Monday, January 22, 2018

Scoring Dad Points

"Cars and Popcorn." Two great things that go great together. Wait. What? Cars and coffee, sure, but cars and popcorn are a terrible combination. Just ask any parent who has handed a bag of popcorn to his four year old in the back seat. Maybe, maybe at a drive-in theater, but those basically don't exist anymore. So, why on earth is my daughter directing traffic to "Cars and Popcorn?" Well, it all comes down to "Dad Points."
Being a stay-at-home dad, I have to find ways to perk life up a bit for the kids, and for me. It can't all be laundry, cooking, and Pokemon. I call these little perks "Dad Points." Chances to make the mundane just a little more fun (and to hopefully win a little compliance from the kids). A few examples of scoring dad points are...

Taking three kids in a sports car to get milk and mayonnaise...
...teaching Mimi about logic in coding using her own little computer...
...building a massive train set that contains another train set that contains a gas station as a means of simply cleaning up all the train track on the floor...
...and, of course, taking the kids to Cars and Coffee so Mama can rest.
These are all great ways to score some dad points while getting some important errands, cleaning, or teaching done (and ways to pad out a blog post because I haven't taken many pictures lately). This past weekend was going to need some serious dad points. Well beyond the norm. Not only was Mama on call, she was feeling a bit ill. The kids and I would need to keep the house clean (particularly the counters), get through all our meals, let Mama rest, and have a bit of fun. On Saturday, with Mimi off at Japanese school, Mari and Kuri needed to get to Marinwood park to burn off some energy (and stop destroying the house).
 
Mama and Mimi back home, it was time for Sumie to get a little rest and for the rest of us to start scheming for Sunday. We'd have a whole day together, just the four of us, and we needed to be prepared. As I cooked, and Mari wrote all over the couch, Kuri and Mimi hatched a plan. If I helped them enact it the following day, I'd definitely score some dad points.

Kuri had been fascinated with the idea of holding some kind of sale in front of our house for some time. The problem was, though, he wasn't interested in selling lemonade. He wanted something more interesting, more boy, more him. Soon, he found his hook: cars. He carefully sorted through his (now considerable) collection of Hot Wheel and Tomica cars and came up with 24 vehicles he would be willing to part with. The selection complete, Kuri looked them over and said, "I hope some other boys will like these."

Sunday morning, Mimi insisted that we needed something else to pad out our sale. We headed over to the pantry and looked up and down. Ah, popcorn! We'll sell cups of popcorn! We spent the rest of the morning drafting signs for our sale, collecting change, and figuring out the pricing: 50 cents per car and 50 cents for a cup of popcorn. Tax free, of course.

Around 11:00 I put Mari down for her nap and Mimi, Kuri and I moved our "store" out to the driveway. Kuri would handle the car sales and Mimi, she was the popcorn scooper.
The first 30 minutes were rough. Not a single person walked by and not a single car stopped. Kuri was getting discouraged. Why weren't people coming to his sale? Didn't anyone want his cars? Wasn't anyone hungry for popcorn?
The kids noticed that most of the cars they saw come down the street were turning at the corner just below our house, sadly missing our sale. The direct-to-consumer shouting of "Cars and Popcorn," though tremendously loud (and occasionally aggressive), simply wasn't working. Mimi decided we need a motion sign. Papa went in and drafted one. Mimi then ran down to the corner to direct traffic while Kuri manned the store.
Business picked up. Papa would eventually pop three more bags of popcorn. One of these was eaten entirely by Mari, who had woken from her nap and did not seem to understand the concept of selling. Just eating. Kuri managed to sell four cars, but sadly, not to any little boys. He wisely summed up the strategy for our next sale, "Papa, we need more boys to come."
And, just in case the sale wouldn't score enough dad points, while it was going on, I smoked two racks of ribs.
The sale lasted about three hours and closed as the wind began to pick up, blowing popcorn everywhere. We all ended up having a great time. And it was a great way to pick up some dad points. Not quite as great as driving Mimi across the Golden Gate in the Porsche with the top off, but still, pretty damned good.

Friday, January 12, 2018

Starting a New Year in Search of Snow

It's January. You'd think there'd be snow in the Sierras by now. But you'd be wrong. So wrong. Well, unless you're talking about man-made snow. But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself...
Here we go. Appetizers. Shrimp, salami, cheese, bread, and chips. We're ready to to kick off the new year with our traditional New Year's Eve party with the cousins.
Now, some of you might now that my birthday is December 31st. And I'm sure I've mentioned in the past that this day is known as the "big cleaning day" in Japan. This year was no exception. We cleaned and cooked and by 5:00, when the cousins arrived, we were ready. This year we did hot pot on our portable Iwatani stove. These things are fantastic. 
After eating our fill, the kids all gathered under the kotatsu (Japanese heated table) to watch a bit of Kohaku (the annual Japanese singing competition). Oh yeah, we also had a cake for me!
If you read my last post, you'll know that Sumie was on call through Christmas. With the start of the new year, though, she had a few days off so we could take a family mini-break. Thanks to the tremendous charity of a friend of ours (who amazingly offered his condo up in Tahoe to a family with three kids), we had a place to stay up in the mountains. But there was one hitch: it hadn't snowed in a month! It was eerie heading up highway 80 in January and seeing only the bare hills of brown dirt and granite. 8 months previously, we'd nearly needed to put chains on our four wheel drive Pilot to make it up the same road.

Still, upon our arrival, we found just enough leftover snow for a quick snowball fight and a tiny snowman.
Thanks to some man-made snow on the slopes, Mimi was able to get a ski lesson in. By the end of her session, she was making it down the bunny slope independently. I'm looking forward to our next trip up when we can actually hit the slopes together!
With so much going on, the kids slept well, despite being in a new place.
The following day we took some time to explore downtown Truckee...
...and fill up at a local diner.
For some reason, Kuri decided to channel 1970s John Travolta before we headed out for the park.
The kids got a bit of play in...
...but their main goal was to do a bit of sledding. Snow was at a serious premium, so it took quite a bit of searching until we found a suitable hill.
No, it wasn't that steep, and yes, the snow was basically ice, but it provided more than ample thrills for Mimi and Kuri. Mari chose simply to watch. She wasn't so sure about this snow stuff.
Back at home after a great trip, we finally had a little time for decorating some Christmas cookies...
...and to tackle our disorganized kitchen. Sumie went full KonMari on it. We now have storage again and even an entirely clear counter. Our 2018 challenge is to keep this counter actually clear. It's been a week, but so far, so good.
This week all three kids went back to school. For Kuri, that meant a special day of Japanese New Year activities. He got to wield a massive wooden mallet to pound out mochi and even took part in a game of hanetsuki (it's a bit like badminton).
When he lost a point, he had to have his face painted. 
With his black nose, he ended up looking a bit like a raccoon, but was quite happy about it all.
This new year, of course, includes cars as well. Unfortunately, that meant some work on the Porsche. While driving it up to Chico for Boys' Christmas on the 23rd, I noticed it was making a strange sound and idling a bit high. Ticking. Awful, awful ticking coming from the passenger side bank of cylinders. Oh dear. Thankfully, it was just a broken valve spring! It also gave Kuri and me the opportunity to see the engine out of the car for the first time. Kuri was fascinated. 
Back at our local market we came across an old Land Rover is beautiful condition, a car I definitely covet. What I loved most about this one was that the owner had installed a child's car seat in the middle of the front bench. It's always wonderful to see there are a few dads out there (or maybe a mom?) who are sharing their passion for vintage cars with their kids just like me.
And, of course, we attended the first Cars and Coffee of the year, where Kuri fell in love with a Ford GT 40. This almost made up for there being no Lamborghinis this time out.
2018 will assuredly have its challenges, but we're looking forward to a lot of new adventures, particularly with Mari. By the end of the year she'll be transitioning from daycare to Japanese preschool. If we can convince her, Mimi may be taking her first trip to Japan to stay there on her own. And Kuri, well, I'm sure he'll surprise us. Hope you all have a wonderful 2018.