We are in Texas dealing with the aftermath of a fire in the laundry room of our Fort Worth condo.  This is where Sarah lived when she went to medical school and we have kept it as rental since that time. Our tenants, a medical student and a pharmacy student, came home from school to…

I am excited.  Today, my birthday present from Ray arrived: an Instant Pot.  My niece told me about the Instant Pot this past summer when she and her family visited.  “It has changed how we eat,” she said.  “I can make a really good dinner in 30 minutes.”  Then when we visited my brother Sam and…

For Nico’s birthday last Saturday, I made a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting that turned out to be one of the best cakes I’ve ever made.  I took the recipe right off the back of the Hershey’s Cocoa box and modified it (along with the frosting recipe) to suit our non-refined white sugar sensibilities….

Elizabeth Beaty, aka Liz, Bibbie, Ellabee, and Honey Bunny (for Ron) is 32 years old today.  She was born at home in Denison, Texas and kept me up way past my bedtime that first night with a tummy ache in her very small tummy. We like to say that Liz was born talking.  That isn’t…

We drove from Ensenada, Mexico to LA, picked up our dogs and headed to Ojai. Tomorrow is Liz’s official birthday and though we have already celebrated, we thought we could at least be around for part of the day before heading back to LA after lunch tomorrow for work. Liz and Ron are actually returning…

Today was beach day. That was pretty much it except for homemade banana pudding for Liz for her birthday and gifts for Liz and me since our birthdays are close. Low key and lovely. Exactly right. We reluctantly head home early tomorrow after a wonderful time. Here are some photos:

Today, we celebrated Nico’s second birthday here in Ensenada where Gregorio’s family lives. Nico’s grandma and grandma, two uncles, his aunt and first cousin came for the day and we ate lunch together then headed to play on the beach.  We all had a lot of fun and Nico’s birthday was commemorated with lots of…

We have come to Ensenada, Mexico in Baja to celebrate a whole host of things.  Nico turns 2 tomorrow, Elizabeth turns 32 on January 16th and I turn 65 on January 21st.  Ray turns 60 this year and this is the trip we took when I turned 60, fives years ago. We are in a…

One of my beloved students, Lona Tehrani, is headed off to Honduras tomorrow on a medical mission trip with other students from Brown University.  Lona and I have bonded over the past several years and I had the pleasure of seeing her while she was home from school over winter break. Wishing you a safe…

Today, I had a treat.  My beloved Madison Stingray came to visit.  Madison was my writing student from fourth grade through college.  Now she is getting her Master’s degree in Archaeology from Cambridge University.  We had a lovely two-hour visit that easily could have stretched into the rest of the afternoon except that another student…