Week in the Life 2011 :: Day 7, Sunday

6:55am: Wake up and groggily decide whether I want to go to yoga. Maybe I don't want to go right now, but in the grand scheme of things I know I want to go. Besides, I want to try out my new yoga mat. Drag myself out of bed and get ready.

7:05am: I think I wake Maya up while walking past her room. I hear her calling for me so I get her and plunk her down on the couch to watch TV until Ian and/or Rupert wake up. Leave for yoga at 7:10am.


7:30am~9:00am: Yoga.


9:10am: Head over to Fry's to pick up a screen protector for the iPad. I have to hunt around for a bit but I finally find the $9 pack. (I can't believe there are people who would pay $25 for one sheet of plastic!)


9:35am: When I get home I find Maya and Rupert in the backyard making sand art. Ian is inside reading. I desperately need coffee. (I'm convinced, as is Rupert, that if I don't have my coffee I get headaches, which is what happened yesterday. Can you say, "coffee withdrawal"?) According to Rupert, this is the second day in a row that Maya is cranky and whiny in the morning. Glad I missed that!


10:00am: Wish my brother-in-law (and two other friends) a happy birthday on FB. Get hungry so I resort to Rice Crispy Treats again. Maya is also hungry and has a snack (or two) while she watches even more Pucca. Rupert is doing work on his laptop.

11:00am: Finally get ahold of our friend M who's in town for the 6-man tournament (we've been trying to coordinate something since Thursday). Plan to have lunch with him at La Penita. Rupert and Ian go outside to play basketball. I'm struggling with putting the screen protector on. Please learn from my mistakes: trying repeatedly is not a good idea, use a ruler to prevent air bubbles, don't try laying down the plastic at your dining table where there's lots of lint from the tablecloth and placemats. Rupert decides he has to take a shower, even though it's 11:25 and we're supposed to be in Hermosa Beach in 20 minutes.


11:35am: Leave the boys behind (they're going in a separate car so they can go to Ian's Lego robotics class afterward) and head over to meet M. Luckily, we find parking easily. Rupert and Ian join us a short time later and we have lunch. Maya's tooth falls out part way through lunch.

12:45pm: Rupert and Ian leave to make it to Ian's class on time. M, Maya, and I sit and chat for a little while longer before we go our separate ways.

1:00pm: Since we're in the neighborhood, I decide to swing by work and pick up my mail. There are two postcards from students for me! (I asked the kids to send postcards from their travels so we can decorate our Read Around the World bulletin board in the fall.) Maya asks to check-out some snake books.

1:15pm: I ask Maya to water the tomato plant in the backyard because it's looking a little wilted. These plants require SO much water! Once inside, she gets a turn with the iPad to do some coloring. I'm about to doze off.


2:00pm: I give Maya permission to watch TV and what does she turn on? SpongeBob. Blech! That's my signal to head to the bedroom to read; I browse through the July issue of School Library Journal.

2:30pm~2:40pm: Nap. It's amazing how quickly I conk out, how I wake up automatically after 10 or 15 minutes, and how much better I feel afterward.

2:50pm: Call Rupert to ask him to get something to make dinner tonight. Take a shower.

3:10pm: Hop back on the computer to work on keeping up with today's entry for Week in the Life, catch up on twitter (and subsequent links I find), and download this week's free audiobook from Audiobook Community.

3:40pm: Ian and Rupert get home. Rupert bought chicken legs to barbecue for dinner. Yay! Ian goes to his room to read.


4:00pm: Maya convinces Rupert to spend time with her water painting.

4:45pm: Color with Maya on the iPad. The drawing part is harder because my fingertips are so stubby.

5:00pm: Rupert starts marinating the chicken. He goes back and forth between painting and getting dinner ready.


6:00pm: Dinner!

... and because I waited so long to write this part of the day up, I've forgotten what happened after dinner. Most likely we watched a lot of TV!

Week in the Life 2011 :: Day 6, Saturday

6:15am: It's hot or something and I'm uncomfortable. Toss and turn for awhile and decide to get up around 6:30.

7:00am: Get dressed for yoga and hang out in the living room, checking my email and FB on the iPad. Ian wakes up.

7:15am: Leave for yoga. Run into an acquaintance/neighbor who's trying out YogaWorks for the first time. I guess there was another Groupon; the class is fuller than usual with new students.

9:00am: Finish my class and browse the sale rack at the store portion of the studio. It takes awhile but I finally pick out a tank top, a halter top, and a yoga mat (a purple one!). I use the credit I had on my account so I pay less than $5 for all of it.

9:45am: Get home and rest for a bit; nothing like three pieces of Rice Crispy Treats to give you a little sugar boost. The kids and Rupert go for a bike ride and Rupert's usual exercise routine at Glasgow Park.


10:20am: Walk over to the farmers market to pick up a few things. Get some fruit, veggies, and a baguette for tonight's picnic with S and D.

10:40am: Get home to an empty house. Load the dishwasher, start boiling water for the corn, and brew a big pot of coffee for my ice coffee. The kids get home from their bike ride.


11:20am: I get hungry so I reheat A's leftovers from the other night. Maya finds Pucca on the Netflix and starts a marathon of TV watching. After I eat (a very filling) lunch, I get comfortable on the couch and read until I fall asleep (a very normal occurrence during the weekend).

1:10pm: Wake up to Maya complaining that she wants to eat some of Ian's chicken egg rolls. Rupert goes to take a shower. Ian shares an egg roll with Maya but neither of them can finish the last one so I end up eating it.

1:30pm: Take a shower and get ready to go. Rupert wants to go to Target to buy new socks and show me the cabinet he wants to buy for the kids' bathroom. Then we need to go to TJ's to get dessert and some drinks for tonight.


2:00pm: Shop at Target. Decide to just get the food for tonight there so we don't have to make another stop.

2:20pm: That's the fastest we've ever gotten out of Target!

2:50pm: Get home, pack up the food, and leave for LACMA to see the Tim Burton exhibit with our friends S and D.


3:20pm: We make great time and get there in less than half an hour. I pick up the tickets and since we're not supposed to meet S and D until 3:45, we wander around a bit, slowly making our way toward the Resnick Pavilion.


3:50pm: Meet up with S and D and get in line for the exhibit. There's no photography allowed in the exhibit, which is unfortunate because there's lots of cool, creepy, creative stuff in there from Burton's career. Of course, Maya is having a hard time staying interested and Rupert is a good sport about schlepping her around. In the gift shop, at Rupert's suggestion, I buy a poster for our friends' upcoming baby shower.


5:10pm: Make our way out of the exhibit, take a short detour up the escalator of the Broad Contemporary to check out the view, and then go stake out a spot for our picnic.


5:20pm: There's live music playing in the background, S made a fantastic chicken salad, the weather's perfect, and the kids have plenty of space to run around.


7:20pm: Say good-bye to D and S and swing by the gift shop before heading out. I buy some books for my library. The kids play around the big inflatable multi-eyed monster outside. Leave LACMA around 7:40pm.

8:00pm: Get home. Watch a little bit of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which is on TV. This is the only HP movie we don't own.

9:00pm: I start downloading pictures and recapping today's activities on this blog. The kids go to bed. Maya's bedtime story is the Korgi story from the same Free Comic Book Day comic they read from last night.

9:30pm: Rupert watches some Twin Peaks on Netflix while waiting for the current season of No Reservations to download to his computer.

11:30pm: Geez, Twin Peaks is weird. Head to bed.

Week in the Life 2011 :: Day 5, Friday

7:35am: Friday are sleep-in days (during the summer) for me and Rupert (he doesn't go into work on Fridays). I woke up earlier with Ian's banging-around in the kitchen getting his breakfast. I use the kids' bathroom so I don't wake up Rupert; I wake up Maya instead. She's waiting to use the bathroom when I'm done. I text my friend to confirm our plans for today to go to the Discovery Science Center ("the Cube") in Santa Ana.


8:00am: Rupert wakes up and joins us in the living room. He and Maya have breakfast together (cereal). Bad as it is, I munch on a Rice Crispy Treat while I wait for my chocolate chip Eggo to toast.

8:30am: Tell Ian to shower so I can also shower before we leave at 9:30. In the meantime I catch up on the news on my the iPad and read a bit of The Influence Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media.

8:50am: Take a shower. Marvel at how little shampoo and conditioner I need to use with my new haircut.


9:15am: Get our stuff ready to head out for our excursion: pack snacks, make ice coffee, pull out my backpack from the hall closet, pack the camera. Decide today is the day to break out my new shoes.

9:30am: Fill the Prius with gas at Costco and hop on the freeway to get going. Traffic is moving smoothly so we make good time.

10:15am: When we merge on to the 22, I notice my friend's car behind me. Decide to follow my friend, assuming she knows where's she going, but she takes the wrong exit. We pull over, laugh a bit, and get back on the road toward the museum.

10:30am: Make our way into the museum. First stop, the bathroom! (Too much ice coffee for me.)



10:30am to 12:30pm: Explore the exhibits at the museum. The boys really like the hockey stuff upstairs and try out the Shooter and Goalie experiences repeatedly. Maya is kinda grouchy and not in the mood to take part in a lot of the stuff. But she really likes the slide and spends a good deal of time there.

12:30pm: Decide it's time to head out. I want to get a shirt but they don't have my size. I get an Oscar the Grouch hand puppet (for $5!) instead. I intend to use it at work when I'm getting grouchy with the kids; hopefully it'll send the right message in a more positive way instead of me just yelling at the kids.


12:50pm: Walk down the street to get lunch at the Habit. It's fun, and a little hectic, eating in a small booth with two adults, two middle schoolers, a first grader, and a toddler. After we finish eating, the kids think it's funny to kick each other under the table. On our walk back to our cars the kids hang out at the mall's fountain for a bit.


2:00pm: Say good-bye to our friends and head home. There's a bit more traffic and I make one wrong turn (darn 22/405 interchange!) but it doesn't matter since the kids are knocked out in the back and I want them to get some rest so they're not cranky later.


3:00pm: Get home. After a few minutes of family time, I head to the bedroom for some quiet reading. The kids get their own downtime by watching a Pokemon video. I take a 15 minute power nap.


4:30pm: Play baseball in the backyard. Maya has killer batting abilities, as long as the ball is thrown underhand.


5:10pm: Rupert pre-heats the oven for dinner. He sits down with Maya to draw from her new animal drawing book. I continue to work on this project with a glass of (slightly over-steeped) mugicha, Japanese barley tea. Ian goes back to his room to read.

5:30pm: Maya takes a break from drawing a horse to watch Horseland. You know, to remind her what horses look like.

6:00pm: Dinner time: TJ's tempura chicken, sauteed bok choy, and rice. We love that Maya likes vegetables; she asks for more bok choy. Rupert chooses to watch an episode of Superhumans. I read my book instead.


6:45pm: Instead of family board game night, we have family video game night ... although I don't know if you can call it "family" game night if Ian wanders off to read in his room and I'm writing this up. Actually, I help Maya out with the drums, then take over drumming completely, and Maya ends up walking away!

7:30pm: Watch the Simpsons.

8:00pm: More drawing.

8:15pm: Back to Rock Band: me on guitar, Maya on drums for the first song, Rupert on drums for the second song. We haven't checked the new downloadable songs so Rupert scrolls through to see if there's anything worth buying. Maya dances to the various samples, especially SpongeBob and the Nom Nom Nom Song.

9:05pm: The kids get ready for bed. (Ian was reading for over two hours; he's definitely my kid.) Rupert reads the Johnny Boo part of a comic book (from Free Comic Book Day) for Maya's bedtime story.


9:20pm: Watch the Hokkaido episode of No Reservations on Rupert's laptop. He has a bowl of coffee ice cream but I pass on dessert (super full from all the food today and I already brushed my teeth). Slight delay in the middle of the episode since Rupert's laptop runs out of batteries. The episode really makes me want to finally visit my uncle in Hokkaido.

10:15pm: Check iTunes and Season 11 of No Reservations is available; try to buy it but it's not working for some reason. Try again tomorrow? Catch up on reading blogs.

11:30pm: Off to bed.

Week in the Life 2011 :: Day 4, Thursday

7:15am: We're all up and doing our normal summer morning routine: cereal (TJ's Honey-Os), TV (SpongeBob), couch, checking email and FB. Zoboomafoo comes on on PBS.


7:45am: Open the catch-all drawer and it's like a bomb went off in the rubber band container. I guess Maya was looking for a blue rubber band and dumped everything out. Ask her to put everything back but there are so many rubber bands that I ask her to sort out the dirtier ones and put them in a ziploc so I can, hopefully, give them back to the postal delivery person.


8:00am: Mama Mirabelle comes on but Maya decides playing on the iPad is a better way to spend her time. She uses apps for coloring, tracing numbers, "playing" music, and playing games. Ian reads Pendragon #9, Raven Rise in his room; he's really loving the series. I'm back at my laptop working on this project (uploading photos and typing blog entries).

9:00am: Getting into a routine of having Maya work on a few pages of her packet everyday. At this rate she'll be able to finish by the end of the summer, which is a relief. Really noticed that even a week without schoolwork and her brain gets lazy and forgetful.


10:00am: To take a break Maya watches the Cat in the Hat. I tell Ian to get dressed and pack his lunch to take to his aunt's. When the episode is over the kids play by throwing a ball at each other and squishing each other. Fun!


10:45am: Leave to drop the kids off at my in-laws'. Can't wait to get my hair lopped off! Take a "before" picture first.


11:30am: Haircut time! Julie, who came recommended by my sister, is great with my hair. I rarely get my hair cut so I don't mind shelling out a few extra bucks to get it cut by Julie.


12:30pm: After setting aside the 10 inches of my hair, Julie does a great job giving me a cute bob. My head feels light and summery! Drive to the nearby Japanese market to pick up some books (including a travel guide to Kobe on sale) and food.


1:15pm: Pick up the kids. Maya and my SIL painted their nails. Looks like they had a great time. It's so nice to have family around. Get home, unpack the groceries and head to my room to read my new books and take a power nap. (Notice a pattern in my afternoons?) Let the kids do whatever and watch whatever. I'm happy to report they don't give each other any problems, which means they don't give me any problems. (I bought three bags of Karl; one of them I ate on my way to pick the kids up (what? I was hungry) and the kids got into another bag, so we only have one left!)

3:30pm: Remind Ian to write the birthday card for his friend's party. Drag myself out of my room to wrap the present. Drive him over to his friend's house down the street at 4:00pm.

4:05pm: Take Maya to TJ's with me to pick up some staples: milk, bananas, granola bars, half and half. I spot vinho verde and buy a bottle. In the frozen dessert section I find something that's new to me -- peach pops -- and decide to try them out. I let Maya get coffee ice cream, her current favorite flavor.


4:45pm: Remember that I need to pick up a book at the library. Walk over there, telling Maya we can only stay for a little bit because we need to clean up the living room before our friends come over for dinner. Maya checks out another Pokemon video.

5:15pm: Get home and clear the living room of the laundry, tidy up the dining table, and clear the kitchen counter. Steep some mugicha. Just opening the package and getting a whiff of the barley smell makes me close my eyes for a moment to savor memories of summers in Japan.

6:30pm: Rupert comes home. Maya and I have just been hanging out in the living room, peacefully. It's so nice when we're all pleasant to each other ... and it's quiet.

7:00pm: Our friends R and A arrive. They're visiting from Atlanta. We've missed them since they moved away from Los Angeles several years ago. We order food from a local Mexican place and send Rupert and Maya to pick it up. It takes them awhile to come back with the food because the restaurant's busy.

8:00pm: Go pick Ian up from the birthday party. Seems like they had a great time but I'm just eager to get back to my food and conversation with my friends.

8:30pm: Get R, a computer science professor, to take a look at our wireless set-up. Rupert hadn't been able to set up the the wireless printing and we hope R can help. He patiently works on the problem and manages to figure it out. Hooray!


9:15pm: The kids get ready for bed. But, first, the requisite group photo. After the kids go to bed we hang out and talk. Eat peach pops; they're not bad and actually have real peach chunks in them.

11:15pm: R and A leave. Rupert and I continue to hang out on the couch. I upload photos, surf the web, etc.

12:00am: Head to the bedroom. Make the mistake of browsing through the Kobe guidebook. Can't put it down for half an hour. Turn the light off at 12:30. Good night!

Week in the Life 2011 :: Day 3, Wednesday

sometime between 6:00am and 6:45am: Maya wakes up. She was doing "nothing," according to her.

6:45am: Ian wakes up. The kids watch SpongeBob.


7:13am: When I wander into the living room the kids are watching Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide. Ian started watching this show recently (much to our chagrin) and I wonder if it's because he's mentally getting himself ready for middle school (in a weird TV-land sort of way).

8:00am: Maya wants a turn with Netflix Streaming but I refuse to let her watch another episode of Horseland or SpongeBob. She reverts to Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater, a show from the 80s we watched repeatedly before. The kids watch the Star Wars episode.


8:30am: Time for work! Ian needs to stay on schedule for his Cryptography class (and it's a long-ish assignment today); Maya keeps working on her Language Arts packet; and I'm emailing (trying to get permission to access the wireless at work so I can use my iPad (which I'm hopefully getting today) in my library) and catching up on internet stuff.

9:00am: Maya's reached her limit for working on one thing and heads off to color and read. Ian's still working on decoding stuff.

9:30am: Renew my subscription to Saveur using an amazon gift certificate I received from one of the kids at school.

10:00am: Pay bills, check online accounts (yay -- our BofA account is working again on the laptop!), call our health insurance provider to see why my automatic credit card payment stopped (annoying!), load the dishwasher, and field some questions from Ian.

10:10am: Ian finishes today's assignment and takes a break by playing a baseball video game.

10:35am: Maya needs a snack so she eats a Rice Crispy Treat my dad made.

10:45am: It was inevitable: Pokemon video time. Tell the kids our plan for the day: drop off old linens at the animal shelter, lunch (Ian chooses Marmalade Cafe over CPK), and then to buy an iPad. I call the Apple store to see if they have the iPad I want; I literally let the phone ring for 5 minutes before someone picks up. Yay -- they have the one I want in stock!

11:00am: Ask Ian to wipe down the old baby gate we're giving away to a neighbor. In the meantime Maya and I pull old sheets and towels out of the linen closet; she gets bored after a minute and walks away. I pack up a lot of old stuff (especially baby sheets and towels) but the closet still looks completely full. I know we don't need this many towels and sheets but I have a hard time getting rid of things that are still usable.


11:15am: Head out of the house. I let Maya use the camera in the car and she loves it. The kids take self-portraits.


11:30am: Drop off our donation and take some time looking at the dogs and cats. There's an especially cute puppy and some cats in the room right off the lobby. Maya has been asking and asking to get a dog but I've been steadfastly refusing. But if there's one way to sway me, it's to make me actually see the animals. (No picture-taking allowed inside so we snapped a picture as we were leaving.)


11:45am: Head to Marmalade Cafe in El Segundo for lunch. Normally I wouldn't spend so much money on lunch, but Ian had a free kids meal certificate from school. The kids play Tic-Tac-Toe while they wait for the food to arrive. (Ian and I order burgers, Maya gets chicken fingers.) See a student from Robinson sitting at the table next to us; I think this is the first student I've run into this summer. Remember that we have one extra errand to run afterward: we have to get a birthday present for a party Ian's going to tomorrow.


1:30pm: Make it to the Apple store after getting short with Maya for already complaining about being in the car for "so long." We only have to wait a few minutes for them to bring out an iPad for us to buy. The kids play games while we wait. Maya's game is in German so we keep telling her, "Gut, Maya, gut!"


1:40pm: Maya wants to go to the fountain in the mall before we leave. I let her throw a few pennies in to make some wishes.


2:00pm: Shopping at Target. The kids pick out a set of Pokemon cards for Ian's friend and then we buy a few ingredients for tonight's dinner. I'm getting progressively more tired and cranky. <-- This is called "foreshadowing."

2:30pm: Make it home and the first thing Ian wants to do is call his friend. I tell him that's fine but I'm not driving him over there. He asks if he can ask his friend's parents to pick him up. No, of course not! Then Maya starts badgering me to use the iPad, even though I told her it would take time to set up. Finally, I lose it and yell at both of them. I feel bad, yes, but there's only so much I can take. I apologize later but I explain to them how frustrated I was.


3:00pm: Register the iPad and start syncing apps, which is very time-consuming. I don't want to deal with the kids so I let them watch TV while I do this.


4:00pm: Maya starts drawing her version of the Crabby Patty Secret Formula.

5:20pm: I start making dinner, penne with crumbled Italian sausage.

6:00pm: Eat dinner without Rupert, even though I know he's coming home soon. I want to eat before Maya gets cranky and I need to let my stomach settle before going to yoga. Maya eats three helpings of pasta. Ian, as expected, picked out all of the onions. I read the newest New Yorker while eating.


6:30pm: Rupert comes home as I'm finishing dinner. Another episode of Brady Barr is turned on. We play with the iPad a bit. Maya decides Ian shouldn't use it because of his sweaty hands.

7:15pm: I brush my teeth, change my clothes, and head out to my yoga class.


9:30pm: Finish yoga; I feel great. Text with my hairdresser and my sister-in-law to see if I can leave the kids with SIL so I can get my haircut tomorrow. Success!

9:45pm: Rupert's watching So You Think You Can Dance when I get home. I should shower but I get sucked into the TV. Lady Gaga is throwing shoes.

10:00pm: Still need to shower but Rupert's new guilty pleasure, Love in the Wild, is on. It is a terrible show but we watch the whole thing (partly to see the bloody injury, but we weren't impressed with the amount of blood).

11:00pm: Finally shower. Wash my long hair for the last time; tomorrow at least 10 inches of it is getting cut off.

11:30pm: Back to the couch to play with the iPad and download a couple more apps. Bring it to bed and upstage Rupert's much-smaller game of Solitaire. Check out the Kindle app; I like that I can read in the dark and the photos are in color. Rupert thinks my new-ish Kindle is now obsolete. I don't think so; there's a time and place for each.

12:35am: Finally go to sleep.