Bigelow

Another one of my staging jobs....
This is a lovely Craftsman style home in the heart of Mill Valley. I love being able to use reds!!

I Love you monny

There is nothing that brings greater joy to your heart than hearing your child tell you they love you. Evan and I were walking through Strawberry Village the other day and, being the rascal that he is, he picked a flower out of the planter box. I gave him an eye that said, "you are NOT supposed to be doing that!" To which he replied to my telepathic message, "I love you monny" (monny translates to mama in Evan talk). Well, if that doesn't make the world right, I just don't know what does. I know I am biased (and he has me wrapped around his little finger) but that kid is CUTE!

It is easy to lose track of moments like this and the saying on this vase gives me a gentle reminder to try "not to sweat the small stuff" and just laugh. After all, there's ALWAYS small stuff.

Spring Sing

Kiira's school does a Spring sing each year. This was out first one so I wasn't sure what to expect. Kiira told me she wasn't singing and that I had to be surprised. So, I patiently waited until the day. Ok - not only one of my favorite songs was played but I also was so impressed by all the kid's moves! No lack of excercise here! Go Room 1!

Fleetwood Mac

So as I am driving home from the airport around 10 pm that eve, I get a message from my friend Mona Helen - "do you want to go see Fleetwood Mac tomorrow night - I've got two tickets". Well, it's 10 pm and too late to call her so I scratch my head and figure what will be will be. Upon arrival home and debriefing of said Disney trip, Alan says that Mona Helen had talked to him and I was indeed going to see Fleetwood Mac.

So, therein a plan was born. Mona Helen picked me up and we were off to do some reminiscing of our youth. While I was sadly disappointed by Stevie Nick's lack of energy, Lindsay Buckingham MORE than made up for it in his singing and insanely good guitar playing. That man ROCKS! Four of the originals were there - Stevie, Lindsay, John McVie, and Mick Fleetwood. A 10 piece band overall and they really sounded great!



Talk about burning the candle at both ends......up early the next day to install a staging job. It's ALL worth it thought! Youth is but a stage of mind.

Disney!

Monday, May 18

Dear diary, I woke up today and....

6:45 am - read email from Nancy saying that her husband is not going to Disney as planned for their family trip. Hmmmm....interesting I think as we had planned to do a girls trip (mommy and daughters) awhile back.
7 am - make lasagna for person in need at our temple.
8 am - Take Kiira to school.
8:30 am - Get coffee on way to Evan's Yad b'Yad class
9 am - Call Nancy to see if I can borrow her van to pick up a large piece of furniture, casually ask to confirm if Gideon is going with them or if June and Nancy are going solo
10:45 am - deliver meal to fellow Temple congregant
11 am - call Nancy again to further inquire about Disney
11:15 am - call United to inquire about tickets to Disney....hmmmm...reasonably priced....ask United to hold two
11:30 am - inquire with babysitters to see if they can stay later today and tomorrow. they can. Hmmmm......Disney idea budding further......
11:45 am - stop by Nancy's house to inquire with their babysitter that in fact middle child IS sick and Gideon IS staying home. All true.
12 pm - pack bag thinking that when I pick up Kiira from school at 1 pm - if she is feeling good, I will confirm airline tickets to Disney and we will drive straight to airport. Hmmmm....still no word from Nancy.
12:30 pm - surf internet for backup accommodations if we can't stay with Nancy.
1 pm - pick up Kiira - she feels good. I ask, "Do you want to go on a special trip on an airplane with mommy?" She says, "Yes", i say "we are going to Disney!"
Yahoooooo!!!!!!!!!
3:30 pm - United calls our section to board - Nancy calls - SO excited that we are coming and confirms we can stay with them.
Voila - a plan is formed. Viva spontaneity!

Yes, it's true. Despite the Waldorf schooling and the aversion to commercialism (ie alot of Disney) I took Kiira on a surprise trip to Disneyland. With all the negative talk we have heard about Disney - I actually found it REALLY fun. Some myths:

- food, in reality, is REALLY good and really healthy. If you sit down at a restaurant, you can get a good salad and a good piece of salmon - even for the kids.
- going on a Tuesday - we never waited in lines for more than about 20 min. Fastpass works great.
- we had heard that getting off rides, they funnel you RIGHT through the stores. NOT true. You can, in fact, exit a ride, withOUT going through the store.

We hit Fantasyland, Toontown and part of the other adventure parts of the park. We did Buzz Lightyear, Nemo's Submarine, Dumbo, the carousel, Mr Toad's Wild Ride, It's a Small World (my favorite), Alice in Wonderland, Jungle Cruise, Storybook Canal Ride, and Kiira's favorite - the teacups. We stayed at the Grand Californian which is right on Disney property. This worked to our benefit for two reasons - ONE - we could walk into the park - TWO - we got to enter the park 1 hour earlier than the general public which translated to NO LINES on the really popular rides.

After arriving late Monday and getting up early Tuesday - we flew home on an 8 pm flight Tuesday night. A quick but FUN, FUN, FUN trip.

And I can be proud that my daughter did not buy into all the commercialism as we had worried. When given the opportunity to pick out one special thing from the trip, she did pick anything Disney at all. She picked a rainbow teddybear that she had seen in the Build a Bear store. Awwww.....makin' your parents proud!

Line of the trip: while having dinner the first night, a nice guy in his 20's came over to make the kids balloon animals. Kiira wanted a chick. The guy paused, thinking, and said he'd never done a chick. Nancy exclaimed in amazement, "You've never done a chick!". At which time she and I burst out laughing at the double entendre. And said nice guy got bright red.

Look for more photos on this link in a bit - I haven't uploaded them yet.

Reed Regatta

Carnival. Who wouldn't want to see what this was all about right? So, we, as virgin Reed regatta parents, signed up to see events, to see the other parents, to see what trouble we could get into while bidding on items to raise money for Reed Schools. Personally, I was hoping that the project I helped the kids make (the Blackie watercolors) would go for a HUGE amount - one of the main reasons I went. As well, many of the parents of the kids Kiira has become friends with were going and we were all sharing a table. Before we headed off - the kids were fascinated with the masks we brought along - in true Carnival fashion!

For those of you who don't know Tiburon, there seems to be a pretty split opinion of its residents. One that I, too, share. There are the "I am perfect with the perfect hair, nails, teeth, bag and shoes" type aaaaaaand.......there is everyone else. It can be hard to dig through the aforesaid in order to find some semblance of normalcy. It is an affluent town and as much as I don't want to admit it, THOSE people do exist. However, if one puts their "likeyouandmeter" on, you can find some good souls. We had a toe tappin' good time watching some serious hip shaking and then doing a little ourselves as the night wore on.

Pixar Studio

Today I got to tour Pixar Studios, located in Oakland. Last year when Kiira was at the Mountain School, our good friends JJ and Danny bid on a tour there (one of the Mountain School parents, Guido, works there) - and consequently won. They asked me along for the tour. I willingly obliged! It was pretty amazing. The building itself brought back wobegone memories of the successful dot.com era. Big, soaring spaces with "cool" materials. Being a designer, I can't help but notice all of this.

The content of the tour - also pretty spectacular. Guido has worked on a variety of Pixar films, the Toy Story's, Cars, Ratatouille, Up and several that I haven't heard of because our kids are too scared of movies yet. Scattered along the halls were memorabilia that was part of the movie making.



Also scattered were one of a kind drawings that employees, very talented employees at that, displayed. We saw screening rooms, the huge server room (and I mean HUGE), campus amenities (think pool, volleyball court with sand, workout room), and general workspace. Along the way we learned about making a movie, editing a movie and the unexpected joy of being IN a movie (Guido ended up being the voice of the the car "Guido" in the Cars movie). Apparently they often just leave the "scratch" voice of the character - ie. the voice of one of the employees. Soooooo cool! Thanks JJ and Danny for including me!