Yup. More About August. (Updated)

Yes, indeed, there's more!

My sister and her family came to visit! This may not seem like a big deal, but it was for us. The Chuangs live in the Boston area, and they don't have room to cram in our family of four for a visit. WE have room for THEM, but we also have a cat, to which Cliff is terribly allergic. So it came to be that we hadn't seen each other for ages. They had never met Willem (3 1/2) and we had never met John-Luke (2 1/2). The time had come to change that.

So we shipped our cat off to the country (THANK YOU, GRANDMARTINS!) and I did my best to round up the cat hair. I also sprayed all over with an anti-allergen spray. Cliff did a fantastic job of making me feel like my efforts had been worthwhile, even though he did have to surreptitiously resort to his asthma inhaler a few times. It could have been worse.

And, goodness, it was worth it. It was so much fun to see the cousins all together. They acted like they'd known each other their whole lives. Nels and Helen (who also goes by Yo-Yo) really hit it off. They all played and schemed and yelled and just had an overall grand old time. The day they left Nels said, "They just left this morning and I'm missin' 'em already!"

Because a West-Coast Chuang stay is such a rare event, all our local family had to take advantage of it, of course. My dad and stepmom came down from Bellingham, and my mom came from Bend. Everyone was so easy-going and helpful...I am very fortunate to have a low-maintenance family. I think I actually did the least amount of work of anyone.

On Saturday night Shaun's folks came out too, so there were 13 of us for dinner! Shaun was really sick with a cold, so he staggered out of our room to grill some chicken and then staggered back in after we ate. I was glad he improved enough over the next few days to be out and about. We stuck close to home; with a park within walking distance, and beautiful trails and a (river) beach within five miles, there was no need to travel.

Playing at Crown Park. John-Luke is a VERY early riser, so he spent a lot of morning time there with his dad!

Me-Ma (my mom) joined us for a trip to Cottonwood Beach.

Annalaura fixed us pork glazed in balsamic vinegar. Yum. And again I say, yum.

Nice day for a walk.

Nels was fussy about this excursion until Shaun had the bright idea of telling him he could ride his bike. Brilliant.

Hunting for wild blackberries was a fun novelty. The promise of berries to eat was a useful inducement for moving John-Luke along.

Like I said, everyone else did most of the work. Even the kids were helpful.

Cliff and Annalaura fixed us fried rice for breakfast before they left. You'd better believe our house smelled soooo good.

It really was a treat in so many ways for our families to get to spend time together. And at the end of their stay, we only had to say a temporary good-bye...they were going to see Cliff's family in Seattle and then we were all to meet up again the following weekend at my dad's in Bellingham. Which we did! And took a lot more pictures! I bet you can hardly wait!

Update: I forgot to mention that all of this good cooking gave Shaun a serious hankerin' for some authentic Chinese food. Annalaura recommended Mrs. Chiang's Szechwan Cookbook: Szechwan Home Cooking. Shaun has already ordered it, received it, and cooked from it. Win!

The August Round-Up Continues

The Hamiltons rolled out on August 2, and the Childs family rolled in that evening. They spent four nights with us, but I wish it could have been more. We got to meet Thorne for the first time; she is exceedingly delightful.

We carried on the cocktail theme; our guests serendipitously brought a bottle of Pimm's for making the quintessential British summer beverage, the Pimm's Cup. And Shaun made Singapore Slings.

Of course there were activities. We went to the Crown Point Vista House and used its marble bathrooms.

Unfortunately, Nels got a bad (though short-lived) stomach bug, so I stayed home with him for the rest of the outings. These included a walk/hike at our local Lacamas Park and a field trip to Portland to visit Powell's, with stops at Kenny and Zuke's for a Reuben, and, of course, for coffee at Stumptown.

Here are some pictures of the kids at Multnomah Falls, another destination we made it to before Nels got sick:

So sweet.

So cute.

So ridiculous.

So ridiculously cute.

Please come again. Any time.

The August Round-Up Begins

The "staycation" is a big thing this year. I have seen a mind-numbing number of articles and news features telling us how to have fun in the cities we live in. They all make it way too complicated. The key to a successful staycation is a well-stocked liquor cabinet. It’s even better if one can convince friends with bartending skills and a natural enthusiasm for the mixological (not a real word, but it should be) arts to come stay with one as part of their vacation.

So we talked our friends the Hamiltons into a last-minute visit and got ourselves a cocktail education, familiarizing ourselves with the Negroni, the Sidecar, the Manhattan, and the labor-intensive Ramos Fizz.

We didn’t get as fancy with our food as we sometimes do, which led me to discover the perfect casual summer meal for company. I meant to tell you about it in time for you to fix it all summer, but there’s always next year.

First, grill some sausages. The beauty of this is that you have many options. Fat, lean, gourmet, old school. Whatever you like. AND you can do more than one kind with no additional effort. Go crazy. Then, serve this salad with the sausages. It’s delicious and covers the rest of your food groups. (I substituted baby golds for fingerlings and it was great.) It couldn’t be easier. For the grand finale, make this clafoutis like the one that Amanda whipped up for us. We didn’t have crème fraiche, but sour cream made a fine substitute.

This adorable little bug wasn’t feeling well for most of the trip, which turned it into more of a survivalcation than anything else for her folks. Troopers all, those Hamiltons.

We love us some summer.

So True

From E.B. White's essay "Bedfellows":

"The above fascinates me because I agree with it and everyone is fascinated by what he agrees with."

In the same essay he describes his dog as having "his usual look of fake respectability."

DO read The Essays of E. B. White.

Do.

If Only...

our culture didn't insist that we name our children before we really get to know them. We would have had a "Nels Periwinkle Martin" for sure.

Hmm. Perhaps there is wisdom in the current custom.

So far so good for Willem Shay.

Business As Usual

Busy! Too busy to blog! How have I been spending my time, you may wonder?

Washing the contents of Shaun's pockets, for starters. Because that's the kind of helpful wife I am. I even washed his phone, which was as good as new (and cleaner) once Shaun took it apart and let it air-dry. Nothing ended up the worse for the wear except for my sense of competence as a homemaker.

And surely no summer is complete without the joy of cutting a plastic sword off a small boy's leg with a hefty pair of shears. Now I know, it doesn't look stuck at all in these pictures. But the handle was curved in on the part you can't see, and it was digging into his muscle. Every time I tried to pull the sword off, serious shrieking ensued. I doused the whole business with salad oil, to no avail. Even after I resorted to the shears, removing the sword was no easy feat. And what did I learn about myself? After several frantic phone calls to Shaun at the office, I was forced to conclude that I am totally not one of those "rises to the occasion in an emergency" kind of people. Rats.

Oh. We also had overnight guests for 10 out of 11 days.

Busy! Fun! More to come!

Conversation With Nels

"You know what's good about being a human? Animals mostly eat one thing. But humans eat all kinds of foods."

"I'm glad I'm a human and I get to eat a lot of different foods," I reply.

"Except when you're allergic. Then you can't eat things. I know Amelia is VERY allergic to eggs. And Emma is allergic to jelly beans. And cats."

"Aren't you glad we aren't allergic to anything?"

"Yes. We're allergic to pollen. But just a little bit."

"Did daddy tell you you're allergic to pollen?"

"Yes."

"You sure do pay attention, Nels Martin."

"Except when Daddy's praying."