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.

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!

Corinne continues to grow at an amazing rate. I am starting to suspect the terrible 3′s are going to be worse than the terrible 2′s. During the terrible 2′s she was all will and no direction, but now she still has no direction but the strength to back up her will. Oh dear.

In other Corinne news, she is on the cusp of reading. Last Sunday, April 10th, Corinne walked up to Raelene with a tube of sunscreen and said, “S… U… N… Sun”, correctly reading the word at the top of the tub. Wow.

Sunday is going to be a busy day, with a birthday party in the morning and a spring festival in the afternoon. The birthday party is for Corinne’s bff, and Raelene is volunteering at the festival. We aren’t sure how we’re going to organize the outings with Corinne’s nap schedule, but I’m sure we will figure something out as we go along.

Taxes are done, in case you are wondering. There’s not going to be any mad scramble to finish them over the weekend.

We have a video camera we never use because I can’t figure out how to transfer video off of the tape. I know that Flip video recorders are out and video shot on your phone is in, but our phones take lousy video. So I bought a Flip video camera super cheap. Hopefully it will work out for us. If it does, expect to see more video of Corinne on the blog.

After this weekend we don’t have a whole lot of stuff coming up, so hopefully I can get some house projects done. If I’m lucky I’ll even have a chance to blog some this weekend so there’s something to read on Monday.

Other than wearing green we usually don’t do much to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, but it’s still a fun holiday to recognize. This will change as Corinne get’s older, of course. I foresee leprechaun traps and home made mint/shamrock milkshakes in our future.

Last weekend we attended a friend’s wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony and the reception was a lot of fun. We wish the bride and groom many years of happiness to come.

We have a busy weekend ahead of us.  I am attending a gaming Seminar on Saturday, and Raelene is going to roller derby that night.  On Sunday we are attending a birthday party for one of Corinne’s playschool friends. Hopefully the storm that is supposed to hit will wait until Monday so they can have the birthday party outside. Kids parties are so much more fun when they’re in a park full of play equipment.

On January 2nd we went to a book signing for Melisser Elliot’s The Vegan Girl’s Guide to Life. Melisser was there, and she even signed Corinne’s copy of the book. We hung out with friends, had a great meal at the new Saturn Cafe in Berkeley, and overall had a great time.

The following weekend Raelene and some friends went to Mendocino for a girls getaway weekend. It sounds like Raelene had fun, but then it’s difficult not to have fun when you’re staying in a vacation home on California’s norther coast. Corinne and I stayed home, and we had fun too. I let Corinne choose whatever she wanted for dinner from the El Cerrito farmer’s market, and she asked for chard with mushrooms. What a kid! We had that on Saturday, and on Sunday we made vegan pizzas.

This past weekend was the 1st Endgame MiniCon of 2011, and I was there for the afternoon time slot running The Laundry RPG. I think everyone had fun playing, and I certainly had fun running it. It’s the second time I’ve run that demo adventure from the book, and now I’m itching to run my own adventure. That’s probably not going to happen though, at least not in the first half of 2011. If I run anything, it’s going to be a Godlike game based on the Norwegian heavy water sabotage in WW2.

I think that more or less brings us up to date. Corinne continues to be amazing, and I will see if I can get an update on her written for Wednesday.