The Haunted Aquarium

On Saturday we went to the Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at UCSD. They had it all decorated for halloween, and best of all, it was free! Anabelle loved the whale fountains out front.Anabelle loved the jellyfish, the eels, the sharks, and kept saying "Dada! Dada!" whenever she a fish that looked like Nemo's dad (from "Finding Nemo"). She also got to touch a starfish, then like the irresponsible dad that I am, I let her eat a cookie with her bare hands... oh well. Anabelle had a blast with her cousins Thomas and Tori and with her Grandma. She also ran into Aeryn, one of her best friends, and so the two of them held hands while they walked around the tide pools and looked at the starfish.

Trunk or Treat

Last night our church had a trunk or treat, where everyone came and kids could go from car to car to go trick or treating. Anabelle was a bit scared of some of the scarier customs, especially one vampire. Every time she saw him she'd start to shake and cry hysterically. However, once she figured out that she could go from car to car to get candy, she had a blast. After each car she'd quickly run back to the previous one, yell out "twickoteet", reach her hand in the treat bucket, and yell out "tankyou". The trunk of Brad and Emmy (our neighbors and my 1st year bioengineering PhD mentee):This is Anabelle saying "Twickoteet" loudly (near the end of the clip)

The Poor-Parent's Guide to Educational Trips

This past week the air quality was terrible due to the wildfires. Unfortunately, Anabelle hates staying inside, so this week I took Anabelle on a couple semi-educational trips, on a grad student parent budget. In other words we went down to the local mall to look at fish, puppies, and kitties at Petsmart and to play on the escalator.

San Diego Moon During the Wildfires

The other night we were leaving my brother's place when we saw the moon, orange from the smoke, come over the horizon. While the fires near us are all gone, the orange moon reminds us that fires still rage elsewhere in southern california.

For Now We're Okay

While fires still are raging in San Diego Co, I think it´s safe to say that we're out of harm's way. They've got all of the nearby fires under control.

Bennett, Jenn and Mom haven't been evacuated.

here's an updated map
and some more maps.

Rain In San Diego

It has been months since I last remember it raining here in San Diego. Yesterday morning, however, when we woke up it was drizzling. Anabelle didn't know what to think of it... she'd only seen pictures of rain in her books.... She quickly caught on what it was and that it's cold, so she was content playing with daddy the rest of the morning.