What Should Faith Do?

My friend Faith is at a crossroads in her life. She is a widow at 34 and her life is completely up in the air.

She had most recently been teaching elementary school, but now isn't sure that's what she wants to return to. She has a law degree from Duke, but she stopped practicing law due to lack of interest and to get married. She also has some sort of degree from UC Davis. She is one of the smartest people I've ever met.

Does anyone have suggestions for a career path for her?

SKGP: My Brother

I like to bug my borther. My borther is mene to me that is why I bug him. He is not nios to me. I do not now how to stop buging my little brother. But eventhowe he is mene to me I oways will love him.

Teacher's comment: I understand how you feel!

The New Backyard

The rules of our community require that landscaping for front and back be completed within 2 years. When buying a house, cash for such frivoloties as a yard is scarce. However, the time has finally come for us to do our backyard.

We had Gabriel, who did our front yard and several of our neighbors yards, start working a couple weeks ago. His team worked tirelessly and very quickly things took shape.

For more photos, check here.

Picnic Day

Picnic Day is the annual open house at our alma mater, UC Davis. Yesterday, we packed the kids in the van and made the trip back to Davis. It rained. A lot. On the road and on campus.

Highlights include the Doxie Derby, the race of the wiener dogs. Also, lunch at the Coffee House is still very good. EJP got to pet a tarantula, some snakes, and a scorpion. We tried honey based on several different plants. We saw cockroaches race.

We met up with Jon and Jessica, and it was, as always, a pleasure to see them. The twins are coming! It seems I'm really missing out by not watching Battlestar Gallactica.

We had dinner at Dos Coyotes. Yum. Then we drove home in more rain.

Ant Farm

The ants for the ant farm finally arrived on Thursday. On Friday, the kids got back from spring break in La Canada. So that night, we opened the tube of ants and dumped them into the life sustaining gel that is the heart of the ant farm.

A pile of rolled up bugs plopped out into the colony. I quickly put the lid on, so none would escape. After a few minutes, several of the ants were crawling around confusedly. At the center of the space was a pile of carcases. I remained hopeful that they were in some sort of ant suspended animation. One of them twitched.

A day later, only 5 ants were moving. The twitching one twitched occasionally, but no real motion. Today, I removed the "sleeping" ants, since they slumbered very deeply.

Five lousy ants! I thinkI sent a check for $6 for shipping, back in January. And I get 5 lousy ants in April.

These ants don't seem to want to dig the fabulous ant tunnels that the box promises, either. They just congregate at the end and try to climb out.

They better get organized and do some tunneling, or they might get to meet some local ants and see which are the better fighters.

Premium Only

What are the ethics of fueling up a rental car?

The car I rented for my trip to southern California demands premium fuel only. I don't want to spend more money than I have to on a rental, but I don't want to damage the car.

I went with the medium grade fuel. What am I supposed to do?

Dragon Tales

I was just cruising through the stuff that Tivo has stored for us, and I noticed a bunch of episodes of Dragon Tales. It occurred to me that SKGP doesn't watch it anymore, and that made me sad.

So, future S, remember that you used to really like watching the show Dragon Tales. Max and Emmy (and the new guy, Enrique) have a magic dragon scale that takes them to Dragonland, where they play with Zac and Wheezy (conjoined dragons), Ord (the big one), and Cassie (the smart one). Quetzal is the dragon teacher.


EJP is really into the Curious George movie. He watched it at least 4 times this week. Both of them really enjoy the PBS show.