You're the best

If you ever find yourself needing some excitement, may I suggest watching The Karate Kid with a few wound up young boys?? I am just glad if we don't end up in the ER tonight. Elias (2) is running around house screaming wax on/wax off and Isaac just showed me his moves to break some bones.

Rodrigo y Gabriella

Today I am feeling a bit sorry for myself - I have a cold and find myself a little overwhelmed with the amount of homework I planned on slogging through while Isaac is at school today....so what better way to spend my time than blogging?
On Monday Ariel, Aimee, Mike, and Ruth (my in laws) and I headed to Seattle - Ariel and I go to one concert a year, and he had bought tickets for Rodrigo y Gabriella, an instrumental guitar duo from Mexico City (via Ireland). I was way less than enthusiastic - I didn't know them very well, I had a cold, lots of school work, and just wanted to stay home. We ended up having a great time, we ate at one of the best restaraunts (food wise, not $ wise) in Seattle -Wild Ginger, and the concert was wonderful. I posted a link if anyone wants to see them play - they play a very cool hybrid of Spanish/Gypsy guitar influenced by heavy metal (umm, my opinion anyway). I know absolutely nothing about guitar music, but I think Gabriella makes Eric Clapton look like a wuss.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=G8dPso79Z9I#
And some young girl passed out right in front of me (the club was standing room only) and I rushed to her side all ready to do CPR, but she woke up first.

Open Season

Today we all went out to Wesport for the opening of (our) surfing season. We were expecting gray and rain and were very suprised to fine sun...for those of you not from WA, Grays Harbor on the Olympic Peninsula seems to always be gray and rainy - even if the rest of WA is having great weather. Ar and I both got the chance to surf some and the boys played on the beach and got filthy. I fear that as modern kids they don't get much time to play with abandon without Mom constantly saying No, or come back, or don't go so near that edge. Now we are all sitting around glassy eyed with exhaustion. I wish there were pictures, but we forgot the camera.
On Friday we sent in our Dossier to be sent to Ethiopia. It should only be a few months until we get solid info on who are daughter will be. I definitely find myself as excited about the adoption as I was when I was pregnant.
For those of you nearby - my friend Izzy and I from work are having a fundraiser June 9th for the American Cancer Societies Relay for Life. The shindig will be a French/Morroccan dinner, belly dancers, and an outdoor viewing of Casablanca. Let me know if you are interested and I will give you details.

Pilgrimage to Portland

Yesterday, Ariel and I made our annual anniversary trip to Portland, Or. Our seventh is on April 22nd, but we went a week early for logistics reasons. We did lots of fun things including eating a really good brunch here;

The food was great, and the service was even better. I don't recommend the combination of an alcoholic mocha and fried calamari for an appetizer to anyone else.

We also went to our favorite used clothings store, Buffalo Exchange . the real point of the trip however, is to make a pilgramage to the Holy of Holies, Powells Books (sorry about the blasphemy). At Powell's Ariel controlled himself, but I went a bit crazy, buying books I had been thinking about for months. I smile just looking at the pictures.

We went to a really good bakery, where a group of french people were actualy hanging out and had a strawberry mille feuille. We love mille feuilles - when Ariel and I were in Paris we ate one every day from the bakery across the street, and this one did not dissapoint.

Finally, we returned home were children needed to be fed, bathrooms cleaned, and laundry folded. To my suprise Ariel got me a suprise anniversary present - this T-shirt, which in light of his inability to buy me tickets to NYC to see the Coast of Utopia, is a pretty good present. Almost as good as being able to spend a whole day with him.

Good Grief.

I suppose I can only apologize a few times for being a negligent blogger - but I have really meant to post something sooner than this. The reason I have been waiting is to post pictures of the really fabulous birthday cake Ariel made for Isaac's 6th birthday. It has become a tradition that Ariel makes very cool cakes for the boys - this year he made a castle with a cave and a dragon. Some day I will download the photos, but I still need a bit of help.
During the last week and a half or so Isaac had a birthday, Ariel went snowboarding at Whistler with his brother, and we found out that the twins we were hoping for had been adopted by someone else in Europe. We are getting over being dissapointed and are now sending legal paperwork to Ethiopia. I think we are going to hold off on picking another child and just wait for them to tell us. It isn't uncommon for my jump right in there enthusiasm to come and bite me back.

Words of Wisdom

Before giving one's 60 pound bull dog a bath,
one should know what he will do when you spray water on him.