2018: Through mid-September : Rosstralia

Hi! I’m super staying on top of sorting and uploading a ton of photos. By the time you have skimmed this on your phone, you will have been brought up to date on absolutely everything I have going on, except I left out my crippling hypochondria, current mid-life crisis (now entering its 15th year), and staid personal life. Enjoy! I’m glad you stopped by. What have you been up to? Oh, that sounds boring.

January 2018

We started the year Arizona style, enjoying the moon and probably the nighttime temperature of 97°.

Cousins!

When your delightful hosts (Tennille & John) have a cake suffering from freezer burn & they agree to let you destroy it.

One thing I had never done, but always wanted to in Arizona, was see Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West. I didn’t really know much about him, so I thought it was going to be some rich guy’s vacation home, but it wasn’t that at all, Ross, and maybe you should educate yourself about somebody before making such incorrect assumptions. His crew roughed it for years and years, without windows or running water, or respite from the heat!

I’ll use “trampoline” in a sentence: “Dear God, please don’t let something terrible happen on the trampoline.”

Sleep tight!

Helping Grandpacito.

“Do people think I’m a famous musician going on tour?”

According to the very nice person we sat next to on our flight home: “Emotional Support Dogs will often seek out the most anxious person on the plane and bond with them.”

We’ve been enjoying the bike path quite a bit.

Sometimes (and by that I mean all the hours I spend during the day ruminating about it) I get real bummed out about how expensive it is to live out here, but then we go hiking and I think: yeah, I could probably find just as nice a place to hike that’s not in the Bay Area and not spend 3/4 of my salary on a tiny apartment. But this is still a nice photo from a day we went hiking and then had frozen yogurt.

I’m guessing, since this was unlabeled, that this is one of those “same place, a year apart” type of photos.

Zoe’s accurate drawing of us riding bikes.

We found out the library has a “take one/bring one” bookmark policy. That was a busy, frantic night of crafting.

Another tooth gone. Now that I look back on it, I don’t think Zoe’s lost a tooth since last January. Will have to bring that up at the next dentist appointment.

February 2018

An ice cream establishment we’ve enjoyed moved closer to us. Seen here is Zoe and the 18$ scoop of honeysuckle melon or some flavor like that.

We tried getting Zoe to like jeans, but they weren’t a big hit. I was really shocked at how teenager-y she looked in them. She doesn’t look that way in this photo, but she is doing some sort of rocker pose, which was pretty fun.

We often pretend we have sticks for hands. I hope this isn’t a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It WAS a happy Valentine’s day!!!

Could this have been my first time to the local zoo? It has a gondola, which is superior in every way to the ski lift, and we rode it a bunch because even though it was a school holiday, it wasn’t very crowded. There was a restaurant at the top where we ate fries and it was very windy.

“Can I bring my book to the zoo?”

“I want to take a photo of that tree.” She has an excellent point: February is a wonderful time for that tree’s bloom.

We made construction paper self portraits.

March 2018

Park fun!

Birthday Month started.

As featured before

Eight!

We went to the Jelly Belly factory and ate fart jelly beans.

WELL…THERE YOU GO AGAIN.

The noodlest of soups.

I remember before taking this, I pantomimed drinking a candle to the lady working at the ice cream shop, and she howled with laughter and called out people from the back and explained what I did and we both seemed insane because it was never funny. Now that I type that, I’m not even sure it happened. Is my life just one dream where I sometimes eat falafels in Oakland?

“You know those tickets that you scratch and we sometimes win money?”

“I promise I’ll write in this notebook every day.” (Hasn’t been touched since photo was taken.) The sky looks fake!!

April 2018

Once upon a time, my buddies and I would get Big Salads down on Telegraph and go record shopping pretty regularly. Then the salad place burned down, and then reopened some time later. I wanted to take Zoe so she could relive a Golden Era in her papa’s life. It was fine…and a little disappointing. Were big salads better when you were 26? Was it really almost twenty years since I’ve been there?

To complete the not great day of doing stuff, we saw Isle of Dogs, that timeless kids movie. “It was really confusing and the worst movie I’ve ever seen.”

The Exploratorium was better.

We woke up early to see if we could spot when the crew made the sand at the park all neat. I realize that probably seems very boring, but Zoe and I never see them rake and clean the sand, so it was exciting to us.

“Papa, why are you crying?”
“Your haiku is perfect.”

Show & Tell day.

We successfully flew a kite. Now the kite is incredibly tangled in the closet.

Sometimes we sit in the park and meticulously make a collection of petals.

May 2018

I can tell you to never do what the post-it says.

Turns out on Kentucky Derby Day, people gather to play horseshoes.

I realize it looks like Zoe drinks a lot of Icees, but she doesn’t really like candy and her normal sugar intake is pretty low. I don’t even feel like I have to explain my parenting choices to you, people I work with, my five friends, and grandparents. (I’m not sure who else is reading this.)

Mother’s Day

I made a bundt cake for Nicole, but had to go through three test cakes because they kept sticking. Some pans like flour, some like shortening. A vegan bundt cake likes melted Earth’s Balance brushed into the pan. This page was super helpful. God bless the King Arthur Flour people.

I volunteered to go with Zoe’s class to Muir Woods.

The mirror at Scott’s is always a good photo opp.

Entering the end of the school year projects.

Zoe loves handstands. She does not love putting her hand in goose poop, of which there is so much in this park.

We got into skipping stones, but couldn’t find a lot of flat rocks, but we did find a lot of tiny rocks that I later washed because they were in my jacket pocket and I had forgotten about them.

I think we saw a video of some “party hack” where you could make cherry straws. They were a big hit on Labor Day.

June 2018

School is out. Time to hit Arizona. Time for Zoe to experience an airport three hours before our flight.

When you sit in the front row of a plane and have an adorable daughter, you get lots of attention. In this case, the crew of the plane drafted Zoe to hand out snacks to everyone on the flight. She was gone for forty-five minutes (half the flight). “Ladies and gentleman, we have a flight attendant in training.”

I learned, from playing it twice, that I’m pretty good at laser tag.

“I want to try a sour candy.”

Cousins. THEY’RE THE SAME AGE!!

We found this in the dollar section (or “gift shop” as Zoe calls it), and we really thought it was going to be big enough to sit in, but it barely holds her water bottle.

July 2018

4th of July tradition.

Thoughts on frozen custard: we both didn’t “get” it. It was both warm and cold at the same time. The Italian ice was much better. Was overwhelmed by the entire selection.

I get so happy when I realize: I’m considerably happier these last few years than I’ve ever been/I get to spend so much time with my remarkable daughter. Life is great, Ross, stop worrying so much.

“Does it look like a professional made this plate?” Also: there were a lot of chokers worn this month.

We’re also so fortunate to live in an area where we can spend so much time outside.

“Buddy, I’ll take you anywhere you want for lunch.”

Zoe:

Me (in stern Dad voice): why don’t we put away our phones at the dinner table?

August 2018

There is a magic store on Pier 39, but I never want to go back there ever again.

The ferry ride gave us enough time on how we would try to get Ambrosia to eat some of this fart candy. (“It tastes like root beer and is really good!”)

A tree was cut down at our park, so Zoe made an altar to honor it. Watching her do that was probably my favorite thing she’s done in recent memory.

“Papa, this seems like one of those photos you’d have as a backdrop on your phone.”

Just bringing my incredibly awesome daughter to work (mostly to eat bagels).

I introduced Zoe to one of my oldest friends.

On the day before school started, we went to an A’s game. Zoe had won tickets by being a good reader at the library, and we braved the crowds and high parking prices to enjoy a few innings high up where the view was great. Zoe had often spoken about the quality of the nachos, and they lived up to the hype.