Peter called me this morning as I was writing about Green Gulch Farms. “Did you get my picture?” he asked. I’d received nothing by phone or email.
He’d sent me a picture of his now-crushed car, and asked me to pick him up on the freeway with the possessions he’d been able to salvage from inside. [...]
One public school ritual I have come to loathe is the last-minute-of-summer posting of class rosters. And this year I had a particular chip on my shoulder, knowing my son’s marvelous learning capabilities under my private guidance, and having hung out with a crowd actively opposed to government-controlled schooling. The last minute posting is just [...]
Peter recently realized that HDTV reception has become relatively affordable, so he set about getting it. For the record, I’m indifferent to HDTV. I grew up in the pre-cable era, and remember watching movies from LA channels that were often ghosted in with competing signals. Anything better than that is fine by me, though I [...]
Lately, as we’ve been enjoying a fairly comfortable existence, at least compared to most of the world, and all of history, there’s been sort of a nutritional nostalgia for eating old food, the old way, whether that means slow food, pesticide free farming, or the Neanderthal diet.
The latest entry to this line is the book [...]
My favorite fashionista, Manolo the Shoeblogger, has expressed his confusion about what “California black tie” means on an invitation. I can tell you exactly what it means, because Peter and I have worn it, but I’m not sure it’s exactly a good thing anywhere east of the Mississippi.
A few years ago, my friend Kyra Zorn, [...]
Before this summer, I had never signed my children up for any summer reading program, because it seemed like a drag to have to keep track of one’s reading. But this summer, I knew Neil would be reading a lot because I was homeschooling him, and Kelly, well, we all know how much Kelly loves [...]
Last Friday, our whole family went to the opening evening of the San Mateo County Fair. We were delighted with it. It had all a county fair ought to have: livestock exhibits, a pony ride, home arts competitions, a bustling midway, kiosk food, and vendors exhibiting rarely seen products.
To explain why we found the San [...]
For a long time, I’ve been puzzled by the hatred against Christians. I have more than a few devoutly Christian friends and acquaintances, and they’re far from obnoxious, and very often, they’re very, well, Christian: eager to help others regardless of creed, striving to live up to their own moral standards, and engaged in their [...]
I’ve been wanting to see the Golden Gate Park Band with Peter for several years now. It’s the only brass band I know of in the entire Bay Area that gives public concerts, and they play in the Spreckels Temple of Music, a wonderful acoustic shell in the park’s main concourse surrounded by statues of [...]
As I’ve mentioned before, Kelly loves reading. Specifically, she loves being read to, which means I get to read a lot of children’s books, often over and over again. So this year, for my birthday, I decided I had to have a big round pink cake. The good cakes in children’s books are always round [...]
