Category: fun

  • Christmas in Hawaii 2023 (dedicated to “Mommy and the Troops”)

    Christmas in Hawaii 2023 (dedicated to “Mommy and the Troops”)

    I wouldn’t call spending Christmas in Honolulu a tradition for us, exactly, but it is certainly lovely when the calendar for the 4 of us align and make it possible. And so it was thisyear, when we spent 11 glorious days in paradise, enjoying the sun, ocean, and surf. The theme for this year’s stay…

  • Three Galas and a Photo Op

    We are fond of galas, especially ones where we (or our hosts) have our own tables and, therefore, we can chat with our friends (or make new ones). We are less fond of photo ops, but they can sometimes be entertaining, generally for reasons other than the actual photo op itself. April/May have been a…

  • Holiday 2022

    While many people think of the holiday season as consisting of snow and hot chocolate and other winter festivities, we much prefer sun and ocean and warmth for the holidays. And so off we went to Hawaii for Christmas!Honolulu never disappoints. (Nor does the Halekulani where we were staying.). We enjoyed warmth and ocean views.…

  • A September Birthday Celebration

    A September Birthday Celebration

    One of the advantages of the quarter system in college is that school doesn’t start until late September, which means that when you have a child with a September birthday, it is possible to go somewhere—say, hypothetically, Disneyworld—with that child to celebrate before school starts. This year, it was a special birthday as we celebrated…

  • Summer 2022

    The summer was a whirlwind, and I have not enough space to bore everyone with our activities. Highlights include the following: A joint birthday celebration at the Inn at Little Washington Jade’s master’s degree (in theoretical computer science) graduation ceremony at Stanford. She is now at Georgia Tech getting her PhD in combinatorics (or theoretical…

  • University of Kansas Basketball

    We have extremely good friends (family, really) who are huge KU basketball fans and invited us to go see a game with them the first weekend of March. (To my K-State peeps: you know that I will always bleed purple and white, but the dodo bird in primary colors does have its moments, especially when…

  • 2022 Disneyworld Princess 10K

    This was our 3rd Princess 10K event (last year’s event being cancelled due to some random virus). We walked this one, as Jim had had an accident on the treadmill over Thanksgiving and had not yet been cleared by his cardiologist to exercise. (For the record, walking a 10K does not count as exercise!)While we…

  • Graduation 2021 and Hawaii

    Two joyous events, especially in a year like this one. In mid-June, we celebrated our daughter’s graduation from Stanford (total brag: she graduated with a degree in math, with distinction, and phi beta kappa). The graduation was a limited in-person event (two fully vaccinated guests per student). Issa Rae was the graduation speaker, and she…

  • 19th Birthday Disneyworld Trip

    Because Marcus (wisely) decided to take a gap year instead of attending college in the fall, we decided that his birthday needed celebrating and what better place to celebrate someone’s birthday than at Disneyworld?Disney felt very safe with hand sanitizer and hand-washing stations everywhere, socially distanced lines, and everyone masked. (And when someone—usually an adult—wasn’t…

  • Disney Princess 10K & The Rise of the Resistance

    What’s the best way to get rid of the winter doldrums? The answer is to travel to the happiest place on earth (aka Disneyworld), run a 10K during princess half-marathon weekend, and then luck into being able to ride the newest ride at Disneyworld, The Rise of the Resistance. This is the second year that…