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Sunday 14 August 2005
	Today we celebrate Lila's fourth birthday. Traditionally, it's at our house. Isaac penned a welcome note which he taped to our front gate: Welcome! Happy Birth Day Lila's Fun Party Rose lords over the kitchen, with mother-in-law (left) and guest (right). She laid out quite a spread: the dishwasher is covered with treats, more is on the stove (behind Rose's arm). Other guests, including Dziadziu and Felicia, are in the eating nook. I was making pop after pot of coffee. The birthday girl with two-tier chocolate birthday cake in the background. The presents must be opened, preferably with ones peers, and with lots of noise and commentary. Dziadziu and brother-in-law Adam discuss Dad's new digital camera, a 6 megapixel Casio. Rose's sister, Mindy, and her family. Baby Jessica is doing the infantryman's crawl, Matthew is cruising. More presents, more peers, more noise, more commentary. Dziadziu's gift of a big pink bicycle is very much appreciated. We wanted to return to Café Le Bon Gateau in the Castro to once again enjoy magician David Miller, so we herded the remaining guests out of the house and down the hill to arrive just in time. This birthday party just goes on and on.
Saturday 13 August 2005
	HAPPY FOURTH BIRTHDAY LILA!!! Today someone is old enough to get two vitamins at breakfast just like her big brother, something towards which she's been looking for a long, long time. Family friend Gabriel Morales sends his greetings from his place in Miami, Florida. I love that our kids are growing up in a world of VoIP and video-phones. They understand that night and day are shifted because Gabriel is several time zones away. A few nights ago I was chatting with Gabriel when Lila came in with her bedtime books. Gabriel watched over our shoulders as she climbed into my lap; I read the book to both of them. She was tickled that someone so far away could get a bedtime reading so easily. (I'm not sure who was yawning more, Lila or Gabriel.) It's time for Ed's Huckleberry Hike (also mentioned in 1998 and 2000). That's Ed at left, in the blue shirt. Isaac is the engine; Ed adds salt and ice to chill the cream. These old-fashioned ice cream makers aren't easy to turn, by the way. What big brother can do little sister says she can do too. So here I am, spotting Lila whilst she makes another batch. She just doesn't give up. Isaac explains how the salt and ice get extra cold. In the meantime, Rose discovers a baby and helps to take care of it while its twin is looked after.
Friday 12 August 2005
	Ed, who leads the Huckleberry Hick (come back tomorrow for details) is the one responsible for our kids being exposed to German polka. The kids never forget. When I put the kids' favorite polka song - Zosia - loudly through the Harmon Kardon speakers attached to the PowerBook I hear: Lila: The computer is making the plants outside dance. They're dancing the polka together. We head out to NoName Sushi on Church Street. I'm struck by some of the grafitti in the bathroom.
Wednesday 10 August 2005
	Chiam Vital, a long-time friend of Rose's, invites us to A La Turka (in the Tenderloin) for lunch. We get a table at the back of the restaurant... ... here's the view of our party (back, left) and the kitchen and display cases. The food looks so good. It's very hard deciding what to get. We share several things, and they're all good. We will return! That evening Isaac, umm, horses around with the lettuce in his veggie-burger.
Sunday 7 August 2005
	Isaac and Rose are out and about, shopping this evening. Lila has been feeling a bit under the weather, but perks up after dinner, when she sells me on the idea of heading out to the Castro for dessert(s). Her first request is a visit to Hot Cookie, for an M&M-encrusted chocolate chip cookie. That's her: Our next stop is the Gelateria Naia, open for less than twenty-four hours. We used to make a special stop at their Berkeley branch on our BART days; now we have one a few hundred feet from the house. Lila enjoys sampling a good number of flavors. On the way back home, after crossing Castro Street, we come by Café Le Bon Gateau, from which I usually telecommute. What's that treasure chest doing in the window, in place of the table at which I usually sit? It's the first performance here by magician David Miller, which hasn't yet started. We settle in. Isaac and Rose race from the completion of their chores and arrive just as the show starts. It's not a show for kids, but they love it all. Missing the patter about Lucrezia Borgia doesn't bother them. At 21:00 I thought the kids would be ready for bed, but I was wrong. They were ready for some Escape From New York pizza, a few stores away. A few slices, a stroll up the hill, and we are soooooo ready for bed.
Saturday 6 August 2005
	Recently Isaac bought a Crayola Crayon Maker machine, which has provided him with unbeliavable amounts of pleasure. We're all amazed. He also likes being a tour guide for his little sister, giving Lila a bit of patter as they recycle bits of used crayons and new wax. He's pointing to yesterday's batch; today's seems to be much lighter than what you see in his hand.
Friday 5 August 2005
	Lately I've been MetroBlogging San Francisco, today we had a get-together for our virtual band of scriveners. We met at the House of Shields bar, on New Montgomery. This is the scene at the bar, where the jazz band is much too loud for any conversation. We head outside, where it's a geek-fest, what with PDAs, high-definition videocameras, Digital Cameras and cell phones and wristwatches... Hungry, we head down the street to the Q-Cup Crêpery, where the chicken kari age (lightly fried) is absolutely delicious!
Thursday 4 August 2005
	Lila: Plants fell. Rocks tumbled. Grass plants between them. (As she's riding her trike around the Randall Museum / Corona Heights Park area.) Lila: Wheee, this is fun, she muttered. (As she's riding down the hill on her tricycle, all by herself.) Reading time in the afternoon, with Lila pulling up a folding chair and doing the sports fan pose. (Yes, the camera is blurry. A bit of dust is interfering with the focus mechanism.)
Wednesday 3 August 2005
	Today is free day, and so we - and a bunch of friends - head out towards the ocean, to the San Francisco Zoo. Here's the main entrance: This is the support building for the newly-built African Savanna display. The gardens are delightful, soothing to the soul. Wild and tamed at the same time. A panoramic view from the viewing area in the middle of the savannah (as I was taught to spell it). Here's my attempt to get a nifty desktop picture: zebra in the moment. Here's one of the meerkat on setry duty. I love watching their colonies in action. Here's the family enjoying the meerkats: Lila (climbing), Isaac (perched), Opa Emil (background), Rose (foreground).
Monday 1 August 2005
	For some bizarre reason the not-for-profit - Juma Ventures - that was doing the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream parlor in the Castro went away. Better for us, a good gelateria is taking its place. We used to make a point of visiting the Gelateria Naia in Berkeley whenever we BARTed around; now we have one a few hundred feet from our place. Here are the newly-arrived freezers, being loaded from the truck Here's the family running into Zante Pizza & Indian Food, near the southern edge of San Francisco. A panoramic view of the kitchen side of things... ...and another of the dining area. Lila shows off her Burning Man Kidsville tattoo, which is having a longer ride on her than we would have expected: this is about a week or so. My candy-holic daughter's real love at Zante (which is the name of a town, rather than of a person, so it's never properly called Zante's) is the fennel candy, which she would happy down by the pound. She has a ritual of traipsing from the food to the candy (on the counter by the cash register), pulling over a bar stool, climbing up, getting a palm-full, and coming back to eat the candy with the pizza. We like the staff of Zante, and they're seemingly fond of us. Here the kids help in smashing down the cardboard boxes whilst the others peel the eggplants they'd been cooking as we arrived. Isaac was asked to help work the veggies, but the lure of stomping on cardboard was too much of a lure for him. A late lunch / early dinner done, we head over to the near-by Mitchell's Ice Cream. Try the mango, the macapuno, and Isaac's favorite, the ube.