People Visiting Report

Saren's friends came and went. Actually it's been almost a week now. I think they all had fun and I know it was really good for Saren to have her friends actually here in the flesh.

I took them all to the AdventureDome, which is an indoor amusement park underneath a giant pink dome. It's part of the hotel/casino Circus Circus, which has been around for quite some time and is a place where several people I have known and been related to have worked.

I first went to AdventureDome when it opened in 199-something or other. I think my friend and I may or may not have skipped school to go there. It has a big pink roller coaster that has loop-de-loops and such and my friend and I went on it over and over and over. There was also a water ride and that was all I remembered about it from then.

Now it looks somewhat worse for the years that have passed. I spotted a rather large crack in the pink glass dome while I was waiting for Irina to go on the Frog Hopper for the fifteenth time. She sure loved that thing. She and I went off on our own and periodically met up with the older kids.  It was packed and kind of humid and I never did get to go on the roller coaster that I so loved as a teenager. Or maybe I just loved that day. Saren declared the roller coaster boring.

I also took them to see the last Harry Potter movie. Irina went with us to that too. She spent the whole time with her hands over her ears and then fell asleep in my lap. After we got out I thought that I had liked the movie. I'm not as sure now. Sometime before it came out we were watching TV and they were having a Harry Potter marathon, as they are wont to do, and I started thinking that I would really like to re-read the whole series from beginning to end. I got to the very end of the last book when we went to see the movie and I feel reading the books so close to seeing the movie was a mistake. I was irritated about small decisions the film-makers made that were departures from the book. Little things that didn't make any difference really. But even so, I had some problems with the way they did the end. Whatevs. I love Harry Potter.

I took the kids to the airport on Tuesday and then we came home and all felt really happy that we had the house to ourselves again. Don't get me wrong, we were all glad they were here (not Harper), but we are introverts at heart (not Irina) and it just felt really good to be back home and by ourselves. Even Saren, and she obviously was the one who enjoyed the company the most. With the possible exception of Irina, who loved them all dearly and wanted to spend every second with them.

Miscellaneous

Today we went to the airport to pick up Saren's friend, who flew in from Florida to visit her. They are happy and giggly and that is excellent. In two days, we'll go pick up two more of her friends. All of Saren's friends live far away. She seems fine with that.

Harper's friend is moving away. We only met her in March (I think). Harper is bummed and thinks that she has rather bad luck when it come to friends moving away. She's slow to move into friendship and many of the attempts we've made at meeting up with girls her age have not gone that well. She is not okay with her friends living far away and I'm having a hard time figuring out what to do to help her.

I am hoping that once we move from here we will find that the population surrounding us is less transient than here in Vegas. People always say Vegas is a transient town, but I have no idea of it's transient-ness compared to other places as I've only ever lived one other place, and that was as a child.

My writing is still going well and I am finding it relatively easy to keep up the habit. Though not right now, because I've been preoccupied with incoming visitors. I finished the story I was working on and that's a huge awesome thing because I haven't finished anything in ages, but I have no idea whether it's of any worth whatsoever. I don't know if I ever even want to look at it again because it felt like crap when I was writing it.

Speaking of crap, Silas likes to say "crap" a lot lately. Except when he says it, it sounds like "fwap," which is so great I can't stand it.

Harper is Eleven

Yesterday Harper turned eleven. We went to Rubio's for lunch as per her request and ate quesadillas and chicken burritos, quickly, because we were late. Then off to the pool, where we met some friends and swam for a couple of hours. As soon as I took my camera out at the pool, the batteries died so I have no further pictures beyond what I took in the morning. (Batteries? How quaint and old-fashioned.) After the pool we went home for lasagna for dinner, which I am pretty sure has been Harper's dinner of choice for birthdays for many years running now.

For her birthday she received an ipod which helps block out noise,which she has been particularly sensitive to lately. We loaded it up with her favorites: The Beatles, Green Day, The Fray, and Guster. She also got a new Webkinz and some warriors manga books and a few other things (eleven in total! and an ant farm from uncle Chance!). Oh, and also a nyan cat shirt. (Click on that link. You're welcome.)

I'll be sad when September rolls around and she packs up her trunk and her wand and heads off to Hogwarts. But I suppose all young witches and wizards must grow up. Sniff, sniff.