Category: Life

(Older) places to eat

While cleaning up old posts (more on which later …), I found this, and … it’s worth revisiting how these places come and go

  1. Vive Sol
  2. Curry pizza house
  3. State of mind pizzeria
  4. Pastis (closed)
  5. Rooh
  6. Dish dash
  7. “The bread pudding place” (Nick’s)
  8. Amber (closed)
  9. Napoletana pizzeria (deprecated, no gluten-free)
  10. La Panotique (closed)

Note: Presented in no particular order

Monthly recap: April 2023

Matterhorn, viewed from where we were staying in Zermatt
Matterhorn, viewed from where we were staying in Zermatt

Major updates

A week in Switzerland

  • Zurich
  • Lucerne
  • Interlaken
    • Jungfrau and Harder Klum
  • Zermatt
    • Gornergrat
  • Glacier Express, then back to Zurich

Minor updates

  • AirBnB worked out well, two of these places
  • Cheese Fondue was a hit
  • A trip to the Tech Museum
  • Discovering San Mateo downtown
  • Playing around a lot with Midjourney

Watched/read/made/listened

  • This time, watched more downloaded Youtube videos than in-flight movies (!)
  • Watched Fellowship of the rings
  • Watched Pink Panther (2006?)
  • Finished audiobook of book 5 of Wings of Fire
  • Watched the latest series by Adam Curtis, Trauma Zone
  • Watched a great series on the work of Rene Girard
  • Re-watched Wallace and Gromit

Monthly Recap: March 2023

Onion peel glimpsed through a (good) toy microscope
Onion peel glimpsed through a (good) toy microscope

Major updates

  • Gave up on trying to set up a Minecraft server and just went with a 2-person “Realm” instead — works well!
  • Opened one of birthday gifts late — a toy microscope, but still good enough to see detail in leaves etc

Minor updates

  • Dental adventures: finally got a crown for a previous implant
  • Annual medical check up: all good
  • School events
  • Wrapped up taxes
  • “Family burger time” at Counter
  • Visited the “Tech” museum with Tara: highly recommend (the previous “Children’s Discovery Museum” is boring for her now)

Watched/read/made/listened

  • Puss in Boots (“the last wish”: meh, but mostly funny)
  • Mysterious Benedict Society book two (started book three too, but that didn’t hold interest, so paused it)
  • Finally finished watching all Harry Potter movies (watched the 8th one)
  • Audio book: “Irreversible Damage” (good fyi for parents with daughters)
  • Pink Panther (the 2006 version with Steve Martin) … led to some classic cartoon watching, always good!

Monthly Recap: February 2023

View of San Francisco from the Bay Bridge

Major updates

Trip to Carmel where we stayed in an AirBnB in the woods

  • No internet: board games, reading, sleeping early
  • Fortunately got back in time before the storm closed the roads

Tara’s school was off for a week, went to a great camp by Peninsula Youth Theater — and put on a short play at the end (“The reluctant dragon”)

Minor updates

  • Visited Treasure Island (finally, after over a decade of living here) for a friend’s 40th birthday party
  • Slightly better eat/sleep 🤞
  • Saw a bunch of snow on the peaks
  • Got an annual medical check-up done after a few years’ break (all good)
  • Visited Michael’s after many years with Tara — it’s still around and still a “craft-y wonderland”

Watched/read/made/listened

  • Gosford Park (re-watched) — discovered the music of Ivor Novello
  • Read “Digital Minimalism” (plan to practice some of that this year)
  • Tried out a family board game: Dragonwood
  • Knives out (re-watched)
  • And then there were none (the old version!)

Monthly recap (January 2023)

Street lamp at a park at dusk

Major updates

New year, new beginnings: joined a bunch of very interesting people doing very interesting work at Luminary Cloud

Minor updates

  • Dishwasher, dryer and a toilet all failed on one weekend and all had to be replaced; became a family fun event
  • On eating places nearby: bummed to find that Pastis closed down, mentally replaced it with La Boheme nearby. Also, discovered Fabrini’s as an alternative to Hobees
  • Cough/cold for a few days
  • Doing the Caltrain commute
  • A ridiculous amount of rain
  • Had a long library trip, and a very enjoyable at Tara’s school

Watched/read/made

  • Mitchells and the machines (I loved this — also had a good “technology lesson”)
  • Clue (the 1985 movie — surprisingly, Tara liked this too!)
  • Avatar (yes, watched it with 3-d in the hall)
  • Ivy & Bean (on Netflix … not a fan, the books are way better)
  • Wolfwalkers (enjoyable short animated film)
  • The Duke (one of those classic humorous/satirical/whimsical movies, highly recommend)

Annual recap — 2022

Family

  • Parents visited
  • Bunch of paperwork
    • Some IRS interaction
    • Citizenship (!)
  • Joint 39th birthday party

Hiking

  • Panorama trail (discovered the “open space preserves”)
  • Arastradero Preserve

Small visits

  • Children’s Discovery Museum (x2)
  • Palo Alto Zoo (via a birthday party)
  • Taj Mahal (Agra trip)
  • Camera Museo, Aravali Biodiversity Park (Gurgaon)
  • Kinokuniya

Longer trips

  • Kauai
  • Big Island
  • San Diego: Legoland, Disneyland, California Adventure (!)
  • Los Cabos
  • Carmel

Activities

  • Playing with magnets and iron filings
  • Found an old board of Go
  • Bit of Tennis playing
  • Board games (Dixit, Ticket to ride), card games (Go Fish)

Notable Eating

  • Hawaii: Kuleana Rum Shack, Merriman’s
  • Vive Sol (many times)
  • New places: HiroNori, Kusan, Tilak, Little Blue Door
  • India: Kitchens of Awadh(Gurgaon), Sana-Dige (Chanakyapuri), Peshawari(ITC Mughal)

Me

  • Went for a 10K race after a long time
  • Mixed year at work
  • Discovered a new Barnes & Noble location (Redwood City) and a new used books store (Menlo Park)
  • Catching up & meeting with various people

Exploring/making

  • Tweaks to personal website/blog
  • Tinkering with Urbit, Darklang, Mathematica
  • Made a small puzzle RPG

Home

  • Living-room refactor, painting, curtains
  • Lots of car trouble with the Subaru; trade-in for an X3
  • Carpet cleaning
  • Minor changes: Nest cams, wifi routers

Tara

  • Birthday at Little Gym
    • Weekly gymnastics here
  • Apps: Minecraft, codeSpark
  • Swimming
  • Things that didn’t work out: Skateboard, T-Ball
  • Things that did work out: Chess
  • Fun little habit: playing Hangman with characters from Disney/Harry Potter
  • Peninsula Youth Theater (summer camp)
  • Some unintended gluten intolerance
  • Some school tours for next year
  • Various playdates

Reading/listening

  • Audiobooks (me):
    • Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
    • Plato’s Republic
    • The Dawn of Everything
    • The Return of Holy Russia
    • The Red Book
    • Something Deeply Hidden by Sean Carrol
  • Audiobooks (Tara):
    • Harry Potter (Goblet of Fire)
    • Wings of Fire (books 1-3)
  • Reading (with Tara):
    • Fantastic Mr. Fox
    • Mysterious Benedict Society
  • Reading (me):
    • Nemo (Alan Moore)
    • The Untethered Soul
    • Against the Day (finally completed!)

Watching

  • Animated:
    • Big City Greens
  • Re-watched
    • All of Harry Potter 1-5
    • Edge of Tomorrow (on the plane)
    • Nightmare before Christmas (“family viewing”)
    • Midnight in Paris
  • In the hall
    • Marcel the Shell
    • Top Gun: Maverick
  • Misc streaming
    • Glass Onion
    • Shaun the sheep
    • Troll, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Bullet Train (weekend binge)
    • Where the Crawdads sing
    • The greatest Showman
    • “The woman in the house across the street from the girl in the window” (very forgettable, but it led to us purchasing the same wine opener)
    • Drive My Car
    • Death on the Nile (nowhere close to the original)
    • Dropout, Inventing Anna
    • Moonfall (went too far)
    • My Little Pony: New generation (disappointing)
    • Stranger Things (latest season)
    • Abbot Elementary (loved it)
  • With Tara
    • Rings of Power (colossal letdown)
    • Harry Potter and the half-blood prince
    • Junior baking show
    • National Geographic wildlife documentaries

Resolutions

  • Better sleep (long elusive)
  • Minimal “good habits” around physical/mental health

Monthly Summary (December 2022)

Visiting the Taj Mahal in Agra

Major updates

  • India trip to meet family
  • Decided to start at a new place post-Sigma

(will follow-up with a post with details on each)

Minor updates

  • Traded in my troublesome Subaru Outback for something new
  • Side trip to Agra, saw the Taj Mahal (!)
  • Some Urbit adventures
  • Ate a bunch of good food at a bunch of interesting places

Watched/read/made

  • Glass Onion (sequel to Knives Out)
  • Nope (watched this in the flight)
  • The Greatest Showman
  • Netflix: Troll, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Bullet Train
  • Disney+: Mysterious Benedict Society (season 2)
  • Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix (finished listening to audiobook with Tara)
  • Nightmare before Christmas (family re-watch)
  • Enola Holmes (part 2)

(a good month for viewing …)

Monthly recap (November 2022)

A group of sea-turtles on Poipu beach

Major updates

  • Moving on from Sigma (more on this later)
  • Trip to Kauai
  • Tara’s birthday

Minor updates

  • Meeting various people, some after many years
  • Bunch of birthday parties
    • Discovered the Palo Alto Junior Zoo this way, pretty fun place !!
  • Trip to Children’s Discovery Museum after a long time
    • Realized it’s really for small kids
  • Trip to The Tech museum in San Jose
    • Exceeded expectations (!)
  • Got a massage (note to self: should do this monthly, at least)

Watched/read/made

  • Couple of side projects
  • Discovered a great series we all watched together: The Mysterious Benedict Society
  • Finished Abbott Elementary (Hulu)
  • Finished listening to audiobook of Plato’s Republic
  • Finished listening to Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix with Tara (long, over 27 hours!)

Of Noogler times

Found this while spring-cleaning:

Must have got this on my first day at Google, 12 years ago!

Resolved not to hold on to things out of pure nostalgia (or there would be more of them than ones I use), so it’s off to the “Goodwill pile” now for this T-shirt.