Dean(ish)

We opted to remove Sierra’s training wheels from her bike today. She got pretty frustrated at first - in fact, on her very first run she fell and threw a fit so we had to take a time-out and eat dinner before giving it another go - but she finally started to get the hang of it. She’s actually pretty good once she gets going, but she had a hard time with pushing herself off initially to get the momentum to go. Then, once she started getting enough momentum, she couldn’t keep both feet on the pedals. She’s goofy, but I’m so proud of her.

This, for me, was truly one of those “passing the torch” kind of moments. I was about 5 or 6 when I started riding without training wheels. My aunt, Jacqueline, taught me. (I say that she’s the one who taught me because I seem to remember her being the last one to push me before I could go without falling.) Anyway, it just made me really happy to see her try so hard. She kept saying, “I know I can do this!” So cute. We’ll practice more tomorrow; I can’t wait to race her!

Friday:

We went to the Bistro Montage. Though there’s not nearly enough waiting room inside, it was a pretty nice night so we benched outside until we were called in. (The wait was about 40 minutes.) Once inside, we were seated at the end of a table. It might sound pretty random to point that out but the seating is “family style” - that is, elementary school cafeteria style - so being on the end was a huge plus. The menu was pretty diverse, covering pastas to Idon’trememberwhat, but I opted for the nightly special - salmon stuffed in a pastry. It was de-lish. The atmosphere was excellent except for the unmerciful choir of obnoxious screaming chefs behind the bar. I really don’t know what that’s all about as it really takes away from the appeal of the establishment as a whole, bringing the ambiance down from 5/5 to 3.5/5. Overall, I’d go back but probably on a less busy weekday.

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I went through one of the most traumatic experiences of my life on Friday. André, Laura, Byron, and Brynn came over on Friday to hang out and watch Narnia. After eating some pizza we (minus Christina) went to the playground to let the kids run around and enjoy the nice weather before starting the movie. You can probably see where this is going so I’ll skip right to it. I was pushing Byron too hard on a shitty swing. Byron slipped out from between the seat and the chain that stretched across his stomach, flipped 540° in the air, and landed on his forehead. I thought his neck had snapped. I thought he’d end up paralyzed. I thought I’d killed him.

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The conversation went something like this:

Kristian: “I love me some fowx beer.”
Me: “Huh what? Fowx beer?”
Kristian: “Yeah, fowx beer. You know, like root beer. Beer that’s not really beer.”
Me: (thought for two seconds, then) “ROFL! LOL! LMFAO!” *cough* [still getting over bronchitis] “You mean ‘faux’?”
Kristian: “Yeah, fowx, ‘F-A-U-X.’”
Me, Jamie, Christina, you: “Lollerskates!”

And just so Kristian can’t beat me to it, I indeed said “I like thick head” and “It’s so creamy” in reference to Henry Weinhard’s Root Beer. You know you like it too.

Sierra told me a knock-knock joke yesterday. It wasn’t just any knock-knock joke, though; it was a request to get me to do something for her. LOL, it was awesome.

LMAO! Get it? “Kitchengo” = “Couldjago”? LOL! Oh man. Maybe it’s just me, but I thought that was the funniest thing ever. Well, OK, not ever, but it was very funny.

Update: LOL again! Earlier this morning Sierra said, “I think something’s wrong with the TV.” Christina laughed and replied, “No, that’s the Spanish channel.” LOL!