The kids and I made ravioli and cake poppers to fete the inimitable Wacky Mommy.

We were more than a week late, but we tried to make up for it with extreme yumminess, verging on decadence.

Everybody loves Woogie. Most popular photo I’ve posted on flickr for a long time. Figures.

I don’t miss much about the house we left a year ago… but I do miss the garden. Our new yard was not ready for gardening last year when we moved in, but we’re working on it now. Here’s a Flickr set documenting our progress.

“A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease. Every hidden cell is throbbing with music and life, every fiber thrilling like harp strings, while incense is ever flowing from the balsam bells and leaves. No wonder the hills and groves were God’s first temples, and the more they are cut down and hewn into cathedrals and churches, the farther off and dimmer seems the Lord himself.” ~John Muir

Here are several more photos from Jr’s 9th birthday nature walk.

It was just about 14 years ago that I got up the courage to ask out my future wife. When I went to pick her up for our first date, LuLu came to meet me at the door. I like cats, so I got down on the floor with her (despite dire warnings about her supposedly mean temperament).

By the time Nancy was ready, LuLu was rolling around on her back, letting me pet her tummy (to much amazement). Fourteen years later, both Nancy and LuLu still seem to like me, and I love both of them more than ever.

What can I say; I’m attracted strong females!

This is what happens when you turn your daughter loose with a camera in the woods. See the whole set on flickr.

The giant Asurindarahu wanted to see the Buddha, but was reluctant to bow before him. The Buddha, while lying down, presented himself as much larger than the giant. He then showed him the realm of heaven with heavenly figures all larger than the giant. After all this, Asurindarahu, the giant, was humbled, and made his obeisance to the Buddha before leaving.

This month marks the 5th anniversary of this blog, and the sixth anniversary of Wacky Mommy. We started Internet publishing back in 1997 with a little-known literary arts magazine, before anybody had heard of “blogs” and when Mark Zuckerberg was 12 years old. Around 1999, we started another site that morphed into something blog-like after veering through a number of different styles, and in 2005, when blogs were just taking hold, we started writing and hosting our own. In 2008, we started an influential public policy news and opinion site which we ran for two years in our spare time.

Now that Zuckerberg owns the Internet and all your personal data, to be sold on the free market to advertisers, blog traffic is way off. Many, many people don’t venture outside of the walled garden of Facebook… unless there is a link posted there.

Who remembers RSS feeds and readers? (I do!)

The thing is, this technology still works great, and there is great potential yet to be realized. We shelved our New Media networked journalism meta project almost a year ago, but now we’re thinking of dusting it off.

Now, here I go to link this post on Facebook.

In rainy December, it’s always nice to get the heck out of Puddle Town. Los Angeles is usually quite nice this time of year, but this year they got more rain than they know what to do with (as illustrated by this giant mud puddle on Mulholland Drive).

We did Disney (in a fever, on one of the busiest days ever)…

But also the way cool (and way less insane) Page Museum at La Brea Tar Pits.



We enjoyed the local fauna, too, and also a nice, intimate New Year’s Eve party, thanks to our extremely gracious hosts.

And of course, the drive is part of the vacation. We have a special place we like to stop at for dinner in Sacramento, and we love the Mt. Shasta area.

Many thanks to M & S for hosting us, and happy tree rat hunting to them!