Updates

The raccoon babies are crying.

It is actually really sad.

Since my last post, the mother raccoon went into the trap on Sunday night about 9:30. Hubby and I actually heard the trap close, then we went outside with our flashlights and saw the beast. It was sad, actually, even though the mother caused all kinds of trouble at our house, to see it so scared (it had micturated all over the concrete). The raccoon whisperer came the next day, and upon examining her mammary glands, announced that there are two kids inside the house still.

So we waited. And nothing was in the trap yesterday.

I called Steve again, and he said that we simply have to wait, because the kids need to get really hungry, then they will go and look for mommy, and then we will catch the babies one at a time. Steve then said that we will probably hear them cry. I asked him what that will sound like, and he said, "like the sheep in Silence of the Lambs." I hadn't seen the movie in a loooonnng time and frankly, didn't really see it when I last saw it because I was too scared. Further elaboration followed, "Well, like a banshee." Great.

While tucking A&Z in bed, Hubby and I looked at each other, and we both heard the screaming banshees. Not very loud, but very, very, sad.

I just want this to be over! I can't imagine A&Z wondering around town looking for me while starving, and as much as I wrote callously about catching and euthanizing them, I am sad. At the same time, I can't live with them! I can't let them live with A&Z!

On a happier note, look at these pictures of A&Z on vacation, don't you want to go there?



We swung by St. Helena's Music in the Park event, and Zoe found new friends to dance with! =)

The Beast

Ever since we moved to our house, we noticed that the lids to the drains in the yard often got pulled open. We blamed it on our curious cat, and replaced the lids whenever we found them flipped open.

Around March, while Hubby and I chatted by the kitchen, we both saw this creature, whom we thought was our cat, walk by our patio door... until we really saw it. It was not Moosie! It was a ginormous raccoon. Wow, we marveled at its size, and moved on.

About a month ago, on a super windy night, I woke up to some weird noises. Weird, scary noises. I woke Hubby up and we listened, and I went to investigate. The noise seemed loudest in Aidan and Zoe's bathroom, with its window wide open. I closed the window and everything seemed fine and we went back to sleep.

A few days after the super windy night, while I pulled weeds, I saw the lid to the entrance of our crawl space was not tightly closed. Weird, I thought, and moved it back in place.

A few weeks ago, on a bright Saturday morning, I was cleaning off the counter in Aidan and Zoe's bathroom, when I heard some cooing. I smiled as I listened, and thought to my self, "I love this house, I love how the birds sing amongst our lovely flowers."

Then, last week, after we tucked Aidan and Zoe in bed, while Hubby worked in his office as I returned phone calls in my working area, we heard weird, weird, thumping noises from below Hubby's desk. On the outside of the wall by this desk is where the opening to the crawl space was. It was worrisome.

You see where I am going with this...

Hubby and I then went out side, opened that lid a little bit, sat back while holding on to our biggest hockey sticks with white knuckles and waited. Shortly after, we saw the beast. A ginormous raccoon waddled off...

And our war against the raccoon started. To share all the details of the battles thus far would take far too long, so here is the summary.

This is what we knew:
1. There is probably a female raccoon.
2. The mother entered in via the door to the crawl space. The sound from that windy night? It was thumping up against the pipes in Aidan and Zoe's bathroom, as it made its nest. (Apparently, female raccoons nearly ALWAYS make a nest next to the bathtub plumbing.)
3. The cooing? Not from birds, but from raccoon babies.

Imagine, if you will, some choice words from me about this.

We found our selves a 'wild life management' person. David came, inspected, and decided to use some 'eviction fluid' to convince the mother to take its young and leave.

Then we went on vacation and had no idea of its progress...

We came home, and while Hubby and I watched an episode of Cake Boss, we heard the dreadful noise of something thumping across our attic space directly above our bed. FREAKY!

So I called the Fire Department. And they nearly laughed at me. (Who else am I going to call at 11 pm on Friday night?!)

Not to be deterred, after all, if I were easily deterred, I would not have graduated from medical school, nor would I have two kids. After about a dozen calls to David to no avail, it was the weekend after all. We found Steve. Steve is a raccoon whisperer. Well, not really, since trapped raccoons have to be euthanized in the State of California. He came, he inspected, he re-installed a vent for one of the open spaces to the crawl space, and he set up a trap. Hubby and I then waited, eagerly, to hear a fighting raccoon in the cage. But that never came.

This morning, we saw an empty cage, with two bones hanging. According to Steve, Moosie probably got in, ate the chicken, and took off. Apparently, cat are dainty eaters. Steve came back, and rigged a new trap, so that Moosie cannot get into it at all. And now, we wait. The sun has set, the beast ought to go forage soon, and I can't wait to hear the loud sound of the trap closing.

I know, I am cold, but dude, don't come into my house, live in my crawl space/wall/attic, and expect me to be nice.

Hopefully, we will have some more evidence tomorrow. Once Steve inspects the mother raccoon, he can then be certain that we have a female, and based on its lactating glands, he can tell how old the pups are, and how many there are. And then he will go get those boogers. Judging by the time of year, he thinks these pups, between 3-5 from each littler, are probably about one foot tall each.

I never thought I would know this much about raccoons.

By the way, they have addiducting thumbs, and in Chinese, they are really a kind of BEAR.

When we do catch it, I will post a picture. (I have a lot of pictures to post!)

So Relaxed...

We just came back from a very relaxing trip. It was good.

For years, I have wanted to go to Indian Springs in Calistoga: an Olympic sized spring pool, heated to perfection, lots of lounging, games for children, and intoxicating wine and delicious food all around, what is not too like?

It definitely lived up to my expectations, and then some.

Traveling with A&Z is so much easier now, basically, I am glad that we don't have a third child to content with, so that we can get on the road already. (Of course, I am robbing myself the joy of a newborn baby...) We packed so little, three outfits for each of us, and all our toiletries fit in a gallon sized ziplock bag. Hubby and I were able to load the car and leave without people getting irritable (when I say people, I really only mean me.) It was fabulous.

The drive did take a loooonnng time, mainly because we stopped to shop at the outlets. I got to shop while the kids amused themselves with Hubby.

Upon getting into our room, we made a beeline for the pool, and it was awesome!!! Over our three days there, I went to the pool four times. There was no swimming done at this pool, just sitting and letting the minerals fix my tension, my skin, and I haven't felt this relaxed in a loooonnng time!

We also got to eat some delicious food. A&Z truly loved Bouchon Bakery: we spent over $50 buying soup there. I think the children have a soup problem, but who can blame them? The sweet carrot soup was amazing. We bought out the stock at the bakery and moved onto the restaurant to beg them to let us do take out as they normally do not do take out. We went back the next day and also bought out their stock of potato leek soup. Of course, A&Z loved the macarons there, and I thoroughly enjoyed the pretzel brioche bread: it is truly the making of a genius, a crunchy, slightly salty exterior with the buttery, fluffy inside.

We visited a few wineries, enjoyed the children's cuteness, banished poor behaviors, slept, and rested.

When Hubby has the photos processed, I will post a few here.

Happy Father's Day!

I am a very lucky woman, I am married to a wonderful husband who is a great Dad, I have a fantastic father who fearlessly raised me, I have a father-in-law who spoils me, and I have a Heavenly Father who loves me even before I was conceived. That, my dear readers, is totally undeserved by yours truly, yet I gladly receive.

If you want to know more about my Heavenly Father, you gotta read this book called The Bible. In it, you will find everything you want to know, need to know, about Him.

If you want to know my Dad, and if you happen to live around Washington D.C., you can go hear him preach. Let me know, and I would be happy to pass along the information.

The more I know about psychotherapy, the more amazed I am at the gift of having him as my Dad. My dad loves my mother, a lot. He loves her well, I think, for the 36 years they have been married, he has been perfecting her while loving her. My siblings and I are the happy beneficiaries of this relationship.

When I was growing up, he worked A LOT. There were days that he left for work at 6:30 and got home at 10:00. Basically, on those days, I watched him get ready and then fought over the bathroom when he got home. You see, it really, really, drove him crazy that I waited to take a bath until 10 pm, when I had ample opportunities to use our one bathroom all evening long. I think he usually let me go first even though he must have been utterly exhausted. We were separated by the Pacific Ocean for about 1/2 year when I was 11, when he came to the US to work before the rest of us joined him. My relationship with him since that separation changed a lot, probably because I was, finally, growing up. I remember when he took me to open my first banking account. He deposited $1000 bucks under my name, and actually never told me to not spend it. Somehow, he had already taught me basic fiscal responsibility even without saying those words. (I mainly took out money to buy text books- I had enrolled at a junior college as a high school student, and I got great practice of being a college student before I even left home!) He taught me about God's faithfulness, His sovereignty, and His goodness. Most importantly, my Dad faithfully prays for his children, everyday. I know this not just because he tells me, but also because I heard my parents pray for us nightly as a rebellious adolescent. Thanks, Dad.

My father-in-law is also a gift. In Hubby's words, "You can't do wrong, and he spoils you so!" He loves to spend time with A&Z, he thinks of us whenever he is near a bakery and brings us loads and loads of treats regularly. He volunteers to get up super early to chauffeur A&Z to school. The joke here is that I get nicer birthday presents than Hubby does from him. Most of all, he raised my husband! If you want to meet him, he runs a local tutoring center and I can give you that info too. Thanks, Dad.

Hubby is a wonderful father for A&Z. To Aidan, he is Dada. To Zoe, he is Dad. (It is actually really funny to hear Zoe address him in such a grown up way...) Regardless of whether he is Dada or Dad, Hubby loves to be with them, he is not bashful to shower the children with his affection, at the same time, he will not hesitate to correct poor behaviors.

When I was a senior in college, Hubby and I had been dating for about a year, and while I was pretty sure I was going to marry him, he hadn't told me his 'intentions' yet, and I wasn't so sure. Anyway, we were talking one day, about this and that, then the subject went on to the future, how many kids we wanted. I said I wanted two, for sure. One would be too few, three would be too many. Hubby thought he would want one. I expressed the idea that you really want two kids so that they have each other once the parents moved to Heaven. For some reason, we started talking smack, "My kid is going to be more buff than yours, and my kid is going to beat yours up." After a few jabs, he paused and said, "You know, maybe we shouldn't joke about this, because my kid and your kid may be the same kid." Then we went on to chat about something else.

As it turns out, Hubby would love to have more kids, whereas I feel that we are complete. Who knows, maybe our Heavenly Father may have some other plans for us.

Well, Happy Father's Day! To my Dad, my FIL, my Hubby, and God.

These are the cute kids that make Hubby a great Dad.

Feeding the Brain

These days, one of my favorite activities is to get comfy in bed with Hubby, snuggle up with the laptop, and watch a movie. This is totally the opposite of the advice I would give people whenever we talk about sleep hygiene: No TV/computer time for at least an hour before you want to go to sleep.

Alas, I am too tired to not sleep well.

We have watched a few movies recently, and usually, it takes us a few days to watch something. There is just no time to spend two whole hours on entertainment these days. I am fully aware of the fact that I am now admitting to feeding my brain via movies, but you know, at least it is a varied diet.

Last Friday evening, we watched It's Complicated. Hubby determined the movie was indeed, a chick flick, and zonked out about midway through. While the movie is funny, enjoyable, and entertaining, I have to say, it is very interesting, psychodynamically. Not to give away the ending, since someone who reads this may still be wanting to see it, but the ending speaks to the time we live in. Relationships are complicated, and whether one choose to be alone or dive into a complicated relationship is, well, unpredictable. I would have preferred for a different ending- and my dear friends who know me in real life, would expect me to think so. At least, my profession isn't depicted as completely moronic, and for that, I am thankful.

Then we saw Nordwand, a German film about these mountaineers who want to conquer the last frontiers of the Alps. As I watched the movie with subtitles, I am mildly disappointed that I didn't study German more seriously. How cool would it be to be able to watch a foreign movie like it without subtitles? Although, I know very well why I didn't study German in college. While I had a few years of German in high school, my skills were, truly, lacking. My voice professor had suggested that I study German- as a singer, to know another language is a very useful skill. However, I didn't sign up for it because I was afraid my sucky skills would earn me something less than an A, which then would make my GPA less than ideal for applying to medical schools. I know, I know, it is really pathetic. Practically though, I simply didn't have time to finish both majors, and take German and go to the language table during meal times, and the labs... I know it isn't too late to learn German, I can get Rosetta Stone! But let's be realistic, there is just no way. Maybe, one of these days, Hubby and I will relocate to Germany or Austria, and I can learn it there then. (Yes, I have this fantasy of joining the US military as a physician and then going abroad to work at one of its bases, shop at the military store- Coach bags for cheap! And learn German! I have no clue what Hubby, Aidan and Zoe will do, but you know, they will all speak German!)

Aside from my desire to speak German, this movie, was oh dear, not relaxing at all! Toni and Andi are my heroes. I will never be able to see anyone's North Face fleece the same way again. As much as I think today's extreme sports are dangerous, these mountaineers took it to a different level! They didn't have the right gear at all! Zoe and Aidan are now forbidden to go do any kind of hiking/climbing/moving to cold places.

Finally, we watched Forrest Gump. Of course, I saw this movie when it first came out in 1994. I think a bunch of us wanted to go see it, but none of us had a car. So we walked from school to the theater, it was 3.62 miles (I just checked via mapquest). It took a looonnnng time to get there. After the movie, someone called another classmate, who grew up in that town, and then her mother drove over with a Toyota Camery, and ALL of us piled in. Good times, good times, I have to say. I miss those simple times, of just walking somewhere to do something because we all felt like it. Soon though, I think, Aidan and Zoe will be up to walking 3.62 miles to see a movie.

Attitudes

The attitudes around here are not very good. One could say that the attitudes here are sucky/piss poor, and that would be correct.

These days, I go to get Zoe from school, and no matter what time I get there, it is always the wrong time. Too early, too late, too soon, and the best one? "Go get Aidan first!" I can't get her to tell me nicely that she wants to stay longer, which is actually ok with me. We can sit around, I watch her play, I chat with her teachers. She inevitably ends in tears, screaming, kicking. Then I have to do my pick-you-up-like-a-football maneuver to go to the car.

When we get home, and it is time to do some homework, Aidan sighs, complains, whines, about how much homework he has, how long it all takes. I can deal with the fact that he is having troubles with compound words, but I cannot tolerate the whining about doing work. He then gets timed out, there is much gnashing of teeth, then he still has to do his work...

Clearly though, I have been tolerating too much, or else they wouldn't be doing this, or would they?

This morning, a very sweet patient came to see me and told me about how she couldn't convince her boy to hold up a sign for her to take a picture of him. I was laughing inside, because if only she knew I have this picture:


The answer to the question of why my kids do the things that they do, the whining, complaining, sucky attitudes, well, I think they get it from me. I whine, complain, and my attitudes suck!

Thankfully, God is always correcting me gently, with His loving kindness. I get to try again tomorrow!

BTW, looking at this picture makes me laugh. I do remember though, how frustrated Aidan was, that he had to hold this sign AND smile, how frustrated we were that we couldn't convince him to do it, how we couldn't stop Zoe from eating her sign. I think we did give it to my FIL in the end. Best birthday present, ever, right?