Date Night at Bowlero

Now that the kids are older, date night with Alfie is easier than ever. And yet, somehow, date night is still a rarity. I know all the magazines and relationship experts tell you to schedule regular date nights to keep the romance alive, but honestly, we're happy just vegging out on the couch together when The Pea is at dance and the boys are at soccer practice. It's a lot cheaper and takes up far less energy!

London 2012: Olympic sailing

Congratulations to Nick Dempsey for winning a silver medal in the Men's RS-X windsurfing competition!  Windsurfing may not be the most popular Olympic event on the planet, but we have a special interest in Nick, because we actually got to see him compete last week.  After stalking the London 2012 ticketing website for nearly a year after the initial ticket lottery, I managed to get sailing tickets for the whole family, so on August 1st, we drove down to Weymouth and Portland, host to all the sailing events for London 2012.  Here's a recap of our day:

Alfie through the years

Today is Alfie's birthday, so I thought it would be fun to feature some photos of him when he was a boy. He looks like he's about two in this photo. Looking at the color of his hair, you can sort of understand why The Pea came out blond, despite my dominant dark-haired gene.

Yup, that's my dad

3Po: Mama, why did you buy a devil bathrobe costume for daddy?

Road Trip!

Today Alfie left on his motorcycle for Salt Lake City. He'll be covering roughly 1600 miles (800 miles each way) across three states (California, Nevada, Utah) over the course of five days (three days to get there, two days to get back). He's staying two days in Salt Lake City to watch the FIM Superbike World Championship -- one of the top three motorcycle racing series in the world -- at Miller Motorsports Park. Along the way, he'll be breaking the land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats, tasting baccalao and other Basque food at Winnemucca, and trying his luck (oops, it's not luck, it's skill) at the poker tables in Reno.

My husband has a mistress... and that's okay with me

Yes, it's true; Alfie is having an affair. He has a gleam in his eye and a spring in his step, and he can't wait to leave for work so he can be with her. Every night he comes home gushing about how much he loves her, and he can't wait for the weekends so they can spend more time together. Last weekend they went all the way to the Lick Observatory up on Mount Hamilton; there was snow on the top but Alfie said he didn't feel cold, thanks to her. She's hot stuff, all right. Men turn their heads when they see her and nod to Alfie in that Good for You, Man way. He loves feeling her vibrate between his legs (yes, he admitted as much to me, we have no secrets between us)! They even have similar temperaments -- Alfie says she loves all those twisty, turny roads as much as he does. I could never go there -- I'd get carsick and toss my cookies all the way up -- so that's something only the two of them will ever share.

Anniversary

Back to School means back to the Photo Hunt! I managed to participate through most of the summer but all the Back to School craziness meant that something had to take a back seat. Now I'm back and raring to share photos with everyone once more.

I know which anniversary most of us will be thinking about for September 11, but I'd like to share something a bit happier -- Alfie and I will be celebrating 10 years of marriage this year. It hardly seems possible that we've shared a decade of wedded bliss (okay, it hasn't been 10 years of constant bliss) but it has been a wild, wonderful ride and I can't wait to begin the next decade.


This photo was inspired by the Photo Hunt theme of the week. Feel free to leave links to your own Photo Hunt entries below. And for more anniversaries, click here.

World Cup Fever

We're now in the early stages of Round 2 in the FIFA World Cup 2010, and things are more interesting than ever. What with the Jabulani and the vuvuzelas, the Italians and the French, the referree blunders and sore-loser coaches, this World Cup is turning out to be just like a soap opera. And then there are the matches, the nail-biting, nerve-shredding roller-coaster matches that truly showcase the beautiful game at its best. No wonder we can't look away. Here are some signs to show that our family, kids and adults alike, are truly hooked on this World Cup:


10) We've been eating dinner in front of the tv while we watch games that were Tivo'd earlier in the day.

9) We try to sleep early so we can get up in time for the next day's 7:00AM game.

8) 3Po and Jammy no longer play Webkinz Ninja Fighting games with their Webkinz stuffed animals -- they play Webkinz Soccer.

7) Jammy wants to meet Landon Donovan.

6) The Pea gets the off-side rule -- and has been seen screaming at the TV when she thinks there was daylight between the attacker and the defender.

5) 3Po went to bed the other night sobbing, all because USA had lost to Ghana.

4) The kids can recognize the flags of Uruguay, Paraguay, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ghana, South Africa, and other nations that they didn't even know about until this World Cup.

3) The kids can draw the flags of Uruguay, Paraguay, Mexico, Serbia, and all those flags with the complicated crests in the design.

2) The kids can even pronounce Uruguay and Paraguay without missing a beat.

And the number-one sign that we've caught World Cup Fever:

1) We timed our flight to the UK to make sure we wouldn't miss any matches -- we leave for the UK a couple of hours after one quarterfinal (Match 58) and arrive at Heathrow the next day with just enough time to grab our bags, pick up a rental car, drive to Alfie's parents' place, pour out a cup of tea and settle down to watch the next quarterfinal (Match 59).


Viva la beautiful game!

Fun in the bedroom: Sex or text?

In retrospect, I suppose Valentine's Day was NOT the right time to do what I did. But it started out innocently enough. Our alarm clock broke a couple of days ago and we were planning to go out on a day trip the next day (President's Day), so we needed to get up early. I took my phone upstairs with me and placed it on my bedside table so I could check the time when I woke up the next day. I was first in bed, and I couldn't resist checking my email one last time before going to bed... well, one thing led to another and before you know it Alfie had joined me in bed, all ready to celebrate Valentine's Day -- and there I was, fully immersed in Twitter and Facebook.

It's the first time I've ever taken my phone to bed and Alfie, who has never been a fan of smart phones and 24/7 email access in the first place, was, to say the least, peeved. Luckily, it takes more than an internet-enabled phone to get between Alfie, me and the only V-Day activity we were able to enjoy without the kids, but the (text) message is clear: tweeting in bed is not a turn-on. Who needs an excuse like "honey, I have a headache" when you've got "just one last tweet!"?

Like I said, dumb thing to do on Valentine's -- but I know several couples who take their laptops to bed the way others take books or magazines to bed. Before this little incident our bed was for two things only (okay, three if you count snuggling with the kids on Sunday mornings), and the only kinds of electronic gadgets welcome in our bed do not have internet access.... ;-) Do you tweet in bed? Does your spouse? Do they care? Or do you have rules about the kinds of gadgets that belong in your bed?


This post was inspired by the Silicon Valley Moms Blog's February book club selection: The Mominatrix's Guide to Sex by Kristen Chase. I received a complimentary copy of the book to read; for more SV Moms Book Club posts, click here.

Me, a murderer?

A couple of weeks ago Alfie came home from Morrissey's concert in Berkeley with a bunch of stickers that declare "Meat is Murder", "Fish are Friends, Not Food" and "Jesus Love Me, Too" (with a picture of a cute little chick). Morrissey is a pretty militant vegan and has some pretty strong views about people who eat meat. I looked at the stickers and pamphlets -- and went on eating my chicken nuggets.

Am I cruel and heartless because I eat meat? I don't think so, and to my mind, being accused of cruelty and murder doesn't seem like the way to get more people to become vegetarians. If activists want to change people's behavior, I think they ought to focus more on the benefits to people rather than attack their values and get them on the defensive.

Yes, I disagree with inhumane treatment of animals in slaughterhouses and cages. It's unnecessarily cruel, and the thought of eating a product of those filthy, crowded, possibly disease-ridden conditions is really not appealing. It's enough to get me to buy cage-free eggs and free-range chickens. And I'm happy to cut down on our meat consumption because it's good for the earth and good for our health. In fact, we've been eating far less meat this year, and we haven't really missed it in our daily lives. I'm happy to eat a yummy lunch of goat cheese pizzas with caramelized onions and peppers, or pack a hummus and pita in my kids' lunchbox, or have my favorite cauliflower and white bean soup for dinner.

But I'm not ready to give up meat or eggs or fish entirely! I'm comfortable with the fact that humans are at the top of the food chain. Besides, many cultures don't have the luxury of considering the feelings of the goat that they need to kill and feed to their kids in order to survive. Humans have been eating meat since the beginning of time, and I'm not sure activists screaming bloody murder will change that.

Wordless Wednesday: The Grapes of Wrath

Today I promise to be less wordy with my Wordless Wednesday post than I was last week. Here's a photo of Alfie admiring the grapes during our Napa weekend in August.

And here's a photo of Alfie doing the very same thing, nine years ago.
Not much has changed since then. Okay, maybe the hair is a bit sparser and shorter, but he's still my Alfie.

For more Wordless Wednesday participants, click here.

Living My Life... Sort Of

Next week I'm leaving Alfie and the kids to go on a business trip. Okay, it's not actually a business trip. I'll be learning and networking and partying at the BlogHer '09 conference in Chicago. But the longest I've been away from my family prior to this was just one night; this time, I'm gone from Wednesday night till Sunday morning. It's going to be just Alfie and the kids, at home together for three days and four nights. He's going to get his first chance to live my life and see what it's like being a stay-at-home parent.

We're pretty lucky that Alfie can work from home whenever he wants to. It's a lifesaver (and moneysaver) when I have to run a solo errand or have a blogging event or a doctor's appointment. But Alfie is the most honest chap I know, and he's careful not to slack off when he works from home (other than occasionally taking a long lunch with me or taking a couple of hours to watch a soccer game, but people do that in the office anyway, and he makes up for it in the evenings). So we've always told the kids to pretend he's still at the office, so he can get work done. Other than leaving the kids playing downstairs and Alfie working upstairs for an hour or so to run said errands, we carry on with our day almost as if Alfie isn't at home.

Which means next week -- working from home and taking care of the kids -- is going to be a bit of a challenge for him, as it would for anyone -- single parents who work from home, I don't know how you do it!

So I'm preparing for my departure with all the deliberation of a general planning an invasion (or in my case, withdrawal). I deliberately avoided scheduling any camps or classes for the time that I'm gone so Alfie wouldn't have to deal with the dropoffs and pickups. I've got some at-home activities and crafts lined up so the kids don't or whine for daddy to take them to the park. I'm considering offering a small bribe reward if they make it to Sunday without any major arguments that Alfie has to mediate. I'm making and freezing a couple of dinner casseroles, and writing up a lunch and dinner menu so he won't have to think about what to feed them (or himself). I'm stocking up the fridge and pantry with food so he won't have to go shopping. I'll probably stay up late on Tuesday night giving the bathroom an extra swipe, and doing laundry so I won't have a huge pile to greet me when I get back on Sunday morning.

Uh, so maybe he won't be living my life exactly. More like a stay-at-home parent who works from home with a full time job but has a great personal assistant, housekeeper and child-activities coordinator.

I'm beyond grateful to Alfie for stepping up and making it possible for me to attend the BlogHer conference -- so of course I want to streamline next week as much as I can for him. But he'd better not say "That wasn't so bad -- you've got it easy!" when I come back on Sunday!

This post was inspired by What Happened to the Girl I Married by Michael Miller, July's featured book on the Silicon Valley Moms Blog book club. Click here to read how this post inspired our other mombloggers.

Monday Mornings: The Not-So-Dreaded Commute

Alfie zooming off to work; taken through the panes of glass on our back door

Monday Morning commutes are a pain, but they don't bother Alfie because he takes his motorcycle to work. It turns a 45 minute travel time (60 if there's an accident on Hwy101) into a 20 minute one -- and Alfie loves riding his bike so much, he actually enjoys his commute. He probably wishes his office were at the top of a steep, winding mountain road, but he knows he can't have everything, so I think he'd settle for being able to weave past the traffic.


How is your morning going? If you leave a link to your Monday Morning post in the comments section, I'll go visit and leave a comment.

Four, missing one more

"Four" is not an number that comes easily to mind when I think of my family. We have three kids and five people in the family, so the only time "four" makes sense is when one of us is missing. Like last weekend, when I took the kids to watch Thomas & Friends Live! The Circus Comes to Town, a musical show featuring Thomas the Tank Engine. I received a complimentary pack of four tickets -- not unusual, since most things of this nature, from hotel rooms to vacation packages to Space Mountain at Disneyland, are geared towards a family of four. Alfie didn't particularly want to watch the show, so we decided to forgo buying an extra ticket for him and save the money.


The four of us went without him and Alfie enjoyed a couple of hours to himself. But when Alfie saw the photos and the little video clips that I took -- especially the ones of the four engines moving around onstage with their moving mouths, eyes and eyebrows -- his face got all wistful, and I think a tiny part of him regretted not going. Sure, it was just a children's musical, but the trains were pretty neat (Alfie loves trains), and it was fun just watching the kids' faces as they enjoyed the show.

For more foursomes, click here.

Don't you wish kids still dressed like this?

Today I thought I'd feature a photo from Alfie's childhood. Don't you just love the retro tricycle that he's riding on, and the cars in the background? And doesn't his outfit (coat, hat and boots) look smart? You don't see many kids wearing berets these days. Apparently Alfie loved that beret and refused to take it off, even at night.

We were watching the Angelina Jolie movie, Changeling, the other day, and Alfie commented on how cute the little boys looked, going to school in their berets and ties. I do wish kids were as smartly dressed now as they were back then? (BTW Changeling is set in the 1920's so I'm not implying that Alfie's photo above is also from that era!).

I used to dress The Pea in embroidered, smocked dresses every time she would go to birthday parties until I realized that everyone else was in regular play clothes, and she was better dressed than the birthday child. But in a time when those kinds of dresses go for $40 or more (we get ours from the Philippines, where they're much much cheaper) I don't blame anyone for choosing the $10 knit cotton dress from Walmart. But I do mourn the loss of well-tailored children's clothing.

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What's for dinner, Alfie?

One of the few household chores that Alfie does not offer to help me with is cooking dinner. I don't mind; I like cooking and he doesn't. Besides, he usually gets home too late to cook. But there are times when I do ask for help with dinner, and he steps up to the plate magnificently. There are only 3 things that Alfie cooks.......

Grilled food: Hamburgers, hotdogs, sausages or grilled chicken. For some reason, any time we decide to get the grill out and have a barbie, Alfie takes charge. He says it's a Man Thing. I don't mind. I let him do it because he does such a great job of cleaning the grill afterwards.

Heinz baked beans with fried eggs and toast. He never lets me fry eggs for him because I can't get the hang of flipping the egg with a runny yolk. (I refuse to cook eggs sunny-side up because all can see when I look at it are the millions of salmonella partying in that runny yolk).

Pasta with tomatoes, onions, garlic and canned tunas sauteed in olive oil. He insists on the fresh garlic and tomatoes, so the final result is simple but deeeeevine.

..... and I must admit, he does all 3 so well that I don't even offer to help.