My parents celebrated their fiftieth anniversary in 2023. They decided that for their anniversary they wanted to take their children and grandchildren on a big vacation. They chose Panama as the destination, and so the 9 of us flew to Panama on Friday, February 16 and returned to the United States on Sunday, February 25. I've already posted a fair ( Read more... )

On November 11, 2019, I started learning Spanish in the Duolingo app. Four years later, my streak is an unbroken four years, albeit with two assists from "streak protection." In that time, I've gotten a little bit more than half way through the full Spanish course, so there's still quite a bit to go. Other numbers of interest ( Read more... )

1- My daughter has an owl nightlight. It's charged by USB so it doesn't have to be plugged into the wall. The owl shape is a soft plastic that squeezes nicely when pressed. If you tap it hard enough, it changes color. It also has a remote to cycle through the colors. After the requisite bedtime stories, I turn out the light and M gives Birdie her ( Read more... )

As of yesterday, I have been using Duolingo to learn Spanish every day for two years. Since my last update in January I have definitely far surpassed any Spanish language skills I might have picked up back in my one year of high school Spanish and my one year of college Spanish, as I've moved into verb tenses I never got to before. Of my two year ( Read more... )

More than a year ago I noted that I was relearning Spanish via Duolingo. I somehow failed to write anything about it since, even though it has become a regularly recurring part of my life. I have spent at least 20 minutes a day on it for 410 consecutive days and counting as of this writing ( Read more... )

So if anyone were paying attention (which is doubtful), they'd notice that my usual "approximately three times a week" posting schedule has slowed down in the last two months. I've been busy with a lot of things, including some  travel. However, the main addition to my schedule has been an ongoing effort to refresh my somewhat minimal Spanish ( Read more... )