We’ve had busy kiddo schedules lately. Aaron has t-ball practice on Monday evening and games on Saturday morning. Both boys have swim class every Tuesday evening and religious school every Sunday morning. I know it doesn’t sound like a lot, but after a full week of work/school, having weekly obligations like this (which also include gear and logistics) is definitely a change for us. It’s worth it though, we’ve all gotten so much joy and a sense of achievement over these activities. The boys are finding a connection to their Jewish culture through a more immersive experience with a community, and they’re almost ready to graduate to the next level of swim class!
But sometimes it feels like all any of us really wants is to sink into the couch and play video games ;)
It probably doesn’t help that I’ve not been feeling well lately. In mid-March something started going wrong with my “stomach” and it isn’t getting better. I’ve seen three doctors and had a bunch of diagnostic tests and a couple procedures and biopsies. I’m on a prescription that’s mostly helping, but it’s not a long term fix and I need to go back for an MRI, which I can’t get until mid June. I’m chugging along in spite of it, but some days are pretty rough.
Activity-wise, one of the first things we did when we returned from Philly last month was head up to the Chabot Space and Science Center to see the Artemis II splashdown with a bunch of other space fans. We met up with my friend mct, and got to spend a bit of time inside and out exploring exhibits before we went inside to the theater to see the final hour of preparations being streamed for the splashdown.
The boys were unusually chill for this as we talked through things that were happening on screen and they got excited for seeing the capsule land in the ocean. Then, about a minute before splashdown, the laptop running the stream showed a battery warning. They rushed to fix it, but it was too late, 30 seconds before splashdown the laptop shut off. People immediately pulled out their phones to watch it on tiny screens. It was disappointing, but it was also funny enough to counteract that somewhat. At least we were all there together to celebrate.
One of my diagnostic tests took us our to Dublin on a Saturday, where MJ ran some errands with the boys during my appointment, and then we met up to try to get a slot at our local go kart place for Adam, which we didn’t manage to get. The next day we had better luck though, and after Sunday school MJ took Adam directly to the go kart place. He’s having a lot of fun with it, and I’ve been impressed with how quickly he picked up the controls and rules on the track. Aaron and I split off and went back home to get his T-Ball pictures taken with his team, which were super cute even if they couldn’t find his jersey, oops. Fortunately, they had a spare, even if it was a little too big for him. The two of us then enjoyed a massive brunch before meeting Adam and MJ back at home.
Our next weekend kicked off with an elementary school sponsored showing of Super Mario Galaxy at our local single screen theater. It wasn’t as chaotic of an affair as The Minecraft Movie the year before, but it was still a… boisterous showing. Adam loved seeing it again and Aaron definitely enjoyed it, even if the rest of us now have to live through him shouting “I’m YOSHI!” all the time now, hah!
The next day after Aaron’s T-Ball game I headed south with one of our former au pairs to attend the baby shower of our first au pair, who is expecting her first child this summer. Baby showers are not my thing (I didn’t even have one of my own!) but our au pairs have been like family to us, so I put my apprehension aside and really enjoyed catching up with everyone.
The rest of our weekends have mostly been filled with house projects. We’re still cleaning out the garage, and have started turning the utility closet into a server room by adding some ventilation. Moving furniture, installing fans, creating holes in the walls, moving outlets. The boys have even been helpful here and there, our first weekend was spent doing some cable and pipe tracing under the house, and they jumped at the chance to do some spelunking in the crawl space under the house. Now every weekend they’re enthusiastically asking, “can we go under the house again?” I’m glad someone is excited about it. It’s also required more than a few stops at hardware stores, which the kids are less enthusiastic about. It’ll take some time to get the server rack in there and the systems moved, but we’re making good progress.
Other adventures lately have included visiting the Meta office one Friday afternoon were we could all enjoy the rooftop gardens, ice cream, and video games. I really wish I had been feeling better for that, I had to skip the ice cream (and I never say no to dessert!) and it was a bit of a tiring day.
That Sunday was the last Sunday school before summer break, and after some local errands, we drove over to San Francisco to shuffle around some storage we keep in our old condo building, and we also grabbed some dinner at the Metreon and enjoyed a few minutes on the roof deck with the gas fire pit.
The gas fire pit reminded me yet again how much the boys and I enjoy them. So in the midst of all these activities and projects, I made the case for getting a simple, propane-powered one for our own back yard. I’m glad we did. It’s nothing fancy, but the one we had delivered from the Home Depot was reasonably priced and easy for me to set up one evening. Everyone has been enjoying toasting marshmallows and making s’mores, and I look forward to some lovely summer nights coming up where I get to enjoy it while reading or playing video games.
That was my second mention of video games in this post. I’ve recently gotten back into Dreamlight Valley, and both of the boys are enamored with Minecraft. I’m playing on my Switch 2, and the boys were swapping off playing on the PlayStation 5 or my original Switch, but contention was building for mobile Switch usage when we’re traveling or doing something “boring” (like digging around storage in San Francisco). So ultimately we decided to stop by Tony’s Retro Games in Hayward to pick up a Switch Lite for Aaron to use. It was cheaper and honestly feels sturdier for a younger user, and it was there that I learned about the joycon drift issue for the Switch I had. Indeed, I’ve noticed it some, and it was getting increasingly irritating to the boys when they were playing, so I boxed my left joycon that was acting up and shipped it off to Nintendo for repair last week. I also set up one of my old laptops so Adam could play some of his school games over the summer, and we attempted to install Minecraft on it, but I think we’ll have to revisit the laptop I chose for it, because I don’t think it’s going to be powerful enough.
In my own tiny carved out space for hobbies, I’m making progress on my 3d printed index typewriter, slowly. I also was able to pitch in a little bit to the Xubuntu 26.04 launch by shipping out the stickers and Xubuntu 20th anniversary coins to winners of our wallpaper contest. As always, it’s a pleasure to work with that team and I wish I could make more time for it.
We spent the second Saturday in May attending Aaron’s t-ball game, and then walking through the Castro Valley History Festival on our way to an early Mother’s Day dinner at our favorite local restaurant.
And now I’m back to business travel! I’ve been writing this blog post on the plane, the night before my first event, and breaks I have from the booth at the Red Hat Summit in Atlanta. From here I’m off to Minneapolis for the Open Source Summit.