Us, May 10, 2026: John, Leo, Ondine, Roy, with Shadow pasted in from May 24, lol
Us, May 10, 2026: John, Leo, Ondine, Roy, with Shadow pasted in from May 24, lol
Since the last journal, John’s birthday continued expanding, and one afternoon Leo, Roy, and Danielle
joined us at El Rancho, a Mexican restaurant in Santee, for a celebratory meal. This is our new
favorite local Mexican restaurant. Here we are!
The other big birthday was John’s Mom’s 99th, which we celebrated at Kabuki. We went, as did
Roy and Leo. We picked her up on the way, and Ondine gave her some fingerless gloves she’d crocheted! The last
photo is at Kabuki, showing John’s Mom with most of the Barnharts and all of the Kuraokas!
Plans are already afoot for her 100th next year!
We went to Ikea to look at kitchens, and had a great consultation with one of the kitchen designers there. They really have a great kitchen design service. Prices look competitive, but we’d have to arrange for flooring, where the other contractor does both flooring and the kitchen.
We also took another hard look at our finances with a consultant from Fidelity. Everything looks to be on track!
Ondine got out an OWL Letter, her newsletter for writers. It’s the first one in over a year. She’s also working on some short stories along with her novel.
John has started to write some short ghost stories, heavily influenced by M.R. James and based loosely on things he sees as an archaeologist.
In travel news, our trip to Mexico early next year is firming up. By an Amazing Coincidence™, our location and timing just happen to align with a major international writer’s conference, so Ondine will be attending selected sessions of that while John wanders the streets all by himself.
We are also thinking of reprising the Coast to Coast! If that happens, it’ll be much like the last time, a month-long trip with lots of layover days to explore the places we’ll be. Some places, we know we want to return to, like Kirkby Stephen, Richmond, the Lion Inn on the moors, and the quirky Horseshoe Inn near the end. John wants a second crack at visiting some of the Roman sites just off the main route. And we’d like to spend a couple days exploring Whitby.
In honor of that decision, John just bought a new backpack, a Rab Airox 30, to replace the Gregory Zulu 30 that he hates. It should arrive next week.
Meanwhile, Ondine is contemplating a change from the boots she wore, wanting to consider something lighter.
Speaking of travel, if you're looking for the journal with our 3-week trip to Germany and the UK, including Muelheim, Kettwig, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Heidelberg, London, Bristol, Bath, Stonehenge, Avebury, Oxford, and Cardiff, just click here.
This week is car week: John got an oil change, Roy’s getting a smog check, and Leo had a maintenance light come on so he’s taking in his car to get it checked out.
Neighborhood gas prices range from $5.49 to $6.09 per gallon for regular unleaded.
Visit us often - this journal is the world's oldest continuously updated family blog, having been updated regularly since 1998! Who else has a 28-year-old active family blog?
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