Welcome Beezle (and First Visit to a Vet)

Let me introduce our new dog.  His name is Beezle Budger McSqueeze.  Right now he is sleeping in his crate kennel (door open) with his nose hanging out.  His long fluffy skunk is on the floor next to him but he is unconcerned by the skunk, the noise, the warm wind from the garden.  He is doing his Sleep.

He is very sweet natured and very small.  Because he does not yet have a fully developed immune system we are keeping him at home and with us rather than going out and about with other dogs.  However, today he went to the vet and she said that by the weekend his vaccinations should give him enough protection to go to puppy class.

He will be intrigued to meet other dogs.

For now, he loves lying in the sun, chasing his toys, napping in his kennel and running in the garden.  On the grass he is so low down that his whole belly gets wet in the morning.  He rushes after dandelions which stick out of the grass and attacks them.  He would also attack the hyacinths but we are very careful to chase him off them because many garden plants are toxic.

Here are some pictures of Beezle in his first week with us.

Beezle relaxes in the sunshine

Beezle loves the warm sun and sleeping

Frost holds Beezle who is a bit sleepy

Tara cuddles Beezle

Alex is careful with Beezle

Frost tries to get Beezle interested in a twig

Can I eat the camera?

Alex, Beezle, Frost and Wren

Beezle is not entirely relaxed about his situation in this picture.

The Vet Visit
Beezle was very good on his first Vet visit.  She gave him a dewormer and a vaccine for kennel cough because he will be meeting puppies in the week ahead.   Otherwise, he is fine and doesn't need another vet visit except routine vaccinations in a few weeks.

Zombie Cupcakes

Tomorrow we become dog owners. 

We are driving down to Longview to meet with the dog provider (and Josh's family at the same time.)   We have bought a kennel / crate for the puppy who will be 9 weeks old.  He has a soft fleece pillow, a few dog toys, some chews, some food-toys and a snuggly comfortable animal toy.  I did not buy the one with the heartbeat or the pet cam although I considered both after reading Cesar Milans' "How to Raise the Perfect Dog."

I kid you not, I have been raising the kids with calm-assertive energy since reading the book.  I am clear and firm and ensure I am the Pack Leader.

The house is a mess and I feel we should clean up, and of course I have to watch Criminal Minds, but I couldn't resist asking whether I showed you the Zombie Cupcakes.  Did I?

Can't remember.

In case I didn't, a few weeks ago I baked Zombie Cupcakes for Josh's birthday.  Did I mention he had a birthday?  He turned 35 but we didn't do anything awfully special, even though it was a half-decade birthday, because Josh prefers to make significant birth-year events out of primes and squares and other numerical oddities (like his 2000th week would be good).  Still, I made zombie cupcakes in honor of all the zombie fervor out there in popular culture (and on our ipad) this year.

And we ate them.

They were from Zombie Cupcakes by Zilly Rosen and I bought frosting supplies from Home Cake Decorating Supply on Roosevelt.

The bloody bitten ones had meringue icing.  It was very buttery and
I found it too fatty and not sweet enough.  Tara loved it so it must be
a matter of taste (cream vs sugar!)

The Zombie hands are made from "half-and-half"white fondant and gum
paste.  They were very easy to make.  They are covered in
crumbled oreo cookies for muddy earth and the white dots are maggots!

After a while I started to innovate and made this chunk of teeth and gum
from my own design.  I ate it but it wasn't tasty.  The cupcakes were red velvet
and more delicious than the topping (IMHO)

And then I took it all a bit far and start to make bento dioramas of blood
and maggots and demon-eyed rats and Wren looked, like, worried.

Because everyone is into Magic the Gathering, we made a birthday
card for Josh from a favorite card and called it "Josh, the Mind Sculptor"
(Its real name is JACE the Mind Sculptor as any MtG player knows)

Anyway, we did the candle thing and all was well.  Wren ate two zombie cupcakes.  I used some fancy real beeswax candles from PCC and we sang.  My next desert event is going to be jelly. 

But that's another post.

If you love Jelly.  Let me know so I put you on the evite.

How to Boil an Egg for Your Mother

Today we started a new Mothers' Day Tradition.  I get up and lie on the couch wrapped in a gypsy pile of blankets and Frost makes me coffee and breakfast. 

Well kind of.

Actually, this year in the first year of the tradition it went like this:

I get up and lie on the couch wrapped in a gypsy pile of blankets and I shout out instructions to tell Frost how to make me coffee and breakfast.

"Mum, bubbles are coming off the egg.  Is that normal?" he calls in a worried voice.

I tell him that is normal.

"Okay, just checking because I am still figuring things out."

Note, most of the dialogue is shouted between rooms.

A few moments later I hear:  "How do you get the egg out of the water?"

I flounder on this one.  Its all so automatic.  "Ah, use tongs."

"I think you hid the egg tongs because Wren and I were fighting with them."

"No, there are other tongs."

There are some ominous thuddings and mutterings and drawer noises.   Then:

"I can't hold an egg with tongs."

"Well, use a spoon then.  Oh, and Wren wants an egg too so use a spoon to put Wren's in the hot water and boil for 5 minutes not 10."

"But, YOUR egg is in the spoon."

"Well, use a-n-o-t-h-e-r spoon."

BEEP  BEEP  BEEP.  The egg is ready.

"Mum, now I have made toast.  What do you want on it?  Do you want a knife and a fork or just a fork?"
 
"I would like a plate, with toast on it.  An egg in an egg cup.  A teaspoon.  Some salt and a fork."

I hear him talking to himself in the kitchen as he arranges the plate.

"Mum, I accidentally poured too much salt?"

"Poured the salt where?"   He walks in with my Mothers' Day Breakfast.

"I poured it in a pile on the plate."

There is a large pile of salt on the plate.  About a tablespoon. 

"This is fabulous but I realize I do need a knife to open it."

"But you said you didn't need a knife."

"Well, I usually do it in the kitchen first."

Frost rushes to get a knife.

"How do you you cut an egg?"  asks Wren.

Frost returns with the knife.

"I will show you, you tap it  like this."  I slice open the egg.

Both boys are awed that I hit it with a knife.  There is something fierce and appealing about it, I guess.

Wren tries to eat my egg.  I fight him off, telling him its Mothers' Day so I don't have to share my food.

What is mothers day?  Asks Wren as Frost rushes back to the kitchen for Wren's egg.

"It means being nice to Mum." shouts Frost from the kitchen door.  I am extremely gratified at the way Frost is acting a bit flustered and frantic with all this food service.  Its exactly how I feel most meal-times.

Wren frowns and looks wounded and ferocious.  "It means no being mad at me and no shouting at me and no saying bad words to me and that's about Wren so don't say that to Wren.  That is what Mother's Day is."

I tell him that sounds good.

Frost returns with an egg and a fork for Wren.  I point out that there is no plate.

"Oh, oh. He likes a plate like Mum?"

"Well, you need a plate to eat off.  Otherwise the egg will go all over the couch."

Frost returns with a a plate.  The boys try to open the egg.  

FAIL.

I provide a HINT and Frost succeeds, eventually.

The boys try to open an egg.

(I may not be smarter than a 4th grader but I have secret Ninja egg-opening skills.)

I point out we have no teaspoons.

"I brought a teaspoon!"  Frost gives me a set of measuring spoons and shows me the ONE TEASPOON one.

"I brought a teaspoon!"

"I can't eat off that!"  I point out, concerned about his thinking processes.

"OOOOOH.  I thought you wanted it to measure salt.  I thought... well, I thought you scoop egg with a fork."

You can't be too hard on him with is confusion.  This child does not eat egg.  He runs off and gets teaspoons and I tell him how these spoons are called Egg Spoons in our cutlery set because English people love to eat boiled eggs and these spoons are specially for it.

I eat egg and the boys run off to swing on the hammock, newly reinstalled since the rope broke. 

Mother's Day breakfast went very well, considering.  There were no scalds, my egg was done perfectly and I am still on the couch in my odd assortment of warming devices reading a book with #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR on it.

I am glad I am teaching Frost these skills now.  He will be an expert next year.

Tomorrow, my mother is heading off on another grand African trip to Zambia, Malawi, Botswana and South Africa.  I must remember to call her later and wish her a happy boiled egg in bed.

[THIS BLOG WAS WRITTEN AND POSTED WITHOUT LEAVING THE COUCH]

Mothers' Day on the Couch [with egg, laptop and book]

Karn, the Released and other obsessions of an almost-10 year old.

Like his parents, Frost is happiest when he has an obsession.  His current obsession is Magic the Gathering and in particular, the imminent launch of the new MtG set - "New Phyrexia."

Here is my interview with Frost about MtG.

Me:   Frost, what do you like about MtG?

Frost:  I don't know.... its kind of a fun game not just playing the game but kind of opening the pack, getting to know new mechanics, going to tournaments and waiting to see what cards come out.  Also, its got a nice communtiy.

Me:  What do you mean by a "nice community?"

Frost:  Well, a lot of people play it and you can kind of talk to other people about it.  Lots of people go to events and you can get to know people while you're playing it and its kind of fun.

Me:  How much do you think about MtG during a normal day at school?

Frost:  I think about it occasionally.  Some people at school play it and so we play it.  I also think about New Phyrexia a lot now, I am waiting for the launch party.   New Phyrexia is a new magic set with 175 new cards and we are planning to buy a Booster Box.  Its 36 booster packs.

Me:  Wren, what do you like about MtG?

Wren:  There are some Hydra's I like and Hedron crabs are pretty good.

Me:  Frost, what kind of deck are you going to play with the New Phyrexia set?

Frost:  I am thinking of making a deck with this one card called Rage Extractor and maybe an equipment deck.   I am keeping my infect deck.

Me:  What is Rage Extractor?

Frost:  It does damage equal to the casting cost of something if that something/card has any Phyrexian mana, a new kind of mana, in its cost.  So its a pretty good card and I would make a deck with that and lots of Phyrexian mana.

Me:  Wren, what is your favorite deck?

Wren:  My favorite deck is an-fect deck.  I played my Fect Deck against Daddy and I beat his Karate.

Me:  Frost, do kids in your 4th Grade class play magic?

Frost: I think about 3 of them in my class?

Me:  My criticism of this MtG craze is that its a bit like gambling.  All you want to do is get the thrill of opening sealed boosters to see if you get something very rare and valuable.

Frost:  Well, Mum.  That is only the case when you are opening boosters.  If you buy a deck of cards individually that's not gambling.  And even if I open boosters, if I get a mythic rare card I am happy and if I don't I am still happy because I mean, the cards will probably be good.  If they are not good, I can see the value, and I can still trade it with someone else.  So, its still fun to get it!

Karn, Liberated (according to Frost)

Me:  In the New Phyrexia, what cards would you be most excited about pulling from a booster?

Frost:  Karn.  Batterskull and ... oh god... actually..... Sword of War and Peace.  I also sort of want... Joradeen the Prevailer and Melira, Sylvok  Outcast (he spelled these for me).

New Puppy Pictures

Due to Mother's Day and the Puppy being a bit slow to wean, we will probably have to wait 2 weeks to fetch the puppy and bring him home.  We are talking about the 14th as the probable date.

Here are some new pictures.

Wren draws hydras

Wren loves drawing but as with any artist, he likes to work thematically.  The subject of the moment is hydras.

I am now going to interview the artist about his work.

Me:  Wren, why are you interested in Hydras?

Wren:  Because there is different kinds of hydras.  Female ones that are boys and others that I don't know their names.

Me:  But why do you like them?

Wren:  Because if you kill all the necks off then it suddenly goes under the ground and all of it grows back again.

Me:  Where did you first see a hydra?

Wren:  In two Magic cards.

Me: What is magic?

Wren:  Magic is cards and they cost mana to play.

Me:  What did you like about that hydra on the cards.
Wren:  Hydras are pretty cool and one hydra is a 0/0 and you need to spend more mana to make him big.

The Artist has been influenced by hydras in Magic the Gathering

Me:  Now, Wren can you tell about the hydra you are working on now.

Wren:  It is a girl hydra and it fights boy hydras and other evil things like the tyranna sor rexes.

Wren with the girl hydra

Me:  Why is this one purple.

Wren: Because that is girl hydras the color they are.

Me:  Can you tell me about this hydra [BELOW]?
 
Wren:  This is the one with the rarest hydras in the world.  They are GOOD/BAD they kill good hydras and bad hydras.  And its a RAINbow hydra.  Its pink and green and orange and yellow so that is the rarest kind of hydra in the world.

Rainbow hydra

Me:  Are hydras real?

Wren:  Yes, they just grow everywhere in the creepy times.

Me:  What are the creepy times?

Wren:  When the clouds go low, the sky goes green, the sun goes dark black and the grass goes blue!

Me: And that is when the Hydras are born.

Wren:  They grow in tiny things first and they don't kill anything first but then they grow huge and if they grow into this guy they grow into good or into that guy they grow into good and bad.

"Squid in the ocean" aka "Squid in the sea Hydra"

Me: Can you tell me about this older work, titled "squid in the ocean."  Was an this an early hydra?

 Wren:  That hydra waked up in the night so they can like steal stuff.   Its a hydra.  A weird kind of hydra.  It has lots of slippery arms and its head is like this (straight and like a little curve like this).

Me:  What do hydras eat?

Wren:  Hydras... well, there are different things that you never heard of hydras eat.  They eat little ants and things but bad hydras eat little chickadees - but don't write that because Leo (age 4) won't like that.  Bit scary.

The Scared-cat hydra just plays dead

Me:  We have another here.  Can you tell me about it.

Wren: This is one of the weirdest kinds of hydras.  Its one of the most frightest hydra.  When it sees someone coming it just plays dead.  Its frightened for everyone.

Me:  Its a scaredy-cat hydra?

Wren:  Its a good hydra.  But if it sees a BAD hydra it FIGHTS but if it sees anything else it just plays dead.  That other one is the same hydra as this, but playing dead.

Scaredy-cat from another angle, playing dead.

Me: What are all these things on it?

Wren:  Its the rarest one and it has sticky things to stick on things and climb up trees.  In the middle is his like his... treasure chest thing where he puts the treasure in.  The treasure chest with gems and rubies and jewels in.

Wren:  Come, come ... we must play a hydra game.  "Hydra in the scary cave" and I am the hydra!  BOO!

Easter chelsea buns

Because I had a cough and couldn't sleep, and because its Easter Saturday and I am energized by brilliant sun - I got up early and baked chelsea buns with yeast and allspice, raisins and lemon glaze.  Last year I made hot cross buns which were also fun.  I remember how the glaze looked next to the vase of daffodils.  This year we have no daffodils but lots of magic the gathering cards and Wren's drawings.

Here are some pictures of the chelsea bun baking:

I used an English recipe so this square of dough is 50cm x 50cm
covered with butter, sugar, currants and spice.

Then you roll it up like a swiss roll.  Notice my coral colored fingernails
- I had a rare manicure yesterday, inspired by the lingerie visit of a few days prior.

They took three times as long to rise as the recipe suggested.
Not sure if that was due to the cold kitchen, old yeast or something witchy about baking.

Yes, this is X-Large because it says it all.  Chelsea buns dripping with frosting for 11ses

Wren eating his bun.   He is talking about his new
Eldrazi deck called "I will light it cos its dynamite!"
Note the awful wound on his chin from a scooter accident (3 days
and its still oozing and bleeding).

Its hard to say what Frost is enjoying more - the blanket,
the Foxtrot or the Chelsea bun.

I will try and bake again before next year.  I would rate these as a SUCCESS!

Semiotics for preschoolers

Sitting in the sun on the deck.  The plum trees are blossoming.  Wren is assembling another deck from the out of legal magic the gathering cards.  The sky is all blue and the lawn is suddenly lush and overgrown. In the distance we can hear the drone of cars and lawnmowers.

Wren:  Mum, why do all those thing have different names?  Like CROW and TREE and PLATFORM and HOUSES and FORTS and SWINGS and that is all?

Me:  Why do you think?

Wren:  I think it is because things are look different so if a tree looked like a fort it would be a treeHOUSE.

Me: I think it is so we can tell people about things when we are not right next to them. Like, I can say "dragon" and you can think of it in your head even when you can't see one.

Wren:  But why different letters?  Like B-W-R-E?  I can't understand!

Me: That is so people can read the letters and know the name of something.

Wren:  Oh, so what does B-O spell?

Me: That spells "bow"

Wren:  I spelled "bow!"

Alex: Well, that is actually b-o-w! 

Me:  In linguistics they call the word the signifier and the thing it means is called the signified.  The signifier can change in different languages.  So, in Indonesian that thing is called a pohon?

Wren:  pohon pohon

Alex:  pohon pohon

Frost stands in the sun in silence, bending over an ipad and a calculator as he researches and adds the costs of all the proxy cards in Alex's new Take That magic the gathering deck.

"It is going to cost $22," he says, looking up.  Its cheap for a good deck!

Wren:  Argh... nobody is going to the car to get my Hedron Crab.  Why... AAAARRRRGHHHH!!!!!

Me:  Alex, are you going to get it?

Alex:  Maybe, when I am done lying in the sun.

Me:  Frost, will you?

Frost: Nyah.

Wren:  WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Me:  I will get you candy if you go and get it.

Frost:  I am going to get it!

Alex:  No, I am coming....

They all run off.  I am left in peace but now must rise and get candy.  Thank god for the Easter Stash.  At our BBQ this week people were discussing what kind of multi-millionaire was crazy and what simply the natural amplification of eccentricity by wealth.  I would be a lazy billionaire.  Imagine what I could get people to do for me if I gave out golden easter eggs for acts of service.

Sitting here, with the sun so hot the rivets in my jeans are burning my hip, being crazy in the name of indolence doesn't sound so bad.

Dragon in my soup, spring fires still hearthing

I'm having a rare lunch at Vios.  The familiar thump of the barrista clearing the used coffee grounds, the chink of plates and cuttlery, the ladies knitting around the big table and the usual spread of laptops on heavy wooden tables against the backdrop of cheerful fusion music is something I miss now that I work from home and seldom have the excuse to retreat here.

I'm having my favorites:  Kopanisti dip (sorely missed during my 2 months as a vegan) and the soup of the day (tomato fennel) with bruschetta.  It would be perfect if I had another hour here, but as it happens I am between 'running to the grocery store' and 'fetching Frost from Magic the Gathering' before 'checking owner claims' for my work.

Puff, puff.  I blow on my soup and the olive oil twines like a small dragon on the surface.  I am sure someone could read my future in the parsley leaves.

Anyway, enough about the present and the future.  Surely, you want the past?   Kids are on spring break this week so have been home more.  Frost has been having many playdates and sleepovers while Wren draws, plays iPad, comes on errands with me and does lots of gardening and playing with wooden weapons in the yard.

There is still no progress on the house front - we have been looking but the houses that would be just right are priced just-wrong (by a $100K+) while the ones we see are either too small, remote, soul-less or oddly wrong.

Last week, I took the boys to the Seattle Central Library - an architectural feature of downtown.  They were stunned and impressed and excited - reminding me that they haven't really been to many famous or splendid buildings.  As a child I'd visited cathedrals, museums, castles - big old things with cavernous interiors - while neither of them can remember being exposed to structures designed to impress.  I vow now to take them to places that excite (incite?) the imagination to rebel against the stubbornly utilitarian.  

Seattle Central Library - designed by Rem Koolhaus

Frost examines a display cabinet of skulls at Seattle Central Library

"They are REAL SKULLS" says Wren, factually incorrect.

Other than that - we have been on the usual routine of soccer, food and entertainment.  I had a few deviations last weekend - I ran a 6 mile 'fun' race at Bellevue in 54 minutes (my fastest time since injury).  I think I did a minor calf pull as a result (apparently I have to balance distance and intensity better because I don't feel tired but my muscles give out) but enjoyed it mightily.

I had a run-in of another kind at a designer lingerie boutique.  If I was a courtesan I would shop at Zovo all the time.  They tempt you into a boudoir curtained in taffeta and bring you piles of lacy things in your size 'to try'.  I should have left my pocketbook behind but .... well, I didn't.  I think I have said enough and now have a love-hate relationship with Simone Perele.  Next time I think I will go with Trina who tells me she has low inhibitions, good taste and high standards in the lacy-bits department. 

What else?  Blegh.  Time to fetch Frost so no news about the growth of the herbs on the deck, the sudden sunshine or the plan to make s'mores tonight.  No time to draw a tableau of our fireplace, still in use in late spring or of the anticipation of easter.   Adieu till then...

Hanging outside Essential Baking

On afternoons when I fetch Wren early, we sometimes swing by the Essential Baking Company for a coookie.   Yesterday, Wren enjoyed climbing on the wall like a mountain climber.

I told him I would take a picture "for granny".  Granny has been giving me a hard time about being a fitful blogger.  Anyway, he was happy until he slipped.  Then he cursed and said he hated me - possibly because I was responsible for the situation?   Wren has very big and sensitive feelings.

Wren is so sweet...

Until he isn't.