File this under: Things My Children Have Stolen from Other People's Houses
(L to R) Mickey, stolen from rented house in Twain Harte (better make sure Sarah still got the whole deposit back), Kaia (named by Nikos) and Baby Rabbit (also Nikos) from Grammy and Pop-Pop's.
Mickey and Baby Rabbit were both smuggled in Olive's little paws, while Nikos was responsible for the theft of Kaia. Note that I didn't include any pics of the stuff they have pilfered from Mel's house...that would make the post a LOT longer.
I thought it may turn out to be a L-O-N-G day since I resorted to a bath to kill time at 8:30 AM!
After Olive's 3.5 hour nap (9-12:30) we had lunch and then I decided to venture over to the Y to take advantage of their childcare program (for the first time.) Sadly they closed at 2:30 so I needed to do a quick workout!
Hello elliptical!
After a quick half hour workout ( calorie burnoff = approx 1/2 maitai) we headed over to Habitot.
Giant astronaut backpack.
Face painting by Nikos.
Budding artist (with pink heart facepaint by me & abstract blue blob by N.)
Trains are always a big hit.
At the car wash.
In the garden.
We packed in a lot of fun...now I just have to fit in some time to clean the house!
Not for the squeamish. My athletic career may come to a screeching halt. 40 miles turned my feet into a warzone. My toes look like mincemeat. I had blisters on all five on my right foot and three of my left. And these blisters were not messing around. Both pinky and second toe blisters were on the underside of the toe, on top of the toe, as well as on the very end of it, causing those toes to almost double in length. Disgusting. Tonight, when I attempted to again cut the toenails (since I am terrified they may catch on something - even though they are short) my entire right pinky toenail came off, along with half the skin on my toe. Honestly revolting. If I could describe it as a smell -- mind you, it does not smell -- I would describe it as the smell in the room at those hot yoga classes. At least the one I went to. I mean, I am horrified by the sight of it. This little piggy is definitely going wee wee wee all the way home. :(
Wow, I am ridiculously behind on blogposts. I planned on using my 9 hour train ride (x2!) to blog until my hearts content. Unfortunately, the free wifi that is deceptively (at least in my view) offered is only available in the parlor car which is only accessible to the sleeper cars. Boo Amtrak. What sucks more is they don't even offer the option to purchase the wifi, which I would have gladly done. So, here I go trying to get the monkeys off my back.
Olive hit 18 months last Saturday. Crazy. Also super crazy to think that when Nikos was her age I was due with Olive in 3 months. Yikes.
Here's the shot.
Baby was a new addition to the photoshoot. Olive is lovin her baby right now!
And here's a full body one so you can get a better idea of her size versus Opa Taki Bear.
Can't wait for her doctor's appointment in a few weeks so we can get her measurements and see where she's on the charts!
You know those cool new commercials that advertise the fact that you can deposit your check at Chase by taking a picture of it and then sending it to the bank? How cool is that, right? Well apparently an integral part of this process is destroying the check afterwards. Why so necessary, you ask? Let me give you a hypothetical.
Wife: texts husband from Santa Barbara, suggesting he use nifty new deposit feature to deposit whopping $15 class action lawsuit check received in the mail. Husband: radio silence Wife: walks 40 miles and forgets about it
Several days later... Aforementioned couple are sitting on the couch watching the Giants/Dodgers game when another cool check commercial comes on tv. Husband: "Oh, I did that the other day." Wife: "You did what?" Husband: "I deposited your check using my phone like you asked me to do." Wife: "Shit. You never told me that." Husband: "I didn't? Why, what's wrong." Wife: "I cashed the check at my credit union today." Husband: "Oh. Huh. I guess I should have destroyed it." Wife: "And not just left it on the table? Huh."
Yes, so I guess we...I mean the hypothetical couple in this story...are now bank fraud perpetrators. Great. I mean, I partly blame stupid Chase for a) having their website be down ALL YESTERDAY and most of today - thus not allowing one to check the balance of their account and b) for letting the check be cashed. Hello?
I guess one of us will be making some calls tomorrow to try and avoid the warrant issue. My bet's on the fact that it will be the same person calling the Emeryville Amtrak station every other day to see if their freaking i.d. has shown up. I mean, does someone really think that they can use that i.d. to get into bars?? Not gonna happen. When you look naked in your pic (with great hair no less) the bouncer is going to pay way more attention to you.
Here's a little narrative of the start our adventure - written on the laptop on the train ride down to Santa Barbara, before I realized that there was no wireless available (at least for the laptop) and no way to post it...
Our Avon Walk for Breast Cancer is almost here.Mel came out to our house last night and spent the night, since we were catching Amtrak fairly early for the 9 hour train ride down to Santa Barbara. After chatting for a little while we both went to bed. I was so proud of myself for finishing all of my packing before I went to bed, so I didn’t have to wake up in a panic in the morning. To top it off, I woke up (not too tired!) before my alarm went off in the morning and jumped in the shower. Mel and I were ready to leave the house on time, we jumped in the car at 7:40 (our exact intended departure time) and left Taki with one cranky and throwing up Nikos (??) and one waffle-munching Olive.Time to Train Arrival: 40 minutes
We drove over to Emeryville and realized we had enough time to stop at Starbucks. We ordered our food and promptly got back in the car with our grandes (chai for me, toffee mocha for Mel.) Wake up early, all packed and time for coffee? I have to be honest I was getting a little cocky here. Time to Train Arrival: 20 minutes
Time to Train Arrival: 12 minutes We find the Amtrak parking lot and pick a space not too far from the station. I had visited the website the night before and found it to be extremely UNhelpful in terms of parking instructions, so I figured I would play it by ear once we got there. The pay-to-park machine gives me the option for Hours or Days. Perfect! I select 4 days (@ $20 a day – gulp!) and punch in spot 74. It tells me ONE DAY MAXIMUM. Yes in all caps. WTF I respond. Again in all caps. Why would you give the option for dayS if you can only select ONE day. Blah. I select one day and pay for it, figuring I will need to call Taki to see if he can move the car tomorrow. I grab the printed ticket - you know, the one with the exact time that I plan on returning to my car printed on the front of it so the thief knows exactly how much time they have to rob me - and place it in my car.
Time to Train Arrival: 8 minutes We walk over to the station entrance and survey our surprisingly-devoid-of-helpful-signs surroundings. I spot the little fast ticket machine, scan the barcode I have and it spits out our tickets. We wonder outside, vaguely hoping we will find some sort of signage and/or helpful employee to point us in the right direction.
Time to Train Arrival: 6 minutes The platform is swarming with security and police officers, including a pair of head-to-toe neongreen-jumpsuited atv-riding officers. I glance around for the probable reason on why we have just been thrust into the center of a Ludlum novel. Hmm, no Jolie-Pitts, no terrorists, nobody juggling some sort of radioactive bead necklace – at least to my untrained eye.I mention to Melanie that maybe they thought the San Bruno fires were an act of terrorism or something? Proving how fast rumors start, the girl in front of us turns around and says “The San Bruno explosions were caused by terrorists??” Before she can turn around and alert her friends I quickly explain that I was just trying to figure out the extra security. She looks at me like I have just fallen off the spinach truck (or is it turnip??) and says that she assumed it was just due to tomorrow being September 11th. Ohhh riiight. I decide to quickly extricate myself from the situation and walk over to one of the police officers to ask him if he knows anything about parking at the station. (Because that is what he is here for right, parking? Ha. Hopefully he hadn’t talked to his colleagues outside the Emeryville Starbucks to ascertain that I had already utilized their skills for directions to the station.) He informs me that when you take a train ride somewhere you don’t have to pay for parking, that when you get your ticket the agent should give you a pass for your car. AhHH? I zoom into the station for said pass.
Time to Train Arrival: 2 minutes The not-winning-employee-of-the-month station agent scribbles me a pass and I race out to the lot. I quickly announce to the thief the new deadline time to break into/borrow my car – September 13th! – and sprint back to the track.
Time to Train Arrival: Oh right, it is here. I find Mel on the platform (apparently asking the guy how long the train waits at the station) and gather up all of my stuff. After picking up my Starbucks drink, Starbucks coffecake, train ticket, i.d, phone, sleeping bag, giant backpack and laptop bag I lumber down the side of the tracks with Mel. Since we are sitting in the coach cars we have the privilege of getting to talk down to the end of the platform (about 8 cars) before we can board. Luckily at the other end we do not need to show our tickets. We board the train and find our seats, stowing our luggage and settling in. Conveniently I waited until we had already left the station to discover my i.d. was missing. After scouring everything on the train it quickly became apparent that my i.d. had been lost somewhere between when I picked up my items on the platform and boarded the train. I called the Emeryville station and spoke to the same agent who had given me the pass earlier. No luck so far.
