Christmas Can't Be Far Away

Today is the day before Thanksgiving and that means it must be getting close to Christmas. This afternoon Dianne pulled out all of our Santa Claus, snowmen, stockings and other such ornaments to put in the living room.

I think that every year another half dozen or so Santas appear out of nowhere, hence these photos. Next year I'll take another set of pictures and compare...want to bet that a few more appear on our already crowded shelves?



No sign of Christmas lights, presents, eggnog or even a tree. Stay tuned, more things will show up in the next week or so I'm sure.

Now it's rest time before tomorrow's feast begins.

McDonald's and Mount Diablo

Today we had two firsts for Bew; her first visit to a McDonald's in the United States, and her first trip to the top of Mount Diablo to see the Bay area.

According to Bew, McDonald's are the same in Thailand, just that they use a lot more ketchup than we do.

Our trip up to the top of Mount Diablo was a pretty quick ride. We needed to get back fairly quickly to pick up Kira after work. Unfortunately it was fairly cloudy making the visibility poor. We couldn't see San Francisco or any of the Bay area bridges. It is always nice to get up there though and see the sites. Bew took a bunch of pictures and we've attached a few to the blog.

We wandered up to the observation area and then through the little store/museum (what exactly is it??) and then jumped into the car and headed back.

The next visit is on a clear day and we'll bring binoculars!

And One More Makes Five

Finally, tooth number five is gone. Look at that hole on the bottom left hand side of his grin; nothing but air!

Weeks of threatening to attach another string and yanking it out have come to and end. This Saturday Conner sat in the car, wiggling the tooth forward and backwards, then a little sideways and back to forward and backwards. The weapon of choice to loosen the tooth? A Nutter Butter cookie! A little more pushing, pulling and prodding and then; "Dad, I need something to wipe up all this blood, my tooth is out!".

That evening Conner decided that the tooth fairy should bring ten dollars for the effort. Conner was disappointed the next morning
:(

Bew Has Arrived From Thailand

Parker has been waiting very patiently for his new big sister to arrive. He as been very excited and talking for a week about our foreign exchange student coming to stay at our our house for the rest of the school year. He was beyond excited all day Monday and had to wait until almost 8:00 p.m. to meet her. I believe she is his new best friend. (I'm not so sure she feels the same way!) Parker insists that she sit next to him, he sits in her lap whenever possible and is thrilled that she is here.

Monday night was pleasant greetings and then hanging out with Kira and friends to watch everyone's favorite television show "Heroes".

Today was school registration; picking classes, checking out the school, getting supplies and lockers. Tomorrow is the official first day of school, for the second time this year. Bew has spent the first half semester at Oakland High School and will be finishing the year at San Ramon High School.

Lots more news to follow.

Paper Airplane Extravaganza

Today was the inaugural paper airplane "Make and Throw" contest. Winner covers the greatest distance. Of course this is just a warm up to the official competition during the Thanksgiving holiday week. Official rules and other such stuff to be decided over the next week. Details to be determined; how many planes, throws, designs, what course, inside/outside. So much planning, so little time.

I believe I need to Google "how to build a paper airplane!"

Friday Night Bingo

Friday night was bingo night at Conner's school. The event was used to raise money for various organizations at the school. For $10 you got pizza, salad, a drink, a cookie and 6 or so bingo cards. It was a great way to spend the evening.

Eating and socializing happened the first hour, and then it was on to serious bingo. There were lots of prizes for each game and they usually let 10 people or so win each of the 6 games played. You got two cards per game, so you had to pay attention and think fast.

On the very first game I managed to get the very first "Bingo" and handed the card to Conner. He jumped up and got a prize. It was our very first win after attending several of these events last year. On the second game of bingo I was the first with "Bingo" again. I handed the card to Conner and up he went again. Most of the 200-300 people did a double take when he strolled by.

Game three went to his buddy Theo sitting beside us. Game four was Dianne's turn and when Conner bolted up to claim his third prize, there was a bunch of groaning in the audience. The 20 or so people at our table were pretty happy though, because Conner won so many times, the whole table was awarded popcorn.

Our luck promptly ran out. Parker melted down and then we went home. A fun time indeed!

Nice Hat!

The water temperature at Lake Del Valle is dropping weekly. According to boaters at the launch, it was about 60 degrees today, meaning it's a few degrees cooler 50 yards out.




Roberta and I are the last of the swimmers according to the marina personnel. We now have boaters and fishermen coming up to ask us if we are the same people coming out every week (we are!). I think we've become famous as we jump off the dock and gasp/holler as we hit the water. I've now got a thermal hat, and it's time for some booties. Surprisingly the hour thirty to hour forty minutes in the water isn't that bad after three or four minutes. The first three minutes get the heart rate up pretty fast. We figure the swim is somewhere over three miles.



Not sure if we'll make it all year, but we are trying!

San Francisco Exploratorium

Today we travelled into San Francisco to visit the Exploratorium. First stop for Conner, Parker and I was the Archer family. We filled the car with Rich, Richard, Aiden, Pete, and Chris and headed out.

Richard rode shotgun and was quick with the GPS unit. I had already slugged in the address, but within minutes, Richard was toggling through screens. He even managed to find one with a bunch of statistics. Did you know the maximum speed with the Landcruiser using my GPS was 91 miles per hour? How could that be? Maybe passing someone on highway 680? Maybe Dianne is to blame :) . Anyway, I made sure we toggled passed that screen pretty fast and changed the subject.

The traffic was very light getting into the city and we managed to find a free parking spot just across the street. The Exploratorium was great for kids and adults alike. Lots of things to touch, stand on, jump on and otherwise play with. Rich and I spend half the day looking for missing children (mostly his!). The kids had a great time.

After a half day or so of wandering around, we headed out for kid friendly McDonalds and then pointed the car home. Surprising no one fell asleep, although Rich came pretty close.

Parker Likes the Blog

Parker has decided he likes this blog and wants me to post pictures, videos and stories about him. I came into the living room with my phone/camera the other day and Conner and fled screaming "Don't blog me!". Kira put her head under the blankets. Parker put on his glasses and roared with laughter. I guess I'll have to catch Conner and Kira later.

Where's Waldo?

This is my puzzle, based upon that famous book, trying to find something very small in a picture.

This morning, very early (it's Conner after all), Dianne, Conner and I were making coffee in the morning, when Conner spots a coyote just outside our fence. We've seen a couple of these critters occasionally, but this guy has been back a couple of times this week. Hopefully he likes gophers, especially the one digging up our back yard.

I snapped a bunch of pictures, but the coyote is obviously very well camouflaged. Look hard, he's down by the fence!

Karunrat Lohakup

It looks like we are going to get an exchange student after all. Everyone in the family is really looking forward to meeting her. We don't have all the details yet, but we expect her to be staying with us starting sometime around Thanksgiving. We were given a very short profile about her, which I'll post below. Conner has no problem giving up his new room for a new sister. He's been eyeing Kira's room for a while anyway, and with Kira's college less than a year away, Conner is happy to wait for a few more months. Stay tuned for more.

Highlight
Bew would consider placement with a single person or having another student from another country in the same family. If there is a family dog she would prefer it be a small dog. Like most girls her age, she enjoys shopping, although she admits that sometimes it is only window shopping. She has to keep her room tidy and she and her sister share the chore of washing vegetables. She loves to swim and ice skate, although school studies do not permit her a lot of free time. She would love to learn to snow ski. Other activities she enjoys are watching movies, reading novels, playing on the computer and listening to music. She would love to show you around Thailand and prepare "Tom Yum Goong", a dish with prawns, for you. She has dreamed of traveling around the world and learning about different cultures and traditions. With lots of foreigners coming to Thailand, she wants to be the foreigner coming to America and become more fluent in English and gain new experiences.

Parker Gets a Haircut

This was very funny to watch as Parker ventured out to get a long over due hair cut. He's got the process down now. Walk in, name on the list, sit down, grab a magazine, hear your name and jump up to the available chair. Usually he just sits there until done, and then pounces on the candy jar. This time, he was just incredibly chatty. I don't think he stopped talking until he was out the door. Not exactly sure what transpired, but he had a great time. When finished, he hopped down and asked for two candies; one for himself and one for his brother. No thanks to the balloon, that's for babies. He left smiling ear to ear. I thought he was 20 years old. Very funny indeed.

Danville Glynns Grow By One (Maybe!)

No, Dianne is not pregnant - that I know of anyway :(

We may be getting a foreign exchange student for the remainder of the school year. In late August we were contacted by a national student exchange program wanting to know if we would except a foreign student for the year. We were contacted at the tail end of the program for the new school year, and after a bunch of back and forth trying to make something work, time ran out on the application process and so we went back to our normal life again.

A couple of days ago we received a note asking if we were still interested in taking a student. There are two students in the San Francisco Bay area in the program that are in need of moving to new homes. One student is with a temporary family and the other is with a home that has suffered a major medical issue and needs to be moved.

We have agreed to take either one of them. The exchange program is now trying to figure out if Kira's high school, San Ramon Valley High School, will allow them to transfer in.

We haven't heard back, but if the outcome is positive, we may have a new family member from either Japan or Thailand by Thanksgiving.

We'll keep you posted!