Hee hee, this is too fun. Okay, I'll stop now. 

Picasa en la casa!

 


Okay, just having some fun here with Picasa, which is a nifty little program from Google to organize the pictures on your computer.

In other news, Wini has a little fever. Maybe we did too much on the weekend. Friday, she had the day off, so Nick took her on an "adventure" by riding public transportation around the bay. I met them in Fremont and we went to a local bluegrass pizza pub we like. She danced with the wild abandon of a 5-year-old having just made friends with a dancin' 3-year-old. Wini finds kindred spirits wherever she goes.

Saturday there was a trip to the San Jose Children's museum, and Sunday was Heather's son Joshua's second birthday, so it was a weekend filled with activity. Late Sunday I remembered we were supposed to make a "family turkey" for her class involving stuff we could find in the kitchen cabinet. A good solid half hour of glitter-glueing later, we had a rice-fiore-pasta-cotton-ball turkey worthy of the Kibre name.

When I picked Wini up for kindergarden, a friend ran up and asked if she could come over for a playdate. After a non-verbal exchange with the mom, I gave Wini permission to go play. It was a short play date - which is a good thing, because she hadn't been home more than five minutes before she was asking me to hold her (a SURE sign she's not feeling well) and I realized she had a fever. So to Patrice, um, sorry. No doubt your three kids are infected now too.

 


Hee hee, this is too fun.

The Streetcars are Safe, Plus, The Neighborhood Around London Avenue Canal Breach

Around Town: London Ave Canal Breach, Watermarks, Trash Mountain

Trash mountain. I know this is on a neutral ground somewhere; maybe someone can write in and tell me where this was.





Here's several pictures of houses with visible watermarks.








From the London Ave Canal breach.

Outside on Bancroft Drive

Drew prepares an MRE. There is an internal bag with food, which is inside another sleeve that has a chemical at the bottom. (I'm guessing Na or something like that - anyone know?) You add water to the outer sleeve, it reacts with the chemical and heats the food.


Mmmm, spaghetti and meatballs!
Here's looking down the street.

Hmm, this picture is suspiciously near Cafe Du Monde. And when did Drew get taller than Sherry? You can see some cruise ships lined up there.

Working on Grandma Janet's House

Here's Sherry and Drew working in the back hallway. That's not carpet on the ground. All the furniture and carpets were removed before they got there. Where Sherry is spraying (bleach and water) is where the 50th Anniversary quilt was hanging.




Here's Drew in the telephone cubby in that same hallway. He's already completed the wall on the right - a world of difference!





































Before picture. (I think this is the middle back bedroom.)























This is the living room after the walls have been cleaned. Hank and Nick pulled up all the tiles on the floors. At one point, they broke a sledgehammer!







The back bedroom, before.




But the after picture looks great!

Unfortunately, all the interior doors had to be removed due to warping.

Here's looking through the house to the back yard.

Nick & Sue in the Avante Garde Overworld

We went to see a play performed by the Berkeley Repertoire theater last Saturday: Finn in the Underworld. We got great seats, great parking, enjoyed browsing the used book store next door, and just had a great date night without the little bratchild to torment us. She was busy tormenting grandparents, forcing them to play Go Fish and the like. We were free for the evening!

The play was billed as a ghost story, and it was...but with a Berkeley twist, I guess. So it was better than going to a movie, but probably not as good as snuggling under a blanket at home with the kidlump to watch Toy Story. Ah, well, there's always next year.

Random thought about ghosts: Wini kind of took to the idea of ghosts; at least, she took to the idea of putting a sheet/towel/blanket/pillowcase over her head to pretend to be a ghost. The funny thing is, she somehow got it into her head that she has to strip naked before donning her sheet. Otherwise we'd see her clothes, you see, and she wouldn't be invisible. So we've had some R-rated ghost hauntings in the Kibre household. What made me think of it just now? The appearance of a Thomas the Tank Engine ghost (pillowcase) with no arms. At least it covered her bottom this time.

I had the machine on Monday and Tuesday and came home to find 12 messages on it. All these professions of love for my birthday, I thought! Not so much. Three messages from relatives, one from the dentist, and the rest were political ads. We had several propositions to weigh in on, but I found it pretty easy to decide how to vote. If Schwartzenegger proposed it, I voted against it. Maybe when he puts the $2 billion back in the education budget that has forced some kindergardens to have 30 students in our district I'll consider his ideas. Until then, he gets a big fat NO.

I'm going to try to upload some pictures from Nick's trip to New Orleans.

Just a glimpse for now, they take a while to upload because the files are big.

Petal Power!

I've been going through a course of training to become a Daisy Girl Scout Troop leader. Man, the paperwork is unreal. You can't so much as walk outside of the meeting room to play on the grass without getting signed permission slips from each parent in advance. But I really like the values the girls work on to earn their petals.

The Girl Scout Promise

On my honor, I will try:
To serve God and my country,
To help people at all times,
And to live by the Girl Scout Law.



The Girl Scout Law

I will do my best to be
honest and fair,
friendly and helpful,
considerate and caring,
courageous and strong, and
responsible for what I say and do,
and to
respect myself and others,
respect authority,
use resources wisely,
make the world a better place, and
be a sister to every Girl Scout.

Meanwhile, a friend of mine is in charge of planning the school's harvest fair, so I ended up agreeing to do face painting at the fair and to bake five dozen cookies for prizes. I made the first 3 dozen cookies when Wini was at school. We worked on the last two dozen together, but they came out awful. I guess all the precise measuring does make a difference! I'm going to have to whip up a big batch tonight after bedtime.

My birthday's just around the corner....we're going to a play at the Berkeley Repertoire Theatre and leaving li'l bit with her grandparents Kibre. Should be fun.