Hanalei Speaks Her First Words!
Listen to me already!
Its with great joy and surprise that I’m proud to announce that Hanalei Stockard Vota is now talking. Yes, she is speaking at 3 months old – a record for any of our families. While she’s not quite saying whole sentences, if you listen to her on this video, you can tell she’s making sense.
As her father, I’m so proud that she’s talking, its kinda hard for me to admit that I don’t always agree with what she says.
Read MoreTime for a Spring Haircut
Whoa! How did that happen?
As a young man, I enjoyed long hair. Midway down my back in a long pony-tail, my hair signified my membership in the surfer tribe. We were the beach bums who could grow our hair long and enjoy the day, unrestricted by convention or conformity.
Fast forward a few years, and my hair was short – clipped to get my first job and kept short thereafter for ease as much as employment. In Russia, I started spiking my hair up, but by this century, it was time to leave youth and keep it short and contained.
Read MoreCalming Grant Circle Car Crashes
Grany Circle from space
As drivers speed along New Hampshire Avenue in Petworth, they come to Grant Circle – which is often a surprise by the number of cars that crash through the park. Almost on a weekly basis, each weekend morning shows us that driving fast at night through our neighbourhood will get you a parking space in Grant Circle.
I wonder: what can we do to slow drivers down, to stop the madness before we loose more than a fire hydrant or a tree.
Read MorePoop Patrol in Pethworth
Where is your poop, people?
Grant Circle is one of the reasons that I moved to Petworth. Its a beautiful park that calms me after a long day at work. That is until I walk Dog Taxi in Grant Circle and we both have to navigate the dog poop minefield.
It seems that some of my pet-owning neighbours are not so good about scooping their pet’s poop and frozen dog feces build up quick in the winter. Mad at yet another pile of poo, I decided to measure the laziness of my neighbours, and bagged and weighed the canine excrement:
Read MoreHanalei Baptisms – From Water to Ice
Time for a first swim
Looking out into the deep Pacific blue as Amy and I arrived at Moss Landing on Monterey Bay, I had only one thought – its time to baptize Hanalei. My loving wife was not trilled with my idea, as the Pacific is quite cold in January with only blubber-encased mammals willing to swim in its frigid waters.
Yet with the warmth of the Santa Anna winds and a cloudless sky, I knew it was time to connect our daughter with her birth name. The very waters at our feet in California also swirl through Hanalei Bay on Kauai. An oceanic baptism would also connect her with my own baptism 35 years before.