Christmas Week

Monday: (12/21) Wow! it doesn't seem like it's been another year already.  Normally we would have departed for our winter trip a week ago but this year departure is delayed. Possibly mid January now. Weather was nice this morning but drippy all afternoon. I tinkered in the shop finishing most of the electrical in the morning. When it got drippy I went in and played at the computer.Lou and Dawn went down to San Jose, Lou to pick up some  doll molds and Dawn to see her friend Andrea.

Breakfast was PBJ English muffins. Lunch was a chili size. Dinner was at New Tung Kee in Mountain View. Cheapest dinner around and very good.

Tuesday: (12/22) The day started with a visit to the hardware store for a couple of things. I returned and finished the shop wiring then hit the trench. Ernie and I finished connecting the drain pipe under the new shop to the storm drain system. Next will be to connect the downspout to the system.

Last night I worked trying to get my email server to work. I have two virtual servers residing who knows where. One is Linux the other Windows. Working with them is like working with black boxes. The Linux system handles most of my websites and email. It just works and doesn't cause problems. The Windows server is much more difficult but I needed a Windows server to host my own software development projects. It also hosts several websites to be. The problem is that in order to be allowed to install my own software on the server I had to get a do-it-yourself server which requires I manage the server, including the email server. Some of the settings do not become effective immediately so sometimes I try something and then have to wait a day to see how it works. Patience has never been one of my virtues. Eventually it will work but this do-it-yourself stuff is getting tiring, educational but tiring. I hate Windows and wouldn't use it if I could avoid it but some things just have to be.

Lou's been busy getting more doll molds from a shop that is closing in San Jose and organizing her storage. Dawn and Courtney walked to the library. The weather was nice all day except occasionally windy.

I fixed English muffins with bacon and eggs for breakfast. A healthy lunch of guacamole and chips. Dinner was Dawn's potatoes a gratin with Italian sausage and raw vegetables (carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli).

Wednesday: (12/23) Sunny but cold today. No wind so a really nice day.

I had to try to help a neighbor's kid who picked up a computer virus, no anti virus software installed. I couldn't help. She has a young friend who probably knows more about fixing computers. Don't they all. More than likely the drive will have to be restored in the end. Another reason to dislike computers. Of course the developer and distributor of the virus should be subject to the death penalty, in my opinion.

Ernie and I started going through junk in the remaining tent in the yard. Some to be saved and some to finally get a chance to take a trip to the dump. We managed to move my considerable lumber pile from it's storage rack. I need to make some improvements to the rack so it had to be emptied. It will end up in the new shop.

Lou worked on organizing her molds and did most of the Christmas grocery shopping.

Dawn, Courtney and Ashley caught the light rail trolley to the Great Mall late in the afternoon. Getting such a late start isn't too bad around Christmas when the stores are all open very late. The returned about 10 pm.

When I took a morning walk I picked up a newspaper and found a coupon for 2 for 1 pizza at our favorite Pizz'a Chicago. Of course, that was lunch. Lou and I went to the New Tung Kee Chinese restaurant, again, for dinner.


Thursday: (12/24)I spent the morning welding the wood rack making some needed modifications. When I built it in a hurry  last year when I moved out of the old shop shed        I did just enough. Today I finished it making the upper racks stronger. I was finished by noon when Perry mason came on. I like the show and it provides a break for lunch.

In the afternoon I moved all the wood, again, onto the upgraded rack in the new shop shed. That was enough work for the day.

I was just thinking today that I haven't been taking any pictures. Both my cameras are failing so I tend to not take as many right now. Maybe I'll make an extra effort tomorrow.

Lou's been busy cleaning up for guests tomorrow and cooking. Ernie was busy cooking as well.

Today is a special day that all too often wasn't special enough. Today is my mother's 99th birthday, or would have been. She passed away in 1989. Having Christmas Eve as your birth date has to be rather unfortunate because you probably never get a birthday present nor have a birthday party but, this is when it does pay off. It's easier for others, like me, to remember it due to the holiday relationship. So happy birthday mom!

And this makes me think of my Dad as well. His birthday wasn't so date gifted being October 26th. I missed remembering his 116th birth date, or what would have been, this past October. So happy birthday dad, belatedly.

I fixed eggs bologna and English muffin;s for breakfast. Lunch was refrigerator treats du jour. I had leftover seafood salad and cottage cheese. Dinner was pizza #2, the free one from yesterday.

Friday: (12/25) Speaking of remembering birth dates, this date seems important for some reason? Merry Christmas.

Breakfast was a healthful bunch of tarts, a wonderful by product of pie making. Ernie used a crust recipe that included vinegar which makes it light and it also has an interesting added flavor. Ernie and Lou were busy starting the ham and other kitchen duties. Dawn and I were busy not doing that.

Dinner was the usual feast. Ham, chicken, smashed potatoes, yams, green beans, macaroni and cheese, savory bread pudding, Fruit salad, Fresh cranberry sauce, green salad and probably something I forgot. I'm glad we convinced Ernie to minimize dinner for years past. Desert was choice of apple pear or apple pie. Our guests were Melei, Ping and An An (our neighbors), Courtney (Dawn's friend) and Ashley (Courtney's roommate).


Ernie fixed dishs for the doggie's special dinner.

I accomplished a great deal, ate too much and did nothing. Now if I can remember how I did it for future reference.

Saturday: (12/26) Breakfast was my egg, bologna and cheese English muffins. Absolutely nothing accomplished today. How nice.

The rain returned in force in the afternon and evening.

My aunt Helen drove up from Bakersfield. She had an interesting tour of the South bay due to a missed turn but arrived in time for dinner. Dinner was leftover Christmas dinner.

The Color Of Palo Alto And The Loss Of Our Bowling Alley

Monday: (12/14) I fixed the leftover  sauerkrauted potatoes as fried potatoes with bacon and eggs for breakfast. VERY good! Today was the nice day between two rain storms. It actually got warm and was quite nice outside. I started a pot of white beans with ham in the crock pot. We managed to take a nice walk and did some work in the yard. We also made a run to Costco for some things.

Lunch was ham sandwiches from a ham Lou baked. Dinner was the withe beans with ham.

About 6pm we hurried downtown to city hall to attend the council meeting. A developer wants to  tear down the only bowling alley in Palo Alto and Northern Santa Clara County, The Palo Alto Bowl, and a Motel six and replace them with a larger hotel, an office building and a bunch of condos. Dawn wants to protest the change so we attended the meeting. There was some confusion as to when it would start so we looked around downtown until the meeting at 8pm. Then all the preceeding agenda items were heard including an unusual presentation on "The Color Of Palo Alto". I didn't know that for the past 7 years a young man with far too much time on his hands has taken multiple pictures of every parcel in our fair city during the various seasons, a total of over 250,000 pictures, He then processed each photo to derive an average color. Then he's been analyzing the data and can report of the average color of each parcel, each street, each neighborhood the city, all parcels with a numeric address of 2358, each season, or any way you want to present the average color data. There was some useful data provided that the police and fire departments can use as well. Only in Palo Alto! Oh, of course the average color of the city of trees is green. Unfortunately, the pictures were prior to our house getting it's new siding so there are errors in the average color.

About 10:30pm, Dawn's item was heard and she along with a number of other concerned citizens spoke to the council. The city council members  listened politely and then approved the development. Money is more important than a livable city. It was actually interesting. It's been nearly 30 years since my last council meeting and it related to a protest of rezoning at our home in San Jose. Lou and I organized that revolt and the result was the same. Some things never change. We didn't get home until nearly midnight.

Tuesday: (12/15) Due to the late retirement last night this morning didn't start early. Breakfast was cereal. We chased a few leaves into the compost barrel and I unstuck the neighbors garbage disposer. That was it for work. I've been getting in to this doing nothing, if playing at the computer is nothing.

Lunch was leftover sauerkraut potatoes. Lou fixed fish with steamed vegetables and millet for dinner.

While we were supposed to have rain it turned out to be a nice day all day. The storm ran out of gas and stalled up North  a ways.

Wednesday: (12/16) Another nice morning, pretty clear and mild. It did rain well last night some time. Google still reports we're in for a little more rain today before we clear up for a while. Unfortunately, the wind and rain evidently don't have a good Internet connection.

I started the day with a visit to the the Kaiser Lab to give them some blood for an annual test. It's in downtown Mountain View so of course a visit to the Hong Kong Bakery was in order. A baked pork bun and an egg tart corrected the delay in breakfast caused buy having fasted unnecessarily for the test. Since it wasn't raining I did a little work in the backyard. I started to put some lights in the new shop.

Dinner was baked potatoes, broccoli slaw, and ham.

Thursday: (12/1 7) I had to get up early and head to my old workplace, the traffic operations center, to a pancake breakfast they put on each year. The food was good and it was nice to see everyone again. Not much has changed but they did have a big Christmas tree on the roof made from old LED signal heads. It was sure bright. Time does pass. It's now been over 10 years since we converted all the signals to LED.

I then headed over to the Great Mall, the old Ford Motor Plant, in Milpitas to look around. I found a dog collar that blasts a high frequency tone when dogs bark. We'll see if it works to quiet down Ernie's dogs. I stopped for lunch at the House Of Eggrolls in Santa Clara. They make the best egg rolls around.

And then I stopped at Costco to get new tires on the Toad. It was 1pm by the time I got there so the wait was considerable so I looked around there and at the nearby stores until after 4:30 when they finished. A bit longer that I had hoped.

Lou had a doctor's appointment this afternoon. She and Dawn also went shopping.

Lou had dinner ready by the time I arrived meatloaf, rice and soybeans in the pod.

Friday: (12/18) We couldn't get the batteries into the dog collar. The little door wouldn't open so we decided to head back and get another. Kind of a special effort since the mall is more thsn 20 miles away in Milpitas but quieting the dogs is important. We stopped for breakfast on the way at the Country Gourmet in Mountain View. Good place to eat but a little pricy when we each get an item rather than sharing and we evidently were all rather hungry. It was lucky we chose this spot because Lou got to see a bunch of her former students who stopped for breakfast on their way to work. It's great that some stores really have good work programs for developmentally challenged adults.

We made it to the mall and had no problem getting the collar replaced, just a dud on the first try. We looked around the mall some but were worn out early and returned home. It's a big mall and is difficult to get through it all in one visit.

Lou did pick up next years big calendar. Hard to believe the old calendar is already worn out.

Leftovers for lunch. Rice, soybeans and meatloaf mixed up.

I did do a little work. I exposed the drain pipe for the new shop and the yard drain pipe. I just stubbed it out before I poured the floor. It's only about 5 feet of shallow trench but the drain line that it needs to connect to is in a drain fabric lined rock filled trench and will be fun getting in to. I may not get it finished before the rain comes again Monday. Nice to get some rain but I'd love to see the sun for a moment or two. With clay soil, working in saturated ground is no fun.

For dinner Lou had prepared split pea soup and oven toast.

I spent some time in the evening working on website setup. I setup six sites with Wordpress as the publishing tool. Wordpress works great but for some reason i had some difficulty getting some of these to work. Once it's installed and works it's great.

Saturday: (12/19) Just a lot of wheel spinning by me today. I spent most of my time solving a little problem with those pesky websites I set up yesterday. They started not working and it took most of the day to figure out why and get the server setup correctly.  I still  need to get the email server working but every problem solved is a good learning experience. Now if my memory were only good enough to utilize the knowledge in the future.

Lou worked threading a loom and Dawn was busy baking scones and fruit cake

Interesting breakfast. It started with a piece of cheese cake followed by one of Lou's baked omelets. Lunch and dinner were leftovers. I discovered white beans for lunch and split pea soup for dinner.

Sunday: (12/20) I don't get busy too early as a rule but I enjoy Sunday mornings even more because of the political shows at 9am. So the day usually starts an hour later, at least. Lou an Dawn dislike them. I sort of think of them as like an oil change or some high speed driving for the heart. The blood pressure increase cleans up the cogs  in the brain a little.

I started the day with a call from our neighbor to assist with re-installation of a DVD player in his car. That was followed with a call to bring my jumper cables over. I did eventually do a little work in the shop but that was interrupted regularly to just enjoy the sunny day.

Breakfast was Lou's leftover omelet.Lunch was whatever one found. I had a PBJ English muffin. Dinner was at the Mi Pueblo Market. Lou, Dan and I shared a super carnitas burrito and a milanesa torta.

Stormy Weather

Monday: (12/07) It's freezing out there! We moved out  of the RV. Lou was busy helping the neighbor. I worked at the computer much of the day.

Cereal for breakfast. Lou and I shared a lunch from our local Chinese restaurant. Dinner was leftover pork roast with vegetables and potatoes.

Tuesday: (12/08) Another cold day. I started the day with a dentist's appointment. When I got home I worked on the car. While we were at Pismo the drivers door handle of the toad broke. It was worn out. I swapped it for the rear door handle and fixed up the old one so it worked but probably not too long. All's well now.

Breakfast of Irish Oats. Lunch at the Sunny Chinese Buffet in Sunnyvale. Dinner at Chipolte's Burrito House which just opened up near us.

Wednesday: (12/09) A much better day. Oatmeal and honey with sour cream for breakfast. I left in the car a little before 9am and the windows were already clear, naturally. I attended my Traffic Signal Association meeting in Fremont, CA at the public Works department building. We learned about a new single camera video detection (tracking) system for traffic signal control. Interesting and promising. I like to attend these meetings when I can to try to keep up on what's developing with my old trade.

I had lunch at a nearby Chinese Buffet, one of my many weaknesses. I then stopped by a big Fry's store in Sunnyvale. Our local Palo Alto Fry's, their second store and former headquarters, is a small store. I found two tings I was looking for some small diameter wire organizer tubing and an 8-gang UHF TV antenna. All the TV stations in our area, except for one are now UHF, even all the low number stations that were formerly VHF and still have their old channel assignments but are translated from UHF stations by the lousy new digital tuners. Channel 2, 5, 9, and 11 are all UHF now. Channel 7 is the only VHF left. I'm not sure why. Our old massive VHF/UHF antenna is no longer needed nor as effective as the new antenna is supposed to be. We'll see. If it fits, I'll also add one to the RV. The blade antenna on the RV, even with the UHF reflective elements that Camping World sells, is non functional.

My final endeavor was a visit to the Post Office for some stamps. For some reason, they no longer have stamp machines at the Post Office, just a nice long line. Of course the season has some effect on the length of the line but the appalling slowness of the clerks and patrons is a little stressful. It took 30 minutes to get through the line of about 15 patrons with three clerks working. I was patient and made it through to get the exact number of 5 cent  stamps I need to make my 39 cent stamps usable. I will no longer by any quantity of stamps, just tiny bunches in the future. They raised the rate twice before I used even a 1/3 of the last roll.

Lou was busy with the neighbor most of the day making funeral arrangements. She and Dawn also attended their braille class in the evening.

Dinner was some Chinese spaghetti and a tofu salad.

Thursday: (12/10) Lou was busy all day with errands with our neighbor. Dawn worked in San Jose. I didn't do much. I did install some door sweeps on the shed doors to help keep leaves and varmints out.

When the weather is stormy like it has been, I tend to enjoy doing nothing and doing it inside.

Breakfast was Irish oatmeal. Lunch was popcorn. Lou Dawn and I went to dinner at Chevy's sharing a couple of Chevy Cinco's.

Friday: (12/11) Breakfast was Irish oatmeal. Another nice day to be inside, it raned all day.  I stayed in and played at the keyboard.

Spaghetti for lunch. Chevy's leftovers for dinner.

Saturday: (12/12) Breakfast at Joanie's Cafe on California Street nearby. Lou and I shared a combination omelet and Dawn had salmon omelet. We had more leftovers for lunch.

Lou worked in the garage on her mold inventory organization while Dawn and i worked the keyboards. It was rainy all day.

I made pork, sauerkraut and potatoes in the crock pot for dinner.

Sunday: (12/13) Lou fixed French toast with sausage for breakfast. A little rain and occasional peak of the sun.

Dawn and I went shopping in San Bruno at Tanforan shopping center, a former horse race track.

When I was out the other day I found my favorite Sketcher shoes on sale at Penny's in Cupertino.I wear size 12 and ask the clerk to get a pair to try on. She came back and said they had size 10.5 or 13 as if I should decide on which one she should bring out. No thanks, not even close. So, I wanted to stop at another Penny's to see if they had a pair. The store in Tanforan didn't have any Sketchers like I wanted. When I checked Sears, they had a pair in my size and it was on sale the same as Penny's. The other day when I was at Penny's I also checked the Sears and they didn't have any Sketchers there? Why is the product at stores so variable? No one stocks anymore they just get random deliveries and never restock.

We had lunch at Fresh Choice.

Lou enjoyed her time at home alone reorganizing her mold inventory.

Left over pork, sauerkraut and potatoes for dinner.

Finally A Little Trip

Wednesday: (12/02) I took Dawn to the train after a stop for breakfast at the Hong Kong Bakery. I then returned home and got ready to hit the road. It's been four months so things have wandered some. I finally got away just before 11am. It was rather overcast all the way down to Pismo Beach. Traffic was nice. I arrived about 3pm. Lou had driven over from Bakersfield and had already signed us in at the campground.

It does get dark early.

Breakfast was a pork bun. Lunch was a slice of Costco Pizza in Salinas. We went to Francisco's in Arroyo Grande for dinner only because our first choice, the Pismo Fish And Chips Restaurant was closed until the end of December. Lou had a steak and I had a chili relleno and enchilada.


Thursday: (12/03) We started the day with a walk on the beach. Though it's cold, actually cool, the sun was out and it was a great morning. We ventured up the beach to Pismo Pier and watched the surfers. Even though it was cold to us, there were about 30 surfers out. The three that seemed to do best catching wave after wave and riding them all the way in while others missed the ride were an older guy near 50, a girl, and a one legged guy. It looks like skill does count.

We returned to camp and cleaned up the RV. I left without the usual cleanup before departure. It's been sitting for over 4 months and is a bit dirty.

I couldn't get the satellite Internet system to connect so I repositioned the RV and eventually it connected. I guess it forgot how.

We drove up to the San Luis Obispo (SLO) Arboretum. it's one of our favorite gardens though in winter it's not too impressive. A visit to a thrift store and then a walk around the SLO Farmers Market. We then had dinner. We got back to camp about 8:30pm.

Breakfast was cheese cake from Trader Joe's. Lunch was a tri-tip wrap and red pepper soup, also from TJ's. Dinner was Home Town Buffet in San Luis. Lou had a half off coupon we had to use.

Friday: (12/04) Started the day with pancakes and bacon at home. We visited the butterflies at the eucalyptus grove next to our campsite. Not too many this year but it was warm enough so we got to see some of them flying about.

We changed campsites to improve our solar generation We'll get a couple hours more sun at our new spot which is further from the trees.  Lou fixed some chicken and vegetable stir fry for lunch.

Dinner at the Splash Cafe by the pier in Pismo Beach. Since both our first choice of Pismo Fish and Chips and our second choice of Brad;s were closed for the holiday season we tried the Splash. Though much better than your average fiash and chips place we;ll still leave them as our third choice.

There was a little event happening nearby. They created some snow piles for the kids to use.

Saturday: (12/05) We started the day with breakfast at the Lion's Club nearby. Pancakes, sausage, and scrambled eggs for $5. Pretty good. There wasn't a crowd but we did enjoy visiting with a couple from Modesto during breakfast.

We then stopped at a small craft fair in the community room of the mobile home park across the street from our camp. When we returned to camp we lounged iaround for a while having a late lunch of a shared Marie Calendar's frozen chicken pot pie and a green salad.

About 2pm we headed off to San Luis Obispo to another craft fair at the mission there. There were a coupe of thrift stores calling to lou as well.

Our next stop was to look around Avila Beach and San Luis Harbor. Kind of out of the way and not much at either.

We then found a CD player belt case for Lou's new player and stopped for dinner at Francisco's Country Kitchen for breakfast for dinner. We evidently were hungry because we finished both a corned beef hash and a chicken fried steak breakfast. We made it back to camp just before 8pm.

Sunday: (12/06) We had a really cold night last night, down to 33 degrees at 6:30am. It took a while to warm up some. It's overcast like yesterday. We never saw the sun yesterday. Lou took advantage of the weather to bake a pork roast. We had some of it for breakfast with fried eggs and potatoes. We had just finished breakfast and were planning our day, which included renewing our campsite for another day. We tend to sample our site by only paying for a day or two at a time. Luckily, that's what we did. We got a call after breakfast from Dawn advising us that our neighbor Eric passed away. He was only 49.  We packed up quickly and were on the road home within the 1/2 hour.

We had a little rain as we passed through Salinas and Gilroy, just an annoyance. We lunched on a couple of apple fritters in Greenfield. We were home by 2pm.

Our little trip was made a day shorter than planned so we could be home and assist our neighbor. It reminds us that we need to be better prepared with wills and organized paperwork and that there are no guarantees of tomorrow.

Enough Work Already

Monday: (11/30) I delivered the old car to Midas for a free oil change. Not too much is free anymore and this ended up costing use nothing. Nice.

Ernie and I finished the shed base, built the front walls and raised the rest of the walls. The front wall is not part of the manufactured shed but 2x2 and plywood construction so we can have a higher entrance and better door.

Breakfast was my egg, cheese and bologna English muffins. Dawn and I walked down to San Antonio Mall to Fresh Choice for dinner.

Tuesday: (12/01) Up early and took Dawn to the light rail station. I then "had" to stop by the Hong Kong bakery for breakfast. I then visited the  hardware store for a couple of things.

Ernie and I worked on his storage shed putting the roof on and a door. I really think building from scratch is much easier than building a pre-manufactured shed because you have to put things together their way for the manufactured shed. A scratch built shed can be adapted as it goes up. Ernie had to take his dogs to a vet appointment. I had to meet Dawn in San Jose for a while as well. We still managed to get the shed finished.

Enough work already. Time for a break!

Dawn and I had lunch at a newly discovered Mexican fast food place Gallo Giro in East San Jose. Our Cubana torta was very good. We went to Chili's for dinner then walked home.

Turkey Week

Monday: (11/23) I'm not sure I'm ready for winter, especially since we'll be hanging around close to or at home until at least after Christmas. Our last extended trip ended in April and Lou and I haven't gotten out since then. We've been busy here at home. Even though I'm a sissy Californian and don't  really know what a winter is, I still prefer the more summer like days in the desert during winter

I completed setting up Ernie's trailer with a macerater so he can dump more easily. We have found ours to be very handy. I also spent, the all to often deferred time, to put things away in the shop. Stuff piles up from previous tasks. I also returned leftover stuff to the hardware store. It's much better to store it there so I can find it for the next project. Lou was busy stuffing stuff back in the closet. It was sort of like Dagwoods closet. It's much better organized now. She also cleaned up in preparation for holiday guests.

Today was leftover day, breakfast, lunch and dinner. We need some room in the refrigerator for Thanksgiving's coming leftovers.

Tuesday: (11/24) A short work day. Ernie and I located and cut the boards for the base of his storage building. That was it for me. Lou went down to San Jose to pick up some shelf units she bought used from a business that is closing. Ernie helped her set them up in her shed and studio.

I caught the train up to San San Francisco to a meeting of the BAADAuG computer user group. I like to attend these meetings when I'm in town. I arrived early and enjoyed a nice walk around town along the Embarcardero by the piers and up to Coit Tower for a nice view as the sun set. I then came down to my meeting. Our group leader, Mark Altenbernd, presented a project he developed that presented a bunch of gauges and charts developed in Flash. Interesting.

An interesting lesson in San Francisco's waste management practices. They require all garbage be divided into compostables, recyclablles, and landfill bins with serious fines for failure to do it correctly. The plan is to reduce landfill to less than 25% of total waste. Our host site, Learn-It had nice signs on the three bins in their lunch room. After a short reminder and instruction by our group commander, we all started to get the hang of it. It actually seems better than our system in Palo Alto and most everywhere else. While San Francisco wants soiled compostable food containers and food scraps in the compost bin, our compost bins only get yard trimmings. Our recycleable bins accept most of what they can put in theirs. This is all getting rather complex but it is necessary. Too bad we can't have a more consistent method though.

Ham and eggs for breakfast. Leftover fish soup for lunch, Subs for dinner at my meeting.

Wednesday: (11/25) I had planned to do a little assembly of Ernie's storage shed but "the best laid plans...." I secured Lou's shelves so they should survive an earthquake. Helped Ernie with a few tasks. I managed to wear myself out and ended up napping in the afternoon.

Ernie, Lou, and Dawn were busy most of the evening advance cooking dishes for the big meal tomorrow. Ernie also baked an apple and a mince meat pie. Dawn fixed some sweet potatoes and baked fresh sour dough bread. Lou fixed the dressing as a casserole and fresh cranberry sauce.

We've done a good job getting rid of leftovers to leave room in the refrigerator. Breakfast was cereal. Cold cuts for lunch. Pizza from Pizz'a Chicago for dinner.

Thursday: (11/26) Turkey Day. Ernie got the bird on and prepared the rest of dinner. My only contribution was providing a sheet of plywood for the table top. A 4x8' sheet makes a great table for eight (even up to 10).


Dinner was about 3pm. There were Ernie, Lou, Dawn, myself, our neighbors Eric and Melei, Courtney and her roommate Ashley, a foreign exchange student from Hong Kong. Eric and Melei lived in Hong Kong for several years leaving about the time Ashley was born so they had something to chat about. It was Ashley's first Thanksgiving.

Cereal for breakfast. Turkey for dinner. How odd. Actually Turkey, smashed potatoes, creamed peas with baby onions, dressing, sweet potatoes, sour dough bread, fruit salad, and Eric brought a cucumber jicama salad and baked quince apple grape compote. All this was topped off with Ernie's apple, mince meat, and/or Courtney's pumpkin pies.

Friday: (11/27) Lou was off early to Bakersfield to see Aunt Helen. It's raining today, at least enough to keep me inside, so no work today. I did get my desk cleaned up and worked at computer projects as well.

Breakfast was PBJ English muffins. Lunch and dinner were Thanksgiving leftovers.

Saturday: (11/28) The rain is gone but today has strong winds. I bought a new entry lock set and installed it on the storm door. The original had round knobs that were hard to open. The new set has lever handles and is much better.

Dawn and I took the train up to San Francisco. She had a class reunion event there and I'll escort here there. It was held at the Minna Galery. My original thought was why San Francisco and why Thanksgiving. I learned that they reasoned that they had a good chance of more attendees because the out of towners came home for Thanksgiving anyway and were available. San Francisco seemed kind of far away from home but the turnout was good so evidently it helped as well. Dawn had a good time.

I went to see the SF Auto Show nearby. It was a bit smaller but still a lot  to see. Nothing new though. Mostly the same product, no original ideas. Kind of sad. They still haven't learned. You can't tell one car makers product from another without  a label. They all look exactly the same. No style. No deviation from average. Last time I attended there was a lot more emphasis on hybrids and electric vehicles. Not much this time. My favorite car right now is the Volkswagon Jetta diesel. I've owned two VW's before and liked both. I had to give up on the bus because it wasn't safe to drive though. The Jetta is made with the VW's high quality and a little originality. The diesel has the best mileage of any car available, including any hybrid, assuming you do mostly highway driving where it has gotten 67mpg average in a 9000 mile drive around the country. It's city mileage is slightly less than the best hybrids at 30 mpg but equivalent to the Ford Escape hybrid. A problem for us is that only the manual transmission is towable. I'm too lazy to use a clutch again. So, I'm still looking for our next car.

Breakfast was an apple fritter. Lunch was more Thansgiving day leftovers, almost gone now! Dinner was a subway sandwich and slice of pizza at Goldie's in San Francisco.

Sunday: (11/29) Another sunny day. Time to get back to work. Ernie and I installed and leveled the shed base and anchored it. That effort seemed to use up the day.

Our backyard becomes very interesting on occasion in the fall. The seed pods on our wisteria vine start popping. It's sort of like someone shooting in the back yard. They fly to all extremes in the rear yard. One seed tweaked my ear and I was 40 feet away. Ernie said he noticed them popping when he went outside about 10pm. We arrived home at 1am ourselves. They started popping again later in the morning. I've always thought they worked something like popcorn and when they were ready and as they warmed up, they popped. Oddly, it's not really hot and has been in the past and no popping. Also popping late in the evening is contrary to that theory. It does seem that all the leaves fell off the plant at the same time? Can the wisteria fire at will? That's a bit scary! About half of the pods have fired now so tomorrow will be interesting as well.

Breakfast was PBJ English muffins. Chili beams for lunch. Chinese food for dinner.

We're Expecting

Monday: (11/16) A day off.Lou and I went out looking at our local shopping center. We had a successful shopping trip by buying very little.

Breakfast was leftover enchiladas. Lou and I had lunch at our favorite noodle house Luu Noodles in Mountain View. Ernie fixed hamburger stroganoff with fresh broccoli and cauliflower  for dinner.

Tuesday: (11/17) Russ from Roger's Camping Trailers delivered Ernie's trailer this morning. Our experience with Roger's was a pleasure. Russ and Denise, the owners, were very helpful and knowledgeable, definitely not like your average RV salesman. I wish they also sold motorhomes. We may need one someday and would love to work with similar folks.

Ernie was busy moving into it all day. The dogs called it home immediately, especially Walter who never left it all day. Lou and I dropped the old dishwasher off at the dump.

Lou fixed corned beef hash and eggs fr breakfast. Grilled cheese sandwiches with artichoke bread for lunch. Stir-fry dinner.

Wednesday: (11/18) Busy day. Ernie worked well into last evening moving in to his new home. Today, he continued.

Lou and I worked on installing a pipe under the house. As long as I had to crawl, we also pulled in two new TV antenna cables, one for a TV in the kitchen and another for Ernie. While the crawl space was nice, for this time of year, I did have to dig some to fit under some beams I used to squeeze under before. My waist dimensions are at least partially at fault but our clay soil is also a culprit. It moves around. To get under one beam I had to chisel it out because it was as hard as cement. To get under the other beam I had to remove some mud as the clay was wet there. Neither was pleasant work. The project did take much longer than planned but did result in success. I'm glad I haven't been down there for more than six years and hope I never have to again!

Lou and I enjoyed a nice breakfast out at Joanie's Cafe on California Avenue. Skipped lunch. Dinner at the new Mi Pueblo Market in East Palo Alto. Lou Dawn and I shared a torta Cubana and a super quesadilla.

Thursday: (11/19) Lou and I started the morning with a short bike ride over to Fry's. i picked up a piece of wire molding for the kitchen TV cable.

I tinkered around the house adding a new TV antenna amplifier and activated an antenna for the kitchen TV. The TV's been around a year or two and finally has an antenna. I also tried to fix the RV macerater. It didn't work well the past couple of times blowing fuses. I took it apart, cleaned out a few fibers around the cutter but couldn't get it to work.

Cereal and bananas for breakfast. A hot dog for lunch. Brussels sprouts, leftover fettuccine Alfredo and one of Lou's famous oven baked asparagus omelets for dinner.

Friday: (11/20) Almost the whole day off.

Yesterday, Lou emptied the entry closet to allow access to the crawl spac entrance. I realized that it took special effort  to get the door closed when getting a jacket but seeing all the stuff filling the entire living room made the amount of stuff more obvious. Something has to go. lots of jackets not worn since put in the closet.

When I was through under the house yesterday and taking my shower Lou came in and told me Dawn had asked why she didn't get a cable to the TV in her bedroom. She just watches videos on it, it doesn't have a new ATSC tuner so no broadcast TV on it anyway but it was a good question. We forgot. Since I haven't crawled under the house in more than eight years I decided to get that wire in while I knew I could. But I did wait until today with clean coveralls again. The task was quickly accomplished and hopefully that takes care of crawling for a while. The clay soil under there is in one of two conditions. hard as a rock with sharp edges or soft and muddy. So I either crawl on sharp rocks or in sticky mud. Neither one is pleasant but the sticky mud is worse bad. I worry about becoming glued to the ground with the mud.

Mission accomplished and a shower and we were off for the day.

Dawn, Lou and I drove down to Gilroy, the city of garlic, for a shopping excursion. The smell of garlic seems almost everpresent in Gilroy and we love visiting. Our nearest Camping World is there and we needed a new macerater pump. They also have a nice discount shopping center for Dawn. We started with a visit to the Longhorn Restaurant for breakfast. We managed to wear ourselves out before stopping at the Black Bear Diner for dinner. We finally got home a little before 8pm. Nice to take a day off!

Today was a good day to be out. It rained all day. Can;t do much in the yard anyway.

Breakfast Lou and Dawn shared Buckwheat pancakes, eggs and bacon. I had the chicken fried steak and eggs with pancakes. An early dinner at the Black Bear. Lou and Dawn shared spaghetti and meatballs while I topped of the day with more chicken fried steak potatoes and green beans.

Saturday: (11/21) A sunny day. Not much undertaken today. I did make a parts run to try and find some parts needed to hook up the macerater. Otherwise, I worked at the computer all day.

Cereal for breakfast. Leftovers for lunch. Lou baked a big ham for dinner with baked potatoes sweet potatoes, and a nice green salad.

Sunday: (11/22) A partially sunny day. Rain was forecast but only threatened. It is cool though. I spent the morning working at the computer and took a parts run to Pep Boys Auto Store for some parts for the macerater connections. No real work today.

Ham and eggs for breakfast. Leftover corned beef hash for lunch. Mexican vegetable soup for dinner.