That week my Aunt Mary Ellen and Uncle Joe were drifting through town following a conference in Napa and we made plans to meet up. The boys were excited by the prospect of a ride up to San Francisco, but then some plans shifted and it was rainy. We made the best of it though, instead of meeting up early for dinner, the boys and I took BART, MUNI
Metro, and then hopped on a Caltrain for a few stops before taking BART back downtown to meet for dinner. It was a lot of trains for what amounted to a big loop, but the boys have been asking to go on Caltrain for quite some time, and I figured this was the perfect opportunity. It was also a nice opportunity for us to pause and have some snacks since Caltrain is the one local train that they can eat on!

After the trains, I took the boys up to the roof deck at the condo (between tenants right now) to take in the gorgeous sights of downtown San Francisco at night. Adam actually gasped at the sight when we got up there. It really is beautiful.

We met MJ in the city and met my aunt and uncle for dinner at Fogo de Chao for a lovely dinner. It was really nice to see them, it was our fourth attempt to see them in the span of 18 months, which every other plan being ruined by illness (COVID, flu). We had a nice time finally catching up, and it was the first time that Joe was able to meet the boys, and the first time Mary Ellen met Adam. They boys did great, actually engaging in conversation rather than instantly demanding their phones for TV, which was nice. We definitely kept them up too late though, Aaron fell asleep on his chair toward the end, and they both zonked out in the car on the drive home. Carrying Aaron out of the restaurant, I completely forgot to get a family photo! Whoops. Next time.

The first week of November concluded by celebrating Gaby’s last birthday with us. I finally succeeded in making brigadeiro! With her help. And we picked up a custom cake that I had ordered the week before. Adam decorated, which is how we ended up with jungle animals on the tablecloth, hah!

We then had a rather chill Saturday that concluded by attending the Castro Valley Light Parade. It’s funny, we’ve lived in Castro Valley since 2018, but this is the first time I actually managed to see the parade! I was either working or traveling, and one year life with little kids meant we simply made it out of the house too late to see the parade. But I finally saw it!

Aaron got a light-up balloon that he swiftly asked me to hold (I’m glad we only got one!) and after about 45 minutes of parade the boys had enough and we walked out to our favorite restaurant just down the Boulevard. It was enough to get a nice taste of the parade though, and we really love enjoying events in town with the rest of our neighbors.

MJ flew out for a work trip later that night, so the boys and I had Sunday to ourselves as we did swim class, haircuts, and a trip to one of their favorite playgrounds. That evening, Aaron and I made banana bread for his monthly school project where he also got to draw the ingredients and take pictures. For a quiet weekend, it was surprisingly tiring!

We spent the week with normal life stuff, lots of school and work and random things like appointments, including a follow-up to check on Aaron’s infection (getting better!). The next day, he fell off his bike and landed on his face, earning him another visit to the urgent care. Thankfully, he was OK, having narrowly escaped getting stitches on his lip. Yeesh. Kids.

The next morning we were up bright and early for a Saturday morning garage sale! The boys and I go to a lot of garage sales, and Adam has been talking about his desire to have one of our own for over a year, but we’d never done one ourselves. We didn’t take the request very seriously because sitting in our yard for hours for a few bucks doesn’t sound like fun, but with Gaby heading back to Brazil soon she was looking to sell a bunch of things so she could have a lighter collection of things to bring home. Well, if Gaby wanted to do a garage sale, we might as well toss some of our things in too!

I don’t think I thought it through completely. Garage sales are actually quite a bit of work, from developing the listing online and putting signs around the neighborhood, to figuring out what we’ll get rid of. Then actually setting up, and then cleaning up when we were done! It was nice to get rid of a bunch of stuff, and the $100 we got for it was nice, but it wasn’t nearly enough to make me want to do it again any time soon. Next time we’re going to just make some donations, maybe sell the higher value things on a local Marketplace board or something. Don’t tell Adam, he’s already making plans for our next one.

That evening, we picked up our new au pair from the airport! She had a week of overlap with Gaby so she could settle in and get shown the kiddo care routines. I was grateful for all of this, since both MJ and I have been slammed with work lately, and it would have been a real challenge for either of us take off time from work right now.

The weekend wound down with a visit to our local Lego reseller shop where we all had some fun digging through Lego bins for a couple projects we have in the works (including one related to work which led to: “We have to go to the Lego store.” “Have to?” “It’s for work!” “I doubt it.” hah!). We also started prepping for our Thanksgiving trip to Philly and generally trying to get things in order for the winter holidays.

Mix in with all this, I’ve also been doing a lot more cat care than I expected. I haven’t written about it much here, but it turns out our beloved Zara came to us with a paw and tail wound that have been taking forever to heal. Her paw seems better now, but the tail wound became infected with MRSA and is proving to be a lot more stubborn. We’ve tried a whole slew of treatments which I’ll write about at some point, but it’s been a lot.

Still, she’s an absolute sweetheart who continues to love her wild human brothers, so she is still the right cat for us. Thankfully, as Gaby enjoys some vacation time before returning home, she agreed to watch Zara and take care of her, even taking her to a specialist vet visit that was really tricky the schedule. I hope she starts to heal up soon, but at least she’s in good hands while we’re in Philly this week.

One evening after school we went over to the pumpkin patch and handful of carnival rides that we can see from the highway. It’s expensive for what it is, with the rides all being pretty quick and forgettable, but I kept our activities within some clear parameters as we all had a good time, even if I still hate bumper cars.

A week before Halloween was the Halloween carnival at the elementary school. This is always a fun one for the boys, and it was the first year that it was Aaron’s school too! As usual, they had lots of little activities set up around the schoolyard to play and win prizes at. I really enjoyed the photographer who got a great picture of the boys and I (rare, since I’m usually holding the camera!) and I’m grateful that the pumpkins the boys picked out from the little pumpkin patch there weren’t too big for the walk back to the car.

Over the weekend we met up with my friend James at Hiller Aviation Museum. With MJ traveling throughout a chunk of October, it was nice to have another adult join me on a Halloween-themed adventure! In this case, it was a pumpkin drop from a helicopter, because, why not?

They had kids sign their name on the pumpkin that would be dropped, which was fun until Aaron realized the pumpkin would be completely smashed upon landing, along with his name. Oops.

They had Halloween-themed games and crafts set up throughout the space, and then a “Haunted Hanger” with a TON of spooky decorations throughout their exhibit space. We enjoyed making our way through the exhibits before the pumpkin drop, but we wasted no time getting outside in time to see the pumpkin get loaded into the helicopter and take off.

They had everyone stand behind a temporary fence and look away as little rocks and dust were kicked up during take-off, and then we all got to go over to the runway fence to see the helicopter actually drop the pumpkin. It did a couple loops before the drop and I have to admit, the actual drop was a little anticlimactic. We were close, but a pumpkin compared to a runway is quite small! Still, it was an amusing activity, and if nothing else the boys LOVED being so close to a running helicopter. Me too.

See that little dot? That’s the pumpkin.

The next day the boys and I glimpsed outside to see some gloom and potential rain, but there was another Halloween activity to get to! The park next to the school the boys go to was hosting a Halloween Make-a-thon where kids got to go to various tables to do crafts. It’s the first year they did it, and all of the volunteers seemed pretty overwhelmed with the constant flow of kids clamoring to do the crafts – even with the threatening weather! I suspect they need a bit more organization and volunteers next year, but I see a lot of potential.

As the event wound down, we went to the indoor space where I enjoyed making Halloween-themed magic wands more than anyone else, but Adam got to finish his scavenger hunt, which was quite satisfying for him. When we went to leave, the rain had finally showed up, so we waited a few minutes for it to calm down before our soggy walk back to the car, but thankfully we didn’t get too wet.

The final activity before Halloween was pumpkin carving. After work on Thursday, the day before Halloween, was the time we chose for it because of how quickly the pumpkins grow mold here, even when outside in the shade. We had someone over who has been helping with the boys, and she was delighted to help Adam carve his giant pumpkin into a cat, and Aaron and I got to work on the bat design he picked.

The both came out beautifully, but I’m glad I didn’t give in to their request to carve any more, because as expected, the adults did the vast majority of the work. Still, we had fun and the boys were enthusiastic throughout the whole process.

And then it was Halloween! MJ was home for Halloween and donned a Zoo Keeper costume, since he’d be herding around a cat and a bat all evening as we trick-or-treated. I went with a witch costume, and joked we were going with the classics this year. Our old au pair and current au pair joined us for the evening as well, which was really nice. We stay always stay in our neighborhood for Halloween, which gives us an opportunity to see and meet neighbors.

We also have several neighbors who go all out with Halloween decorations and activities, some of which are scarier than others. And enough of our neighbors in general participate in the holiday so the walking:candy ratio is perfect for us.

The boys got to bed much later than expected as they raided their candy bowls, enjoyed handing out candy to other kids who came later, and generally got to enjoy spending time with Gaby and Rebeca. It was a great night.

The Castro Valley Fall Festival took place on September 6th and 7th. The first day the boys got to visit a petting zoo, but the day was cut a bit short by a kiddo stomach ache.

We went back for day two so we could walk through the whole festival, and the boys enjoyed going on a bungee bouncing thing.

Last week I was able to sneak out for an evening to go see Hamilton at our local theater. The 10th anniversary release was really fun to see, even if I didn’t quite anticipate spending 3 hours on it. It included an introduction with interviews from the original cast reflecting on the experience and anniversary, and also included a 10 minute intermission. It all took me back to where I was 10 years ago, and just how much I loved the whole Hamilton experience as I fell in love with the soundtrack, and finally saw the show live in San Francisco.

The boys have continued swim classes, which are going well but they changed pools on us recently, which means we don’t have the fun opportunity to see an Amtrak train zooming through on a perfectly timed journey to the pool now. Fortunately, on our last Sunday at the last pool we got to see it, and the pool they moved us to is actually a lot nicer and isn’t much further away.

Day to day there’s been a lot of playing with our new cat, Zara, and doing little tasks around the house. The other day Adam helped me vacuum out the van so we could install a new all-weather mat in the back. MJ and I have been going through some paperwork to continue our organization project and clear out some of our storage areas.

I’ve also been trying, unsuccessfully, to resurrect one of our old servers. We have a couple small systems that we used for backups and media when we lived in San Francisco, but over time the raid arrays on those spinning disks died and the systems failed. I figured that bringing them back up would just be a matter of replacing the disks and doing some reconfiguration, but it’s been dreadful. VGA output appeared to have failed on one of the mother boards, so I moved everything over to the other system and then I was getting inconsistent booting even after I sorted out UEFI. I finally got it booted and the RAID5 array built, rebooted it, and VGA this system isn’t working, even in POST. Argh. Why? I guess it’s my fault trying to bring back old x86 systems. Even if it had worked, it wouldn’t be satisfying like getting my RISC-V SBC going a few months ago. Right now it’s just a disappointing time sink. I might try a few more things, but I’m close to giving up and starting again with new hardware and a more modern disk configuration.

And while I’m talking about old hardware, I hauled out my never-used Mycroft Mark I device recently. That’s been causing me a lot of headaches too, but at least there’s more novelty to it. I’ll write up a full blog post about it if I ever do get it running with something interesting. Right now I might be facing some hardware issues AND a system that’s simply too old to run some of the home assistant software that lives in the forks designed for it. I guess I’ll see how it goes. Computers, man.

Their former au pair, Rebeca, made them signs!

But the summer season wasn’t over yet! The final week of our local swim lagoon being opened lasted a couple weeks past the start of school, so our au pair took the boys one Friday afternoon after school. I tagged along with my work laptop in case she needed help with anything (she didn’t!) and so I could soak up some of the summer weather too inside the beach tent with my laptop.

After being dormant last year following some necessary, but invasive, pruning our plum tree is back this year with lots of plums! The boys have been helping me pick and eat them, and we grabbed a couple pounds to once again make some of our annual plum jam.

And then we picked a bunch of apples from the apple tree and I made apple butter for the first time. I used this recipe and would probably let it cook a bit longer to thicken it up more next time, but I think it came out really nicely. Next time I’ll also need to be more careful with my arm while chopping 5lbs of tiny apples, my elbow has been howling for days. I also need to figure out more things to do with apple butter, but so far putting it on toasted challah and waffles have both been winning approaches.

Our weekends have been rather laid back this month, one Saturday was particularly so when a transformer exploded down the street, plunging our whole neighborhood into an outage for nearly 20 hours. The explosion was so bad that it took out part of the top of the pole, there was a visible flame for about 20 minutes, and the fire department came by with a truck to close off the area until the power company arrived. Thankfully, there didn’t seem to be any other damage, and with a trickle from our solar panels (cloud day!) our Powerwalls remained charged enough to get us through the day. We were still careful about usage (oh no, I can’t do laundry or use the oven!) and it was cool enough that we didn’t need the air conditioning, but overall it was very nice to be able to get through almost a day of outage without it impacting our lives much.

We spent that Sunday afternoon in San Francisco to visit the new Nintendo store. MJ accurately described it as “a Disney store, but for Nintendo” and I was totally in love. On weekends they still have a line outside to make sure the store doesn’t get too packed, but it moved along quickly and we were able to pick up some goodies. Adam and I also got to play Mario Kart World on a massive screen, which was a ton of fun. Going with the boys was certainly a delight, especially with how much Adam loves Mario Kart, but I also snuck back a few days later to peruse things myself more slowly and buy a few things I had left behind.

In boring house stuff, we’ve been doing a lot of planning to get our storage situation more under control. We own some storage space in San Francisco, and are hoping to get that organized so we can begin to use that more effectively and empty out the garage a bit. It’s slow going, but honestly we just need to start chipping away at it. It was nice to discover a wire rack we had never opened while at the storage unit though, it fit perfectly in one of our closets here and meant I could get to work on some of that organization without buying anything, hurrah! I’ve also been working through a bunch of little tasks around the house, like changing filters, replacing a light bulb outside (more complicated than it sounds!), and replacing the steering wheel on Adam’s favorite fire truck toy. I’ll give myself a “C” on the fire truck fix, it works but I could have done better.

We also welcomed MJ’s friend Matti over for a few days this month. The boys really enjoyed seeing her, and she was kind enough to stay with the boys one night so MJ and I could take a little parent vacation at a hotel in the city. We hardly ever (never?) get away together for more than a meal, partially due to some family circumstances, but largely just a habit that was developed because we had young children during a pandemic. We really should find a way to make this happen more often.

That Saturday she was visiting was also Castro Valley Cruise Night, our annual event where classic car enthusiasts are invited to town to cruse up and down the Boulevard. I talk a lot about how much I love the events our town hosts, and this is one of the best. So many people come out, and we all love cars so it’s always such a pleasure to spend a little time at. Plus, we can easily walk there because we live downtown! So we walked over to dinner, and then leisurely walked home to enjoy the cars at sunset.

August wasn’t all roses though. Part of the reason we’ve been doing more chill weekends was because MJ injured his finger quiet badly while doing some household repairs a couple weeks ago, and the boys have been simply exhausted with their new school schedule. Adam has longer days, and Aaron is going to school every day now (instead of his previous M,W,F preschool schedule). It’s leading to a bit more grumpiness than we’re used to, and it’s clear the boys have really missed having time to just relax to TV or video games. Going on adventures is grand, but some days the heart just wants a whole lot of Minecraft and Bluey.

With MJ traveling, the boys and I spent the first Sunday of the month visiting a flea market in town, where I found a Disney’s Pinocchio picture vinyl – the same one my family had when I was a kid!

We then went over to The Chabot theater for an afternoon showing of the new live-action Lilo & Stitch. This is only the second time our boys had been to a movie theater, and the first time we went to one that wasn’t a special event. They did great! The movie was cute and the boys had a good time, but the live-action remakes aren’t really my thing.

I took Monday and Thursday off from work to do other summer things with Gaby (our au pair) and the boys. Monday it was a visit back to the Cull Canyon swimming lagoon for swimming! Unfortunately the weather was on the cooler side, so there weren’t a lot of people there and we were a bit chilly. We still had fun though, got to swim a bit, have some PB&J sandwiches, and try out the beach tent and wagon we bought after our first visit.

We picked up the wagon at Costco, and it collapses really nicely. The beach tent came from REI, and it’s not one of the easy pop-up ones, but setting it up is easily done with a single person and a few minutes of focus. It was actually good chilly and our visit to short to use the tent, but I could see it really coming in handy during longer visits on warmer days.

On my Thursday off I took everyone up to Fairyland in Oakland. It’s been on our list for a while, and I realized that at 4 and 6, Adam at least would age out of it in a couple years. Now was the perfect time to go! Gaby and I packed up a bunch of snacks and drove up. Parking was easy and it wasn’t busy when we arrived. The park is also celebrating their 75th anniversary this year, so at ticketing we got our Fairyland keys that were decorated with sparkles for the anniversary. So cute!

As one of the first theme parks, it inspired many others over the years, notably among them being Disneyland. I suspect it’s seen better days with fresher coats of paint, but these aren’t things that kids notice, and to Adam and Aaron it was one of their favorite days out in a while. There are lots of places to run and climb, there was a little train that we rode a couple times, and the carousel and Ferris wheel were kids-only, which they thought was pretty fun(ny). There was a giant (kids-only) dragon slide that they went down about a half dozen times, and they both thought it was hilarious to hide inside various little houses inspired by fairy tales.

We saw a puppet show at 11AM, during which we followed the lead of a bunch of other families in using the opportunity to have the kids enjoy their PB&J sandwiches. The Pinocchio puppet show was cute, but Aaron and I were quite distracted by a squirrel who understood it was lunch time and got very close to us in his efforts to take Aaron’s sandwich.

It was also great that they allow outside food, and even the in-park food didn’t seem wildly priced, maybe we’ll check it out next time. I think going on a Thursday morning was a good choice too, even if it required a day off from work, it meant there were virtually no lines and even the school groups that were there didn’t make the park feel full. In all, the place was pretty low-stress and enjoyable for all of us, as soon as we left the boys were asking when we could go again.

MJ returned from his work trip late on Thursday night, just in time for us to enjoy Father’s Day weekend! Saturday was spent at the annual Castro Valley Car Show. One of the reasons we delayed our trip to Philadelphia was to avoid missing local summer events like this, so it was nice that we got to go this year. Adam even found a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, famously the same car that KITT is in Knight Rider, though this one was white and I think it was from 1983 (the one in the show is a 1982).

Sunday featured a trip out to the Hiller Aviation Museum for Father’s Day! They had some activities for the kids, but they didn’t seem too interested in them, so we skipped them in favor of the standing exhibits, including a 747 that we went in twice, and a large gallery of various other aircraft.

We also took the recommendation of a woman in the gift shop who said we should check out Sky Kitchen just across the runway at the San Carlos Airport for a kid-friendly lunch, which definitely hit the spot. Afterwards, it was easy to come back and check out a few things we didn’t get to before lunch, and to spend a little time in the gift shop. We also ended up getting a membership because we all really enjoyed it and there was more we wanted to see.

And then it was the countdown to our trip to Philadelphia! The boys and I finished a jigsaw puzzle that we’d been working on for a few weeks and I wanted to finish before we left.

I also took a long lunch one day and went bowling with Gaby and the boys to make sure we had our fun with the Kids Bowl Free pass once more before we left (though we will have some time in August to use it too). Leaving for six weeks is always a bit nerve-wracking for me as we prep the house, make sure we don’t forget anything, and get our house sitter all set up, but I paced myself as much as I could and made extensive use of lists, and it wasn’t as chaotic as it usually is. I’m definitely glad we didn’t leave right after school ended, it was really nice to do California summer for a little while before Philly summer began.

Adam’s graduation from Kindergarten was a week later and we were all able to attend that, and conclude the day with a graduation cake for both of them and dinner at Fogo de Chão!

And then it was time for a few weeks of California summer! Last year we left for summer in Philadelphia directly after Adam concluded school, which meant we couldn’t do anything in California before we left, and I was pretty disappointed about that. California is gorgeous, and in spite of nice weather year around, there still are seasons for things like swimming and boating and it was a shame to miss that. This year, we didn’t!

When I returned from Boston, we went to Ardenwood Historic Farm for their annual Rail Fair. The last time we were at Ardenwood the train wasn’t running, so our first stop was getting to ride on that.

From there, we met with folks from the Western Pacific Railway Museum where we learned about their Run-A-Locomotive program where an instructor teaches you how to run a diesel locomotive and then you get to run one on their grounds! We are 100% going to do that. They were also really kind to the boys, both of whom asked a lot of questions and they were happy to indulge.

Several areas were also set up with model trains, which is always a lot of fun. Perhaps the most fun was the Live Steam group from the Bay Area Garden Railway Society whose model trains ran on actual steam. Some use little pieces of coal for the boiler, others some type of gas or alcohol solution. Very involved, but also very cool.

We spent the following weekend with a lot of water. First up, was our first visit to Cull Canyon Swim Complex! Gaby had gone a couple weeks earlier and reported that there wasn’t a lot of sand, which was important for one of our very sand-adverse kiddos. We went on a rather warm day, so it was already crowded by the time we got there, in spite of getting there rather early. Still, we had fun! And promptly made plans to buy some additional supplies from Costco and REI for our next visit so we could enjoy our time there for longer. On our list: Beach tent, beach chairs, and a collapsible wagon.

The next day it was over to Lake Chabot for paddle boats! We had considered going to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco to enjoy the paddle boats there, but the boys didn’t want the long drive, and we were slightly concerned about crowds. None of those problems at the Lake 10 minutes from home!

We quickly learned that paddle boats are quite tiring, hah! Adam and MJ started the journey, but Adam and I very carefully swapped places on the boat halfway through so I could take over for him and MJ and I could get us back to to the wharf. It was fun, but we all agreed that next time we’ll take out one of the motor boats so we can focus more on the scenery and less on paddling.

For some indoor summertime fun, we enrolled the boys in the Kids Bowl Free program that our local bowling alley participates in. It’s funny though, in over seven years of living here all of our au pairs have taken the boys bowling, but MJ and I had never been! So the other morning I took them over to get them checked in and watch them wildly throw a few balls down the lanes. I should participate next time.

It’s been fun, and we have more to do! I took a couple days off this week so we could enjoy a few more fun things and avoid the weekend summer crowds. Plus, after the whirlwind that was April and May at work, I could use a break.

I also took the opportunity of being up in the city to go over to the San Francisco Modern Art Museum (SFMOMA). I hadn’t been in years, and I was looking for something nearby to where I was to spend a peaceful afternoon. I’m not a fan of abstract art, so modern art museums are sometimes a bit tricky for me, but if I stick to the more real stuff, I tend to enjoy it. One of the things I quite enjoyed was seeing the Daisy with Rider collotype by Eadweard Muybridge, but not because he was a good person, quite the opposite. I had recently started listening to the History on Trial podcast, and back in 2024 she did an episode called The Motion Picture Murder that I had listened to just a few days before, and it was about Muybridge. What timing!

I spent the night in a hotel in the city, which was a bit of a last minute decision because we happened to have a free night to use and I was attending the RSA Conference expo hall the next day. It worked out nicely, I got up early and went to the pool, which was a glorious way to relax before a busy day. I popped over to Moscone Center just after opening time for the expo hall. There, I met up with some open source folks I had planned to see, incidentally saw a few others, dropped by the IBM booth to get a lead on some AI stuff I’d been looking into, and had a lovely lunch with a friend who was in town.

On the weekend of May the 4th we had a somewhat Star Wars and Lego themed weekend. On that Saturday we went to Brick by Brick, our local used Lego store to pick up some Star Wars mini-figs that were on sale. While we were there we discovered a new used video game shop in the same small shopping plaza, genius location! We got a couple Nintendo DS games for Adam, along with another Lego game for the PlayStation. They buy old consoles as well, and seemed very interested in my R2-D2 Xbox 360. I’ll have to think about it, but it’s doing no good sitting in a box in the closet. On our way home, MJ dropped Aaron and I off at our local comic book store for Free Comic Book Day and we had a lovely walk home together from there. On Sunday we went over to the mall to the Lego store for their Star Wars releases, since Adam was quite eager to pick up Lego Chopper since I showed it to him a few weeks ago. I think that might be our next build once we finish my big R2-D2.

Mother’s Day began with swim class! I had thought about an adventure out to a museum or something, but work has been incredibly intense lately and I was honestly just feeling tired and wanted to have a chill day. We had lunch at our usual cafe and then dinner out at a local brewery, which is a great Mother’s Day spot since they don’t tend to be very busy that day, and I love beer!

With spring here, the boys are spending a lot of time outside (and so am I!). Aaron recently went from riding his bike like a balance bike to getting the pedals on. He’s really excited to be riding on two wheels like his brother, and we’re really proud of him for catching on and doing it all without training wheels. With how well both the boys did, I’m now a firm believer in balance first bicycle training.

Our town has an annual rodeo parade, which was cancelled last year due to some organizational restructuring and returned this year with a small festival attached. The festival was a great addition, there were tents out with various local businesses, along with food vendors and music. The parade itself was cute, though I wish it wasn’t so spaced out and that the horses were scattered throughout instead of being mostly at the end, since that’s what everyone seemed to enjoy the most. Still, it was a lovely way for us to spend the afternoon.

The end of the school year is creeping up, and with that the elementary school had an open house. So the evening before I flew out for a work trip to Boston, the boys and I went over to the school to visit Adam’s current classroom and say hello to the teacher he’ll have when August rolls around and the new school year begins.

Then I was off to Boston!

First up was a trip down to Ardenwood Historic Farm. I’ve been wanting to go for a long time because they have a vintage train there you can ride, but what brought us down this time was their annual sheep shearing event. I wasn’t sure how the boys would feel about it, but they definitely had an interest. Aside from some timing issues and a much more crowded event than I expected, it was a good time. We got to wander around the farm and see lots of old farming equipment and animals, and then made our way over to the sheep shearing area where Aaron got to pet some sheep.

If we go again, it seems like going after noon is best for avoiding the crowds. And the train has been put away for maintenance, so hopefully next time we’ll have an opportunity to ride on that too.

Last weekend we made our way over to a book sale by our local library book organization and plant sale put on by our local garden club. The book sale is always a hit, though I didn’t come out with as many treasures as I had hoped. The plant sale was a lot of fun though. We aren’t the best at keeping plants alive, but the boys love gardening, so I’ve been setting plant watering reminders and trying to come up with strategies to be more thoughtful about plant care. We’ll see how it goes, we picked up five plants: rainbow cherry tomato, raspberry, Celosia Flamingo Feather, spider plant, and a geranium. I think most of them will do OK, but I am worried about the fragile little tomato plant.

We observed Passover recently with a Seder at home. It’s been an interesting time marker and opportunity to see how much the boys have matured, as we’ve never really managed to make our way through the Haggadah since we had kids. Last year Adam loved the search for the afikomen, but ignored most other things. This time I wouldn’t say they were fully engaged, but they did go through several of the seder activities with us and mostly stayed at the table during a seder that hit the important points. I’m really proud of them, and glad we can share this with them now. They still didn’t enjoy the brisket meal, but Aaron seems to love matzoh ball soup, even if he hasn’t quite figured out eating soup without wearing a good amount of it.

This spring has brought a several days of gloomy weather as well as new found sunshine and warmth. On one gloomy evening, we already had plans to take the boys to see their first movie in a theater. A Minecraft Movie was playing at our local one-screen, historic theater, and the elementary school booked a showing, and we figured it was a good opportunity in case the boys weren’t as quiet or settled as is appropriate for that setting. It was wild. Before it began there were kids literally climbing the walks, hopping on the stage, running around, and even during the movie it wasn’t exactly quiet in there. Aaron did talk a little during the movie to ask questions, but overall I was really happy with how it went. The movie was fun for all of us too.

Another rainy weekend was spent changing light bulbs. It wasn’t planned like that exactly, we had a few things on our house list and light bulbs were an afterthought, but when we discovered that the recessed lighting were canned lights, it basically derailed everything. What’s a canned light? You have to replace the whole thing? The ones we had are nearly 20 years old and not made anymore?! Thankfully, the holes in the ceiling are standard size for canned lights, so it wasn’t hard to order a half dozen and do a big replacement project the next day. We also scoured the house for a bunch of others to replace, including the one in the bathroom the kids use. In that one, I also took down the entire lovely, art deco glass feature and cleaned it, which I’ve never done (we’ve lived here for 7 years, hah!). In the end, our house has much better lighting and Adam told us he never wants to change light bulbs again. I guess it wasn’t exactly an exciting weekend for him.

In between all this, April brought two vague illnesses through the house during which the boys had mild fevers and sore throats. I’m grateful that no one else got sick, but it did cause some missed school and swim classes, which is always a bummer. The recovery isn’t fun for anyone either, since they both want to go on grand adventures, but I know they need rest to recover, even if they refuse to accept that. This weekend is more of the same, probably no light bulbs this time but we do have some projects on our list and a kid recovering from the latest ailment.

Fortunately, I have a great life, so personal hardship doesn’t make it worse. I also don’t have depression that’s debilitating enough to keep me from work and from the care of myself or loved ones. I am grateful for this, I know how lucky I am. It’s very hard some days, but it’s still possible to cope, even if I’m not feeling like my best self. And keeping our lives activity-filled on weekends does help keep my mind off how I’m feeling.

Retail therapy and seeing something to completion also help a little, perhaps unfortunately, but it did mean that finally getting a couch ordered and delivered for my office was a high point. We’ve actually done this before, but the couch was moved into the family room and we really like having it there, so we ordered an identical one to replace the one in my office. It’s actually a sofa bed, but it’s not a traditional one with a thin mattress, it’s the Serta Ainsley (Monroe on Wayfair) and it’s quite comfortable both as a couch and a bed. Since my home office doubles as a guest room, it’s nice to finally have it back, plus it’s a comfy spot to work from when the mood strikes.

We’ve been getting out around town lately, and the end of August brought one of our favorite events, Castro Valley Cruise Night! People bring their antique, vintage, and tricked out cars from all around the area to simply cruise down the boulevard. It’s just a couple blocks from home, so it makes for a very easy event for us to attend. A few booths from local law enforcement and emergency services are set up to meet the community, big speakers for music are set up midtown, and the community really shows up with folding chairs and snacks to hang out and enjoy the cars. It’s one of those events where we really feel community, and it’s energizing and makes me proud of our diverse little town. After doing some walking, we ended up at our favorite sushi place for dinner, and then got to enjoy the rest of the sunset and walk home and keep the boys out too late, oops. But we all had fun.

Last weekend we made it back over to the Chabot Space & Science Center for their first Friday event, and this month it was Science Fiction themed! We’re members, so it was a free event for us, but it would have been worth the price of admission. We were delighted to discover that the Sacramento Astromech Builders brought a couple droids that responded to activity, so the boys and I had a great time engaging with them. They also had face and arm painting of space designs, which Aaron was eager to get, and then Adam was too once he saw how great Aaron’s turned out. Since the event ran from 6-10PM we got to peek into the telescopes before and after sunset. Before sunset we went to their two smaller, older telescopes to see a couple stars, which were just pinpoints of light. After sunset we went over to their biggest telescope and saw the Ring Nebula! Aaron especially really seemed to enjoy that it looks a bit like a doughnut.

I didn’t realize until I got home that I was also wearing R2-D2 socks!

Aaron sits for some arm art

That Saturday marked the Castro Valley Fall Festival, which, yes, is held at the end of summer. It was warm out, but thankfully not overwhelmingly so, and we were able to enjoy a couple of hours there. I bought a couple local themed t-shirts from an artist there and we had some good food truck snacks. One booth had watercolor paining that the boys enjoyed, and there was a petting zoo! Aaron got a pony ride while Adam spent some time with older kids on a climbing structure.

Every Sunday morning the day has begun with the boys in swim classes. We actually started when we were in Philadelphia back in June and did them through July, then took a break in August as we settled back into school routines here in California. They’re held at a gym that’s about a 10 minute drive or 20 minute walk and single stop BART train ride. So far we’ve done both, and the boys definitely prefer the BART ride when it’s warm enough to take a stroll through parking lots and down sidewalks in their bathing suits and towels.

I’m happy to say that as of yesterday, they both graduated the first level of swim survival classes! Next Sunday they’ll have their first “Minnow” lessons, having completed the “Starfish” level. Luckily for us, they had openings in the same time slot, so it won’t be a big change for any of us.

We’ve also been putting some thought into what other activities to sign them up for. I feel like this is one of those things that really blind-sided me as a parent. I vaguely of knew about extracurricular activities, but it takes a lot of work on the part of the parents, and there’s a lot of pressure to sign your kid up for the “right” one. I’ve watched with a bit of shock how hard it is to get into some activities and the lengths people go to in order to get on the right lists and programs. Then I discovered that ones that are almost as good seem to have open availability. I obviously want our kids to be served well by the programs they’re in, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned about parenthood it’s that the needs and values of the whole family need to always be factored in when making decisions about what we commit to. We’ll see what fits the criteria for us in the coming months.

We went on a lot of adventures. Possibly too many. The first day they were here we spent a lot of time on public transit making our way around San Francisco. We took BART up in the late morning and then immediately took a historic street car over to Fisherman’s Wharf where we finally got to ride the SkyStar Wheel (Ferris wheel). From there they did a little tourist shopping before we headed up to Ghirardelli Square.

Someone remind me never to go to Ghirardelli Square for ice cream on a summer weekend again. It was never a calm experience, but now it’s pure chaos. It’s loud, you hover over a table to find seating, and it’s quite the opposite of relaxing. We did eventually find a table to enjoy our ice cream, but I think Aaron was a little tired at this point so I had to sit with him for a while to calm down after he had a huge tantrum over not getting to finish the brownie on the sundae (it was offered to him multiple times!). Honestly, next time I might just take visiting friends and family to the Factory Store in San Leandro, it has a lovely little ice cream cafe that is enjoyable to eat in.

Once Aaron had calmed down and everyone used the restrooms the next thing on our agenda was riding on a cable car. We hopped on a bus and made our way down Van Ness to pick up the California Street cable car at the end. Unfortunately that’s when we learned that the cable cars had shut down for the day due to the Vice President visiting for a campaign fundraiser that happened to be taking place at a hotel located on the cable car lines. Thanks, Secret Service. Taking a peek at the time, we made a diversion to a nearby Grubstake Diner that MJ had heard good things about. It didn’t disappoint! The bus ride to Civic Center there did disappoint though. It’s not the best part of town, the bus was late, and I think that particular adventure was a lot for my sheltered Maine relatives, hah! Still, it got us safely to BART and all three of the kids fell asleep on the train ride home.

Sunday I wanted to be a bit more chill since everyone was tired, so we had a quiet morning at home together, and then decided to head up to Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland to finally visit the Chabot Space & Science Center. It was amazing!

The gems of the center are definitely the telescopes, and we’ll be back for some of their telescope events in the near future. It was fun checking out the exhibits, and there was a lot of interactive and play stuff there too, which will be nice to take more time with when we go there with just the boys.

They also have a planetarium that does shows all day, and I love planetariums. It’s also a gentle introduction to a theater environment for our rambunctious kiddos, and just like our planetarium experiment in Philadelphia back in July, this one went pretty well.

On Monday I worked from the San Francisco office and then Gaby was kind enough to shepherd everyone from Castro Valley into San Francisco on BART before concluding her day with the boys and heading home. This was when we fixed our missed cable car opportunity! We waited at the Powell Street turnaround for a while, and then caught a cable car back down to Fisherman’s Wharf. We had a nice walk and discovered the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park Visitor Center that has a surprisingly extensive exhibit about the history of the area, and everyone really seemed to enjoy it. From there my sister picked up some more tourist goodies and then we got on a street car to head home. Mission accomplished!

On Tuesday afternoon once Adam finished school I packed up my work laptop and we made our way over to the Oakland Zoo. I settled in near the bison paddock for a couple hours to finish work while Gaby and Annette took the boys around the zoo. I met up with them around closing to go on some rides in the area just outside the zoo.

We let everyone have a chill, local Wednesday and Thursday while I worked from my home office, and then took Friday off for some final adventures! In the course of the week, I discovered that going swimming was on their California list, but the beaches are far and not really swim-friendly, so I asked a local friend what she recommended and that’s how we ended up spending the afternoon at the Don Castro Swim Lagoon. It was perfect! I can’t believe we hadn’t been before! Admission for the six of us was a total of $15 and they have life guards and a very clean facility. It’s still beach-like, but it’s all man-made and effectively a big pool, which you notice when you swim out to the deeper parts since you can touch the concrete bottom of the “pool” out there. We had snacks at the beach and wrapped up around 4PM to clean up and eventually meet MJ for dinner. MJ was picking up the family car in Dublin, so we all hopped on BART and then caught a bus to meet him at Lazy Dog right on time to eat.

Our final adventure was on Saturday, to a railway museum that I’ll write about soon. They headed out on an overnight flight back to Maine on Saturday night. It was nice having them visit and seeing the boys bond over adventures, video games, and even chill TV time. I also enjoyed having some quiet time with my sister to catch up on family stuff and how she’s doing in general. We live such different lives so far apart, it can be tricky to stay connected, but these visits every year or so certainly help.