Ben the Bruce

"The day will be Friday. The month will be October." This is what Ben told me in August, the last time he spent the night here, about when his next overnight would be. He's very calendar conscious; no way we'll be able to tell him he'll be five tomorrow and put him on a plane next week! So accordingly, I picked him up at daycare on Friday, and we came here. I'd suggested getting a pumpkin and making a jack o'lantern, but he didn't want to stop on the way (I suspect he had to go to the bathroom, which he did as soon as we arrived.) Just as well, because the pumpkin places (farms) on the way didn't have much to offer.

Anyway, we had a fine time. I was going to make grilled cheese for him for dinner and something else for us, but he wanted pizza, and Charlie certainly was not going to say no to that (I myself had grilled cheese). I made a large pizza for Charlie and about a 7-inch one for Ben. He didn't want mushrooms; both of them wanted pepperoni, which I happened to have. Ben ate every bite of his pizza except for one tiny sliver he graciously gave to Charlie, just so Charlie could taste it (it had a much thinner crust, something I've been working on). While I cooked, Ben played with a bunch of little people and furniture I bought for Julia in Fargo. He talks on and on, making up long dialogues and songs as he plays.

After dinner Ben was ready for a bath. We have a toy here he loves (left over from Julia). It's a little whale with a small fish in its mouth. When you pull the small fish out on an elastic spring-loaded cord (and the thing's in the water), the whale comes after the fish and eats it. It's quite marvelous. He must have played with it for half an hour, again talking and singing. It was hard for me to convince him that it was time to wash up and get out of the tub, but there was no fuss about it. Then after a few stories (including "Cotton Cat and Martha Mouse," a favorite of Marty's, Julia's and now Ben's, a gift from Dan years ago), I tucked him in, telling him he could read as long as he liked. It was about 8:30 by this time. Charlie headed up soon after that, and Ben told him, "I'm not going to bed now." He came down for a little while (it was a little early for him, I think), and we both went up at 9. I'm sure both Charlie and I were asleep before he was, but he stayed in bed. He's really quite easy to deal with. As I was drifting off, I heard him say, "Cotton Cat and Martha Mouse . . . ."

Oh, and when we first arrived in SV, Charlie was outside and had left the TV on. Ben immediately turned it off, not wanting to "waste lightricity."

In the morning he woke up at about six-thirty, telling me that sometimes the sun just doesn't come up. We went downstairs and I made him French toast (the day before I'd made a loaf of sandwich bread; we've been on a homemade pita kick, but that won't make grilled cheese or French toast). These things quickly become ritual. With Julia it was Ted's pancakes. Then Ben found a tiny hammer in his tool kit (tool box is a Dean & Delucca thing from Chris & Kay some years ago; hammer was from the peppermint pig Suzy sent one Christmas -- nothing is wasted) and wanted some nails to pound. Charlie got him out a block of wood, started some nails, found him a more effective hammer, and Ben amused himself for quite some time "bamming nails:"

We did a few other things, including watching a few cartoons on Noggin, Ben's favorite TV station, and then he wanted to know what Charlie was up to. I suited him up, assuming he'd come right back in. It was cold! After a while I checked, and they were down in the garden, Ben having hitched a ride in the wagon of the garden tractor. They were bringing up the juice bottles that we attach to spikes for watering plants in the garden:



And then Charlie took him to the ALLIC! We found all kinds of neat stuff (most of which I'd never seen): some tinkertoy kind of things (not the ones Julia played with -- these have curved plastic pieces and rubber balls as well as the normal shapes), a U.S. map puzzle for the near future (I've bought him a US map placemat, and we did some identifications of places on that at dinner and breakfast), and some other things. Ben was most pleased with a metal job that has a little handle, and when one twirls it, it makes a god-awful noise. A halloween thing (Suzy you may remember these). We let him take this home, though Marty said that there would have to be rules about it. Anyway, when we were coming down the stairs, Ben said, "My favorite place in this house is the Allic!!!!!" It is indeed a treasure trove. Julia probably remembers it as such, too. Charlie didn't take her up there much, but he'd disappear and return with some magnificent toy, just the right age for her.

So we had a great time. We never had any bad confrontations or any other kind of troubles. A most enjoyable visit. One thing we did between dinner and bath was go outside --just the two of us-- with a flashlight to look for turkeys. We knew they were asleep in the pines (which Ben calls the forest), but we went all over the place looking for them anyway, Ben leading the way with the flashlight. He was amazingly intrepid, going all the way up to the pasture gate and all around the house. I think he was ready to go up into the pines, but I wasn't. Too spooky at night, even with young male protection. Anyway, if we'd disturbed the turkeys roosting in the trees, it probably would have scared him, as they make a tremendous flapping as they take off.

So that was Friday. The rest of our week before that was taken up by housework (Charlie did finally vacuum downstairs, and I've done it once since then -- a messy time of year), closing up the garden, working on garage siding, and other such minor projects. I cooked a lot. Notable things were custards made with cheese (a nice lunch, but the leftover ones were horrible cold for breakfast), a tarte tatin, an apple cake, bread, chox chip cookies (today). I made the penne/ricotta/broccoli dish from the latest EDC, and it was extremely mediocre. Not recommended, just very blah. I was using up some ricotta left from making stuffed manicotti (very good, an old favorite) earlier in the week. On Friday night we had flank steak with tomato/shallot vinaigrette, from an old FC. That's really good. We've been trying to use up the rest of the tomatoes; there are about eight left, and we plan salad for dinner again tonight, with some of the bushels of arooogula that are still flourishing in the garden, even when the nights are 25 degrees. I have a yellow squash (gift of Ruth and Dave), and I may try the recipe Suzy mentions. Charlie will eat it when it's put in front of him, but I can't do that very often and have it work.

Some interesting things in the new FC, but I just got it yesterday and haven't gotten too far into it yet.

We've had days of horrible gloomy weather, but there's a little sun today. We're watching football, of course. Curse the lateness of the baseball games; we never get to see the end of one, and sometimes things change at the last. We're enjoying what we watch. We are both pleased that the Detroits and St. Louises are in the Series, since the media is unhappy about it. New York and the Bay Area are much bigger markets, ya know. Anyway, I was sorry that Oakland didn't make it. And we even watched college football yesterday -- some of the Cal game. We've just both read a book by John McPhee, Assembling California, which deals with, among other geologic topics, the faults. One runs right under Strawberry Canyon, but no earthquake yesterday. I wish Marty would immortalize for these pages her experience in the Loma Prieta, when she was in Monterey.

Enough of this rambling. Think I'll have a martini.