Wednesday, Sept 21

We left Emporia around 7am and met Zarrin and Ziya Reynolds at a pet hospital where they volunteer, north of Kansas City. Zarrin came with us to breakfast while Ziya drove her car to work. Zarrin has been unemployed for 6 months after schoolteaching at a juvenile detention facility became too dangerous. After breakfast at Waffle House, she dropped us off at the airport and borrowed our car for the duration of our vacation.

In September, 2016, we returned to Europe for two weeks in the Netherlands and France. Follow the "book navigation" links at left to read more about the trip, or click the map above to skip ahead to a location.

I've hesitated to publish this story because it's not flattering to someone that we know, but enough time has passed that I hope we can all laugh about it. We don't mean to poke fun, but it does make a good story.

Spring Break, 2016, we celebrated my 40th year with a trip to visit my friend Javier and his family in Aguascalientes.

See an album of photos from the trip!

Here is our annual newsletter and accompanying photo collage from January 2016.

Here's our annual letter and accompanying photo collage from 2015.

Years ago, I taught an informal class where I gave a quick summary of the plot of Robert M. Pirsig's book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (which has never been made into a movie) and then made the case that Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal is in fact a movie adaptation of it. Since I know a number of people who have found Z&AMM too difficult to read, here is the breakdown:

It was the early summer of 1999. I had been living in the Stevens Square neighborhood of Minneapolis for a year, following graduation from Grinnell College. I was working part-time for Twin Cities Free-Net and spending the rest of my time absorbing the many opportunities the Twin Cities had to offer. I was volunteering with the neighborhood organization (SSCO), among other places.

In 2014, we celebrated our 5th anniversary with a trip to Niagara Falls, both the New York and the Canadian sides of the river.

See an album of photos from the trip!

It was the first week of March, 2008.  I had taken the train from Fairfield to Boston for my first DrupalCon.  The weather was cold and rainy all week.  I was staying in a big, institutional hostel that felt very much like a YMCA.  They even provided flip-flops for the showers ... I'm guessing there had been a problem with athlete's foot!  It wasn't homey, but it was affordable.