Post Kandra World

Okay, so reality has set in as you can see from the picture. I guess I was somehow hoping that in the posh city of Palo Alto the garbage collectors actually let themselves into your garage every Tuesday morning to empty your trash. Or maybe the trash fairies took it away? No such luck. So after 4 months of not thinking much about how our trash finds its way to the city dump ground (thanks, Myron!) I now have a new Monday night / Tuesday night task. Oh well. I guess it is all part of settling back in to suburbia from too many years of living in the big city.
Had a day’s vacation yesterday. How did I spend it, you ask? At a spa, at a baseball game, playing golf, matinee movies or strolling around Carmel By-the-Sea? No, I spent it with Tania in San Francisco at a tax accountant and at a trust lawyer. Two hours each – lucky me. But if any of you don't have a "revocable living trust" I recommend that you write me an email because as we learned you will waste a hell of a lot time and money without one and, worse still, the money goes to the government and to lawyers. In California if you don't have a revocable living trust your estate goes automatically to "probate" - even if you have a will. This is the process that is lengthy and costly and a simple trust avoids probate and allows you to will up to $2 million in tax free money to your designated trustee. You can set one up for as little as $1,500 but more likely $2,000.

Anyway, we had a fun, family-oriented week all around. Monday night was a Passover party at Jacob's JCC school. Okay, so it wasn't exactly traditional - they served Chinese noodles, spring rolls and rice in stead of a Seder plate, but we had fun doing arts and crafts (see picture of Jacob and Mommy below making a Seder plate) and watching "Diana Schmiana" doing a clown show and teaching all the kids the Passover songs like Diyanu. And I got to meet some of the parents of Jacob's class mates. Their real Passover ceremony in the school is next Tuesday while I'll be a work.

Tuesday night was American Idol night and we had the Hunters over to watch with us, which was fun. Tania finally felt well enough to cook and made a lovely chicken with cashew dinner with cous cous.

Wednesday night we continued our social festivities as we had "Uncle Rob" Sowers in town for one night. Jacob enjoyed playing with my high school buddy and he especially loved the remote-control racing car the Uncle Rob brought. Rob & I went out to a killer meal at Evvia http://www.evvia.net/, which was seriously as good a restaurant as you will find in London or New York. It was great to see Rob since I normally only saw him as I was racing through the US for a quick trip home to see family and this was much more relaxing.

Thursday night we got to see cousin Daniel who stopped by for dinner. By now Tania had cooked dinner three nights in a row! We had beef stew served over a brown rice grain and strawberries / whipped cream for dessert. Was great to get caught up with Daniel who is now doing contract work at Google. We're hopeful that he will get an offer for a full-time role soon. So as you can tell we are getting back in the swing of things and socialising more.

Next week will have two Passover Seders - first at Tania's friends Michael and Ellen and then at our house with the Kennedy's. Then we are off on our first roadtrip as an enlarged family next weekend when we go to Sacramento to visit Zeide and have Passover at the Ratners. Sunday is Easter so hopefully the Shiksa in the family planned something - I'm not really up on what to do on Easter other than eat chocolate. And hunt for eggs, I guess? So we should have some good family shots in a week or so.