Stan’s Obligatory Blog

On Saturday night, I took Lucinda and her friend Alisha to see a fireworks show for the 4th of July. As with last year, we went to South Pasadena, since they have a nice show. We found a spot on the football field right underneath where the fireworks were going to be going off. And it was a fun time.

It’s the day after the last day of school. What are you going to do?

I’m going to Disneyland!

I took Lucinda and her friend Claire to Disneyland today to start their summer vacation. We did the whole bit, starting with California Adventure, then lunch, and then the rest of the day at Disneyland. We were there for about eight hours, and we rode a lot of rides. And the girls had a good time.

At the end of the day, we were all tired. We had dinner at the Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney before heading home. It was a very nice day.

As always, all the pictures from the day are in Lucinda’s photo album.

Today I took Lucinda and her friend Alisha hiking. We went up Echo Mountain above Altadena. This is a very nice local hike, about 2.7 miles each way, with nice views and some interesting ruins at the top. We’d last done this hike two years ago.

We started out from the top of Lake Ave and headed on up the trail. After a while, the girls started to complain about being tired, but I convinced them to soldier on. We stopped for lunch at the two-mile marker. When we got close to the top, Lucinda started running. And when we reached the top, they were both very happy to have made it.

We poked around the ruins of the Echo Mountain House, and the girls tried out the Echo Phone. They were very entertained by the echoes coming back across the canyon.

It was a fun afternoon adventure.

Due to her mom’s new job, I had to take off work this afternoon to take Lucinda to the last day of horseback riding. This is only the second time I’ve taken her there, and the other time was the first time.

I was hoping they’d be riding in the ring, but they did a trail ride instead. So I just took a few pictures as they mounted up to leave, and a few when they got back. In between I read a book I’d brought along. Still, it was nice to see Lucinda enjoying the horse experience. And oddly enough, she rode the same horse today that she’d ridden on the first day.

Pictures are in her photo album.

It’s time for the fourth-grade Mission project. This is apparently something that all fourth-graders in California do. For years, I’ve been seeing the models of the various missions displayed in the hallways outside the fourth-grade classrooms. And this year it was Lucinda’s turn. Her assignment was to do a report and make a model of the Mission San Antonio de Padua. And here is the result.

Tonight at dinner, Lucinda was showing me that she can pick up ice with her chopsticks. A long time ago, I’d told her that I used to do this for practice, and she wanted to show me that she’d mastered it.

I’m so proud of her.

This afternoon, Susan and I took Lucinda and her friend to the California Science Center IMAX theater to see “Under the Sea 3-D”. We’ve been fans of the 3-D IMAX movies since going to see “Sea Monsters” last year.

When we got there, Lucinda had to try lifting the truck at the lever demonstration exhibit in the parking lot. Today was the first time that she was big enough to be able to lift it.

The movie was good, although it was a bit odd, since it was narrated by Jim Carrey. I guess he’s trying to stretch his dramatic range a bit.

After the movie, we went into the museum. Lucinda and her friend wanted to try the rock climbing wall. Apparently, it’s harder than it looks, since they only made it about halfway up. We looked around the museum a bit more before they closed. Then we headed home, after the obligatory stop in the gift shop.

It was a nice afternoon, and marks the first time that Susan and I have taken Lucinda somewhere together.

Pictures are in her photo album.

Today was Lucinda’s 10th birthday party. Her actual birthday was a few days ago, but we had the party today so she could have puppies there.

The kids started arriving at 11:30. I cooked up a giant batch of Pad Thai noodles with chicken for them. Everyone had lunch while waiting for the puppies to arrive. They showed up at 12:30 as scheduled. The kids all got to sit down in the pen and pet and hold the puppies. The puppies were a big hit with the kids.

After the puppies left, we went inside for cake and ice cream. As always, I made the cake, although the decoration was one I ordered from Gogo Cake in West Hollywood. Lucinda wanted a platypus on her cake, and they have an application that allows for uploading a picture that they print on a thin sheet of icing to be placed on the cake.

This year, the karaoke machine came out and actually got some good use. The first time Lucinda tried to have karaoke at her party it didn’t work out very well. That time the kids were too self-conscious to sing. But this time they got over it and had some fun doing it.

After everyone left, Lucinda opened her presents. She had a very fun day.

As always, the pictures are in her photo album.

Today was Lucinda’s birthday, and she was going to be at my house, so I planned for a special dinner for her. I printed up a program for the occasion, announcing the special prix fixe menu for the evening:

• House salad with balsamic vinaigrette
• Sea scallops wrapped in bacon and broiled
• Pan-fried potatoes
• Braised kale
• Chocolate soufflé with whipped cream

After dinner, she got to open some presents. I got her another platypus shirt, along with a Wii controller and wheel. Susan gave her an iTunes gift card and a jewelry making kit. And after dinner we all went to the back and played Mario Kart.

It was a nice evening.

I took Lucinda and her friend Claire to Disneyland today. I still think it’s a bit amazing that I’m willing to go to Disneyland, but in any event, we had a fun time. Most of the pictures are in Lucinda’s photo album.

We rode lots of rides, and it was actually a very fun day. And I got a big pickle.