Author: Mikey

The weekend at the cabin ended very well in my opinion. Michael skied a half day, came back to the cabin and we strapped on some new skis to Calliope and played in the snow for a while before heading down the hill back to home. It was a perfect ending to a frustrating weekend. I won’t even begin to tell you about the fight Calliope put up on Saturday night putting her to bed. Whew! Anyways, I had a big meeting in Guerneville on Monday that I needed to be thinking about. I already have had (too) many conversations with Michael to make sure he was ok watching Calliope all day even though he was meant to be working. He made it clear that it just meant he would have to make it up in the early mornings or in the evenings this week. And I told him it was not going to be a regular occurrence, we just haven’t secured a babysitter in the area, or daycare etc… which I have almost nailed down. He reminded me that if I asked again next week, the answer would be no. Ok already, fine. I’ll figure it out, just don’t yell at me if you don’t like the way I figure it out! Hahahaha… cracking myself up… Besides, I was getting a day off. For those of you who have yet to be a parent, or those parents who work a regular job, you know not what I speak of… Everyday, I clean, cook and take care of a little one. That is my real job, period. I don’t often get breaks from it and it can wear on ya just a bit sometimes. Even vacations are a lot of the same thing. I still have to be constantly on alert, watchful, loving, teaching, correcting, saving my child from sure death. And while I would never trade it, change it or give it up, I still have bad days, just like anyone else at their regular day job. I’m sure this has been said before, but it sounds revolutionary to me. I’ve never heard anyone say it before. Moving on. So, a meeting at La Boulange with a client over a bowl of mocha (yes, a bowl!) flipping through pictures on my iPad and him on his mini iPad, a drive to Guerneville to meet with a contractor to review a door and window schedule for a proposed house, a drive over the Golden Gate Bridge to San Francisco to meet with more clients to deliver beautiful furniture, and a nice meal in between at Super Duper with a pint of beer sounds like a lovely day off from being a parent. I suppose it wasn’t all that much fun. I did have to prepare like crazy for that meeting at La Boulange, and if you think builders actually like cute gay little interior designers “helping” them make decisions about a house they are building, then wow. It can be near impossible for them to take anything you say seriously, so my job becomes far more complicated (the interior designer side job). Not only do I have to provide my client with sound advice on the aesthetic decisions, I have to make nice (kiss ass) royally to someone who doesn’t want to be any where near a faggot and convince him thoroughly that I am not out to screw him (financially or otherwise) with my sway over the client and that I actually have done this before a few million times and know what I’m doing. Its rather nerve racking to be honest. Not all builders fit this description, and this one I met on Monday in particular was not bad. Especially once he realized that I was just trying to keep some focus on the objectives of the day and get decisions made, because he can’t do diddly until these decisions get made. And decisions we made, left and right. It was a good meeting, a success on all fronts. Then as I had some time between my unhealthy, but very satisfying meal, and my next meeting, I decided to cruise Market street with no real destination in mind. That is when I found this most delightful object, a small mushroom stool. Just the perfect size for Miss Calliope. I had to get it and so I did. Bought it right on the spot and carried it some four or five blocks back to my parking spot, ever so proud to be in the city carrying a large mushroom down the street.

I finished my day off with a brilliant meeting that went longer than expected but yielded some unexpected, successful results. And because it was so late, I got home across the Bay Bridge in record time. I love the lack of traffic. I don’t loathe heavy traffic, its when I get some good thinking done. But its great when you can just fly all the way home. The only thing holding back my ecstatic mood was me. I felt really bad that Michael had to take care of Calliope all day while I gallavanted around. I just couldn’t let myself enjoy the day, a day that I deserve and planned and negotiated. And to make it worse, Michael had not yet recovered fully from his upsetting bedtime with Calliope (anyone see a pattern here?) when I rolled in. However, in full glory, I told him how much I appreciated him covering for me today. That despite my gorgeously successful day, I felt guilty and not so good about it all. And well, being the angel that he is, he set me straight, reminded me that he loves me, that while it wasn’t an ideal way to handle our situation, it was our best solution at the moment and that we work together as a team to get through life and that was what we did today. It turns out he had a wonderful day with his daughter, a really good day despite the bedtime shenanigans. And that makes me happy.

Yesterday, I realized they released another expansion to the online Carcassonne ap! Therefore, I didn’t get much done which was fine since I was with Calliope at the cabin while Michael was skiing all day. And since I didn’t figure out some good snow boots or jacket for Calliope before we came, there was not a lot we could do outside of the cabin. Calliope got a healthy dose of cartoons on TV which she never watches.
Today is more of the same except Michael is going to ski half a day and come home and then we are going to go play in the snow somewheres! Last night when Michael got home, we went to the store and found some snow boots (pink!) and a snow jacket (mostly black with pink, blue and yellow flowers) and some strap on skis (pink!). Boy did that set us back a couple bucks. But we are looking forward to getting her on the skis…. I’ll try and remember to take a photo and post it later.
In the meantime, here is a pic of the cabin. Its not high end or anything, just comfortable. This year when we arrived, the first thing I noticed was the kitchen. It had been remodeled. It wasn’t done well or anything, but at least there are solid countertops instead of old tile with grout that is falling out. I was so relieved when I saw it that I gave out an audible sigh. I have to say that I’m not super thrilled to hang out in the cabin on weekends with Calliope while Michael is skiing. But I know how much it means to him and I just can’t say no. One of the things I’ve been doing as a way to enjoy the cabin more is to cook for everyone so when they are done with a full day of skiing, they come home to a hot cooked meal. I like it and it makes me feel useful. Calliope and I go to the grocery store and come up with some ideas based on what we see there. The remodel of the kitchen makes it just that much better. A day will come (not this year) when we will take Calliope to Alpine with us and she can take classes and we (all of we) can ski for at least half a day.

Ahhhh, here it is. The moment we have all been waiting for… Christmas Morning… I’m probably repeating myself here but just want to say that it was a lovely time we had in New York during the holidays this year. We don’t normally see family during the holidays because of the travel required, but this year we made a special trip out to see Michael’s family in upstate NY. It was the right time, the right year to do it and we are happy to have been able to share such good memories with family. Here is a shot of the princess in her new dress and boots from Omi, which she wore for Christmas morning. So adorable. I couldn’t have dressed her better myself! And just like her Chochie Queen of the universe, (Jennifer Ann Bilyk) she knows how to pose for the camera. Don’t you know we all felt special in her presence that morning as she was spoiled beyond belief with gift after gift. Much love, much fun, and great memories.

I’m in a fowl mood today so I decided to look through some recent photos and post something from there, which I do often, but today it is a necessity!
And here it is, one of two dresses that I bought for Calliope for the holiday season that will likely be handed down to Nechesa or Camille and that Calliope only wore once. But isn’t it just the cutest in the world and doesn’t she look so grown up?!

Obviously, you can’t quite see the full dress here, but I don’t have a great picture of her smiling and the full length / beauty of the dress, so you will have to settle for two pictures! You can’t even see her face in this one, but look at that hair 🙂 And all that sparkle!

I specifically asked Omi (german I believe for grandma) to get Calliope a more grown up tea set for Christmas this year and this is the set that she got, which I love dearly. She also got cute little hats for everyone to wear. I left out the picture of me wearing the hat and sipping tea because that seems even to gay for me… even though you know I was down there wearing the hat and sipping the tea…

I recently started cooking with more authority, that is to say, I recently started cooking with more confidence and more regularly. It has a lot to do with me staying home to take care of the child. She needs me a bit less these days and can stay in her room for minutes at a time without yelling for daddy. And when she is in the room, it doesn’t entail a constant stream of “don’t do that” or “stop” or just plain “NO”s. She has come a long way, and yes, so have I. But that doesn’t mean I have tons more time, just a little. Enough to make family dinner better, more involved, beautiful, tasty and all the things family dinner should be (at least once a week anyway!).
This week, we had the Makokha’s over for an afternoon bar-b-que and I made pasta salad, broccoli and chicken. I wanted it to be easy because I would much rather visit when we have visitors as opposed to cook while we have visitors. Don’t get me wrong, I love the new kitchen and the fact that someone can sit at the counter, or even several someones, while I cook away. That is a lot of fun. But that doesn’t happen a lot when you have twin one year olds as guests. Everyone is always on the lookout for items entering the mouths of babes. Especially when you have a philosophy like ours which includes little to no baby proofing! As mentioned above, I like the word NO. Its great. But not everyone agrees with it and it doesn’t agree with everyone. And while no one has ever made a big stink over it, I try to do my part to keep an eye on the little ones since I (we) were the ones who chose not to babyproof…
And there you have it, a long introduction to my excuse for having a picture of items clumped together as a recipe for the chicken marinade I came up with for this little shindig. The hilarious thing is that I am in love with this marinade despite the fact that it didn’t come out that well. I mean, it was great until my husband decided to blowtorch it on the bbq. I wasn’t even sure it was chicken he was bringing to the table. It looked like coals left over from a piece of wood out of the fireplace that didn’t burn down all the way. Completely black. Bless his heart, he wasn’t feeling well that day, at all. But I have to say something because its so rare that he blunders, especially this bad! Anyway, despite the charring of said chicken, it was pretty decent. And if you got to the center, it was quite juicy and tasty. The only think I would add is a little fresh squeezed lemon. If you are interested at all, below are the ingredients I used for the marinade. I have no idea of quantities, just go with your gut. And don’t let your husband do the actual cooking!

Oh and I just want to thank the Newells as it is from their recipe that this marinade derives.

Well, the holidays are officially over for me, in my head of heads anyway. The gifts are all opened and the visits to various arms of the family tree are all done. Our last visit was yesterday to visit the birth family on New Years Day first at Great Grandparents Alice & Jack’s house, then to the Willson house for games and dinner. It was a full day leaving here at 9 in the morning and returning at 9pm and Calliope, once again, was the winner all around. Love from all sides and corners, places both dark and light, was showered upon her in ways you wouldn’t believe if you saw it with your own eyes. I can’t paint the picture clearly enough, but I might give a small glimpse into the world where Calliope has been brought to by this uncommon family via two gifts that we received. Not that presents are everything, but it is an easy way to convey some of what I feel today.
When we got home last night, Calliope was up way past her bedtime, so we (Michael) immediately put her to bed. She had a long day and didn’t fight it too much and before I could unload the burden of pack-n-plays, gifts and general kid travel gear from the car, she was well on her way to dream heaven. Michael has been under the weather and I had an asthma attack yesterday (boy do i feel old typing this sentence) so we were both exhausted. But we couldn’t go straight to bed and decided to flip through our new photo album we received from the Willsons. Well, its not really a photo album so much as a scrapbook and it basically covers Calliope (and us, and all our friends and family that have been around alot) through the last year. Its truly amazing, every page crafted with love and thoughtfulness. And it hits me like a ton of bricks emotionally to see everything we have already been through as a family summed up in this one book. And this is only the last year. There is yet another one that covers the first year and a half and frankly I thought this one would be less inspirational or at least yank less of my emotional cords. But no, I cry if I think about it for longer than two seconds. Its beautiful and I can’t believe we are so lucky… It was a nice way to end the day and we were able to go to bed rested and feeling good about the new year to come. Here’s a sample page of the scrapbook…

This morning was a different story. Still very positive, and moving too, but via humor. One of the gifts that was given specifically to Michael and Calliope was a book. Calculus for infants! The Willsons are a math family. Grandma Dianne is a Math Teacher and all the kids are fluent in math speak. While math was always my best subject in grade school, I barely started trig before I left high school in TX for a GED in San Francisco. And that was my last bit of training in the field of math… I don’t remember any of it. It was a perfect gift for Michael and Calliope though. They will have years of fun that will be between the two of them, being geek father and geek daughter. I picked up the book this morning and read it and by the 7th page was baffled and laughing hysterically all at the same time. The truth is she won’t get much of this stuff about derivatives and being absolute and/or boundless for years to come, but I would bet a million dollars it will be years before the average bloke. If you speak the language to them, they will learn. Its the same as our thoughts on adoption. It will not be a question to her because it is her existence. Its not hidden knowledge that is lurking behind the next corner waiting to be learned. Obviously, we can’t teach her the language of all things, but you can bet that math, self confidence (fashion) and adoption will be three of the ones at the top!

This is what is left of some home-made toffee that Queen of the universe made for us. As most of my friends know, I don’t eat a lot of sweets, but after disregarding it for four days, now I can’t stop putting it in my mouth! It reminds me of salted caramel ice cream, which is to say, a bit salty and lovely…

This was our card this year, although we only sent it to about 60 people because that’s all we ordered! They were more expensive than we had planned and at the last minute dropped the order quantity by 20% much to the dismay of several of our close friends…. lesson learned I suppose. In any case, I love the silliness of it and the fact that we have a real fireplace in the background and my yearly poinsettia that I have yet to kill added an extra touch of warmth in the background. Oh, and don’t miss the pic of Logan and Alicia in the background! It was our way of including them in our holiday family picture which I thought was rather clever…

This is our friend Lyra. She is so cute and adorable and we’re so jealous of her little chubby legs!