'Around the World in 80 Days'

Other than a couples yoga class, Amber and I haven't been on a proper date in 2 1/2 years. That changed this past weekend when Amber's sister watched Ediza and Amber and I went out to dinner (Indian food) and a play ('Around the World in 80 Days'). We had a lot of fun. Amber wore a dress she got in Paris and I even wore cologne (also for the first time in years). Of course, we talked plenty about Ediza. Before the play we reminisced about our own around-the-world adventure, although ours took much longer than 80 days (more like double that).


While it's no far off distant land, the town of Mariposa (Amber's hometown) is the subject of my latest article for the L.A. Times travel section. Check out "Mariposa Butterfly Festival will take flight May 1 to 3" at travel.latimes.com. We'll be headed there this weekend.

Easter eggs

Ediza has finally fallen asleep! It seems like she's been up for the past two days straight with all this Easter excitement. She went on two egg hunts this weekend -- one Saturday morning with nearly 12,000 eggs and the other this afternoon at the llama farm. Amber prepared a beautiful feast for us today and she's now reading one of her Easter presents -- "Breaking Dawn," the fourth book in the "Twilight" series. Amber got me an iPod shuffle, which will come in handy when I go running. This past week I ran for the first time since the marathon in China and I'm still sore! Well, I better go hide the candy before Ediza wakes up (it was last Easter in New Zealand, after all, when she first discovered chocolate by biting right through the foil of a chocolate egg).