August 2026 - Over the Hill
Monthly Recap
I had one day left in my 30s when the month started. I think this is the first time I’ve ever truly cared about my age. I don’t feel 40, and the idea that I am now 40 doesn’t feel right. And yet when I woke up in Tokyo on August 1st, I knew the inevitable was coming. Without recapping the trip (which I did in excruciating detail day by day), I will sum it up: it was truly a dream come true. I had a great five days with Jake in Tokyo and finished off the trip with Jenn, both in Tokyo and Osaka. We had great meals, saw incredible sights, and explored two of the best cities in the world. Elle did amazing without us both, with Norma and with her Grandpa and Cookie. I couldn’t have asked for a better 40th birthday.
Daily Recaps:
A career change was also lingering in the background. Not only did I turn 40, but I also started a new job the Monday after we got back. This had been brewing for months. After starting at PayPal, it became clear that the group I had joined and the future I had there were murky at best. Combine that with flying up and back to San Jose each week, and it was clear my post-Citadel career wasn’t the move I'd hoped for. Fortunately, I found an amazing opportunity at Capital Group, and on August 10th, I started there in their Irvine office, a 10-minute drive from the house we are currently renting. What has struck me most in my first few weeks is the joy and peace of being home for dinner each night. When I was at PayPal, I’d FaceTime from the Hyatt Place (or House), and it was never the same. I felt like I was always missing out. Being home again has given me so much peace.
Walking in on my first day
Starting a new job didn’t mean Jenn slowed down. She went to San Francisco during my second week on the new job. That meant Norma had to come early each morning, and I dropped Frasier off at daycare before going to work. I have to say, even as I write this, working this close to home seems so foreign to me. I worked 400 miles away in San Jose while at PayPal, had a 30-minute commute to both Citi and Citadel, and an hour to SCE. Being able to drop Frasier off and get to work in under 20 minutes feels unreal. I have cherished this 1-1 time with Elle as well. She is growing up so fast; her sentence structure and communication increase by the day, and her ability to play has been so much fun. One of my favorite things of the last month has been Elle either telling a story or having Jenn and me tell stories while she takes a bath, utilizing her bath toys. Her new favorites are Mario and Peach that we bought her at the Nintendo store in Tokyo. That, and her insisting we play “Sweet Caroline” after dinner, and everyone (including Frasier) gets up and dances.
Elle had a big month in August as well. She went to her first few ballet classes with Jenn. She loved them, and continues to practice the moves she learns at class with. Jenn of course “had” to buy her a tutu and ballet shoes to go with it. We couldn’t be more proud of her. Towards the end of the month we also changed her bed from a crib to a toddler bed. Originally we had planned to do it a week or two earlier but I purchased the wrong conversion kit. When we did eventually get the right kit, Elle went in like nothing had changed. Thankfully so far she’s loved her new bed and has had zero issues with the transition. Our little girl is growing up!
Jenn and I had one dinner date in August and snagged last-minute reservations at Truly Pizza in Dana Point. It’s considered one of the best pizza restaurants in the state/country. Jenn got a glass of wine, and I had a beer, and we split two pizzas. They were great, and we really enjoyed them, but not sure we agree with the overwhelming praise. It was delicious, and we got to sit outside on a beautifully warm evening while Elle spent time with Grandpa and Cookie.
We closed out the month with a full family pool party/day at Amy and Ryan’s house in Riverside. It was a few days after Amy’s birthday, so Amy, Ally, and Jenn went to the Mission Inn to get massages. Elle and I met the rest of the family in Riverside after her afternoon nap and split our time between the pool and playing inside all to celebrate both Amy and Westy’s birthday. Amy, Jake, Tim, and I tried the Hot Ones challenge. Jake and I did it in New York in June 2024 (a month after Elle was born), but we wanted to redo it with the full group. We all had a blast, even if the last couple were brutal.
And that concluded August, and my first few weeks in my 40s. It was a month of new beginnings, of milestones, and memories both at home and in foreign countries. Its hard to even fathom that Jenn and I were thousands of miles away from both Elle and Frasier and now we’re back, I have a new job, Elle is in a new bed, and we have plenty more dinners together as a family each night. Not a bad way to turn 40!
TV We Watched
Most of our TV watching came in the second half of the month. During the first half, though, we quickly moved through the second season of Four Seasons on Netflix. It is a show that I think keeps getting better and better, and it relies heavily on its great cast to make up for what is otherwise a mediocre script. We also wrapped up the fifth (and hopefully not final) season of Trying. It made a very poor choice in storylines early in the season but thankfully didn’t marinate there and delivered another enjoyable ride. We continue to work through Silo’s third season, which I find too slow and poorly lit, but Jenn loves it, and the fourth season of Ted Lasso, which still isn't great but is much better than the prior.
Books I Read (Or Listened To)
I’m not sure I’ve ever had a more diverse set of books than I have this month. Six books in 4.5 weeks is some of the best output I’ve had all year. This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me was my first book of the month, and it was my return to fantasy after a long hiatus. I think I need to accept that I may never relive the highs of Game of Thrones and The Name of the Wind, but this was a very entertaining first book, and I’ll likely continue with the series. Heart the Lover by Lily King was my next book and its’s sort of a fascinating experience. I often don’t remember books 6-12 months later, but I’ve never had a book that I’ve given 5 stars on Goodreads slip my mind. I had to ask Claude what the book was about to refresh my memory. Now that I’ve done that, I remember why I loved this book: great characters, a sort of interesting and unpredictable love triangle that ends in a very human and beautiful way.
The Favorites by Layne Fargo will likely go down as my least favorite book of the year and definitely of the month. A book about four ice skaters and the drama around it. It was terrible and not worth discussing further. The next book I bought right when it came out last year, but have been slow to read, was Circle of Days by one of my favorite authors, Ken Follett. A fictional telling of the building of Stonehenge, it ended up feeling like a poor man's version of his magnum opus, The Pillars of the Earth.
The last two books of the month were both solid, good, not great. Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton was funny and insightful, but it also felt written for someone 10-20 years younger than I am. And the last book, The Director by Daniel Kehlman, could easily have been a five-star read, but I found that some unnecessary complexity and writing style made it harder to follow than it needed to be, in what was otherwise a very interesting and engaging book.
Movies We Watched
I feel like 5 movies is my sweet spot for movies each month. Jenn and I only had one formal “movie night,” and it was my pick this time. I went with The Drama, an A24 hit from earlier this year that I think we both really enjoyed. It lives up to the title. On our trip home from Tokyo, Jenn and I watched The Devil Wears Prada 2 together. I know I enjoyed it more than Jenn did and thought it captured a lot of its charm, but I think Jenn thought it was unnecessary.
I went to go see Spider-Man: Brand New Day on my last day off before starting my new job at Irvine Spectrum and loved it. Do I think it should be the second highest-grossing movie of all time? No. But was it wildly entertaining? Yes.
The other two movies I watched at home this month were Pressure and Masters of the Universe. The first is what I’d consider a pure “dad” movie. Since I’m a dad now, I loved it. I watched the latter purely out of nostalgia for my childhood love of He-Man. Was it good? No. Was it entertaining? Only mildly.
Games I’ve Been Playing
Picture of me from November 15, 2013
I may be 40 now, but I still love to sit down and play video games. After a slow summer, I finally had time to jump into both the new Madden, as well as reliving some of my fondest memories of the Assassin’s Creed franchise in Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced. I remember playing Black Flag in 2013 in our apartment in Newport Beach and being blown away by the naval combat and the open world of the Caribbean. Jenn mentioned a few days ago how she remembers the sound of the sea shanties from the living room in 2013, and they brought back good memories. To be playing the remake of the game now in 2026 and loving it just as much as I was then is spectacular. I hope to finish it in September before the onslaught of amazing new games this fall including Wolverine, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Grand Theft Auto VI. Plus I still want to play the new 007 First Light and finish Ghost of Yotei.
2026 Goal Tracking
Goal #1: Read 50 Books: I’ve read 34 books and am on track to hit my goal of 50 this year!!!
Goal #2: 12 Monthly Recaps: 8 for 12!
