Boysenberry Festival

 

BBQ beef tips with boysenberry sauce over grits.

Boysenberry BBQ meatball pizza.

Chicken wings with boysenberry sweet chili glaze.

Blue Ballistic Baby

 Today is the last day of dress up week at school.  It’s Ballistic Blue day and SGirl understood the assignment. Unlike elementary and middle school, HS does not inform us, so it was news to me this morning when I saw my little thug dressed for school. 

Smorgasburg, L.A.

 I wanted to do something different for Father’s Day this year. We took P to Smorgasburg in LA. It takes place every Sunday and there are several dozen different food trucks. It is pricey but well worth the time and money. Since it was very hot we went early and were out by noon. We had lobster nachos, Peruvian tacos, vegan potato balls, lumpia, P had another taco, and Inca Cola (Peruvian) as a treat because SGirl does not drink soft drinks. As we were leaving we realized we meant to try arepas (Guatemalan sandwich). We tried the deluxe because you can’t have a sandwich without avocado. Sadly, we were to full to eat it, but were ready when we got home.  It was a really nice experience and we can’t wait to return. We will most likely wait until is not as hot.  

The vegan place we tried, Seneoritas, won the Food Network’s Food Truck Race. We did not know that at the time because they were half way through the season. I did tell the owner that I knew they won, and the girl had a poker face. I was right, they are the first vegan food truck to win. The funny thing is that the vegan part did not cross my mind. The potato balls I grew up calling Rellenos de Papa, stuffed potatoes. The filling is usually picadillo, made with ground beef.  SGirl did not notice the difference, and really enjoyed it.  

Back to School Night

 The last BTSN we attended was for SGirl’s 7Th grade. It was nice to resume some kind of normal. The Engineering Academy  accepts 32 students every year. I learned yesterday that SGirl is one of the 5 females in her cohort.  We need to do better with our daughters, they are as good as their male counterparts at STEM.

The engineering kids take four core classes together as a group. They branch out for Honors and elective classes. Two of SGirl’s friends were there last night.

Maybe we will get to see SGirl’s classrooms.

 A big change when SGirl started 9th grade was that we were (still are) dealing with a pandemic. The school tours were done virtually, there was a mask mandate for everyone, no exceptions. Both 9th and 10th graders were first time students at the high school. To keep the kids safe, no parents were allowed on campus. I was only on campus twice, the second week of school SGirl got sick in class, and I was called to bring her home. The second visit was to attend the honor roll ceremony the last week of school.

It is still weird that we have yet to set foot in any of SGirl’s classrooms. We have always been there for the first day of school, and volunteered for classroom and field trips. I was allowed to accompany SGirl when she picked up her books, had her ID picture taken, and to drop over $200 on activities through the school year. We received an email recently and they are considering having an in person back to school night. While this is very foreign to us, as long as the kids are safe we are on board. SGirl still wears a mask and only takes it off to eat or drink. She is very serious about not catching COVID and so far we have all escaped the curse. 

SGirl has been an honor roll student since third grade, when they start awarding HR. I do not know if this is the way all high schools do it, but HR is only awarded at the end of the school year, not both semesters. Another change I did not know about until they started calling out names, is that they only have a ceremony for those with a GPA higher than 4.0. I don’t even know if they award honor roll for GPAs of 3.50 to 4.0. SGirl also received an award for outstanding performance in math. We were only advised that she would receive teh award, but not the class. P and I were pretty surprised that it was math. The picture below is our girl the day of the HR awards. SGirl would not even take off her mask for the picture. ☺

Changes

 SGirl is now a sophomore in high school. She successfully completed her first year in the Engineering Academy. SGirl’s freshman year was difficult, the classes/teachers very demanding. At times SGirl was deep in homework up until her bedtime (9:00 p.m.).

The week before school started P had a major life change. After ten years he has moved on to another employer, same job. For the past 15 years P has come home for lunch. The last 10 years he worked 1.6 miles from home. He is now commuting close to 30 miles each way. No big deal in the mornings, but a traffic mess in the afternoons.

California’s governor passed a law allowing high school students an extra hour of sleep, thus starting school an hour later.  I really didn't think it would matter much to SGirl, especially coming from summer break. I was wrong, the first two weeks she was upset at having her routine disturbed. SGirl has finally settled in her new schedule.

Changes for SGirl and P means changes for me. Last school year SGirl spent some time with P before he left for work. Now he leaves by 5:30 a.m. and she does not wake up until 7:00 a.m. I thought that was going to be an issue but SGirl has not complained.

For P to leave early means I have to pack his lunch early, something I had not done before. Prior to me staying home with Baby S, we worked in different cities and took care of our own lunches. Now I wake up much earlier and a shout out to insomnia that makes it possible to get up and get P ready. Its weird to see him carry a messenger bag and a cooler to work. 

I need to backtrack at some point and post some of SGirl’s milestones. My laptop is dead and I was going to ask for a new one for my birthday, but SGirl needs a new desktop with lots of bells and whistles, including two monitors, to do her engineering homework. Change is good and necessary, we will adjust accordingly.  

It’s really hot these days.

 I take SGirl to school at 7:45 a.m., and try to get errands done as early as possible to avoid the heat. I’m rarely out past 11:30 a.m. I leave to pick up SGirl at 2:15 p.m. to be able to find a place to park. Then I wait until 3:30, when school is out. I leave a shade on the car, and roll down all four windows. It still gets really hot in the car. This was the temperature last Tuesday, a record.

Dress up day (Thor) even during virtual learning.

You won’t believe the night we had.

Never thought we’ll be buying this type of souvenir.

Taste of Knott’s

Life goals.

Someone got a fun gift.

Saw this on our drive to the store.

Patiently waiting to witness history.

First day of 8th grade.

Quite the different first day of school picture this year. SGirl is wearing one of my old work outfits because she wanted to look professional in her office. Due to the pandemic the school district offered the option of distance learning, hybrid (2 days of school, rest distance learning), and full time school attendance. We knew there's no way our area would be pass this mess and chose distance learning for SGirl.
Just a month later our suspicions were confirmed. Due to the amount of cases in our county the district was forced to implement distance learning for all students. They are hoping to move on to Phase 2 (hybrid) by October.  We seriously doubt it, because people insist on not wearing masks, not social distancing, and we have an absolute failure at the highest office.

 This is SGirl's office, nice iMac courtesy of Grandpa.  She has pretty much everything she needs, and she is safe. It's going to be ineteresting to see how this new mode of learning is going to work. There are plenty of very upset parents, because they were denied the opportunity to send their kids into a Covid Fest. We do understand that many families are two income parents. But workplaces have been flexible about working from home.  Heck, P worked from Maui for three months. If we were a two income family, we would be splitting the days when one of us works for home.
We have a new glimmer of hope that SGirl will be able to return to her school in time to walk for her 8th grade graduation. People, wear a mask is not rocket science. Oh, AND VOTE!

Comfort pizza day.

Goodbye Grandpa, goodbye Maui.

Three months of quarantine hair.

P’s impersonation of Wolf Blitzer is coming to an end.

Sunset turtle.

Maui sunset, we are going to miss you.

Just found this guy during our walk.

Memorial Day

Sunday family fun.

Maui beaches are open.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

A Girl and her huge fish burrito.

SS roughing it at a swim meet.

Sauerkraut Baby is Back.

Lego on the go.

First semester awards ceremony.

Homework?

SGirl looks like a typical twelve year old, playing with her phone while waiting for her orthodontist appointment. She is actually doing her math homework. No books, pencil, or paper needed. It's weird to us but also great that SGirl can do homework anywhere. She was done by the time she was called in.

HAPPY 2020!

Welcoming 2020 at Knott’s Berry Farm.

She survived and is back for more.

Day two begins, three 50 yard events, and a 200 yard event. It's freestyle but SS has not raced that length before. We are really thankful for the 50's because SS is still exhausted.

SS doesn’t do rain and cold outdoors.

A Meet First

Cup O Noodles to warm up after the first race.

It’s cold!

Getting snuggles and warmth from Baba. Yes, SS still calls him Baba. P feared once she started school it would change to dad or daddy. Turns out that is too pedestrian for SS. It comes in handy when there are a gazillion kids yelling dad or daddy( like today). We can always tell when SS is calling out for P.

SS has a parka she could wear, so she's obviously milking the cold situation. 😂

Good news

SS on her way to warm up and still not happy. However she got an awesome surprise. We had been at the warm up lane for ten minutes unsuccessfully trying to talk SS into getting in the water. Then her first and favorite coach came to talk to her. We like Coach A and SS simply adores him. He does not have a problem calling out SS when she is not performing to her abilities. As a matter of fact we were kind of hurt when he kicked her out of the guppy group (beginners). He explained that SS had the best technique in that group and it was time to advance.

Coach A is also very good about letting the kids know when they have done well. Well, Coach A is taking over SS's group. All of a sudden our girl is in the water and giving it her all. This is going to give SS the incentive to swim during the winter.

Swim Meet Weekend

This is SS's first weekend swim meet participation. She usually swims on Saturdays only. We were here yesterday for compulsory volunteering (not kidding). We are required to volunteer ten hours or pay $500. Ah, the joys of swimming.

SS does not look happy because she signed up for two events today and two tomorrow. She has been sick since we returned home from Maui on October 9. Girl just can't shake an upper respiratory infection. When we checked her schedule last night, we noticed the head coach added two events each day, P already emailed the HC and will be talking to him later. It's up to SS whether or not to swim. Even though we didn't choose the extra events, we still have to pay the event fees. Isn't this entirely fair and fun? SS loves to swim, and happens to be good. Otherwise we would peace out. This is the first meet with rain. It beats 100+ degrees of misery.

Happy Halloween