Saturday, April 26, 2003

It's OK to be a nerd
One of Ellie's favorite books is Todd Parr's "It's OK to be Different." I love it as well... it couches its highly PC message in a very silly context. She reads it cover to cover--- including the flap showing Todd and his dog Bully, and a reference to Todd Parr's website.

Inevitably, Mallary and Ellie visited the site the other day. There was a link to send email to Todd. The exchange follows:

Subject: hello to todd parr  and bully

Hello this is Ellie.  I have read one of your books _It's Okay to be
Different_.  I loved it.  Can you send me back some email.
My mom will read it to me.

I am 4 years old. I love to read.  I've been reading  _It's Okay to be
Different_ very much.  I loved how you drew the pictures and how you
came up with those words.  I love the page: Its okay to eat macaroni
and cheese in the bathtub.  Speaking of the first page, I do have 2
loose teeth.   I like the alien one.  And I especially like the words
the alien is saying.

Bye Todd Parr and Bully.  I hope you can send me some email back.

Love,
Ellie

How could he resist? The next day we got this:

Subject: Re: hello to todd parr  and bully

Hi Ellie-

It's Todd and Bully  WOOF WOOF!
Thanks for the nice email and glad you like my books- I bet you could
draw like me?
Take Care


XXX

posted by Tom 9:40 AM

farmer, dog, etc.
This was "TV-Free Week" at Clara's school. For each day a child went without TV, she received a small coupon from a local merchant (e.g., a free Italian Ice from Rita's). This presented no problem to Clara, but Ellie sometimes had trouble rising to the challenge grant I made to her. She forfeited a couple of prizes.

As part of this week, the Tamaques PTO sponsored a family bingo night on Thursday. Despite the deafening din in the cafetorium, we had a good time. We sat at a table with a few of Clara's friends, and they managed to get (poor) Mrs. Riley and her daughters to sit with us. At one point, Ellie rearranged half-a-dozen people so that she could sit next to Mrs. Riley. The Tamaques kids got to take turns calling numbers, and each got a prize by the end of the evening. The principal called them up by grades to get prizes, so Ellie was distraught when figured out she wouldn't get called. I bribed her with the promise of a Ring-Pop this weekend, which is turning out to be not as easy to find as I had thought!

I accused Hannah's dad Gerard of having an unfair advantage at bingo, since he is Catholic. He decried any such linkage. I have since done exhaustive research, and offer the following highly suggestive evidence:

Google search for "Catholic bingo"   => 55,100 hits
Google search for "Protestant bingo" =>  4,400 hits
Google search for "Muslim bingo"     =>  6,180 hits

Not that it mattered ... the dads were BS-ing more than playing.
posted by Tom 9:08 AM

Saturday, April 19, 2003

lion drive
Clara had her first softball game today, after having only one practice (due to bad luck with weather). I was a bit concerned since she really doesn't know the first thing about how the game is played, but it turned out just fine. The games are played using unorthodox but appropriate rules:

• All girls that show up go out in the field at once, regardless of the number.
• Swing till you hit.
• Once all the girls on a team hit, the half-inning is over.
• You play a different position each inning.
• Score? What's that?

Clara played first base in the first inning. I wasn't sure how this would work, since she hasn't caught a lot of balls. That turned out to be irrelevant, as there were no plays at first that inning. Some of the girls on the team are quite good--- the shortstop fielded a grounder and tagged the runner going by.

Her friends Hannah and Naomi are on the same team (the Lions). Naomi couldn't make it today, but that's Hannah with Clara in the middle picture below.

  
posted by Tom 7:42 PM

Sunday, April 13, 2003

getting a good brake
Ellie has never minded hand-me-downs--- in fact she shows pride at being big enough to wear or use something of Clara's. Today I put the training wheels back on Clara's 16" bike, and it made Ellie's day. She rode for a few blocks, and even down "the hill" -- a slope so gradual you wouldn't notice it, but one she had always been scared of. Having a handbrake as well as a coaster brake seems to embolden her. With any luck, she ought to get two years' use out of the bike. By that time, Clara might have outgrown her current bike.

posted by Tom 5:47 PM

seasonal commerce
Forget groundhogs, the equinox, or the swallows returning to Capistrano... the first sure sign of spring is the lemonade stand. Yesterday brought such lovely weather that Clara rushed home from variety show, ready to set out a shingle.

Clara and Ellie were excellent partners, which was a big relief. They made north of one dollar each, after I donated my original 75 cents of seed money. They had a number of gimmicks: free refills for neighbors, and your choice of "with ice" or "ice-free." And the best part, of course, was visiting with neighbors that we haven't seen much of during the snowy winter. I had brought out a chair and a book for myself, but didn't mind that I was unable to read a single page.

Based on yesterday, I predict a decline in New Jersey's unemployment numbers for April.

posted by Tom 10:06 AM

Sunday, April 06, 2003

odd birds
All week long Ellie looked forward to meeting "Mr. John," the brother of one of our nursing home friends (Miss Alice) that Mallary and Ellie know from their weekly visits. When Mallary called him on Monday, he had already heard from Miss Alice that we would be in town. We set Friday at 4:00 as the designated meeting time.

Friday was a gorgeous spring day to match those in the beginning of the week. In the shade, a light sweater felt good, but the sun was shining and the wind reduced to a breeze. A perfect day, in other words, for a trip to the London Zoo. We took the Tube to Baker Street and hopped on the 274 bus to Regent's Park. (The zoo is the only place we visited not conveniently served by the Underground.)

The zoo was not crowded, and would have been quite empty if not for a number of school groups. The first of our two mandatory stops was the Reptile House, where a Harry Potter scene was filmed (the Parseltongue scene from Book 1). Lots of photos, of course. We spent a bit longer visiting the penguins (this one for Ellie, the Penguin Savant). Unfortunately the birds weren't being fed until 5:00, and mostly they just laid around. We didn't get to see any swimming, for instance, which can be very impressive. However, there was one bird (armband number 0777) that kept roaming around to wherever a crowd would gather, so we got a very close-up view of a Jackass Penguin (a/k/a African Penguin).

From the zoo, we took a short waterbus ride along Regent's Canal. Ellie had been begging for a boat ride all week, and this was an easy one to take. An unexpected bonus was that it dropped us at Camden Lock, a bustling, high-energy market area filled with young people. We stood on the footbridge over the canal and watched the small lock operate (by hand) as a tour boat was raised about eight feet to allow it to continue toward the zoo.

The markets were mostly sidewalk stalls, filled with t-shirts, cheap jewelry, and let's just say other items you wouldn't find at Harrod's (what's a cannabis lolly, daddy?). At this point we had some time to kill before meeting Mr. John, but not enough time to go visit another site, so we just meandered around. Mallary successfully bargained for some sunglasses for Clara, and the girls got some ice cream. They did their best to keep their clothes clean for meeting Mr. John. (Clara had even cried a little because she didn't have a dress to wear to meet him, but she wore a nice skirt.)

We then took the Underground to the Oval stop in South London. The Kennington Oval is a famous cricket ground, but we just took a brief walk in the adjacent park while waiting for 4:00. At the appointed time and place, we easily found Mr. John, as he had brought his black-and-white dog Pepsi with him. He is a warm and hearty 76, which was no surprise to us since Miss Alice is so full of life and energy at 86. We walked back to his flat, on the 9th floor of a building in a group of post-WWII apartment buildings. The austere exterior did not prepare us for the shock to the senses that his flat would hold: the rooms were absolutely jam-packed with collectibles and memorabilia. Each tiny room had hundreds of items on the walls, shelves, and tables. He had many photographs, plus some items from a pub he had years ago with a long-time friend. (Before the pub, he had worked for an interior decorating firm. The firm of Cram and Wedge, perhaps?)

His next-door neighbor Miss Joyce came over and joined us. She had a delightful twinkle about her. Mallary asked her how long she had lived in her flat, and she replied, "Thirty-eight years... and I'm still trying decide whether or not to stay." Mr. John never married, and perhaps Miss Joyce did not either. She left us to go call her sister, who is infirm and lives a few miles away. They talk three times a day.

We brought pictures from the nursing home, mostly of Miss Alice and Ellie. Mr. John reciprocated by going through some photo albums and sending some back for Miss Alice.

We left with souvenirs, handshakes, hugs, and kisses--- as well as fond memories of a new friend.

posted by Tom 7:23 AM

parents to children: stop reading!
We spent quite a bit on time on the Underground during the week, and Clara quickly got the hang of whipping out her current book as soon as she was seated. However she did not quickly get the hang of disengaging from the book to get off the train when we got to our stop. We'd warn her that our stop was coming up and she would mutter, "Just let me finish this chapter." Once we had penetrated the shell of her concentration, we had to threaten to confiscate the book while riding the Underground. She did get a bit better as the week went on.

Ellie had her own sad story with reading. Her reading skills continue to improve each day. (Actual testimonial, out of the blue: "Mommy, thank you for teaching me about '-ing' words. I just can't stop thanking you!") Friday as we walked past the Houses of Parliament, we saw a group of war protestors across the street. The girls were of course curious about this assemblage, so we explained as simply as we could why the crowd had gathered. Unfortunately Ellie picked out one of the dozens of signs and was able to work out what it said: "STOP KILLING BABIES." She got very frightened and cried, "I want to go home--- our real home, not our hotel." After a long session of hugging and comforting, we found out she thought the war was taking place in England.

[Aside: One of my friends advised me that Clara would be picking up news about the war from school. I argued a bit, saying how oblivious she is to external events. I was then taken aback when one of her friends came over early in the bombing and said, "Did you hear we may have gotten Saddam Hussein? We are trying to kill him because some people think he will come over here and try to kill us if we don't." I realized that indeed we needed to discuss the war, which we did later. However two weeks later when we told her these people were protesting the war, she said, "What war?" After I reminded her about Iraq, she said, "Oh right." Ellie said, "What Rock?"]

Anyway, Mallary and I were temporarily in the curious position of wishing our girls weren't such avid readers.
posted by Tom 7:02 AM

Thursday, April 03, 2003

a grand day out
Today we went out of London to see the overwhelmingly opulent Hampton Court. It seems that Henry VIII was very impressed when he saw it, too --- so much so he just had to take it for his own.

The journey was quite easy: take the Underground to Waterloo, and hop on a half-hour train to Hampton Court. I bought tickets at a window rather than a machine, and that turned out to be a good idea, as the clerk gave us discounted tickets since we had Travelcards. On the other hand, no one asked to see our tickets on either leg of the trip.

They were running a special program(me) at Hampton Court that they call Puzzle Palace. We spent lots of time working the puzzles (Clara likes the 3-d type). We then got a guided tour of the State Apartments by a historical character, whose name we missed. It was all spectacular, but to me the Chapel Royal was the most breathtaking. The tour was of course a bit wordy, but no complaints from the girls.

We ended our time on the Palace grounds by walking through the famous hedge Maze, designed by Christopher Wren in the late 17th century. As summer hasn't come yet, the hedges were a bit thin, so you could sometimes see other people through the gaps. It was fun for all nonetheless.

We then walked through the charming village of Hampton Court for a few minutes before getting the train back. We then got off the Underground one stop early (on purpose) and strolled through South Kensington until we found a great spot for a light dinner before heading back to the hotel for cookies and showers.

The staff at our (very small) hotel has been unfailingly polite, but in general not exceptional tour guides. There is one staff member who has provided good information, but otherwise we're glad to have a two-room suite and lots of guidebooks.
posted by Tom 2:31 PM

Wednesday, April 02, 2003

Chilly-Chilly, Dang Dang
The day began with a short bus ride to Hyde Park Corner, from which we could walk to Buckingham Palace. (It turns out that our Travelcards are valid for bus travel as well.) We were well in advance of the time to see the Changing of the Guard--- but that was actually a liability, considering the chilly, windy weather. Also, our collapsible "pushchair" stroller broke after 8 years of service. Perhaps it had something to do with Ellie sitting on Clara's lap as Mallary pushed the stroller? The ceremony was full of majesty, until the end, when the royal marching band began playing a medley of Abba hits. (And the poor Beefeaters aren't even allowed to crack a smile when hearing "Dancing Queen" rendered by a marching band.)

After lunch, we went to see Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang at the Palladium, which was quite a good production. The stagecraft was the strongest part of the show. It was the first time the girls had seen a large-scale play. Ellie was certainly engaged enough by the story to crawl into Mallary's lap and bury her head when the Child Catcher was on stage.

With a new stroller, we tubed it to Baker Street, though we turned left out of the underground (away from Sherlock Holmes' 221B address). We went to a great Kosher restaurant called Reuben's, where we ordered from a cafeteria-style line (always a challenge with Ellie). Clara had a well-balanced meal of potato latkes and french fries, er, chips. She announced that on our next trip to London, we were "definitely coming back!"
posted by Tom 2:34 PM

Tuesday, April 01, 2003

blog by mail
If you want to receive this blog via email, you can send a blank message to smithsaltzman-subscribe@topica.com.
posted by Tom 2:45 PM

change of weather
The weather didn't hold, as today was cold and rainy--- a proper London day, in other words. The heavy rain held off until our walk home from dinner however, so we were able to get a full day in.

We started at the London Eye, which was super. They bill themselves as an "observation wheel," which evidently means a very expensive ferris wheel. The ride was great--- in an enclosed capsule that goes 435 feet up. The ride lasts one revolution of the wheel, which takes a half-hour. The wheel moves so slowly that they don't stop it when you get on and off. Clara and Ellie accompanied me on the ride, while Mallary staked out a place at the coffee/hot chocolate bar.

Next stop was the Tate Modern museum, which was wonderful for all of us. There were activities for the kids to do in the galleries, and art that we all enjoyed. I think this was the highlight of Ellie's day, as she would muse aloud about what different pieces made her think of, and wonder what the artist was thinking.

We then walked across the new Millennium Bridge (no longer the Wobbly Bridge) to get a glimpse of St. Paul's Cathedral before taking the Tube to King's Cross station. This was not an optional stop for us, as part of the appeal of this trip to the kids had been the Harry Potter angle. Evidently J.K. Rowling had misremembered the train stations when she was writing the first book, as there is no wall between platforms 9 and 10. However, the transit authority had the good sense to post a sign on a nearby brick wall labeled Platform 9 3/4. Clara was glad to get her picture taken here, but she was disappointed there was no wall to run into. (She had asked in all seriousness if we could come around 11:30, as the train for Hogwarts left at noon.)

Speaking of the Tube, it has made travel around the city quite easy. The basics of the system are familiar to anyone with experience on the NYC subways, and so far, the service has been frequent and pleasant (though we have had to stand quite often). The one bit of confusion (for me) came when we were trying to board the Circle Line on a platform with multiple trains. As the lead train is generally labelled with the name of the end station in the direction it is traveling, I couldn't figure out what the first train on the Circle Line would say, as there is no end station (hence the name). However, the cars were clearly marked, and we got on without a problem.

We had a very nice Indian meal tonight. The price of meals is nothing to complain about, as long as you hold on to the delusion that pounds are interchangeable with dollars.
posted by Tom 2:39 PM