Monthly Archives: January 2022

Soccer, Halloween, and Fall Fun

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We had a busy fall in 2021: the school year was in full swing; William played on a soccer team for the first time; Grandma and Grandpa Wong came to visit; and, on a bittersweet note, Julia had the once-in-a-lifetime pleasure of applying to colleges. We’ve collected and posted some pictures that capture some of these experiences.

William had played soccer before, of course: starting in preschool, he took classes from Kidz Love Soccer and really enjoyed them. The teacher, Coach Scott, worked hard to make learning basic soccer skills positive and fun.

Until this year, however, he had never played in an actual soccer league, and now that we were settled back in at home, it seemed like as good a time as any to give it a try. He was fortunate to end up on a team with a number of his friends from school, baseball, and other activities, including his best buddy, Kai. Most of the other kids on the team had played before and were a little more comfortable than William with competitive games, but he adapted well. He tried his hardest, kept a positive attitude, and showed clear improvement as the season progressed. His coach adhered to the stereotypical I-yell-because-I-care philosophy, and I was initially worried about how William would respond to that style of teaching, but it didn’t seem to faze him.

In mid-October, Grandma and Grandpa Wong paid us a much-anticipated visit. If memory serves, this was the first time we saw them in person since the middle of 2019, thanks to the pandemic and other factors. They stopped by en route to their home in Texas, after first visiting Bill and Leah in Colorado Springs. Of course, San José isn’t exactly on the way to Georgetown, so we were very happy they took the extra time to stop in; we only wish they could have stayed longer.

Because Will has always been a big fan of dressing up in costumes, you might guess that Halloween is one of his favorite holidays, and you’d be right. This year, he celebrated with no fewer than three costumes: he wore his astronaut costume to school on Friday, and he switched to his Minecraft costume for late afternoon trick-or-treating on Sunday. Later in the evening, as it started to get dark, he switched to a light-up stick figure costume that garnered multiple compliments from neighbors as we went from house to house.

Julie and I split trick-or-treating duty—he was very diligent, collecting more candy than Julia or Joe ever did—and Joe spent the evening with his friend Lucas. Even they, at the advanced age of fifteen, got into the spirit of the holiday and did a spot of trick-or-treating, making sure to visit one of the nearby houses that was known to hand out full-size candy bars. As I write, at the end of January, we’re still working our way slowly through the hoard of candy they accumulated.

This fall finally brought something we’d been waiting for through most of the year: the opportunity for William to get the COVID-19 vaccine. He’s been extremely careful and conscientious throughout the pandemic, even switching to less comfortable (but more effective) KF-94 masks as the Omicron variant became dominant, without raising a fuss. Early on, we had to clarify to him that he didn’t have to wear his mask in the car as we drove from place to place: he was worried that the virus could get in from the outside and infect him.

In that context, he saw first Julie and Julia, followed by Joe and me, get our shots and feel the powerful sense of relief that came with knowing we were largely protected against severe illness. At the same time, we had to explain to him that doctors and scientists were taking the time to be extra careful to be sure that the vaccine was safe and effective in young, growing bodies.

When the Pfizer vaccine was finally approved for kids in his age range, he and Julie were almost the first in line to get a dose. The county converted a section of the vaccination site at the fairgrounds to make it more kid-friendly, complete with toys and a scavenger hunt, and William was pleased as punch to finally be vaccinated. The ice cream treat he got after the fact probably didn’t hurt, either.

Gallery: Soccer, Halloween, and Fall Fun

Epilogue: Landscaping

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A quick epilogue to attach to our series of posts about our remodel: we finally have grass! As you can see in the photos, we finished up our landscaping in December, about five months after we moved back into the house.

To be fair, we had always planned to finish the yard in the winter: it’s so dry here in the summer that it wouldn’t make any sense to put a lawn and new plants in, as it would cost a fortune just to keep them alive.

Based on a recommendation from our friends Steve and Maria, we hired Salvador and his team to install a new sprinkler system and sod and to clean up the garden and flower beds so that they’ll be ready to use in the spring. Over the course of a few weeks, they transformed our yard from a barren moonscape to a place that actually seems fit for human habitation. There were a few hiccups along the way. In particular, language was a bit of a barrier, and as a result, the team ended up having to redo a few things that weren’t quite the way we wanted them. But in the end, we were very pleased with the results.

The team started out by turning over the existing soil and removing construction debris left over from July, and they then dug out trenches to accommodate the new sprinkler system: all of the old sprinkler heads, pipes, and valved were either completely gone or not in a usable state.

Unlike our old setup, which featured an automatic system in the back yard and manually operated valves in the front, the new system has timers for both the front and the back. The grass in the back was always a bit healthier than the grass in the front—perhaps because it had a more consistent watering schedule—so we’re hoping the new configuration will bring the front yard up to par.

The controller for the system is on the south side of the house, around the corner from the patio, and the back yard valves are just a few feet away, under a plastic cover in the lawn. On the other hand, the valves for the front yard are up in front of the house, on the other side of the driveway and front walk, close to the living room window. This placement put them close to the outdoor spigot on the north side of the house, which Salvador tapped into to feed water to the valves. To make this setup work, Salvador’s team had to run the control wires under the house in an almost perfect diagonal; the cable run couldn’t be longer if we tried.

After the sprinkler system was set up, we installed sod in front and in back. We gave some consideration to going with a scheme that featured more native and drought-tolerant plants, particularly in view of the severe rain shortfalls we’ve had the last few years. In the end, however, we went ahead with grass because we wanted William and his friends to be able to run around and play in the yard, which is a bit difficult when your landscaping consists of spiny succulents, coarse native grasses, and gravel. Once the kids are grown, we may reconsider.

One section that proved to be problematic was the street tree strip, or parkway. We had grass there in the past, and expected to keep things the same, but it turns out that the roots of the Liquidambar styraciflua, or American Sweetgum, trees that we have there have grown very close to the surface, which would make it almost impossible to establish sod in that area. We ended up putting grass in the middle portion between the trees and planting some ground cover around and to the side of the trees. Right now, the ground cover isn’t looking so hot—maybe it’s been too cold—so we might need to freshen it up in the spring.

Another part of the project that generated some significant discussion was the path on the south side of the house, between the great room and garage walls and the fence. Before the remodel, we had a series of square concrete pavers along that path, with a foot or two of distance between them. This was a simple, low-tech solution that made it easy enough to walk along the side of the house, but didn’t really other help with other common scenarios, like pushing the lawn mover from back to front and back again.

I originally argued to do more or less the same thing again, but Julie and Joe were both adamant that the old approach was insufficient. Instead, Salvador suggested we go with a straight, continuous path consisting of interlocking pavers, with river rock along the sides. In the end, it turned out very well; it both looks better and works better than the previous solution.

Along with the path, Salvador added on a small extension to the fence and built a new gate to control access to the back yard. Our old gate was falling apart long before we started construction, so it’s a nice change of pace to have something we can actually close. It’s a little closer to the side door of the garage than we would have liked, but the placement of the door, the water heater, and the family room window left us with few options.

Finally, the team laid down a few inches of soil in the flower beds and in the garden area along the north side the house, next to our master bedroom and the office. Enzo and his crew did a good enough job cleaning up when they completed their work, but there was still a fair amount of debris and other detritus all over the yard, enough so that Julie was concerned it might make it harder to get things going next spring. With the new soil, everything looks pristine.

Even though we had very good reasons to wait to do the landscaping work, it was still a real relief when it was done. In the summer, the unfinished yard produced vast quantities of dust that blew or was tracked into the house whenever we came and went; and in the winter, there was mud everywhere. Now, we can send the kids out to play without implicitly asking them to go play in someone else’s yard. And, of course, it’s nice not to feel like our place is a bit of embarrassment to the block when neighbors walk by.

Gallery: Epilogue: Landscaping

Christmas 2021

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We just wrapped up our trip to Nebraska for Christmas 2021, and it was something of a welcome return to normal holiday routine after two years of relative isolation. In fact, it was my first time going anywhere since February of 2020, which made the whole experience a bit jarring: I’d forgotten many of the petty indignities of air travel.

There was a flurry of activity before we left, which made the week we spent in Nebraska feel all the more relaxing. We put up Christmas decorations in and on the house for the first time since the remodel, including icicles on the second-floor eaves. We weren’t quite sure how to accomplish that, so we paid a team of folks to take care of it, and they made short work of the project. On the whole, they did a pretty good job—the lights look great—but they did leave the exposed end of our triple-trap extension cord in a place where it could slide into the gutter in the event of rain, which naturally, it did a few days later. After we realized the lights weren’t working, Julie and I spent the better part of an hour trying to figure out how to reset the GFCI for the circuit, which happened to be inside the garage, not obviously connected to the outlet the lights were plugged into.

We also added a light-up pig to our front yard ensemble—something that Julie has long desired—and we put electric candles (gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Wong) in the windows of Joe’s bedroom and the play room. When everything is turned on, it seems almost as bright as day in front of the house, but our setup pales in comparison to some of the neighbors’. We noticed this at Halloween, as well: it seems like many people have channeled pent-up energy from being stuck at home into creating ever more fantastic holiday displays.

We set up our Christmas tree at home around mid-month so that we’d have at least a little time to enjoy it before we left town. We debated whether to put it in the family room or the living room and ultimately opted for the latter, right in front of the picture window facing the street. That way, it’s visible from outside when we have the drapes open, and it feels a little more special because it’s in a room we don’t use that often otherwise.

Due to quirks in the San Jose Unified and UPA academic calendars, William’s holiday break started almost a full week before Julia and Joe’s: their semester didn’t end until December 22, while William was released on December 17. With that in mind, Julie made arrangements to fly to Nebraska with William ahead of us, giving the two of them time to bake cookies and otherwise prepare for Christmas while the big kids wrapped up their final exams.

Julie and William left the Sunday before Christmas, leaving the rest of us to fend for ourselves for a few days. Things went relatively smoothly, other than the fact that by mid-day Monday I was experiencing some mild sinus congestion and other low grade cold symptoms. After not having been sick—not even a sniffle—for twenty-two months, my mind went to the worst case scenario: what if we were stuck at home for Christmas while Julie and William were in Nebraska? Fortunately, Julie had picked up some rapid antigen tests for Covid-19 a few weeks earlier, and I came up negative both Monday evening and Wednesday night. A PCR test on Tuesday confirmed the negative result Thursday morning, so I felt OK with flying later that day.

Of course, feeling OK with flying didn’t make the process any less unpleasant than it always is. And flying in the middle of a pandemic made it that much worse. We saw the full spectrum of people’s inability to follow simple directions during our trip: people who “forgot” to put on their masks when they entered the airport; people walking around with their noses hanging out, uncaring or oblivious; people who took off their masks to talk loudly on the phone; and much, much more.

At the departure gate in San José, an older couple sat down a couple seats away from us. The woman was clearly unwell: she was bleary-eyed and sniffly, and looked as though she would have much rather have been in bed. That would have been fine—I wasn’t feeling great, either—but as she started a coughing fit, she pulled off her mask. We just got up and moved at that point; I have no idea what she was sick with, but there didn’t seem to hang around nearby.

Beyond those annoyances, things went smoothly. We were very fortunate that our flights weren’t affected by the wave of cancellations that swept through the industry over the holidays, and we made it to Omaha with no complications more serious than a bit of moderate turbulence heading into and out of Salt Lake City.

Julie picked us up at the airport in Omaha, and it was a nice change of pace to arrive during daylight hours rather than near midnight, as we have in the past. We made a quick stop at a Runza drive-though for dinner and headed up to Norfolk.

The kids were excited to see Grandma Flack and their uncles Bill and Andrew, and it was comforting to participate in Julie’s family traditions. We had roast beef on Christmas Eve and decorated the tree after dinner. On Christmas morning, we opened presents at 8:00 sharp—Julia and Joe are old enough that they probably would have been happy to sleep in, but William was having none of that—and, borrowing a tradition from Grandma and Grandpa Wong, had cinnamon rolls for breakfast. That night, we roasted a turkey that Julie had started brining the day before, and there were plenty of leftovers for soup and turkey sandwiches in the days that followed.

The rest of the visit was even more laid back and relaxing than usual: because of concerns about Covid, we didn’t go out much except for near-daily curbside pickup runs at the grocery store. This gave Julia and Joe some time to slow down and relax after finals, while William was happy just to have so many people around to entertain him. Julia made vast quantities of bacon for breakfast nearly every day, and all three kids ate prodigious amounts of Spaghetti-O’s at lunch throughout our visit.

Our one big outing was to visit Aunt Julie at her nursing home in Madison. To accommodate families who want to visit residents as a group, the facility allows you to book the dining room in the assisted living wing so you can enjoy a private family meal. You can choose between whatever happens to be on the menu that evening or bring your own food, which really didn’t feel like much of a choice at all. Julie and Grandma Flack ordered a hot pulled pork meal, throwing in some brownies as a treat, from the HyVee in Norfolk, and made plans to pick it up on our way to the nursing home.

Unfortunately, things went sideways from there. When we pulled into the marked pickup spot at HyVee and called the number posted on the adjacent sign, we were sent straight to voice mail. We tried a few more times over the next few minutes and couldn’t get through to a person; worse, we discovered the the voice mailbox was full, so we couldn’t leave a message even if we wanted to.

Frustrated, Julie called the main number for the grocery store and spoke to a very nice woman who told us she would put us through the kitchen. We then sat and listened to grocery store sounds for what seemed like an eternity before Julie gave up and called the main line again. This time, the nice woman told us she would walk over to the kitchen to make sure we got through and, to her credit, she did just that. Julie chatted briefly with someone on the other end who assured us that our order would be out promptly.

“Promptly” means different things to different people, but finally, after what felt like a pretty long wait, someone appeared at the car window with brownies and… nothing else. Julie pointed out that this wasn’t right—she had the original order confirmation on her phone—and the person disappeared back into the store leaving us to wait still longer. Finally, the store employee reappeared accompanied by someone from the kitchen who explained their systems didn’t show anything in our order except brownies; the rest of our items seemed to have vanished into the ether.

Out of patience and time, as we’d spent more than twenty minutes sitting in the parking lot, and Grandma Flack and Uncle Bill had already arrived at the nursing home, we took the brownies and audibled: instead of pulled pork, we would have delicious Arby’s roast beef sandwiches for dinner. We zipped off to the drive-through, put in an order for a pile of sandwiches and various types of fries, and finally started on our way to Madison. Luckily for us, they couldn’t start dinner without us because we had all the food.

All the drama aside, we had a very pleasant visit with Aunt Julie; because we had the dining room to ourselves, we could relax and move around without feeling rushed or like we were in the way. Aunt Julie and Julia really hit it off, as Julia regaled her with stories of cute things Felix has done over the last couple years, illustrated by pictures from her phone. Our one major regret is that, after all the excitement, I forgot to take pictures while we were there.

Our return trip on December 30 was blissfully uneventful. Getting home before the start of the new year left us with plenty of time to wind down and re-acclimate to life at home before William’s return to school on January 4 (the older kids, having finished later in December, don’t start again until January 10—this left us plenty of time for Julia to work on college applications). It also allowed us to enjoy one final holiday tradition: Big Fat Pancakes for dinner on New Year’s Day.

Gallery: Christmas 2021