Pops, holding his father’s maddock, Santa Cruz, CA (archival: November 2009).

His Mama’s youth music theater company’s Once Upon a Mattress might have closed this past Sunday, but not in the boychild’s mind.  Every day brings a fresh opportunity to dress up and sing along to pretty much every part, from Princess Winifred the Woebegone to Prince Dauntless the Drab and the whole royal retinue in [...]

Pops, indicating the height of the trees when his dad planted them 70 years ago.
In my recent, breezy, Twitter-length series of As to some Qs about lesbian fatherhood, I wrote: “My dad is one of the beacons of love in my life.”  True story.  One of his most oft-repeated definitions of family is this [...]

My punkin lamb peeping the world through a pair of “100″ glasses.
The girlie’s Kindergarten class celebrated their hundredth school day earlier this week. So, so long ago was her first. An excited, nervous, pre-K little girl ago.
Who’s in her place now? If only I could can catch hold of the happy, self-posessed blur in front [...]

Waiting for the steam train, Berkeley, CA.

Valentine’s Day train ride, Berkeley, CA.
Way back when the beloved and I had our commitment ceremony, circa 1997, we made a point to celebrate all kinds of love. Familial, platonic, romantic; all of it.  We did that partly because we were uncomfortable about having drawn people from far and wide to pay attention only to [...]

At Mama’s Royal Cafe, Oakland, CA.
We went to Oakland’s legendary Mama’s Royal Café the other day as a foursome, for the first time in forever. Or rather, for the first time since the little guy was in a baby seat, which feels like forever. It’s a long period of diminished engagement with the world, these [...]

Shoe, Berkeley, CA.
I asked his big sister to help get us out the door faster by putting his shoes and socks on. This was what she considered “done.”