This page is mostly recommendations, in case you end up in a similar situation.
Durham, NH
- great donuts in Barrington
- Portsmouth: Black Trumpet, Flatbread. groceries at Philbrick's.
- UNH dairy bar
- UNH organic garden club, various farmer's markets
- Wagon Hill Farm is a nice place to walk or sled
- the Strand movie theatre in Dover is nice
- the nearest Montessori school is Cornerstone in Stratham. Growing Places preschool at Woodside is OK.
- Wentworth-Douglass is a great place to have a baby (even better than Lucille-Packard at Stanford!). Woodbury Family Practice is great and local.
Palo Alto, CA
Some bay area restaurants:
- Bistro Elan - easy to miss on California Ave
- Amber india- Mt View
- Tartine - in the City
- Uncles Frank's BBQ - was East Palo Alto, now moved to Charleston in Mt View?
Nearby walking: Russian Ridge, Huddart Park
Random recommendations
Some music:
Great gadgets:
- Nikon D40x (now D60?), AF-S f/1.4G lens for indoor portraits, baby pictures
- VW Passat wagon
- NAD stereo receiver, Cambridge SoundWorks sub/sat speakers
Keeping up: The New York Times, The Economist, the New Yorker, Wired.
Baby stuff
So many products are unnecessary. These weren't:
- Britax car seats (Frontier and Roundabout). Graco for first few months?
- BOB Iron Man and McLaren Volo strollers
- Kelty Adventure backpack
- Baby Bjorn front carrier, potty seat, stool
- parenting books: Happiest Baby on the Block (DVD!), Baby Whisperer
- Compass lightweight playard, Evenflo exersaucer
- Hanna Andersson stuff is pricey but lasts forever
- Eric Carle books
Some technical stuff is listed at my recommendation page at work
Family
- My wife is Kate Ruml (née Katherine Sutherland). She has a facebook page.
- My daughters are Julia Ruml (2004) and Geneva Ruml (2008).
- My dad is Beardsley Ruml II. He's got an ocassional blog and some of his recipes are on-line here.
- My Mom's dad was John Wheeler.
- My Dad's grandfather was Beardsley Ruml.