Spring 2024

March was a good time to stay local and visit Will, Carley, Cora, Cooper and Buddy.  Cora was fascinated with Zuzu, who was more puzzled than anything else... what is this small creature that smells like a human?  In the meantime, weekly calls with Brie, Aidan and Little Dave kept us up to speed on his progress toward the "little whirlwind of destruction" phase.

With Cambodia and baby visits out of the way, it was time to start enjoying the arrival of spring. In early May, we made a trip out to visit Maddy and Brenna to help out as Maddy recovered from a surgical procedure. This was the first time I visited their apartment in Berkeley, which is a multi-story townhouse. We hiked along Albany Beach to see San Fran across the bay and enjoy the wildflowers in McLaughlin State Park. Maddy and Brenna's cats, Franklin and Winston, took advantage of the visit by sleeping in our suitcases. The morning of the surgery, the hospital called and canceled. We cut the trip short, so I did not see the Berkeley campus and Maddy's lab until much later in the year.

We had dinner with Brad and Huidi that week, and then Alison returned to Cali for the new surgery date.

While Alison was out helping Maddy recover, I went down and visited Will, Carley and Cora. Will put me to work digging a 180 foot long trench and laying a mud fence in preparation for putting a new deck on the house.

Then it was my turn to go back to Cali again for the Jeff Goldsmith Memorial Day gaming party. Visited Ann and Nick and took them out to dinner at Castaway's for their anniversary, and met up with Lisa for Lunch. But most of the time was at Jake and Kathleen's, gaming with the old Jeff G crowd.

I was driving back and forth from Pasadena, and I've always been curious about one rugged mound of stone off to the side of the 118, and on a lark I decided to take the exit and see what it was. As it turns out, it's Stoney Point Park, and it's apparently a thing for rock climbers. I hiked around it (and partway to the top, but there's no easy path up; you really need climbing gear) and saw a number of people doing boulder climbing and a few more serious folk who were scaling the cliffs. Plus a lot of graffiti.

And I stopped off at Mt. Sinai to say hi to Jeff and Jeff. Still miss them both.

Humorously enough, while I was out in Cali Alison went to visit Will, Carley and Cora, and Noah (who was in NYC visiting friends) came out to Weston as well to meet the new addition to the family.

By the time we were both back home, it was warm enough to start having dinner on the deck, or sit out by the fire pit in the evening for cocktails.