This summer, despite my plans to have one particularly lazy and low-key, I did not one, not two, but three crazy things I’ve never done before and hadn’t even imagined doing. In June, I volunteered as adult staff for a week a local Girl Scout camp. Kelly’s girl scout troop leader, Allison Vickery, had capriciously…
Category: Out & About
The Day of the Dead San Jose 2013
In 2011, my family and I went to the San Jose Museum of Art and made sugar skulls as part of their community day celebrating Dia de los Muertos. As we pulled them out for our Halloween decorations this year, Kelly was nostalgic, and asked to do it again. This year, the festivity took place…
A Hike to Hidden Falls in Soquel
Last weekend, I joined my daughter’s Brownie troop for their Brownie Camporee, which involved Junior Girl scouts from two local troops teaching the Brownies from 4 troops about knot tying, fire building, trail signs, and putting on silly songs and skits for others. It took place at Camp Hidden Falls in Soquel. This Girl Scout…
Dogs Need Leashes
I found myself surprisingly infuriated when yesterday a friend told me about a near-attack from a vicious dog, with an even more vicious owner. According to him, he was out and about one day when an unleashed dog ran up to him, barking and snarling. In self-defense, he grabbed his can of pepper spray, whereupon…
Psycho Saturday
After leaving Peter at the hospital, I went home to catch a few hours of sleep before I had to get up at 3:30 am and rouse the kids to take them to the San Francisco airport. Neil had an early flight to catch to visit his grandparents on the East Coast, and he was…
My Review of the Vegas Magic Theatre at the Gold Coast Casino
I took the time to write reviews on Tripadvisor about the hotels we stayed at in Las Vegas last week, since one was godawful and overpriced (The Sunset Station in Henderson), and another was a bargain and loads of fun to stay in (the Luxor.) But I couldn’t write about the show we saw, because…
How It Is That I’ve Stopped Going Out to Movies
Last weekend, our family went to see a movie in a movie theatre for the first time in 2011. It also happened to be the weekend fewer people went to see a movie than had done so in the two weeks after 9/11. So how did we get to this situation? I love entertainment, and…
I See Stupid People
I don’t typically think of other people as stupid. I realize they may have different information or a different background than my own, or that the information they’ve been given wasn’t as clear as it should be. But every so often, like last Friday, I do run across someone who is epically stupid, to the…
The Day of the Dead and Aztec tradition
Until recently, the Mexican Day of the Dead was something I’d only read about in old Ray Bradbury stories. More recently, it’s become an artsy event for urban Californians, and this year we went to the San Jose Art Museum for their Day of the Dead festival. One of the highlights for us was making…
Camping at Pyramid Lake in Nevada
Peter chafes at absurd rules, and one of these is the rules that we can’t buy or shoot off fireworks for the fourth of July in our Californian town, despite the fact that budget cuts have also cancelled the annual downtown festival where we had a public display. So, one recent weekend, he drove all…