Chess Masters

We went through a somehwat short lived Chess phase around here - mostly the non-me members of the household. I don't think it was soley due to the influence of The Queen's Gambit but I can't say that it was uninfluential, either. In any case, I will let you all make up the story of what's going on here. I think the pictures speak for themselves.

Happy 11th Birthday, Amity!

It remains to be seen, but it's possible that Amity could end up with the last true pandemic birthday™ among us. More likely, however, it'll be Wes with the lucky and special opportunity for a two-fer. However, since his birthday is in April, the outdoor opportunities should present at least something semi-social, and likely musical.

But back to Amity, the birthday kid of the hour! She organized her own birthday zoom where she and a bunch of friends played Kahoot and Telestrations and some other party games. She brought homemade cookies so her winter soccer team could celebrate 6+ feet away from each other (after a commanding win, like all the other games this season), and today she brought ice cream sandwiches (in winter?!) to celebrate at school since the pandemic has brought a no homemade and must be individually pre-packaged caveat to birthday treats. It was a delayed start d/t snow on Sunday, so we had the opportunity for full family breakfast before school. We capped off our celebration with Brazos Tacos and the customary chocolate cake (topped with spray cream and berries, per birthday kid specs).

Happiest of birthdays to our gregarious, empathetic, snuggly, sassy, curious, animal-loving, musical, hilarious, kind, and joyful kiddo. Love you bunches!

It's my birthday....

Toonces: TNG

Watch out, world! Z's got her learner's permit, and she knows how to use it! After the initial terror of having my 15.5 year old behind the wheel subsided, it's been pretty great. She's already logged almost 15 hours behind the wheel and she's slowly becoming competent enough that riding with her is, dare i say, somewhat enjoyable?

Keeping up with a little sib's responsibilty a la their Uncle Brian, Amity will occasionally scream very unsupportive things (eg. we're gonna crash! we're all gonna die!) but has actualy been a real champ about pausing the conversation when more concentration for Z (or the adult teaching) is warrated.

MOVIES!

It's a bit decadent, sure, but if it helps movie theatres and as a side effect I get to blissfully lose myself in the big screen for a few hours, I'm all for it. Along with out good buddies the Tobiases (the main family we've been hanging with since, oh, March?) we rented a 187 seat theatre for the most private of private showings of WW84. Much fun ensued.

Christmas Traditions

I have maintained for years that we don't celebrate Christmas, and this is of course true. Some of us are Jewish, and some of us are... not...thing. However, Amity has recently pointed out that I'm wrong, and as it turns out, she's right. We do have Christmas traditions, and even celebrate Christmas... just not in the way most people tend to think of it. My reflexive "no" is based on a certain kind of socio-culturally dominant Christmas (trees, decorations, family gatherings, presents, etc) but we have a pretty robust tradition of our own. Pictured here is the end of the Christmas run, which we started back in the early aughts b/c gyms were closed and also we had the streets to ourselves - it was originally the run down Main street in Ann Arbor run but as since morphed a bit. Other traditions include movie(s) (virtual this year, typically in the theatre though), Chinese food, and some combo of board games/puzzles/video games. Usually a big post-run breakfast, too. So yeah, I guess I'll work on that one for next year.

You can't just play the simple songs

Wes has a classical guitar, which Zara's picked up a few times and can amazingly play very well considering she doesn't really play guitar... but we figured it would be easier/better to get her an acoustic, which we did, for Chanukah. Glen's been hella inspirtational (see esp the last few months of livestreams he's been doing 3x a week since the pandemic started), and of course Carbon Leaf, especially Terry, has always been an influence.

Of course now that she's rocking her acoustic she's already jonesing for an electric. Here's hoping she'll be able to (safely) make music with some people outside of our house before too long.

Chanukah 2020

 How it started:

How it's going:

The ninjas are deadly and slient....

Looks like Amity needs a black mask to complete her school day ninja look....

Open Air Session

When the weather's amenable you might find musicians (and the occasional resident dancer) playing their 6+ feet apart masks for those who don't have wind instruments hearts our in our driveway. Pandemics are rough, and music makes it better.