Author: Sam

Tahoe School Week III

When the powers that be decided to force the planet into remote schooling back in 2020/2021, we figured if we were going to be remote […]

Welcome Snugglepuff and Shirley!

Today we welcomed Snugglepuff and Shirley – Max’s two 4H ewes for his sheep project this season – to the Valtenbergs household. These two are […]

Sugar Bowl Powder Adventures

A double batch of storms hit Northern California over the past week, delivering a whopping 60 inches (1.5 meters) of cold smoke to the Sierras […]

More Storms!

This next round of storms were borderline: much warmer than the blower pow delivered by last week’s onslaught, but we had a free weekend so […]

Powder and Ice

The weather gods delivered for MLK long weekend up in Tahoe: we were greeted with ankle to boot deep powder all over the mountain on […]

The Coral Coast

The Fijian government holds a majority stake in Fiji Airways, so to entice travelers to experience Fiji as they transit the Pacific the airline doesn’t […]

Christmas in Adelaide

The last time we spent Christmas in Australia with Granny Jenni, Pops John and Steve was 2014. Way too long ago! So after the AVS […]

A Christmas Carol

The 2023 AVS Christmas performance with Wild Man as Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol. So much work for the teachers (thank you!), but it […]

Early Christmas

Fun to bring in the Christmas cheer with Greg and Kathi before we head south for Christmas by the beach…

When We Cease to Understand the World

When We Cease to Understand the World, Benjamín Labatut One of my favorite books of 2023, without a doubt. It’s like a whole new genre, […]

Build

Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making, Tony Fadell I think I would have taken more from if it I was a founder […]

First Volleyball Home Game

Great to see our little number 12 and the rest of the girls in their first home game of the season…

Powder Haus Thanksgiving Week

Great to get up to the mountains for our first snow at the new cabin. The kids made the most of the half inch that […]

The New Silk Roads

The New Silk Roads, Peter Frankopan This was interesting, but as it’s written about present day and published in 2019 it was a little like […]

Healdsburg Knights Last Game

Great to see the boys out there under lights for the last game of the season. They went down 1-0 but gave it everything they […]

Skin in the Game

Skin in the Game, Nassim Nicholas Taleb I really loved The Black Swan – the book that brought Taleb fame – but unfortunately he’s continued […]

Fleet Week

We didn’t get to see the full show due to the weather, but what we did see was awesome! I was really jonesing to see […]