Rose Parade! We get up very early on New Year’s Day to walk down to Colorado Boulevard. Fuller Seminary has seats in one of the grandstands, which is good because the streets are packed with people who have camped out overnight. We’re in place by 7:30 or so, and the parade floats finally come into view around 8:40. It’s long — about 90 different floats/bands/groups parade past over the course of about two hours — but it’s all pretty fun to watch.
Rose Bowl! Angela’s alma mater, Stanford, plays the Michigan State Spartans. It’s a gorgeous day for a game. The stadium crowd ultimately grows to 95,000; we’re a small group of red-wearing Stanford supporters sitting in a section of green-wearing Spartan fans.
The girls are largely indifferent to the chance to watch this event. Liya reads through most of it. Anya reads through the first half, then gets bored and spends the second half making increasingly desperate pleas to leave. Sabriya alternates between playing iPhone games and watching the activity on the field.
The Stanford Cardinal come out strong in the first half, but ultimately lose 24-20 to the Spartans.
Johnny takes us all on another visit to SkyZone, a huge building full of trampolines. Needless to say, this is awesome.
We walk from Johnny and Zenni’s house to a nearby playground. The girls and their cousins spend a long time playing tag on a play structure. During a break in tag, Bree and Liya pretend to be bunnies and hop around.
Angela’s dad takes Sabriya out for a bike riding lesson in the cul-de-sac at the end of Johnny and Zenni’s street. She’s starting to get the hang of riding, and can coast for a few seconds at a time.
[Courtesy of Anya. She eats these constantly.]
HOW TO MAKE A TRIPLE-PICKLE CHEESE BAGEL SANDWICH
Ingredients
1 Eltana bagel (or two slices)
1 or 2 Clausen pickles
~1/6 Beecher’s Flagship cheddar
1 plate
1 hungry tummy
Toast Eltana bagel slices. While you are toasting, get the cheddar ready.
Take the bagels out of the toaster and put them on the plate. Grate the cheese and spread evenly on bagels.
Put bagels in the microwave. Set to 2 min. While they are in there, slice pickles to 1/8 inch slices.
Take the bagels out of the toaster. On one slice, lay pickles out so they cover the bagel. Do this until there are 3 layers of pickles.
Put non-pickle slice on the pickle one.
EAT!
Note: Pickles will fall out of the sandwich. Just stick them back in.
Anya’s debate club at school participates in their second tournament. This one takes place at Anya’s school, so the club is comfortably on their home turf; seven other school teams are visiting. Jan accompanies Anya through the half day long tournament, covering three rounds.
Anya’s team for today includes 5th grader Carter and 7th grader Grady. In the first round, the team is slightly too enthusiastic in their use of various (otherwise approved) heckling techniques, and rattle two of the three students on the opposing team. The judge ends up ruling for their opponents. The team does better in the second round, and wins that, and better still in the third round, which they also win.
The third round turns out to be judged by Jill, a high school junior who’s a daughter of our good friends Chris and Laura. In the photo, Jill’s sharing some suggestions with Anya following the third debate.
Overall, Anya’s school’s club does well, and takes 1st place for the day overall.
Early this morning Sabriya gave Jan this sketch she made of herself in fleece footie pajamas. This picture does a good job of capturing the enormous amount of joy with which she greets each morning.
Her drawn self has thought bubbles leading to a thought balloon on the opposite side of the page. There she asked Jan if he wanted to go with her to Starbucks for breakfast. So the two of them went to Starbucks.
Sabriya finishes her “ice house” project for kindergarten. The students have to construct a small box or container to hold an ice cube and keep it from melting for as long as possible. Angela lets Bree use a 20 year-old scrap of blue foam she’s carried around since college, and the foam is a good insulator. Bree cuts the pieces and tapes them together, then decorates the box with colored duct tape. Jan helps get the top of the box to seal well across the top. Bree is careful to wear safety glasses while working with tools on the box.
Bree’s box ultimately does the best job of any handmade box created by a student in her class. (The winning student just puts the ice cube in a thermos bottle lined with cotton.)
Bree, clowning around in the bath.
Jan’s halfway through step 1 of his goal this year to finally memorize the first 1,000 Japanese kanji characters. Here, in no particular order, are the 500 characters he’s done so far:
一丁七万三上下不与世両中主久乗九予争事二
五井交京人今仕他付代以件伊休会伝伸位住体
作使例価便係保信借値側備働億優元先光党入
全八公六共内円再写冬出刀分切初判別利利制
前割劇力加助労勉動務勝勢勤化北区十千午半
協南印原参友反収取受口古可台右号各合同名
向君告味命和品員商問営器四回団国園土在地
坂報場増士売変夏外多夜大天太夫女好婦子字
学宅安完官定実客室宮家容宿富寺対専将小少
局居屋山島川工左市師席帰平年広店度座庭建
式弓引強当形役待後得心必応思急性悪情想意
愛感成戦戸所手打技投持指接支改放政教数文
料新方旅日早明明映春昨時曜曲書最月有服望
朝期木本村条来東松林果校株根格案森検業楽
様権横橋機次歌止正歩歳死残段母毎毛氏民気
水求池決治法洋活派流浅浜海深清済演火点無
父牛特犬玉現球理生産用田由申男町画界番病
発白百的目直相県真着矢知石研社神福私秋科
種空立竹第答算米糸約紙級細組経結給続総線
置羊美習考者者耳聞職肉育能自興船色花芸若
英茶草落葉薬虫行術衛衣表製西要見親角解言
計記設試話語説読調談論講議谷貝負買貸費資
質赤足路身車軍転輸農込近返送通造連週進運
過道違遠選郎部都配野金鉄銀長門開間限院際
集雨電青面音頭題風飛食館首馬駅験高魚鳥黒
This is 500 characters, halfway to the goal of 1,000. That’s a lot, but only about the level a Japanese sixth grader is expected to master. And the number of 1,000 actually doesn’t capture the challenge of the task. Japanese has what’s easily the worst writing system in the world. Nearly all of those characters have multiple pronunciations and multiple meanings that vary depending upon which word they appear in. So one not only has to learn all the characters, but also the various ways they can be read and used.
This is Jan’s third attempt to memorize the first 1,000 kanji: once when studying at Waseda, and a second time when we lived as a couple in Tokyo for a year. On each of the past two attempts, he’s only memorized about 800 or so — only about a fifth-grade level. Not knowing all these characters by heart makes it really hard to read Japanese, which makes it hard to acquire more vocabulary, which makes it hard to retain the characters in one’s head. So this year he’s making a push to get the first 1,000 down solid.
Today’s milestone is the halfway mark in just the first pass through these 1,000 characters. Because the characters all look so similar, they’re quite slippery; it’s easy to learn new ones while forgetting or confusing old ones. So he’ll have to make several more passes through this set to be sure to really have them down. Jan’s goal is to have these completely memorized in time for the annual Japanese Language Proficiency Exam. This year it will be conducted in the U.S. on one day only: December 7. So, if all goes well, the test will be a fun activity for his birthday.
Anya tries snowboarding for the first time. Liya’s been taking snowboarding lessons this season, and Anya’s keen to try it herself, so she lobbies Jan to take her. Jan decides that a Sunday when the Seattle Seahawks are playing the 49ers for the NFC championship is a day when most of Seattle will be indoors, and hence a great day for non-football types to hit the slopes.
Anya takes a morning lesson, then spends the afternoon with Jan on a portion of the bunny hill that has a “magic carpet” lift. She’s beginning to get the hang of it. She’s falling a lot, but doesn’t seem to mind. At one point, she twists around, and Jan shouts, “You made a turn!”
Anya: “I did?”
Jan: “Sure. See? You were on your heel side, and now you’re on your toe side.”
Anya: “Oh, yeah. I must have turned.”
Now she knows what to work towards, but the run is too short that she’s spending more time strapping in and unstrapping out of her boot binding than she is boarding. She asks if they can try the Daisy chairlift. Chairlifts are a bit tricky for a new snowboarder, and she predictably tumbles getting off the lift, but is ready to try the green run. She does a turn, and then another, and another. She’s still hesitant, and there are lots of falls, but it’s clicked for her, and she has a great run. “Let’s do it again!” And we do it two more times before Jan decides they should call it a day.
Angela’s first public ukulele performance. She started taking lessons in the fall, and now feels confident enough to lead the kids’ group in a round of “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”.
Family ski day at Crystal Mountain. Angela’s been driving girls down to Crystal each week for ski lessons with their school, and today Jan joins them to make it a family outing. We hook up with friends Joe and Kristina Belfiore for the day. The snow isn’t great — there’s been very little snowfall this year — but there’s enough of it, and the warm sunny weather turns it into a gorgeous day of spring skiing.