Category Archives: Home & Family

I remember that exactly a year ago, on
3 June 2006,
I wrote a blog entry in which I said that my son Paul and I were exactly the same height.
Today, at almost-15-years, he is 5’10”, four inches taller that me! Paul is delighted to
be so tall already and looking forward to growing past 6′ soon.

My son Paul is in his Freshman year at Paly
High School. The Palo Alto school year runs later than that of
Harker from which my daughter just graduated
so Paul is just starting to prepare for his final exams. We were surprised and
delighted last week to get a formal invitation from the Paul’s Math teacher to
attend the 29 May Annual Mathematics Department Awards.

The evening started with a speech by a Paly Grad who had gone on to become a Math professor.
This interesting talk was followed by each teacher presenting certificates to their notable
students. Paul was given an Excellence in Mathematics certificate for being consistently
at the top of his Algebra class. Some of the certificates were of the “most improved”
or “best attitude” variety but others were for the “first perfect exam I
have seen in 20 years as a teacher” or for the “first A+ grades I have ever
given”. I was very impressed by the passion and dedication of Paly’s Math
teachers. The students were about evenly mixed between boys and girls. One of the
teachers did point out that she was about to bust some stereotypes and then called
up her three best advanced Math students – three girls with long blond hair.

Each certificate had the student’s name, what they were honored for, and signatures by their own
teacher and the head of the department. At the bottom was the round Official Seal
of the Palo Alto High School Mathematics Department. In the center of the seal was
a picture of a little Greek ship plus the letters

π α λ ψ


μ α θ

The evening was full of similarly geeky math jokes. One teacher got up and
said that he was the median presenter that evening and that if we didn’t know what
that meant, we were in the wrong place. Paul loved it.

My daughter Jessica’s graduation from Harker
High School went well on Saturday. We used all 8 family tickets for seats at
the small but pretty Mountain Winery
outdoor amphitheater above the Silicon Valley. My brother

Pete and his son Daniel drove up from Southern California for the big ceremony.

Tom Campbell (Dean,
Haas School of Business, U.C. Berkeley) gave a moving talk as the graduation speaker.
Jessica wore the add-a-pearl necklace her great-great-grandmother started for her
grandmother (which my mother and I finished for her). After hugs and family pictures, we
wound downhill for lunch at Michi
Japanese Restaurant where Mr. Shin makes great sushi. John and I hosted a BarBQ at home
later that afternoon for everyone who attended or wanted to attend the graduation. Family,
friends, neighbors, former teachers, members of our church congregation, even Mr. Shin came
by with a big plate of special appetizers to celebrate.

However, mere graduation was eclipsed by
Fanime, the Bay Area Anime Convention. Jessica and her friends dressed up in costumes and
went to Fanime for two days of the long weekend. She wanted to go the other days but she was graduated on Saturday and on Sunday the whole family went to see my mother’s art exhibit at the
Peninsula Museum of Art at the
Twin Pines Art Center in Belmont. The retrospective show is called “The Fires Within –
Passionate Drawings by Eleanor Dickinson”. After seeing the exhibit, we all went
to the movie Shrek the Third (since Daniel
is too young to see the other movie choice,
Pirates of the Caribbean:
At World’s End).

For Fanime on Friday, Jessica wore her grandmother’s vintage 1960’s blue and magenta
striped vinyl hiphugger miniskirt and matching vest. On the Monday holiday, she went to
Fanime in a long green gown with a black and green Chinese satin cape (another hand-me-down
from my mother). She looked elegant and had a wonderful time. We saw the Pirates
movie after Pete and Daniel drove home.

We just got home from our third
Harker High School graduation event this week: the “Baccalaureate:
A Farewell to the Class of 2007”. We have also been to the 2007 Athletics
Awards Ceremony, and the Upper School’s Awards Ceremony. This Saturday is the
big one: the graduation ceremony itself.

Tonight’s Baccalaureate was surprisingly enjoyable. We were offered the regulation
Harker brownies and fruit plates and hard white plastic chairs, of course.
However, the music (two pieces by the Harker String Ensemble, plus two
songs by Cantilena, the women’s choir) was excellent and the speeches funny
and moving. My daughter Jessica, much to her surprise, got a few minutes’ notice
to prepare an introduction for the second Faculty Speaker. After she
and her friends hurriedly collaborated on the text, she carried it off well. Mr. Barth
likes to tell bad jokes so she repeated three of them in his introduction:

• What is a pirate’s favorite math variable? Answer: R
• How do you catch a unique rabbit? Answer: You Neek Up On It
• How do you catch a tame rabbit? Answer: Tame Way

Jessica also carried off a goodly set of school awards:

• Coaches’ Award (for 4 years’ work on a new sport: women’s wrestling, from the
  Head Coaches)
• Excellence in Choral Music (from the Performing Arts Department)
• Cum Laude Society (for high grades)
• Recognition of Service: Judicial Committee (Student Body Awards)

It is a delight to see my daughter’s hard work and passion recognized but
it will also be pleasant to be done with High School events and start getting
ready for Jessica to go to Carnegie Mellon in August.

My soon-to-be-High-School-graduate daughter Jessica went with Matt to the Harker
Senior Prom last Friday night. At midnight, after the dance, she and 14 of her
friends came over to our house for their after-prom party.

When Jessica and I first discussed this event, it was going to be just a few
teenagers coming over for a quiet evening. However, it seems our family was offering
the best alternative to some of the wilder parties being planned, so we
ended up with a crowd. The kids who asked to come to our house were those who
wanted to watch a video (and snuggle with their prom dates in the dark), play
computer games, drink sodas, eat cheetos, chips, and salsa, and hang out in the hot tub.

I talked with three worried parents who called several days in advance to find
out about this party their teen wanted to attend. By the third conversation, I knew to
answer the questions up front: adult chaperons present and taking notice, no drugs, no drinks,
boys and girls sleep on separate floors, we can provide rides to and from prom, and I
would try to get everyone into their sleeping bags by 3 a.m. (one teen to a bag, one bag
to a teen).

Our guests all arrived looking gorgeous in their formal dresses and suits. There was
much mutual assistance from the girls to get unlaced and unzipped and makeup off and
flowers unpinned. The clothes bar over our washer and dryer was full of
elegant clothes carefully hung and folded. Some of them had even brought garment
hanging bags to protect their glad rags. Many of them changed right into their
sleeping clothes.

They were well behaved and as quiet as they could manage given their high spirits and
joy in being together. I asked that they not wake up Jessica’s little brother
or he would want to join in. They enthusiastically agreed. More than a dozen
kids in our hot tub began to look like teenager soup. I sent them to bed before 4 a.m.
More than half of of our guests had forgotten to bring sleeping bags so we loaned out ours
and provided quilts for the rest.
There were some begging to be able to stay up quietly to play video games because they
were not tired and sleeping was boring but eventually everyone settled down.
The girls giggled for long enough in Jessica’s room that one of the boys came up to
tell them to be quiet!

They started to wake up again at 8 a.m. and were making cinnamon buns and pancakes when
I had to leave for a church meeting in Salinas. John got to manage the morning party
shift. When I returned home that afternoon, all
that was left was a big heap of bedding and wet towels. I am still not done washing
and drying quilts and sleeping bags. They left behind 2 swimsuits (1 girl’s, 1 boy’s),
2 sets of silver ear hoops, 1 big blue towel, and 1 Google-brand chapstick. So far,
we have found owners for everything except the towel and the chapstick. Everyone
seemed to have a very good time.