Necessity is the mother of good baking

A little deprivation can be a marvellous thing.  The Girl was complaining about the lack of snacks in the house.  "You're hungry?"  I said.  "So. Bake something."  And she replied, much to my surprise (because my daughter, much as I love her, is the first to admit that she is lazy as all get-out), "OK, I will."

She found a cookery book, flicked through it and came up with a recipe for peanut butter cookies.  Which she proceeded to make.  And very tasty they are, too.

I must try starving her more often.

Saturday diversions

Delights of the day:  our regular visit to the Farmers' Market, which was looking lovely in the sunshine (and we got to share a little Whovian smalltalk with our favourite hummus-vendor);  the Boy had a creative meet-up with his friends, shooting videos in a basement; the Man and I took our daughter out for teriyaki lunch, and she was very charming company.  In between times the Man and Boy had dive-offs in the pool.  We managed to avoid the still ubiquitous neighbourhood yard sales, and thus have no new piles of junk to dispose of today.

There was a torrential downpour in the early afternoon.  There's at least one every day, it seems to be the pattern of this summer.  But at least it stays warm.

Pop culture

I have generally tried to avoid pre-packaged microwaveable popcorn since learning, years ago, about the toxic ingredient added to give it "that buttery taste".  But my kids do like popcorn, so for a long time I would cook it for them in a pan with oil.

Sometimes it worked, sometimes it went horribly wrong and burnt.  Always the house would end up stinking of overheated oil, even if the popcorn itself was quite tasty.  I was secretly relieved when the Boy had his braces fitted and was not allowed to eat popcorn at all for more than a year - great excuse to avoid making the stuff (even though I felt obliged to buy the occasional bag of fundraising corn from neighbourhood Boy Scouts).

But the braces came off, and the demand for popcorn resumed...  And recently, hooray!  I have discovered (thank you, Internet!) that you can make perfectly nice, non-toxic popcorn in the microwave, with a handful of corn in a paper bag.  It's as easy as anything, and the kids have taken to making it for themselves when they fancy a snack.  There's no more burnt oily smell - just a slight whiff of cinema about the house (does that smell remind anyone else of a hamster cage?).

Beat philosophy

When I signed the Boy up for drumming lessons, I didn't realise I was also enrolling him on a philosophy course...

I sat in on the lesson, to see what went on.  After a week of practice, the Boy is not too bad at the paradiddle (R,L,RR, L,R,LL etc), but he's still struggling with the basic drum-kit beat. This involves hitting the hi-hat cymbal (one and two and three and four and...) with the right-hand stick, while the right foot uses the pedal to hit the bass on every one and three beat, and the left-hand stick bangs the snare on the two and four beats. 

"It's simple," said the teacher, demonstrating.  "Not easy...but simple."

Like so much in human experience, I thought.

More words of wisdom when the Boy made a mistake trying to copy a rhythm.  "The hardest thing to learn to do is to keep on going when you make a mistake.  You gotta just keep playing.  'Cause it's all music."

Yes, indeed.

And the teacher even threw in some insights on dental care.  Apparently as a youth (which was possibly quite a while ago) he had played fast and loose with candy and soda, and now, suffering from toothache, he rues the day.

I feel my son may emerge from these classes not just a better drummer, but also a wiser man.

Bender Melons

For years now I've driven through the town of New Scotland on the way to Indian Ladder Farms and passed a sign in a field.  From the car, all I can read on the sign are the words "BENDER MELONS".  I have assumed they referred to some chap called Mr. Melons who had an unusual first name.

Today I stopped the car and took a closer look.  Oh!  It's about melons, named after a chap called Mr. Bender.  Well, there you go.  I have never knowingly bought a Bender melon, but (a little googling reveals) they were all the rage in the 1930s, and a nice export item for New York State.

Melons are no longer grown in the Bender Melons field.  I've seen sweetcorn growing there, in season.  A few years ago a developer put forward plans to build a big box mall, which the people of New Scotland rejected.  Good for them.

Trying new things

(Or possibly, new trying things?)

The Boy is not always eager to try new things.  However this summer he has taken up springboard diving lessons and also drumming.

His enthusiasm for diving has waned somewhat since last summer (and the one before that), since his waxwork portrayal of Tom Daley, and since I signed him up (a couple of months ago) for this two week course at our local Town Park.  I think it's fair to say that for the last couple of days I've been taking him to his lesson under duress.  However, it did go a bit better today (jumping off the high board) so fingers crossed his enjoyment will grow.  If not, that'll just have to be nine* 45 minute chunks that (as he would put it) he'll "never have back".

His first drumming lesson was last Thursday, in a soundproof room at a nearby music school.  It's hard (it takes extraordinary coordination), but he likes it.  He's been drumming (on the couch, the desk, his knees, the dinner table; with sticks, hands, cutlery) ever since.  He's petitioning heavily for a drum-kit of his own. 

Our neighbours are going to love us...

*no lesson on July 4th

Drive time

Quite a crazy morning - the Boy had a dental appointment across town first thing, which required an early start.  I'd no sooner got him home than I had to rush straight out again to take the Girl to her first day of Farm Camp.  Back from the farm, I loaded the Boy into the car again to take him for a diving lesson at the Town Park.  And there wasn't too much turn around time after that before I had to go back to the farm and pick up the Girl...

At least I didn't have to do all this driving to and fro through thunder and lightning - the stormy weather saved itself for the afternoon.  It rather put paid to fun-in-the-pool, but between stormy bursts the kids had fun shooting at tin cans with water pistols.

Cool

We identified some ways to stay cool today as the temperature edged up to 92F.

The Man took the Girl to a skating session.  He got to sit in the bleachers and watch and she had the ice pretty much to herself for an hour - super cool.

The Boy and his buddy requested a strawberry-smoothie trip to Panera, where the air-con is always switched to high for the summer.  So lunchtime was pretty chilled.

And of course we made good use of the pool - floating, swimming and playing water volleyball.

But coolest thing of all today: the supermoon!  We could see our shadows at 11pm.

Sale-ing buy again

I fear yard sale-ing has become a new Saturday tradition.  Once again, after our weekly shopping trip to the farmers' market, we found ourselves cruising the local neighbourhoods in search of bargains.

It shows how long we've been here that on several driveways we discovered people we know from one place or another.  Well, now we know where they live and what stuff they used to own (some of which, ahem, we now own ourselves).

Here we are with a fine collection of tat treasure that until this morning we never knew we needed or wanted...

Firefly summer

For the kids, it has been a real vacation day.  The Boy was out at a pool party all afternoon.  The Girl had a friend over and they took themselves out for ice-cream. Tonight as darkness fell they busied themselves in the backyard catching fireflies.  Summer has begun.

But sadly we've had some bad news from home.  Times like this make us most aware of how far away we are from family.  For now we can only send all our love across an ocean to everyone concerned.

Trail tales

Tonight the Hudson Mohawk Land Conservancy were celebrating the summer solstice (one day early) on the Rail Trail that runs through Slingerlands and Delmar.  Among the participating stallholders and performers was the Girl and her fellow Irish dancers.  On the hour and half hour through the evening they put on a nice show for an appreciative audience.  Our Girl, being diffident, would not allow us to tell her that she danced well (although she did) nor that we were proud of her (although we were).

The whole event seemed to be well attended, and I imagine most visitors made it at least one way along the two mile length of the trail, enjoying critters, jugglers, musicians, artists, Morris men and homemade cookies along the way.  There were goats, too, from Indian Ladder Farms, and a fairy-tale treasure hunt (with ice-cream coupon treasure!).

I could have done with fewer bugs, but I guess they are part of the package at dusk outdoors at this time of year.  In every other way it was a lovely event on a beautiful evening.

...it is now!

For the Boy, at least.  He had one last half-day at elementary school, and now he has officially left the building.

The Girl, meanwhile, still has another half-day to go as a 7th Grader... Gosh, this end of year thing seems to be going on forever.

They think it's all over...

This evening the Boy combed his hair and smartened himself up for one last school event in an event-packed year. Together with his 5th Grade classmates he processed into the gym, sang songs, shook hands with his teachers and collected a diploma that officially marks the end of his elementary school career.

The significance of it all was slightly undermined by the fact that he does actually have one more morning of school tomorrow - maybe it will hit him then?  Anyway, tonight after the ceremony he ran around on the field with his mates while his parents said their final thank yous and farewells to his teachers. I just about held it together and didn't have to be mopped up (but it was a close run thing).
 

In a class of their own

Parents of the children in the Boy's class were invited into school today for an end-of-year party. Some kids (though not our one) read out their final essays, full of their best memories of elementary school.  Then we all watched a slideshow (all right, iMovie) rounding up a year's worth of fun, friendships and activities. Seeing all the photos of a memorable year, the kids giggled while the parents quietly dabbed away a tear or two.

Our Boy tells us the year has gone by fast, and he's enjoyed it.  His classmates apparently all feel the same - they've really appreciated special events and adventures like the Musical and Nature's Classroom, and they seem to have got on well as a group and just had a great 5th Grade.  We certainly saw lots of happy, confident faces today.

Just a day and a half left of elementary school for them, now, and (for those of us parents without younger children) just one more event at this school - the Moving On Ceremony, tomorrow night.  The kids are, I think, ready to move on.  Suddenly, I'm not quite sure I am...

Going with the flow

Cohoes Falls were in full spate today when the Man, Boy and I went to check on them.  There's been a lot of rain lately, and I guess it has to go somewhere.

Sale-ing buy

I'm not sure if there's an official opening date for the garage/yard sale season, but if there is, I suspect today was it.  Every other street in our suburb featured a driveway full of junk gently used second hand items set out to tempt passing strangers.

We started out at the local Methodist Church, which was holding a mega-sized garage sale in its car-park and Fellowship Hall.  We snagged a few bargain books, a ball game and an electric fan that (oddly) doubles as a radio.

The Boy had got into the spirit of bargain-hunting and persuaded me to take him out to look for more in the afternoon.  We happened to hit the time of day when sellers had had about enough and were selling everything off super-cheap and/or begging people to please just take the stuff away.  So we did handsomely, loading up the car with two sets of plastic drawers, a bookcase, a volume of Harry Potter and a lawn sprinkler (for extra poolside fun).  And the Boy was especially pleased to be offered, for a knock-down price, a couple of lime green upholstered storage boxes/chairs (reminiscent of the Apprentice's tidey-sidey, but without the wheels) which are now gracing the "den".

The right to bare arms

The Boy brought home a booklet of "Excellent Editorials" that his class has written.  Each child picked a topic on which they feel strongly, did some research, surveyed their clasmates' opinions and wrote up a piece meant to persuade the reader of their point of view.

The topics range from close-to-home issues to national and international concerns - everything from assigned seating on school buses, the use of pesticides on lawns, the rights and wrongs of sporting safety rules, texting while driving, whaling, the ivory trade... One writer is evidently deeply offended by the "ridiculous" vocabulary of golf, and crossly demands an end to such "outrageous terms" as bogey, par and bunker.

The Boy makes a passionate case for gun control.  In fact he'd like to ban guns altogether.  Apparently, sixteen of his classmates agree with him, and six don't ("but they are wrong!" states the author - objectivity be damned!).  Unfortunately, Spellcheck let him down in this project (see today's blog title).  But we know what he means...

Rained in

The Boy was very dejected this morning when he looked out of the window and saw the rain pouring down.  Because today was Field Day - how was that going to work if it was too wet to go out on the field?

Well, they held it indoors, using rooms all over the school so that every twenty minutes lines of kids were marching up and down the corridors to get to the next activity.

I'd volunteered to help out for a double session, and did my forty minutes supervising a game called "Let's put 25 energetic children in a small room and make them sit back-to-back shouting to each other, and see which adult is the first to rush out screaming for an aspirin".  Something like that. They had to work in pairs, one kid describing a doodle and the other one drawing it.  It did seem quite fun, but it really was noisy.

I made my escape at the appointed time, passing a class in front of the school looking rather bedraggled as they took part in the Sno-Kone eating activity.  Such a shame, Carnival and Field Day in the rain this year.  But at least the events did take place, one way or another.

Now den

We have a 'three-season room" tacked onto the back of our house - sort of a conservatory/garden shed/winter residence for pool toys which you have to pass through to get into the back yard.

Last year the Boy co-opted this space as his summer bedroom.  He slept on some floor cushions and seemed happy enough with this rather spartan set-up.  This year he has taken things to another level and moved a little sofa-bed in there, and although it's not quite warm enough at night yet for him to want to sleep on it he and his sister now spend many cheerful hours sitting on it together with the laptop, watching back episodes of Parks and Recreation on Netflix. 

They've put up hooks and pictures.  This evening they moved in a sound system and an air-hockey table.  It has become something of a den.  Next they'll be wanting a mini-fridge...

Growth industry

It has been another mizzly wet day here today (with some torrential stuff that I had to drive through on the way to the ice-rink with the Girl).  It might just be dry tomorrow, but there's more rain forecast for the end of the week.  

Still, maybe the tomato plants I put in the ground this afternoon will be happy enough with that arrangement.  All the recent rain between occasional blasts of hot weather has meant that everything in the garden is growing like Topsy.  Fingers crossed we'll have a fine berry crop before too long.

See you in 20...

It has rained non-stop all day, which was especially disappointing because the Man had taken the day off work. 

Ho hum.  We went on a few errands in the morning, then headed out for the famous buffet lunch at Karavalli Indian restaurant in Latham.  The Man has been promising to take me there for...several years, actually.  Well, it was worth the wait! An interesting and delicious range of vegetarian dishes to choose from, plus a few meat and chicken offerings if we'd wanted those, and dessert, for not much more than $10 a head before tax and tips.

We had set off from Glenmont to Latham, and the journey took exactly twenty minutes.  In our experience, every journey from one point in the Capital District to another takes twenty minutes.  Points that are close together are linked by slow local roads, those far apart by faster high roads...so twenty minutes it always is.  But whether that's 20 with two "t"s (as most in our family would have it) or, as in the assimilated Boy's parlance, "twenny" - I'll leave it for you to say.

That Mow Town Sound

It was a pleasant day for yard work - not too hot and a bit of a breeze - so the Man and I got some digging and weeding done.  The only slightly annoying thing on this Sunday afternoon was that everyone but everyone in the neighbourhood had decided to mow.  One mower stopped next door only for another to start up over the back way, then another across the street...and so the noise seemed to go on relentlessly.  Of course everyone has the right to mow their lawn whenever they choose (and in fact the Man had mowed in the morning and was later using an electric weed whacker), and this being a dry weekend after a run of rainy days it made it an obvious choice for doing the job.  But I would love to enjoy some real peace and quiet in my own yard of a weekend, just now and then.

We also went up to Indian Ladder Farms for a brief visit, and we came across some friends, both the animal and human kind.  This is Eeyore:

and this is George:

 The Girl also got the chance to bottle feed Tucker, a one-month-old calf:

Testing testing

I'm not against accountability in schools, and I'm not against testing per se, but this year has seen changes in curriculum and a huge increase in the amount of testing in New York's public [state] schools  - much too much and too soon - which I believe have been detrimental to both students and teachers alike.  So I was glad of the opportunity to join a rally today against high-stakes standardized testing organised by the teachers' union NYSUT outside the State Capitol in Albany.

I was pleased to see many of my own kids' teachers there.  Disappointed not to see many parents - I for one feel disenfranchised as a parent about what's going on in education, and I wanted to stand up and be counted on this issue.

I doubt if a rally will be enough to cause a rethink at legislative level.  I don't know what the teachers' next steps will be.  In the meantime I hope that none of the excellent teachers my children have been lucky enough to study under will lose heart about their chosen profession.

Carnival capers

The Boy's school's annual carnival took place this evening.  For the last two years this has been a jolly outdoor event resulting in mild early-summer sunburn.  Today the rain has been coming down like stair-rods, so all activities moved inside.

Kids still had an excellent time, though the strain was showing on a few parents' faces - it's not that relaxing being stuck indoors with quite so many excitable children.  Games took place in the gym, food and cakewalk were in the cafeteria.  I did a turn on the ticket table, and the Girl put in good service applying tattoos and supervising a treasure-chest game. The Boy mostly hung out with his friends.  They are suddenly looking very much ready to move on to bigger and better things - though that cakewalk still proved irresistible to some.

Not shy, but retiring

I attended a retirement party this evening for a local hero - Craig Thompson.  Craig has worked at Five Rivers for 35 years, the last nineteen of them as Director.

The party had been planned for outdoors, but the rain came down, so a good few hundred well-wishers crammed into the Center building for food and speeches.  There were many speakers with warm words to share in praise of Craig, who is widely regarded as "the heart and soul" of Five Rivers.  Much loved by staff and volunteers for his wry sense of humour, self-deprecating style and motivational pencils (not to mention a very impressive beard) he has been instrumental in introducing all sorts of improvements at the Environmental Education Center over the years, making it a model for the state.  He has always had a keen desire to make Nature available to all and among other actions he has seen to the installation of wheelchair-accessible paths and ramps and Braille signage at various sites around the preserve.

A glorious spread of party food was provided by the guests, bring-and-share style, as befitted a family party - which is what it felt like.  The "Five Rivers family" is sad to see Craig retire, but tonight we were happy to celebrate with him.  His own speech this evening was typically humorous, modest and full of affection for his team and of course for Five Rivers itself.  Very Craig.  We're all really going to miss him.

Pit stop

There's no end to rites of passage for the Boy as he rapidly nears the end of his elementary education.  Tonight it was the fabled Pit Party.

The Pit is the Middle School's very own rec room - basically a cellar with a few pool tables, ping pong and space to dance in if it's a party night.  The Boy joined classmates from his school for a couple of hours of wild 5th Grade partying.

I've been down in the Pit before, but I'd forgotten how painful the acoustics are: the walls and floor are bare concrete.  The Boy had made it very clear to me that I was not to volunteer as a chaperone for the evening.  Frankly I was only too happy to deliver an offering of cupcakes and beat a hasty retreat.

Needless to say, the Boy reports that he had a good time.

Cooling off

After an extremely hot weekend the weather has cooled off somewhat in the last couple of days, and today we've had whippy winds, blowing leaves off the trees and into the pool. 

Yesterday was more tranquil, however.

Finding my way

I ended up on a bit of a wild goose chase this afternoon, hoping to help a friend get to a dental appointment but failing to find them at the meeting place we'd agreed on.  I couldn't find them at their house, either...well, I'm sure it was all down to some sort of mix up.

Anyway, I found myself negotiating the network of roads that links the major arteries out of downtown Albany - quite a maze of one-way streets and streets that don't come out just where you expect them to... It's always a bit of an adventure, especially for someone as directionally challenged as me.

Yet I think I'm making some progress on acquiring the Albany equivalent of The Knowledge.  There are a couple of areas near the Empire State Plaza which I do actually know pretty well now.  I can more or less place myself when I come across streets named after birds, or trees, or US Presidents.  And every so often I dazzle myself by correctly devising an excellent short cut.

Albany will never be my favourite place to drive, but I feel it's becoming familiar at least.

Music City muse

The Man writes...early this morning I got back from a hectic two day visit to Nashville, Tennessee.

Here are some more images from the conference hotel. With nearly three thousand rooms, it is the twenty-ninth biggest hotel in the world. Its distinctive feature is three huge atriums - the "Delta" atrium alone covers 4.5 acres and is 150 feet tall - containing fake rivers, fake waterfalls, fake landscape, real plants, real buildings, and various expensive restaurants and shopping opportunities. There were hundreds of guests, usually a couple of weddings in progress, many families with kids, and a few harried and lost looking conference delegates.

Of course the atriums were air conditioned to provide us all with a perfect never-changing climate. Perhaps it was meant as a glimpse of a future where we all spend our our lives indoors, shielded from a poisoned uninhabitable Earth. I found it ludicrous and annoying.

Downtown Nashville is relatively humble. One street - Lower Broadway - is lined almost exclusively with numerous small, smokey bars. Many had long lines outside, each had a basic stage up front and a small band playing Country music for tips.

Saturday amusements

I had another dental errand this morning, while the Girl set off on a much more exciting adventure, to the Great Escape amusement park with her Girl Scout friends.  She returned much later in the day, rather sunburned and pleased with her day.

Back at home, the Boy had mates round in the afternoon and the pool got some good use.  He has friends his age in the neighbourhood, including a couple of boys who moved here this year, plus he has a whole bunch of other friends to call up and invite - so he looks set to have a splashily sociable summer.

The Man is still in transit from his latest trip away, his flights somewhat delayed due to thunderstorms, but he should be turning up after midnight...