Congratulations to Willa, who solved the puzzle the fastest last year!
Asher is 8. He loves reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, dancing hip-hop with Dance-a-Vision (his recital is December 20th in Oakland), and burning mix CDs with original music he creates with his piano teacher Isaiah and his music therapist Rob. His favorite game is
Fenton remains 13. He plays D&D with friends after school, recently joined robotics club, and has a clarinet recital on December 11th. His Coder School had a nationwide competition and out of several hundred competitors, Fenton came in first - even though some of the other kids were 16-17 years old, working in teams, or both. His favorite game is
Laurel’s great joys come from family time, her handcrafts, and gardening. She’s serving as our neighborhood’s Firewise liaison and as I write this she is cooking Thanksgiving dinner. What a mensch.
I went to a yoga retreat in Hawaii for the second time in the spring, and it gave me a nice quiet place to meditate and reflect, as my dad had entered hospice just days before. My father Bruce died on June 6th and I was glad to have been with him when he took his last breath, and that my family came together to celebrate him at a memorial at the Oakland Zoo. Creatively, I’m glad that this year I competed in the 48th Annual O. Henry Pun-Off in Austin TX, participated in “Ghost Town Alive” at Knott’s Berry Farm, and took Fenton to Oregon Shakespeare Festival for the first time, where we saw “Into the Woods” and “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and also found time to do an escape room.
We will remember 2025 as the year…
… Fenton grew taller than Laurel. Will he top out taller than his dad? Tune in to next year’s blog post
… our east coast trip included low-key beach days at Martha’s Vineyard and high-octane adventures in New York City, including seeing “Maybe Happy Ending” on Broadway
… a family tip to London, where we saw “Operation Mincemeat” and played Phantom Peak, as well as doing the official Sherlock Holmes room escape game, which we escaped with 1 minute left
… a quick trip to LA to see rock band AJR play at the Hollywood Bowl and see me play with my old friends at ComedySportz LA