I wrote only two posts here about Blue Boy, our first dog, a lovable chocolate Labrador who left us too soon. But if you had access to our photo album, you'd see that he's in nearly every video and every picture. Once you notice his round brown shape, the sound of his walk and shake,… Continue reading Meet Murphy
Tag: Family
The Descent of Blue
Everybody who met Blue said he was the best dog they'd ever met. Everybody was right, of course. In the years since his rocky ascent, which I wrote about five years ago, Blue became his own establishment, a pillar of our little neighborhood, as recognizable as any street sign. He was out all the time,… Continue reading The Descent of Blue
A summary of our first home projects
This is a prequel to the longer post about our last and final remodel. Look, our house wasn't that bad. Friends and family would come to visit and more or less say the same things: "Your place has such nice energy!" "Everything feels so calm..." "There are good vibes in this house." This, of course,… Continue reading A summary of our first home projects
How we did our home addition and remodel
This was the last and final remodel. There were many projects before this one. Between March and September 2021 we more than doubled the size of our house here in Contra Costa County, going from 1,500 square feet to just over 3,900. It took more than a year to go from our first drawings to… Continue reading How we did our home addition and remodel
Benefits of being a work from home dad
For the last couple of years I've been working from home, generating my own income with my own companies on my own timeline. It's been a wonderful change of pace from the stress and surprises of startup life. On one hand the timing of needing to sell my venture-backed business really sucked. On the other… Continue reading Benefits of being a work from home dad
The view from 35
Morning hike on day 1 of my 35th year. My 25th birthday was a melancholy one. I didn’t do much on my birthday ten years ago. I remember going to see a movie by myself in downtown Boston. It was the start of my second year of grad school and I’d just returned to New England… Continue reading The view from 35
My thyroid got cancer
My thyroid got cancer some time ago. The doctors can’t say when because there was no way to determine a growth rate. It might have been thirty years ago when my throat was X-rayed during a bout with really bad croup, but nobody knows. On January 29, 2017, a talented surgeon at Kaiser in Walnut… Continue reading My thyroid got cancer
The Ascent of Blue
Like many great love stories, this one begins on Craigslist And like many young couples in San Francisco, after our first child was born we felt a magnetic pull to the suburbs. While my wife was researching neighborhoods and more practical things, I’d been scouring the internet to find a dog. And not just any… Continue reading The Ascent of Blue
Remembering Meredith
My grandpa Meredith passed away a year ago. I dreamt about him the other night. It was one of those weird dreams where I recognized that he wasn’t alive anymore, but it didn’t bother me. Kind of like, “Hey, you’re not supposed to be here!” and we kept talking about what we normally talk about, which… Continue reading Remembering Meredith