Category Archives: Home & Family

July 21, 2012 · 1:36 pm

Non-Travel Diary 4

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While my husband John is in China on business for Huawei, I am keeping a non-travel diary. This has been a relatively quiet week. In addition to working full-time at Huawei:

  • There was a small amount of progress on our home construction projects. The painter spent a half day painting the wrong color stain on the baseboards.  When I pointed out the error, he spent about the same amount of time sanding that color off and re-staining. Nobody was happy.
  • Thursday, I joined the monthly Board meeting of the Santa Maria Urban Ministry. We said an appreciative goodbye to our summer intern.  The SMUM Tech Team (of which John and I are members) was assigned some new projects by the Board.
  • My newly-assigned 2012 TechWomen mentee from Lebanon and I made first contact. We exchanged introductory emails and are starting to make preparations for her visit to the Silicon Valley in September. Her background is impressive – I very much look forward to working with her in person.  TechWomen is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA).
  • I communicated with the 2011 TechWomen mentees with whom I am presenting a panel at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in October 2012 (Baltimore, MD).  I am the moderator of the panel called “Technical Women in the Arab Region: Challenges vs. Aspirations”. We have travel funding confirmed for three of the panelists and we are working on support for our fourth. The ladies are traveling from Algeria, Palestine, Egypt, and Lebanon for GHC12.  I am very eager to see them again!
  • Paul and I took our Wood Shop basic safety and equipment introduction at TechShop San Jose last night.  We enjoyed learning to use the miter saw, table saw, band saw, electric sander, and drill press.  The scroll saw is being repaired so we will learn how to use that later.  I made a heart for John and Paul started work on an infinity symbol using the band saw.  One of the other students laser-engraved the heart for me.  I want to take a TechShop laser class next!
  • This morning, we had a community yard sale. Despite being on Craigslist and putting signs up on nearby corners, it was very poorly attended. However, it was fun to hang out with the neighbors. Our neighborhood apparently has 7 boys and 1 girl aged between 6 and 12 years old – who spent the morning rocketing from sale to sale comparing stuff and giving updates.
  • John comes home Tuesday morning!

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Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson

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July 16, 2012 · 10:58 pm

San Jose Airport Hands

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We drive the the San Jose airport several times a month to drop off or pick up my mother on her trips to visit my brother in Southern California. I am always charmed by the huge “Hands” mural by Christian Moeller (2010) which wraps around the seven story parking structure.  It is elegant, cleverly executed, and never gets old.

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Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson

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July 16, 2012 · 9:39 am

Thanks to Pierluigi Oliverio – Fire Hydrant in Willow Glen

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In working with the City of San Jose, California, to arrange for building permits, I have been informed that our neighborhood of Willow Glen not only has very poor water pressure but also relatively few fire hydrants. A fire hydrant helps firefighters tap into the municipal water supply to help extinguish a fire. About a month ago, Willow glen ended up with one fewer hydrants when someone’s car ran over one of only two near our house.

As a native of San Francisco, I know that the destruction of the city in 1906 was started by a major earthquake but that the subsequent fires did most of the damage.  Our area of Willow Glen being reliant on just one fire hydrant (located more than 400 feet from our house) made me nervous.

For a while after our local fire hydrant disappeared, I thought that the city would fix it on their own. After a month, I failed to find any information about fire hydrants on the San Jose website.  So, I sent email to our local San Jose Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio to ask for his support.

I have met the energetic and intelligent Pierluigi at a variety of local and civic events over the years.  He has met with our Willow Glen Lions club several times. Whenever I send him email, even very late at night, Pierluigi gets back to me very promptly. He asked his staff member Melrose to look into the missing fire hydrant. Over the course of about week, Melrose called the Fire Department, Transportation Department, and Water Department to try to figure out who was in charge of this. She finally was able to get a fix scheduled by the Water Department and we now have a replacement. Thanks, Pierluigi (and Melrose)!

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31 August 2012 update – this week, the city replaced the asphalt around our new fire hydrant with concrete:

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Images Copyright 2010-2012 by Katy Dickinson

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July 15, 2012 · 11:11 pm

Non-Travel Diary 3

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While my husband John is in China on business for Huawei, I am keeping a non-travel diary. This weekend has been packed with activities:

  • Saturday morning, my mother and I picked up our new glasses from Visual Eyes Optometry in Willow Glen (San Jose CA). She was fitted with her new lenses and frames (and I got new lenses for my sunglasses).
  • Saturday afternoon, my son Paul and I went to the amazing Palo Alto Clay & Glass Festival, then took an evening class from Jeanne Fishback at TechShop San Jose on the wood lathe. We had a great time – and will take a second TechShop wood class this coming Friday night.
  • This morning at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Rev. Channing Smith announced that next week is Backpack Sunday – we will collect school supplies and backpacks for the children of Santa Maria Urban Ministry (no red or blue – gang colors).
  • Paul and I went to the Clay & Glass Festival again this afternoon. In the last two years, he has taken most of the ceramics classes offered by the excellent Foothill College art program.  So, Paul was fascinated to see the finished work of so many superb creative potters. The artists also had fun talking to Paul – many of them know his teachers at Foothill. I bought some amazing pots. After seeing the art, we went to see the latest Ice Age animated movie.

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Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson

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July 15, 2012 · 9:10 am

Wedding in Shaodong, Hunan, China

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John and his boss Jim Hughes are in Shaodong County, Hunan Province in China for a wedding of friends. John and Jim just called me (early morning my time – late tonight their time) to tell me about their high speed rail ride (ShenZhen to Changsha) and the rehearsal dinner. John said that the telephone poles went by the train window so fast that they blurred – he got car sick unless he looked directly at or looked away from the window. John and Jim were in the premier car in the back of the train with six other passengers – who got their own steward to serve juice. Hunan is famous for its spicy food. At the rehearsal, there were two dinner rooms – one for people who like really spicy food (like Jim) and one for the wimps (everyone else).  John is taking many photos but web access is poor at the hotel so he will not upload until he returns to ShenZhen.  The pictures here are of the happy couple during our Napa Valley California wine tasting trip in May.  The wedding is tomorrow.

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Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson

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July 14, 2012 · 11:03 pm

John’s Pictures from China 2

My husband John is in Hunan Province, China, by now – he took the high speed train there this morning. Yesterday, he went shopping for electronic parts on the Hua Qiang Bei shopping street in ShenZhen, China. In some of John’s pictures, buildings have signs like:

  • ShenZhen LED International Trading Centre
  • ShenZhen SEG Communication Market
  • SEG Technology Park

John was mostly looking for a small selection of model railroad electronic parts but he also found some good warm-white-color LED strips to illuminate our stained glass window in the dining room.  All of the LED strips he had found in the US were a colder blue-white-color.  Here are some of John’s photos:

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Images 2012 Copyright by John Plocher

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July 13, 2012 · 10:46 pm

Non-Travel Diary 2

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John is still in ShenZhen, China.  He takes the high-speed train to Hunan Province tomorrow. Here is what I am doing at home in San Jose, California, while my husband is traveling on business for Huawei:

  1. Wednesday night, I went to the BarBQ dinner at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Saratoga, CA. I was partly there because it is a fun summer event, and partly representing the Board of the Santa Maria Urban Ministry to introduce our new Executive Director, Omar Torres, and Operations Manager, Alfonso Mendez, to St. Andrew’s parish. The parish has always been very generous to SMUM and the new staff wants to become better known.
  2. Thursday was the big concrete pour day at home. The floor is now flat and smooth, the dry rot is gone, and my son Paul has a new pad in the side yard for his potter’s wheel. Everything is still drying today.  Thursday night, I went shopping for jeans and summer clothes at Coldwater Creek.
  3. This morning I got my hair cut – at the Scandalous Salon in Willow Glen.  My meetings ran into each other at work, so I missed lunch.
  4. Tonight, I went to a surprise birthday party for Mary, one of the most vivacious members of the Willow Glen Lions. Mary’s sister Sylvia planned the event in deepest secrecy.  Mary was pleasantly shocked when a crowd of friends sang Happy Birthday from her doorstep.
  5. Tomorrow, I am running errands with my mother in the morning.  After lunch, Paul and I are going to the Palo Alto Clay & Glass Festival, then taking a wood working class together at TechShop San Jose.

John and I are encouraging each other to exercise by comparing number of steps registered on our Fitbit activity trackers. Thursday was my high day with 13,640 steps and 24 floors climbed. Today was my low day with just 5,468 steps and 16 floors climbed.  The Fitbit also tells us about our daily sleep patterns.  Once we have a month of data, it will be interesting to see what patterns emerge.

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Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson

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