Here Comes the Train!

We were finally able to set up the train track set that we got from Ojiichan and Obaachan a couple years ago. It's a set with Disney characters painted on the sides of the cars.

2009 Pictures of Autumn

We have kept a busy schedule during this 2009 autumn season. The weather has cooperated for the most part. Not much rain and moderate temperatures.


Starting from the upper left: Ryan as a construction worker helping to clean up the back yard; Ethan with friends Ben (wearing Cal sweat shirt) and Cal at Chabot Observatory school field trip; the three kids with their pumpkin carvings under the gazebo; Ethan at Karate belt test; Ethan as clone trooper, Ryan as an army man and Naomi as a witch; Ethan and Naomi with Auntie Betty and Uncle Alden; Naomi as "Jupiter" in School House Rock musical at school; Ethan with Den Leader Louis and Nate on Scouting for Food; and Naomi in group photo after piano recital.

Cal Bears Spoil Roses for Cardinal

Ethan had a belt test today at Bay Area Mountain Martial Arts & Fitness, where he was going for his blue belt in their Dragons Karate program. Ethan's belt test was as good as the Bears' game today.

Yes, today was Big Game Saturday. The underdog Cal Bears against the red hot Cardinal. The game was a late afternoon game on the Farm with Rose Bowl hopes on the line for one team.

Cardinal Colors Man: Do you think your team will do it?

Cal Bears Man: I don't know, but that's why they play 'em.

Cardinal Colors Man: I think that Stanford team will take it. They look pretty good.

Cal Bears Man: They look good, but it's the Big Game. You kind of have to throw all the stats out.

This was an exchange immediately after the belt test. The game was not available in my cable package. To get the game, I would have to upgrade to a digital package costing about $20 per month more. So by the time I remembered the game and looked it up on-line, the Bears were already down 0-14 and they were not out of the first quarter. I could picture the Cardinal side of the house already hedging their bets and placing calls for hotels rooms in Pasadena.

Those hopes were dashed when Stanford's young QB Luck who came into the game leading the Pac-10 in QB rating threw an ill-advised pass under heavy pressure from Cameron Jordan. This is the the same Cameron Jordan who was ragged (from afar and beyond hearing distance) by a couple of my friends at a recent Cal Bears basketball game. "You should not be here. You should be studying film on your next opponent." The Bears would go on that week to get dismantled by the Beavers. Bears are not suppose to lose to Beavers.

The not so Luck-y pass was intercepted near the goal line and the Bears' 34-28 win was preserved. This was a play that was not so dissimilar to the one by Riley two years ago against the Beavers. Young QB under heavy pressure who folds when his team was on the verge of winning or at least extending the game with greater spoils around the corner. How sweet it is!

Fall Piano Recital 2009

Naomi is really enjoying her piano playing. She has a great teacher who is generous enough to offer multiple opportunities for her students to play in public at recitals, senior homes, etc.

In this Fall's recital, Naomi played two pieces.

The first was "Go Tell Aunt Rhody," a American folk song set to music from a French opera by Rousseau called "Le Devin du Village" from 1752. That's Naomi's teacher next to her. Ethan shot this video.



The second was a duet playing of a song called "Carousel" with her friend Natalie. Mom shot this video.

Legos for Legos

We have a friend who has been blogging about shedding and culling stuff. We've had this same discussion about making room with our kids recently.

We say "making room" because invariably the Christmas season will bring more toys, games, and other "items to amuse us" for our kids. The sense of clutter blankets the boys' room more so than it does Naomi's room. And really it's the amount of Lego pieces in their room. They have buckets and buckets of Lego pieces, each piece at one time being a part of some set, now all cruelly mixed together. "Help, I'm missing my elbow piece," says a former Lego robot. "I'm over here with the Lego car pieces," says the elbow piece. It's funny, they don't want to give up any pieces, but we parents seem to care more about pieces being out of place.

So Christmas will come and go, and the prediction is that we have Lego pieces being replaced by other Lego pieces. Something has to give, doesn't it?

Time for a Family Bike Ride

Ethan spent time this afternoon on our street practicing his bike riding. Within an hour or so he was riding on his own. Maybe this will distract him from his talk about wanting to build a fort in our backyard.

His bike a hand-me-down from Naomi. He agreed to take it if we painted it so we spray painted it from its original purple color to blue. We took off the dog spot decals too. We still have to replace the seat which has the matching purple with dog spots theme.

He's added his own touch to the bike by taping a tissue box to the front of the handlebars so that there would be a spot for his teddy bear.

Questions and More Questions

Kids are really good at stalling when they don't want to do something. They are also very inquisitive. Here's what happened this evening at bedtime:

Ryan: What color are germs? [he's lying in bed]

Me: I guess it might depend on the type of germ. You might see different colors with a microscope.

Ryan: What's a swine flu?

Me: It's a type of flu that came from pigs.

Ethan: What's a swine? [leaning near the edge of his loft bed]

Me: It's another name for pigs. Okay, it's time for bed now.

Ryan: No, no, no. I have another question.

Me: Okay.

Ryan: Are nails harder than wood?

Me: Yes, nails are harder. That's why you can hammer nails into a piece of wood.

Ethan: So why do nails bend, but boards don't?

Me: That's a good one. Now it is time for bed. [later Dorothy told me that Ethan and Cal were hammering nails into boards the other day over at Cal's house]