My Free-Range Family

A Yoda Shirt It Is

2012-05-03T18:28:00.000-07:00

I know I still need to update about our move...and I will...but I've been busy tie-dying things. My project for last night and this morning was a Yoda shirt for Elias. Well, one for Oliver, too, but his didn't turn out as well.

It didn't come out exactly as I wanted it to, but it's close enough. Here's a tutorial in case you want to try it yourself. (Hint: This also works great with Mickey heads!)

Supplies

T-shirt(s)
Dye and any necessary chemicals (I got mine from Dharma Trading Company)
Computer and printer or an ability to draw shapes
Pencil
Dental floss
Sewing needle
Rubber bands
Squirt bottles, and a small funnel helps
Newspaper
Paper towels
Latex gloves (or similar)
Cookie sheet and cooling rack (optional)
Saran Wrap
Measuring cups and stuff, if necessary for dying chemicals

Procedure

Start by washing and drying your shirts.

While you're doing that, go online and find the shape you want on your shirt, or draw it if you desire. Remember that it will be a silhouette, so the interior details don't matter. You also want to make sure it's something that will be recognizable from just the outline. I chose these Yoda-heads because they were the most symmetrical ones I could find. Resize as necessary based on the size of your shirt.

When your shirts are dry, decide where you want your images and trace the shape onto them with a pencil.

Next, thread some dental floss onto your needle and make a loose running stitch all around your outline. I think my stitches were about 1/4" apart.

Once you've done that, it's time to pull the dental floss tight so you get a little poof.

Next you want to place a rubber band tightly around the dental floss. Try to get this as exact as possible. In this case, you can see the little Yoda ears popping out. Ideally, your whole image will be on the inside of the rubber band, and the rest of the shirt will be on the outside.

Now it's time to soak your shirts in soda ash, if your dye calls for it.

While your shirts are bathing, prepare your dye and set up whatever surface you're going to be using. I planned on doing it outside, but it was raining. So I lined some cookie sheets with newspaper and set cooling racks on top of them. This worked out perfectly.

When your shirts are done soaking, take them out and form them into a big spiral with the Yoda head in the middle. This is actually a very important step, and the one that's hardest to photograph when you're by yourself. If you don't know how to do it, there are a bazillion videos on YouTube. Just search for "tie dye spiral." Important: Make sure, after you have rubber banded everything, that your Yoda head sticks up out of the middle.

Time for dye!

Hold the shirt upside down and very carefully saturate the Yoda head in your chosen Yoda color. Get the entire Yoda head, but nothing more than the Yoda head.

Next, Take one of your spiral colors and dye half of the circle, trying not to get any dye on Yoda. Take your time and get into the little crannies.

Then, do the other half with your other color.

Lift up the shirt and wipe off your cooling rack with a paper towel. Flip the shirt over and stick Yoda between two of the slats. Repeat the dying process (minus Yoda) on the other side.

Wrap your shirts in Saran Wrap or a plastic grocery bag, and let sit. My dye directions called for letting the shirts sit for 4-24 hours.

I can wait 9 months to find out the gender of my children, but my shirts only rested for eight hours before I broke down and opened them up.

When you unwrap your shirts, rinse them in cold water until the water runs clear, then wash according to directions.

I was fairly sure early on that Oliver's shirt wouldn't turn out too well. As soon as I bunched up the dental floss I realized that Yoda's head was just too tiny and wouldn't show the definition very well. His sort of looks like a giant green eye.

With Elias's, I wish Yoda didn't have so much white space around his head. I was surprised by that because I thought I did a good job getting down into all the grooves, but maybe not.

I also wish Yoda's head had been lighter. The dye was Sage, which was much more Yoda-colored on the website when I ordered it. It wound up being much darker in person.

But Elias likes his shirt, and Oliver's too young to care, so it's all good.

The End of an Era

2012-03-15T08:10:00.000-07:00

Last we left off, I think we had just decided to put our house on the market. We were hoping to avoid a short sale but had pretty much resigned ourselves to a long, drawn out process and the fact that a short sale couldn't be avoided. We were sort of looking forward to living rent-free for a few months.

That's why we were shocked two weeks later when my agent/friend called to say, "I regret to inform you that we got you full asking price for your house." Now, full asking price still means that we walk away with absolutely nothing. In fact, we have to pay a couple thousand out-of-pocket to cover fees and whatnot. Our down payment and everything we've put into this house are gone, but our credit is in tact, so I suppose that's something.

Suddenly we found ourselves in a rush of paperwork and a scramble to figure out where we were going to live. Would we stay around here for the next year, or would Steve pull the plug and retire early, meaning we could head out to Illinois or wherever the hell we're eventually going?

At first things didn't look promising. There weren't a lot of rental houses in our immediate area within our price range, and those that existed were kind of scuzzy. We wound up increasing our radius, though, and found a very nice little house on an extremely quiet cul-de-sac in Laguna Hills. The landlord was pleased with our great credit, and we're moving in...tomorrow!

We have a lot of emotions--mainly sadness--about leaving this house, which I'll probably leave for a separate post later on, when I feel like thinking about it. Right now we're pretty much in denial.

Must get back to packing...

An Infamous Date

2012-02-19T11:47:00.000-08:00

Anyone moderately familiar with American history knows that Franklin Roosevelt, in announcing war with Japan, described December 7, 1941, as "a date which will live in infamy." People are less familiar with another infamous date, also related to Roosevelt and Japan, and the subject of our most recent camping trip.

Seventy years ago today, February 19, 1942, just two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which authorized the government to remove residents and citizens of Japanese descent from their homes on the west coast and imprison them indefinitely in internment camps. Ostensibly this was done to "protect" them from prejudice and retaliation, but in reality, this WAS prejudice and retaliation.

More than 100,000 residents, two-thirds of whom were citizens born in this country, were given mere days (if that) to sell their homes, businesses, and belongings, and to pack two suitcases to take with them to...somewhere. They were then placed in hastily and inadequately built camps as close as Southern California and as far as Arkansas. Due process was thrown out the window.

I had always been interested in the internment camps, and a couple months ago, after studying about Pearl Harbor, I introduced the topic to Elias. It's a hard subject to explain to a kid, but I had a couple children's books on the camps, which made it as approachable as possible for a 7-year-old.

A couple weeks later, when deciding where we should go on our next camping trip (Oliver's first!) I decided we should visit Manzanar, site of one of the internment camps, located in Middle of Nowhere, California.

We hadn't yet visited such a somber location as a family, but I felt it was important to see, especially while Elias was so interested.

So last weekend, we packed up and drove the five hours to Lone Pine, just a few miles from Manzanar. The drive was long and took us through landscape that can only be described as desolate. It was easy to imagine the bewilderment of Japanese-Americans trying to make sense of where they were being sent after having been forcibly removed from their homes.

Today, not much remains of Manzanar, yet it was an enriching, if sobering, experience. Manzanar is now designated as a national park. An auditorium built toward the end of the internment period now houses a modern, interactive, and informative museum. You can follow a driving tour of the grounds. A few structures remain, and some others (a guard tower and a couple barracks) have been recreated, but most of the former buildings' locations are marked with just a plaque. The government plans to eventually recreate more of the camp, but for now, it consists largely of overgrown brush. An obelisk in the cemetery area stands in honor of those who died in the camps.

If you live in or are visiting Southern California, Manzanar is definitely worth a trip. It's history that more people should know, and that we should never forget.

Here are some photos from our visit.

Site of the ironically-named camp newspaper:

Home plate:

Anna and Elias in a reconstructed barrack:

Moving On...Again?

2012-02-15T19:02:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been a while. (Seems like I start every post that way now!)

If we're friends on Facebook, you might have seen that a couple weeks ago I alluded to big news, so here it is:

We're selling the house again. Hopefully. Again.

As you may recall, things didn't go so well last time. Perhaps I really should have taken the freak-summer-in-Southern-California-thunderstorm-while-signing-listing-documents as an omen. We kept lowering the price, but eventually it got to the point that we weren't going to be able to sell it for what we wanted.

So, what has changed? Can we sell it for what we want now? Hahahahahahaha! No! But we have determined that if we sell now, we might be able to avoid a short sale.

See, our most recent plan was for Steve to retire around this time next year, at which point we would rent this place out and move somewhere else, likely Illinois. Then I was talking with a friend of mine who is very up on the real estate market and other financial stuff, and he said that unless we were making money on the house, it wouldn't be worth it. I said that we would probably lose money, but we would have additional tax write-offs and whatnot. He said it would take so long to get back to the point we want (basically, what we paid for it), that we would be crazy to hold onto it. He said we'd be hemorrhaging money to save what's already lost. That's when I had my a-ha moment and realized he was right.

The market also isn't showing signs of recovering at all here, so, as I said, selling now means we might avoid a short sale. Waiting a year almost guarantees we won't.

The house has been on the market for a week now, and we have had a lot of traffic and positive comments. If we sell for the asking price, we will just about exactly break even after commission. Our down payment and all we've put into the house will be gone, but at least we won't continue to lose money on it.

If we don't get our asking price, then we're looking at a short sale that could drag out for months.

Our next step is still up in the air, and depends a lot on how soon the house sells. We might rent a place around here until Steve is ready to retire, or Steve might become ready to retire sooner than he planned. In any case, we will likely be gone from Southern California by or around this time next year. It likely will not involve full-time RVing, but might involve some significant part-timing, depending on how things go. Of course, things rarely go as we plan, so who knows.

In other news, we took Oliver out for his first camping trip in the Jupiter Too last weekend. I'm going to work on a write-up of that in the next couple days.

It's a boy!

2011-10-15T11:10:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't updated for a while.

We did take another trip since the last time I posted--to Visalia/Sequoia and Valencia. I meant to post about it, but since I haven't yet, I probably won't. You can read about my fear of plunging off a cliff in Sequoia in my post at Carseatblog.com, though.

We also took a trip (by plane) to Illinois in August, but the rest of our time was spent waiting for the new baby to arrive.

I'm pleased to announce that baby Oliver made his appearance on September 21. He was born (as planned) in a pool in our back yard, surrounded by flora and fauna. Hey, maybe he'll be an outdoorsy type!

So far (knocking on a huge chunk of wood) he is a very easy-going baby. He rarely cries, and although he wakes up a few times a night to eat, he falls right back asleep. Elias and Anna adore him, too.

We don't have any trips planned for now, but when we do, Oliver will be ready with his vintage-trailer blankie (pictured above).

Another Madonna

2011-06-05T20:36:00.000-07:00

Steve is on a little adventure without us or the Jupiter Too right now. He's in Arizona helping with media relations for the big wildfire they have out there.

His trip does tie in with our blog, though.

Last night, before Steve left, I jokingly asked him if he wanted to take my "WPA Guide to 1930s Arizona" with him. It's a book I originally read for my aforementioned American Highway course in college, but which I've held onto and which has inexplicably been sitting on a counter in our living room for the past several months.

See, during the Depression the WPA commissioned travel guides for various states, and some of them have been reprinted. It's neat to read about what places (especially sparsely populated places) were like back then. Or at least it is for me, because I'm a huge nerd.

Steve declined to take the book, but I did look up the city he was going to--Springerville--in the index. Sure enough, there was a write-up.

At the time, the population was under 600. (I'm not sure what it is today.) Most of the write-up was about a guy who caught some horse thieves, but when I got to the last paragraph I squealed with delight: Springerville is the location of one of the Madonnas of the Trail statues!

Steve said he'd be sure to go by, and he took the above photo on the way to his briefing this afternoon. I'm a little sad I can't see it myself, but given the circumstances it's probably for the best.

Stuck in the Sand

2011-05-29T16:46:00.000-07:00

Last week we took the Jupiter Too up to Solvang, the quaint little Scandinavian town on California's central coast.

Other than eating pancakes (very, very good pancakes) and looking at European kitsch, there's not a whole lot to do there, so we also spent some time exploring nearby areas.

One afternoon we found ourselves at Pismo Beach, the only beach in California where you can drive on the sand. I didn't really get the appeal: Why would we want to drive on the sand? Moreover, why would one want to be on a beach where others were driving on the sand? But Steve wanted to try it out just to say he did it, so I went along for the ride, so to speak.

It actually was kind of neat. It was also unbelievably windy.

We drove near the waterline on the wettish, compact sand until we got to the end of the vehicle area. At that point we got out and snapped a photo.

About 30 seconds after Steve took that photo, the wind ripped that frisbee-like thing out of Elias's hands (or so he claims). It spun like a wheel on that yellow outer rim and rolled away past the "No Vehicles Permitted" sign. We told Elias sorry, it's gone. But he started crying, which is unusual for him. Luckily the frisbee-thing then lodged itself against a fence just outside the vehicle area, so Steve said he'd go get it.

Since we had to get back in the truck anyway and because it was so windy, we drove the 200 or so feet over to the fence rather than walking. Steve retrieved the toy then got back in and...discovered we were stuck.

I told him to put it in reverse because I know in snow you're supposed to rock back and forth. But snow tends to compact whereas sand tends to bury you deeper, plus the truck wasn't moving in any direction. Steve got out and discovered the sand was up to the running boards, thanks in part to the powderiness of being farther from the water and in part from the wind blowing so much of it against the tires just in the short time we were stopped.

Steve got out to contemplate our situation while I googled "vehicle stuck in sand." About then, a guy in a red pickup truck came driving up and started talking to Steve. The guy--who turned out to be a firefighter, too--told Steve the same thing I had just discovered in an eHow article: We needed to let air out of the tires.

So Steve let air out of our two front tires and the guy hitched us up to his truck. A minute later and we were back on the compact sand, and we had learned a valuable lesson.

Now that we know how we're supposed to drive on sand, we might even go back sometime...with the trailer! (They allow camping on the beach, too.)

As for the other stuff we did:

I found an absolutely awesome playground not far from the touristy section of Solvang. It had amazing wooden play structures, misting stations (though it was too cool to need them), swings, slides, a pristine baseball diamond, etc.

In Arroyo Grande (about an hour from Solvang) we went to a great ice cream place called Doc Burnstein's. They had some really neat flavors, like a coffee ice cream with ground-up espresso beans, Birthday Cake (Anna had that--and it did taste exactly like birthday cake), Merlot, and the one I liked most: Marzipan!

Also, while our truck might have been stuck in the sand, at least our heads weren't! Yeah, that's a really lame segue into the other highlight of our trip: feeding ostriches and emus at an ostrich farm.

Here's video of Steve feeding the ostriches. (The kids each fed the emus instead, because they were a little more tame. The emus, that is, not the kids.)

Our campground was really nice, too. Lots and lots of grass for the kids to play in.

The only downside is that it was so windy we couldn't have a campfire any of the nights we were there, which meant no s'mores and no pie-iron pies (more on that another time).

Lost in Space

2011-05-01T21:33:00.000-07:00

Once we bought the new trailer, we were itching to take it out, especially with summer (and all of its heat and crowds) fast approaching.

So a week later, we found ourselves on our first trip.

Before I go into details, though, I want to announce that the Airstream officially has its name: Jupiter Too.

See, we somehow got Elias turned on to the old campy show "Lost in Space." The family lived on a spaceship called the Jupiter 2, and I thought that since the Airstream has a space-age, retro look to it, we could play off of that. I suggested Jupiter 3, but when Steve suggested Jupiter Too, I knew we had a winner.

But back to the trip.

Since we didn't have much time to prepare, we kept it local, going to a nearby state beach. There were no hookups, so we had to be careful about battery and water usage. We wound up using the showers at the campground, in part because of our limited water supply (and whopping six-gallon water heater) and in part because we discovered the trailer didn't come with a shower head.

The kids enjoyed the beach. Well--Elias enjoyed the beach. Anna seemed perplexed by the whole thing. She refused to sit in the sand and it took her a long time to even play in it.

At first I thought she had inherited my aversion to sand, but then I realized it was my aversion to sand that had kept her from ever experiencing a sandbox (yes, I'm a terrible mom), and therefore she had no idea what the stuff was.

Elias, on the other hand, had no such issues.

So while Elias rolled in the surf Anna found happiness lounging in a chair, and I can't say I blame her.

We grilled hot dogs and made s'mores. Elias befriended every kid in the park. We gathered 'round the table and played games by the glow of some really bitchin' overhead LED lights. It was a lot of fun, despite the freight trains that roared by several times a night.

We enjoyed it so much that we have two more trips planned (to different campgrounds) over the next few weeks. We're even hoping to squeeze in a few trips over the summer, and Steve is already planning how soon we can get out there once the new baby is born.

Before I go, one parting photo of my kidlets, snug in their jammies looking out into the wilderness. (Well, not quite wilderness, but some grass at least.)

Good-Bye, Homer; Hello, Unnamed Trailer

2011-04-22T21:17:00.000-07:00

In my last post I alluded to us buying something in addition to a birdhouse for Steve's birthday.

That thing was an Airstream.

We had Homer on the market for a couple months without any bites except for a couple in Huntington Beach who decided not to look at it, and a guy in Garden Grove who wanted to trade us for a mobile home.

Homer wasn't getting any younger and was only losing value, so we decided to trade him in for something smaller that we could actually USE. We took a bit of a hit on the deal, of course, but I think it will ultimately be worth it.

And although I'm sad to see Homer go, my anxiety surrounding him has gone, too.

Obviously we won't be full-timing in the yet-to-be-named Airstream. If/when we do decide to full-time in a couple years we'll either trade it in or go park it somewhere and get something else in the meantime. I really have no idea.

But for now, we're planning our first camping trip for next month, and I truly can't wait!

Here are some photos. I only had my phone with me, so the quality isn't great.

The dinette, which converts into a bed:

The couch, which also converts into a bed:

Most of the kitchen:

The bathroom door, which I think is just SO cool-looking:

And part of the bedroom. It was really hard to get a photo in here:

Finally, one of the brake lights on the outside, just because I like the shape:

Happy Birthday to Steve

2011-04-17T17:06:00.000-07:00

It's Steve's birthday, so for his present I got him an Airstream...

...birdhouse

I found it from a seller on etsy.

Maybe the birds who had bad luck with the nest in our patio cover will rebuild in the Airstream.

Steve and I also bought something else today, but that will wait for another post.

The Nest

2011-04-05T11:51:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, some house finches started flying around under our patio cover. It soon became evident they were building a nest in there. I thought it was a bad idea, because rather than putting the nest in the structural support, they built it on top of some folds of fabric on the sides. A few brisk breezes and the nest would be history.

I thought about scaring them off to save them the trouble, but then I decided that birds build nests in seemingly precarious places all the time and do just fine. So I figured they must know what they're doing.

Over the past couple days I hadn't noticed the birds around, and the nest had shifted to the point that it was close to falling down. The birds had abandoned the nest.

It struck me as very sad that they had spent all this time and effort building a new home, getting ready to move in, only to have their plans thwarted.

Then I noticed the parallels and got even more depressed about it. Apparently we attract other species who also aren't very good at planning for this sort of thing.

Big News, Big Changes

2011-04-01T09:52:00.000-07:00

I realize it has been a couple months since I updated this. I haven't been intentionally neglecting things, it's just that we're in a huge state of limbo and it has been hard to know what or when to update things.

We do have a few pieces of big news, one good, and one bittersweet.

First, the bittersweet. We have decided to put Homer up for sale.

At this point, it looks like full-timing--if we even do it--is another two years away. Homer is too big for short jaunts. Steve would still need his Non-Commercial Class A, plus there are only two state parks in all of California that will fit him (Homer, that is, not Steve). Right now Homer is just sitting in storage, waiting to be used.

Although it would be the perfect trailer for full-timing, it's just not practical now, and without knowing what the future holds, it doesn't make sense to keep him.

If you or your friends are interested in a ginormous but very, very cool fifth wheel in practically-brand-new condition, you can check our ad here: http://www.rvsearch.com/findrv/index.cfm/a-d/tc-36286/vid-614805/

If we can't sell him, we might trade him in for something smaller that we can use now. We'd take a big financial hit on that, but it might be better than making payments plus insurance and storage fees on something we can't even use.

We are very sad to see Homer possibly leaving our family, but we are also excited to announce that we will have a new addition coming to our family this September in the form of our third child! Believe it or not, that development actually has little bearing on the Homer situation, although it probably is better to be grounded in one place for the time being.

So, for now, we're stuck indefinitely in Southern California. Although this isn't exactly what we wanted, we realize our situation could be much worse, and we're grateful to have what we do.

I will continue to post updates about Homer. And seriously, if you know people who want a full-timing 5er, pass on the info.

Madonna of the Trail, Revisted

2010-12-20T21:11:00.000-08:00

Today we revisit the Madonna of the Trail. Not literally, of course, because it's raining like mad here, and I didn't even venture out to get the mail today, let alone drive to Upland.

But see, just this afternoon I was thinking that I should update the blog. I don't have much to report, though. Steve and I are trying to figure out what to do with our life, but we've agreed not to think about that until after Christmas. And I could mention that we entered our neighborhood in our Homeowners Association's holiday lighting contest and won for Most Energy Efficient. Neither of those makes for a great reading, though.

Then, when I sat down at the computer a few minutes ago, I found that I had an email from the great-grandson of August Leimbach, the artist who sculpted the Madonna of the Trails statues. He shared with me his website, which is an homage to his great-grandfather's life and work.

It turns out that August Leimbach had mainly done ornate architectural work and, because of that, hadn't been considered as an artist for the Madonna statues. But in just three days he had put together a model and the rest, as they say, is history.

Check it out if you're so inclined.

And because I probably won't update beforehand, I wish everyone a very Happy Solstice, Christmas, Kwaanza, Festivus, and Belated Hanukkah!

Merry Christmas to Me!

2010-12-14T11:58:00.000-08:00

I got my license on Friday! Woo hoo! I'm really glad because my California photo is really good and my Texas photo makes me look like a meth addict.

Poor Steve hasn't gotten his yet. So he still can't take his written test to get his permit so he can get his license so we can pull Homer. But what else is new?

Ho Ho Ho and DMV

2010-12-09T09:35:00.000-08:00

As promised, here is our very special Christmas decoration for this year. If we can't go camping, at least Santa can. (Sorry for the horrible photo and glaring sun.) See the cup in the chair? In-N-Out.

In other, somewhat related news (like, related to why we can't go camping), we still don't have our licenses. I called DMV yesterday and the automated system said it can take up to six weeks to process a license.

I figured the person who told us 2-3 weeks was full of it until I opened the paper today and saw the headline, "Drivers aren't getting licenses." Apparently due to a new license design, a new computer system, and general inefficiency, it has been taking longer and longer to process licenses--possibly as long as three months. At least we're not the only ones.

DMV recommends going to get a temporary license if your other one expires before the permanent one arrives. Awesome idea. There's no way I (or anyone else) should have to PAY for another one, though. Nor should people have to take time out of their lives to go to a DMV office to correct the state's problem. But whatever.

Our temps expire on January 1, so it looks like we're unlikely to have licenses before then. I still have my Texas license, so maybe I won't worry about getting another temporary. Steve's out of luck, though.

And, as usual, we'll probably stupidly go do the right thing, which WILL mean taking time out of our lives to get another temporary, and we'll probably have to pay for it, too.

Merry Christmas, DMV.

Retro Holiday Craft

2010-12-08T10:29:00.000-08:00

A woman on my car seat message board was looking for some ideas for retro ornaments she and her kids could make. I got all giddy about it, and she shared a link she found.

They looked so cute and easy that the kids and I threw some together after breakfast this morning. All you need is card stock, a ruler, scissors, and a stapler. Oh, and fishing line or something else to hang them with, which I don't have at the moment.

These will look AWESOME in an Airstream, if we ever get one...

A Not-Much-of-an-Update

2010-12-03T18:28:00.000-08:00

Remember how I said I was going to update more often than every two weeks? Sorry about that.

There's not much new to report.

Back on November 3, when we went through the new/old license issue at the DMV, we were told that we would receive our licenses in the mail in two-to-three weeks. It has now been exactly 30 days, which, for anyone not great at math, is more than two-to-three weeks.

I have considered calling to check on the status, but I would rather pour tomato juice over fresh paper cuts than call the DMV. Plus they probably wouldn't have an answer for me anyway, plus I worry that the operator I talk to will somehow sabotage the whole thing just because s/he can.

So we continue to wait. Our temporary licenses do expire sometime in January, though, so hopefully this doesn't go on too much longer.

Of course, without his real license in hand, Steve can't take the Non-Commercial Class A written test (again), at least according to the people from the Santa Ana office who might or might not be correct about that.

So Homer still sits languishing on his own. Lonely. Cold.

Meanwhile, we're still figuring out what the hell to do with our lives.

Thanksgiving went very well thanks in large part to the Pyrex casserole dish set I found at Costco for $30 and the double set of pie plates I found at Target for $10.

Oh, and CarSeatBlog.com published another one of my posts today. This one is about the CPSC's new database and whether it will solve problems or create more.

In other news, our holiday lights are up! That includes the super-special decoration we bought for this year! I got a photo of it the other day, but the light was awful, so I'll try to get another one tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Flying with Car Seats

2010-11-19T09:31:00.000-08:00

This has nothing to do with RVing, but a lot to do with traveling with kids.

If you're flying with your kids (for the holidays, perhaps?) and plan on taking a car seat onboard, you must read this post over at CarseatBlog. It talks about your rights as a passenger and tells you how to produce the information you need when the flight attendant tries to make you turn your 3-month-old forward facing or tells you you're not allowed to use a seat at all.

And why am I posting this here? Well, first, because it's important information to know.

Second, because I wrote it!

A couple months ago the folks over at CarseatBlog asked if I'd be interested in writing for them. I was honored to receive the invitation, since the people who write for that blog are among the most knowledgeable car seat people you'll ever find.

So while I was in the process of neglecting this blog, I was moonlighting for that one.

Look for posts of mine there every two weeks or so. And look for updates of this blog hopefully more often than that.

Re-Cluttering

2010-11-17T16:34:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't updated for about two weeks now--time flies!

After making so much progress in decluttering our house, we're now in a position where we need to replace stuff we had gotten rid of.

As I mentioned before, I am hosting Thanksgiving again this year, but I got rid of my pie plates, rolling pins, and most of my casserole dishes. Since we're here for a while, I figured I should buy reusable ones rather than relying on disposables. My mom is bringing out a pie plate and rolling pin, and I found a great deal on a set of Pyrex at Costco the other day.

Steve is in a bit of a panic over Christmas decorations. He's really into Christmas lights. Remember how I said I'm obsessive about Thanksgiving? That's how he is with decorating for Christmas. He's won awards for it and stuff. It's a big deal.

We did save some decorations, but we got rid of a lot. He has been bringing decorations over from the storage unit and he did discover that we had saved most of the lights. He was a bit hesitant to admit this to me since he was supposed to have sold them/given them away, but at least it's one less thing to worry about.

Earlier in this process I had been planning on getting the kids very small, lightweight gifts for Christmas. The other day I realized that I don't need to worry about that anymore, but we have gotten so deeply entrenched in this "less is more" mindset that I don't want to get big stuff, or a lot of stuff. The thought of it actually makes me kind of sick.

I'm hoping we can resist re-cluttering our lives too much during this limbo.

I will admit, though, that Steve did buy one new Christmas decoration, which I will photograph once it's up. It's very apt. Stay tuned.

OMFG, DMV!

2010-11-03T19:30:00.000-07:00

Warning: If you're looking for a quick, clear recap of events, you won't find it here. If you like wading through the intricacies of large bureaucracies, this is the post for you!

What a twisted day it has been.

We decided we'd take our chances and get licenses/partial licenses today. The plan was for me to get my Class C, and for Steve to get his Non-Commercial Class A permit (while temporarily keeping his Texas Class C in the meantime).

We figured the Laguna Hills DMV office would be our best bet. See, Laguna Hills, besides being the office closest to us, is a tiny, quaint suburb. That office is bad enough, so we couldn't even imagine how awful a bigger office would be. That's why we were surprised when each time we checked the approximate wait times online, the Santa Ana office had waits of less than half an hour. Santa Ana is Orange County's largest city, the county seat, and the kind of place you don't go to if you don't have to. But after lunch the wait times were 17 minutes, so off we went.

We filled out our forms and checked the box for "new license." Sure, our old licenses weren't due to expire for years, but we had gotten other licenses out of state in the meantime. We couldn't reinstate our old vehicle registrations, so it didn't even occur to us to apply for a replacement of our old licenses. In fact, it seems downright dishonest and would probably be considered illegal.

So when I was called up to the window and the guy asked if I'd ever had a license in California, I said that we were coming from Texas, but that yes, I used to have a California license. I gave him my old number. He pulled it up, had me do the thumb-print thingy, asked me for my $31 and said my license would arrive in 2-3 weeks.

"I don't have to take a written test?" I asked--both relieved and a little disappointed.

"Nope, your old license is still valid, so we'll just send you a replacement of the old one."

Ooooookay....

That seemed too good to be true, so I went and checked with someone else who said that since my old license wasn't expired, that's how they do it. What's weird is that they didn't take my Texas license, hole-punch it, or even look at it.

Steve, on the other hand, had a little more trouble.

First they had no idea what test to give him, because, as we have learned, people at the DMV often don't actually know what they're doing.

They finally found it and I waited with the kids in the "waiting area" (a long dark hallway) while he took it.

When I noticed him standing at the window again, I headed over to see how it went. He had a pained expression on his face, which I interpreted to mean that he failed the test. Turns out he passed (100 percent!) but there was a problem. Because he, too, had checked the "new license" rather than "replacement license" box, the clerk had created a new record for him. Only they're not supposed to do that, because everyone is only supposed to have one file.

So they got other employees and at least one supervisor involved. First they tried blaming Steve for checking the "wrong" box, but he explained his line of thinking. (If we have to start over again with the vehicles, why not the license?) Plus he had told the woman at the window that he had had a California license as recently as two months ago, but she must not have understood.

They were all a little baffled that Steve didn't pop up in the system anyway, when she entered his information, but for whatever reason he hadn't.

By this point the kids were going nuts, so I took them out to the truck for what I thought would be a quick wait.

An hour later Steve texted me that they were calling Sacramento to see if they could locate their asses.

Elias had to go to the bathroom so I went back in, only to learn that they were insisting that Steve needed to take the Commercial Class A test, which made no sense at all, especially given that numerous DMV documents clearly state what a Non-Commercial Class A is for (fifth wheels over 15,000 lbs).

A guy insisted on going out to look at the truck to see if we had air brakes. What??? Steve played along, and it was finally determined that, oh yeah, you need the Non-Commercial A.

Then it turned out that part of the problem was that in California, Steve had had a Restricted Class B Firefighter license, and the system, for whatever reason, couldn't add a Non-Commercial Class A to the Class B.

The other problem was that in Texas, Steve had just gotten a Class C since he doesn't really need the Class B, since he doesn't drive fire trucks anymore.

So Steve explained that if it was the Class B holding things up, he was willing to forgo that.

I said that the most important thing to us would be to walk out with his Texas Class C still in place, and his California Non-Commercial Class A permit.

Then I had to take the kids back to the truck, so I missed the rest of the dealings, but heard about it from Steve.

They wound up reinstating his Class B license. They also hole-punched his Texas license (making it invalid), and told him that he couldn't get his Non-Commercial Class A permit until his permanent license (as opposed to the paper temporary) arrived in the mail in 2-3 weeks. So that means that even though Steve passed the written test (with a 100 percent), which should have allowed him to get his permit, he didn't. And we also can't legally tow the trailer in California since he no longer has a valid Texas license.

So we walked out as official Californians again, but probably worse off than we were at the beginning of the day.

I'm not at all confident that any of the stuff they did was correct, nor that it won't come back to bite us in some way later.

In the meantime, it's a good thing we decided not to go on a trip over Thanksgiving because there's a good chance we still won't be able to pull Homer by then.

To think that if we had skipped the whole Texas thing we'd probably be done with this process by now...

Sigh

2010-11-02T15:17:00.000-07:00

I guess it was pretty naive of me to assume that the DMV employee knew more about DMV regulations than the AAA employees.

I did drag the kids to AAA. Four employees, a supervisor, and another call to Sacramento confirmed what we had initially been told: Because the vehicles were registered out-of-state, we do have to go through the whole process anew.

The trip was not for naught, though. The very kind (and efficient, and knowledgeable) AAA people felt very bad for me and gave me forms to fill out to request a partial refund from DMV since we have, essentially, double-paid a good portion of our registration. They said to include a detailed letter and to be prepared to wait months for a response. I'm not optimistic about what that response will be, but I do write damn good letters, so we'll see.

Also, I did find the verbiage on our Texas registration that shows we did not transfer title. So the AAA woman was able to take that, do the VIN inspection, complete our application, and issue our new California registration and license plates for the Pilot.

In all the confusion I forgot to ask how I go about actually canceling (again) our old California registration--or if I even need to now that there's a new one associated with that VIN number--but that's a battle for next week. I'm taking the rest of this week off.

And the Cluster$*%^# begins again...

2010-11-02T10:34:00.000-07:00

When I got the mail yesterday afternoon, I was amazed to find two letters from the California DMV. We had only registered our vehicles on Saturday at 4:00. How could they have mailed us something pertaining to it by Monday?

Turns out, it wasn't regarding our new registrations. Instead, they were Notices of Intent to Suspend (our prior registrations) because of a lack of insurance.

See, the DMV would have received notice when we canceled our previous California insurance, which we did after we secured insurance in Texas.

However, they also should have received the form I sent in, within 10 days, as required, notifying them that our vehicles were insured in another state.

So I took on the always exciting task of calling the California DMV. After wading through the automated menu I was able to zero-out to get to a representative, all of whom were busy. One thing I can give DMV credit for, though, is having a system that will let you enter your phone number to get called back rather than waiting on hold. I was able to take a shower while waiting for a call back.

The conversation I had with the representative was pretty interesting.

She confirmed that the registration on the Dodge had, in fact, been canceled, so we could disregard that issue.

Then she said that our Honda registration was still valid.

So I explained the whole situation to her--about registering in Texas and now needing to re-register here--and asked if, since our previous registration was still valid and paid up through July, it was possible to just reinstate it...or whatever the right term would be since apparently it was never UNinstated.

She seemed confused for a while, and it turns out that's because she showed that we had already paid for the new registration, which has not yet been issued pending that letter from Texas about the title.

Then she went to talk to her supervisor. She came back and said that, yes, the whole transaction should have cost $6, not the $300 or so (plus smog check) that we have paid to re-register the Pilot. She also said that if our Texas registration said on it "Non-Negotiable" or something similar, we should not need a letter about the title, either.

She suggested we call AAA to see if they had submitted the paperwork yet. If not, they should be able to reverse it. If they have, there's some way to apply for a refund, apparently.

So now I'm debating whether it's worth $294 to deal with dragging the kids back to AAA or standing in line at the DMV. It probably isn't, but it's the principle involved...

It's a Wonderful Life

2010-11-01T09:22:00.000-07:00

I never visited Soviet Russia, but I imagine it looked a lot like the California DMV.

Many years ago, my local DMV office in Laguna Hills, California, was a lovely place. It had blue carpeting, counters made of wood (or some other dark substance), low lighting, comfortable chairs, and friendly people. On the few occasions I was there, I never experienced more than a 10-minute wait. It resembled a Starbucks more than a government office.

Then something happened. At some point the office was remodeled and transformed into the height of bureaucratic institutionalism.

Now there are white floors, white walls, and glaring fluorescent lights. There are rows of chairs cordoned off into what resembles a holding cell. The line to check in extends out the door, and once you check in, you are tersely given a number and sent to the holding cell. Last year when I had to renew my license in person, we walked in and Elias immediately whimpered, "I don't like this place." It does give off a truly cold, unsettling vibe.

Our experience in Texas was much different. Before we left on our trip I had to call a few times with questions. The folks at the Polk County Tax Assessor's Office and the Department of Public Safety answered both the phone and my questions in a timely manner. When we got there, we saw that the Tax Assessor's Office looked like something out of Bedford Falls. I half expected to see Jimmy Stewart manning the phone. The people were helpful and, best of all, accessible.

Even so, I was concerned about my task for today: calling to get a letter stating that we never had the title to our Pilot issued in Texas. It seemed like a slightly unusual request, plus it's always harder to prove a negative. But I figured I needed to call and get the ball rolling.

So I called the Tax Assessor's Office where we had registered our cars. The woman who answered transfered me to the vehicle registration department (which was probably the woman sitting right next to her), and I explained the situation. She asked for our license plate number, our names, and an address. Then she said, "Ok, I'll try to get that letter in the mail to you today."

Wow.

Needless to say, we will miss that kind of efficiency.

I just tried making an appointment to get my license here in California, since you're supposed to get your license within 10 days of becoming a resident. The first available time slot is December 7.

California, Here We Are

2010-10-30T19:16:00.000-07:00

We have officially started the process of becoming Californians again.

It has been an expensive, though so far relatively headache-free, process.

Although our vehicles were previously registered here well into next year, we had to start the process over (and pay the associated fees) as though they never had been. We figured that would be the case, but it was still a bummer to have it confirmed.

We had to get California insurance again, and because of the two months we were insured in Texas, we lost our California "continuous insurance" discount. We had to pay the difference in sales tax on Homer. We had to get smog tests for the car and truck. We had to tow Homer over to the AAA office so the insurance people could take photos and so they could do a VIN identification for the DMV.

(By the way, we have been able to take care of all the registration at the AAA office. They are so much nicer and more efficient than the DMV people. They also had a toddler-sized picnic table set up by the desk, and an employee brought over coloring books and crayons for the kids.)

We can't register the Pilot yet because we have to get a letter from Texas stating that they never issued a title there. (They were huge sticklers about us registering our cars, but they couldn't have cared less about the title: They specifically gave us the option of changing the title or not.) Hopefully we can get that faxed over on Monday.

There is still the issue of the licenses, which we have to do at the DMV. We're going to get our Class C's for now, and then Steve will start the process of getting his Class A. Unlike in Texas, we actually have to take a written test here. I took five practice tests online and only missed three questions, so hopefully I'll be ok. I'm sure Steve will be.

The thing that sucks most is that we're not going to be able to vote in this election. Based on the amount of campaign literature we've been receiving, we're still on the books in California, but we're technically registered to vote in Texas. (We figured we were doing our civic duty.) We could probably walk into our polling place and vote and no one would know the difference, but we're not really keen on committing voter fraud, so we'll sit this one out.

I don't know the total cost of everything we paid to register in Texas, plus the additional cost of re-registering here. I could total it up, but I'm not going to. I figure we'll chalk it up as part of the experience.

Incidentally, there was a young couple next to us at the DMV desk at AAA today. The husband was in the military and newly stationed here. They thought they needed to establish residency here and register their vehicles and everything. That would include paying the difference in sales tax on the car they paid 3% on in Virginia (so they'd be paying another 6% or so). The AAA people explained that because they're military, they didn't need to register here. The couple seemed hesitant and kept talking it over. The AAA people, while not overtly telling them not to change their residency, were subtly begging them not to do it. Steve and I kept whispering under our breath, "Don't do it, don't do it!" They left, still Virginians, to go home and think about it.

Although it feels strangely reassuring to become Californians again, the extra taxes and fees are among the main reasons we're still looking forward to leaving.

Thanksgiving

2010-10-28T22:15:00.000-07:00

To say I love Thanksgiving would be an understatement. To say I'm obsessive about Thanksgiving would also be a bit of an understatement. To say I'm a control freak about Thanksgiving would be...well, you get the idea.

The holiday has always played a central role in my life: I was born on Thanksgiving day. As a kid, I thought it was awesome that my birthday was always on/around the holiday, and it didn't hurt that I got to gorge myself on turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and birthday pumpkin pie (who needs cake?).

That's not to say that all of my Thanksgivings were great.

There was the year we had dinner with my mom's friend, who had disliked me since I was a child and made passive-aggressive remarks to and about me the whole night.

There was the time that my mom and I had dinner with some friends of hers and their college-age daughter. We would later find out that the couple was getting a divorce, which explained why (with the exception of a few pleasantries exchanged between the daughter and us) no one spoke during the entire meal. They also sent us away without leftovers.

There was the time, when I was about 8, that my parents were both working around the clock on different projects: my mom on her Master's dissertation, and my dad on a series of articles that would later win him a Pulitzer.

That year, Thanksgiving was just another day at the office. I spent the afternoon playing with my new birthday presents and the Billy Joel album I had received a day or two before. As the sun started to set, I began to wonder when we would eat and why no one was in the kitchen cooking.

When I inquired, it became obvious that my parents had either lost track of time or forgot it was Thanksgiving all together. By then, of course, it was too late to make a turkey (if we even had one), and all the restaurants were either closed or booked.

We had pancakes.

These experiences (especially the pancake dinner) are what drove me toward my current obsession. When I grew up and moved out on my own, I decided to reclaim the holiday. If I were in charge, I'd know it would be right. I could make sure I had all my favorite foods, done correctly. (Stuffing with sausage? No.) I could make sure everyone went home with leftovers. I would ensure there would be no pancakes.

So for the past 10 years or so, I have compiled recipes that I file in my Thanksgiving binder, which represents, by far, the height of my organizational skills. Around September I start planning recipes and decorations. By the beginning of November I start working on my schedule for Thanksgiving Week. I spend two or three days cooking a meal that lasts 40 minutes. And then, the day after Thanksgiving, I vow that I'm taking the next year off, although I never do.

Until now?

It looked like this year would end my streak. We were going to be living in the trailer by now, and it would be hard to cook a feast for a dozen people, even if they wanted to make the long drive out to the middle of nowhere.

We considered taking Homer to the beach, but he's too big. So then we decided to go to Solvang, just us and the kids. We'd make a small turkey breast and some sides.

But then Homer had his hitch issues, and we've been going back and forth about everything, and now it's probably too late to make reservations, plus I'm having minor panic attacks about Thanksgiving not being "right."

My dad offered to host at his house, but his oven is too small to make a proper turkey. He offered to take us to a restaurant, but that feels sacrilegious.

So, I made the only logical choice: I'll host and cook as usual.

I'll need to restock my kitchen supplies, of course. I have no pie plates, rolling pin, or casserole dishes. I'm not sure I have a roasting pan. But I will overcome. Nothing will come between me and a perfect Thanksgiving feast.