Things have been reasonably slow in our lives, which is good. Corinne took a 3 week swim class at the newly restored Point Richmond Natatorium. She loved it, and hopefully we can get her signed up for another class here soon.

Raelene and I are both trying to get healthier, and so we’re both walking for exercise and measuring our steps using a Fitbit. It’s really amazing how many steps you get (or don’t get) during a day, and I’m convinced that measuring and monitoring yourself is the key to getting healthy. I’m also finding that sharing your progress socially is important, too. It’s like having a buddy to go to the gym with; you’re much more motivated to go if you know someone is there waiting for you. If you’re interested in following my progress, create a Fitbit account and I will give you access to all my numbers.

On Saturday we went to a birthday party for one of Corinne’s friends. It was a lot of fun, even if it was a little bit claustrophobic inside the house.

On Sunday we visited Raelene’s brother and sister-in-law and met their new two week old baby. I’d forgotten what it was like to hold a baby, and I don’t think I’ve ever held a baby that light. Baby Athena was absolutely adorable, and we’re both really happy for Raelene’s brother and his family.

After the pageant we went to a park and had a pot luck while the kids played. Corinne played very hard, and by the time we got home she was over tired starting to melt down. I gave her a quick bath, and then we did bedtime. She tried to pretend she wasn’t tired, but she was asleep almost immediately. It was a lot of fun.

On the plus side, life has been fairly quiet lately. Corinne is doing well in playschool, learning her letter and numbers and how to play well with others. She’s getting better at falling asleep, staying asleep, and waiting until a quasi-reasonable time to get up. We bought her this cool alarm clock with a built in nightlight that turns green when it’s okay to get up. She’s so proud when she manages to stay in her room until the light turns green.

Last weekend we went to a birthday party, which we seem to be doing a lot these days. Something like 60 people showed up, and it was a lot of fun. Luckily they were able to move it into a teen center, because bizarrely enough it rained last weekend. Yes, rain. In June. In the San Francisco bay area. I know that’s normal for other parts of the country, but unheard of here. It looks like we’re going to have another summer like last year, which means keeping the furnaces lit and running. Crazy.

Saturday was Corinne’s belated birthday party. It was much too rainy in early March, so we decided to postpone the part until early May. We had the party at Codornices park in Berkeley so that Corinne and her friends had a place to play. The park has an awesome concrete slide down the side of a hill, and Corinne and I had lots of fun going down that together. The party was just about perfect, starting at 11:30 and ending at nap time. The theme was pinwheels, and Raelene went all out with the food and decorations. I think everyone had a great time.

On Sunday Corinne and I got up early and let Raelene sleep in. While Raelene was sleeping I asked Corinne to make a mother’s day card, and Corinne drew a Juggalo on it. Sigh. I have no idea where she gets this stuff. Breakfast was a bit of a bust, I didn’t realize you were supposed to roll up the Pillsbury crescent rolls before baking them. Oh well, next time. As a family we went to the Kensington farmer’s market to buy a few things, and then home so Corinne could take a nap. For dinner I made an asparagus and mushroom risotto, topped with caramelized onions and more mushrooms. It was pretty good, although I am a bit biased. While I cooked, Raelene took Corinne for a walk and let Corinne practice riding her new scooter. Corinne loves her scooter, even if she hasn’t quite gotten the hang of it yet.

And that was our weekend.

I am one of three judges in the GM Throwdown this weekend, and I’m really looking forward to it. The two contestants are given three themes, and they compete to see who can run the best 4-hour game using those three themes. I wasn’t there the first time they ran this, so I don’t know for sure what to expect, but I’m sure I will have a blast. It is also quite the honor to be chosen as a judge.

Corinne is doing well in school, and more or less going to sleep okay and sleeping through the night. I think the bad sleep years are over, but who knows what the future may hold. These days she’s mostly just stubborn and distracted, but then she’s also three so that is to be expected.

On Saturday we had our Seder. We were also babysitting Corinne’s BFF, and with a 2nd 3 year old in the house we went through the ceremony a little quickly. Corinne’s loved dipping her finger in the grape juice for the plagues, and loved dipping everything in the saltwater tears. Oy vey. The girls also ran around and played hard all evening, and had a lot of fun.

On Sunday the Easter Bunny stopped by and left Corinne a basket full of activity books, stickers, and a single lollipop. No sugar overload at our house Easter morning. The rest of the day was fairly low key. We went for a walk, we had a nice dinner, we played and had fun. Overall it was a very nice weekend.

The birthday part was for Corinne’s BFF, and was held at a park just two blocks from where we live. Talk about convenient! There were a handful of kids from Corinne’s preschool there, along with some friends from the neighborhood. It was a lot of fun, and I will try to get a video up soon.

Speaking of videos, did you notice I added a video of Corinne playing on the slide? I’m quite proud of myself for getting that off the camera, up to YouTube, and then onto the blog. It’s not a great video, I know, but given I can’t get anything off the old video camera I’m happy.

The Solano Playlot Spring Festival was a lot of fun. Corinne participated in her first easter egg hunt, and I think she found four candy filled plastic eggs. She also took two swings at a pinata, and then used her third to go after the guy running things (who kept letting big kids go before her). There was also a simple obstacle course, and at one point the kids were told to hide behind some big rocks. Corinne  was soooo serious while hiding behind her rock, peeking out to see what was going on. It was very cute

Next weekend we’re celebrating Passover on Saturday and Easter on Sunday. We also have another birthday party to attend, but this time it’s for Corinne’s BFF’s Mom. With everything else going on I’m not sure if we’ll make it, but we will try so that Corinne and her BFF can play.

We’ve started planning a weekend getaway for our anniversary, you can probably guess the details.

I’m also scheduled to play in a game in early June, and I am very, very excited about that. It’s a somewhat sequel to the Godlike campaign I was in a year or so ago, inspired by one of the flashbacks I wrote as part of that game. Instead of soldiers in WW2, we will be playing Nazi hunters during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

And that’s about it! Happy Wednesday!

Here is my first attempt at getting a video from the new Flip camera to YouTube and finally to this blog. Corinne was begging to go to the park, but once we got there she wasn’t all that eager to play. ~sigh~ Well, at least she was getting sunshine and fresh air.