Opposites

Jamie: What's the opposite of sun?

Joel: Moon!

Jamie: What's the opposite of hot?

Joel: Cold!

Jamie: What's the opposite of eyeball?

[silence]

Dad to mom: Do you know?

Mom to dad: Nope.

Dad to Jamie: What?

Jamie: Eyelashes.

Joel's Birthday Menu

Pick one dinner and one dessert:

Dinner

Garlic Cheddar Chicken

Stuffed Peppers

Baked Salmon and Veggies

Baked Ziti

Dessert

Chocolate Cake

Fruit Pizza

Strawberry Jello Pretzel Delight

Bread Pudding

He picked stuffed peppers and chocolate cake.

Cakes, part II

Why make just one? Because...

birthdays are all about cake.

we have to celebrate at school and at home.

Joel's 7.

This is how late I was up making this cake: I just realized (12 hours later) that I made patterns of 8 on this cake when I thought I did 7s. I think I've recounted this 4 times in the last 5 minutes, in disbelief.

Cakes, part I

I highly recommend this cake for a birthday treat at school. Every last bit of it was devoured within maybe 4 minutes, tops. I heard comments like, "I love raspberries!" "I don't want limes," "Can I have more blueberries?" and "It's not just cake! It's a watermelon cake!" And from the teacher, "Oh my gosh! That is wonderful. [kid x] is allergic to everything but fruit and veggies and has had to miss out on all the special birthday treats, so this is perfect!"

Hard to beat the comments from the kids and hearing about their love for healthy foods. But the short 1-hour prep time and bringing home an empty cake plate are way up there, too.

Budding Haikuist

Seattle rain is

Like clouds are throwing water

Down onto the ground.

-Jamie Feinstein (unscripted and unprompted)

Sitting in the front seat

Joel decided that he would rather celebrate his birthday this year with a Biplane ride than a party. So, today, I abandoned all my instincts to protect my young and kept my feet firmly on the ground while watching my two children and husband take wing.

"Landing was really smooth. He aimed and it was really cool. And sitting in the front seat with all the controls." --Joel

Pucker up

I want to write a song about horn playing.

Why not just play one on the horn? You ask the obvious question.

That'd be what the real artists do. It'd probably be in the blues style, with maybe a little fanfare in the middle, and a little orchestral excerpt in there somewhere to make it legit. It would definitely need to have some Mozart motif in there as well as a bunch of lip slurs. Lately, I'd want to add a trill or two that I would have avoided like the plague until a couple of years ago. There'd be a big rest for dumping water every minute or two. There'd also be a yawn-like lip stretch written in towards the end, especially after a long, sustained high-note, or a period of oohm-pahs. Maybe a few of those, actually.

But no, I want to write the words to a song about horn playing. As soon as it's done, I'll share it. I'm making a list of things to do once I can't play anymore. Maybe I'll add that one to it.