Category Archives: Joseph
Family Portraits: Behind the Scenes
Following up on our previous post about our long-awaited family photo session, I wanted to share some behind-the-scenes pictures and videos that we took during the shoot. Because we’re not the primary focus of most of these photos, I think they serve to underscore the natural beauty of the setting while the pictures we are in also highlight what a lighthearted, casual experience this shoot was. The photographer, Jenny, deserves all the credit in the world for putting our occasionally-fractious troop at ease.
Gallery: Family Portraits: Behind the Scenes
Family Portraits 2025
For years, Julie has wanted to have a set of family portraits taken by a professional photographer. This fall, while Joe was home between the end of the summer term and the beginning of the fall semester, we finally made it happen.
We drove up to windy Davenport Beach on a Sunday afternoon in late August for a very casual session with Jenny Shih, who was a fellow parent at Discovery preschool during William’s time there. The experience was free-form and relaxed, which suited us just fine. We had a brief moment of concern when Julia revealed the depth of her distaste for beaches and sand just as we pulled up for a 90-minute session on a quintessential stretch of the Northern California coast, but Jenny quickly put everyone at ease and got some great shots.
This was a long time coming, and the kids had a blast doing it. If we ever can get everyone in the same place at the same time, maybe we’ll even do it again someday.
Gallery: Family Portraits 2025
Julie’s Birthday and a Visit from Joe
We’ve had a busy spring so far: William has baseball, the school play, math olympiad, and chess; Julie is the chair of the fifth grade promotion committee; and Felix has had terribly uncontrolled diabetes, which has at times led him to use parts of the house, such as the landing going up to the second floor, as an open-air latrine. It’s really very unpleasant.
But one of the highlights of the spring so far was a visit from Joe, who opted to spend his spring break with us. He flew in on the last day of February and stayed through March 8. Naturally, we have pictures, including a few from Julie’s birthday a couple weeks before his arrival. This set actually wraps around the contents of the previous collection, which covered a few specific events during Joe’s visit.
Joe had a fairly relaxing stay: I think some downtime was just what he wanted after the intense first few weeks of the semester. The opportunity for a break from the cold Boston weather was probably also a draw. His local friends were mostly out of town—their breaks didn’t line up with his—but he made time to connect with a few of them online to chat and play computer games. He also offered me a look at some of the work he’s doing in his first-year computer science class. Parts of the curriculum seem to have been designed based some of the same principles that underlaid COMP 210 when I took it at Rice eons ago (in fact, some of the same people may have had a hand in designing both courses), so I found it fascinating. It almost made me want to go back to school.
William, of course, was over the moon at Joe’s return. For weeks leading up to the break, he asked when Joe was arriving on a nearly daily basis, even though he knew the answer hadn’t changed since the last time he asked. I think he just enjoyed thinking about Joe’s upcoming visit. He was ecstatic when he woke up the morning after Joe’s arrival—the plane from Boston landed at SFO after midnight—and the two of them found ample opportunities to play and roughhouse while Joe was here. William loved it, and, I’m pretty sure Joe did, too. We’ve long held that William is as good for Joe’s mental health as Joe is for William’s.
The album also contains some pictures from William’s spring musical performance, his (and our) last ever at Booksin. Naturally, he dressed up for the occasion, as he loves to do, and his friend Sam joined him in wearing a suit. The class sang and played recorders—I hope to post video soon—and that was that. We’re well into the era of “lasts” at Booksin, and it’s a strange feeling to know that we’ll soon leave this part of our lives behind after so many years as part of the school community.
On Joe’s last night here, he, Julie, and I went to Symphony San Jose for a performance of Beethoven’s Eroica. Julie had reserved the tickets weeks before, looking to indulge Joe’s love of music, and made sure to book his return flight late enough that we could deliver him to the airport after the end of the show. I don’t think I’ve ever been to the symphony before, so I have no basis for comparison, but Julie and Joe, both of whom have deeper musical knowledge and experience than I do (which is to say, more than none at all) enjoyed it, which I take to mean that it was an impressive performance.
After the concert, we zipped home, changed out of our fancy symphony clothes, and gave Julia and William an opportunity to say their goodbyes before we drove Joe up to SFO to catch the redeye back to the East Coast. The next morning, he was safe and sound in frigid Boston, and we were back to missing him.
Birthday Dinner / Home Opener
It was my birthday this month, and how did I choose to treat myself? At the risk of annoying my family, I got out my film camera to take pictures. And, taking things a step further, I visited eBay—an increasingly hazardous proposition for me of late—and bought a new lens, a Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 zoom, because I got it into my head that I wanted to take some pictures at one of William’s baseball games.
The first half of the set was taken at my birthday dinner at Palermo, a local Italian restaurant that isn’t especially fancy, but offers some basic dishes prepared well and presented in a pleasant, family-friendly environment; as we were sitting down for dinner, some of William’s friends from school were leaving.
The lighting in the restaurant was a little challenging. I was using a 50mm prime lens that is reasonably fast, but it was still difficult to get sharp pictures from some angles. I left in some fairly fuzzy shots—presumably blurry due to camera shake—just so I would have some of William and Julia. Luckily, the pictures of Joe, who was in town for spring break—more on that in a post to come—turned out a bit more sharp.
The second half of the set was taken at William’s opening home game of the baseball season. This is his first year at the Majors level, so everything is moving a little faster than he’s used to from his experiences the last two years. But he’s working hard to catch up. He managed to walk and score a run in the game, and his team, the Pirates, came away with the win. He’d been thinking about asking for a transfer down to Minors for another year, but after the game, he was settled on staying where he is. I firmly believe the hits will come: when I throw wiffle balls to him in the yard, he crushes them; Julie has been taking him to the batting cages regularly to get used to the speed of the in-game pitches. Where we need to focus is on making plays in the outfield, which he hasn’t had many opportunities to do in game situations.
The light wasn’t a problem at the game, but at 300mm, the new-to-me lens is a little shorter than the 100-400mm lens I use with my digital camera. As a result, I wasn’t able to get as close to the action as I’m accustomed to. I’ll have to get used to it, though, because I have no current plans to buy more lenses for my retro film setup.
On the other hand, I do have a couple more rolls of film, and I have been eyeing a 35mm prime to use for just walking around. It would probably be healthy for me to suspend my eBay account before I do something I regret.
Gallery: Birthday Dinner / Home Opener
A Field Trip, Thanksgiving, and Gingerbread Houses
This update, A Field Trip, Thanksgiving, and Gingerbread Houses, covers the brief-but-busy interlude between Halloween and the start of the Christmas season. The set kicks off with a few photos of William on a field trip to the Marine Science Institute in Redwood City, or MSI, where the Booksin fourth graders were presented with the opportunity to learn about the incredible variety of marine life in the San Francisco Bay. This field trip is a longtime staple for Booksin students—more on that in an update to come—and it’s a treat to see these pictures if only because William has been on relatively few field trips in his time in school, thanks largely to Covid, which put the kibosh on class outings for a couple of years
MSI aside, William had very a busy month. In the space of eight days, he attended a bowling birthday party for his friend Henry; he went bowling again for his friend Caeden’s birthday; he learned to solve his Rubik’s cube for the first time; and he played mini golf at his friend Julian’s birthday party. His social calendar is vastly more full than mine.
Most of the gallery is taken up by pictures from the weekend of Thanksgiving. Julie’s Mom joined us for Thanksgiving dinner, of course, and the holiday meal was a resounding success. We were fortunate to have one of the best turkeys we’ve had in recent years, and we even finished the green bean casserole that day, neatly avoiding the challenge of reheating that dish without making the onions soggy. For dessert, William worked up the nerve to try pumpkin pie for the first time; as a result of his experiment, he decided that he’s a big fan of whipped cream.
That Sunday, we decorated gingerbread houses at the eleventh annual Gingerbread Decorating Party at the San José Woman’s Club. We’ve attended this event since Julia was little, and the comfortable routine is familiar and uncomplicated. The basic outlines have remained unchanged for years: you pick up your gingerbread house; put together a plate of candy and snacks with which to decorate it; and enjoy hot chocolate, apple cider, and cheese and crackers as you festoon your creation. William always looks forward to entering his house in the contest at the end of the party—he’ll win one of these years—but this year we had to duck out early due to another commitment.
The set concludes with a few snapshots from a brief ceremony UPA held to honor students who did well in the National Merit Scholarship competition. Joe was part of the largest group of honorees, the Commended Students. He was a little reluctant to attend, perhaps because he was dissatisfied with his performance on the PSAT, but he was ultimately convinced to go, which gave him an opportunity to goof off with his friend Caitlin, who was also recognized that evening.
Finally, I snuck in a picture of a pizza I made, because I think I might be finally starting to get the hang of our pizza oven.
Joe’s Senior Portraits
As Julia did before him, Joe sat for a set of senior portraits with a professional photographer, Christy Wright, this fall. He was nervous and self-conscious at first, but the photographer did an amazing job of getting him to loosen up during the session: you can see him relaxing and growing more comfortable as the shoot progresses. Check out the pictures here.
The photographer employed a number of wardrobe changes and picturesque locations to create a dynamic collection of photos. She begins the set with Joe wielding his clarinet in his band uniform at the Los Gatos Civic Center and then moves to Vasona Lake County Park, where she took advantage of the diverse terrain and late-afternoon light to capture Joe in a variety of fun and visually distinctive contexts.
There are some behind-the-scenes pictures and videos that Julie took during the shoot that we’ll share at a later time. In the meantime, we’re happy to have this artifact capturing Joe at this very specific point in time, as he prepares to move on to a new phase in his life.
Gallery: Joe’s Senior Portraits
Camping, Haircuts, and Snacks – November 2015
This post is another look back, covering a timeframe almost exactly eight years in the past: November 2015. As always, we have pictures.
This brief update highlights just how much we had going on back then. It includes Will at speech therapy and playing in the park; Joe camping out with the Y Guides; and Julia working fall sales booths selling snacks for her Girl Scout troop. The photos show her selling with no fewer than three different girls over the course of a couple weeks.
The set also includes some video of Joe taking part in competitions at a Y Guides campout at Mount Madonna. You can see how seriously he took these inconsequential games by the look of intense concentration on his face. I was also struck by how good his throwing form was in one of the clips, even if the result wasn’t what he was aiming for—watch the video, and all will be made clear.
The album wouldn’t be complete without a selection of photos of William doing William things. We have William playing with his food; William goofing off with his sibling in nothing but his diaper; William after convincing some firefighters to let him sit in their truck; and what we think is his first real haircut outside the home.
There are a few work-related photos thrown in, highlighting that year’s offsite in Napa. If I recall correctly, I dozed off in the front row of a talk in the wine cellar that looks like a bomb shelter. It wasn’t the highest point of my professional career (though, to be fair, it was a really boring talk).
Gallery: Camping, Haircuts, and Snacks
Walkathon, Soccer, and Autumn Adventures
October and November have been extremely busy months for us, mostly for the best. Julia started a new job; William wrapped up the soccer season and the annual school Walkathon; and Joe continued his long slog through the college admissions process with some campus visits and the completion of his first batch of college applications. It wasn’t all sunshine: we had some health scares and minor todos that we had to get through, but nothing worth spelling out here. As always, we have a batch of pictures documenting the fun and frivolity.
One exciting development is that Julia has started a job at Engenius, an on-site after-school care program at Booksin. It’s kind of a spiritual successor to the Y-Care program that Julia and Joe both attended when they were younger—Y-Care is still there, but greatly diminished—and some of the caregivers that used to look after the two of them are now supervisors at Engenius. Julia is working with the first graders and is enjoying herself so far; she is worn out by the end of the day. She’s still taking classes as well, but work gives her a little more independence, which she craves, and helps her to structure her days.
October also brought the annual Booksin Walkathon. We had to cut our time there a little short, because Will had a soccer game that afternoon, but he still managed to walk 13 miles and spend some quality time with friends. Julie ran the registration desk, as she had the year before, and I volunteered to supervise the bounce house in the morning. We didn’t see too much of Will until it was nearly time to go, but I did managed to snag a few photos as he raced by.
The week after the walkathon, William wrapped up the soccer season with a pair of games at the league’s end-of-season jamboree. This was his first season in this particular recreational league, run by Almaden FC, and he improved his skills significantly during the year. His team had mixed results in the win/loss columns, but he learned quite a bit about the game and has decided that midfield is his favorite position.
The same afternoon as the soccer jamboree, Joe and Julie jetted off to southern California for another round of college visits, probably the last of the year. They stayed for just one night and crammed in Caltech, UC San Diego, and San Diego state before flying back midday the next day. With Julia at a party, Will and I were left to our own devices that evening. We treated ourselves to homemade BLTs and had a quiet evening at home. Due to an unfortunate confluence of events, Julie and Joe missed their flight home the next day, but caught a later flight and were home by bedtime.
Joe is slowly working his way through the very long list of schools he’s decided to apply to. Princeton remains his first choice, and he submitted his application just ahead of the early action deadline on November 1. The University of Washington was next, as their regular application deadline was November 15. After that, he completed applications for the University of California system schools and San Diego State. That puts him at seven schools so far, which is already more than the total of five I applied to when I was a senior.
This Thanksgiving weekend, we’re hoping to push through the process for a number of additional schools on his list, including Rice, the University of Chicago, and others. The application deadlines for all of the remaining schools are in early January, but we’re hoping he’ll be able to finish up as many as he can now, so he doesn’t have to worry about college essays as the end of the semester approaches. It’s been a challenging process, as Joe is very conscientious about not coming across as fake or misrepresenting his interests and accomplishments; playing the game of selling himself to admissions officers doesn’t come naturally to him. Nevertheless, Julie and I have enjoyed helping him fine-tune his essays: we’ve been spending an hour or so with him most evenings after William goes to bed, and we’re grateful for the chance to share this quality time, even if he’s not always happy about it.
William has always loved dressing up in costume, so Halloween is one of his favorite holidays. This year, he chose to go as the Tenth Doctor from Doctor Who, wearing a fantastic ensemble that Julie put together, complete with a sonic screwdriver.1 I took a number of pictures of him in costume, but the best one was taken by another parent in the classroom during the school day; it’s a fantastic shot.
In the evening, William went trick-or-treating with his good friend Bridget. For the most part, they wandered around the neighborhood by themselves, leaving Julie and me at home; if Will hadn’t decided that he wanted some company toward the end of the evening, it would have been the first year since 2005 that we accompany someone in search of candy. I think Will was a little less excited than Bridget about going out without parental supervision, but it definitely seems likely that we’ll be out of a job next year, nonetheless.
The rest of the gallery is a potpourri of miscellaneous shots: a few pictures of a work kayaking outing on the Monterey Bay; patio string lights that were the fulfillment of a long overdue promise; and a picture of Grandma Moravec’s pork and rice recipe, which we make all too infrequently.
- Astute observers will note that he actually has the Fourteenth Doctor’s sonic screwdriver. It was all we could find on short notice. Don’t ask what it cost.
October 2015
After a couple posts’ worth of recent pictures, today we have a set of photos from long ago: October 2015. In many ways, these pictures aren’t very different from the ones we’re taking today: like current collections, they cover school, extracurriculars, sports, and holiday celebrations. They’re eerily similar, except we’re all quite a bit older now, and the kids’ roles have changed dramatically. These echos are all the more poignant because the next set of photos I’m working on covers roughly the same time of year, but for 2023. They both feature soccer, Booksin, and trick-or-treating, but through a radically different lens. Sometimes, it’s hard to comprehend how we got from there to here.
William is omnipresent in this collection. We have pictures of him doing dishes, shopping with Julie, trick-or-treating, and—reflecting how he spent much of his time that fall—lots of photos of him playing in the park at the older kids’ soccer games. A particular favorite is a picture of him helping to collect drinks for the Booksin Walkathon.
Julia and Joe aren’t neglected, however. The gallery includes Julia’s Girl Scout troop making SWAPS to exchange with other scouts, pumpkin carving, Halloween hamminess, and numerous action shots from soccer games.
There is also a smattering of pictures from a sailing excursion on Monterey Bay that Julie set up for our anniversary. Neither of us had any previous experience sailing, and we were probably more hindrance than help to the captain of the ship who took us out, but it was a unique and fun experience that I’m grateful to have had.
Gallery: October 2015
Occasional Dispatches from San Jose 