Birthday celebration

Here are a few photos from the last week or two, including from my birthday!  My dad used to say having a birthday beats NOT having a birthday, so I figure best to celebrate.  And why not enjoy time with friends and family at the same time.  Besides:  PRESENTS!

We had some crazy warm weather at the end of March.  Sam usually doesn't care for hats unless they are strictly necessary (why hide that beautiful mane of hair, after all?) but decided that a cap with a brim, like a ball cap, can be useful on a sunny day.

It was so warm, that suddenly snow boots just don't seem to make sense.  Unless you've lost your pants, at which point the footwear choice becomes obvious.

Maggie and Sam enjoy story time.

Maggie rehearsed for seven weeks with the Cleveland Heights-University Heights middle school honor's orchestra, and they had their performance at the end of March.  Another stellar performance!

My birthday landed on a Sunday this year, so we had a great day together celebrating.  French toast and bacon in the morning, and an early dinner out with friends at the Market Garden Brewery.  They even gave us a private dining area in their basement pub room.

 Maggie and Anna deciding what to order for dinner.

Here's Princeton-boy getting ready to help with presents.

Can I help, Mommy?

Sure thing!

Making a wish.  What a great day!  Thanks to the family and friends who helped out, and I'll see you all again next year.

Birthday weekend with Jane

We had a wonderful weekend visit with big sister/aunt Jane this weekend.  She recently had a big birthday and decided to come for a Cleveland visit as part of the celebration.  Fine by us!  We talked about past birthday trip celebrations, so it must be a sort of a tradition, right?

Friday Sam and I took Aunt Jane to the special Rembrandt exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art.  In the evening the nieces and nephew took her out to dinner.

Pizza at Deweys!

And a birthday celebration wouldn't be complete without some cake and singing.

Today we continued the celebration with a trip to the new Cleveland Aquarium.  Our campus parents group had arranged the visit, so it was perfect that Jane was in town to join us.  We enjoyed seeing all of the fish, especially the tank of lobsters which one views from below (where's the butter?) and the walk-through hallway in which sharks and rays swim around and above.  Cool!  Another fine meal out for lunch rounded out the weekend.  Thanks for coming, Jane!

Seattle getaway

Just a couple of photos from our 36 hour long date night in Seattle this week.


Sadly it was lashing rain on Monday night, so I did not get photos of our supper meal at Le Pichet.  The bourguinonne sauce on the root vegetable main dish Kim had was life changingly good.  I had a super tasty selection of charcuterie as a starter and ling cod main dish with pistou sauce that was very tasty.  And wine, most notably a chewy red from Bergerac.  Super dinner.  No pictures.


I did take a few photos on Tuesday.  Mostly food.


Our lunch at Serious Pie was a no brainer.  Their yukon gold/rosemary pizza is to die for.  That's a 3.14 Ale next to it, a joint project between Serious Pie and Elliot Bay Brewery.  3.14?  Pie?  Get it?

We strolled through Pike Place Market- how couldn't we?- and just had to stop at Beecher's Cheese.  Here's just one portion of their selection.  You might notice a dark, grape ash Tomme (goat's milk, soft cheese) in the middle there made by Quillisascut in Oregon, and redolent of some that I enjoyed in France with Anna last summer.  Yep, that's the one we got.  Very delicious.

And here is a festive holiday arrangement of peppers by another vendor.

We did non-food things too: strolled the massive REI flagship store, and even popped across to Feathered Friends, from whom I bought my down sleeping bag some 15 years ago.  Took in a movie at the fantastic Cinerama Theater.  Our favorite Hotel Ändra kept us comfortable overnight.  Cool and modern stationer Paperhaus had some tempting wares.  And we saw the new (to us) location of Elliott Bay Books, no longer in Pioneer Square but near Broadway now.  Finally, coffee with Kim former schoolmate, house mate and dear friend Sara before catching the ferry back to Bremerton.

We had a super time!

Visit from Grandma and Choosing a College

We've had a wonderful visit with Grandma Pam the last two weeks.  We even got some glorious sunny and warm northeast Ohio autumn weather!  She and Sam had a wonderful time, especially on the swings.

Mommy makes sure Sam gets plenty of energy food.

Anna gave a presentation to the local AFS group about her six months in France.  With her were the two other students from Heights High who also were away last year (Finland and France.)

A senior this year, Anna has been busy thinking about where she would like to go to college next year. It's not an easy decision to make!  Sam has done his best to help out.  First he suggested the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, home of the Nanooks (great hockey!)

How about Boston?  I hear Harvard is a pretty good place to get an education.

Of course, both Kim and Sam think you can't get much better than Princeton.  Go, Tigers!

September Update

I've been shamefully neglecting updates here, and not at all for lack of content.  We've been busy!  Since the last post, all THREE kids have started school.  Anna is a senior this year at Heights High, Maggie an eighth grader at Monticello Middle, and even little Sam is going to daycare now, three days a week.  So our daily routine has settled into a more structured one, mornings of packing lunches, eating breakfasts and heading off in various combinations to our daily tasks.

First day of school for the big kids ran the gamut of emotions.

The menfolk share a hearty breakfast.

Sammy has been furniture cruising for months and months.  This month, however, he has- cautiously and carefully- begun to take off on two feet.  Usually supported by a walker toy, but ever so occasionally, he becomes the Amazing Walking Baby.



This weekend, we had the good fortune to head down to Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood to pick up our weekly CSA grocery share.  Normally we do the pick up much closer to home... but we forgot about it on Thursday.  So we headed down on sunny Saturday and got our goodies right next to the iconic St. Theodosius cathedral.

Picking up our Fresh Fork bag in Tremont. 

We also had the good fortune to join Anna on an AFS club outing to Patterson Fruit Farm in Geauga county for some apple picking.  Sammy enjoyed wandering through the pumpkin selection and of course picking the apples, which was messy work.  We've had rain for a week straight so the orchards were quite muddy!

At Patterson Fruit Farm.

Got one!

Which one should we pick?

Time to head home.

I want a bigger one!

Weisswurstfest!

Gesundheit!

Social media really is a strange and sometimes wonderful thing.  Unexpected connections can come when you least expect them.

A facebook friend of mine, David, recently said that a cucumber salad he'd prepared gave him gastronomic flashbacks to eating the same salad at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, during the year he spent there working on his dissertation.  I commented on his post, to the effect that I too had spent a fair bit of time in that beautiful city while my father was on sabbatical.  I suggested that we get together and share a meal of Bavarian specialties- his cucumber salad and some Weisswurst with Lowensenf and Weißbier  So we did!

This past Sunday David and Liz came over and we enjoyed a tasty plate of boiled sausage and much conversation and sharing of pictures from Bavaria.  We had a great time and ate altogether too much.

This post wouldn't be complete without a picture of Sam, who also enjoyed the Bavarian repast.  Here he is enjoying his favorite pastime- emptying and sorting the tupperware drawer in the kitchen.  This fascination keeps him happily busy for... minutes on end.

France, part two: FOOD

For part two of my pictures from France, I thought I would highlight some of the food we enjoyed.

In general, meal time- lunch and dinner- were enjoyed at a relaxed pace, at least an hour for lunch, more like two or three for dinner.  Much of the conversation centered on, naturally enough, food and wine.  Anna's host dad said to me that other than eating food, the Frenchman enjoys talking about food.  What we are eating, what we have eaten, what we will eat.  And of course many other topics!

So here is a taste of France!  Once again, feel free to click on the pictures to see them at a more mouth-watering size.

Part one featured a photo of the cheese plate.  Here it is again.  Coming at the end of the meal, it was usually accompanied by fruit and/or a fresh salad with vinaigrette and, of course, bread.  Here in addition to a Menetou-Salon red, Denis had a treat for me- a bottle of 1999 Châteauneuf-du-Pape from his cellar.  Duskier and smokier than the newer local wine, both were delicious.

Our favorite dinner during our week in Aix-en-Provence.  In the evening we would stroll the streets of the old town, looking at menus and deciding on a whim what looked like the best choice for dinner.  Cafe Terminus we really stumbled on.  It was a lurker- I normally wouldn't pause at a restaurant in France that had a Ben & Jerry's ice cream menu- but the clientele looked like they were enjoying the place, the tabled food looked good, so we gave it a try.  We were delightfully surprised.  Here I'm having the chef's daily special of roast lamb chops with fig/honey sauce, ratatouille, potato and salad.  Anna had gnocchi with pistou (pesto) sauce.  (She also had the Ben & Jerry's!)  We only returned to one restaurant during our week in Aix: Le Terminus. (for canard magret [Anna] and flank steak [me])

Not a meal, but a scene from a street market.  Sausage!

My favorite meal from the trip was with Anna's family at the cozy traditional village restaurant in Menetou-Salon, C'heu L'Zib.  Anna's family is well known by the owners of this place, which is now in the third generation.  When we arrived, in the company of another family who dined with us, bisous were warmly exchanged all around.

At the long table in the cozy dining room, as we wait for our aperitif.

My starter course was delicate smoked salmon, served simply with lemon.  Anna had melon.  (And some of my salmon!)  Wine was a local white from Domaine Jean Tellier.

The courses were served family style.  This is the fish course, which I believe is a house specialty.  It is poached pike served in a cream sauce.  The fish was perfectly firm/tender and the sauce smooth.  I was trying to pace myself, but I went back for a small helping of seconds on this one.  Anna warned me about this dish, and she was right.  Heavenly.

The fish course plated.

The meat course was roast lamb, served with small potatoes and ratatouille veg.  The roast was thinly sliced and nicely medium rare.   The potatoes were parboiled then deep fried with a crispy exterior.  The ratatouille was simple and delicious.

Mid-meal conversation.

Next was salad and cheese.  My plate here is starting with the important stuff.

This large cheese, which Jean-Jacques is holding up for the picture, was left on the table for us to enjoy.

I did not photograph the dessert, a baked Charlotte cake. The food coma must have already set in.  We arrived at the restaurant at 8pm and said goodbye to walk home at midnight- four hours of good company and good food.

Sam's First Bike Ride

We all have had a first bicycle ride. Most of us likely don't remember our own, save those few for whom it was a trauma. Fortunately for Sam, his first two-wheeled adventure was nothing of the kind. However, being dutiful parents, we recorded the occasion for posterity- and for the amusement of friends and family.

I got Sam a rear-mounted bicycle seat for his first birthday two weeks ago and this morning it- and he- had their maiden voyage. The seat is a Topeak brand and is very nicely made. It only fits onto one bicycle in our familial quiver- Kim's- so that's where it goes. My "grocery" bike- on which I had planned to mount the seat- does not have brazed on rack mounts. I pedaled Kim's bike (saddle adjusted) and she pedaled Anna's town bike.

First to get strapped in the seat. In you go, while Dad adjusts the straps.

Next, and decidedly unpopular, on goes the helmet. I'd rather not wear one either, but if you get on the bicycle, the helmet goes on your head. He got used to it pretty quickly. (It's a Giro model, and has built in visor and reflectors. And an amusing cops-n-robbers theme.)

Destination? On the Rise Artisan Breads! It's an easy 4.5 mile or so loop from home, and as we were dangerously broaching morning nap time (and the lad a bit fussy from teething or allergies or weaning or a combination of all three), it made for the perfect initial trip. He enjoyed it thoroughly, smiling most of the time while holding on tightly to the grab bar.

What could be better than a lad on the back of one parent's bicycle and a whole mess of fresh bread on the back of the other?

Next stop for Sam, Paris-Roubaix!

Sam turns 1

Sammy's big day was Monday, May 23rd, when he turned 1 year old. It has been a wonderful year of growing and getting to know his world for him, and a wonderful year for us getting to know him. Here are some pictures from his birthday celebration.

This is one of my favorites. Littlest Dude has some mischievous in him. Trouble, with a capital "T".

With warmer weather now that it is spring, we spend a lot of time on our screen porch. Here's the lad trying to be patient while waiting for the cake and presents. Furniture cruise!

FINALLY! Dinner time. We had tamale pie for dinner. And hats.

His mommy made him a tasty, tasty cake. He wasn't sure what to do with it, but we all helped with some demonstrations.

SUCCESS!

Here are just a few of his favorite gifts. A sturdy little push-wagon from Grandma Pam and Grandpa Doug...

A potty seat from his optimistic father...

And a big ol' bag of Duplo blocks from Aunt Ellen and Uncle Ken.

Happy birthday, little guy!