The Lily and Jacoblog

November 09, 2006

Cinnamon girl

Uncle Burke enjoys a cup of expresso while Lily & Jake do some arts and crafts

October 23, 2006

Heart of Gold

Scene: Driving in the BayZhayVay (Big Green Van) to Cole's 1st birthday party At Bellows. "Heart of Gold" by Neil Young playing on the CD player

Lily: "Dad, is this Neil?"

Me: "Yep. This is Neil Young."

Jake: "Heart of Gold....what's a heart of gold?"

M: "Well, I think he's not really looking for a heart made of gold, but probably somebody to love."

J: "Or a heart of gold?"

M (aside): "Yeah or that"

L: "Dad...Is Neil still alive?"

M (pondering whether or not to explain that recently NY underwent emergency surgery to correct a malformed blood vessel in his brain that might have ruptured at any moment leading to a fatal aneurism): "Yep, he's still alive."

L: "Dad, what does Neil's hair look like...?"

M: "Well, I think he keeps it kinda like mine...not too long and not too short. I don't think it's black....probably dark brown."

L: "Dad, does Neil have any kids?"

J: "Heart of *unintelligible* (laughter)"

M (pondering whether or not to explain that against nearly astronomically high odds, both of NY sons were born with cerebral palsy) : "Yep, two sons I think" (*NOTE: on further examiniation, 2 sons and one daughter.)

L (dejectedly): "Oh"

M: "Um..."

L: "Is he married?"

M: "Yeah."

L (more dejectedly): "Oh"

M: "Why?"

L: "I think I wanted to marry Neil Young."

J: "Heart of...doodoo (laughter)"

October 16, 2006

The Quake

Everybodys fine.

Now that I have that out of the way DAMN THAT WAS SCARY.

Seriously. If that was 6.6 and each decimal point is 10 times bigger....one more decimal point and I was gonna be running out of the house in my underwear scared bigtime. With the kids of course...I grabbed the nearest one to me and started out of the bedroom. And the only thing that kept me inside the house at all was Kim and Lily already in the door jamb of my bedroom, blocking Jake and my egress.

That was a looooong 15 seconds, followed about 10 minutes later by a very noticable aftershock.

We had power for about 10 more minutes then, BOOM - 18 hours of no mo juice.

Kim was great - she had Lily in art therapy before lunchtime (see above) - that's us, and Sally Sparkle hiding in the door jamb. While I think my kid is a great artist, her rendering lacks a certain, shall we say, terror, that was surely on the growups faces.

Got a call from Al (born and bred Bay Area) who called it "Moderate". Translated for the non-Californians = BIG.

The rest of the day was a grim post-apocalyptic struggle of survival against gangs of motorcycle riding, mowhawked, crossbow-armed psycopaths.

Wait. That's Road Warrior.

Actually, we sat at home trying on Hollween costumes, picking flowers in the garden, painting, playing games, talking tectonics, and learning about why electricity is just about the greatest thing EVER.