I think I finally reached my breaking point on panhandlers when I was filling my car up with gas last Monday, and the guy at the gas tank next to mine asked me if I’d fill up his car for him. I was so freaked out I couldn’t answer, and he proceeded to approach others [...]
Last evening we went to a luau at Loretta’s place to celebrate her birthday. We felt like quite the popular family, because Neil had one of his own friends having a sleepover birthday celebration himself, so technically the Bickfords had 2 parties to attend that night.
It was quite a rainy night, so the outdoor luau [...]
Last year in early autumn, Neil had completed the Key to Algebra course which had been our only tool to give him math at his level in fourth grade, and was whizzing through the Key to Geometry course with frightening ease. When I broached the “what next?” question with his 5th-grade teacher, Mrs. Weir, I [...]
Two years ago, two of the houses on my end of the street were sold to families who spoke limited English. We discovered this when we brought pie over to one of our new neighbors (Alessandro), only to find out he needed to have his school-age children translate for him. Our neighbor across the street, [...]
Neil’s been at odds with his PE teacher all year, which hasn’t been a major concern for me. But every so often, he comes back with stories or assignments that strike me as really off the mark. For instance, last year, one of the children in the class injured himself during PE. The PE teacher [...]
As I mentioned earlier, Neil and I were excited about a new exhibit at the Exploratorium, so we headed out there on Monday, when it was open, unlike a lot of places who closed on the holiday. Apparently, a lot of other people had the same idea, especially since it was raining, which prohibited a [...]
Peter had a rare day to spare on Sunday, so we made an excursion to a nearby tourist spot most of us hadn’t been before: Carmel. As charming as it’s known to be, it’s also renowned (locally at least) for being very pricey and snobby. It’s more “romantic getaway” than “family vacation,” and frankly, when [...]
While Kelly and I were being amused by a charming Frisian couple at a German language meet-up, Peter was being accosted by a Michael Moore fanatic in Fry’s.
He’d gone to Fry’s to buy some memory, and on the way out, he and Neil were passing through the DVD section, and while browsing saw a Michael [...]
On Saturday day, we went out for another one of our Healthy Trails hikes, this one around the Henry Miller house. Neil, Kelly and I had taken this hike before on a cub scout trip last Spring. But just as then, the ruins were a particularly fun place to run around and play in:
I [...]
Neil had Friday off from school, so we drove up to the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito, from which we’d tried twice to visit earlier, only to find out, upon arrival, that the museum was closed. Despite the long drive, the Bay Area Discovery Museum is a cute little museum in a particularly scenic [...]
