Last Saturday, we had decidedly weird weather. Although it was supposed to be horrifically hot, sudden rain showers broke out twice, and some of the guests at the party we were at reported seeing lightning strikes without thunder. Since then, we’ve had so many wilderness fires in Northern California that every day has been hazy, [...]
I think this was the fourth year my neighborhood has had a Memorial Day parade/festival, and the first that Neil hasn’t been in it. There’s a lot of things I love about my neighborhood, but I really love having a parade right in it. This year, it was the highlight of our Memorial Day weekend, [...]
Happy Hollow Park and Zoo is one of our favorite kiddie-friendly places to go in San Jose, and we have pictures to prove we’ve been going there since Neil was about 6 months old. It’s rather old fashioned, and rather worn, but that’s always been part of its charm. On one end is a small [...]
After Peter set up for Wizard World LA last weekend, he realized he was missing a few cables. I hate LA, but at least it’s civilized enough to have Fry’s, because Peter’s unhappy if he has to go anywhere else for his technology needs. And this time, for once, I was driving, because now I [...]
As you drive further north, the 101 freeway turns into a main street as it passes through the towns on route, and for whatever reason, economic, social, or otherwise, it gives me a chance to notice how Northern California remains in a sort of place of its own time and place, an odd confluence of [...]
Last evening, just after we’d put the kids to bed, we had an earthquake that rattled the house, had us all running outside, and trembling. Peter was surprised it scared me more than the now-legendary Loma Prieta earthquake, which was technically bigger, and I was surprised when I checked the USGS Quake info site (the [...]
Both Peter and I are enjoying the new science-fiction TV show, Journeyman, in which a journalist gets unexpectedly transported back in time to change lives in one way or another. Understandably for us, one of the things we really enjoy is that the show is set in San Francisco, and it explicitly shows the locations. [...]
It’s been nearly 10 years since Peter and I bought a car. He and I come from two different classes of people. I come from the debt-averse group that scrapes together some money and buys whatever can be had for that: which usually means a used car. Peter comes from the class that buys a [...]
One of our favorite neighborhood traditions is the annual Memorial Day parade. It begins just half a block from our house, on the street just behind the nearby elementary school and winds for about a mile past our local playground and to another elementary school. Children from both schools comprise a choir that sings patriotic [...]
I took Kelly to the native American powwow held annually on the Stanford campus. I always feel awkward going to a powwow, because it is a very native American event, and I have no grounding whatsoever in native American culture. On occassions I encounter natives in my regular setting who are constantly saying “sorry”; I [...]
