It's 9:30 pm on the fourth of July, and everybody in my house other than me is sleeping, so I figure it's as good a time as any to crank out a blog post. I don't know how everybody else is sleeping, given our neighborhood sounds like a war zone and will continue to do so for the next few hours, but one of S's superpowers is being able to fall asleep in almost any scenario, and it seems as if she passed that on to our kids. I like the fourth fine, but it's pretty high on my list of holidays with the biggest enjoyment difference before and after young kids. New Year's Eve is number one on the list -- a wonderful holiday, unless you have young kids, in which case it's not that fun. The night of the fourth is similar -- in fact it's much worse because you have to listen to random explosions. But the redeeming quality of the fourth is the cookout/day drinking aspect absent in New Year's Eve. My kids are too young for fireworks (which is a shame, as I really like firework shows), but they are the prefect age for playing with squirt guns in the backyard with other kids while the adults enjoy alcoholic beverages and talk about their kids, because the fact that we're all parents of kids roughly the same age is our biggest unifying factor.
And that's what we did today. We had three other couples over each with two kids, so it was eight adults and eight children -- a good amount for a backyard cookout. One of the couples we're pretty tight with, the other two we don't know as well, but they are both very cool. I never know how to greet the women in the couples. With the guys, it's just handshakes, but with the women is it handshakes as well? Hugs? I know them, but I don't know them that well. I feel like I'm in a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode every time I go through this. I watch S, and she usually hugs the guys in the couples, so then I feel compelled to hug as well. But as a man, maybe I shouldn't initiate hugs with women I'm not good friends with. I should probably err on the side of not hugging. Or I could just pretend I'm a germaphobe and only give people fist-bumps like Howie Mandel. And then I could inflate a rubber glove and put it on my head and everybody will laugh hysterically even though it's not that funny.
Anyway...
We recently returned from a two-week West Coast swing -- San Diego and Seattle. Well, more University Place than Seattle, but you get my point. It was an excellent trip with the notable exception of the flight home. We tried something different -- the coast-to-coast red-eye on Spirit Air -- and it was an absolute disaster. Well, for me at least. The rest of my family didn't seem to mind that much (again, the sleep superpower). We are NEVER doing it again. (And by NEVER I mean until the next time we can save several hundred dollars.)
I would love to write more about the vacation, but I'm short on time (unfortunately the day after the fourth of July is not also a holiday), so I'll just put up a few pics and call it a post.
It was a gay, Indian, Jewish wedding, so major friend diversity points for us. We stayed at a resort on the Torrey Pines golf course, which was terrific -- or at least it would have been if we didn't have little kids. There wasn't much for them to do there, and S got a vicious 24-hour bug (food poisoning?) our first day of the trip. So, it was more work than fun initially. One cool thing is that we met another couple there with small kids and became BFFs for the weekend. We were the only ones at the little cafe in the hotel before it opened at 6 am. Little kids + east coast to west coast time change = early wake-up.
This is Children's Pool Beach in San Diego, subject of some major seal controversy.
A shot of Mount Rainier taken on a short walk from my parents' house, which is also my childhood home. Every time I go back I kick myself for taking vistas like this for granted when I was growing up.
Lil' S1 and two of his cousins at Point Ruston. I've said it many times; I'll say it again. Tacoma is such an underrated city when it comes to beautiful scenery.
Until next time...
And that's what we did today. We had three other couples over each with two kids, so it was eight adults and eight children -- a good amount for a backyard cookout. One of the couples we're pretty tight with, the other two we don't know as well, but they are both very cool. I never know how to greet the women in the couples. With the guys, it's just handshakes, but with the women is it handshakes as well? Hugs? I know them, but I don't know them that well. I feel like I'm in a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode every time I go through this. I watch S, and she usually hugs the guys in the couples, so then I feel compelled to hug as well. But as a man, maybe I shouldn't initiate hugs with women I'm not good friends with. I should probably err on the side of not hugging. Or I could just pretend I'm a germaphobe and only give people fist-bumps like Howie Mandel. And then I could inflate a rubber glove and put it on my head and everybody will laugh hysterically even though it's not that funny.
Anyway...
We recently returned from a two-week West Coast swing -- San Diego and Seattle. Well, more University Place than Seattle, but you get my point. It was an excellent trip with the notable exception of the flight home. We tried something different -- the coast-to-coast red-eye on Spirit Air -- and it was an absolute disaster. Well, for me at least. The rest of my family didn't seem to mind that much (again, the sleep superpower). We are NEVER doing it again. (And by NEVER I mean until the next time we can save several hundred dollars.)
I would love to write more about the vacation, but I'm short on time (unfortunately the day after the fourth of July is not also a holiday), so I'll just put up a few pics and call it a post.
Until next time...
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