At lunch today we had a vet come to our house and Junie passed away in our arms. It was very peaceful. We cried a lot, but I am trying to remember all the wonderful memories. She blessed our lives.

Junie was something of an accident. Stella and Callum were playing basketball at the Town Lake YMCA and there was an hour between their games on most Saturdays. We started walking the trail and kept running into dogs being walked from the Animal Shelter.

We fell in love with a pocket pittie and Julie and I somehow talked ourselves into pursuing it. At that point Lucy was very old, and Rhett was still full of energy. We thought maybe we needed a friend for Rhett. We found out the dog we had fell in love with on the trail would not be a match for our house (not good with kids? other dogs? I don’t remember).

At that point we’d already sold ourselves on a new dog, so we had the shelter pet matchmaker find us dogs that would be a good match for our household. There was a super-white pittie that had heartworms. They said we’d need to keep her still which was not really a match for the amount of energy Rhett had at that point. The other dog they brought out was Junie. She immediately just started loving on all of us, and at that point she seemed to get along with Rhett and Lucy. Lucy and Junie’s animus would come later.

We named her Junie B. Jones after the Barbara Park character and the fact we got her in June. Not realizing at the time how close Junie and Julie were. She became Junie Toots (known for her comically loud, but not stinky farts), Junie Boots, and Junebug.

Junie loved to sun herself which is probably what led to her skin cancer. She sunned herself for hours at a time. Coming in to cool off on the tile, and then returning back outside.

Junie was an athlete. She would bark at squirrels and do backflips.

She would chase balls, and could run very fast, but she couldn’t turn. She would get frustrated with Rhett’s grace when he’d swoop in and steal a ball that had changed direction as she struggled to slow down so she could change direction.

One time during a tech meeting for “The Metal Queen” she managed to launch herself over our 5’ privacy fence completely into the middle of our (unamused) neighbors who were hanging out talking next door.

Junie was always a social dog. If the kids were having a sleepover there was always a contingent of kids who just spent the entire party cuddling with her. She was a fixture of LGT meetings, but would generally put herself to bed long before we went to bed.

She always wanted to be a part of whatever anyone was doing.

She liked to cool down her legs in the pool, but not her tummy. Never her tummy.

She loved us all, but Stella was her favorite. Junie spent so many hours playing the Sims and sleeping in Stella’s bed.

We thought we had a lot more time with her. We had just had surgery again to have another non-malignant mass removed. She had come through with flying colors and just finished her recovery period. On Monday a week ago I had flown to Montreal and Julie ended up taking Junie to the emergency vet for breathing. She was diagnosed with Larnygial Paralysis. On Friday when I got home she was barely walking and couldn’t wag her tail. On Saturday she could barely walk and was stumbling around using her back legs more like kickstands.

As someone with Asthma not being able to catch her breath seemed horrible enough, but Junie was fiercely independent to the end and was not going to go to the bathroom unless she could walk (or stumble) a few feet away from us. The rapid decline made the decision clear, but we all felt we didn’t really have time to prepare for this.

Sunday night we took her on her favorite walk through the neighborhood in a cart, and her good across the street friends Kathy and George gave her lots of treats.

Junie, you were such a great dog. You treated our kids and every person you encountered with so much love. You had so much energy. We were talking about how without you we’ve lost the main character in our house. The creature we were always most concerned about, and who would let us know your every need.

The dog who came to us not barking definitely found her voice. We’ll miss you so much Junebug.

So Texas has decided to add bible verses and stories to its state curriculum. I won’t get into the politics of this. But I wanted to get into why I think this is a bad idea for people of faith.

I was raised a missionary kid and I have attended a lot of churches. My parents saw visiting new churches as a fun thing to do on vacation. We would visit churches and do our dog-and-pony show to try to raise money for our mission work. I could go into why having the state roll out a version of Christianity is a bad idea based upon the diversity of theological ideas that exist even within American Christiantiy, but I don’t think most people care about that. Most Southern Baptists probably don’t know or care that their church doesn’t have a central theology that all churches have to adopt.¹

I think the bigger issue isn’t about theology, but about a loss of faith.

---

I have been an atheist for almost two decades now. I still struggle with that label because it feels like it is applied as a type of religion itself. If I had become an atheist in my teens I feel like it would have been a belief system. I would have strongly believed there was no God. But what I have now is an absence of faith, which is very different from believing or not-believing in God.

After having my daughter we started attending church again and the best way I can describe it was that my faith at the time was like whispy clouds in a sunny summer sky. One-by-one they slipped away until the sky was completely clear. It wasn’t a decision. It was just that the faith had floated away in a gentle breeze.

---

I was at the barriers at the Pride parade a few years back and a woman came up and started talking to me. She told me that she had suffered several miscarriages, and that the last time she had gotten pregnant was after Pride the year before. She had just gone out on a date with her husband that night and they had come across the parade. She had found hope that night, and so she came back because it was a place she now found community and hope. The people at Pride were on her side.

This makes me think of why people go to church. Despite the number of arguments I’ve heard that God always answers prayer - he doesn’t. Religion is not transactional. No matter how many times pastors want to suggest that if you go to church every Sunday good things will come to you, I think most chruch goers realize there is no guarantee.

So why do people go? For the exact same reason that woman went to pride. She knew having a successful pregnancy was a long shot, but she was supported there. People talked to her and offered her sympathy and hope.

---

So what happens when we try to bring scripture into schools? They’re bringing it in via the King James Version. So the language will be similar to Shakespeare. Kids will be exposed to peers joking and ridiculing the language and stories. They may be exposed to kids who can tell you why the King James Version is a politically minded translation. There may be kids of other faiths and denominations who explain the similar stories they know. In short they become just stories. They are Beowulf or the Canterbury Tales. Stories written in old-timey language divorced from the mystery of faith and church community. When liturgy becomes literature it encourages those whispy clouds of faith to float away.

We routinely hear about European nations as being godless, but many of them have state religions. England has the Church of England which a majority of English say they are members of, but the overwheliming majority of those Christians say they never or hardly ever attend church. Finland, Norway, and Sweden all have state churches. Many nations have compulsory religion education which does not seem to have had a positive effect on church attendance or faith.

---

I don’t actually want to take people’s faith from them. I think faith can bring hope and peace to our lives. People of different faiths worry their kids will feel uncomfortable or face bullying for being different, but I don’t know that I think it’ll happen more than it already does. I think it will make the Bible common. Boring. Silly. Just another TEK² that the kids have to learn to pass. And how do you find faith in a TEK?

---

1. Which is also a major reason why they have a sex abuse problem, but I digress
2. [Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills](https://tea.texas.gov/curriculum-and-instruction/texas-essential-knowledge-and-skills-teks)

Jane Yolen passed away today. I was first introduced to her watching CBS Storybreak. It was a show in the 1980s that would take books and make them into cartoons. I think it was a 30 minute show so I can’t imagine they’d hold up well, but I immediately fell in love with the adaptation of Dragon’s Blood.

I spent the next few years (at least it felt that way), looking for the book. I assumed I had remembered it wrong and spent a lot of time in card catalogs with different spellings. This was the 1980s so we kindof assumed that any book adapted for TV or Movie would have its title and entire plot changed.

It turned out the problem was not my memory. The Dallas Public Library system eventually got a copy in their system and I was able to order it and finally read it. The book was a lot better than the 30 minute cartoon.

I do miss those book quests.

Ok. I’m going to try really hard not to beat myself up about missing weeks. Not the point of this exercise.

The week kicked off with Callum’s (much belated) 17th birthday party. He had 20+ kids. It was supposed to be a pool party, but it was thundering and pretty chilly. I still cleaned the pool. But really it was the thundering that was the problem. The kids talked and played jackbox on the playstation and ate cupcakes and chips. Stella was home for dinner of Smoked Salmon and Potato Soup and then back to UT.

We picked up our groceries in the middle of this nonsense because it’s Sunday.

On Tuesday Julie went out with friends and I decided to make Callum some pork. But we got what the kids call “Baba pork chops”. My mom likes this particular cut of meat. They’re the super thin pork chops. You remember the “pork, the other white meat” chops. It was those. They were a substitution from HEB. I was supposed to have nice thick pork chops.

I marinated it with black garlic (which Julie also can’t have) and ginger beer. The marinade was great. But even with the marinade they became indistinguishable from the styrofoam tray they came in. I felt bad I let Callum down on our dude’s night meal.

Wednesday was tax day and I realized I hadn’t checked up with Stella about taxes. She hadn’t done hers yet and I felt really bad I hadn’t mentioned it while we were hanging around on Sunday with time to do things like taxes.

On Thursday I biked over to hang out at PFLAG. It was a good time and a good bike ride.

Friday night we had dinner and watched Tron: Ares. Which was a soundtrack that apparently had some visual attached to it. My affection for the Nine Inch Nails soundtrack really helped buoy the film’s watchability. All the actors and dialog were pretty good as well. I’m really not sure why the movie was so glacial.

Saturday I roped Julie into pool help. The waterfall in our pool had slowed to a trickle which seemed to be an issue with intake. Now that we’re done with catkin-pocalypse from the oak trees I put Julie on cleaning pollen out of the pool filters. Everything I read said the waterfall issue was probably a clog and suggested plumber’s bladders for shooting high pressure through the pipes.

Whelp.

I blew up 2 of them.

Blew them up real good.

So I ended up heading to big box hardware for a plumber’s snake. I really didn’t think it was going to work, but it managed to pull out one little stick that appeared to be the problem.

I did a bit of weeding and mowing in prep for a lot more rain this week. Then we went to Walmart and the mall to try to find Julie a bathing suit top. At Walmart there was the cutest mustard colored pitbull wearing a purple raincoat. Adorable.

At some point during the day Godzilla’s arm broke. Godzilla used to hold our toilet paper. But his arm is now broken. We have to figure out how to repurpose him for a lighter duty job in the garden.

Then we had a game night. The game of choice was Trivial Pursuit 80s Edition. Our latest find we picked up from the vintage store Room Service.

So that was the week.

So it has been a 2 weeks. In many ways a really fun and happy two weeks. But it has been a lot.

I started the week watching “The Bride”. I liked it a lot more than I was expecting. It’s over the top and fun and angry and very weird.

We continued our Low FODMAP diet for Julie which has been a struggle. Mostly just me making silly mistakes and grocery stores subbing things that won’t work.

On Tuesday I had to go out of town and then came back on Wednesday. On Thursday we said Goodbye to Mr. Rhett. I did a lot of crying in between work being very challenging and fun.

On Friday Julie did a bunch of SXSW stuff and Stella, Callum and I did Friday the 13th Horror Trivia at Quacks. We were happy with our performance, but the trivia didn’t map with the type of horror we mostly watch (it focused on Midsommar/Babadook/Hereditary timeframe). In any case, we had fun and drank mocktails and ate pastries.

I took a picture of this pan lid, because I think it’s the thing we wash the most in our house without using it. Basically it comes out of the drawer to get another pan, then the person who washes the dishes doesn’t know if it has been used and washes it just to be safe.

On Saturday Julie and I got a bunch of stuff (including a new suitcase) for our trip. We went to the SW Austin Walmart which I hate. This is the sort of thing that makes for conflict in our relationship. Julie hates the parking lot of the Walmart near us. I hate the interior of the store at the SW Austin Walmart. We had family dinner and bummed around that night.

Sunday we went to an amazing oscar party across the street and Callum had an old friend over to watch it at home. Stella studied.

On Monday we flew out to Mexico city. We got dropped off at the wrong hotel, but eventually figured things out and ended up in the correct on aruond the corner.

On Tuesday we kindof explored and really got into the rhythm of the city. We had breakfast at a cute gluten-free place. Then we wandered through some parks. There were so many dogs and dog walkers with like 10 dogs. The dogs were so chill. We wandered around and vintage and book shopped. We ate lunch at a Taco Shop. While there a transformer blew up in the rain and our food was cooked in the dark. It was wild, but tasty. I had an amazing doritors/nachos/cheese/cucumber thing that was great. I had to stop eating it though, because I knew I’d have heartburn.

We went to Museo del Objeto del Objeto. They had a bunch of objects organized by a word for each word in the alphabet. Like a collection of dental related products, or a collection of hand tools. It was interesting.

At dinner time it started pouring We decided to walk about 15 minutes in the rain to an Italian restaraunt. We got stuck waiting at a light that was insanely long. In the rain. By the time we got to the restaurant I was very cold and wet. While generally Mexico City’s open air food culture is wonderful, after being in the cold rain it was a bit misearable. But the food and service were great.

On Wednesday we went to the Anthropology museum. We had planned to also try to go to the botanical garden, but that ended up being ridiculous. The Anthropology museum was probably one of the best museums I’ve ever been to. We barely managed to finish the first floor. We had traditional foods in the on-site restaraunt for lunch (including crickets!). The museum had a lot of gardens with various reproductions to give a sense of how things looked originally (like a ball court), so even though I didn’t get to go to the botanical gardens due to time, I got a lot of plants.

Found out pointsettas are rather pretty Mexican bushes.

After getting done with that we tried to hurredly walk around the park. There is a castle like house built on top of a volcano in the center of the park called Chapultepec Castle. It’s really more like an estate. But it is rather dramatically on top of the hill. We didn’t get to go in, but gawked at it while walking around the park. There’s a zoo in the middle of the park and lots of people had bought hats that looked like monkeys perched on their heads. Everyone seemed to be having so much fun. It was great. We Ubered back and Callum got us to go to Sushi for dinner. He took over ordering. I did end up getting some amazing fried chicken there that was basically an entire thigh breaded and fried.

On Thursday we went into the central city. We walked through an open air market to go to Templo Mayor, which is a working archaelogical dig of a pyramid and museum right in the middle of the center of town. The scale of it was really unbelievable and the amount of existing sculpture with paint on it was just amazing. Basically they kept building on top of previous pyramids so a lot of really beautiful things got buried.

One of Callum and my favorite parts of the museum was that they had found a sealed offering chamber. They displayed what was in there and it basically became like a natural history museum.

We ended up eating lunch at a restaraunt overlooking the site. I had a salad and it was sublime.

After that we checked out Museo del Estanquillo that had an exhibit on Aldofo Mexiac. We had seen a previous exhibit at the Blanton that contained his work. They had a roof-top cafe where we enjoyed some drinks and then Ubered most of the way back to our hotel to keep from sitting in too much traffic. We had dinner at Fugaz which was a small plates Bib Gourmand recipient. We ate many things, but I think we all agreed their avocado tostada was one of the most amazing things we’d ever tasted.

On Friday we celebrated Callum’s birthday with a trip to a comic book store and then the Museo de Arte Popular (which was a folk art, not pop art museum). Right across the street you could get some amazing men’s underwear. We ate lunch at a vegan cafe, then headed back into a park to find a plaque commerating an uprising of the LGBTQ community. The park was clearly a crusing spot, and I was feeling eyes. Then realized I was wearing a pink shirt. So… I guess that checks out.

The museum we were going to go to was closed (it was about print making), but next door was the Museo Franz Meyer. There was a cool fashion exhibit on the first floor, and a surrealist phot exhibit on the second. Both were great. The second floor also had the permanent collection of Franz Meyer. Which was… a bunch of fancy stuff collected by a rich guy. It really made you appreciate how much work goes into making an exhibit. Because this was just an uninspired display of nice-ish stuff. Just tons of teapots, bowls, and large armoires.

But.. they had decided to sort of pair it with this concept of “making an icon”. So there were these amazing queer pop art images inspired by iconography and placed into this permanent collection in a way that made it more interesting. It was cool and somewhat inspiring as a way to liven up a collection you might be contractually required to keep displaying.

That night we went out for tacos at a taqueria that was just fine. Ah well, you win some and lose some. It was fun seeing all the young people going out clubbing. We bought food for the morning on the way back. I was holding a pre-made 7-11 ham sandwich and one of the bouncers tried to get me into his club. I found it endlessly amusing. I can’t imagine how hard up for people they were that “guy with a ham sandwich and sleeve of cookies” was who they were looking for.

Saturday we flew back and then went to our friend Lucy’s karaoke birthday party. It was great fun to see everyone again!

Today Mr. Rhett crossed the rainbow bridge. We had an vet come to our house and it was very peaceful. Rhett was brought to us through the animal distribution system. Our home’s previous owner had an escape artist dog so our backyard is nearly impervious to invasion by puppies. But one of the kids pointed out the window at a dog following Lucy around the yard.

Julie went to rehearsal that night while trying to find a home for this puppy. He stunk pretty bad so I gave him a bath and then cuddled with him outside. He was very small.

Pretty early on, Rhett lost all his fur to demodex mites. Rhett was one of the first dogs to get an experimental (and expensive) treatment from his allergist Dr. Nichols. Now the disease is no longer an issue and can be treated with flea treatment.

Rhett Boy, was an athelete. He loved to chase balls and steal the kids’ soccer balls. He would chase balls until we had to stop to keep him for overheating. He was so fast. It drove Junie crazy, who would try to chase him down, but could never come close to catching him. As he got older and we got a pool he became our swim coach. Chasing us around the pool, barking to GO FASTER.

Rhett was my running buddy. We could go on incredibly long runs. I would run down to the hike and bike trail from our house, then around the east side and then back to our house. I had to go on shorter runs after the day I had to put him into the lake to cool him down.

He was good friends with both Stella and Callum. He would lie in the bed with us as I read the kids books each night at bedtime. Callum grew up at about the same mental age and so they seemed to have a special bond. Callum loved to brush him and continued giving Rhett weekly showers until just a few weeks ago.

Mr. B was a food thief. He loved potlucks and waited until people had left the room to get on his hind legs and try to drag off a chunk of meat. He didn’t really realize the back of our house was glass and we could see what he was up to. But he did get some really choice meat over the years while our backs were turned.

Over his final months Rhett dealt with dementia, but he and Junie also developed a closeness they had not had through their lives. Junie was very tolerant of him and let him cuddle.

You were a great dog Rhett. We’re so glad we got to have 15 wonderful years with you. We’re so glad our kids got to have you as a friend. You will be missed so much.

We started the week with Julie’s band “Mercury Daze” play 3 Alanis Morrisset covers at Stubb’s. We then ate some BBQ and header over to the Moody for Nine Inch Nails. Our paid parking didn’t pan out, we couldn’t find a parking space we could fit in in the parking garage, but we found a parking space right outside the parking garage on the street - for FREE. The show was amazing. I went with Julie and Stella went with two of her friends. We met up after for pictures.

On Monday I weedwacked the front yard to get it ready for the spring clean out.

I’ve been working on a really hard, but fulfilling project at works so my brain has enjoyed the yard work.

Tuesday night Top Chef returned to TV so Julie and I started back up on that. On Thursday we went to trivia at Koko’s Bavarian. We were “Johnny Harmonica and Friends”. Callum had gotten a tiny harmonica at Austin Creative Reuse and every time they annouced our score he would play it. The last time the announcer heard the sound and was completely wigged out because she couldn’t see the harmonica. We all really dug the trivia types, it had unique categories like “Sephora”, and at one point the annoucer read the entire proclamation declaring chili the state dish of Texas. And that’s the kind of nerdiness that the Thomas’ are always looking for. I had a preztles and some fries and Non-Alcoholic Guinesses.

This is important, because on Thursday I had dude night with Mark and Sean. And I had a pretzel and some NA Guinesses at Koko’s. I really wouldn’t mind seeing how many nights I can go out and drink NA Guiness and eat a pretzel.

Friday night I had to pickup Callum after a theater performance because Stella had come home and used the car for an internship interview. We ordered McDonalds, only to get there and realize Callum had only ordered himself a meal (assuming I had already eaten). So I ordered another meal while sitting in the pickup space. They brought both out at the same time. Clearly this was not the first time this had happened at McDonalds.

Saturday I pulled a ton of hedge parsley out of the yard and continued our cleanup. A large branch had fallen off our retama so I had to break that down as well. We went to see the UIL play at Crockett that Callum had co-designed costumes for. Then dinner at home and we watched “Blue Moon”.

We started the week going to the mall. There was nothing we liked. Clothes are really odd colors, odd fabrics, and odd shapes right now. But Julie and I had fun at the Lego store. Then home for Shrimps and Risotto. We had figs and hot honey spiced with chile pequin. Which I thought was delicious, but everyone else demurred.

With the Olympics being over this was our week of getting back to TV. On Monday Julie decided to try a low-FODMAP diet. And… uh… we didn’t really know that onion powder was high FODMAP and we’ve been eating that in everything. Like those Shrimps on Sunday. And the Risotto. And the chicken Julie eats for lunch every day. The rest of the week was something of a food whirlwind as I tried not to poison her.

On Tuesday we had our writing group (if you want to join us, let me know). My prompt was “a Vampire, but for something other than blood”. I wrote about a man who was basically a dung beetle and lived off of compost. I really enjoy writing, and I think maybe I’ll write a romance. Who knows.

It was a sharp contrast to trying to learn Claude Code for work. I’ve been a big Cursor stan, but have been forced into learning Claude Code for work reasons. And man, I am not enjoying it. The tooling feels really bad compared to Cursor and they seem super excited about spending your money. I’m trying to have a good attitude.

On Wednesday I saw “Cold Storage” at my local Regal. I really like that Joe Kearney and Liam Neisan was great as well. Once I saw the writers resume I realized why it was such a good script. It reminded me a lot of “Return of the Living Dead”. A really good script that remembers that horror movies can be fun.

On Friday I got a haircut and got to go see “Have Fun, Good Luck, Don’t Die”. That movie was DARK. Possibly the darkest movie I’ve ever seen. It was a polemic and was perhaps a bit overwrought, but I think it had some valid things to say about Gen X about our acceptance of horrible things in the world.

Saturday we went on the Modern Homes Tour. Our favorite was an amazing New Orleans style new build home in the Garden District. Just an amazing place. Then dropped Callum off for D&D and picked up Stella for dinner at Curra’s. We then hung out with the kids and watched the final episodes of Pop Culture Jeopardy.

We talked about Fisherspooner’s “We Need a War” in relation to our new current war. You know the one the Republican president with a tanking approval started that he says will be over in a matter of weeks. Definitely haven’t heard another Republican president say that in my life before launching two wars. We saw Nine Inch Nails on Sunday (which will be in next week’s weeklog), and songs from “With Teeth” brought back a lot of anger from the Bush re-election era. I try to let things go, but I’m still so pissed that some people are just so cavalier about killing people.

I had Monday and Tuesday off this week because Callum had Monday and Tuesday off. On President’s Day Callum, Julie, and I went to IKEA. We had our IKEA lunch and shuffled around finding odds and ends. We got a pretty vase for the dining room table and I got some Zigbee buttons for home automation. Callum got a new pillow.

We had to get Callum back for a meeting so Julie and I played games. For dinner I made some beef ramen with short-rib bones from our dinner party. I thought it was tasty. Then Olympics continued.

On Tuesday I had to take Junie into surgery, then Callum to the eye doctor, then pick up Junie. Junies surgery went well. She was a bit loopy, but came back strong. She stills love the vet and we love her in her Junie suit.

The later half of the week Callum had UIL One Act Play rehearsal so I didn’t have a car to go see a movie. The fam has promised to see “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” this Friday. We’ll see if it’s still in theaters then.

I’ve gotten pulled into another project at work and I’m feeling optimistic about it, but really out of my depth and bone tired at the end of the day.

On Saturday I started with some gardening. I cleared out a lot of the back beds. Then Stella came home and we had our craft day. We had balsamic mashed potatoes for dinner and then I braved the Moody traffic to get Stella back to school. Tons of nonsense and uber drivers driving where there weren’t lanes.

On Monday Julie had Callum to watch the Olympics with so I snuck off with my movie pass to see “Whistle”. It was a better movie than it had any right to be. I didn’t know it was written by Owen Eggerton before seeing it. And there was definitely some talk of “vinyls” and how good an inherited record collection that I would have clocked as his work from a mile away. Seeing horror movies alone in a mostly empty theater is still my second favorite way to see them.

On Wednesday I took Junie back into the vet. She had a growth that had grown multiple inches in a couple days. She had to get it sampled and the vet made slides and checked it out. Junie got to go into the back to get her blood drawn which she loves. She’s such a social dog. The vet techs always bring her back beaming because she’s made friends with everyone in the office. Turns out it was just an abcess and she’s on antibiotics and it’s shrinking. But that dog is getting expensive. I’m taking her in for surgery tomorrow. Think good thoughts for her!

I thought about seeing another movie on Wednesday while Julie was at band practice. But could not get enthused. I get so stressed out trying to get to movies that start around 6pm after making dinner.

On Thursday Julie and I had one of our super-nerdy dates. We went to see Jeff Speck the author of “Walkable Cities” at the episcopal church downtown. It was wild. Like rock concert levels of clapping and woo-ing. Here are my notes from that talk:

1. One-way streets are bad for business, but they’re good for crime. If you think about it they create blind spots at every corner where drivers (including the police) never look. Having 2-way traffic on dirty sixth could potentially make it safer. This blew my mind.
2. For all but the busiest intersections traffic lights slow traffic down and should be converted to 4 way stops. Stop signs are both safer and faster. Which is counterintuitive, but probably how Google Maps knows how long your trip will take. It’s basically just the time you’ll be waiting at stop lights. The speed you drive probably changes that by at most 30 seconds.
3. street parking is good for walkable areas as it creates a physical barrier between the cars and people. So we want to keep parking to shield pedestrians and cyclists.

After that we went to True Foods Kitchen at the old power plant. We decided to eat outside in the wonderful weather, but forgot about the train. We got two trains turning the corner during dinnner. Julie did not dig it.

On Friday Julie was not feeling well and so we just hung at home.

On Saturday we had dinner with friends we’ve known since Stella was in Baptist pre-school. It was a very fancy Valentine’s dinner party with short ribs and a beautiful table setting. It’s amazing having friends for so long. I managed to take home some beef ribs and I’m currently making beef ramen which smells insanely good.

On Sunday Stella came home after much drama because the buses were on detour due to the marathon. We ended up walking the new wishbone bridge, picking up groceries, and having our traditional valentines pizzas.