On Friday, Neil’s school had a movie night where we could it on the lawn and watch “Night at the Museum” on a large screen. It was a lot of fun being outside with other families, and “Night at the Museum” is a great movie. However, as Octavius, a Roman general appeared on screen, Peter…
Category: Out & About
A Guitar Hero Party, Mother’s Day, and Winning the Chicken Dance
We had quite a full weekend of fun, and I’m just going to try to encapsulate it in this one posting. On Saturday morning, Peter took Neil to the Scout-o-Rama, while I took Kelly to the Stanford Powwow. And afterwards, we had a barbecue party! Shiaw-Ling is our party enabler, so she organized it, and…
The Stanford Powwow
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…
How I Made Some Brats Behave
Last year, our family had a VIP pass for Great America, which also got us into Bonfante Gardens. Great America turned out to be a great disappointment because it wasn’t very family friendly at all, and on the few rides geared towards children, there was a nasty problem of line cutting. Park signs said line…
Pear Slices 2007
Yesterday Peter and I went to see 9 new short plays at our favorite Bay Area theatre, The Pear. We both love seeing new original work, but the current state of the arts left me in some trepidation. Often, new staged works seem to be chosen merely to impress the producer’s peers, not a more…
The Hacienda Spring Fling
The biggest fundraiser for Neil’s school is their annual Spring Fling, which combines a Walk-a-thon with a silent auction. This year, the theme was pirates, and after Neil walked enough laps to score a pirate bandana, Kelly snagged it and put it on. Here she is doing her best to deliver a piraty snarl: In…
The Fancy Nancy Party
Kelly’s book obsession and my need to get out of the house means that we are going to a lot of storytimes these days: libraries, book stores, even upscale baby clothes stores: if someone’s going to be reading a book out loud, we’re there. So far, however, the best storytime, hands on, is the one…
Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s San Jose
Since there is a Ben & Jerry’s near his Santa Clara office, Peter found out yesterday that it was free cone day at Ben & Jerry’s. Hey, we love ice cream, and we love free ice cream even more, especially when it comes from a yummy ice cream vendor like Ben & Jerry’s. And so…
Richard Avedon at the Cantor Museum
The Cantor Art Museum on the Stanford University campus is one of my favorite art museums. It’s not as big or as prestigious as the de Young Museum or the Legion of Honor, but unlike the other museums, it has the feel of being curated by an enthusiastic art professor, hoping to get his students…
Hiking Around Arastradero Lake
Yesterday, I took my children for a short hike around Arastradero Lake in the Arastradero Preserve. If you’re a regular visitor of varied parks, the Arastradero Preserve is like the Hollywoodized, that is almost unrealistically pleasant, version of parklands. On this day alone, we encountered friendly joggers; cheerful dog owners with a dog eager to…