Tahoe Meadows

Late yesterday afternoon, we decided to head up to Tahoe Meadows to do the little 1.3 mile interpretive trail with the kids. For some reason they never seem to remember doing it, though we've been up to it 3 or 4 times. Anyway, it's best explained with pictures...


Julien, heading off down the trail...


And reading EVERY WORD on the trail signs.


"Come on, let's go..."


Following mommy...


Aspiring trail runner. (Hardly.)


Nice rock seat for a rest.

Last week

Had a pretty eventful week last week. I took Monday-Thursday off work to hang out with Julien, who didn't have any kind of summer program going on. Monday we Basically played with birthday stuff - lots of Legos, and a tin can robot. Tuesday we went to the water park and got sunburned despite slathering with sunscreen. Wednesday we hit some golf balls at the driving range and putted for awhile,

and Thursday we saw a movie (Space Chimps - Julien seemed to like it, but I wasn't so impressed. Spoiled by Pixar and Dreamworks for the animated movies these days...) Thurday night Julien slept over at some friends house, and went up to Lake Tahoe on Friday with them. So, yeah - pretty busy week for the Jooge.


Eventful day yesterday, too - Saturday morning errands included buying a new TV, since our 6-year old model decided to die last week. Ended up with a 37" LCD that sure makes DVDs and the Wii look awesome. Of course, our antennae reception is still pretty bad, but we don't really watch network TV too much. Just golf on weekends...

Midday took us to Sid's first birthday party - wonderful food, as always at the Tiar's house. Sid enjoyed a cupcake, and Lola and Sofia had some cake, too...





In the late afternoon, we spontaneously decided to head up for a hike at Tahoe Meadows. Seperate post about that...

My Mercedes is Not For Sale

My Mercedes is Not for Sale: From Amsterdam to Ouagadougou...An Auto-Misadventure Across the Sahara by Jeroen Van Bergeijk

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Short but interesting book about a man who decides to drive an older model Mercedes across north Africa to sell - not an uncommon trip, apparently. Learned quite a bit about the car trade in Europe and Africa, and about Africa itself. I love non-fiction like this - something I'll never experience myself, presented interestingly and thoughtfully.


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Go-go Girls of the Apocalypse

Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse by Victor Gischler

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I grabbed this because of the cover blurb that read "part Christopher Moore, part Quentin Tarantino..." - Kind of lived up to that, I guess. Kind of a twisted, kooky post-apocalypse where the main businesses are bootleggers and strip clubs. Fast moving and fun, if not a super-valuable contribution to the body of post-apocalyptic literature...


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Ridiculous Race

Got a couple of books backed up to review here...

The Ridiculous Race by Steve Hely

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I wasn't too sure what to expect from this book, but Steve and Vali had me laughing from the start. These guys are creative enough that I wondered a couple of times if they actually made the trip, or were just conjuring it up out of their imaginations. Great stories, funny guys, and a fun travelogue.


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Lego Birthday Cake

I read a bunch of geek parent and baking blogs, and had seen this meme go by a few times, so I was excited to try it out. I started with a double batch of fudge cake (from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook) baked in two loaf pans. Froze them for a couple of days for ease of working, then leveled them and got ready to go:



Set them up on a tray and started frosting. Red first:



Then blue, then stacked the yellow one on top:



Then figured out how to make the studs on top - marshmallows, cut in half and "finger-frosted" worked perfect.



Then it was just some more studs, and some filling in and smoothing:


(Don't know why that one won't rotate...)

I think it was enjoyed...

Julien's 7th birthday party

We couldn't really decide what to do for Julien's birthday this year - he isn't super excited about any one thing, likes to do a little of everything - and we ended up with the idea of a Lego themed birthday. Invited a few friends, and prepared for a great time. There was trampolining:



Water balloon hijinks:


(Water balloon filling the hard way...)


(Sweet sibling-rivalry revenge)

And dress-up.



Had some great food - a hamburger bar and a couple kinds of salads, with Lego jello for the kids. Moved inside and opened some presents:





And finally, the Lego cake. That'll be another post by itself...



Fun times had by all.

Bringing Home the Birkin

Bringing Home the Birkin: My Life in Hot Pursuit of the World's Most Coveted Handbag by Michael Tonello

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Fun, fun book. Michael Tonello falls into selling high-end fashion on ebay, and somehow ends up specializing in Hermes. Scarves at first, then purses - and wow, $5000-20000 purses. In a personable, chatty style, he tells the story of traveling around the world searching out these purses, and the relationships he has with the people that buy them. Very interesting stuff.


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Lost on Planet China

Lost on Planet China: The Strange and True Story of One Man's Attempt to Understand the World's Most Mystifying Nation, or How He Became Comfortable Eating Live Squid by J. Maarten Troost

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
A little different than Troost's previous books (in which he was writing about places he lived, as opposed to just traveling through), he spends enough time in China that you do get a fair feel for some of the country. An honest and funny travel book; the best kind.


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By Hook or by Crook

By Hook or By Crook by David Crystal

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was indeed "A journey in search of English." David Crystal takes us on a rambling trip around the countryside near the Welsh/English border, riffing on history, linguistics, popular culture, and whatever else pops into his head. It's fascinating and fun. I'm glad I'll never have to travel with him, though - with all the stories he has to tell, we wouldn't get anywhere.


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Sway

Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
These "explain a complex field" (like psychology of irrational behavior) using anecdotes and popular writing is a hit or miss genre for me. Seems like it's really hard to do it well. Like Malcolm Gladwell's books, though, Sway does a very good job. Very readable, interesting and fun.


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Mysterious Montague

The Mysterious Montague: A True Tale of Hollywood, Golf, and Armed Robbery by Leigh Montville

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Nice combination of golf book, Hollywood heyday of the 1930s, and historical true crime a la Erik Larson's Devil in the White City. Interesting coverage of post-prohibition celebrity trial.


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Off The Deep End

Off the Deep End by W. Hodding Carter

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
W. Hodding Carter decides, in mid-life, to revisit his college swimming career and try to qualify for the Beijing Olympics. This is the story of his training, adventures, successes and failures. Funny and inspiring in a misguided, quixotic way...


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Nature walk

We got out for a little walk with the kids this morning, before the heat of the day, at a Northwest Reno park called Dorostkar Park. We hadn't really been to this park before, but it turned out to have a really cool little nature walk on an island-ey kind of thing between the main part of the Truckee River and a side channel. Here's the bridge over the channel to the start of the trail:



Julien got to see some interesting plants:



And he insisted we take a picture of this cool grass:



We also found this big clump of bees inside a bush. Not sure what was going on with that, but they were really interested in whatever was in there. Click on this picture to enlarge and see the bees, it's worth it...



Sofia was dawdling, and I hung out with her...



But that let me take some fun pictures of her, like on the bridge crossing back over:



And on a rock with a stick back near the car. Very entertaining, that rock and stick...

Cookie

Our friend Anju brought over her new cockapoo puppy (named Cookie), and Sofia made an immediate friend. Seriously. How cute is that?