Category Archives: Family

Father’s Day at Mo Ranch

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We spent this past weekend at Mo Ranch with First Presbyterian Church of San Antonio, which Dad McMains and Lana attend. The church hosts an annual Father’s Day Weekend retreat, which Kathy and Emily and I first joined in very shortly after our wedding. That was exciting for me, as I had grown up attending various church camps at the ranch, and it has long been one of my favorite places on earth. Thus, the prospect of the trip itself was exciting, but was made even more so by the chance to introduce the younger kids to a site that is both so beautiful and personally meaningful.

The trip was great, and too full to really detail right now, but here are some of the highlights:

  • Getting to spend time and celebrate Father’s Day with a fairly broad swath of the extended family, all of whom we enjoy a great deal and none of whom we get to spend enough time with routinely. The kids all picked out nifty little succulents for me from the greenhouse as gifts to supplement my fledgling cactus garden, and Emily gave me an awesome Sam & Max lap board she had created in art class this year. We also presented Dad McMains with a rooster sculpture for their front yard renovation project, the smuggling of which involved a good deal of legerdemain and hijinx.
  • We took a direct route across the hill country, rather than sticking to the highway, and enjoyed lots of beautiful terrain along the way as well as a visit to Stonehenge II, a delightfully eccentric, typically Texan project wherein the English Stonehenge was reproduced at about half scale. While it was privately financed and remains on private property, it’s open to the public for visits. There are also two reproductions of Easter Island statues on the site. When they sighted them, the kids, who had recently watched Night at the Museum, delightedly shrieked “Dum Dum! It’s Dum Dum!”
  • Late night talk, music, and slightly-illicit wine while watching lightning and/or the stars. (Which, as advertised, are big and bright [clap clap clap clap] deep in the heart of Texas.)
  • Getting to do a rendition of Will the Circle be Unbroken with Lana, Tim (Meara‘s significant other who plays string bass) and new friend Margaret for the Talent/Variety Show. It went over quite well, though given that much of the rest of the show was kids lip-syncing and doing cartwheels, that’s probably somewhat faint endorsement. Chris apparently received several compliments for his (non-existent) part in the performance, which I told him was fine because I routinely take credit for ENT surgeries as well.
  • Showing the kids one of my favorite little science experiments: smuggling a cup of milk out of the cafeteria to the catwalk that spans a gorge, and then pouring drops of milk out to fall to the ground below. Because of the Bernoulli effect, the pressure on the sides of the droplets decreases as their velocity increases, causing them to “explode” fairly spectacularly about halfway through their fall.
  • I took a couple of early morning walks before the rest of the family was awake, enjoying the opportunity to explore the bits that have been added to the Ranch since I had visited, to reacquaint myself with the more venerable sections, and to see the various fauna that was out foraging for their own breakfasts.
  • Walking a labrynth for the first time. With Maggie and Liam along, it wasn’t a totally contemplative time, but interesting none the less.
  • Playing in the river with the family. The slide and the “rapids” — a shallow, limestone-bottomed section of the river where the water has carved a variety of beautiful channels and pools — were among the best parts. I especially enjoyed showing the girls how, if you sit very still in one of the pools for a few minutes, the minnows and small fish will come up and start nibbling on your arms and legs, eliciting delighted giggles.

It was a wonderful time, and one I hope we can reprise annually. Thanks to the Mo Ranch and First Pres folks for putting it all together!

Doggie To-Do

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Two days ago, I got the e-mail we’d been dreading since posting our found dog ad on Craig’s List:

We have been missing a black & white border collie female.

Her name is Daisy and she is very friendly.

Hope this is her,we are at xxxxx@xxxxxxx.net

Uh oh. We exchanged a few more emails, and it sounded like this was legitimately the writer’s dog — after all, how many female border collies could be wandering the Texas hill country near San Marcos? We arranged for her to come by and pick up the hound, and then everybody sat around the living room, despondently throwing the ball around the house for the dog to retrieve. One. Last. Time.

The doorbell rang at last, and the woman and her son came in. They played with the dog for a bit, looked her up and down, and after about 30 seconds announced “This isn’t Daisy.”

As you can imagine, there was much rejoicing among the family members who had grown attached to the wee beast over the past few weeks. We made a game attempt to be sympathetic to the owner who had not, in fact, found her dog, but I think it came off a trifle hollow.

So it looks like the provisional addition to our family may be a permanent one. (And yes, {Stephanie Woodward}, I realize that I still owe you a photo of the dog. I posted one, but my weblog software ate it and started throwing errors. I suspect that it was jealous.)

Weekend To-Do: Post-Mortem

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Minor Tweaks, one of my favorite people-I’ve-never-met weblogs, runs a regular feature called “Weekend To Do List: Post-Portem”. Believing fervently that plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery, I’m adopting the practice here. Enjoy!

  • Take wife to Fredericksburg for anniversary getaway. Marvel at, contribute to, economy fueled entirely by souvenirs.
  • Try Mad Dog hot sauce on a cracker. Realize belatedly that 600,000 scoville units is 90x hotter than Tabasco. Sweat and moan.
  • Watch “The Holiday”. Wonder why we didn’t get famous neighbors when we did a home exchange in England.
  • Find dog by side of road. Adopt against better judgement.
  • Accidentally set Dance Dance Revolution machine to “ultra-hard”. Flail gamely to the amusement and consternation of Chuck E. Cheese visitors. (“Hide your eyes, children!”) Thank the heavens wife doesn’t know how to use YouTube.
  • Install ceiling fan acquired 9 months ago.

Anniversary Trip to San Antonio

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This past weekend, Kathy and I went down to San Antonio for a 10th anniversary getaway. I had been plotting the trip for a couple of weeks with the invaluable help of {Christina Priest}, who stayed with the kids while we ran off to have a little bit of exclusive couple time, and was pretty excited to finally be able to set the plans in motion.We started off by checking into the Travelodge downtown. While not palatial, it is clean and only a couple of blocks from the Riverwalk, where we spent much of our time over the next 48 hours. We then embarked on a quest to find “Dolores del Rio”, a funky Italian place I had heard of, but had never actually been to. Given that all of the reviews of the restaurant I’d found on the internet included directions, and that those directions seemed to bear no relation to each other whatsoever, I had expected locating the place to be a good deal more challenging than it actually turned out to be. We were quickly seated, and joined a few minutes later by Chris and Becky, who were in town to pick a place to live when they move to San Antonio in the fall, and Lana and Meara. The evening was great — wonderful food, scintillating company, and a jazz band nominally led by my friend {Barry Brake} at the keyboard, who graced us with an alternately ethereal and funky version of “Tea for Two” in honor of our ten years. Then the belly dancers came out, draped me and Chris in feather boas, rounding off the dining experience nicely. We had only expected to stick around the restaurant for a couple of hours, but were having such a good time that, by the time we finally parted company after dinner, it was time for bed.

Me With Hair Implants Barry at Dolores del Rio Chris Gets Some Attention

The next morning we lazed about for a while, enjoying the luxury of sleeping in — an opportunity rarely afforded the parents of four children. We then embarked on a driving tour of the San Antonio Mission Trail, a series of four missions (five, if you count the Alamo) established by Spanish Franciscans back when the New World was first seeing European colonization. Though I think every child in San Antonio is required to go on field trips to the missions several times over the course of his public school education, I had very little memory of the sites, and enjoyed them every bit as much as Kathy, for whom this was her first visit.

Mission Door Grave & Bell Tower Mission Door Cross Latch

Incidentally, I can hardly think of a life I’d rather lead than that of one of these monks who helped to establish these remarkable communities. What a wonderful thing to be so intimately involved with helping people meet their physical needs, while at the same time providing a place for cultivating their spiritual lives and working together to build places that are so beautiful.

After the missions, we went and pottered about downtown for a while, enjoying a late lunch at Casa Rio, a restaurant with colorful umbrellas over its riverside tables that largely define the visual look of the Riverwalk for me. We then enjoyed the air conditioned promenades at Rivercenter for a while and ducked into an arcade for a bit to race cars and play motion capture boxing games. (Visiting Rivercenter is always a bit nostalgic for me, as my high school choir sang there when it opened. “You just add waterÂ…at Rivercenter!” I’m still not sure what unholy business dealings resulted in our presence at the opening of a shopping mall, but it was fun at the time.)

I Should Work for the Chamber of Commerce...

Our original plan for that evening included a trip to the San Pedro Playhouse for a musical show. However, by the time we left on Friday, they had not responded to my request for tickets on their website. (I finally got an email back this morning saying “Oops. You went to our old website. Here’s the address of our new website, which, by the way, doesn’t offer online ticket ordering anymore.” Nimrods.) So, we Plan-B’ed, and got some coffee at a local coffee shop with indifferent coffee but the most extraordinary service I’ve ever seen. The pink-clad fey man behind the bar, when Kathy asked if they happened to have a newspaper handy, said “No, but I’ll get you one” and sprinted out the door before either of us could respond effectively. He went across the street to a gas station, but found their newspaper rack empty. He then proceeded to run further down the street until he found a place with a paper handy, purchased it, and brought it back for us to review. (All we wanted to know was movie times!) Truly above and beyond the call of duty, and thus earns a heartfelt recommendation of Timo’s Coffehouse on San Pedro. (Just don’t ask for anything tricky with decaf.)

We capped the day with a visit to The Quarry, a site that, while I was growing up in San Antonio, was a wretched, filthy eyesore of an abandoned industrial site, ironically next to one of the richer neighborhoods in San Antonio. Several years back, however, it was made over as an upscale commercial space, and now boasts many interesting stores, a microbrewery or two, and a huge movie theater. We pottered around Borders for a while, and I picked up P.J. O’Roarke’s latest, which I perused while Kathy dropped by Whole Foods. We then watched “Cinderella Man”, which was a lovely, moving film (even though it was about boxing) and drove back to the Travelodge.

Sunset Crepe Myrtle

We slept in a bit more on Sunday, ran a few errands, and returned to our home, to be greeted by the excited shrieks of our kids (and a few, truth be told, from me as well). The trip was a great time which Kathy and I both enjoyed a great deal and got a lot out of. It was super to devote some time to just cultivating that relationship, away from our workaday concerns, and to slow down and celebrate getting to 10 years.

Thanks for your patience and persistence, my dear Kathy. I’m glad we’re making this journey together!

(See my photostream for some more pictures.)

And Now We Are Six

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maggieseyes.jpgThere’s just never a dull moment around this place lately! Our biggest news, of course, is the addition of Margaret Ashley McMains to our ranks. She joined us on October 10, 2000 at 8:34pm, after Kathy’s shortest but most painful labor yet, weighing in at 8 pounds, 9.8 ounces, and either 21 or 19.5 inches, depending on who you believe. She’s doing marvelously well, growing like a weed, and charming anyone who comes within a stone’s throw of her. If you have a fast connection or prodigious patience, you can see her birth video on the Introducing Maggie page. Lacking these, there are a few more stills of her on the Margaret page.

We were grateful to receive a lot of help from many quarters during Maggie’s birth. My employer was gracious enough to give me a week of paternity leave, which made the transition much easier than it otherwise would have been. Special thanks go to, in no particular order: my brother Chris, who watched the kids while we were in the hospital. Mom McMains, who cleared her schedule at her pediatric practice for two days so she could be around and help out. Dad McMains and Lana for their visit and gifts. The Johnsons, who made off with our three elder children for several hours so we could have a little time to relax and fed us. The Corleys, for taking care of making announcement phone calls for us and for feeding us. The Ardilas and Coxes, for providing meals and friendship for us. The Isaacs, Salases, Lopezes, and more for their gifts and frequent and generous offers of help. There are probably more I’m not remembering offhand; if I’ve forgotten you, please accept the apologies of a still-somewhat-bleary new father.

The other kiddos are also doing well. Kathy and Emily have been having some really good, heart-to-heart talks lately. She’s starting to turn into a little person, rather than just a kid! Since Emily has started doing school at home again this fall, Abigail has been eager to join in and do some schoolwork as well. Kathy’s been trying to come up with good stuff for Abby, but she’s still young enough that she needs a lot of guidance and help. Emily’s doing great with going off to the schoolroom and working on her assignment for an hour at a time. We’re often in there working together, now that I’ve started my two days a week at home. Liam still charging around the house, being mostly adorable and getting into everything. His new favorite toys are the train cars from a model train set Kathy picked up cheaply at a garage sale. Unfortunately, the cars aren’t designed with 22 month olds in mind, and are rapidly becoming less railworthy. Good thing they were cheap.

All 3 kids seem to be adjusting well to Maggie’s presence, though Liam still hasn’t quite grasped that what is playful to him can be very painful to others. Shortly after her arrival, he discovered the power of the word “No,” and has been getting more ornery and obeying instructions less readily, so it looks like we may be in for some increased parenting challenges for a while. He is, fortunately, still unfailingly kind to his new little sister; we’re not sure whether this was brought on by her arrival or whether he’s just reached that point in his development. In either case, he’s spending a bit more time in solitary confinement in his room, where he pushes the screen out of his window and drops his blocks out onto the dirt below where the neighbors kindly retrieve them for us.

One amusing incident in the wake of Maggie’s arrival: On the first day I was to return to the office after my paternity leave, I blearily headed to the car and began loading up my gear. I suddenly realized that instead of picking up my laptop and its docking station, I had instead grabbed my guitar. A Freudian slip, showing my repressed desire to be doing music professionally, or just Sean being a dummkopf? You be the judge.

The New Church started meeting in late October on Wednesday nights. For the time being, we’re using the great big front room in our house as a meeting place, but we’re quickly outgrowing it and hope to be in a regular space soon. We have been discussing the vision for the church, what directions it should be going, and what part we’ll all be playing in that. Everyone is really enjoying getting together, meeting a number of new people, and getting things underway at last. Though we don’t plan on being up and going with regular Sunday meetings until Easter, these Wednesday night meetings will help to build our little community until then.

I’ve recently picked up a hammered dulcimer, an instrument with which I’ve been in love since hearing one at a Renaissance Fair as a teenager. After 2 weeks with it, I’m able to plunk out some basic melodies, and am enchanted by the beautiful instrument’s sound. I still lack the percussionist’s dexterity required to play it well, but as I put more time into it, the wrong notes become fewer and farther between. I hope to be able to start doing a bit of public performance with it for church and celtic gigs in a few more weeks. Steve and I have been playing regularly at The Coffee Pot in town, which is still a lot of fun. Travis has gone off to Russia to do a few weeks of missions work there, so we’ll lack his excellent percussion skills for the next several gigs.

Our friends and neighbors John and Beth Morisett celebrated 50 years of marriage this past weekend. They are an inspiration to us, as they’re still very lively and involved with each other, their church, and their community after all that time together. It’s great to have people with that joie de vivre living nearby whose company we can enjoy and experience we can lean on. Congratulations, John and Beth, and thank you!

Kathy has been continuing her improvements to the house, installing chair rails she hand-painted in the girls’ room, painting and decorating the great big front room, adding shelves in various places, repainting the entryway, and generally making our house a warmer place to live and visit. Though I’m rarely unhappy with things before she starts on a project, she has the visual taste and good sense that I lack, and does a great job of transforming spaces for the better. What a woman.