Calvin's Birthday

Yesterday was Thing 2's birthday. Being blond and trouble and six, I was thinking about changing his blog nickname to 'Calvin'. But then I'll need to come up with something new for Thing 1 as well. Hmm. For today, anyway, we'll call him 'Calvin'.



Calvin had a pretty good birthday. The night before, we let the Things stay up late because our neighbor had his nieces and nephews in town, and the kids were all playing after dinner. It sounded like good after-dinner, summertime play. They came in sweaty and exhausted and thirsty and hungry. While they were having a drink and a snack, they found the Chicken Little movie on TV ("Uh...what were we talking about?") and seeing as how they were having the perfect summer night, Sweetie and I decided they could stay up to watch it. So that was a nice lead-in to the big day. We decided to have a party, but with it being summer, many of the school kids were off at camp or vacation, or whatever, so we had rather a mish-mash guest list including many adults, and some visitors who Calvin didn't know from Adam (alas, the neighbors nieces and nephews had left earlier that day). Oh, and Bean the dog and his owner. Did this matter to Calvin? Not a bit. The party was the Standard Two Harbors Cook-out on the Beach. The kids got wet and sandy while I grilled up some organically-fed beef, nitrate-free hot dogs and chicken and veggie kabobs. Sweetie got out the sides and cupcakes. [Funny aside here. Sweetie had the nice idea of decorating the cupcakes with M&M's, but the day before she asked Calvin if he wanted some M&M's for a snack and he said, "I don't like M&M's." Back to the drawing board.] Everyone ate their fill. Some friends wandered up who hadn't necessarily been invited, but happened to be taking a walk on the beach, so they joined the festivities. Finally it was cupcake and presents time. Calvin got some baseball gear from Mom and Dad (bat, glove, balls), a Bakugan from Thing 1 (not important if you don't know what that is - really), and some other things. He was very happy a) getting presents, b) opening presents, c) being able to tell Thing 1 not to touch his presents, and d) generally being the center of attention.



What else goes on? Oh yes, I'm taking an open water SCUBA class. Or at least I'm sort of taking it. I've only just had most of the required physical done today (still need the blook work). I missed two of the four classes and all of the water work so far, although I think I'm going to catch up on that this weekend. So, like I said, I'm kinda taking it. Sweetie was certified years ago, so she'll take a refresher soon, and they maybe we can take in some of the kelp beds from below, rather than above. :)

Sweetie is gearing-up to teach a course in August. She also taught this class last year. It's for SEA, a study-abroad program run by (or through, or near) Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute's Marine Biological Laboratory. This class is all high school age kids, but it's taught at a college level. Sweetie really liked the professor running the class and the TA's last year (and they liked her) so she agreed to do it again this year.

It's been hot here. And humid. Now before you laugh too much, look here. You'll see that the average humidity was a respectable 83%, with a high over 90%. And while the air temperature wasn't that high, it's been very sunny without much wind, which makes it hot here. For a day, I almost wished we had air conditioning! Hrm. I'm not sure I'm garnering any sympathy here. Well, at least the water has warmed up to 70F, so we can cool off in the water without going into shock.

I'd tell you about our hike to Ben Weston, but you should really read about it here.