Okay, this is off topic a bit, since it has nothing to do with Charlie except in a very indirect way, but did you know that motorcycles and cantaloupes are not well suited to each other?
For those outside the immediate family who didn't know it, I went and took the motorcycle classes this summer and bought a bike. Actually, it was the other way around--I bought the bike first, left it in the guy's shed, signed up for the class, and then went and picked it up once I was licensed.
No, I have not had a deep-seated urge all my life to be a motorcycle mama. But the words "70 miles per gallon" were just really talkin' to me...besides, I got cool-mom points from my oldest son, Rick.
Anyway, I belong to this Community-Supported Agriculture group, where a local farmer brings vegetables right to where I work each week, and each person who has bought in gets a set amount of this, that, and the other. I split a share with a colleague of mine, and I ran into a situation this week where I wasn't going to be there to get my share of the loot, so she took it all home, and I went to pick it up from her house a couple of nights later.
Naturally, I took the motorcycle. She had mentioned that one of the items was a cantaloupe, and that we could split it. Charlie loves cantaloupe, so I took a gallon size baggie, jumped on the bike and headed out. I was going to lay the baggie in my tank bag (a bag that sits in front of the rider, on the gas tank, held on with magnets) with the cut side down.
By the time I got there, she had changed her mind. Her husband hates 'loupes, can't even stand the smell of them, and she didn't feel like listening to his whining, so she decided to just hand over the whole thing. So now I have this round cantaloupe. Forget the baggie. I stuck it (along with the zucchini, the eggplant, and the tomatoes) in the tank bag.
Vibrations from the motorcycle don't agree with the melon. By the time I got it home, my cantaloupe had flattened on one side. I didn't have to worry about it rolling off the counter, that's for sure.
I expected to find it half gone by the time I got home from work, since Charlie gets home from school before I get home from work. But it was still intact. I asked him if he had seen it, and he said, "Yeah, but it was all soft. Ick."
Twerp.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Saturday, July 5, 2008
How to Make a Birthday Cake
Tomorrow we are having the celebration of Charlie's 15th birthday, since it falls on Monday. His godfather is coming over as well as the rest of my family and Rick's dad. Last year I actuallly had dinner for them all. This year I don't have the energy. We're having a dessert party. Charlie made his own cake. I supervised. (Hey, he WANTED to, okay?) I have decided to take the cheater's way out. Instead of decorating it, I made a HUGE sheet cake, and bought a ton of sprinkles and colored sugars and crystals and tubes of gel in lots of colors, and we're going to mark squares on the cake, and each person is going to decorate one square. Then we'll take a picture before we do the candle thing. So all I have to do is smear icing on it and I'm done my part!
You get creative like that when you're old and tired. Creativity happens when you start thinking, "How can I shove some of this work off on someone else?" That's how Charlie ended up making the cake. It went something like this:
"Hey, Charlie, y'know how you said you wanted to own your own restaurant when you grow up?"
"Yeah...."
"You know, you'll have to know how to make desserts."
"Yeah...."
"Wanna start by learning how to bake a cake?"
"Yeah!"
So I told him what equipment to get out, and supervised him mixing up the first box. (Yes, we used box mixes--so SUE me!!) Then I went and browsed CraigsList while he was mixing up the other two boxes (told ya it was HUGE sheet cake!). Well, I couldn't stand there and watch him after he'd already mixed up the first box, could I? He might get the idea I didn't trust him to do it right, or something. That's just what we need--an almost 15-year-old China boy with a complex.
He did just fine, got it in the oven. I explained how important it was not to let the oven door bang when checking the cake or make any loud noises, how a cake can fall. He was very good about it, remembered to come up and check on the cake at the right time, took it out of the oven very carefully and set it on the counter. Then, as we were leaving the house to go run errands, he slammed the door shut. Aiyeeeeeeee....
Lucky boy, it didn't fall. We will still be having our dessert party tomorrow night.
So that's my recipe for how to make a birthday cake--buy the ingredients, and con the birthday boy into doing it. I think that officially qualifies me as a "bad mother" now, not even making my own son's birthday cake. My only defense is that at least I made sure he had one.
Ahh, let 'em eat cake.
You get creative like that when you're old and tired. Creativity happens when you start thinking, "How can I shove some of this work off on someone else?" That's how Charlie ended up making the cake. It went something like this:
"Hey, Charlie, y'know how you said you wanted to own your own restaurant when you grow up?"
"Yeah...."
"You know, you'll have to know how to make desserts."
"Yeah...."
"Wanna start by learning how to bake a cake?"
"Yeah!"
So I told him what equipment to get out, and supervised him mixing up the first box. (Yes, we used box mixes--so SUE me!!) Then I went and browsed CraigsList while he was mixing up the other two boxes (told ya it was HUGE sheet cake!). Well, I couldn't stand there and watch him after he'd already mixed up the first box, could I? He might get the idea I didn't trust him to do it right, or something. That's just what we need--an almost 15-year-old China boy with a complex.
He did just fine, got it in the oven. I explained how important it was not to let the oven door bang when checking the cake or make any loud noises, how a cake can fall. He was very good about it, remembered to come up and check on the cake at the right time, took it out of the oven very carefully and set it on the counter. Then, as we were leaving the house to go run errands, he slammed the door shut. Aiyeeeeeeee....
Lucky boy, it didn't fall. We will still be having our dessert party tomorrow night.
So that's my recipe for how to make a birthday cake--buy the ingredients, and con the birthday boy into doing it. I think that officially qualifies me as a "bad mother" now, not even making my own son's birthday cake. My only defense is that at least I made sure he had one.
Ahh, let 'em eat cake.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Graduating Middle School
What a sweet evening! It would seem that our very own Charlie Chan is on grade level with everything except English (which is expected, that will take a while to catch up on), so they are going to let him skip 8th grade and go to the deaf high school in the Fall so that he can stay with his peer set. We therefore got to go to the graduation ceremony. It was an awesome evening. I was sobbing when each of the kids took a turn going alone out onto the middle of the stage where a basket of long-stemmed roses had been placed, picking one out, and then seeking out his mom in the audience and presenting it to her. Thinking how far he had come in only a year and a half just took my breath away.
Then the kids did an improv type dance line to VERY loud music, so they could feel the beat, where they come out in pairs and just do whatever they feel like doing to dance (including the little girl in the wheelchair, who got quite a round of applause!). What we didn't know was that Mr. Charlie can DANCE!!! He ended his part with a one-handed cartwheel that brought the house down.
So, technically, Charlie is a 9th grader now. High school--wow! I won't get to see much of him during the fall semester, since he'll be spending more time at the dorm, only returning home on karate nights and weekends. Good thing I'll be in classes, or I might get lonely enough to go adopt me another one....
No, not under consideration. Had ya worried there for a minute, tho', didn't I?
Then the kids did an improv type dance line to VERY loud music, so they could feel the beat, where they come out in pairs and just do whatever they feel like doing to dance (including the little girl in the wheelchair, who got quite a round of applause!). What we didn't know was that Mr. Charlie can DANCE!!! He ended his part with a one-handed cartwheel that brought the house down.
So, technically, Charlie is a 9th grader now. High school--wow! I won't get to see much of him during the fall semester, since he'll be spending more time at the dorm, only returning home on karate nights and weekends. Good thing I'll be in classes, or I might get lonely enough to go adopt me another one....
Saturday, April 26, 2008
No Hazing
Charlie competed in the Eastern Regional Karate Championships today. This event is a competition for martial artists of all different styles of karate for the entire eastern seaboard of the United States.
I tried to impress on him ahead of time that he had to really show power and a grim, mean face in order to be taken seriously. That mean face is hard for Charlie. You just don't get a sense of what you're up against in this one until you actually see it for yourself.
No trophies today. He did a good solid performance, no errors of any sort at all. It's just that he was up against the very best, and they were better. Now he knows what to expect if he participates in this one next year.
The exciting thing about his performance today, though, was in his fighting. The last time he did sparring in competition, he was eliminated in the first round. This time, he really came out fighting, and he won both his first and second fights, didn't get eliminated until the third round.
The REALLY COOL thing is that we found out afterwards that three gentlemen who had shown up at the tournament were former black belts who had joined the Navy and had to start all over in the rankings in the Navy's martial arts program, so even though they competed as green belts, they really were black belts. (Once a black belt, always a black belt!) One of Charlie's fights was against one of these men, and it was one of the fights that he won--CHARLIE BEAT A BLACK BELT!!!
Charlie's initial reason for wanting to take karate was that some kids at Frederick School for the Deaf told him that the new kids on the block always get beat up. Charlie starts at Frederick this coming Fall, and he was very worried about that.
He doesn't look worried any more. He looks confident now that he knows he held his own in a fight against a black belt. Not in a braggy sort of way, just confident.
I don't think there'll be any hazing going on here.
I tried to impress on him ahead of time that he had to really show power and a grim, mean face in order to be taken seriously. That mean face is hard for Charlie. You just don't get a sense of what you're up against in this one until you actually see it for yourself.
No trophies today. He did a good solid performance, no errors of any sort at all. It's just that he was up against the very best, and they were better. Now he knows what to expect if he participates in this one next year.
The exciting thing about his performance today, though, was in his fighting. The last time he did sparring in competition, he was eliminated in the first round. This time, he really came out fighting, and he won both his first and second fights, didn't get eliminated until the third round.
The REALLY COOL thing is that we found out afterwards that three gentlemen who had shown up at the tournament were former black belts who had joined the Navy and had to start all over in the rankings in the Navy's martial arts program, so even though they competed as green belts, they really were black belts. (Once a black belt, always a black belt!) One of Charlie's fights was against one of these men, and it was one of the fights that he won--CHARLIE BEAT A BLACK BELT!!!
Charlie's initial reason for wanting to take karate was that some kids at Frederick School for the Deaf told him that the new kids on the block always get beat up. Charlie starts at Frederick this coming Fall, and he was very worried about that.
He doesn't look worried any more. He looks confident now that he knows he held his own in a fight against a black belt. Not in a braggy sort of way, just confident.
I don't think there'll be any hazing going on here.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
A New Trophy
Charlie competed in the local (state) karate tournament Saturday. Big surprise--he took home the third-place trophy in kata (forms). They don't give out beyond third place these days, but he placed fourth in jujitsu. He was eliminated in the first round on fighting, but this is still a very new part of martial arts for him--he just put on gloves for the first time last Wednesday.
He was quite happy to be going home with a trophy for his forms, so we went out to dinner to celebrate.
Now he starts getting ready for the Eastern Regional Karate Championships at the end of April. That will be competing against other martial artists all over the East Coast. Keep your fingers crossed and wish him luck!
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Green With Envy
As you can see from the picture, Charlie got his green belt.
They had me worried there for a little while. They always call up the kids in a group by the color of the belt they get promoted to, and then announce what color belt they got, and they go in order of the rank, so everyone knows what color is coming next. After they called all the yellow belts, red would be next, and indeed the teachers at the end of the hand-shaking line laid out a bunch of red belts as the kids' names were being called. Charlie's name was called.
He had had a nice, strong performance, no flubs of any kind, so I was certain he would get green, and when his name was called with this group, what ran through my mind was, "Hey, what did he do wrong???" Then, after they called out the last kid's name, they promoted them all to green. There were no red belts this time! So the teachers on the end who were responsible for actually handing out the belts had to scramble very quickly and get out a bunch of the green belts and size them to the kids coming through the line.
He's done a great job so far, but he is about to start the part of karate where you have to start taking people down to the mat and throwing them around. That requires slowing down and doing things very deliberately so you don't hurt anyone. I'm a little worried about this part, since Charlie likes to listen just long enough to think he understands, and then charge in.
Fortunately (or not, depending on your point of view), I have decided to get involved again. Yup, I put on my gi and a brown belt for the first time in several years last week and joined the party. So I will now have the authority to slow him down if I can tell he wasn't really paying attention. Sure, I have that authority as his mother, but somehow there's just an ounce more respect there when you wear a brown belt with a black stripe on it and they know you're only one step removed from being a black belt. (Although, to be perfectly honest, I have absolutely no intention of going for the black, I'm what's known as a "career brown belt," in it just for the exercise and to help teach.)
Yeah, maybe it's Polyanna-ish to think they respect the belt, but hey, it worked with the other one--Rick is STILL a little bit afraid of me, even though he's bigger than I am. Either that, or he's being nice and letting me pretend I'm tougher than he is, since he stopped at blue.
So, how humiliating is it that I ended up with a three-day concussion my first night back?Let the bruises begin...
They had me worried there for a little while. They always call up the kids in a group by the color of the belt they get promoted to, and then announce what color belt they got, and they go in order of the rank, so everyone knows what color is coming next. After they called all the yellow belts, red would be next, and indeed the teachers at the end of the hand-shaking line laid out a bunch of red belts as the kids' names were being called. Charlie's name was called.
He had had a nice, strong performance, no flubs of any kind, so I was certain he would get green, and when his name was called with this group, what ran through my mind was, "Hey, what did he do wrong???" Then, after they called out the last kid's name, they promoted them all to green. There were no red belts this time! So the teachers on the end who were responsible for actually handing out the belts had to scramble very quickly and get out a bunch of the green belts and size them to the kids coming through the line.
He's done a great job so far, but he is about to start the part of karate where you have to start taking people down to the mat and throwing them around. That requires slowing down and doing things very deliberately so you don't hurt anyone. I'm a little worried about this part, since Charlie likes to listen just long enough to think he understands, and then charge in.
Fortunately (or not, depending on your point of view), I have decided to get involved again. Yup, I put on my gi and a brown belt for the first time in several years last week and joined the party. So I will now have the authority to slow him down if I can tell he wasn't really paying attention. Sure, I have that authority as his mother, but somehow there's just an ounce more respect there when you wear a brown belt with a black stripe on it and they know you're only one step removed from being a black belt. (Although, to be perfectly honest, I have absolutely no intention of going for the black, I'm what's known as a "career brown belt," in it just for the exercise and to help teach.)
Yeah, maybe it's Polyanna-ish to think they respect the belt, but hey, it worked with the other one--Rick is STILL a little bit afraid of me, even though he's bigger than I am. Either that, or he's being nice and letting me pretend I'm tougher than he is, since he stopped at blue.
So, how humiliating is it that I ended up with a three-day concussion my first night back?
Friday, February 22, 2008
Black Water and Static
Well, we're finding a few more things that Charlie will eat. Just not at school. He's not real happy about school lunches. (Then again, if I remember correctly, I never raved about school lunch, either!) I keep a well-stocked fruit bowl and individual-sized cans of tuna at home so he can have a snack when he gets home if he didn't eat lunch. He's happy.
I'm cooking Chinese dinners about half the time, and the rest of the time I cook other stuff just to see what he'll end up liking. He tries pretty much anything. Doesn't necessarily eat it after trying it, but at least he tries.
Ever seen anyone put a spoonful of peanut butter in his mouth and then try and get every last smidgen back out while gagging over the trash can?
We went shopping together at the local Asian market one night a couple of weeks ago, and got a ton of stuff he liked. The first night I made stir-fry, he was bossing me around the kitchen like he knows how to cook it. I had bought oyster sauce and hoisin sauce for the spices. He couldn't read the label but smelled it. Then he shook his head no, and said what we needed was black water.
Huh????
Black water. He then proceeded to go through my kitchen, opening every liquid bottle in the cabinets looking for black water. He finally found what he wanted.
It was a bottle of Gravy Master.
No, no, no....I'm puttin' my foot down here. No Gravy Master in the stir-fry. He was quite insistent that this is what they used in China. I flat-out refused and sent him out of the kitchen. I finished the stir-fry with the oyster sauce and hoisin sauce, and doggoned if he didn't love it and eat 2 heaping plates of it.
I have since realized that black water is probably soy sauce. That I could have dealt with. But not Gravy Master.
*************************************************
Last night we were playing Monopoly (Rick, Charlie, 'n' me). Charlie LOVES Monopoly. And he only got burned in a trade once. Rick got one of the cheap-o properties from him in exchange for two very nice, expensive properties, and then proceeded to put hotels on the cheap-o place. You should have seen Charlie's face when he landed on something that previously had cost him only $4 in rent, and found he had to pay something like $450. That has never happened again.
But I digress. We were playing Monopoly, and Charlie suddenly gets this idea. He picks up a metal ruler that was laying on the table near him, and he starts rubbing it through his hair vigorously.
What on earth are you doing, child?
Need paper.
So I handed him a piece of paper from his homework we had been working on earlier.
No, paper to tear up.
He jumps up and heads out of the room, comes back with a blank piece of paper, and promptly tears it into little shreds.
Then he picks up the ruler and starts rubbing it in his hair again.
???? Rick and I are giving each other rather puzzled glances.
Then Charlie takes the ruler and holds it over top of the paper shreds.
Okay, we get it now. He is obviously trying to use static electricity to get the paper to "jump" up to the ruler.
The problem is, this ruler had a strip of cork along the back of it. No static charge.
Charlie gets closer and closer to the paper, and just doesn't understand why the paper won't behave for him. He finally gives it an irritated look, smacks the pile of paper with the ruler, and little shreds of paper go flying all over the place. Then he looks at us with frustration and says, "But it worked in China."
Long, pregnant pause before Rick and I simply fell out laughing.
*********************************************
By the way, for those of you who are Sherpa fans, I have an update. Remember back when I blogged about our trip to the orphanage, and there was a young deaf boy there who made eye contact with Jen and wouldn't let go? He wrapped his little fist right around that huge heart of hers, and hasn't let go of that, either. His other little fist reached across the ocean and grabbed her husband's heart and held on tight there, too.
It is now official. Jen and her husband are in the paperchase, and we are hoping their new son (who shall be called Eli) will come home around end of summer. Since we now have the e-mail address and are in regular contact with the directress of the orphanage, she already knows about it and has already informed the child, and she says he is very happy about it.
Praise God--another deaf child that China considers "unadoptable" has found a family full of loving arms and hearts. And he was never even on the registry! Is this a fairy-tale ending, or what?
Congratulations, Eli. And congratulations Jen and Joel.
I'm cooking Chinese dinners about half the time, and the rest of the time I cook other stuff just to see what he'll end up liking. He tries pretty much anything. Doesn't necessarily eat it after trying it, but at least he tries.
Ever seen anyone put a spoonful of peanut butter in his mouth and then try and get every last smidgen back out while gagging over the trash can?
We went shopping together at the local Asian market one night a couple of weeks ago, and got a ton of stuff he liked. The first night I made stir-fry, he was bossing me around the kitchen like he knows how to cook it. I had bought oyster sauce and hoisin sauce for the spices. He couldn't read the label but smelled it. Then he shook his head no, and said what we needed was black water.
Huh????
Black water. He then proceeded to go through my kitchen, opening every liquid bottle in the cabinets looking for black water. He finally found what he wanted.
It was a bottle of Gravy Master.
No, no, no....I'm puttin' my foot down here. No Gravy Master in the stir-fry. He was quite insistent that this is what they used in China. I flat-out refused and sent him out of the kitchen. I finished the stir-fry with the oyster sauce and hoisin sauce, and doggoned if he didn't love it and eat 2 heaping plates of it.
I have since realized that black water is probably soy sauce. That I could have dealt with. But not Gravy Master.
*************************************************
Last night we were playing Monopoly (Rick, Charlie, 'n' me). Charlie LOVES Monopoly. And he only got burned in a trade once. Rick got one of the cheap-o properties from him in exchange for two very nice, expensive properties, and then proceeded to put hotels on the cheap-o place. You should have seen Charlie's face when he landed on something that previously had cost him only $4 in rent, and found he had to pay something like $450. That has never happened again.
But I digress. We were playing Monopoly, and Charlie suddenly gets this idea. He picks up a metal ruler that was laying on the table near him, and he starts rubbing it through his hair vigorously.
What on earth are you doing, child?
Need paper.
So I handed him a piece of paper from his homework we had been working on earlier.
No, paper to tear up.
He jumps up and heads out of the room, comes back with a blank piece of paper, and promptly tears it into little shreds.
Then he picks up the ruler and starts rubbing it in his hair again.
???? Rick and I are giving each other rather puzzled glances.
Then Charlie takes the ruler and holds it over top of the paper shreds.
Okay, we get it now. He is obviously trying to use static electricity to get the paper to "jump" up to the ruler.
The problem is, this ruler had a strip of cork along the back of it. No static charge.
Charlie gets closer and closer to the paper, and just doesn't understand why the paper won't behave for him. He finally gives it an irritated look, smacks the pile of paper with the ruler, and little shreds of paper go flying all over the place. Then he looks at us with frustration and says, "But it worked in China."
Long, pregnant pause before Rick and I simply fell out laughing.
*********************************************
By the way, for those of you who are Sherpa fans, I have an update. Remember back when I blogged about our trip to the orphanage, and there was a young deaf boy there who made eye contact with Jen and wouldn't let go? He wrapped his little fist right around that huge heart of hers, and hasn't let go of that, either. His other little fist reached across the ocean and grabbed her husband's heart and held on tight there, too.
It is now official. Jen and her husband are in the paperchase, and we are hoping their new son (who shall be called Eli) will come home around end of summer. Since we now have the e-mail address and are in regular contact with the directress of the orphanage, she already knows about it and has already informed the child, and she says he is very happy about it.
Praise God--another deaf child that China considers "unadoptable" has found a family full of loving arms and hearts. And he was never even on the registry! Is this a fairy-tale ending, or what?
Congratulations, Eli. And congratulations Jen and Joel.
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