Every year, our neighborhood has its own parade for Memorial Day, and I looke forward to it. It’s a small event, but it’s a chance to remember the holiday in the right way and see our neighbors. For the first few years, Neil participated as a cub scout, and one year Kelly dressed up for [...]
I originally planned to take the children to the De Young Museum today; and another homeschool parent had told me about a free hands-on science day as CSU-Hayward; but in the end, I decided what I would rather do this weekend than on any other is to visit the Charles M. Schulz Museum again with [...]
Yesterday, our internet was down for most of the day. Peter called Comcast, who could only tell him it was a bad regional outage, but it was being worked on. I’ve been in a chicken-little-the-sky-is-falling mood lately, so I sardonically surmised it was the Chinese testing the gear they’d recently installed into our electrical system. [...]
Christmas seems remarkably subdued this year, and I’m sure it’s not just us. In comparison to other years, the Christmas songs as stores are muted, fewer expressly-for-Christmas items are on the shelves, and the mall (at least whenever I’ve gone) is uncrowded. But Kelly is carrying the Christmas spirit for all of us. I set [...]
Since the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum is in San Jose, we happen to visit it just about every year. But this was the first year we went there after a course of study on ancient Egypt. Needless to say, we noticed and absorbed more than we had on other visits. For one thing, after taking the [...]
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 [...]
