Author Archives: JJD
Shae turns five
Thanks to a felicitous coincidence in the timing of my vacation, I was in Boise for Shae’s fifth birthday party. We were both delighted that I could be part of the special occasion. Legos featured prominently among the gifts An outdoor Lego pool that Barbie would have loved.I hadn’t realized the company had made such […]
The Ride: Bogus Basin
Boise claims to be a cycling town. in the interest of getting in shape for the big ride at the end of the month, I decided to put it to the test. Last week I hunted around for a bike shop that would rent me a good road bike. Idaho Mountain Touring was the only shop […]
Family night at the mini golf
Guess what we did today! Shae (turns 5 tomorrow) Brynn (9 yrs old) Jaron (7 yrs old) Mini-golf Gothic Mark (my brother) and Erin (sister-in-law) Adri (5 months) Heather (my sister) Jordan (brother-in-law)
Donner Pass strikes again
From the time I arrived in Reno two days ago, the air has been thick with the smoke of California forest fires. Yosemite burns; Reno chokes. Even people who haven’t just had knee-replacement surgery have been staying indoors, out of the haze. But this afternoon the wind shifted and cleared out all the smoke, leaving a […]
Convalescent Lady
When I got to my parents’ place yesterday, I was surprised to see how well Lady was doing. Despite having had her knee bones sawed off and metal bits stuck in just a few days ago, she looked cheerful and well-coiffed. She had her convalescent station set up on a futon in the family room but was […]
Layover rendez-vous
Okay, so this was awesome: My flight from Salt Lake City to Reno went through Denver, where I had a two-hour layover. Not enough time to leave the airport to visit Amanda, but plenty of time for her to meet me for a late lunch on the other side of the security line. The […]
Brunch with the ladies (and the Great Waffle Taste-Off of 2013)
There’s nothing quite like last-minute travel changes to make for fun adventures. Take yesterday, for example. The original plan was to fly out to Salt Lake City, where I would spend a few days helping to care for Lady (who just had total knee-replacement surgery) and, during the down time, catching up with some mission and […]
This is why they invented dark chocolate
I’m not gonna lie: today was rough. I’m trying to take all of next week off, you see, to visit family and reground myself; pretend like I have roots or something. And with today being the last work day before I left, I needed to get everything in a place where I could be gone. […]
First day of class
Holy cow this is weird. I’ve got a student ID and a parking pass, a syllabus, and homework. What is happening? I’ll tell you what’s happening: Today was the first class of the semester for Intro to Interior Design at the Corcoran College of Art & Design. As predicted, it was a […]
Mrs. Blanche
You know how sometimes you get on Facebook and start clicking on friends of friends and pretty soon you’ve gone down a rabbit-hole and suddenly you’re sending a friend request to your middle school band teacher, along with a note about how her encouragement and teaching were instrumental in setting you on the path to a life-long passion for […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 