Family Weekend
May. 6th, 2010 08:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
threadwalkerHaving spent a week and a half out of town, we slated last weekend as “family time”. I admit I expected everyone would want to lay around the house (my least favorite activity), but instead we spent Saturday having a day-long adventure day. Sunday was a chill-out and do projects day, although I turned off the TV and the kids were forced to play.
We went to the gun show on Saturday at the Cow Palace. It was a sea of rednecks, survivalists, and military wannabes. And then there was us.
I’m always amused at these things. This year there was a new vendor; someone who’d taken camo-print fabric and made a whole line of trailer-trash female clothing – half tops, mini skirts, etc.
My first stop was someone selling antiques from 1930s and earlier, mostly US military. They were cute. I’ve never really wanted a gun before, but somehow when you make it cute, small, and give it a history, I’m interested. I got kind of bright-eyed and (loudly) reminded F that mothers day was coming up and nothing says, “I love you”, like a new hand gun.
The woman behind the counter laughed, but the men standing near me gave me funny looks and moved away. He smiled, said something like, “yeah, I’ll think about that.” Thay had pretty big price tags… +$2k.
One vendor had a lot of anti-Obama propaganda, including a photo of Obama redone with Joker-Like makeup (a la Batman The Dark Knight) and over the whole picture were concentric red rings. It was creepy and I would have mistaken it for a practice target, except it has a post-it that said, “This is not a target.”
Um... sure. How close do these guys walk the line before the ground opens up and swallows them?
Anyway, Miss E noted all this, asked loudly why there was so much mean stuff about President Obama. I had this vision of riling up a bunch of militants and getting mugged in the parking lot. So we had a whispered conversation about the difference between respectfully disagreeing with someone and inflammatory protests; the pictures were inflammatory protest and therefore rude. While still standing at this vendor (I was in line to buy some pelts), Miss E starts chanting a Pro-Obama sing-song. LOUDLY.
On the one hand, I don’t need my 6 year old to incite a bunch of wackos at a gun show. On the other hand, I’m proud that she has an opinion and isn’t afraid to stand up and be heard. And on the third hand, we don’t talk politics at home at all, so I’m wondering where she’s getting her opinions.
I leaned down and told her that we were outnumbered, so the chanting needed to stop ASAP or we’d be ganged up on. She stopped but crossed her arms on her chest and pouted fiercely. She is a PRO at pouting. I have this vision of bailing her out of jail once she’s college age for being picked up at a rally or protest.
From there we “did” Tilden park. I’ve never been there before (though I've been through the edge on my bike). We rode the steam train, the carousel, visited Little Farm and walked around Jewel Lake. Apparently a scene from the Erol Flynn Robin hood was shot there. F also shared that back in the olden SCA days, there was a battle fought along the edge of the lake with a retreat that went along the shoreline trail. It lasted until the rangers found them and kicked them out. LOL.
We napped and picnicked at the play structure until past 5pm. Then dinner at El Torrito (nom nom nom) and back home for movie night. I think we were on deck for Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Sunday was super mellow: church, then home to do projects. I cleaned and organized in my shed… a stalling tactic because I’m working on an Inverness Cloak Do-Over that F bought on the internet.
Speaking of projects:
Sewing:
-starting a new embroidery project this week. Supplies are acquired.
-started a corset for Gillian. Just cuz I like making them, I haven’t made one in a while, and she said she’d like one while we were making Princess clothes.
-reworking an Inverness cloak the hubby got off the internet. Ugh. I hate rework.
Work is good. There’s a lot of change going on. I’ve been assigned to some special projects. I have a very supportive boss. I wish I didn’t have the 7:30 meeting – I’d like to be able to come to work a bit later so that I can swim in the morning. Oh well.
Life is good and the "chaos" quotient is down to normal.
We went to the gun show on Saturday at the Cow Palace. It was a sea of rednecks, survivalists, and military wannabes. And then there was us.
I’m always amused at these things. This year there was a new vendor; someone who’d taken camo-print fabric and made a whole line of trailer-trash female clothing – half tops, mini skirts, etc.
My first stop was someone selling antiques from 1930s and earlier, mostly US military. They were cute. I’ve never really wanted a gun before, but somehow when you make it cute, small, and give it a history, I’m interested. I got kind of bright-eyed and (loudly) reminded F that mothers day was coming up and nothing says, “I love you”, like a new hand gun.
The woman behind the counter laughed, but the men standing near me gave me funny looks and moved away. He smiled, said something like, “yeah, I’ll think about that.” Thay had pretty big price tags… +$2k.
One vendor had a lot of anti-Obama propaganda, including a photo of Obama redone with Joker-Like makeup (a la Batman The Dark Knight) and over the whole picture were concentric red rings. It was creepy and I would have mistaken it for a practice target, except it has a post-it that said, “This is not a target.”
Um... sure. How close do these guys walk the line before the ground opens up and swallows them?
Anyway, Miss E noted all this, asked loudly why there was so much mean stuff about President Obama. I had this vision of riling up a bunch of militants and getting mugged in the parking lot. So we had a whispered conversation about the difference between respectfully disagreeing with someone and inflammatory protests; the pictures were inflammatory protest and therefore rude. While still standing at this vendor (I was in line to buy some pelts), Miss E starts chanting a Pro-Obama sing-song. LOUDLY.
On the one hand, I don’t need my 6 year old to incite a bunch of wackos at a gun show. On the other hand, I’m proud that she has an opinion and isn’t afraid to stand up and be heard. And on the third hand, we don’t talk politics at home at all, so I’m wondering where she’s getting her opinions.
I leaned down and told her that we were outnumbered, so the chanting needed to stop ASAP or we’d be ganged up on. She stopped but crossed her arms on her chest and pouted fiercely. She is a PRO at pouting. I have this vision of bailing her out of jail once she’s college age for being picked up at a rally or protest.
From there we “did” Tilden park. I’ve never been there before (though I've been through the edge on my bike). We rode the steam train, the carousel, visited Little Farm and walked around Jewel Lake. Apparently a scene from the Erol Flynn Robin hood was shot there. F also shared that back in the olden SCA days, there was a battle fought along the edge of the lake with a retreat that went along the shoreline trail. It lasted until the rangers found them and kicked them out. LOL.
We napped and picnicked at the play structure until past 5pm. Then dinner at El Torrito (nom nom nom) and back home for movie night. I think we were on deck for Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Sunday was super mellow: church, then home to do projects. I cleaned and organized in my shed… a stalling tactic because I’m working on an Inverness Cloak Do-Over that F bought on the internet.
Speaking of projects:
Sewing:
-starting a new embroidery project this week. Supplies are acquired.
-started a corset for Gillian. Just cuz I like making them, I haven’t made one in a while, and she said she’d like one while we were making Princess clothes.
-reworking an Inverness cloak the hubby got off the internet. Ugh. I hate rework.
Work is good. There’s a lot of change going on. I’ve been assigned to some special projects. I have a very supportive boss. I wish I didn’t have the 7:30 meeting – I’d like to be able to come to work a bit later so that I can swim in the morning. Oh well.
Life is good and the "chaos" quotient is down to normal.
