Bitte, Herr Cruise

Tonight at work, the trailer for Valkyrie played ad naseum on the History Channel. All I can say is yikes. Please, Please, Mr. Tom Cruise, do not make another historical movie ever again. Your unblinking stare is scary enough in modern day thrillers, you add Nazis and I just can't take it.

Expertise

I read in the New Yorker that research seems to have zeroed in on 10,000 hours of practice being the magic number to be an expert at something. It doesn't seem to matter if it is basketweaving or brain surgery - you practice something for 10,000 hours, and you will be an expert. Today I finished my first 100 hours of clinicals as a nurse practitioner. 9,900 hours to go and I will be safe to see patients :). I also have about 9,700 hours of surfing practice before I can hit the pipeline. Maybe another 8,000 to go before I am ready to play my violin at Carnegie Hall. None of this takes into account actual natural talent, of course, but it is still comforting to have a magic number out there when I can expect not to embaress myself in front of people doing above activities. I should be way over 10,000 hours of parenting by now - and I certainly don't feel like any kind of expert in that arena.

Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico

We are now all settled back in our routine and safe in Olympia after vacation in Sayulita, Mexico. It is a little sad to be back in dreary WA. I might love my hometown, but the weather is a bit depressing. Our family had an absolutely marvelous time in Sayulita. It is a village of about 3,000 Mexicans and probably close to 1200 Ex-Pat Americans and Canadians. I can't exactly pretend that it is undiscovered, but I thought it was a happy medium....it still felt like you were in Mexico (unlike PV, which has a WalMart and a Hooters)...but with restraunts, coffee shops and Mexican Handicraft boutiques. Since there were 9 of us on our trip, we rented a house. The house, Casa del Cielo was incredible - by far the nicest house I have ever stayed in, and the kids loved the pool. If you ever have to make kids happy, give them a pool and you will not be dissapointed. The only draw back to the house was the very, very long trek up a major hill it took to get back from the beach town in 90 degree weather.

Basically, our ten day trip pretty much followed the same routine;
6:30 Get woken up by roosters
6:45 Kids put on bathing suits and end up in the pool, or play Pig Pig with Grandpa Mike
8:00 We make it to the beach (a ten minute walk from the house), rent a surfboard and settle in in front of Don Pedro's. Everyone gets slathered in sunblock and we get some baked goods to eat for breakfast
8:00-5:00 We take turns surfing (while I lounge on the beach waiting for my turn, I read my way through six books of the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mysteries and three books of James Patterson's Women's Murder Club) while the kids either play in the sand or boogie board in the waves. The first few days I kept a very close eye on them, and then eventually let them roam a bit.
12:30 Get Fish Tacos from a stand and cold diet coke from a tienda (Yakult yogurt drinks for the kids) or tamales from the tamale beach lady for lunch
5:00 Trek up the big hill and get really hot and dirty, then jump in the pool to cool off once we get there
6:30 Either head back into town for dinner and hanging out around the plaza gorging ourselves on various desserts, or eat dinner prepared by our very own marvelous housekeeper, Alma.
8:30 Head to bed if the power goes out or play Carcassonne a few times

My kids look cute in Halloween Costumes

Here is Elias the Dragon breathing fire

The kids with their personally designed pumpkin faces

The kids trick or treating with their friends

Shkuri the robot and Isaac the wizard. Ariel stayed home from work to finish the robot costume