Some Birthday Present

Joah turned 30 on Tuesday. On Thursday morning he woke up stiff and sore from sleeping wrong. I guess getting old comes like a thief in the night.
Wednesday night, we celebrated his birthday by going to the new Rave Theater to see Quantum of Solace (the new James Bond movie, which was pretty good according to me who has never seen a Bond movie before). As we came out of the theater through the unlit overflow parking lot, discussing the movie and anticipating waking Jack from his slumber at my parents' house, we approached the car, which looked a little funny. "Oh no," Joah said, realizing the problem before I did. "We have two flat tires."
Sure enough, both tires on the driver's side were totally deflated, causing the whole car to lean to the left. We have a spare, but that doesn't help two tires, so we called my dad, who was thankfully still awake, to go and get the fix-a-flat spray from Joah's truck and bring it to us at the theater. Meanwhile, Joah started changing the back tire for the spare as we wondered aloud what we might have run over on our way to the movies.
Realizing that Raley's might have fix-a-flat, we called my dad to tell him not to come all the way out because we were going to try to make it to Raley's before they closed at 11:00. We hustled across the empty parking lot and across the street to Raley's where we made it by 10:58, just before they locked the doors, and did find what we were looking for. We made our purchase and headed back to the car, slipping on some mud in the dark, almost falling, but not quite.
Joah attached the fix-a-flat bottle to the remaining flat tire and started spraying... and we began to hear a constant hisssss. I pulled out my cell phone, opened it up, and shined its light on the tire. There it was. A lovely slash. We inspected the other tire, and sure enough: another slash, longer than the first. Someone had slashed our tires. Ours. Out of the whole parking lot of cars. No one else was standing around with cars leaning to the side.
We have no McCain/Palin stickers, we have no Christian fish. We did not cut anyone off on the road before the movies. There was no rhyme or reason to the slashing.
The next day being Thanksgiving, we did not want to leave the car anywhere for two days, so Joah called a tow truck (thankfully covered by our insurance) to tow the car to our house, and my dad came to take me back to their house where I took Jack home in their Expedition.
The tow truck did not arrive to pick up Joah and the car until 1 AM, so we were both glad that the next day was a holiday.
Joah joined the throngs of shoppers on Friday morning, searching not for deals on Christmas gifts, but on a set of tires, which must be replaced in groups of four, lest the all-wheel-drive vehicle be ruined. The man at the tire store told Joah that another man had recently come in with all four tires slashed, also at the Streets of Brentwood shopping center.
Lesson to be Learned: Don't park in an unlit parking lot, especially at the Streets of Brentwood. Or else become Amish so you drive a horse and buggy with wooden wheels that cannot be slashed.

Raking the Gravel

I recently looked out my front windows and found, to my interest and wonder, two strange horses, feasting on my front lawn. What do you do with horses who have no saddle, no bridle, no lead rope, and no apparent owner? You hop on bareback and ride into the sunset, of course! Just kidding. You call your landlady and she calls your back neighbors, whose horses they are.
What a surprise--horses on the front lawn!

Jack's favorite activity lately is to drag or push anything with a stick attached. My mop, my broom, Joah's rake, Joah's shovel, on carpet, on linoleum, on cement, on asphalt, on gravel, on dirt, on grass, he pushes, he pulls, he drags, he drops, he picks up again.
And here is one of our rare attempts at self-feeding with a utensil. We try it every once in a while to see how motor coordination is moving along. Most of the time, Jack helps mom or dad with the spoon. Somehow the face gets a little less messy that way!

Joah's brother Jeremy and his fiance Julie came to visit last week. It was great to see Jeremy again, and so fun to meet Julie! Their wedding is in North Carolina in January. Joah is the best man and Jack is ring bearer. I, thankfully, am nothing but mom, wife, and sister-in-law to key players, and helper-where-need-be.

What a cute couple! Julie's first trip to Cali... This was on the way to the airport to drop them off...

...and Joah and I got to stop for clam chowder in a bread bowl for lunch at Pier 39 on the way home! (Jack was home with Grandma! Thanks, Mom!)

Don't Read This if you Tivoed ER

I repeat, DON'T READ THIS IF YOU TIVOED ER!
They brought back Mark Green. And Carrie (What was her last name?). And Bulldog Romano. And Jerry.
I got a little teary when Dr. Green first came on. (What ER fan didn't sob when he died?) And Carter is supposedly coming back this season. I feel like these are long-time friends and tonight's reunion was a wonderful breath of fresh air!
And are Abbie and Luca living near Doug and Carol Ross in Seattle? Are they now friends and do they all work at the same hospital?

Is there any other show in history that has completely recycled its entire cast (save for one lone, long-standing nurse)?
If you have never seen ER, I cannot say you really should rent the DVDs and watch all of the seasons (fifteen seasons would be quite a lot of TV time) like I would tell you with The Office or LOST, but I will say that you have missed out on a truly good show.
What will I do with my 10:00 hour on Thursday nights when ER is over? It has been a fifteen year (maybe fourteen year--I think I was too young for the first season) standing date that I will miss. I hope it ends well.