Category Archives: Family & Friends

Running Together: How Family Road Racing Became Our New Tradition

A year ago, we lined up for our first family road race. This Fourth of July, we celebrated our one-year anniversary of running together—and crushed our personal best in the process. Friday, July 4th marked a special milestone for our family: the one-year anniversary of our first road race together. We returned to the AveryContinue reading “Running Together: How Family Road Racing Became Our New Tradition”

RIP Max the Golden Retriever

Tonight we lost Max, our English Cream Golden Retriever of nine and a half years. We adopted Max in 2010. Back then he was an energetic three year old with a penchant for counter cruising and eating things he wasn’t supposed to. He had more than a little separation anxiety from having been abandoned byContinue reading “RIP Max the Golden Retriever”

So Proud of Katie!

Tuesday I had the enormous privilege of attending Katie’s public Ph.D. dissertation defense. What an incredible moment it was as my wife stood before her colleagues and presented her research findings, the culmination of her last six years of work and the reason for our cross-country move to North Carolina! To be clear, Katie’s dissertationContinue reading “So Proud of Katie!”

Guest Post: Memo to Expecting Parents

This is a guest blog post from Katie, an amazing mother, partner, friend, and scientist: To my expecting friends, Congratulations on this exciting, terrifying, and amazing path you are traversing! Here are a few musings that may be worth exactly what you are paying for them, but they are things I was thankful others preparedContinue reading “Guest Post: Memo to Expecting Parents”

Congratulations on Retirement, Mom!

I had the great honor yesterday to deliver some brief remarks at my mother’s retirement from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. As a curator of post-Apollo human spaceflight, Mom has had one of the coolest jobs in the world and I am incredibly proud of her. The party was a lot of funContinue reading “Congratulations on Retirement, Mom!”

Parenting Recommendations 3: Parenting Books

My final post on parenting for the moment: here’s a list of postpartum parenting books I’ve read so far, again sorted by my rating, descending. The Science of Mom (another evidence-based book for the first year postpartum) is the only top ranked of these for which I have notes: Good review of scientific method, publication DelayedContinue reading “Parenting Recommendations 3: Parenting Books”

Parenting Recommendations 2: Prenatal Books

Each time we became pregnant, I was both elated and scared as it reminded me that I don’t know anything about babies! My way of dealing with that anxiety was to read everything I could get my hands on. And since we were cumulatively pregnant much longer than nine months, I managed to read aContinue reading “Parenting Recommendations 2: Prenatal Books”

Parenting Recommendations 1

Recently several of our friends have become pregnant for the first time, which has motivated us to send them lots of unsolicited advice. While our suggestions may be worth exactly what they’re paying for them, I’m posting them here in case others might find them helpful. In no particular order, here are our first few:Continue reading “Parenting Recommendations 1”

Honoring Paul Farmer

Today we celebrated the life of a great man. Paul Farmer was a patriot, a public servant, a coach, a husband, a father, and a grandfather. A graduate of the US Naval Academy, where he was a multi-sport athlete, he spent his military career as an aviator in the US Marine Corps. During a trainingContinue reading “Honoring Paul Farmer”