Page 139 in this issue of Martha Stewart Weddings (sorry for the rather crappy photo which makes the hearts look totally weird – it’s dark outside and raining again. Gee, imagine that).

We’re at my mom’s house the last 2 days which means we get to eat comfort food like vegetables grown from my dad’s garden including spicy pork and rice wrapped in perilla leaves. It also means we get to eat things like frozen red bean pops, a favorite of ours because it’s not too sweet. Contrary to what you may think, Mark and I are not big ice cream eaters and I can count on 1 hand how many times I’ve had ice cream this year (the kids on the other hand…). Crazy, right? Obviously it’s not because we don’t like ice cream, we just don’t think to buy it when we’re at the store and Mark’s been too busy to make any.

Oh and this package of Fried Hard Tack? Have no idea what it is and have never seen it in their house before. Engrish at it’s best. I’m not really even tempted to open it. All I know from the package is that it’s “high quality and elegance” and that it’s meant to be enjoyed during my leisure time.

Perfect weekend weather. It only rained once (briefly), but it was a sun shower and it made a rainbow.
A fun and relaxing birthday party in the park. The kids made and painted their own wheelbarrows. Brilliant idea.

This was the sky around 8:45pm tonight (yeah, I do live across the street from Staples, which has proved useful to say the least). The strangest, brightest sky I’ve seen over NYC in a long time. It started off this eerie golden color, then shifted to orange, then pink and purple. Apparently there were really weird bumpy clouds too, but they must have been localized over Manhattan because I didn’t see it, but heard reports of people all over the city stopping, gawking at the sky and snapping up photos and uploading them all over the internet like mad.

Yesterday was a strange day, yes? But the manner in which events unfolded was fascinating. If you were on your computer yesterday afternoon around 2ish, then you know what I’m talking about. Like many of you, I learned about Michael Jackson being hospitalized on twitter when all the social networks were ablaze with chatter on rumors that he had already died. Like we were all trying to figure out what happened together. I don’t usually celebrity worship, but I had a big lump in my throat when it was confirmed. I don’t remember feeling that way with any other celebrity, not even when Kurt Cobain died and I clearly remember where I was, in the recording studio at school working on a session with my class when one of our classmates came in and broke the news. This was at Evergreen in Washington, a school that Kurt used to hang around, so it was especially sobering news since it was so close to home. John F. Kennedy Jr? Jeff Buckley? Elliot Smith? Sad sad sad! And I still lament over the loss that is Jeff Buckley, so it surprised me that I felt so melancholy and heartbroken when I heard about Michael, considering I hadn’t really thought about him too much in recent years. But who doesn’t have some kind of connection to Michael Jackson? I grew up on repeats of the Jackson 5 cartoons and religiously watched their variety show in the 70s. Even my parents felt compelled to buy the Thriller album on vinyl because it’s just what everyone did when it came out regardless of whether or not you were a fan, and so the record sat there filed among the classical and Korean records, the one lonely American pop album in the collection. Like most people of my generation, he was a huge part of my childhood. I guess this is why I’ve been mostly watching the older stuff with the Jackson 5 and the Off the Wall days on YouTube and showing it to the kids. There’s something about watching 10 year old Michael sing and dance before the crazy fame, the accusations, the character assassination by the media, that is particularly sad.

And one more thing? What is up with people trying to make those of us mourning his death feel bad? Yes, we know that he’s been monopolizing the news when there are people being killed every day and extraordinary things are happening in Iran, but what, we can’t acknowledge his life and death?

It’s true that most days we get junk and bills in the mail, but in the few day before our trip, we received a bounty of happy packages. My friend Tami, designer/owner at Ismodern, was generous as usual with her package of samples for the girls, including the elephant print dress that Claudine was wearing on day 2 of our trip which I love love love. But the best news of all? Tami is packing up her life in LA and relocating her family to NYC this summer, yay! I get asked many times what I dress the girls in. People! Head over to the Ismodern site now where Tami always has past seasons on sale and help her lighten her load for her cross-country move.

The other question I get asked a lot (actually the number 1 question) is about the camera that I use. I recently bought my first DSLR – a Canon t1i, which I’m still learning how to use. I debated for a long time between Canon and Nikon, but the decision to go with Canon suddenly became clear when I realized that an overwhelming number of photographers that I admire all used Canons. The answer then became quite easy. But as any photo enthusiast and professional can tell you, it’s all about the lenses and I knew I wanted the 50mm EF 1.4, which arrived and is pictured below. The danger of buying lenses, however, is that you want more and more. Not so easy when they are so expensive.

Two more packages – a Mark Jacobs dress marked way down on clearance. Not so sure about the loose cut and shape, but love the print. And we don’t buy other sweets very often because we are around it so much, but I WILL buy artisan, handmade chocolate bars from our friend Nina’s company BonBonBar. These were for Mark for Father’s Day. We are savoring and sharing 1 bar a day till they’re gone.

Short trip, and we are back in the city already. Although it is good to be back home, this evening is a huge contrast to our quiet nights upstate, where there was nothing but silence and pitch black darkness as we went to sleep. As soon as we stepped into our apartment around 6pm, we heard party noises from down the block and a DJ blasting Lady Gaga and Rhianna from its sound system. Welcome back to Brooklyn. The kids were hyped up once we got back home too, chasing each other like banshees up and down the hall. These were the same kids that sat quiet as mice for almost an hour this morning, bird watching out on the back deck?

Our last day was spent having breakfast at an old, authentic diner called Danny’s with Mark’s dad, uncle and an old family friend. It’s never fun saying goodbye. As we drove south, clouds gathered and rain started to fall. Funny that we managed to escape the wet weather while we were away up north, even getting a little sunburned in the process, while the city still stood under clouds. On the way back we stopped for a long break at the outlet mall. Sheesh, we are so freaking American.

Wegmans, possibly the greatest supermarket.

A windy picnic by the lake with our Wegmans bounty.

Strawberry picking.

Lazyman’s strawberry shortcake: store bought Angel Food Cake, organic just-picked strawberries and whipped cream from a can. No, Mark did not want to cook while on vacation. Oh, and by the way, Mia did a blind taste test between strawberries bought at a store and the ones we picked this afternoon. She totally called the picked ones as without a doubt being more tasty because they were sweeter all the way through, whereas the store ones were only sweet on the outside and bland in the middle. So true.

Claudine learns to spell “happy”.

Day 2 began with a dubious start as Mia still complained of stomach aches and both Mark and I began to feel suspicious knots in our stomachs. After some pedialyte and a bit of toast, we ventured out. The fog eventually lifted and the sun burned rather hot. We were unprepared as we had no sunscreen on us – it was such a cloudy and wet June that we were rather unused to bringing sunscreen along. We did all get a bit red from too much sun, especially when we played a round of mini golf which left us with itchy skin, but I heard it was raining in Brooklyn again so we can’t complain. The day ended up being packed with activities: waterfall, lake, playground, antique shopping, mini golf, wineries…and finally a meal after avoiding food for much of the day.

The family is sleeping. So far so good on the stomach virus. I’m up late working as something just came in that needed my attention. Yup, business as usual.

We’re upstate right now. Had a relatively quiet 4 hr car ride this morning even though Mark and I always seem to forget to bring things to keep the kids entertained in the car, and when we do remember, we do something stupid like put the toys in the trunk where it’s not accessible to anyone. Miraculously, they both tolerated the ride well with little complaints despite having nothing to do and being awake the full 4 hours. We had lunch with Mark’s dad which was sweet being Father’s Day and all, and his uncle made us a super home cooked meal.

So Father’s Day…I guess you can say that neither Mark nor I had easy times with our fathers growing up, but now that we are adults and our fathers are older, it feels like there is an unspoken forgiveness as time passes. I still have my days, but I certainly feel like I have come to grips with certain things that allow myself to move on and focus on what’s happening now rather than dwell on things that happened in my childhood. Not surprisingly, the kids have been a real relationship saver. We have some common ground now in which we can relate and much of our relationship revolves around them. My dad is a wonderful grandfather in a way that he was not a father to us growing up. He adores them and and in the kids, have found a mutual adoration and unconditional love that may have been missing in his life for a long time. He feels needed again.

And Mark? I think you can pretty much guess that he’s a great father, and I’m even comfortable enough to admit that he’s probably the better parent of the 2 of us. But being a father has brought out facets of his personality that have been buried and dormant, like he DOES get mad! In all the years that we’ve been together, I’ve never seen him get really pissed until the kids came along. If you’re a parent, you know what I’m talking about – parenthood brings out the best AND the worst in you.

As usual, I am the last to go to bed, but being as we’re all shacked up in one hotel room, I’m turning in before midnight which is really early for me. We had a rough bedtime as Mia started complaining that her stomach ache was getting worse. She’d been saying this on and off for the past 2 days, but we just dismissed it as gas. Tonight, however, she was kicking around in bed and moaning which made it rather difficult for Claudine to get to sleep. Well, Mia threw up about a half hour ago which had us scrambling to scrub the sheets, comforter, carpet and mattress as best we could with a washcloth and soap (yeah, it was everywhere on her side of the bed). Claudine’s still asleep on the clean side of the bed wedged between 2 pillows, which means the rest of us will be crammed in one bed for tonight. I don’t expect to get a good night’s sleep. I just hope she doesn’t throw up on me.

It was a good day today. Got that design out to the client and I won’t have that hanging over my head while we’re away. Visited a friend’s new baby this morning (god how I love babies! But no no, no more babies for us). Picked Mia up from her last day of school and spent the afternoon at the nearby playground in Prospect Park watching the kids play a chasing game while the parents ruminated on the last 2 years of preschool. Although school is over, this is not really the end since most of the kids return to school for camp in a few weeks, so today didn’t feel too much different from a normal end-of-day pick up. Good, as I was not in the mood for good byes. The day ended with wine on the stoop with the neighbors, as the sun went down. Today felt like classic summer, partly because of the humidity, but mostly because it was a breezy leisurely day spent hanging out and talking. We need more days like this. June has been one crappy weather month, most of it wet, cloudy, cool or like yesterday, filled with torrential rain, but today it let up and it felt like summer.