The Santa Clara County Parks department recently launched a “Healthy Trails” program with a list of trails to hike in the local parks. Since I love taking my children outdoors, I was all over that, and in a lull between working and shredding papers on Sunday afternoon, we all decided to take one of the [...]
Peter’s been in a throw out the old, bring in the new mood over this Christmas break, which I believe was, at least in part, inspired by Tim Gunn. Since paring down his closet, Peter’s also ripped out obsolete wiring; replaced or retired old technology; and cleaned out our garage and attic. The consequence of [...]
I’ve never taken my children to a circus, and we’ve only been to the San Francisco Zoo and the Oakland Zoo once each. I sometimes wonder if I’m depriving them of one of the requirements for a full and memorable childhood, but the recent news that a tiger got loose on Christmas day at the [...]
For about 10 years now, a treasure hunt for Christmas presents has been part of our family tradition. Peter and I take turns planning one for each other. Neil, who loves puzzles has gotten in on the action and has been requesting a hunt for himself as well for the past few years.
Well, this year [...]
For the last two weeks (if not longer), Kelly’s been jumping into our bed early in the morning, asking “is it Christmas yet?” No, I have to tell her, not yet… But thanks to Mental Floss, I found something that may keep her at bay: Norad’s 2007 Santa Tracker. If you’re anxious about Santa’s route, [...]
Mount Holyoke used to have a January session: two weeks in which you took a specialized course you’d never think of taking during the regular academic semester. I loved it, and even dropped in on courses that weren’t mine for the lectures. The courses, such as an overview of Film Noir, were essentially exactly the [...]
It’s quite obvious that we have a lot of immigrants from Mexico and South America, and in the capitalist way, many businesses have sprung up to service them: we have locally-produced Spanish radio, television, and newspapers; many businesses advertise that their staff speaks Spanish; and most non-perishable grocery items are labelled in both English and [...]
This year, I thought I’d reached the heights of Christmas crafting by making our own Christmas crackers. For most of my life, I’d been intrigued by this peculiar British Christmas delight, and I’d read many a story in which children pulled their crackers on Christmas day. But I’d never seen one, so when Michael’s (the [...]
Lately, Peter and I have been enjoying digital video. We can watch foreign shows without having to worry about regional DVD formatting; we can pick up TV shows we forgot to schedule on our PVR (or which weren’t recorded because of power failure); and we don’t have to go anywhere or wait for the mailman [...]
Every year, I vow to do less at Christmas, and every year it still ends up hectic. Because of an early Thanksgiving, most Christmas duties seemed to be done, but now it’s the week before Christmas, and everything’s going on.
On Tuesday, the homeschoolers organized a craft day. Kelly loves making crafts, so I couldn’t resist. [...]
