Ah yes, I see I should have mentioned out loud that I was planning to take Calvin driving this afternoon.

(We usually drive Julian around in the Subaru so @jaeger took it on their SF adventure.)

Not surprisingly, Julian is scoring well in reading. I am very bemused that if I go search on the Lexile site for suggested books for him, they only consider his reading level, not his age/emotional maturity. I guess this is another reason we have children's librarians, to insert some common sense into reading recommendations. On the other hand, he's probably fine just reading whatever he has been reading.

It's too bad that L.L. Bean discontinued this backpack. I bought Calvin's in 2015 so it's lasted a good 10 years with all the abuse a school kid can provide. Julian's backpack, the same model but a different theme, will be 5 years old tomorrow and is also hanging in there.

I have found the same backpack on ebay but Calvin informs me it would be cheating to give up on his original backpack.

Apparently the zippers came completely off one side. Sewing is not one of the things I'm good at. We weren't able to get the double zipper part working again but got it working as a single zipper and it may work for another couple of months. Maybe. Somewhat miraculously, I had exactly the right color of thread to blend in with his backpack which is good because what I did is a complete mess.

(I might see if I can find a cobbler to do a real zipper replacement.)

Calvin is still using the same school backpack I bought him for kindergarten. He's very attached to it but I think it's time to thank the backpack for its service and let it go.

Ah yes, I felt I had mostly recovered from Christmas and then Valentine's Day sneaks up on me. Pretty small in comparison but still, effort I wasn't planning for.

I’m looking at the forecast and it’s going to get a soup week! Guess I don’t have to pack my sweaters away after all.

Both kids are ensconced in the living room getting ready to watch the Superbowl.

Calvin expressed interest, out of the blue, a couple of nights ago. The good news is he gave me enough time to confirm that our old rabbit ear antenna is sufficient to get broadcast tv.

I feel very out of sync with the rest of the US right now. Everyone else is still enjoying their cozy fires and I've already started dressing for summer.

(Yes, I do work in a sunroom but also it got up to 80F/27C outside this week.)

I have started to work on our 2025 picture card. I think it's not even going to make the Lunar New Year this time.

I have survived Costco. Now I just need to make everything fit at home.

Well, that was an exciting start to the morning. Julian woke up at 5:30 complaining of pain in his lower right abdomen. Nurse line was busy and the Internet does not provide many things to check for pain in that location. So I headed to the closest emergency room, which is not affiliated with Kaiser. The good news is by the time we got there, Julian reported the pain was gone. I initially started heading toward the closest in-network hospital but the pain seemed to be gone so I turned around and went home. Julian has strict instructions to tell an adult if it comes back but hopefully it was a one off.

Calvin voluntarily bought a clothing item today.

We are giving him a clothing allowance and making him responsible for buying his clothes. (Basically, I figured out how much we were spending a year on his clothes and told him that was his budget.) However, he's not super interested in most clothing, particularly the boring stuff, and usually needs some prodding. Each month we talk about one essential clothing category and he has to confirm he has the item, it fits, and it's in good enough shape.

This month's category is "coats" (such as winter and rain coats). To my surprise, Calvin told me he wants a dress coat. After a bit more questioning, I realized he really wants a suit coat to go with his nice pants.

Unfortunately, he's skinny enough still we couldn't find one that would match so he bought a (cheap) suit instead. Hopefully it fits because there aren't a lot of options in his size.

I have successfully had people over for brunch! I like having people over every couple of weeks but I'm really bad at issuing invitations in a timely manner.

We’re back! Parking availability was atrocious but a smooth trip other than that.

Calvin is driving us to Monterey today for driving practice. We’re hoping this is a nice drama-free experience. Good weather conditions and not terrible traffic so far.

Julian is still sick but is probably getting better. Last night, around 6pm, he was running a fever a bit above 102F. I gave him ibuprofen sometime between 6:30-7 pm. This morning, around 6:30am, he didn't have a fever. Though, it's been gradually raising and is currently around 100F. Though, possibly more importantly, he's actually doing things this morning rather than sleeping on the couch.

Well, Julian is officially running a fever. I don't know if he caught it on vacation or from his first few days back at school.

We’re on the train on the way home! To my immense relief, there was enough space for our two very large suitcases in the luggage rack (this stop does not have a checked luggage option). Our rooms weren’t quite ready yet so we were temporarily seated in the full bedrooms which were pretty nice. We’re in our roomettes now. I’m sharing with Julian so I can use part of his seat as a foot rest.