Where did everyone go?

It's been kind of a quiet June on the blog, and for that I apologize.

Currently, Cate and the kids are visiting Patty at the Jersey Shore. I hear they're having a good time and loving the water. They also visited the Philadelphia Zoo and the Franklin Institute.

I'm still in Minneapolis. I auditioned for and got into the Minnesota Chorale, which sings with the Minnesota Orchestra in Orchestra Hall downtown and all sorts of good stuff, so if I had gone, I'd have missed the first two or three rehearsals for our Aida concert in August. I'd have been pretty royally screwed. Luckily, there were good airfares and they could fly instead of us all driving.

The kids spent their last days in Lake Harriet school a couple weeks ago. We'll be putting both Elizabeth and Robert in Bloomington public schools next year. Elizabeth got into Dimensions Academy, a gifted and talented program that is at one of the junior highs. We feel pretty fortunate that she got in, since the program starts when kids enter fourth grade and there aren't many spots that open up after that.

Hope you and yours are doing well and enjoying the beginning of summer.

A birthday for Robert

We had friends over to celebrate Robert's birthday today, and although it was the first rainy day in six weeks, we grilled anyway.

Cate had already come up with the idea of doing pizzas on the grill, and although I had never attempted such a thing, we went for it. The Taste section in Thursday's Star Tribune wrote about making pizza on the grill, too, so it seems we weren't the only ones thinking about it.

Cate and my mom assembled this massive list of possible toppings: Pepperoni, chicken, homemade Italian sausage, Neil's fresh basil, tomatoes, mushrooms, black olives, peach chutney, anchovies, roasted garlic, hummus. Then, all of these grilled vegetables: red peppers, poblano peppers, scallions, red onion, leeks and pineapple. Also, fresh and shredded mozzarella, and tomato sauce.

Process was a little slow, but basically every pizza came out great. It was a cold, wet day outside and we went four kids pizzas at a time, then two individual grown-up pizzas at once. Neil was in charge of rolling out dough and I was in charge of grilling. Guests were in charge of selecting their own toppings and for the most part, I assembled them and cooked them. We had the grill on fairly low, cooked the crust for 4-5 minutes, flipped and put the toppings on, then cooked until the cheese melted.

It was nearly two hours in front of the grill, all told. And I saw some great combinations of toppings go by. Elizabeth had black olives, red peppers, pineapple and red onions. I saw something with sausage, chicken, basil, tomatoes, a veggie or two and just a sprinkling of cheese. A handful without tomato sauce. Just cool stuff. We would definitely do this again. (Ryan's photos included here.)

And when the group got big and involved some newcomers, we went with name tags. Ryan's girlfriend and her daughter were there, as well as friends of ours that hadn't been exposed to the whole group yet. People were named, and most of them labeled. To wit:

Robert: Birthday boy
Cate: Patrick's wife, Birthday boy's mom
Elizabeth: Robert's awesome sister
Colleen: (Not sure, though she is certainly awesome as well.)
Mom: Nonna, mother of the brood
Neil: Neil
Alicia: Alicia
Amelia: Mom Alicia, Dad Neil
Ryan: I don't know, but I later saw it stuck on his forehead.
Jennifer: Colleen's godmother
Kyle: Belongs to Jennifer (I hear Jennifer wrote this)
Cate: Just the first and last name
Max: Just the first and last name
Carrie: Friend of Patrick (the world-traveling soprano -- my label, not theirs)
Charley: Journalist (I didn't write this personally but when I refer to Carrie and Charley around the house it's as "our soprano and journalist friends")
Lindsey: Lindsey
Jazmine: Jaz, Jazzy

Robert received cool stuff, a couple of things which I'll spotlight: Finally, his own poncho, which Cate crocheted for him; a kite from the Jensens (he has been dying to fly a kite for a long time); bases for the backyard from Ryan; a crocheted creation from Neil and Alicia; a crystal mining set from Nonna and Da.

And no pony, no moon bounce, no Chuck-E Cheese, great 7-year-old birthday. Thanks, all, for coming and sharing an otherwise dreary day with us!

Farewell, sweet Nissan

It's been across the country three times and been on its last legs for more than a year, but it took an inattentive driver to finally put our 2000 Nissan Sentra out of commission.

Not our driver, of course, but the idiot who couldn't read a green arrow. Or read a green arrow he didn't actually have.

The car was drivable, of course, but it doesn't take much damage to total a nine-year-old car with 113,132 miles on it. Once the frame was bent, that was all she wrote. That and the check State Farm wrote, that is, which might have been the book value but was far more than we ever could have gotten on the street.

I had to pour power steering fluid into the car every couple of months because it had a slow leak. The air conditioning stopped working in 2007, maybe 2006. CD player hasn't worked in more than a year. The trunk couldn't be released from inside the car. The remote car locks stopped working. The headlights were dimming.

And we'd just decided to bite the bullet and put new tires on it and replace the battery last November.

This was the car, if you remember, that I wasn't sure would make it to Minnesota. We pondered selling it before leaving Virginia, and even when we decided to move it, we didn't pack anything essential in it, thinking that we might have to abandon it on the side of the road in Indiana somewhere. But it got here. And it lived outside all winter, but never once did it fail to start, even on the coldest days of the year.

We're going to try the one-car life for a little while, anyway. It's been almost a week so far, and I've been working at home a lot. The house is pretty crowded, though, and about to get more crowded with school out soon, so I don't know how long that will last. So we'll be shopping.

Last day as a 6-year-old

Robert and I went to a Twins game Wednesday night as an early birthday present. He loves to go on the moon bounce that's outside the Metrodome before we go in to the game, so we headed over there. We were surprised to find this sign next to it.

Last chance!

The game wasn't nearly as fun, nor were our neighbors as interesting as the last time Robert and I went to a game, but we still had a good time. Robert was much more into watching the game itself this time, and since we had seats upper deck behind home plate, the game laid out right in front of him, much better than deep in left field.

But I think the $25 a ticket was more than I've ever paid for a regular-season baseball game.

Happy Birthday, Robert! Hard to believe he's going to be 7!

The dangers of a reading child

Cate and Colleen were in Creative Kids Stuff earlier this afternoon, and they had some books on sale. So, naturally, Colleen wanted one.

"No, Colleen," Cate said, as she relates the story. "It's a workbook."

The workbooks are basically homework exercises. Elizabeth and Robert have been through many a workbook in the past few years.

"But Mom," Collen said, "it says 'preschool' on it and I'm going into preschool next year."

Next thing you know, she'll know how to spell, too, and we'll have to change how we talk around her even more.