school's out for summer!

so today is francis' last day of school. two months of summertime fun, just waiting to be started, as soon as it is sunny and warm. better have some "plan B" back-up ideas for the abundant gray and chilly, as is today.
raising a city kid in the summer is a bit tough; it forces one to be organized, (which i'm not) and it forces you to leave the house everyday. granted, when i was younger, (in highschool actually but all my siblings went younger all the way down to 2) even tho we had a big yard and a pool, we had a membership to the community pool and would go there virtually EVERY DAY. it was community for my mom to be with other moms, and it was community for the kids...no one was left out. my dad would often go straight to the pool after work, and meet us there for a picnic dinner and a refreshing dip.
i think i could easily be a pool-membership summer mom. however: have you noticed how many people in seattle have swimming pools? EXACTLY. it never gets truly hot enough here to warrant a personal pool, and the 4, count them, FOUR city pools are swamped with swim lessons, and the "public" swim time is only an hour and a half mid-morning, then you must exit, and pay again for the hour and a half mid-afternoon segment. (sigh.)which is why we frequent Green Lake any day there's sun: it's free, there's people, there's sand, there's water.
still, francis gets a little bored/lonely there if there's no kids to latch on to, and i admit i'm not the best mama at playing games with him. he just wants to play catch for like 3 hours. (sigh.)
so, it is that time of year when i remember the carefree days of being a kid in the summer, where there was heat, and flash thunderstorms, running around in the warm summer rain, catching fireflies, and a neighborhood full of kids...and sometimes, ok alot of times, i struggle with what to do with francis because we have none of those things here in seattle.
this summer: i want nature, and art, and science, and playtime to somehow all come together...in that way that rural kids have leg-up advantage. sometimes i'll drag a mexican blanket out onto our "side yard" and we'll read under the trees and look for four leaf clovers, because some days going to a park just seems so cumbersome, when all you really want to do is relax in your backyard. when you don't have a backyard, you have to get a little inventive. i can't blame seattle solely for this, because for years greg and i harbored little dreams of living in new york city, or brooklyn, so i guess, being the city-dwellers that we are: i just have to accept the fact and decide what i'm going to do about it. one summer at a time...
i think this summer i'll be making a list: all the places i want to take francis, all the places he wants to go to, and the Green Lake days that will happen by default. on top of the regular bike-riding, and swimming, and zoo and parks, i want to be diligent in keeping up with summer reading, and trips to museums, rainy afternoons of drawing and (cringe)crafts. (what kind of crafts/busy work does a 9 year old boy like to do?) i want to really scale back on the videogames somehow, and pursue the flights of imagination. somehow. i'm open to suggestion. i'll let you know if anything really clicks. i want francis to have a care-free, fun-filled summer. one that will provide fond memories for when he's older. i'm trying to steer clear of boredom; it's something like a grumpy grandparent that i've learned to live with, but i don't want it for francis. when he says things like he said yesterday: (we saw a raccoon on our way walking to school; it was at the rear of a house, just sitting there in the backyard, licking itself casually, and francis got so excited: he asked me to take a picture with my cell-phone (the raccoon sadly, is but a dot)and exclaimed with wonder: "i've never seen a raccoon IN THE WILD before" and i had to suppress a laugh, as we were a block from 99) i just want the wonder and splendor of life to be at its childhood best...


planting my purple clovers outside our window

(francis wanted me to show you the city raccon. can you see it on the sidewalk? if you click on the photo, it becomes just a tad bigger and you can see it better. i walked back the same way, and it gave me a bit of a fright as it wasn't in the back on the house where we had left it, but was ambling down the front path and then sat on the sidewalk, where it proceeded to continue licking itself, calm, old, and tired.)

let there be light

yesterday we checked out the new seattle art museum that was just completed in may. it is leaps and bounds better than the old one. we got a nice surpise at the ticket booth: dads were free for fathers day, and kids under 12 free also, so it was a nice, well spent $13 and 2 hours of our time indoors. away from the rain for a little while. it's big, spacious, modern, with a wide-ranging collection. we thought francis might be bored, but he kept up with us well. there were many impressive pieces, modern and ancient, and in each room we asked him to tell us which one was his favorite; we were all pretty wowed by the giant aborigione dot paintings. there was a room dedicated to renaissance religious paintings of Christ and saints, titled "And the Word was God", which i found refreshing that francis could see something of this nature outside of home and church. he had just had a sunday school lesson that morning on Paul, (which, apparently was an intensely-crammed "summary" lesson, as francis informed us that: Paul used to be Saul, but then God blinded him, and he became Paul and followed God, and then...he got his head cut off.) hmmm. what a nice lesson. i don't think i discovered the fate of the disciples until well into high school, and i found it quite depressing. however, francis said this so matter-of-factly, almost with excitement, that i wonder if it's a tactic to interest boys in the bible.(something greg and i have been working on with him with limited success...) anyways, at the museum, lo and behold! there was a painting of paul in the act of being blinded by Christ, a very vivid painting, with soldiers keeling over and covering their faces, bright light striking from Christ in the sky. and we looked at it awhile. i can't really say what it will do to expose francis to the gothic gory paintings of Christ, quite different from the smiling blond Jesus of his children's bible, but it can't be any worse than his imagination. i can only hope it does him good, give him a broader sense of who and why we are, a mustard seed planted in his little heart...

la vita e' bella

it means: life is beautiful. perhaps you've seen the movie. there's a poster of it in the cafe, and i thought i would share with you seattle people a secret: our favorite downtown restuarant. we used to never eat out italian. we'd eat out indian, or thai, or vietnamese, you know, stuff you can't cook at home. i thought it was silly to pay alot of money for noodles and sauce, when we can eat spaghetti at home. italian food to me was pasta, garlic bread, lasagna, and sauce out of a jar. foods that were not at the top of my list...

and then i went to italy.

that changed everything. the flavors were amazing, unlike anything i had ever tasted before, the meals light and hearty. when i returned home, we set out to find a little italian restuarant to satisfy my cravings. i happened upon this cafe in the seattle weekly, and we decided to try it. it is now one of our favorites, and we went there the other night for my birthday. the prices are reasonable, the helpings are large, but really, it all boils down to: the food. the food is so delicious, and we've tried much of the menu. i always get my favorite: the pesto pasta! the proscuitto and parmesan crepe is amazing, the tiramisu is house-made and delicious, i could go on and on....the staff is so italian you struggle to understand them, and very courteous. it's altogether a wonderful experience, and if you live here, you really should try it.
when you out-of-towners come visit us, we'll take you there...

and francis thinks i play all day...

i am just smitten with the music of erik satie, still, and so spent quite a few hours this morning "researching" more about him, which means: googling him, and then reading what wikipedia has to say, and jumping around from there, which included: avant-garde, the Dada movement, readymades, and the difference between modernism and postmodernism.
all very fascinating. really. (i know, know...i am a nerd.)

then i spent some time googling folding beach chairs, because i know exactly what i want, and i found it here, only i'm not sure it exists anymore. (scroll on down and hop around. another very interesting website.) the blue and white striped folding beach chair is EXACTLY what i want. however, i am not in europe in the early 1900's, so my chances of finding it are slim.

to round out my morning at the computer, i updated my netflix queue. i could show it to you, but i guess you have to be my netflix friend to do that. i have to admit, i am quite the netflix junkie. i will confess we have an embarrassing amount: 389 movies in our queue, and we've rated 1,421! plus, i can lose track of many many minutes reading other peoples reviews of movies, and laughing at them. as does greg. completely shameless, i know.

i got a letter from my grandmother today. she is 81 years old, and still sends out handwritten letters, like clockwork, to all her children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, for holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, graduation, and any other special day. that is definitely a lost art: the handwritten letter...

"...God's creatures are busy in my back yard since a bird feeder has been put in place. i get a close-up of the rabbit, too, that comes early in the morning to nibble on the grass or whatever is his delicacy... -my love, grandma ellie"

so, all this faffing about, which did not include: my morning latte, doing a load of laundry, cleaning the bathroom and scrubbing the tub, cleaning out the fish tank for the frogs, washing the dishes, and tidying the house from weekend mad-dashes everywhere, which thankfully got done just in the nick of time, when francis got home from school. so a cup of tea, and a little blog later,and i'm off to make supper...

moody

last night we watched "a painted veil". (me for the second time). truly a beautiful and haunting movie. the music was moving and melancholy; it's the first time i've looked up a composer in a long time. i've never heard of erik satie, but you have all heard his Gymnopedie No.1 (and if you go here, you can read about him and get a free download, and a hear a snippet of Gnossienne No.1 which played thruout the movie.)

need i say more?

i'm not counting, but it's been four days of gray in a row now. my summer clothes are out and ready, but last night at francis' game, i had to "dig out" my winter coat(ie: grab from the coat tree; there is no 'packing away of the winter clothes for a season' in seattle) and i still needed a mexican blanket around me.

i feel like the sun is there, i can see it, it really tries to come out, but the clouds are standing guard, with their arms crossed, and they just won't let it enter.

those summer nights (tell me more, tell me more)

seven days of sunshine in a row! i know because i marked it on my calendar with a little scribbly sun. we are now on our third day in a row of gray and rainy. yesterday i didn't mind it; it downpoured thickly, an east-coasterly rain. i had the windows open, and caught up on laundry, and putting my disaster of a house back in order after all those days of sunshine and not being inside. thru the windows came the scent of the rain in the grass...the scent of the rain on the sidewalk, that steamy smell of summer wet asphalt, which always reminds me of when i was a kid, flash summer storms, and laying on the driveway to feel the heat until you couldn't stand it...

summer in seattle, and just about everywhere for that matter, means baseball games.

francis plays twice a week for his little league team (season almost over, is this what i have to look forward to for the next ten years? my aprils-junes spent sitting on benches watching francis play ball? not so bad, but no more sleeping in for the next 10 years of springs??? (sigh)) AND we've been going to quite a few mariners games, with good seats that greg scores at work!

this past week alone we had a little league game on wednesday, went to a mariners game friday night, little league game saturday morning, mariners game sunday afternoon, little league game monday night, and then again tonight! i never realized before how much a sport occupies your life. that's not even counting the baseball games that we can't attend and therefore: watch on tv! greg laments: "i think i may have just become a mariners fan!" francis is so cute; he parrots everything greg says about every player, and is very much quite serious about being an adrian beltre fan. he now has adrian beltre wristbands and an adrian beltre mariners shirt that he proudly wears to the games...

with summer comes long days, warm nights and long shadows...impromptu eating outside and hanging out in the yard. we of course have no yard, so are very happy when karen and stephanie host yard-hangouts at the girls house. this past weekend, the edwards were in town (janine,mark, and cutie-pie adeline) visiting before their summer stint at "beyond". so there was warm sun, soft grass, good friends and a delicious last-minute summer meal from safeway: deli-roasted chicken, tomotoes and avocado, mozzerella slices and french bread, cherries, and oreos thrown in for your inner kid. unless you're francis, then you are a kid.






then off to the new sculpture park downtown for sunset, which is the best time of day to go because 1.) it's after hours and virtually empty,

2.)everything gleams with that dusky orange hue,


and 3.)(if you're a kid, the best reason of all:) the night-time sprinklers kick on, to keep their public grass green! sprinkler+kid=wet!


and this, my friends, is the end.


it was a hard day's night...