Sisters

Deborah and May picked up some lovely Indian dresses at the flea market in Shipshewana, and, well, how often do I have the chance to work with two beautiful models?

May in November

May came to visit for a week around Thanksgiving.

Now, what roles does May play around our house?

Jungle gym...

Jumpmaster...

Hairstyling client...

Fabric artist...

Mario Kart competitor...

Headrest...

... and Muse.

A truly multi-purpose relative!

The Readers

On the evenings after we come home from the library, you really shouldn't expect to get anything done around this house. It just doesn't happen.

Gotta start somewhere!

Quick — name a movie or show directed by Tim Burton, starring James Earl Jones and Leonard Nimoy.

You're probably thinking to yourself, "What kind of movie is that? A creepy Halloween-sci-fi-political thriller?" ...ah, think back further, before those guys got defined in their signature roles and styles. Now, imagine them in extremely low-budget productions — you've seen more elaborate props at a high-school play. Imagine them acting melodramatic — complete hams.

This is the joy of watching Faerie Tale Theatre. Shelley Duvall, executive producer, didn't spend a lot of money on these things, but she had an uncanny knack for picking actors who would go on to be big names in Hollywood. May got the whole collection for Christmas, and we've been watching them on nights when it's too late to start a full-length movie, but want to watch something.

Tomorrow night, Robin Williams as the frog in the Frog Prince...

Tandemonium

We had planned to all go out for a bicycle ride together, but only two out of five of our bikes (the kids' trailer makes six, I guess) were ready to ride; the rest needed some work to get them road-worthy again. The first one Paul and I worked on was the tandem, which, just when we thought we were done, blew a tube. By the time we walked over to the Trailhouse, got a new one, and installed it, there wasn't really enough time to all go for the ride we'd been planning. So we took turns taking spins around the island on the tandem. It was a very new thing for May and Paul.

A Wonderful Warm Weekend

You couldn't beat the weather this weekend. The temperature was all the way up in the 50s and 60s. The vast wastelands of slush and mud were receding, and there was no reason to stay inside whatsoever.

Saturday morning, I volunteered to take Deborah's sewing machine to be repaired — in Marion, a good 65 miles away. On the motorcycle. (Of course!) She'd been pining to have it repaired for some time, but the local repairman evidently either didn't know how much of a gem a Singer Featherweight is, or was trying to cheat us out of it by offering us $40 on it as a trade-in — and neither interpretation inspired much confidence. So with the case ratcheted down to the passenger seat, and a big grin on my face, off to Marion I went, to a shop where we've had it worked on before. I tried to make out like I was doing Deborah a great service, but she wasn't buying it. She knew I just wanted to go for a long ride.

Along the way, stopped at a light in Wabash, I saw this building, which I'll let speak for itself.

How do you get a chicken drunk, anyway? They drink like birds!

Sunday afternoon was even warmer and sunnier.

Paul found a Frisbee that the kids hadn't stepped on, and several of us retreated to the back yard. Deborah said she'd be out once Fiona woke up from her nap.

Deborah catches one

May grabs gracefully

Paul plays with a handicap

Even Fiona got into it!

Deborah brought a Koosh ball to add to the mix. So after a while of simultaneous 3-way frisbee and 3-way catch, the game turned into something akin to shooting skeet. (Or Calivinball; I miss Calvin and Hobbes...) One person would throw the Frisbee, and the other person would try to knock it down with the Koosh ball. We teased Paul about not being able to hit the Frisbee, saying it wasn't his fault, because the reticle hadn't turned red yet — a lighthearted jab at his video game playing.

Deborah, knocking the Frisbee out of the air.

It was many hours before hunger drove us back inside.

A long look at the lake

I may as well post this one now. It'll be summer before I finish working on it to my complete satisfaction. (Frustrated perfectionist, that's me!) Anyway, I have no idea what Blogger is going to do to this one, or how much you'll be able to see, but it's worth clicking on the picture to open this one up bigger.

A long view of the lake.

This is a severely downsized version; the original is something like 150MB, and, if printed, would be 10 inches high and about 13 feet long. It's made up of 26 shots. (If you want to see a larger version than what's here, email me.)

A few weeks ago, May was clamoring for a chance to go out walking on the lake, and May, being May, didn't want to go do it alone. So Paul and I went out with her. We walked down our street, to the edge of the island, and, well, kept on walking. The snow was about four or five inches deep on the surface, so Paul and May spent a few minutes kicking aside the white powder so that they could actually stand on the ice itself.

Paul and May, on ice.

While was trying out the panorama/stitch feature on my camera (Click, turn, click, turn, click... I did two of these, and you can see the sun is lower at the end of the sequence than it was at the beginning!) Paul and May got quite a ways out — that's them in the first picture, about two-thirds of the way over.

After I was done, I jogged to catch up with the other two, who were chatting with the only other people out on the lake that evening. It turned out to be a father and son, out spending some time together in the cold. None of us had really had any contact with anyone that did ice fishing, so we stayed and chatted a while. It's a fairly complicated activity, to hear them tell it; I would have thought the fishing would be the easy part, and the main attraction would have been the quiet time out on the ice, away from all the noise of everyday life. Apparently that's a side benefit. (It might expalin why I've never caught much of anything when I've gone fishing, too.)

On the way back in, I noticed that the cheery glow coming from the houses wasn't the result of artificial lighting. It was a reflection of the natural glory of the setting sun.

"Picture window" takes on a whole new meaning.

A Night Out

My mother-in-law gave all of us Barnes & Noble gift cards for Christmas. Thing is, there isn't a Barnes & Noble store within 50 miles of Winona Lake. So we had to make it a night out on the town. Such a sacrifice. :-)

Our first stop was next door, at the FlatTop Grill. This was a new experience for me; the idea is that it's a build-your-own stir-fry restaurant.

You'd be forgiven for thinking the long counters were a salad bar. In actuality, they're the main attraction. You get a bowl, and start going down the line, adding ingredients and sauces, and at the end you can add a small bowl of meat, and hand it over to the cooks.

There were also some colored swizzle sticks you could add to the bowl, indicating that the chefs should do something additional, like turn it into a soup, or a wrap, and add tofu, shrimp, etc.

I hadn't had more than a noodle soup and a banana all day, and I was starving. Aiden was evidently even hungrier than I was, and once he saw the food, it was quite a job keeping him from crying, at least until I realized that I could put together a bowl of food that didn't have to be cooked, and take it back to the table right away. Problem solved. Restaurant owners, take note... parents who can feed their kids while the adult food is cooking can be very good, grateful tippers... the ability to choose exactly what was in the bowl was a huge bonus. Most "kids' menu" items are hot dogs or mac 'n' cheese. Brown rice with black bean sauce went over far better!

By the time Aiden was satisfied, the food started arriving. My first attempt at making my own stir-fry was... subtle. White noodles with eggs, tofu, tomatoes, mushrooms, and chicken are good, but none of those ingredients exactly burst with wild flavor. My second attempt more than made up for the subtlety of the first: Yellow noodles with tomatoes, cilantro, tangerines, a load of hot peppers, mushrooms, red and green onions, and beef, drenched an an Asian peanut sauce. Oh, that was good. The Kerrs split a mango sorbet for dessert.

Once we settled up the bill (kids four and under eat free; that helped balance out the right-side-of-the-menu sticker shock for adults) we walked next door to Barnes & Noble.

Deborah found a large, squashy armchair and a small table, and sat down with the kids and a few books to read to them, while I was sent to gather more. We took turns reading to the kids and exploring the store. I found a Calvin and Hobbes collection that had somehow eluded my attention all these years; there went my portion of the gift card. We found a neat book called Not a Box for the kids, and got a copy for a friend of ours, as well. Deborah got something by Mercedes Lackey, and I have no idea what Paul and May got. (The person who gave us the gift cards is reading this, which is why I mention all this.)

We stayed way past the kids' bedtime — the store closed at 11:00! — and paid dearly for that oversight when we got home, but it was, on the whole, a very fun night out.

Frio Trio

I've been meaning to post these for a while now. These are from a few weeks ago, when it started getting seriously cold and snowing heavily.

The Frio Trio, crossing the canal that separates the Island from the rest of Winona Lake. I'm up on the bridge, with the kids.

I was surprised to learn that May had never been sledding before. I figured that there had been few opportunities down in Ecuador, but I'd also thought that she would have been in New Hampshire in the wintertime a bit more often. Not so. She didn't seem too reassured when I told her you don't really steer one of these sleds, you just sort of aim it.

"How do you steer?!" May, just about to go down the hill for the first time.

It was bitterly cold that day, though, and despite bundling them to the point of immobilizing them, the kids were crying from the cold after about half an hour. Paul and I played the heroes and carried the kids the three blocks home, and I stayed with them so that May, Deborah and Paul could all go sledding. I wasn't terribly happy about this, but that was largely due to the fact that both Fiona and Aiden cried and screamed for about 45 minutes solid until they were sufficiently warm, dry, fed, rested, and distracted. Thank God for Veggietales!

May brought Paul home.

My favorite gift that I'm giving this year

This is the second Harry Potter-themed post today. Hmm....

This is a project that has very much taken on a life of it's own, and, in a way, I wanted to document it somehow just because it has been fermenting in my imagination for so long. It's a Christmas present for May (who is totally into [a] fantasy books and [b] dolphins). It's four days until Christmas. I'm counting on the fact that May doesn't read my blog...

A magic wand with a dolphin carved into the handle.

I thought a starfish on the end would be a nice touch...

Of course, a fine wand requires a fine box to keep it in. So I made one.

And, of course, I couldn't leave well enough alone. I had to create a wrapper for the box, too.

After all that, I hope she likes it!

A voice from the back seat

Tonight, as I was waiting in the car for Deborah to go and find something she had lost at the store, May said, "You know, you don't smile much anymore."

I think she's right.

A strange creature

I discovered this strange creature on my couch last night. I'm not sure what to name it... a pushme-pullyou? Freezeme-cuddleyou? A two-headed gigglequilt?

Suggestions are welcome.

May goes native on us

The four of us were sitting around the table last night, playing Barricada (an Ecuadorian board game) when May, annoyed by some cereal under her chair, said, "The kitchen needs vacuumed." We reacted instantly:

"Whoa, May!"
"May, wow, you Hoosier!"
"Two months and you're already talking like that!"

It's a bit of Indiana grammar that I've never gotten used to: the complete lack of helping verbs. It needs to be done. Or, perhaps, a nice gerund: It needs doing. But needs done still drives me up a wall every time I hear it. Apparently it affects Paul and Deborah the same way!

I will, of course, tease May mercilessly about this for a week.

May I help you?

Why yes! May joined the ranks of the workforce on Tuesday night after a very long application and interview process, and is now one of the three newest cashiers-in-training at Wal-Mart! Woohoo!

We will, of course, be missing all the free babysitting, which means that I'll be back to doing my split shift to watch the kids while Deborah goes to work. Oh well. I've survived this long...

You Can't Ride in My Red Wagon...

...largely because Daddy is sitting in it, and he's way too heavy to pull!



We bought the kids a nice old wagon at Kids Market on Friday, and we took them out for an introductory spin. I think just about everyone got into the act, giving each other rides in just about every combination we could think of. Fiona made a bit more progress with May than she did with me.



Nothing like a present from Grandma and Grandpa to promote brotherly and sisterly togetherness. :-)