Renn Fayre, alas

Hello! Been busy here! Renn Fayre started up and the girls hit the Thesis Parade ("What are children doing here?" asked one half-naked, drunk, body-painted student, while falling down.)!

That's my friend Sara with the girls in the hammock. We could have hung around and watch ARthur make out with a bunch of students, but we had to rush back to Martins St

(wait, here's a late addition...a student just sent this to me...no explanation of what was going on, but a good depiction of how far Ida and Elsie were ranging, trying to sell flowers they picked to tripping seniors.)

to see Chandler! Hurray! She's getting married to her secret boyfriend! Secret's out!

Then Ida got a fierce fever that she still possesses! Right now she's home, and will be, and Arthur's coming home to help out. Hard to get babysitters on short notice, these days.  We did get a little Trader Joe's shopping done, though.  That's "Cowy" and "Pony," who are dirty, fabric-freshener-smelling stuffed animals that the girls got from a man with stuffed animals attached all over him at the Thesis Parade.  We agreed that they would return to Renn Fayre, but then Ida got that fever and we never returned...

Miki?  She's feeling good.

And we'll be all right.  Ida made this new friend, Johnjo, who's coming over to hang out a little later.

He fears no fever!

Hot Days in PDX!

Okay, the big news here is that Arthur got back from Egypt! Whoa! And he brought everyone back these dresses covered in little pieces of metal like coins so when the girls are running around it sounds like Vidamae is back on the scene! You can't really tell, here, but Elsie is striking her "walk like an Egyptian" pose.

Meanwhile, it got to be like eighty-five degrees, here. Miki likes to wear her snow pants when it's pretty warm; man, she got really hot and sticky today. Promises much for the summer. Here she is, boiling over at her betrothed Talu's 3rd ("troisieme") birthday party:

Ida is working a lot on her gymnastics and tumbling these days. Also her reading, but she doesn't want to watch the video of her cousin Leigh reading until she herself can read.

(That's Talu)

Ida: 5

She's our girl! Five!

This is from her messy art party, or after it;

I think there were pictures on the camera from the party itself but afterward while we were at the playground the thieves shattered the mini-van window and stole my backpack, including that camera and many other crucial items!

In any case, Ida got to sit on Kaito,

and later while I was trying to put my identity back together, Maggie made Ida and Miki some hot dogs. Ketchup!

Miki is very proud, and tells everyone, "Ida is already five years old; I'm not three, but I'm in goldfish swimming class." This, in a return to documenting Ida's photo-taking (with phones; that's all we have now, alack), is what Miki looks like, less than a month away from three:

And here is the last existent photo of Ichi. Ida sneaked down there to the basement bathroom, where he'd been exiled, and checked in on him. He got down to 15 pounds, in his last days! We had a devil of a time keeping Ida from taking him out of the box the vet put him in, and that was very sad, but Ichi and the box were taken to the Humane Society for cremation.

And there were many animals, many potential replacements, there. Ida was particularly excited about this rabbit, how it could sit down with its ears up like that.

Lately she's really been talking about rats. A white rat, in particular.

Ichiban ("Wahri") Vining 1996 (?) - 2012 RIP

Yes, old friend, it's true.

Ida's sobbing in her bed, crying "Ichi loved me every day of my life, ever since I was born..."

He was a good friend and quite fierce for so long.

We'll miss him a lot, and remember the good times.

His early days as a street cat in Philly, his drive across the country in the Festiva, his many battles with lesser felines in Sellwood, and his glorious and toothsome later years, where he welcomed Ida and Miki to this world and taught them how to protect themselves.

So, yes, we're living a life. A few.

For instance, we took "Clara the Ladybug" down to the memorial where the boy drowned in Johnson Creek. The girls really like this, and are full of questions; whether or not it's a good learning experience, I don't know. Ella's into it.

Here's a learning experience, though! Ida and Miki and Theo in their hippie (as opposed to Elsie's New York, not allowed to wear bangs and required to spurn everyone after Nutcracker performance) ballet class. How did it look?

Here's Miki's joke today at dinner, made up by herself: "A boy peed in the toilet, and then stuck his head in the toilet, and then flushed." More to the point, did someone turn 42?

"Buying a card for any age over 35 makes a mother misty-eyed," says G-Toko. "Looks like some heavy drinking," DKV says.

I'm not sayin.