basement, has no church affiliation, has no club memberships, and has independent children who don’t require pickups/drop-offs with their unavoidable chit chat with other picker uppers and dropper offers.

It’s not that I can’t do these things, or that I hate them after the fact (usually I quite like meeting new people after I’ve met them) – it just takes a lot out of me. Every year I realize more and more that 8-year-old me instinctively knew this: my BFF still teases me about coming to my door to invite me to play and I said, “sorry, can’t. Reading.” And where I used to feel inferior or boring, I’m now fiercely protective of that downtime and choose my energy outputs wisely.

What this all means is that now that I’m protected from the Big Bad World during the week, I actually have way more of an ability (nay, sometimes even a desire) to do things on the weekends. Which is good, because The Husband does love to do things. As you may have noticed.

This past weekend was full yet again (and guess who didn’t complain more than, like, twice)? Friday night was a concert – St. Lucia at this super-cool former church. We were a threesome since The Girl likes them, too.

See that awesome balcony behind us? (I’m just imagining surly teenagers crossing their arms and defiantly being booooorrrrrred during the sermon.) The only seats in the house, but 21+. So we hung out in the standing section with the youngin’ non-drinkers (although The Girl was super pumped to try her very first Red Bull). And enjoyed a superfab concert!

Such 80s. So neon. Very synthesizers.

We left early because the Red Bull had run its course (argh. Why do concerts start at 9 pm?! And then have opening acts and THEN have extended setups for the main band?! I’d totally pay extra if they’d start at 7) and because we had a big day planned for Saturday.

Yep – back to the ocean! The Husband wanted to take his new surfboard for a spin, and The Girl wanted to give it a shot, too.

What a beautiful day! It was 18 degrees with sunshine and a light breeze. I read and relaxed on the rocks, looking up every few minutes to make sure there were still three heads out there. I was also ostensibly on “shark watch” because The Girl is convinced she’s a choice morsel.

Alas, that was about all the stimulation this introvert could take. We got home and I crashed right into a nice mild stomach bug (“nice” because it was the “kinda off, feelin’ a little queasy, just lie here ’til it’s over” kind – not that other kind). And Netflix totes had my back on this one:

We may have watched all of season four in under 36 hours. So, so good. (Although we do need to talk about the wardrobe department and their refusal to buy the correct size for any of the women on this show. They’re all gorgeous – they don’t need to be sausaged into one size smaller for us to notice.)

A day yesterday to mop up the weekend damage (aka clean up the disaster that was the kitchen) and I’m back in business. And with The Husband headed out of town this weekend, it might be a whole 10 days before I have to have any more adventures!

So you know how when you move into a new house you find yourself buying new furniture to fit the empty corners you didn’t have before?

We’re renting, so no point in buying furniture since the corners may be temporary. But apparently we’ve got some empty recreational equipment slots:

  

Sigh. Unfortunately this house has a decided lack of surfboard-sized empty corners.