Happy Mother's Day!

Me and the boys made some brownies. Then we all got to eat most of them hot. Then the boys gave their mom the present they'd been working on for her at school. Wooden spoons that masquerade as flowers!



We planted them where they'll get some good sun. Elijah made the red one...



And Rowan made the yellow one. He has a lot of personality...



Happy Mother's Day sweetie! Us boys love you so much!

Munich rules

Lately, Elijah has been asking me to take him to work with me. So on Saturday both boys hopped in the stroller and we rode towards work. We stopped for some breakfast pastries, and then lay down a picnic blanket on the amazing new park right behind the Rathaus (City Hall). It's just a nice green lawn with some trees and sunny places in the middle of the city. We ran around, and then there was a little tourism event for the Tirol region in Austria. Each boy got a green soccer ball, some sausage, some water and bread. Oh and a cute flag to wave.

We went to work and they enjoyed running down the spacious hallway. We played Mike's guitar, plugging it into the amp and turning it up, I hope we didn't disturb anyone! Sure was nice to hear a loud, overdriven guitar though. :-)

Then it was a nice big playground on the way home from work. Rowan boldly climbed a 15 foot high ladder to a tower, and Elijah overcame a fear about crossing a thick rope bridge. I'm trying to get them to learn to push themselves on the swings, but no luck so far.

I stopped at the climbing book store, but it was too hard to get the boys to stand still. Rowan knocked over a 215 Euro globe! Happily it was ok. Let's get out of here!

Then we went into the beautiful yellow church at Odeonsplatz. The boys were very quiet and respectful, just whispering about the cherubs high on the walls. We called them "babys."

Rowan kept saying "go in yellow house!" Then I looked. There was a "prevent diabetes" fair on the Odeonsplatz, and sure enough there was a blow-up yellow castle for kids to jump in. We had to take that in, and the boys were laughing up a storm for 30 minutes as they bounced and fell in the house. It was time to go, but they did not want to leave! In fact the attendant was pulling them out because he decided they'd been in too long ("we have to alternate big and small children," he said). Oh the crying! Lots of looks of either sympathy or alarm, I never have the time to find out which is which. I carried one back to the stroller and the other just walked and cried. Too bad!

But then at home they got to watch a movie for 10 minutes before taking a nap, and they were pretty tired so it was okay.

The day before we'd all (including Kris) rented a boat after I got off work and pedaled around on a lake in the Englisch Garten. We all loved that.

Anyway, I'm just really impressed with Munich as a kid-friendly city, I'm discovering new attractions every weekend.

Interesting article about "America's Dad"

Bill Cosby's activism is profiled in the Atlantic Monthly:

His anger and frustration erupted into public view during an NAACP awards ceremony in Washington in 2004 commemorating the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education...
That night, Cosby was one of the last honorees to take the podium. He began by noting that although civil-rights activists had opened the door for black America, young people today, instead of stepping through, were stepping backward. “No longer is a person embarrassed because they’re pregnant without a husband,” he told the crowd. “No longer is a boy considered an embarrassment if he tries to run away from being the father of the unmarried child.”

Great article, read it here. The liberal storyline about the failure of black communities centers on external influences, like pervasive racism, predatory lending, lack of education, lack of role models. But it's solutions don't have the bracing and energizing appeal that a prophet of personal responsibility can provide. Also, there is raw emotion and anger in the people that can't be addressed by say, a new community center. Anyway, this is Cosby's take on the problem.

Ski touring is fun

pizbuin-11
Originally uploaded by ripsaw ridge

I'm happy to report that finally, after two years of effort, ski touring has entered my blood. I can ski well enough now that I hardly ever fall down in a tangle of arms and legs. I do my share of "kick turning," which means my descents aren't as joyful as those of a real skier. But I've found a sweet spot with it. There are just so many places to ski tour here, an endless supply of mountains. And I get to see so much more of the Winter Alps than I ever saw of the Winter Cascades. Adding up the ski tours (and occasional snowshoe tour, which I still like), I have been able to do considerably more "hiking" in the winter here than back in the U.S..

Ski touring is way, way more rewarding than going to a lift area. The few times I went this year were marred by snow-making machinery and icy slopes.

This is a picture I took from the Silvrettahorn, in the Rätikon Alps on the Swiss/Austrian border. I love the party of 5 people traveling on the ridge top. And I love the steep, pointy mountain across the valley.

Fun day at Starnberg

Kris, the boys and I had a great day at the Starnberg Lake. The weather was warm and sunny. The boys took their bikes, and we went to lay on the grass near the water. The boys had a great time running around. We pigged out on raisins and croissants too. There was some sadness because Rowan fell into a creek (he was jumping across it again and again), so he had to take his pants off and wander around in a diaper for a while. Then on the way back his bike tire deflated. We finished the 5 hour visit with apfelstruedel at a restaurant by the lake. The kids got a great workout, and we enjoyed the sun.

Looking forward to more days like that coming up!

People don't go outside...

A short essay on declining National Park visitation...

Overall, the number of people who visit national park sites has been on a steady decline for almost 20 years — with a handful of exceptions. For years, the complaint about parks was a variation of that old Yogi Berra line: nobody goes there anymore because they’re too crowded. But now the treasures of original and scenic America have the opposite problem.

The rest here.

Stephen King's take on ice tools

This was pretty funny:

What I really feel when I hold this in my hand isn't so much the possibility of murder as the gravity of mortal things. It speaks to me of the vulnerability of human flesh, but also of the resilience and determination of the human mind: Lying on my desk, it whispers, "If you need me, I'll be there. If you need to hang all 215 pounds of you off me, I won't let go--if, that is, you plant me deep."

The rest is here.

First day of spring

Sunday was the first day of spring. I went for a morning ski up the Pleisenspitze, almost 5000 feet of skiing up and down, and the views were great. In the afternoon, Kris went out with some knitting friends and I took the boys to Hauptbahnhof to get nacho supplies. We ate ice cream on the train platform and watched trains come and go. Then we went to the English Garden, sat on a hillside near the Monopteros and listened to the drummers down by the river. We ate a butterbrezen, and enjoyed running around in t-shirts with no jackets.

Something I really like here is that because it doesn't rain as much the grass is usually dry. In Seattle you can't lie down on the grass until June, it seems like! Anyway, this is one of my favorite things to do, I can really spend hours on a picnic out there. There was some kind of improvised swing on a tree, it looked like a set of aid climbing etriers (fabric step-ladders). We all climbed up on it.

Just a fun day...