I’ve been a little quiet on the blog front. I’ve had spurts where I have an inspiration, but never quite get to it. It’s been an emotional week with my extended family. That’s taken a lot of my emotional energy. Life here continues producing more joys than I can think of. It’s been a weird situation. But since family life has gone on, it seems fun to document it.
We communed with art today. Wayne and I haven’t been to SAM in years. We were drawn by Pablo Picasso family day. We only spent 15 minutes on the actual Picasso art. We arrived at 10am, got FREE tickets, and proceeded inside. There were pockets of art projects everywhere. Sara and Laura are both enthusiastic artists. Sara has a real interest in drawing and art. We’re figuring out how to fit that into her life this year via school. Since she’s learning about Picasso in school, we thought it was a good fit.
Immediately, the girls started drawing free hand on easels. The girls tried their hand at portrait drawing. They made sticker mosaics. Sara made a mask. Laura drew. I tried my hand at copying Picasso, using a single, uninterrupted line and not looking at my drawing. It made for some fun results. Laura looked up at the lighted cars in the main gallery and said, “silly cars”.
By 11:30, we art had made us hungry. We enjoyed some Molly Moon’s. The truck was sitting right outside under the hammering man. The salted carmel was amazing. The fall sunshine was a bonus.
Then we did more drawing. This is Laura’s. We got serenaded by Garfield High’s award winning jazz band.
We had to fill lots of time because our appointment with Picasso wasn’t until 12:40pm (did I mention the tickets were free). We wandered up to the actual galleries with the girls. The actual looking at the art was more boring than creating the art. Laura almost sat on a plaster statue of a bed before Wayne stopped her. Sara mainly had eyes for art related to horses. Then we heard the drums.
The girls found another pocket of art, an African drummer asking for helpers.
This was energizing and fun.
After drumming, we took our tired, hungry kids into a crowded gallery for a date with Picasso. Picasso got short shrift. Be walked boldly thru the crowds and saw the entire exhibit in 15. There was no listening to interesting audio commentary. I looked quickly and retreated. It was a joy-filled, but the focus was on the kids.
The rest of the day continued in the sabbath mold. I had a delicious afternoon nap snuggled in warm sheets.
Wayne and I met Jon and Claire for a date (the first since May). Jon chose Cafe Moose, a restaurant that has not been on our radar screen as a dinner place. It’s more of a breakfast place in my mind. What a dinner place it is. Complex, tasteful moles. We all got a variation on such.
The appetizer (great mixed with the superior guac)
ESQUITES
Fresh corn cut off the cob and epazote with cream. Tastes like Mexico City!! 5.95
Wayne’s mole- I liked this one a little better than mine.
MOLE NEGRO TLAXCALTECA Tlaxcala
One of the classic sauces of Mexico. Choose pork or chicken. Served with refried beans and rice. 16.95
Mine. Good. The plaintains didn’t work as well for me. Ask me again as I have my leftovers tomorrow.
MANCHAMANTELES Oaxaca
Pork cooked in tangy sweet and spicy mole of plantains, pineapple, aromatic spices, and chile guajillo. Served with mashed sweet potatoes and black beans. 14.95 (sides were awesome)
Horchata for me, margaritas for the rest. Tres leches for desert, one chocolate. Yum. It was nice to be together, just the adults.
J&C went to get the girlies to bed and we continued on to Northgate to get our girls bday gifts. It was a successful trip. I went a little crazy at B&N. I haven’t been book shopping for awhile. I got Goodnight, Goon (a parody of Goodnight Moon for Halloween), the new Fancy Nancy book, the DVD An American Werewolf in London (this was not even on DVD when I checked a few years ago, now for $7), the sequel to Imager by LE Modesitt, a new fantasy series that uses the same artist for cover art as Mercedes Lackey, and New Testament bible stories by tomie de paola (a book I looked for at Powell’s).