Camp

Kate was up at the crackers of dawn because she was so excited and so we arrived at Lincoln Center to hook up with the Maine bound bus far too early. Next year I'm just not going to spend time dodging huge trunks, crying children and peeing dogs. Of course while I'm not a crying child, I'm a slighly weepy mom. So boring but Kate has the right approach with me and just tells me a joke which makes me laugh. Guaranteed. So after the young camp counsellors took her name and then took her temperature with one of these laser pointer things to make sure that she wasn't importing the M1N1 virus to camp, it was off on the open road.

For us too it was the beginning of vacation . We left for the subway and a fast trip down to the Union Square market to stock up on corn and tomatoes. This is my year for tomatoes...

Quick lunch and then off to the car rental place to pick up a car and hit the open road for Long Island and dinner with friends. We even took Miss Murray. The car rental was dicey because none of the cars started. So two cars later we switched garages and finally got out of town. Well worth it. These friends have an apporpriately dumpy house because it's a real beach house with all mod cons and a view of the bay. Purrfect. Everything was perfect including Miss Murray until we realized that she had not peed since we left the City. A restless night for me and for Miss Murray punctuated with random walks until the sun came up but to no avail. It was not until we got back to the city at 10 am on Sunday that Murray peed. What is she going to do in Maine?

Camp

It's that time of year again, and tomorrow morning, almost at the crackers of dawn, Kate will go whizzing off to upper, outer, far far away Maine for a month. She has been making lists and checking them twice. Alice has been making lists and checking them twice and there has been much stuff to buy such as shampoo and flashlights. flashlights of course are the some of the most exciting items. And this year we've had to buy shorts. Kate will never have to buy another top as long as she lives but apparently this year she needs shorts. I'm a little afraid that she's going to need rubber rain boots because I've heard from returning campers that these were an in demand item because it rained alot. I had to assert my authority to insist that Kate also take a sweater or a fleece in spite of her insistence that layering with long sleeve shirts would do the trick. Not. And of course purell handf sanitizer is another essential because of the spread of the N1H1 virus to many of the camps in Maine although hers has had NO cases. Primarily I think because they've been smart and careful. Lets see what happens with a new crop of campers coming in to change the ecological balance. Maybe they'll add a temperature check to the old head lice check.

Life is complicated.

The Big Discovery

Ignored Miss Murray pawing at my hand at 4:00am and hoped that she could hold it until I got up at 5:30 to take her out. Aptly attired in my black on black gym gear for a morning constitutional around the block with her, and then on to the gym. But when I came home for breakfast I found an open box of cocoa puffs on my kitchen counter nestled right next to the bran flakes. I continued making my breakfast of toasted white bread from striped white flour courtesy of that emporium of taste, Eli Zabar, and went right on to slather it with butter and jam. But how I mused did I end up with cocoa puffs in my house. Who am I? What have I become? 10 years ago I would have had pesticide busters take the box away and called the nutrition police. Yuck. Have such a chemical brew in my house and actually feed it to my daughter who was forbidden candy, coke, any chocolate at any time of the day, prepared foods of any kind. Never. I would have gone so far to call it stupid which was the swear word we never used then. Now of course, it’s in pumped up athletic use; New York state politicians are stupid, ultra right religious fanatics are both stupid and wrong and Sarah Palin is really stupid.

Cocoa puffs. What has my life become. How can i ever say no again?

Well the real answer to that is quite easily.

Behind the Scenes

I'm not sure that I'm doing the best pr job with Kate about the amazing Museum that she is growing up in. (Is that grammatically correct even?)I'm not sure that kate really appreciates the amazing access that she has to this world class Museum. That says it better. so I scheduled Kate and Lile for a full day of behind the scenes stuff here at the Museum beginning with a trip to the frozen tissue lab. It was a wonderfully entertaining science lesson which both girls loved. After aimlessly playing in one of the back allies of the Museum, I figured out that the bone guy was among the mission so instead we had an early lunch of yummy fried things and then went on to feed the giant tortoises and hold a snake. They held a snake. Time for them to tour three galleries including Gems and Minerals, Hall of Human Origins, Hall of Meteorites on their own and then off to the Exhibition department to see what kinds of things are being produced for the November Silk Road Show. They both had a chance to help sculpt the camel which was exquisite fun for both of them.

Home again, home again, jiggety jig.

Home Again

Great trip to Vail to see all of the Katz tribe. Wonderfully cool weather and no rain. We stayed at the Beaver Creek compund for almost a week and did very little except hang out which was the goal, I think. Well, lets be honest: I did very little. Kate went boarding with Kiley, really enjoyed being towed across a lake in a inner tube, went hiking, saw deer and christened a new bird the Colorada ack ack. We subsequently learned that it was a Magpie which brought on tales of Inkspell. These birds are gorgeous but have terrible personalities. Oh, yeah, it was sandwich time and we ate sandwiches morning, noon and night.

With the ghosts of the doomed Air France flight in my mind, we actually had a very easy and successful flight home, arriving back in the dead of night. Great dinner with the Sheftalls on the following night who were on pausing on their way up to Maine from Georgia. They are all in fine fettle and have done great summer stuff.

Kate is just hanging out --without the Itouch and the computer -- which she lost due to a major meltdown. I hope that she is at the Bronx Zoo at this very moment and then she Off to camp next week and then it's our turn to trip the light fantastic.

Just a Day like any day

The Museum was crazy crowded and the office was kinda slow. But towards the end of the day I went from the sublime to the ridiculous or vice versa.I took a group of very tall men on a overview scout of the Museum with an eye to using it in a movie. I always feel like Mrs. Danvers in Dauphne du Maurier's Rebecca when I say, "Welcome."

Then my last interaction had to do with one of our scientists who needs to be given limits and told no, Don't let a vampire bat drink your blood....

Kate was on a sleepover and so we adults had the run of the house. I can't say that it was all wild and crazy just different.

July 1

This must be summer. the beach, more rain, humidity, more rain....watermelon and more rain. Maybe even the beach again this weekend.

Had dinner last night with friends who have a new 4 month old puppy. Molly is So cute and so time consuming. I do remember when Miss Murray was just a little older and i watched her every move to make sure that she wasn't peeing on the floor!

Kate painted her fingernails black. Well clear with black trim...