A chip off the old block: Anya creates a treasure hunt for Jan to solve. Sample clue:
Find the next clue
Really hidden so well
In plain sight
Downstairs or up
Go look
Everywhere
The final clue awards Jan, “A free hug”.
A Jeep, a Jeep, we’re looking for a Jeep. On many drives to school, Anya and Liya play “the alphabet game”: they look outside the car for a sign or other written word that contains an “A”, then a “B”, and so on, until they get to “Z”. The letter “J” is usually pretty hard to find. Sometimes they hope to find a “J” on a Jeep, which has led to a chant they now always sing at that point in the game: “A Jeep, a Jeep, we’re looking for a Jeep.”
Happy Birthday, Nutmeg! Our beautiful little ocicat is 14 years old today — a senior citizen in cat years, but she still looks exactly the same way she did ten years ago. She’s still very playful, and her nightly hunt-the-fur-toy exercise regimen keeps her happy and trim.
Bar mitzvah for Benjamin Cape, son of Jan’s partner Robbie Cape. Jan attends the conservative Jewish service in the morning. He shows up shortly before the 9:15 time indicated on the invite and finds a nearly empty synagogue. Someone explains that very few people come for the whole service; the whole thing won’t really get going until 10:00. So this gives Jan time to catch up with similarly clueless goyim and one friend from a reformed Jewish family who was equally surprised by the late start. Benjamin does a great job reading.
Angela joins Jan for the evening reception. She tries on several outfits to evaluate which one best downplays the large black brace she wears for her knee rehab, eventually settling on a pair of black pants that effectively camouflage the brace.
Bree’s Monday morning ballet class has its once-a-season “Watching Day”. We, along with Lyn and Siri, watch Bree and her class do their regular exercises. It’s all adorable, and it’s neat to see how well Bree can remember and perform various sequences of simple steps.
Anya sees Angela reading her kindle and asks, “Why do you like your kindle?”
Angela says, “Because you can put a lot of books on it and it’s the same size.”
Anya thinks about this. “Can I have a Kindle?”
Apparently, Anya’s days of electronic gadget innocence are over.
Jan makes another quick trip with Robbie to Japan. They trip runs from Tuesday afternoon and return early Saturday morning. Accordingly, Jan packs for four nights, but eventually realizes he’s overpacked: the trip is really 5 days—but only 3 nights. (The flight there arrives on Wednesday.) This is our third trip to Japan in just over a year, and as always it’s packed with meetings and fantastic meals. This time we’re there without an interpreter, and lean a bit more on Jan’s Japanese than in previous trips. The best meal is Thursday night’s dinner at a Korean barbecue restaurant. Robbie says he likes a plate of Korean-style beef tartare—so our hosts order him another plate. When the meal’s over, Robbie says he won’t be able to eat again for three days.