Thursday, July 23, 2009

Home Again

Thursday: (07/23) It's a nice morning outside, the doggies were out as we enjoyed tea at the arbor. Breakfast was eggs, steak and English muffins. Lots of things to catch up on. The yard sheds are still needing to be built, my laptop is sick and needs fixing, the RV has problems with the generator and refrigerator, and more. Where to start? Time for more tea!

Ernie started with his laundry. I did get the car and RV washed. I did dispose of all of the stressed condiments and other food in the RV refrigerator. While I couldn't get it to cool enough for the last coulpe of days in the high desert heat. I did get it to cool after I emptied it and here in our coller environs. It's now at 33 degrees. I guess we'll have to stay out of the 110 degree weather.

Dinner was the KFC $12 chicken bucket special.

Friday: (07/24) Don's egg, sausage, horseradish cheese buns for breakfast.  Wash day. My laundry bag from the RV was running over as well as having dirty sheets so it was time to start the washer.

We decided to go look at fifth wheel RV's for Ernie. One of the few places left is SeeGrins in Gilroy. We arrived in Gilroy just in time for lunch at the Longhouse Restaurant. I had pancakes, eggs and bacon Ernie had ham and eggs with home fries and Lou and Dawn shared a garlic shrimp calamari with linguine. This is garlic country. In fact, this is the Garlic Festival weekend here in Gilroy. The fetival got too big for our enjoyment so we haven't been to it in years. Fortunately, the traffic wasn't too bad in the area. We found some nice new and used trailers and nw have an idea of what's available and for what cost.

Dinner was BBQ ribs with baked potatoes, and a green salad.

Saturday: (07/25) Breakfast was English muffins. Including our meal descriptions may be too much for some readers, especially when we're home and or the meals are nothing special. They serve a couple purposes though. My memory is totally ineffective and I would have no way of knowing what I had eaten if it weren't written down in this diary. Lou even used it while Ernie and I were away to verify we were eating somewhat properly. So, even though I might not need to have that kind of detail for our mundane home time, they will probably remain.

Ernie had the radio set from his truck installed in his car. Lunch was ham sandwiches.

Dinner was stuffed fluke fish, french fries, with carrot apple and raisin salad.

Sunday: (07/26) Ernie fixed biscuits and gravy for breakfast.

Lou and I went out looking at hardware stores. Among other things we were looking for a cart to hold our fire wood. The pile needs to be moved for the new sheds and it might as well be placed on wheels. There were none to be found and none of the utility dollys were riht either so we decided to use a little red wagon and some wire shelving to do the job. While we were out, we stopped at the Chinese Buffet in Sunnyvale on Mathilda Ave near Hwy 237. It was very good. When we got home I didn't get to work finding many things to do to avoid work.

Ernie was busy cleaning his car.

Dinner was whatever was in the fridge tonight. Lou fixed some stuffed raw mushrooms, the rest was first come first serve from the fridge.

Monday: (07/27) Ernie fixed a nice breakfast of eggs, bacon and his special hash brown potatoes ala heart attack. Very good! He's off this morning to Bakersfield. He'll be attending the funeral for Mark, Debra's son, who drowned last week. (see 07/23 "It's A Small World")

It was an auspicious day this morning, but we missed it. There are no baby birds in the nest any more, they "flew the coop" or nest this morning.
Lou thinks she saw them on the lawn early this morning but didn't connect it with our babies. It's amazing how quickly they become regular birds.

We went to our local pizzeria Pizz'a Chicago. We enjoy the frige pizza. It has everything on it and we haven't been there in a while.

I managed to get a couple of letters written and some work at the computer but nothing in the yard where I should be. Tomorrow won't be better since I'll be off to San Francisco for a meeting in the evening but will leave shortly after noon to enjoy the city for a while as well.

Since our pizza was a late lunch, we didn't need a real dinner so a salad was enough.

Tuesday: (07/28) Lou and I did our weekly grocery shopping.

I caught the train up to San Francisco for the BAADAUG (Bay Area Aplication Developers Adobe User Group) meeting. The guest speaker was Ossama Alami, Developer Advocate from Google talking about the new(er) Google Maps Flash API. An interesting meeting. As usual, the pizza was good too.

Oak Tree Before trim Oak Tree Being trimmed
Wednesday: (07/29) We started the day meeting the tree crew. He had our oak and redwood trees trimmed. Lou was concerned about the
health of our oak tree so she called the arborist that trimmed our cedar tree in San Jose a couple of years ago. They do it the old fashioned way, no aerial lift trucks. They climb around in it using a chain saw and pruners. The oak tree isn't a runt either being about 70+ feet tall. They throw a rope over a limb and pull themselves up then relocate the rope higher and can dance around doing the trimming with a safety line above. They thin the limbs out and remove the dead wood and the tree looks much better now.

Oak Tree After Trim Breakfast Under the Arbor
The tree looks much better after the trim. We enjoyed breakfast Thursday under the trimmed tree.

I went down to pick up Dawn in San Jose and fixed her computer and printer. The computer lost it's mind and the printer was jambed, or thought it was. Opening and closing all the doors fixed the printer. The computer evidently has a bad system memory battery. The clock needed to be reset. It all happend after the UPS tripped when the vacuum was plugged in to it.

I fixed pork, potatoes and sauerkraut in the slow cooker for dinner.

Thursday: (07/30) I worked on the sheds, sort of. I moved a bunch of lily of the Nile plants from the back yard flower bed to the front flower bed by the RV. The RV casts such a shadow that nothing likes to grow there. The lilies may survive there. i also potted a few in case I want them somewhere else after building the sheds. I also removed an old "potato" plant bush. I believe it must have the hardest wood of any plant in the yard. I think I need to sharpen the axe now.

Breakfast was sauerkrauted potatoes with eggs and bacon. Ham sandwich for lunch. Lou and Dawn fixed a nice homemade pesto sauce on ride rice noodles with vegetables and mushrooms. That was served with steamed spinach. Dawn grows her own herbs which she picked just before making the pesto.

Friday: (07/31) Wow, another week has slipped by. Note the extensive blog entries above. Breakfast was eggs, toast and fried European bologna. I made some progress moving dirt from the flower bed for the sheds. It's very slow work because it's 60% roots and 40% dirt. Lunch was ham sandwiches. Ernie had the dogs serviced at PetSmart. Ernie fixed turkey stroganoff and corn on the cob for dinner.

Removing Raised Dirt Pile Lots Of Roots In Raised Beds
Saturday: (08/01) Cereal for breakfast. I moved more dirt and started building the firewood rack.

Growing Dirt Pile
Lou and Dawn found some treasures at rummage sales and estate sales.Ernie fixed grilled bologna and cheese sandwiches for lunch. Dinner was leftovers.

New Wood Cart Loaded Wood Cart
Sunday:
(08/02) Breakfast was my morning sandwich commonly called the Don McMuffin but with a variation. I used the rye bread from our neighborhood Russian Market with an ege, cheese and fried European bologna. I finally assembled a wood cart using a wire shelf unit and some wheels off a wagon. It seems kind of sturdy. Lou attended her pottery class at the cultural center. Ernie went to Costco for new tires. Lunch was more leftovers Ernie's turkey stoganoff and Lou and Dawn's pesto creation.

Los Tracnos Reserve Sign Lost Tracnos Reserve Trail
In the afternoon I went up in the hills above town for a hike. I couldn't convince anyone else to go. I hikes in The Los Tracnos Reserve. It is located on the San Andreas Fault and has some easily observable effects of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.

Fence Crossing San Andreas Fault offset In 1906 Post Delieate San Andreas Fault Path
The fence above was offset several feet during the quake in 1906. There are posts along the fault line. Even though we're constantly warned a big quake is coming, I didn't feel anything today.

The Only Flower Seen In Los Tracnos Reserve
This was the only flower seen in the reserve?

Dinner was Lou's Shepherds Pie. Very good!

Monday: (08/03) I took the day off today. I did one of my favorite duties, watching (inspecting) the contractors putting in a new gas line on the main street near our house. In particular, i watch them do the guided boring and place the 8 inch pipe. It's quite interesting that they can stear the bit to arrive at the correct depth in the center of the receiving trench. We haven't had a good project needing my inspection in the neighborhood for a while.

Tuesday: (08/04) I managed to spend (waste) another day watching the contractors again paving a school parking lot and patching some of the holes in the road for the gas line replacement. We had dinner at Harry's Haufbrau in Redwood City tonight.

Wednesday: (08/05) Breakfast was the usual breakfast sandwich. More digging. I removed the last of the dirt. Still need to shave a little more to get to grade. Lunch was Chinese vegetables and 5 flavor chicken from our local fast food place China Mei. Lou and I did the grocery shopping. Ernie fixed a roast and some pot roast vegetables. Lou had here pottery class this evening.

Thursday: (08/06)I had the usual breakfast sandwich. Everyone else had cereal or yogurt. Lou fixed chef's salads for lunch. I managed to wast the day doing little. Lou and I did go by Costco for a couple of things and to the hardware store.

In the afternoon, I made a second backup of the data and documents on my netbook then restored the drive to the original default state. Then, I began the arduous task of reinstalling all the applications. All this in the hope that the drive is actually good and it's just the worthless Windows operating system that is flaky. For dinner I fixed spaghetti. Lou had another ceramics class at the cultural center.

Friday: (08/07) Ernie fixed some cored beef hash and eggs for breakfast. I continued my task of re-installing appliction software on my netbook. That took all day to get most of it re-installed. For dinner I fixed oriental stir fried vegetables with pork and tofu.

Saturday: (08/08) Something different for breakfast. Dawn made apple fritters. Another day to avoid real work. Lou and I went on a tool hunt . She wants some groves place on the rim of the replacement wheel she made for her and Dawn's spinning wheel. After not finding the right router bit anywhere we (I) decided to make a jig and use whatever we have so that will be the task for tomorrow. We stopped by the Chavez Market in Redwood City for a shred Super Nacho for lunch. My only real accomplishment was installing a replacement shifter cable on my folding Dahon bike. The old cable and sheath got corroded somehow. Must have been ridden hard and put away wet once too often. Dinner was leftover spaghetti with grilled vegetables. I finally got all the applications installed on this laptop again. I do hope it stays healthy now.

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