So there I was, again

Two years ago today I started this blog.

In that inaugural post, I reflected on how wacky, unexpected and fun my life was at that moment.

Well, I am happy to report that today my life is as wacky, unexpected and fun as it was then.

Perhaps even more so.

Dancing babies

Apparently, babies love to move to a beat. They can't help themselves. And their parents can't help but film them and put them on the internet.



See? And here's another. I love the comment on this Brazilian baby video: "When you've done this as a baby, it don't matter what you do. You can't fail life anymore"




And if youtube videos aren't proof enough for you: scientists have even studied it, further evidence that there is someone willing to fund almost any study.

Pick your own fruit - check

We took Emerson fruit picking this weekend. It is something I've wanted to do for a while. Eric insisted that if it were that much fun it wouldn't be something only desperate migrant workers are willing to do. I did point out that they usually work for less than minimum wage - perhaps because they enjoyed it so much? OK, probably not.

We drove a little over an hour outside of San Francisco to get to the fruit and it was h-o-t out, which I love. The fruit on offer was apricots, nectarines and peaches. The nectarines and peaches were ready to pick but not quite ready to eat. The apricots, on the other hand, had the double bonus of being ready to eat and being an easy two bites. Yum!

For me, this experience gave new meaning to "low-hanging fruit," a term which I have used many times as a consultant rather than as a fruit-picker. For the record, it has significantly more meaning as a fruit-picker. Especially when picking with people who are taller than you are.

The haul (half of it actually- we had two boxes):

What do you do with 30+ pounds of ripe fruit? Make some* jam!

*way too much

Bravo

Eric and I once again found ourselves at the symphony this week, enjoying some classical tunes. It was an all Berlioz program, including the Roman Carnival which evoked for me the scene in Mary Poppins at the end of "Spoonful of Sugar" when the toys and closet doors are all going crazy. It could easily have been the soundtrack for the scene. I loved it.

The piece that ended the evening was another rousing number and towards the end of it Eric pointed out to me a girl of about seven who was in one of the seats above and behind the stage. She was sitting on her father's lap and "guest conducting": waving her arms wildly with a huge grin on her face. She was having a fabulous time and putting on an excellent show. We watched her, grins spilling across our faces, for the duration of the show.

Living like we're leaving

Eric and I are not planning on leaving San Francisco any time soon. But someday we might choose or be forced by the ravages of runaway climate change to move somewhere else, and that is when we will realize that there is a ton of stuff to do here that we have never done, and we don't have time to do it all before we leave.

Or not!

We've made a list of a bunch of things that might be fun to do here that we haven't yet done and we're going to do them. (See what happens when you sell your TV? You have to get creative.)

Here's our current list, which should keep us busy for the next few months (in addition to raising a child):

• Anchor Brewery Tour
• Golden Gate Fields for horse racing
• Infineon for car racing
• Weekend getaway in Healdsburg, with canoeing on the Russian River
• Go to the water park near San Jose
• "Pick your own" organic fruit at a nearby farm
• Dolores Park movie night
• Walking tours of different neighborhoods - "City Guide" tours
• Alcatraz
• Make our own cheese
• Go see a movie at the drive-in movie theatre in the east bay
• Visit the Lavender Bee Farm
• Go to a 49ers game
• Take Emerson to a Giants game and an Oakland A's game
• Play at Lake Tahoe in the summer
• Get spooked at the Winchester Mystery House
• Long weekend trip(s) to Big Sur, Carmel, Monterrey
• Go see Teatro Zinzanni
• Go see Beach Blanket Babylon
• Check out the Seward Street Slides
• See all of the beaches in the bay area - preferably on nice days
• Take our bikes out of the city and go for a ride with Emerson
• Go camping at Arroyo Seco
• Mini golf
• Kayaking on the channel

Back on the bike

Several weeks ago, Eric agreed to watch Emerson while I went to a yoga class. This was exciting! But to get to the class I had to ride my bike. I was less excited about this than I would have anticipated.

It has been many months since I have been on my bike due to the whole pregnancy and giving birth and having a newborn thing. Long enough that my bike had to be unearthed from the back of the garage and revived from a serious bike coma. We dusted it off, filled up the tires and greased up the chain, which had gotten a bit rusty (whoops). As I wheeled it out to the street, I noticed the back wheel had gotten slightly warped, probably from having the lock hanging on it for almost a year.

I hopped on and pedaled off to yoga, ignoring the regular soft jolt as the warped part of my wheel rubbed against the brake.

It all came right back to me, just like riding a bike.

Meet the Droogies

On Saturday, Eric took Emerson and me to meet our two beehives, also known as "the droogies." They live in the Bee Yard on Stanford's campus and they are busy making honey for us.

There comes a moment when one is wrapping one's not-yet-three-months-old son in mosquito netting in his carseat to take him to see hundreds of thousands -- perhaps millions -- of bees, when one questions one's parental judgment. Then the moment passes and one proceeds with one's mosquito-net-wrapped son into the Bee Yard.

Eric lit the smoker and we walked through the 40 or so hives to get back to our two. It was spectacularly neat: there they were! The Droogies. At the entrances of the hives we could see lots of activity, with bees flying out to forage for nectar and being checked by the guard bees when they tried to come back in.

We examined both hives, which meant that we opened them up and pulled out the different frames. Droogie 1 is going gangbusters - lots of brood (a sign that the hive is healthy) and lots of capped honey. Droogie 2 is full of slacker bees and is not doing so well. Perhaps this will present us with the learning opportunity of what to do when things go wrong with your hives. Eric got some great photos which you can see on his post on this same topic.

Emerson slept the whole time so he will probably not remember his first visit to the droogies. (And I'm not sure he could have seen very well through all that mosquito netting even if he had been awake.)

Given the cooler climate this year, the slightly late start with the hives and who knows what else, this year may not be a huge honey harvest but we sure are enjoying keeping some bees!