Friday Fun & Thoughts on Downtown

The kids and I had a fun day yesterday. Evan was in Day 2 of his being-sick-and-getting-over-it, Isaac and I stayed home while Summer took the kids to school and went grocery shopping. After she got home, Isaac and I went to work, where I had a few meetings (he was very well-behaved).

(Side note: For several weeks, Isaac has been begging to go to work with me. I can take the kids on Fridays as long as my meetings are low-key, and it hadn't happened that way this term until yesterday, so he was pretty excited to go. About 5 minutes after we got to the office, he turned to me and said, "I miss Mom.")

After we picked the older kids up from school, the four of us made our way downtown for the Go Downtown Albuquerque Arts Festival, where we wandered among the artists' displays and listened to live music for an hour or so. It's fun to expose your kids to art and see what interests them, and they were happy to get ice cream, so everybody wins.

I'm coming to really like downtown ABQ. There's not much to it (yesterday's event closed off Gold Ave. for three blocks, and unless you like bars or nightclubs, there aren't a lot of businesses to patronize), but the funky urban atmosphere is nice. There are some cool shops and eateries popping up, and events like this one are a good sign. I hear that 10 years ago downtown was a mess, so we're seeing a nice revitalization effort. Earlier this summer we went to the Saturday morning downtown growers market, and our favorite cupcake place has a downtown location. Maybe in a few more years there will be enough to draw us downtown more often. And maybe when the kids all fly the nest we'll get a loft downtown...

I Could Send an Email, But...

This is the most audience-specific posting I've ever made:

To my sisters,
A while back, one of you initiated an email thread about our Xmas gift exchange pattern; I replied, and I think someone else did, but ultimately, nothing happened. So instead of an email, maybe a blog entry will work. If I recall correctly, last year was supposed to go like this:

• We had Carolyn
• Carolyn had Michelle
• Michelle had Cheryl
• Cheryl had us

But we swapped around and it went like this:

• We had Cheryl
• Carolyn had Michelle
• Michelle had Carolyn
• Cheryl had us

So, I propose that this year we go two down, like this:

• We have Michelle
• Carolyn has Cheryl
• Michelle has us
• Cheryl has Carolyn

(Here's where I get to sound like a big brother.) If there are no better ideas (cue Stew's snarky, sarcastic proposal), this will be the way of it. Okay? (That felt good. Maybe I'll go boss someone else around...)

Fun With Art

We had some pictures taken over the weekend. We chose the sculpture garden just outside the ABQ MOA as our location. It was so much fun. We all had a blast. Our friend (the photographer) posted a few of the photos on her blog. Those a just a few. I can't wait to see the rest!

Fall

I just looked at the recent postings on this blog and was amazed and the fact that I had only written once this month, and today's the 20th. Work has certainly taken up a lot of my time, and I'm back at work on my dissertation, so I find solace in being (perhaps?) productive. and if that cuts back on the blogging, so be it.

But today I find myself looking out the window and thinking about fall. It's still summer-like here in ABQ--highs in the (low) 80s, lots of sun, the swamp cooler's on. But there are signs of fall. Here are the main one's I'm noticing this year:

• As the days get shorter, the sun is rising farther to the south--it's close to Tijeras canyon from our vantage point, meaning that the sun actually crests pretty early simply because there's less mountain at that point. By December the sun will rise closer to the Manzanos and the days will be quite short.
• I don't have to water the plants as much. I water the strawberries every 2 or 3 days, and herbs once every 10 days or so. The days are less brutally hot and the nights get cooler, letting the plants recover nicely. There's also more shade during the day. Along these lines, for the first time we have a second bloom on the Desert Willow this year. Typically, the profusion of flowers on the tree goes from April to June, but by July it's all over for the year. Then last week we got a flood of new blossoms, with no end in sight.
• The cooler temps also mean that there are moments when it's a bit chilly, especially if I open the windows too early in the morning or run the swamp cooler too late in the evening.
• I actually wore a long-sleeve shirt to work earlier this week, and the kids have done likewise a few times on the last few weeks.
• The State Fair is almost over (and again we didn't make it out there), and the Balloon Fiesta is just a few weeks away.
• Summer has started asking what we should get the kids for Xmas. Any suggestions?

Corn Maze

On Saturday we packed up our crew and headed to the city's Los Poblanos Field Open Space, where the annual Maize Maze is underway. After catching the "shuttle" (a truck pulling a trailer loaded with hay bales), we paid our entrance fee and entered the labyrinth. Summer and I did a corn maze in Utah last fall, and we've also visited another one east of town before, but this was both closer to home and less difficult. Ideal for an afternoon with the kids.

The best part was simply letting the kids lead the way. Here's Isaac out in front of the pack:
And here Isaac and Allyson lead the way:
Ryan may have had the most fun, as a corn maze is perfect for a 7-year-old boy. Here he decides which path to take:
Evan rode most of the time in the sling, which Summer now configures to put the baby at her side or back, and for most of the trip he was fine. But toward the end, he desperately wanted to get down and walk. This, of course, was no good, as we had left his shoes in the car. So, instead, we let him make this face:
All in all, we had a very good time, notwithstanding Isaac's fall on the way back to the car (he bonked his head and scraped his knees). The day was warm, with just enough breeze, and deliciously sunny. Now I want to go back with just Summer for a moonlight maze some evening.

Roy Rants

Since Summer is out of the town for the weekend, I have decided to fill my time with something less useful than housework or working on my talk for September: I’m starting a new blog. This one is supposed to be short-lived, and may not be for the faint of heart. Here’s the impetus. Last night I got a call from Stew, and we chatted for 30 minutes or so, mostly about politics (the call originated as a “Are you watching Obama’s speech” call, with an overdue apology for voting Nader in 2000). It was fun. So I’ve decided to bring back the beast that is my political ideology, tempered by a few years and more children. Read more at http://royrants.blogspot.com/...if you dare.

If The Ball Is The Same Size, Why Is It Called Mini-Golf?

On Saturday we decided to take the kids miniature golfing. The was the first time any of them had played, and the first time Summer and I had picked up clubs in over 5 years. We forgot to pick up score cards, which was probably best, as some of us tend to be too competitive. So instead we simply had fun, as seen below.

First, Ryan having a hard time keeping his eye on the ball:
Here Summer lines up her tee shot, while Evan watches (he spent all 18 holes in his stroller, so he deserves a medal, or at least all the pretzel sticks he ate):
Here's an action shot of Allyson's putting:
And finally, Isaac, with a great amount of determination:
We've decided this would be an ideal sort of one-on-one activity with the kids, a good chance to spend time with a child away from the normal routine, so we may be hitting the links pretty often. If only we could find a place on our side of town--do any of our local readers know if somewhere other than Hinckle to play mini-golf?