Now for the cost. As I mentioned in the last article, Ruby was not pleased with my night on the town. She was also quite upset about my going on a ride, and wasn’t shy about showing her displeasure in the most creative ways. At Woodside, I called Vick to check in, and things were distinctly not okay. I didn’t really have space to talk, and she didn’t have time, so I pedaled onward, hoping for the best. At the half way point I called again and Vick was in tears. Apparently Ruby had been acting out in every demonic way possible, at one point intentionally smashing her brothers fingers in our bathroom trashcan.

When I finally arrived home, Ruby was peacefully drawing on the workroom floor, and Vick was standing on the other side of the sliding glass door. Apparently, when Ruby heard I was coming home, everything was fine. We had a very calm and loving talk about how her choices impacted our family, and then headed out to Whole Foods to pickup lunch and dinner.

By the time I arrived at Whole Foods, both kids were sleeping. I loaded Miles up on my back (still sleeping) and got Ru into a conveniently discarded cart, and did the shopping. Miles transfered back into the carseat (still sleeping, a small miracle) and then back onto my back at home (still sleeping, a large miracle).

Ruby was back to herself, though quite tired, and fell asleep by 7:30. Unfortunately, our day was not over then. Miles pretty much refused to sleep until 10:30, and Ruby woke twice with night terrors.

Thankfully by 10:45 all of us were in bed and sleeping. I don’t believe that I’ve ever been so glad to have a day behind me. Today is a new day, and we are all looking forward to some family time.

Still dead set on getting my ride in, I geared up and headed over to SETI to set things straight. I expected to be about five minutes. When I arrived I discovered that an HVAC failure had brought the ambient temperature up to 102, and the mail server, smart fella that he is, decided to call it quits rather than burn up. I’m actually quite glad that it made that call, because ordering new hardware would have taken quite a bit longer. 5 hrs later I was on the road again.

So now its noon, and I’m thinking “Not too late to ride, I’ll just get on my…” whoosh, I get hit with a wall of heat as I leave the building. “… on second thought…” I called Vick to rendezvous for lunch (I still hadn’t eaten breakfast), she and the Logan contingent were downtown, just finishing up the street fair, and were about to head out for bagels. After lunch we headed home to wait out the heat (which I should mention was quite a bit cooler than the last few days, at 86). At 4 I put Ruby down for a nap, and spotting my window, hopped on the bike and headed out. I had intended to ride all the way to the beginning of the Tour de Cure course, then ride the course, then ride home. That would have been ~60 miles, and seemed like a great idea at the time.

The ride was a scorcher, and fast, and I made some poor pacing choices. This lead to my sputtering out at mile 30. Not feeling too bad about my progress, I gave Vick a call and had her bring the kids out for a hike.

An hour or so later they showed up, and we had a nice hour long hike by the reservoir. Pooped, and happy we all loaded into the car and headed home. Miles and Ru are soundly sleeping, no doubt dreaming of their action packed weekend, Vick is on her way in, and I’m just about to make one last check on the server before turning in myself.

On Sunday, Ruby and I woke up early and puttered around for a while doing crafts and e-mail, and then made coffee for momma. Then we kicked into high gear in order to get to Cafe Fanny and still be on time to Logan Fredenburg’s birthday party. We had a wonderful, if slightly nippy brunch. Ruby of course had a “scoop egg” and was very confused when I told her that she would have to say “soft boiled” when she ordered.

The birthday party was held at a great park in the Berkeley Hills which features a huge S shaped concrete slide. You grab a piece of cardboard at the bottom, climb the steps to the top, and whiz on down at close to the speed of sound. Ruby (you guessed it) wanted to go down alone. It took Vick and I almost half the party to concede. At one point a mother came over, with Ruby in tow, to chastise us for leaving her unattended. Thank god we live in a state who’s populous is dedicated to protecting us and our children from ourselves. Sheesh. Anyway, we continued to have fun until about 4 when our bellies called us away from the festivities. We stopped at Vick’s favorite Mexican place (Picante) for an early dinner. Even though Ruby was falling asleep on the way over, she managed to chatter and sing all the way home.

When we got home, everyone was awake and in good spirits. We decided to try a family book time, and all climbed into Ruby’s bed for two stories (The Napping House and Reckless Ruby). Miles mostly wanted to jump, so I jumped him and Vick read. After books, Ruby fell right to sleep, and Miles gave up the ghost a few minutes later.

Exhausted and happy, Vick and I cleaned up the house and collapsed into our Poangs to watch last week’s episode of Lost.

Miles spent most of the day on his butt, his new favorite thing. Both Vick and I are totally blown away by his sitting stability. There are some pictures in the gallery.

On Sunday, Vick joined Jennifer for the Stitches conference in Santa Clara, and Ruby and I took "the little choo choo" to the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose. We had a total ball. It was a joy to watch Ruby self direct her fun. After about two hours, she said "Daddy, I think I need to go home now" we changed her into dry clothes (there's a huge water table in there), packed up and got on the train. We transfered after one stop, and sat down on a bench to wait for the next train. I looked over at Ruby who had become uncustomarily quiet just in time to catch her as she fell forward... fast asleep. When the train arrived, I carried her in and she snoozed on my lap until 1 stop before ours. She sprang awake, talking and looking around as if she hadn't missed a beat.

We spent the rest of the afternoon together in the living room. Vick read books, Miles and Ruby played nicely together, and I napped on the couch.