Cold night setting in. Outside with a fire before we head in for dinner.
Cold night setting in. Outside with a fire before we head in for dinner.
Got a full night’s sleep, and woke up glad to be home but missing the fun we had in Hawaii. Today was a work holiday so I did laundry, fiddled with my websites, chopped firewood and used the chainsaw on a few downed trunks. It’s so warm that New Year’s at the fire pit is iffy.
One of the amazing Hawaii moments was seeing this endangered Hawaiian monk seal resting on Sandy Beach.
The Boeing 777 that just brought across the Pacific from Hawaii was nice, big, mostly comfortable. But the 787 Dreamliner we took to Australia a few years ago is stil the best flight ever. I love airports, but sitting in Houston amid a pandemic, I’m might eager to get home.
Morning trip to Oahu’s Waianae Coast for boat ride: Hawaiian spinner dolphins, humpback whales - we jumped into water to listen to them sing - snorkeling with green sea turtles and coral reef, and the most dramatic of views. Now sitting on Makaha Beach. Great family day.
A day for the beach: today at Kailua, sunny and windy and relaxing. Adding to my collection of Christmases on the beach, which includes Magen’s Bay(USVI), Lamen Island (Vanuatu), and Waikiki.
Family hiked up to the top of Diamond Head crater in Honolulu. Good exertion but scary to be so close to thousands of other tourist hikers. Now lunch at Duke’s, Mai tai and fish tacos. Happy holidays indeed
The joys of watching my children learn to surf, then later introducing them to shave ice. It’s nice to be back in Hawaii.
We’re celebrating Malia’s early acceptance to American University, and we’re excited for the education she’ll get there.
This story about building websites from a pen-and-paper notebook reminded me of the typed cards that @petebrown posts each day.
Anna joined me for an afternoon fireside chat.
Boosted!
The family scattered tonight, postponing our tree trimming until tomorrow, so I was left alone on the sofa. I decided to watch Arrival, which I’ve seen 2 or 3 times before.
Dad and Dot returned to St. Croix for the winter, and what they thought was an iguana that had crawled between the upper louvres turned out to be a red-tailed boa constrictor, an invasive species. They called the hotline and the snake guy came to get it.
Erin and I have started watching Yellowstone, with Kevin Costner and others. Just three episodes into the first season, and I’ve realized it’s a mafia movie, just set it Montana. Hardly any good food in sight, but nice hats, though.
At the Steel String Brewery’s Pluck Farm to hear the Loose Lucies (Grateful Dead cover band) and drink cold beer in the cool outdoors or rural Orange County.
Just met a few colleagues in person for the first time, a year into my job at DCRI on the RADx-UP project. Smiles all around.
I’ve worked at Duke University since 2007 (and known the editor longer), but it’s only now in the Winter issue of Duke Magazine that I’ve been able to contribute an article. This one is about sea turtle research in the US Virgin Islands. Read it.🐢
Headed home after the Thanksgiving holiday in Cleveland (and a 5k race with Oliver and the rest of the family). The marathon of life at home continues, but this short vacation helped to restore my calm, clarity, confidence.
Soccer tournament in Greensboro. Oliver scored goal in 4-1 loss, tough game. Picked up Anna at UNCG and came downtown for delish brunch at Chez Genèse.
This is good bye: Gathered two eggs and scattered meal worms for the hens. They are about to leave, going to live elsewhere. Life is so complicated at the moment that we decided to give away the chickens.
Family night out to UNC’s Memorial Hall to hear the Clef Hangers men’s student a cappella group. Amazing rendition of Toto’s Africa and the classics, UNC Fight Song and James Taylor’s Carolina in my Mind (he grew up a couple of miles from where I live).
So happy to have finally learned how to connect the two Ultimate Ears Wonderboom speakers, and now I have them perched on the upper kitchen cabinets as I play music loud: first Pain by War on Drugs, then Windfall by Son Volt, now the latest Big Red Machine album.
I have to be careful with my derisive laughs during this Bachelorette premier. Erin just reminded me how goofy I was when I was dating her. Example: my resume in the form of a nutritional label.