March 2025 - A Milestone Birthday and Some Family Time

In March, I hit one of those milestone birthdays.  You know, the ones that end with a 0.  Obviously, it didn't sneak up on me, but it's still taking some getting used to.

My birthdays often fall during month end close at work.  At my current job, it's quarter end close, so that's even busier.  But, my birthday was on a Saturday this year.  And it happened to be the Saturday that my friends still host their monthly game day.  Yes, they knew, and they made sure I was wished a happy birthday.  And they let me pick where we got dinner from (Chick-fil-a, for the record).  I even won some games that day.  One was a set up, but I don't think the rest were.

The following week, my brother and his family were in town for a day.  The original plan had been to go to Magic Mountain, which I have a pass to this year.  But it was cold and wet most of the week, and that day wasn't looking any better.  We decided to call it off, and then they wound up not opening at all that day anyway.  So they came over to my place and played some games.  It was a good day.

Then, the following week, we spent some time together in Palm Springs.  My parents and uncle and aunt were also there.  I wasn't expecting, but they had cake and ice cream for my birthday.  Yes, we played some games, but we also swam and played some pickleball.  The weather had really changed, and it was significantly warmer than it had been just a few days before.  Considering we were there to swim, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

It was a good month.

December 2024 - Home for Longer at Christmas

Yes, I was back in Northern California again for Christmas. But I was back for longer than I would normally get to spend. Despite being hybrid now, they decided to close the office for the weeks of Christmas and New Years. It helped both of those holidays were on Wednesdays. So I packed up my work stuff, including both monitors, and lugged it all to my parents’. I was already planning on taking the Thursday and Friday after Christmas off, but this meant I got to spend a whole with my family, just working two days. 

Of course, it also meant I had a shorter time to get presents purchased and wrapped. I really need to get a better jump on that next year. 

Anyway, because I was up early, I got to go to church with my family twice, including Christmas Eve. And we looked at Christmas lights. Plus I got into enjoy a family tradition - sleeping around the Christmas tree. 

I drove home the Sunday after Christmas, so I was home for New Year’s. I spent New Year’s Eve playing games with some friends who host monthly game days. It was a fun way to ring in the new year. 

November 2024 - Visiting Family for Thanksgiving

 Wow, it’s been a while. I really should post something besides puns, right?

I’m sure it’s no surprise that I went home for Thanksgiving. I mean, I always spend the holidays with my family. It was a smaller group this year since some of the extended family that often comes couldn’t make it for various reasons. 

But we had a great time with those who were there. The food was delicious and the games we played were fun. What else do you need for a great weekend?

Sadly, I had to come home the Sunday after Thanksgiving since I had to be back at work on Monday. It was fiscal year end. 

What was a surprise was that I pretty much had my condo decorated for Christmas before Thanksgiving this year. I always say I’m going to do it, but I actually did it. Considering how busy things were when I got back between work and the rest of Christmas, I was so glad I got a jump on it. I’m not sure it would have happened had I waited for after Thanksgiving, but this way, I got to enjoy it for all of December. 

August 2024 Part 2 - Visiting Family

 In the middle of August, I took off again and headed to northern California to visit my family.  My parents had just gotten back from an extended trip, so it was great to spend time with them and hear about all the fun they'd had.

But the main reason I headed up was Saturday.  I joined my brother and his family at Great America.  This is a theme park that I went to once as a kid, long before I was big enough to enjoy coasters.  So it's been a couple of decades.  I hadn't done coasters much in the last few years, so this was a lot of fun.  I'm discovering that I'm not quite as big on coasters as I used to be.  Sadly, I think it's an age thing.  But I did have fun that day, and it lead me to getting a pass for Six Flags Magic Mountain again.

Anyway, we also spent a little time in the water park attached to the theme park that day.

My family was used to going on weekdays, so going on a weekend meant the crowds were a little bigger than they were used to, but we still managed to hit most of the big rides.

Then Sunday, I was able to go to church with my entire family before heading back south again.

It was a great visit.

March 2024 - Family Trip to San Diego

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

The middle of March, I met up with my family in San Diego.  We'd done it a couple of years ago, really enjoyed it, and decided to do it again.

Mom and Dad rented up a place to stay right on the beach.  It was a different place from two years ago, but still very nice.  In fact, we might have liked it a bit more in some ways.  The plan was to enjoy the beach, plays games, and be a bit of a tourist.

We did still play tourist a bit, spending one day at Sea World and another at the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

However, we got sick while we were there.  My nephew had gotten sick a couple of days before, and Dad started to get sick our first night.  I was just getting over being sick, but I got sick again.  And my brother got sick.  The ladies stayed healthy, until we left.  Then they got sick at home.  What's the weirdest is we all seemed to have slightly different symptoms.  I was the quickest to recover, and it took some longer than others to get over it.  But eventually we all did.

So it was a bummer of a trip in some ways.  But we did still have fun, and we are glad we went.

December 2023 - I Was Home for Christmas

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

Naturally, I went north again for Christmas.  This time, the complication was my health.  I got what I thought was a mild cold, but developed into a low fever and cough.  The fever only lasted three days or so, but the cough is still hanging on, even now (as of when I'm tying this on New Year's Day).

But my family said to come on up, and I wasn't about to argue.  For one thing, I don't think I'm contagious.  And it's more annoying than anything else.  (If I had tested positive for Covid or the flu, it would have been different, but I was negative for both.)

And I had a great time.  I didn't have any repeats of the traffic drama on the way up, although it was sluggish on the drive back on the 26th.  Still nothing like it was going.

I was there for three full days.  And they were pretty chill.  We all went out looking at Christmas lights one night, which was great.  My brother had mapped out a plan of attack, and he did a great job leading up to some fun displays.  Sunday was Christmas Eve, which meant a morning and evening service this year instead of just the Christmas Eve evening service.  And I loved how they rearranged things for the evening service with us around the instruments and improvised stage in the middle.

Christmas Day, we were at my parents' all day.  My uncle and aunt came over for a while.  We opened presents and had a great meal.

As I said, it was chill.  Which was wonderful.

November 2023 - Thanksgiving

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

In November, I went home for Thanksgiving like always, despite the traffic.

Seriously, I wish I had paid attention to a traffic report before I left because I got stuck in some of the worst traffic I've ever been in.  What should have taken me one hour took me give hours.  The traffic heading north the Wednesday before Thanksgiving can be bad/sluggish, but it's never that bad.  Once I got past the slow down, things were fine.

What I've heard is that a track carrying pipes lost it's load on the freeway.  Everything was cleared up by the time I got to it.

What's frustrating is, had I known, I could have easily avoided it.  There were a couple of alternatives I could have taken.  I just assumed things would be fine.

The bad part is that I missed seeing my friend and his family on the way up.  By the time I made it past the traffic, I just had to drive.  As it was, it was after midnight by the time I got home.

But the rest of the weekend was great.  My brother hosted as always, and his in-laws were visiting.  It was fun to see them.  Friday, we went to see my uncle and aunt plus my cousin and his family were down.  Saturday and Sunday were just quiet days.

Fortunately, I took Monday off so I could drive home that way.  I would not have bene happy having to fight traffic on the way back on Sunday.  But the traffic was much better on Monday.  I did drive through Fresno and see my friend and his wife, which was great.  I just missed seeing their kids.

October 2023 - Universal Studios

 My brother and his family were down in Orange County at the beginning of October to visit some family.  They were planning on one day in Universal Studios during that time, and invited me to join them.  At first, I didn't think it would work, but then I thought about it some more and decided to ask for the day off, which I got.

I'm so glad I went.

I hadn't been there sine 2007 or so, and I had been there most recently of everyone.  And we had a blast.  The Harry Potter world was fabulous, and the main attraction there was a ton of fun.  Super Nintendo World looked amazing as well, although we didn't like that ride quite as much.  The other rides were fun.  I feel like the backlot tour used to be better, but it was still fun.

And we had a great time together.  I think that was the most fun, just hanging out together in line.

August 2023 - A Hurricane, an Earthquake, and a Parental Visit

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

My parents had been talking about coming for a visit for a while, and it finally worked out for them to come in the middle of August - the same weekend we were supposed to be hit by Hurricane Hilary.  Mind you, the last time this happened was over one hundred years ago.  Mom and Dad decided to go ahead and come.

Saturday was a little cooler than it had been, but the weather was still nice.

Sunday, however, it rained.  And it rained.  And then it rained some more.  Fortunately, it had weakened by the time it hit here, so we got lots of rain but we never got the winds that were being predicted.  Fortunately.  I'm not sure how things would have turned out if we'd gotten wind.

But I mentioned we got rain, right?  I think we got at least a year's worth of rain in one day.  I saw video of flooded roads around town, although I never saw anything when I went out later in the week.

Best of all, my garage didn't flood again either.  I wasn't super worried about it, but I thought it might happen.

Then, in the middle of the afternoon, we also got hit with an earthquake.  It was far enough away that we felt it, but there wasn't any damage here.  Sounds like there wasn't any major damage close to the epicenter anyway.  Needless to say, it was a memorable visit.

But, we always play lots of games when we are together, and that's what we did.  I introduced Mom and Dad to Qwixx, a game I'd learned at my monthly game days, and it was a huge lit.  We played that a lot.  Mom did a great job of winning it, much to Dad's and my dismay.

April 2023 Part 1 - Home for Easter

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

At the last minute, I decided to go home for Easter weekend.

I barely made it up in time for the Good Friday service on Friday.  Okay, so I had stopped and gotten dinner when I got into town, but I pulled in the church's parking lot about two minutes before the service started.  Actually, considering I drove several hundred miles, I'm pretty happy with that.

Anyway...

Saturday, I played some ultimate Frisbee with my brother.  I've cut back on how much I'm playing, so it was nice to play with that group.  As a surprise, someone I've played with in the greater LA ultimate community has moved to the area and was there.

I then hung out at my brother's house for a while.  We met up with our parents for my nephew's baseball game.  After dinner, I went back to Mom and Dad's to help them get ready for the next day.

After church Sunday morning, Mom and Dad hosted Easter.  My uncle came over (my aunt was sick), and a family friend was there as well.  It was a fun day.

The downside is that I was two days behind all the rest of the month.  Seriously, I finally caught up with everything that I needed to do on the 30th of the month.

December 2022 - Christmas at Home

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

Of course, I turned right back around and went home again for Christmas.

This time, I was the only visiting family in town for the holiday itself, so it was a bit quieter, but it was still wonderful to get to spend time with my family.  We had Christmas Eve and Christmas morning services at the church they all attend.

My cousin was down, so the day after Christmas, we headed over to see him and his family and my uncle and aunt.  We had a wonderful visit with them playing a fan game.

Again, my time up there was short.  But it was wonderful to be able to see them.

November 2022 - Home for Thanksgiving

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

Yep, still wanting to catch up here.

Obviously, Thanksgiving is the big thing that stands out for most people when it comes to November.  And I went home for Thanksgiving.

It was a bit of an odd Thanksgiving since my niece and nephew were sick on the day itself.  But they were better before I left so I did get to see them.  And, I've got to say, their attitude about it was probably better than mine would have been even now.  I would have had a bit of a pity party even though I understood what was going on.

My sister-in-law had family in town for the weekend, and it was fun to get to see them as well.  Plus my uncle and aunt came out for the day.  It was a big group, and laughs and hugs were shared.  We had a great time.

Unfortunately, with how fiscal year end fell at work, I had to leave Sunday instead of taking Monday off work.  And that means leaving super early to miss the worst of the traffic.  Hopefully, I can actually take Monday off this year and enjoy that extra day.

Family Vacation

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment you left on my bookish post, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

I have been very neglectful of this blog.  And it's not because nothing has been going on.  I just haven't had the time to post here.  Or I haven't made the time.  So let's work on catching up, shall we?

In March, we finally got to take a long gestating family vacation.  We had a great time.  We went down to San Diego, which isn't that far from me but is further for my family.  Not that I go to San Diego all that often.  In fact, I can count on one hand the number of times I've been there.  I really need to fix that.

Mom and Dad rented us a fabulous place right on the beach.  It was more than we originally would have spent, but we spent a lot of time on the beach just chilling, so it turned out to be money very well spent.  It truly was a fabulous place to stay.

We spent some time just hanging out, which was wonderful.  We did go to Legoland one day, which my nephew enjoyed more than the rest of us.  But we'd all be curious about it, so that's okay.  We went whale watching, although we didn't see any whales.  I did my first escape room.  And we escaped, with 41 seconds to spare.  We were staying in Mission Bay, so we spent some time at the boardwalk, including their mini golf.

Mission Bay is where I got this painting, too.  What's cool is, it is done on glass, so when the sun hits it, it comes through in some parts.  I really like it.

We had a great time.  I definitely wasn't ready to come back to work when the week was over.

Christmas 2021

What do you know, Christmas was a month ago, and I still haven't blogged about it.  I guess that is because I am still trying to process what happened....

Kidding.  I'm kidding.  I had a fabulous time.

As usual, I drove north for the holiday.  I headed up on the 23rd.  I needed to use some vacation time, so I took that day off.  Christmas Eve, we got together with some family friends I hadn't seen for a while, so that was fun.  Then we went to my family's church for the Christmas Eve service.

Christmas was the usual of going over to my brother's house for the kids to open their presents, then everyone coming to my parents house for dinner.  My uncle and aunt came over, and a good friend of my mom's was there as well.  It was a fabulous day.

I was up there for another few days since my job gave us the week off between Christmas and New Year's.  My brother took a couple of days off as well, so we got to spend lots of time together as a family.  We play games.  We went to the redwoods and a beach.  It was a nice visit, and I wasn't ready to come home.  Especially since I had to work one day we were off.  Too much work to do to truly be off a week.  Job security, right?

Thanksgiving

 As usual, I went up north for Thanksgiving.

We had quite a group for Thanksgiving day itself.  In addition to the usual group, my sister-in-law's sister and her husband were there.  It was great getting to hang out with them.  The food was good, and a great time was had by all.

Friday, my parents and I drove over to the Sacramento area to see my uncle and aunt, and my cousin and his family, who were down for Thanksgiving.  I haven't seen my uncle and aunt in quite a while, and it's been years since I saw my cousin and his family, so that was fun.  We played Bocce ball, and my team won both games!

Saturday was back with my brother's family and my parents.  We played some games and generally had a good time together.

Sunday, I had to fight traffic driving home.  It was worse than I remembered it being the year before, even with leaving as early as I did.  Sadly, I had to be back at work, but hopefully next year I can take that Monday before Thanksgiving off again and not have to fight traffic coming home.

Parental Visit

My parents came down for a visit at the end of August.  They'd postponed the trip from earlier in the month, so it was great to finally have them come.  They stayed with me at the condo.

Because they hadn't driven enough on Friday when they were coming into town, we went further south on Saturday to visit some family friends.  It was the first time seeing some of their kids and a while since we'd seen the most recent.  They've grown.  Visit friends with kids is different from all being adults, but it is still so good to catch up with everyone.  Wouldn't have changed that visit for anything.

Sunday we stuck around town.  Went to church in the morning, then came back to the condo and played some games.  I even won my fair share, something that rarely seems to happen when we play games.  I was happy with that.

Monday, they left to drive home, and I got very busy at work since it was time for another quarter end.  (It's like those come around every three months or something.)

Checking In

I'm getting really bad about updating this blog, aren't I?  Of course, it's hard to come up with too much to report.

I'm still working, and still working from home.  A little bit of the office will be opened in July, but it sounds like we won't be back in the office with any regularity until fall some time.  Personally, I don't want to go back.  I've gotten very spoiled working from home.  I love it!  Yes, there are times I wish I could talk to someone in person, but the rest of the time, it's nice to be able to do my own thing without being distracted/interrupted.  I do still think that training someone new would be harder virtually than from home.

Last time, I had mentioned my church was going to start meeting in person again.  That's going well.  We are outside under a tent.  Some weeks have been windy, but it's been good overall.

I've gotten to see my family a few times in the last couple of months.  They came down this way in March - my parents to visit me, and my brother and his family stopped by when they were headed down to San Diego.  Then I went up in April to visit them for a weekend.  All of those visit were nice.

Can't think of much else to report.  Hopefully, things will open up again soon, and I will start to have more to talk about again.

September was About Family

 I've once again let it be two months between updates.  (I'll have more on why that is soon...ish.)

September, I got to see family!  It was so wonderful.

My sister-in-law and niece and nephew kicked off the month.  They spent a couple weeks a little south of me, but they stopped by for dinner on the way down.  We visited, ate, and then played a game.  The best part?  I won!

My parents were next.  We met up for a weekend of camping a couple hours from here.  I really enjoyed getting out of the condo for a couple of days.  And yes, it was wonderful to get to see them.

Finally, when the time came for my sister-in-law, niece, and nephew to head home, I got to see them again.  My brother had joined them, and they all stopped by for lunch one day.  It wasn't nearly long enough, but I'm so glad I got to see them.

December Round Up

Yikes!  It’s been how long since I posted here?  I need to get something posted.  Hang on, we’re going to tackle December in one post.

I started out the month winning big at some mystery events.  First was getting a trivia question right at the Sisters in Crime/Mystery Writers of American holiday lunch.  I got lucky because the question they asked me was fairly easy.  Almost tripped me up until they repeated it.  But some of the questions they asked I had no clue about.  Then, a few nights later, I went to a mystery trivia night at the Culver City library.  The woman who is always on the winning team wasn’t there, and my team won.  It was a team effort, too.  I didn’t know many of the answers, but fortunately, my teammates did.

Unfortunately, I did spend some of the month sick.  The cough I had over Thanksgiving just would not go away.  I even ran a fever a couple of days, taking one sick day along the way.  But I finally got over it just in time for Christmas.

And yes, I went home for Christmas.  I actually took the two days after Christmas off, so I had a good long visit.  I was able to leave early enough on Christmas Eve to make the Christmas Eve service.  Christmas Day morning was spent at my brother’s new house (it’s still nice), then we went to Mom and Dad’s for the rest of the day.  We walked at Spring Lake a couple of times and played some games.  It was a very nice visit.

New Year’s Eve was a quiet evening/day.  I worked, although I got off early.  Went home, went for a run, caught a movie, and was home to ring in the new decade.

And that covers the highlights and lowlights of December.

And a Happy Thanksgiving Was Had by All

Two weeks ago, I was up visiting my family for Thanksgiving.

Actually, the fun started on Wednesday on my way up them.  I stopped in Fresno as I often do to visit my friends Donald and Heather.  I got an added bonus this year since Donald’s sister and brother-in-law – who are also my friends – Stephen and Natalie, were also in town, so I got to see them.  I haven’t seen them in several years, so it was nice to catch up with all of them.  It was too short, as always, but that’s a common complaint.

That meant I got to Santa Rosa late on Wednesday, but it was worth it.

Thursday, my brother and his family hosted us for Thanksgiving, as always.  However, this year was special since we got to have Thanksgiving in their new home.  I hadn’t seen it at all yet, so I was thrilled to get to finally see it.  It looks wonderful, and they are absolutely loving it.  If they had to go through the fire, this was a wonderful result.  No, everything isn’t completely resolved yet, but they are much happier being home again.

Unfortunately, I was sick for much of the visit.  I was congested, and it has turned into a cough that hasn’t completely gone away even now.  But Thursday night, my saliva glands decided to get blocked.  They really got swollen, and it was painful to eat, so I went to see a doctor on Friday.  She gave me some advice and some anti-biotics.  Waiting for those anti-biotics was the long part, unfortunately.  But I am mostly feeling better now.

I did leave Sunday, which I typically don’t like to do.  That is always the worst day to drive around Thanksgiving.  But I am trying to save vacation for next year, and I needed to be back for fiscal year end at work on Monday.  I got up and left right away Sunday morning – I was on the road before 8 AM.  I didn’t stop for lunch, and I stopped at a very little used place for gas.  I paid extra because of it, but it was worth not having to wait.  Other than that, I just drove.  I got home mid-afternoon, which was a huge blessing to get ready to go back to work the next day.  And I didn’t have to deal with too much slow traffic, either.  I will definitely keep this in mind for the next couple of years, when I will unfortunately be doing the same thing due to work.  After that, I should be able to take Monday off again.