Parentheticals

Last Sunday we had a game day at Caitlin and Sal's house. We played a game that Jay brought (which we enjoyed, but whose name we can't seem to recall), as well as multiple games of Resistance. It ended very late in the evening, but it was very fun. Since Sunday night it was really cold, we decided on Monday that we would pick the grapes that are at the park near our house. When we went over to pick the grapes on Monday, then we discovered that the grapevines were all dried out. It looked as if the previous owners of the grapevines decided that they were done taking care of the grape vines. Sad. On Tuesday Allison and the kids went to the natural history museum because Timmy wanted to go really really really really bad. Rea did some research into the Native tribes of this area and now wants to learn beading as her next handicraft. Timmy liked looking at dinosaur bones and digging in the play quarry. We managed to leave on time to get to nature group, which was extra fun beca...

On Tuesday Alison and the kids went up to silver lake for their nature group. It was rather cold down here, so Alison rustled up all of the cold weather layers that weren't packed away and put them on the kids. Then they got up there and it was snowing, and she realized that it was not enough. Sara has not outgrown her inability to deal with cold. Despite her warm clothes and carrying around a hot sweet potato she was miserable within half an hour. Then Timmy started whining too, and Gideon (just because everyone else was.) It was not the most successful nature group ever. On Wednesday Alison came down with a cold, and in an attempt to get better faster before the primary program she tried to eat no grains nor dairy the entire time. She got better in two days, so it seems to have been successful (or maybe it was just a blessing). On Friday we went to the Stromberg's house for dinner. The kids played, and the parents talked, and it was very fun. I dropped off the 3d prin...

Monday night we got a new goat named Olive. She is a LaMancha. She is much the same color as Lala was, and only a little bit taller. She is producing about a half a gallon a day, and she is so quiet. We are very happy with her so far. We have started making yogurt again, as well as cheeses. Tuesday Alison went to the midwife and found out that she is Group B Strep negative. She was positive the last two babies we had and so had to get 4 hours' worth of IV antibiotics while in labor. She is really excited about not having to go to the midwife so early on our new baby's birthday. She has been eating a lot of probiotic foods to try and make sure that would be so. Tuesday night Mike went to another game design meeting. It was fun, and he played a cool new game. Wednesday was Rea's date night, and we watched "My Little Ponies: the Movie" (which is the movie with "Nothing can stop the smooze" in it). It was fun, and we had a good time. Thursday Ali...

It rained a lot last weekend, so the kids had a great time seeing how the creek changed due to the weather patterns. We all love Forest Kindergarten, even if we don't have anyone joining us right now. Alison is holding off inviting people more because this baby might come at any point (even though he's not due for three and a half weeks). Thursday we picked more grapes. The kids did a good job of staying on task this time, and they got a lot of grapes in the box. Rea enjoyed climbing up the fence to get the grapes. They have been eating them since. Mike also found a website  to generate planet images. He will use this in creating his games. He is really working hard to try to get them done before December. On Friday we went to a play: Drac Man vs Superior Man. It was one of the plays at the Off Broadway Theatre Utah. It was in their usual style: silly jokes and a light story. They had a few parts where they totally went off of the script and ended up improvising a whole...

Sara was extremely fussy last night. She kept waking up and crying. Either she is getting new teeth (which she seems to get in droves (which would explain the amount that she seemed to have been affected by it)), or her mild appearing diaper rash (which doesn't seem that bad) is bothering her. This morning I picked her up and brought her into the bed. Alison talked to her. "Is your bum hurting?" "hurt?" "does your bum say 'ouch'" "ouch?" Sara sat there a while thinking and then said "tombé" (which means 'fallen' in french (and which we use whenever she falls and gets hurt)) in an explanatory sort of voice. She has been so talkative lately. Mostly it is babbling, but she also mimics a lot and says real words too. Rea is also improving her ability to talk. Yesterday Alison was changing Sara's diaper and Rea said "Rea is doing something very kind.  Rea is aiding mommy in dealing with the poopy couche...

This week I started up a genetic algorithm that is supposed to learn how to play dominion well. As of yet I haven't even got to the part where it could even play a game of dominion, however I hope to do that soon. This last weekend we cleaned up, and then fired up the grill that Alison found for me. We cooked (and burnt horribly) some hot dogs on Saturday, and also cooked up some pizzas with Sheila and Scott Sunday afternoon. Pizzas on the grill ended up being pretty good, though they were thicker than I would have liked. Sheila brought over some orange bell peppers that added a nice flavor, and we used some spicy pepperoni from Cys Market (which was great). One of the pizzas was curry flavored, one was a 4 meats pizza, one was veggie, and the other was a little of everything. Scott and I played some dominion. He defeated me by a large margin with a better deck the first time (He just had more golds than I did - it is not like we played that different a strategy), a...

We went to the doctors this morning, and got to see some pictures of the baby. The technician says that it is going to be a girl. Looking at the images, I couldn't tell (but that is what they were trained to do, so I will have to trust them.) This weekend we ate two oyster mushrooms from our mushroom log. Alison says that mushrooms do not do much for her, but the flavor of these ones was so good that she liked them a lot. On Saturday we also went to the park and cut some grape vine clippings. We planted some in buckets in our house, and all the rest in the back yard. Hopefully they will grow well. The power company sent some guys out to cut our tree last year, and the tree is obviously dying. It's bark is falling off, and it didn't grow very many leaves last year. I think that we will have to cut off the tall branches, and inoculate the stump with more oyster mushrooms (just to be sure). At least we will then get to eat the tree even if we can'...