2009 Year In Review

Happy Holidays to all! Hope you enjoy these photos.

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2008 Year in Review

Highlights of the year in pictures.

Another memorable moment was Annie finally solving the 3D Squares puzzle that's been kicking around our house for over three years. Nobody (not child, not adult) had been able to solve it. We even searched the internet for a solution, and though we found many 3D Squares puzzles, could not find any photos of this version. So here it is:

2007 Year In Review

Here are some pictures of 2007.

Alex's Pinewood Derby Website

Today, Alex built his first Web site about Pinewood Derby advice. He had a little help on design, content and hosting, but the content is his. Here it is.

2006 Year in Review

First and last post all year. Better late than never. Must have been busy with other things. Take a look.

Radio Reborn

I drive a 1998 Ford Explorer. A common car with a number of common problems. One of the the great things about the internet is that you can find people with similar interests or problems with a few clicks of a mouse. Sometimes you even find the solutions to such problems.

That's what I did a few weeks back when I started investigating how to fix my radio. As it turns out, Ford Explorers have problems with their OEM radios. The main problem is the display goes blank, while the radio, CD, and tape player continue to function. So you can't tell what you're playing, what station you've got, or even what time it is.

An annoying nuisance of a problem. Nothing more.

After living with this nuisance for a few years, I'd had enough. I discovered through Explorer Forum that this blank display was a very common issue with Explorers. I also found a solution. I was able to fix my Explorer radio display problem using Duane Harrison's Save My Sanity Swap program.

Duane offers a couple of solutions. One for the person comfortable with soldering and with enough time and patience to get the job done himself. The other for the do-it-yourselfer that doesn't have the time or inclination to re-solder a circuit board. I fell into the latter camp and ordered a replacement board that Duane had already repaired.

I received a set of instructions online and a new part in the mail. After a little wrestling to get the radio out, it was fairly smooth sailing to take it apart, replace the broken power supply, and pop it back in. It worked immediately upon turning the key in the ignition. What a great feeling. My clock was back, along with the rest of the display. Thanks to Duane and the internet for providing a reasonably priced solution to a nuisance of a problem.

Belated quote du jour

I've been terribly remiss, missing almost the entire year. Just heard this from Annie and couldn't resist publishing it:

Did you know that Winnie the Pooh and Kermit the Frog have the same middle name?

Now that's brilliant insight...

Well, posting this new entry broke the site layout, which was cobbled together by some hacker who didn't know what he was doing, so I adopted a new layout that's much happier. Hope you enjoy it.

Children's Joy en Mass

Today was the annual Christmas Children's Mass at school. Apparently, there's a children's Mass every month, where the students file in and attend this special event. But today was different.

Today, the students of the First Grade class provided an extra special show for their fellow students and parents as well. We got to experience a full-on living Nativity scene, including angels, animals, stars, and of course, Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The students dressed up as all of these characers, and guided by their teachers, put on quite the show, reading the various readings, leading the various responsive sing-a-long readings (complete with upraised hands imploring the congregation to join in), and bowing to the altar.

Alex was an angel (officially) and read a piece of one reading. His friend Melissa was a cow, and she carried up the gifts. Other students were camels, one even had a hump.

The whole thing was a glorious testament to the wonders of Christmas. I'm sincerely glad I blew off some work time to see it.

Holiday Photos 2004

Here's the best of our annual fall photo shoot:

Hope you enjoyed them!

And then there were nuns...

We were invited by our dear friend Dominique Mintz to a holiday celebration at the Motherhouse of the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose. It was a most enjoyable afternoon, the first time I ever met more than a single nun in one sitting. We drove around Fremont, looking for a modest sort of building, and finally realized that the Motherhouse was like the Mother Ship, the largest and oldest building on the grounds. Later, as I sat to write this, I learned that Motherhouse is one word.

We were greeted by several Sisters and eventually introduced to the Prioress General, Sister Rose Marie Hennessy, the only person I have ever met with such a cool title. Sister Rose Marie gave a nice talk about the Circles of Caring capital campaign, which is being used to retrofit and upgrade the chapel and elder care center for the Sisters. We got a tour of the still-being-renovated facility, which was dusty, but clearly a great work in progress.

The Sisters tend several hundred olive trees on their property, which they also harvest to make olive oil. We tasted some of the extremely low acid oil and found it quite fruity and nice. We were happy to be able to take some home with us after making a small donation to the cause. I feel like we've got a little holy water stashed away in the pantry.

On the way there, Alex asked another of his penetrating questions:

"Why aren't nuns allowed to have children? You know it's not something they can control because God decides if you're going to have children."

None of the nuns offered any better explanation...

The origin of the species

Here's an interesting dialogue on the source of all human existence:

Annie: How does Jesus make you?
Alex: He has miracles.
Annie: What are miracles?
Alex: They're like powers.
Annie: How does he stick on the skin?
Alex: He has sticky powers.
Annie: What are sticky powers?
Alex: They're like glue.
Annie: What kind of glue?
Alex: People glue.

You just can't make this stuff up...

Perception is Reality

Alex's most perceptive observation of today:

Are the Flintstones and the Jetsons cousins?

It's an impressive question, especially considering how little TV our kids watch. Here's the best Hanna Barbera site I could find, so you can see who else are Fred and George's cousins.

Family Photos

A collection of photos from over the years...

An audience with the Godfather

Yep, that's right, the Godfather of Soul, none other than the Hardest Working Man in Show Business, the inimitable, the authentic, James Brown (Mr. Brown, to you). That's us with The Boss, at his most recent appearance in the Bay Area, at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga.

Kerry and I took off on a school night, in spite of all worries about nasty traffic, and made the trek to Saratoga for a very special evening. As it turned out, there was no traffic (that rebounding Silicon Valley economy -- NOT), and we got there in an hour. We didn't need to do the drive-through at Chez Mac, because there was time, and food, at our fabulous destination. We just didn't know.

Because my brother, Roger, is currently employed as Mr. Brown's on-the-scene, showbiz manager, we got comped tickets (6th row center), and a personal audience with Mr. Brown himself ("Plzd to meet cha, God Bless"). It was over in a heartbeat, but we did get a photo opp, and made the most of it.

The show itself was awesome. The band includes about a dozen musicians, and then you add four backup singers, Mr. Brown, and two Bambi/Thumper-esque dancers wearing shorts and halter tops, which gets you almost twenty people on stage. The tenor sax player in particular was HOT, with several impressive solos. Mr. Brown performed all the standard songs you'd expect, including my favorite, an emotional, down-on-one-knee rendition of "This is a man's man's man's world".

We had never been to the venue before, which is the old Paul Masson winery, now converted into an outdoor theater/music venue complete with restaurant overlooking the entire Bay Area. Fantastic view. Really quite the memorable experience.

Thanks Roger :-)

Of skirts and nicknames

It's been a busy week, as usual. Kerry left the house at 5:45 this morning to venture to Folsom, where there's a prison, and a grocery store. She went to the grocery store.

I'm finally getting some relief from allergy hell. I got new eye drops on Monday, and they're definitely an upgrade from my Patanol, which had worked quite well until the recent histamine deluge. The drops are called Alrex, and they seem to doing the job. My eyes were simply on fire for the past 2-3 weeks, and we're back down to a smolder.

On to the punch lines...

Alex wanted to know "Is God a nickname?"
To which I answered, "For what?"
"You know, is God a nickname?"
"What would be the full name?"
"I don't know. Maybe George."
"George who? What would be his last name?"
"Washington?"

At least it wasn't another famous "W".

With envy and sympathy all wrapped up together, Annie told us, "My friend Kiara has 1,001 skirts. Some day she's gonna get tired of wearing them and she's gonna put some pants on." Nothing like the sensibilities of a four year old.

Irrigation travails

So I had been noticing that our lawn was getting increasingly brown over the past 7-10 days, but I thought it would just fix itself (why, I don't know). I kept looking for a little water on the patio in the morning, but didn't see it. Finally, this past Saturday, I confirmed that the sprinklers weren't working. 4 out of 6 zones dead, all where my precious new turf was installed only a few weeks ago as part of the firepit finale.

City boys and suburban irrigation projects don't mix well, but thankfully my friend Francis Raquel stopped by and pointed me in the right direction. He's an engineer by trade, and before I knew it, I had the voltmeter out doing testing at various points in the irrigation control circuit to rule out various problems. Even before that, he showed me how to manually open the valves to check if there's water in the system or if the line is broken. Good news was the valves were OK. It was the irrigation control wire that runs in the ground somewhere from our garage to the valves in the bushes in back of our house. Francis and I tested every little wire, to finally determine the problem. I appreciated his disciplined approach to rooting out the problem, something that I might have figured out, but those city genes would have made it take a lot longer.

So a couple of trips to the hardware store (like m&m's you can't have just one trip) and I was installing new control wire, with Alex on my heels, asking if my Dad taught me how to do this. Answer: he's also a city boy. So we got a little bonding time in the bushes with a wire stripper and these neat little wire connectors that have silicone caulk inside them to keep out the moisture in outdoor applications (thanks Francis, for this tip as well).

At the end of the day, I had new control wire installed, and the back sprinklers working like new. Just need to bury the cable (or just hide it), and then deal with the one valve that used to work, but no longer does. The old two steps forward, one step back syndrome. At least my precious grass is getting a daily drink now.

Blog layout update

Continue to mess with the layout for the site. Added some cool new things from feedster, which will enable me to have a site search for the blog portion of the site. It's not working yet, but I think feedster has to come and spider the site, which they claim happens in 4-6 hours.

Annie had a good one today: "Why do they say "fruit" in the Hail Mary?"
To which Alex responded: "Jesus's family didn't even have enough money to buy fruit!"

Annie really does have a comedic sense about her, because I've never understood the "fruit" portion either. Try explaining to children what "fruit of thy womb" is. Or even what womb is. Annie almost came up with "a womb is where a wabbit wests", but I'd be putting words in her mouth.

Kitchen redesign notes

We love our house, and though the kitchen looks nice, the layout is awful. It's time to fix it. So we met with Margie Little, a kitchen designer in the East Bay, on the recommendation of a friend. It was a little overwhelming, as we spent 4 hours talking about kitchens, our kitchen, 3 different layout possibilities, and variations on them. I think we OD'd. 4 hours was probably too much time in one sitting. We did end up with some cool new ideas, that we definitely wouldn't have thought of, so perhaps it was worth it. More to come...