samantha blog

http://merrymerrywitch.blogspot.com/

This gal in Japan is visiting all of the locations of Hiroshige’s 100 Views
of Edo, to see what they look like today.

A beautiful Mother’s Day weekend. Chinese dumpling lunch with Nana and
Tutu, a stroll thru Huntington Library, breakfast in bed, and Crab catching
on the beach.

In the 3rd picture do you see the crab escaping?

Today is Family Day. On May 11, 2004 we were united with Samantha Huan Lian
in Guangzhou, China. 2 not so young parents with no idea what we were
getting ourselves into. 8 years later, we still don’t know what we’re doing
- but we’re still having fun!

Is there no end to their creativity?? Totem and Ovo contain many very
unique acrobatic segments. If you have not seen Cirque lately, you are
missing out. There is nothing repetitive about these shows. Totem showed
some amazing unicycle work and acrobatics on highly flexible poles and
boards. But Ovo had a better set and more amazing acrobatics. Both shows
are terrific.

We got tickets to Maker Faire in the Bay Area and I’m very excited. Maker
Faire is “A two-day, family-friendly festival of invention, creativity and
resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement.”
http://makerfaire.com/

Anyone else out there going?

Another great day at California Adventure.

The girls conquered :

Toy Story Midway Mania
California Screaming (only Victoria)
Lunch at Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta
Silly Symphony Swings
Goofy’s Sky School
Jumping Jellyfish
Ariel
Redwood Creek Challenge
Grizzly River Rapids
Soaring Over California
Dinner at Taste Pilots Grill
Tuck & Rolls Bumper Cars

The girls play well together and are all pretty much on equal footing
socially as the youngest ones are almost 7. But choosing rides is still
difficult as only some girls have moved up to roller coasters. Goofy’s Sky
School is too much for Samantha and Isabella. Not all want to do the Sun
Wheel. Only Victoria braves California Screaming. We did manage to get
everyone on Grizzly River Rapids. (Although a select drenched few swear
they are never going on it again.)

The favorite game during downtime is “tag”, where you can get tagged as
“it” unless you are at a “base”. Many a passerby has gotten entangled in
the flying feet of a tag game.

At the middle drop on Grizzly River Rapids, which was not the longest drop,
mind you... It was there that Mom got wet.

Mom ended up sitting next to an opening in the raft. At that drop, this
opening was facing downhill. The raft slid down the slope of the drop and
at the bottom, the turbulent water surged up and into the raft opening.
Gallons and gallons of water surged into the raft. Mom saw this coming but
was hampered by the following : on her left, Samantha, sitting on the other
side of the opening, who insisted on holding Mom’s hand; Victoria’s
sneakers, in Mom’s right hand; and the desire to keep the front of Mom’s
white tshirt dry. Mom attempted to basically twist to the right and hide
behind Alan P’s back (who was sitting on her right).
The end result was 5 gallons of water landing square on Mom’s back and
right hip, drenching her to the bone from head to toe. At 9pm she is still
wet...

This is no 60 minute line. More like 90 minutes. We’ve all got our slippers
on because this ride gets you wet wet wet.

Strategic decision to get wet now rather than at the Fast Pass time of
5:30PM.

About time they spruced this place up. Lots of shade, live music, and the
food is muuuuch better.

Elissa, Samantha, Victoria, Isabella, Megan, and Katherine.

The annual gymnastics meet. Everyone gets a trophy in this noncompetitive
event, but it’s the highlight of Samantha’s year. The clinic last night did
the trick to settle her nerves. She did well. She was first to perform in
vault and beam. And she nailed her landing on the bar routine. Yay
Samantha!

To go with the crocosmia growing mid slope, I put the Freesias below
because they are shorter. Don’t know what happened to the very expensive
Gloriosa Lily I planted up top last summer.

Cute, no?

Samantha is getting ready for her Rainbow Classic gymnastics meet on
Saturday. She is a little nervous but is very excited to get another
trophy. She has a space for it already on her dresser.

She’s been continuing to write her stories in her notebook. She writes 8-12
page rambling stories, compete with chapters and chapter titles. Her
friends have started writing stories too. She’s put out that they are
copying her ideas (the fact that her stories are about bunnies). Tried to
explain that imitation is flattery.

She’s been wearing her hair differently. She wants the bangs to sweep to
the side. Check out the latest pictures.

More rain tomorrow. Good for the new plants. Including those that haven’t
gotten planted yet.

I found some sheer drapes to coordinate with the drapes in the bedroom. I
had to order the rods over the Internet since they were out at the store. I
got a pewter color this time. The black curtain rods downstairs are a
little dark. So I’ll hang the sheers using spring rods on the inside of the
window frame. Then the curtains will hang from a rod above the window. Same
technique I used downstairs.

I’m in trouble with paint colors. Home Depot no longer sells the Laura
Ashley paint. Touching up the plaster repairs is going to be difficult if I
can’t match the color. I’m missing the colors for her room - yellow and
pale green. I touched up the hall bathroom with the tan, but I’m going to
have to repaint the whole wall - the difference in paint color between the
original color, and what I bought this year, is still too noticeable.

In other news, the diet went well for the first 24 hours, then was waylaid
by donuts.

After our sumptuous Szechuan feast in Cupertino, tried to recreate it in
San Diego. While Spicy City is very good, it just can’t hold a candle to
Szechuan Home.

I’m leveling the beds to place my 2 Buddhas on some pea gravel. Wow is
gravel heavy. Sam was a big help at Home Depot. She helped pick out plants,
and pushed the big flat trolley which was very difficult to steer. She also
helped me plant and water today. Since I fired my “new” gardener and
brought my “old” gardener in on the new place, things are moving much
quicker. I had him pull all the nasty plants out (of which there were
many). Now I get to remake the yard.

As usual I can’t resist the Kangaroo Paw. Tall, pink, and drought tolerant.

This side yard is full of sticky wet clay. Total opposite of the old house
which was dry barren decomposed granite. The clay is so disgusting, it
sticks to the tools and cakes onto the bottom of my shoes.

Next to the Buddhas I want to put some tree ferns and other rock garden
plants. I actually have 3 statues, but I think one is Indian Buddha, one
looks like Kwan Yin, and the other is a typical Chinese Buddha. So they are
not really repeats.

I put some Buddha garden pictures up on Pinterest for inspiration. My
screen name is my full name so I should be easy to find. I’ve had several
repins already!

Sam is hot to earn extra money. Today she earned 5 bucks for washing Dad’s
car. He gave her a dollar tip for working hard for a very demanding
customer. Then I paid her $2 a bag for garden cleanup. She didn’t even
complain too much. She wants to bring $20 to California Adventure next
weekend. To meet her goal, she’ll need to find another $2 job next week.

I will say that there is something very therapeutic about gardening. I dug
12 holes today and pulled dozens of disgusting sticky roots out of the
backyard beds. It was great to hit them with the shovel.