Lookin' Out My Back Door...

Just a quickie as I go thru all the photos for my next post... (Extra brownie points for any readers who recognize the reference in my title!)

I often work at my dining room table (at least at the roughly 1/4 of the table that's not covered with notebooks, textbooks, craft materials, etc.) and enjoy looking out the sliding door that makes up the back wall of the room.  My yard ain't nuthin' special, but since my block of townhouses backs up to a golf course there's a nice buffer zone of large trees that attract a lot of local wildlife.  I'm in an end unit so my neighbors have to trek through my yard (usually cutting the corner) with their garbage pails, recycling, lawnmowers, etc. -- so I keep thinking about fencing in the yard...  but then I wouldn't get to watch all the critters walking/waddling/creeping/hopping/crawling/winging past and/or chasing each other around like circus clowns, so there's probably no fencing in my future.

Without further ado, here are just few examples of what I normally see in my backyard; these photos span about 3 weeks in September (the deer have since gotten in their winter coats & are fluffier & grayer)...

 

 

Not included are the two families of rabbits (I forgot to take pictures of them), untold numbers of grey & black squirrels (usually moving too fast to focus on), the friendly neighborhood woodchuck (who usually waddles out of sight while I'm running to get my iPhone or camera), or the foxes that occasionally trot past (and usually disappear at warp 8 as soon as they see me watching).

Yeah, it's a little odd when people walk through my yard toting their garbage or recycling... but with all the action in my yard, I'd be foolish to fence myself in!

Catching Up: Israel Festival at the Synagogue (2018_05_06)

As the Pipsqueak once said (in a very matter-of-fact voice), she goes to school seven days a week.

No, my sister's not a Tiger Mom; it's just a combination of regular (public) school Monday through Friday, Chinese school & dance on Saturday, and -- since AJ decided it would be nice for her daughter to have enough religious education to make an informed choice on personal beliefs when she got older -- Sunday school on, well, Sunday.

As I've mentioned previously, this has had the unforeseen effect of the rest of the family being in a synagogue almost as many times in the past four years as in the preceding decade, since Miri almost immediately signed herself up for the synagogue's Youth Choir (who knew?!?) and we don't like missing the events where the choir performs... plus we figured that the family darn well better participate along with the Pipsqueak instead of booting her out of the car with a hearty, "See ya later!" for any services or other events she's involved with.  (Dude, are you feeling sarcastic today, or what?)

Anyway, one of the events we attended with Miri back in early May was the synagogue's annual celebration of Israel's independence day.  There would be a performance by the Youth Choir, other music, arts & crafts sales, information booths, and Israeli dancing (the latter being an alternate phrasing of, "a loud, noisy, occasionally disorganized, tough rhythmic physical workout that's lots of fun").

First things first; AJ got Miri to the synagogue early for the choir's pre-event rehearsal, and I followed a while later with Mom & Dad.  The Youth Choir gave a spirited performance that turned out to be something of a family affair, since AJ ended up holding some of the cue cards the kids needed for a new song they'd just gotten that morning:

Afterwards, we wandered around the sales tables to see what was available (I think Mom & AJ both bought some jewelry, along with a couple of small things for Miri), taking a break to ease some sore joints halfway through.  Miri was a little bored by the music act, so she went off to visit the face painting booth while us oldsters just sat for a while.

"Hi, there!"

These sold out before I could get one... One can only hope...!

Finally, most of the booths were cleared out of the sanctuary to make room for the dancing, and it wasn't long before the family's two best dancers got in on the action.  Mom was sore & tired but after watching for a few minutes decided she didn't have enough chances to dance with her daughter & granddaughter, so the three of them tripped the light fantastic until things got moving a bit too fast for all but the youngest.

Shortly afterwards, the Hora got a bit out of hand...!

Three generations dancing hand-in-hand.  :-) 

Holy moly, the Pipsqueak's getting tall!

Things finally began winding down (not to mention most of those in attendance getting winded), so we gathered ourselves and headed out to the parking lot -- whereupon, true to form, the Pipsqueak decided she was STAAAARRRRVING! and needed something to eat immediately to avoid a fate worse than death.  (Dude, have you mentioned that your neice gets hangry?)  There was a short discussion over whether or not she could survive long enough for us to meet at a nearby restaurant for lunch -- during which Miri got bored and borrowed Mommy's phone to play a game while her grownups repeatedly bounced one case of indecisiveness off another until finally figuring out where to eat.  Of course that meant that the wait for food would leave the Pipqueak utterly and completely STARVED TO DEATH! so AJ dug out a bag of chips and all was once again good in the world...

We all headed out for lunch, from where we split up to our respective houses -- Miri for a well-deserved nap, AJ for a chance to do some laundry, Mom & Dad to take a breather, and yours truly to upload photos from his camera.

And thus another enjoyable day came to a tired but happy close!

A Little Present-Day Catching Up...

Nuthin' too special, just a few quick points to avoid falling farther behind on the present day while trying to catch up on last year.  (Warning: there is likely to be some stream of consciousness-type writing in this post -- plus I'm so tired I can't guarantee that any of it will make sense!)

Halloween: I'll post photos soon, but the Pipsqueak had a pretty good holiday.  For her school parade (and the Halloween "dance" they hosted that evening) she made use of one of her dance costumes from last season, squeezing into it for probably the last time to be a jester.  She also had a grand old time trick-or-treating... AJ told me that when she emptied her candy bag for review afterwards, there were over 110 pieces of candy!  I had a pretty good time, myself; by the time the streets cleared and I shut down my sound effects, I'd given out candy to a total of 169 kids ranging from 1-1/2 to 12 or 13; costumes ranged from nearly-nonexistent to one "mummy" dressed in actual windings of gauze bandage, with separate rolls for her head, each arm, torso, lower body, and legs.  What's weird is that our folks had zero kids stop by in their neighborhood, but we think there was some kind of t-o-t alternative at the neighborhood pool that drew the kids away.  (Their leftover candy is safely stashed away for later use; the little leftover candy I had is secure in the back of my freezer to make it more difficult to inhale it all in one sitting.)

School Stuff:  Miri continues to do well, and is finally showing the kind of interest in reading general literature that we'd been hoping she would develop (as opposed to being interested in reading mainly because it was required and/or a way to earn rewards).  We're still trying to find ways to help her deal with what can only be termed performance anxiety during big tests... and, unfortunately, helping her find ways to deal with a couple of difficult classmates.  More news on those fronts as events progress...

Dance Stuff:  The first dance team competition is still about two months away, but the studio's winter show is in just a few weeks so Miri's classes have mostly changed over from general lessons to learning & rehearsing the performance routines.  She's in three of the numbers, so AJ is clenching her teeth in anticipation of how much she'll have to lay out for the costumes... but we'll always find a way to cover that expense.  Meanwhile, I often catch myself wondering how someone who dances so well in so many different styles keeps walking into things and/or knocking things over...!

General Stuff #1:  My niece is beginning to show signs of turning into a bit of a Potterhead, since her primary teacher is into that particular fandom from the tip of his Quidditch broom to the point atop the replica Sorting Hat he's known to wear from time to time.  She's kinda-sorta been interested for a while (Dude, maybe because her mother and uncle are fans?) but he's really tipped the apple cart.  She's also very proud to be a Ravenclaw like her uncle.  (We couldn't use the official Pottermore sorting test because she's too young to have a account, but I dug up a full set of the test questions online.)  Now we just have to figure out which Ilvermorny house she's in...

General Stuff #2:  We're in the market for a simple booster seat for my car, because we've expanded & opened up & modified the Pipsqueak's original expandable/openable/modifiable car seat to the max and she's beginning to have real problems squeezing into the darn thing.  AJ already tossed hers and is using just a small, simple booster to make sure Miri can easily see out the windows... but this kid's growing so fast, we're not sure she even needs that much elevation any more.  If only Maryland made the regulations concerning use of child seats a little less obtuse, we might know if we can forego the booster entirely or not... <sigh>

General Stuff #3:  On October 31st, we lost one of the cousins who'd never had a chance to meet the Pipsqueak after a long bout of illness.  That got me moving on my family genealogy project again, but I'm still hitting a dead end trying to trace Dad's family back beyond his father & uncle.  My talking about that search has once again gotten Miri asking me some interesting questions for which an adoptee cannot have easy answers (if ever having any answers at all); it's fascinating to watch how she processes what little information I'm able to give her, and I'm looking forward to some truly interesting discussions with her about identity and family as time progresses.  (The Yin to the death of our cousin's Yang was the addition of a new cousin just one week earlier; we hope to be able to meet her sometime in the coming year.)

Okay, that's about it for the moment -- it's waaaay past my bedtime and I can't remember any of the other things I wanted to mention.  I'm gonna go hit the hay, y'all keep your eyes out for photos from Halloween & other more recent events as well as more catching up on the past year right here in the blog!

Wishing everybody a (possibly belated) happy Halloween, happy All Saints Day, happy All Souls Day, and happy Diwali!