Relatives

Caterpillars

Do you know what I dreamed about last night? Caterpillars at Filoli! - Lucy

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One of the neat things about visiting Filoli is that you never know what you will see. The flowers are changed often, and the wildlife varies as well according to the season.

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Recently we have seen wild turkeys and deer, and even both in the same day! The turkeys are hilarious…very self-assured birds who sometimes walk in front of a car, puff up, and gobble gobble at you.  The deer are so used to Filoli that they do not bolt at the first sight of visitors…esp. since we stay mostly at a distance.

There is also a resident rooster at Filoli, and though we have never seen him, we hear him often. Sometimes they let one of the chickens roam around in the garden…the last time that happened, Lucy was just a baby. She was scared of it even from a distance, and wanted to run away.

Oddly enough, her grandmother was also scared of chickens. She related this to me one time when we were walking through Filoli (possibly the same day as the chicken episode). Lucy has also shown a great dislike of chickens and roosters at petting zoos…so I think this might be an inherited trait.

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Anyway, the last few visits we have been noticing…caterpillars! There are the little tiny green ones that dangle on strings hanging out of trees and get stuck in your hair (they have these every year at Stanford too), and the regular sized ones with stripes or spotty patterns. Here are some of the cool caterpillars we found recently.
Anyone able to identify them?
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The Play

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Yesterday we went with Grandma to see Lucy’s cousin starring as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz at her school.
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Lucy is a big fan of putting on shows, and she loved it…she was on the edge of her seat. We envision a lot of plays and shows in our future.
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There were no photos of the show allowed, so we just snapped some before and after pics. It was a lot of fun, and we look forward to the next one. Congrats on a wonderful play!
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Filoli again

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We’ve been to Filoli three times since it reopened in February. We went on Grandmommy’s birthday with the family, as has become our tradition.

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Looking back through our photos I am reminded how happy Grandmommy was there, despite her illness. (The first photo below is Lucy now…the one next to it is Grandmommy in the same space 3 years ago. )

IMG_0883nice big kitchen!

G'Mommy & Lucy in the cafeLucy & Gmommy

G'Mommy by the pool

How peaceful and relaxing and ‘away from it all’ it is here.

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Snow 2011

Mommy, I wanna see the volcano interrupting!

-while watching Kilauea’s latest eruption

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We just got back from a snowy weekend. Lucy enjoyed playing in Gma & Gpa’s yard, where there was still a bit of snow left over from last week’s storm.

Before:                                         After:
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Here are some snow cats we made in the big pile of snow in the driveway:
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We went up to Soda Springs for some snow play at Planet Kids. Lucy had a blast.

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She rode on the tube ride, climbed the snowy volcano, and coasted down the hill. We checked out Boreal, which will be great next year for some ski lessons!
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We celebrated Grandma K’s birthday with a cake made by Lucy, and played trains with Grandpa.
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Grandpa gave Lucy a treasure chest, and let her pick out some shells to put in it!

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Poipu beach

Today was a beautiful sunny day on Kauai, so we went to the beach. We had a marvelous time!
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We saw a rare and endangered monk seal resting, fenced off of course to allow him his privacy;IMG_7735IMG_7731

Mike, Jim and Tisa snorkeled and tried out a new underwater camera head strap thingy;IMG_7821IMG_7852

Grandma Vita started a new book (The Other Boleyn Girl)

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Lucy splashed around, kicked sand into the waves, watched her daddy snorkel, counted chickens and roosters and baby chicks, played with the faucet at the rinsing station, and snuck in a climb and a slide on the beach playground. Phew!

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None of us got sunburned (hopefully) and we all managed to pile into one car (though trooper Tisa was boxed in by chairs and boogie boards and had to wait patiently in a hot car to climb out of the back after all the gear was taken out.)

Later on we checked out a local farmer’s market, had an ice cream, bought some veg and snacks, and wandered through shops.
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The weather has been absolutely perfect, not too hot, no rain, we have been very lucky so far. What a wonderful day!

p.s. Our gracious hosts have prepared gourmet dinners for us each night, this is surely the best restaurant on the island. Must remember to photograph the food!

The menu so far chez Tisa & Jim:

  • teriyaki steak on a bed of coconut rice, haupia cake
  • peruvian grilled chicken with zucchini, cassoulet and baguette

Lucy was so enamored of the coconut rice we got the recipe and will make it for her at home.

Recipe: Cook rice (in rice cooker of course) with homemade chicken stock and coconut milk, liquid to rice ratio is 2 to 1.

Next post: tour of the magnificent abode and the dramatic rain forest back yard.

Birthday #4

Lucy and her Grandpa Tom had a joint birthday party this weekend. It was an all day affair!
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First up, the 4 year old portion…princess themed, with castle, knights, and princesses. (She said she and I could be the valiant knights, and Auntie Laura could be the princess.) There were cupcakes for all, and a crown each for Grandpa and Lucy.
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After the cupcakes, piles of presents (she says her favorite present was her new scissors), and dancing portion, we went out to dinner for the grown up portion with Gpa’s longtime friends.

We had a great meal, good company, and madame managed to make it through the long meal by getting Grandma to rub her feet.
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After dinner we had a coconut cake chez Gma & Gpa, and presents for Grandpa. A wonderful time was had by all!
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Pirate Party

A few weeks (months?!) back we had a pirate birthday party for Mike. Everyone was game and wore their pirate gear, we made cardboard swords, silver dubloons and drew a map for the treasure hunt. Here are a few pics!

the map…and some treasure…
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essential pirate gear…hat, eye patch, and cardboard sword…

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ye olde pirate cupcakes…some were stolen treasure before the party started!

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Halloween 2010

Here are a few pics from Halloween this year.

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Practicing trick or treating….and our pumpkins

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the downtown area was well decorated…

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there were loads of trick or treaters…and luckily the forecasted rain never showed!

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Auntie met us there for the trick-o-treating, and a spot of lunch.

Afterwards Minnie Mouse tried her hands at the crafts. She made a bear magnet and a pipe-cleaner spider (which was her favorite).

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Two streets had been blocked off to allow for stress-free kid roaming. There was even a parade!

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Someone still isn’t that interested in candy…her favorite items were a cat finger puppet and the cat stickers auntie gave her. Happy Halloween!

Family History Project: Gma Vita Interview


Daddy: “You know, you don’t have to use all your trains at once.”
Lucy: “Yes, all the trains have to be used at once in the world we live in.”

— a conversation w/ Lucy while playing w/ her train set

Family History Part 1 from Mike C on Vimeo.

“Perfection is the Enemy” is something I often remind myself. I guess it’s a variation on… googling …Voltaire’sThe Perfect is the Enemy of the Good.”

For me, waiting to get something “perfect” or “just right” often equals not doing anything. So I often need to tell myself to chuck that “striving for perfection” stuff out the window and to just try to learn, create, and get better at things on a continual basis (in between goofing off and being lazy, that is.)

So, I finally heeded this advice regarding a long delayed family history project I posted about last week.

Part of this project involves filming short, quick video interviews. My mom, good sport that she is, agreed to sit down with me for the very first interview (with two cameras rolling of course!) This initial video concentrates on her memories of growing up in the Philippines before WWII. I hope to do many more videos.

Some notes from this first shoot:

  • I brought two lights and both bulbs burnt out before I could even use them
  • It was fairly quiet outdoors until we started shooting—that’s when the neighbors started with the firecrackers
  • I’m glad I used my old directional microphone, or the firecrackers would have ruined the shoot
  • With no lighting I was worried about having a dim picture but had the opposite, too bright on my main camera (I toned it down a little in post)
  • I need to learn more everything that has to do with video (shooting, editing, etc)
  • I need to get a better selection of family photos and interview questions
  • http://incompetech.com/: Royalty-free soundtrack music. Cool
  • This video was shot in 1080p/24fps but was outputted to the web at 720p/29.97fps (something else I need to learn about)
  • This was a lot of fun and I learned a lot—what more could I ask for?

Pumpkin Patch Visit


Daddy: “It’s the weekend, kid—what do you want to do?”
Lucy: “Maybe we can go to french fry town and then the park!”
Daddy: “And visit Gma too, and see her garden!”
Lucy: “Yes, and we can go to her garden and see if there are any snails that need a snail race!”

— sorting out weekend plans with Lucy

Pumpkin Patch Visit from Mike C on Vimeo.

I spent last weekend in front of my computer, finishing up a project for work. However, the kid and her mom got to go out and have some fun in Half Moon Bay.

This video is of a pumpkin patch they visited with GpaTom, Gma Karen, Auntie Laura, and Uncle John. Check out Lucy on her first ever pony ride!

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