The Daily Discoveries of Gustavo Valentine

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Sunday, June 29, 2008

The Things I'm Going To Miss

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Well, my friends, the time, at long last, has come. We are packing it all up and moving off the island. We will be starting our life in Portland in just a few days. Daddy left today to fly on an airplane to Los Angeles to rent a giant truck so he can drive all our furniture and stuff back up the coast with Aza to our new house. Mama, Bobby and I will drive over with all our stuff from here and we'll all meet up at the starting point to the Next Phase.

So now I am starting to realize all the many wonderful things about our life here that I am going to really really miss. There are so many things. There is everything.

Like our street. The winding road home to our house where we open the sunroof and just look up at the trees as they sway overhead. The peace of coming home to this place...

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Tengo Dos Amigos


These are my new amigos, Antonio and Efrain. They work with my dad on the job in Seattle and they came over to chop up the huge pile of logs into firewood, not because they love chopping wood but because they love to make money to send home to their families in Mexico, which gives you an idea of what kind of really good guys these guys are.


I never left their side all day, except for when I had to take a nap. I helped them push cartman the cart up the hill and then they let me ride in it on the way back. We talked spanish the whole day because I already know some on account of Dora and Diego and my partly hispanic blood.


Mama went and got us all pizza and we had lunch together, just us working guys, joking and laughing in our spanish and looking proudly at the wood piles. Things don't ever have to get more complicated than this you know.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

She Finished It!



For many, many months now, my mom has been reading this gigantical book named War and Peace. She thought since she was cooped up on an island all this time that this was the perfect challenge. My dad teased her and prodded her to quit the whole time but she did not give up and she read the whole thing, all 1215 pages. She is feeling quite proud and relieved to be done, ready to finally attack her stack of smaller, more modern novels. In case you are interested, she likes the peace more than the war.

Friday, June 20, 2008

a wet n wild father's day



luv u dad

Sunday, June 15, 2008

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD !!!

Yes, it is the day to honor my dad and I've been doing it all day. I smothered him with hugs and kisses in bed and told him he was the best dad ever, the best in the whole wide world. And I believe this is true. He's been with me through thick and thin and he's in it for the long haul, so he swears.










And so for Father's Day, I got my dad a gift he would especially appreciate. I got him a book deal in France!!! What a great day! Okay, so, I actually didn't have anything to do with it but he still got it and it still makes for the happiest Father's Day ever. I'm real proud to call him my dad.


Oui Oui pee pee! Vive La France!!!

Saturday, June 07, 2008

CAN IT BE???

Who's darling little bungalow house is this on the sweet shady lane in the northeast of Portland Oregon???


Who's tree-filled gorgeous green backyard is this with a great big shed house for art projects???



One guess!

Friday, June 06, 2008

Thar She Blows


When visitors come I like to get myself all dooded up, get my body bathed and get my hair did.


Linda Linda Bang Bang came by for another visit, this time on her way back out to the high seas, where she'll be bob-bob-bobbin along on her boyfriend's boat for months on end. Watch out for pirates, LLBB!


And I got to meet her son Adam who I pretty much consider one of my best friends now. He read me a kajillion books and taught me new stuff and made up new games for me to play and seemed to have a lot more ideas and energy than my mom has at this point in her career as a mom. Too bad he lives way up in Canada, not that Canada is bad, in fact we may have to defect there one day if the democrabs don't get their butts in gear!

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

A NEW DAY

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OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....


BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA...


MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!


OBAMA. OBAMA. OBAMA.
It's a done deal.
I now have hope for my future.

Sunday, June 01, 2008

3-2-1-Contract!


My dad, the AUTHOR. He used to be a writer. Now he's an AUTHOR. The contracts from Harcourt Books, six months after "buying" his book, finally arrived. It has been six months of hoping that each day was the day the contracts would come and at last the day did in fact come and our patience was rewarded. Dad signed that thing fast and furiously and whipped it back in the mail to the big city of New York City. Now we wait for the big fat check, but hopefully this time it will be a much shorter wait because honestly we have only a little tiny bit of patience left. The signing of the paper was a big thing, it means that it is a done deal and there's no getting out of it. and yet my dad still has not felt the overwhelming feeling of magical life-changing excitement. We're thinking that maybe when we see the bank account amount skyrocket, that then we will all feel that oh boy feeling of life-changing magic. Or maybe you just don't feel it, you just live it. Either way, from here on in, if anyone asks, he is not a bar back, he is not a carpenter, he is not even a hopeful writer anymore -- my dad is an author.