Zev News – August 2008

This was the quiet before the storm of school activities.  Benjamin started cross country, which he had done a few years back.  He had enjoyed it, but Jackie had pushed him more toward soccer so that both kids were playing the same sport.  But this year, Jonathan chose not to play soccer, and we signed Benjamin up for soccer too late to get him on a team, so he's been doing track once again.  Jackie runs with them at his practices (when she doesn't have a meeting to attend!)  Despite her daily three-mile power walks, she finds he can't quite keep up with him.

On Jackie's birthday, Jonathan had to register for 10th grade.  He got there before it started, and thus was only 100th in his line (there were two lines.)  So it only took him a little more than an hour to get through it.  We picked him up and went off to celebrate Jackie's birthday by going to the Ventura County fair.  It was dollar day at the fair, so it cost us more to park than to get all four of us in to the fair.  We had a really nice time.  We watch the wildlife show, the Turkey raises, and the performing pigs.  We visited the livestock (particularly the bunnies.)  We were amazed by some of the kids’ artwork. We saw the quilts and the woodworking.  They had an exhibit of wooden children's toys that were pretty interesting.  It was a very nicely done county fair – small enough that you could almost see everything in one day, but big enough big enough that there was lots to see.  We completely skipped the amusement park rides.

We left the fair and went into Ventura for dinner.  As we left the restaurant, Jonathan realized he didn't have his wallet.  We search the restaurant and decided it had dropped out of his pocket at the fair.  So we went back, but had no hope that we would actually recover the wallet.  Jonathan had no credit cards in his wallet, but he did have his brand-new student ID (just received that morning) and about $30 in cash (he just received allowance that morning.)  Amazingly, when we checked the lost and found, not only did they have the wallet, but everything, even the money, was all there.  So we bless the good soul that found and turned in the wallet and made it so that a really nice day did not end on a sour note.