It's Always Something

In my ongoing effort to support Brooklynn's guitar interest, we took in the Rodrigo y Gabriella concert at the Fox Theatre in downtown Oakland. Although she was quite apprehensive at first, she QUICKLY fell in love with the boyfriend/girlfriend duo. As she squirmed her way to a good viewpoint, Brooklynn spent the night jumping around and dancing to the sounds of RyG. www.rodgab.com Brooklynn striking her best iPod commercial pose. Us inside the historic Fox Theatre before showtime.

The winds will blow their freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you, like the leaves of Autumn.

She's always so damn happy!

Anyone who knows me understands how much I love, love, love fall and winter. One of the many things enjoyable about fall is Halloween! One of Bstarr's favorite things to do during Halloween season is to visit the costume stores as frequently as she can. Today was our first visit of the season. I didn't expect our first visit to be so fruitful, as Brooklynn usually takes a few trips to decide on her costume. However, this year she knew exactly what she wanted to be- a vampire. WHAT?! Not a princess? Or a fairy? Or a ballerina? Or some sparkly, pink costume resembling a tutu??? She's definitely growing up. *sigh* On a separate trip, we helped Jeff pick out a costume for himself and his new girlfriend, Naomi. After many costume changes, he settled on being some sort of demon priest with Naomi as Silk Spectra. A couple of hoots. One of the rejected costumes.

Brooklynn and I are attempting to become more self-sustaining in hopes that one day (in our dreams) we can live off our farm. While we wait for miracles, we have started growing things as best as we can in our small condo. We started with herbs of parsley, basil, and chives. We hope to add peppermint and lavender, for their healing properties, very soon. Parsley + basil + chives.

Brooklynn has recently started taking Chinese lessons. She is learning how to speak, read, and write in Mandarin. By default, I get to learn as well by sitting in class with her and helping with homework. Our goal is to be able to communicate in a basic way to her Chinese aunties by summer, 2010. Wish us luck! Brooklynn's Chinese name, Ma Ching. So far, so good on her efforts! *thumbs up*

We had wanted to head to Muir Woods, but with the Bay Bridge closed for repairs, we decided to stay local. We attempted to find a place in the Los Altos Hills, but I got lost. So we decided to concur a trail in our backyard- Fremont. Hike: Mission Peak Regional Preserve Start time: 11:08 am Ready for our 2.5 hour hike uphill. Brooklynn relied on her her iTouch to keep her going. All smiles as we reached the halfway point where I had bribed Brooklynn with snacks and treats to keep going. LOL. There were to parachuters that hiked up the peak and glided down. So cool! View from (almost) the top. We did it! End time: 2:57 pm I was very proud of Brooklynn with this hike. Although threats and bribery kept her motivated to keep going accompanied with lots of complaints, she made it further than a lot of adults on this hike. It's always a secret enjoyment of mine to push Brooklynn as hard as I can and see her triumph. Now I know I can push her harder on the next hike. Hi5 to that!

To celebrate the end of summer, tonight's Friday Movie Night consisted of a little something extra special. Recently, Brooklynn has taken up guitar lessons. To help encourage her, I am taking lessons with her. Although the initial idea was to strike a musical spark in her, the lessons seem to have fueled a fire inside of me as well. I LOVE learning to play the guitar. It has quickly become a favorite past time along with painting, interior design, and coffee. I love using my hands to create things, and guitar seems to fall in line with this love. Tonight we saw an inspirational documentary called It Might Get Loud. Brooklynn paid attention to the entire film and had her own commentary throughout. It was a good film to see at the right time. I surprised Brooklynn with a sporadic visit to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk after the movie. Since summer was coming to an end, tonight was the last Band on the Beach. I thought it would be a great way to transition the new interests from...

Brooklynn starts 2nd grade this year. Classroom #25! Don't get me wrong, I love Brooklynn and spending time with her, but THANK GAWD school is back in session! Since I work from home, having Brooklynn home with me this summer has been TIME CONSUMING. Although I tried to enroll her in camp as often as I could, it just wasn't enough. There she always seemed to be... right there. Needing food. Needing help. Needing, needing, needing. So THIS summer for me wasn't spent working (I hope my company doesn't read this blog) it was busy keeping Brooklynn occupied. Here is a recap of our summer: - Oakland zoo - SF Giants games - Chess Camp - Theatre Camp - Swim Camp - Golf lessons - Birthday parties - Matt Nathanson concert - swimming, swimming, and more swimming - Death Cab for Cutie concert - No Doubt concert - Green Day concert - water slides - camping... 2x - hiking - and countless ice cream runs I plan on sleeping in the fall...