I've not posted anything here for about a year and a half. Most likely, I decided that it'd just be more fun to keep up with people on Facebook instead of writing long-winded stuff on this blog. But, Darrel came across my blog a couple of weeks ago and suggested that I start posting again. I figure it can't hurt anything, so, here we go.
This year, Emma decided she wanted to be a character out of the Mighty Boosh - a Hitcher Henchman. Darrel and I warned her that no one would know who she was, but she didn't seem to mind. I thought I'd do it too, since the Hitcher has 2 cockney henchmen. So, we bought some black hats, green face paint and peppermint life savers. I sewed some strips of white onto our black shirts, we made "polos for the eye" and we were ready.
Darrel took a quick trip into Spirit Halloween, and came back with a raven and a hat. He put the former onto the latter, a black mask onto his face, and donned a trench coat, and he was ready. He wasn't really sure what he was, but he looked really good.
We wore our outfits to a party at Holly, Shane and Chloe's house. No one knew who any of us were, but we had a good time anyway. Their parties are always great.
Halloween also means the Lee Elementary Carnival. Hundreds of children, hopped up on sugar, running around the school. Emma decided to lose the green face paint for the carnival. Darrel and I don't typically dress up for it, but did this year. I went for an easier witchy-type thing this time, as I didn't want to spend the entire night trying to explain to people about this obscure British comedy. I think I made the right choice.
We saw very little of Emma at the carnival. When she was in kindergarten, she was attached to my knee. No longer. She got her tickets from us and then she was off, running around with her friends.
Halloween day was spent getting the house ready and carving our pumpkins. It was Darrel's turn to take Emma around the neighborhood, so I manned the candy bowl in my witch get-up. Emma took over when she came back, and we had a pretty good crowd this year. A few little ones were quite frightened by us. A successful Halloween all the way 'round.
No SXSW for me this year. What could keep me away from all those days of great music, you ask? Big Bend, that's what.
Our friends Matt and Sandra booked a few rooms in the Chisos Mountain Lodge back in early 2007 for spring break 2008. Being the only lodging in the park, the place fills up fast for spring break. We are very lucky to have such forward-thinking friends.
We arrived on Monday and left early Saturday morning. While there we did lots of hiking, saw lots of deer, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
I began writing this shortly after the new year. It was getting too long and self-indulgent, so I stopped, thinking I'd return to it soon. Seeing as it is now March, and I want to post something about our Big Bend Spring Break trip, I thought I should finish the Christmas post. Lord, I do tend to procrastinate.
This past year for the Christmas holiday Darrel, Emma and I went to Wyoming to visit Darrel's brother and family. They live outside the town of Jackson, very near the Grand Teton National Park and the Jackson Hole Ski Resort. Randell, Trish and the kids (Jesse, Justin and Christopher) always pamper and spoil us, and this year was no exception. They live in a lovely house that Randell and his company built, and have a large workshop on their land. The second floor of this building houses a little office and a small apartment where we stay. It's got a comfy bed, a bathroom, a fridge (always stocked with beer and wine when we arrive) and a coffee maker. What more could one ask for?
We had talked about the possibility of skiing a bit during our visit, but I was hesitant. Darrel and Randell grew up going to France to ski (tough life, I know), but it had been 20 years or so since Darrel had been on the slopes. I had skied once when I was 10, which really doesn't count. Emma hadn't tried the sport yet, but I wasn't really worried about her. It was my out-of-shape self that I was concerned with. But, not wanting to be a negative-Nellie, I got all kitted up too and gave it a try.
Randell rented us the skis and boots for a week as a Christmas present, which pretty much committed us to an awful lot of skiing. Darrel picked it again up right away. He's shite at ice and roller skating, so I figured he'd not be any good at this. I was wrong. He was very graceful, and the only time he ever fell was when he was trying to help Emma and me up from the ground. Very impressive.
Emma took to it right away. She was adorable all bundled up with her helmet and goggles on. And fearless. Not worried at all about falling. It took her a bit of time to learn to control her speed and direction, but once she had that down, there was no stopping her.
It took me longer to get the hang of things. Going down the hill was no problem. Its the slowing down and stopping that gave me grief. I fell a lot, but with Darrel and Randell tutoring and encouraging me, I built my confidence up and began to enjoy myself. Skiing is a bit of an insane sport, if you ask me, but once I figured out how to control my decent, I felt much better. I'm certainly not good at it, but I did have fun. We'll hopefully do it again, and I'll be better prepared for the whole endeavor.
It was fantastic to see Emma out there, following Darrel and Randell between trees and over little hills. And it was beautiful. Just gorgeous. And we saw moose from the lift! Can't beat that now, can ya?
We also took a trip out to the National Elk Refuge, and dragged the Wyoming Mayers clan with us. It was beautiful out there, and we saw not only lots of elk, but two bald eagles and a couple of coyotes. Stunning.
With September fast approaching, Darrel and I realized we had not taken a summer holiday together. Early in the summer Darrel took a brief trip to the UK and Emma and I went to Orlando, but the three of us had not escaped Austin together. A family trip was called for, and we decided to go west. Emma and I had driven through that part of the state last summer with my Dad, after a trip to Cloudcroft, New Mexico. We had spent one night in Marfa, and had really enjoyed the area. Darrel hadn't been to that area of Texas, so we decided to go.
I found a place to stay on-line that looked nice and remote - Chinati Hot Springs. We decided to spend 3 nights there and then 1 in Marfa at the Thunderbird Hotel. Emma, Dad and I had stayed there last summer and enjoyed it. I got a rental car through Priceline, and we were all set.
Day One
Because this damn state is so friggin' big, we decided to leave bright and early. Well, early anyway. It's not so bright at 4:30 in the a.m. We were up at 3:30, packed everything, had not nearly enough cups of coffee, threw Emma in the car in her nightgown and were off.
We hit I-10 around sunrise and Emma woke up shortly after that. She brought out the video camera and shot some road footage as Mummy drove and Daddy slept.
We had made the decision to drive through Big Bend National Park on our way to the hot springs, since we had never been there. This added several hours to our drive, but it was worth it. Before we got to the park, we stopped in Marathon for lunch. There's a nice old hotel there called the Gage, and they had great courtyard and refreshing-looking pool. Back in the car and on to Big Bend. Darrel took the wheel and I took the video and still cameras. Emma became grumpy and bored in the backseat.
Wishing we could spend more time there, we stopped briefly in the park to stretch our legs, and then were off again toward Terlingua. We stopped in the Terlingua Ghost Town, so that Darrel could take a few photos. And we got an uncomfortable pic of the three of us. The road from Big Bend to Presidio, which is the last "big" town before our hot springs destination follows the US-Mexico border. From parts of it, you can see the Rio Grande. It's a very scenic drive, but also slow going for the uninitiated. It seemed to go on forever.
A short stop in Presidio to gas up and we were on the home stretch - the last 30 minutes of which were spent on a gravel road winding through the hills. We finally reached our destination - 13 hours after leaving our casa on Corona Drive. So very worth it.
The place is very minimal. If you are looking for creature comforts, this is not the place for you. We did have our own little cabin with a/c and a shower and tub on the little fenced-in patio. The shower and tub used water from the hot spring, which was nice.
There is a communal kitchen that is equipped with everything needed for meal-making, except food and drinking water. Luckily we brought both, so we were all set. It had a nice deck where Emma enjoyed watching the ants. We unpacked and jumped into the pool. It sat on a hill, affording an amazing view. The owner of the place said the pump was not working, so it was a little green. OK, it was more than a little green, but it was 104 out there dammit. After dinner, we enjoyed the silence and darkness, and Emma crashed. Darrel and I followed after a brief dip in the hot springs-filled hot tub that was a few steps from our door. A long day of driving ended sitting in nice, warm water staring up at the stars. Not a bad first day.
Day Two
I woke before the other two and went for a short walk. The sun had just risen and it was lovely and cool.
We spent the day doing lots of nothing. We went for an early hike in the desert, and Darrel took some great photos. Emma found a frog on our shower/patio. We had a visit by one of the resident hound dog puppies, Lefty. We made the long trip back to Presidio for the essentials - more water, milk and beer. Other than that, we swam, ate, explored the creek bed, swam some more, ate again, and slept. I love holidays.
Day Three
We went for an early morning walk down the creek bed. Emma was fascinated with the tadpoles. And we stumbled across a stone head.
We swam some more and spent some time in the hot tub. A storm blew in during the late afternoon. It cooled things down quite a bit, and actually included some hail. We were in the kitchen, which has a tin roof, and it was like we were under attack. Wish we had gotten some audio of that, it was crazy.
We made it an early night, since we were leaving early the next morning to head to Marfa.
Day Four
We could have happily stayed at the hot springs for many more days - Emma wants to move there, she enjoyed it so much - but we had reservations at the Thunderbird. We said goodbye to our cabin, the tadpoles, dogs and green pool, and headed north.
We got to Marfa too early to check into our hotel, so we wandered around town a bit - had coffee, lunch and explored the top of the courthouse. We checked in after lunch, and Emma and I immediately jumped into the lovely, non-green, pool.
After our refreshing dip, we rented some bikes from the hotel and rode around town for a bit. After a bit more swimming and much-needed showers for all, we had dinner at the restaurant in the Paisano hotel and headed out to see the infamous Marfa lights. Emma, Dad and I had seen them last year, and were lucky enough to catch them again. No video or still photos of them, but we saw them, I promise. They still looked a bit like car headlights off in the distance, but were cool nevertheless. There was an annoying woman there who insisted on describing every movement of each light in a very loud voice. I came close to asking her to shut the hell up, since she was ruining it for the rest of us. Darrel thought she was a perfect candidate for alien abduction.
We retired early, preparing ourselves for our long journey home.
Day Five
The journey home was much shorter. We left Marfa at about 8:30, and were back in our driveway at 4:45-ish. We stopped in Alpine for breakfast, resolving to spend more time there on our next trip to the area. We then headed to I-10 and drove and drove and drove. Emma documented part of the trip back. All in all, a very enjoyable trip. We all had a great time, and came back rejuvenated. I do feel that we could have spent another 3 weeks out there and still not been able to see and do all that we wanted. Darrel wants to head east next time we go somewhere, but I need more desert-time.
Many more photos can be seen on my Flickr page, and more videos are on Vimeo.
We're getting our floors done. Well over-due, I must admit. Laminate Pergo-esque stuff in the living room instead of that foul carpet, and tile in the kitchen and hall. We got installation quotes from a couple of companies, but they were mighty pricey. Then we realized we had a friend who did this sort of stuff, and he needed a gig, so we decided to ask him to do it. (I'll call him Paul, since that's his name, and calling him anything else would be weird, eh?)
Paul began the living room floors last Monday. It took him a couple of days, and he still needs to do the base-boards and stuff, but it looks fabulous. The room looks so much bigger now. The only down side is that the dogs barks are even louder without the carpet to absorb the sound. They love it and seem to think it makes them sound extra tough.
The kitchen and hall had this vinyl crap that Paul had to get up before he could begin the tile. He had a difficult time of it. In places it seemed to become one with the foundation. So, that took longer than expected, and by the end of last week, there was still no tile on our floors.
Monday, he finished getting all of the vinyl up. Tuesday, he realized that part of the floor in the hall was not level. Our house was built in the 50s, so various occupants have put all sorts of stuff on the floors. I have no idea what this stuff was, but he had to get it up, and then had to sand the cement that was underneath to get it all nice and level.
Now, I appreciate the fact that he wanted to do it properly. If he hadn't leveled it all out, it would have been really bad. However, Tuesday night and last night I came home to a kitchen and living room covered in a fine layer of dust. On. Everything. Darrel said he put up tarp-thingys between the hall and the living room and the kitchen, but the dust still got everywhere. Tuesday night it bothered me a bit that we had to rinse all the dishes that we had left on the counter in the drying rack the night before. (No time-saving, modern appliances like dishwashers for us!) It was also slightly annoying that I slipped and almost fell on my ass when I walked into the bathroom because of the dust on the tile in there. But, considering that I am really bad at adapting to trying situations like this one, I thought I held it together quite well.
But last night. Darrel had taken Emma to gymnastics, so I got home to an empty house and had to make dinner and tidy the kitchen. Again, dust on everything. The countertops, the floors, the table, the bookshelves, the windowsills, the kettle, the pots and pans that hang on the walls, in the dog and cat bowls, the kitchen towels, again on the dishes in the drying rack (why didn't we think to put them back in the cupboards? dunno, but it wouldn't have mattered anyway because...) and everything in the kitchen cabinets! Our cabinets are old and apparently do not close well enough to keep that damn dust out.
So, everything was a mess. Everything that I needed to make dinner had this dust on it, so everything had to be washed BEFORE I used it. Now, for normal people, that may not seem like a big deal, but me, it is the kind of thing that sends me over the edge. Anyone watching me would have been amused as I swore, stamped my feet, slammed cabinet doors, and acted like an ass as I made dinner. Luckily I had got it all out of my system, and a beer or two into my system, by the time Darrel and Emma made it home, so I was capable of rational communication and was no longer acting like a spoiled brat.
Darrel promised that the sanding was over and that Paul would start tiling today. For everyone's sake, I hope he's telling the truth.
We decided that Emma was ready for a horsey camp this summer. She has a couple of friends who take riding lessons, and while we can't afford a weekly schedule, I thought I could swing a two-week summer camp. She's been around horses a few times in her life, but has been afraid of them. She said she wanted to learn to ride, and she was being very brave about it all.
We chose Golden Vista Equestrian Center for her camp. I only include the link so that you will know where not to send your child to camp. Please allow me to elaborate:
We chose the place, to be honest, because it was the cheapest we found. They also had pick-up and drop-off here in town. Most of these places are a-ways out of town, and we figured it would be alot easier if we (meaning Darrel) did not have to drive her all the way out to wherever she was going. We met the woman who owns the place, Cheryl, at the camp fair that they have every year at the convention center, and she seemed nice enough. So, I sent in the application and deposit. We then went out there for an open house to check out the place. It seemed OK.
I should have realized something wasn't quite right when I had trouble getting Cheryl to return my phone calls. I had initially called her to check on availability for the session that we wanted, and waited about 2 weeks to hear from her. Then, right beofe camp began, I called again to confirm that Emma did indeed have a place in that session (we had received no confirmation via regular or e-mail) and that I should bring the remainder of what we owed that first morning. When I didn't get a call back in a week, I called again, and thankfully reached her.
We had decided that we would drive Emma out to the stables the first day instead of having her ride in the van. Camp was supposed to start at 8:00. We arrived a few mintues before, and there were already some parents and kids waiting there. After a few minutes, a couple of teenagers showed up, and we found out that they'd be helping during the camp. They were about 15. It wasn't until at least 8:20, probably more like 8:30 before Cheryl showed up, driving the van with the kids she had picked up in Austin in it. There was no other adult in sight. So, that was sign number two that this may not have been the right place for us.
Sign number three was how damn disorganized this woman was. As I said, we had not received any confirmation in the mail, or any forms to complete and return after the initial application. So, the next 20 minutes or so were taken up with all of us standing around in a barn as she shouted out names, and parents completed a form, and wrote her a check. Meanwhile, the kids stood around, played with some cats, and climbed on the hay.
My favorite moment that morning was when she was trying to turn on these large fans to get some air circulating. She couldn't figure out how to turn them on. This is her barn, for god's sake! And she's never turned on the fans before? She actually said "Can I get a man over here to help me with this?" Signs number 4 and 5, in quick succession.
So, we finally got all that crap out of the way, and it was time for the kids to start learning something, and time for the parents to leave. Still, no other adult but this Cheryl, who snapped at her helpers a couple of times that morning.
I picked Emma up at the appointed drop off place (which, conveniently, is 5 minutes away from our house) that afternoon. Cheryl was driving the van. I heard her tell another parent that someone had tried to run them off the road on the way in, and that she had been driving and trying to call 911 at the same time. Oh jesus. At this point, I've stopped counting the bad signs.
During the two weeks Emma attended this camp, Darrel and I had a few other annoying encounters with Cheryl, that I won't go into here, cuz they'll seem petty. (Ask me about the chicken-salad incident one day, and I'll go on for a good hour.) But they were annoying, none-the-less. And, quite frankly, I paid her an awful lot of money, and I expected to be treated a bit better.
We kept our opinions about Cheryl to ourselves and did not share them with Emma. I didn't see any point in ruining her time. She was having fun, and the only negative thing she said about Cheryl was that she was a little bossy. So, Emma finished up the camp, and on the last day, they had a little show so they could show us what they learned. I've posted more photos on my family picture page. She did really well. She was on top of this great big horse, named Darren. She got him to trot, and to go around a barrel and everything. I was very impressed. Such a brave girl I have.
After the camp was over and done with, I talked to Emma a bit about Cheryl and everything. I asked her if she was interested in taking more riding lessons, and she hesitated. I told her that it wouldn't be with Cheryl, and she agreed to more lessons immediately. We talked about Cheryl, and I asked her if she had been around alot during the day time. Emma said she hadn't. It turns out that Cheryl didn't do any of the teaching at all. That the high school kids that worked for her did all of the instruction. Emma said that they rarely saw Cheryl during the day at all. This would explain why she didn't know any of the kids names at the end of camp horse show. Because she wasn't there with the kids at all.
Now, those high school girls were great. Emma really liked them, and I have no doubt that they knew exactly what they were doing. During the horse show, they were great with the kids. They were very encouraging and kind to them. (Cheryl, meanwhile, would yell at the kids things like "That wasn't trotting! Go back and do it again!") I don't have any problem at all with the fact that they were the ones teaching the kids. In fact, I'm glad it was them and not Cheryl. But, no where in any of the literature did she mention that she wouldn't be doing the teaching herself, or that the instructors weren't even old enough to drive. I just wonder how much of my cash went to those girls, and how much went to her.
I also asked Emma about Cheryl's driving. Emma said that she was often on her cell phone while she was driving the van. What the hell??? That's my kid you've got in there. And alot of other people's kids. And you're on your cell. I know there are varying opinions about whether or not talking on your phone impairs your driving ability, but when you've got 10 kids in the van with you? Other people's kids?? Insane.
And (I promise, this is the last one) one afternoon, she took them on a field trip. To Petsmart. To get supplies for the horses. It was too hot to ride, she said. So she put them in the van, and took them to the store. Do your errands on your own time, lady. Not while I'm paying you almost $300.00 to teach my kid to ride a friggin' horse!
So, that's my rant. I apologize for the length. I have learned that I need to do my homework a little better next time. We've been really fortunate with all of Emma's other summer camps. Emma's had a great time, the people are really wonderful, and I feel completely comfortable leaving her in their keeping. I guess one bad one over the past few years isn't all that bad.
But, if you're looking for a horse camp for your child. Do not choose Golden Vista Equestrian Center.
First off, Stephen Colbert is my new hero. I'm not sure if I had an old hero, but if I did, she's been replaced.
You've probably already seen this, but if you haven't, please please watch it: Stephen Colbert addressing the White House Correspondents' Dinner. There's a little blurb about it, and then his speech is broken up into 3 different videos that you can, and should, watch. Just brilliant. I've always been tempted to get cable just to watch the Daily Show, but this has brought me one step closer to shelling out that money. If it could go straight into the pockets of Jon Stewart and Mr. Colbert, I'd definitely do it.
In an unrelated tale, I've discovered that my daughter is a master manipulator. (Manipulatress?) She hasn't been wanting to go to bed at the normal, established time during the past week or so. I've put it down to her fabulous Auntie Gayle sending her an audio copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone read by Stephen Fry. She hadn't read the book yet, and certainly hasn't seen the movie, and I had wanted to read it with her first, but gave in pretty quickly. It was definitely the right move. Great reading, as one would expect from Mr. Fry. We all loved it. Whenever Emma had a free moment she'd want to put the tape on. It was great, but so exciting and interesting, that it was not very conducive to sleeping.
So, I had put her to bed the other night and retired to the living room. 5 minutes later she was out of her room claiming insomnia. I told her to go back to her room, grab a book and look at it for a while and it should make her sleepy. 15 minutes after that, she was back. And here is what my sweet little 7 year old said: "I feel lonely and sad. I miss you. Ifeel like I never see you and we never spend timetogether because you get home from work so late."
Lord!Talk about hitting the working-mother-guiltbulls-eye! I've often felt that she spends more time with her teacher than she does with me. It's not like I work 80 hour weeks or anything, but if I get home at 5:30 and she goes to bed at 8:00, that doesn't leave a whole lot of time. Plus, once I get home, I'm very goal-oriented and feel like a bit of a drill-sergeant. There seems to be so much to do and so little time. Homework (which includes daily work, plus reading words to go over, a spelling test to prepare for and a math quiz to work on), dinner, bathing, and reading before bed. And if it's her gymnastics day or there's some school-event going on or something, well, just forget about any down-time at all. (She's at gymnastics right now, as a matter of fact. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to write this.)
Perhaps she's old enough to stay up a little later and that might help things. Or perhaps this is just a short phase, and she'll soon be back to falling asleep at her normal time. We'll see. I don't think she was actually all that lonely that evening, but that it was an ingenious ploy to stay up later and con me into letting her sleep in my bed with me. (Yes, it worked. Darrel got to sleep in the Princess Bed that night. He loves that, really he does.)
All I know is that she's a helluva lot smarter and more observant than I had been giving her credit for. And considering I think she's brilliant, that's a little scary.
