Category Archives: Home & Family

Silicon Valley Christmas

We had a pleasant Christmas at home with family this year. My parents adopted two young Siamese cats. My daughter Jessica came home from Carnegie Mellon University for three weeks. My two brothers and their families visited for almost a week. We drove north to San Francisco several times: to sing Christmas carols on the cable car and see the city lights, go to the Great Dickens Christmas Fair, gather for a family dinner at the Beach Chalet, and just visit.

We hosted three parties (Christmas, Jessica’s 20th birthday, and New Year’s). Unfortunately, our family photo server got sick and eventually died, so I am just now able to post this blog entry…

John and Jessica and I went to San Francisco Federal District Court on 19 December 2008 to hear attorney Victoria Hall present to Judge Jeffrey S. White on behalf of  Dr. Bob Jacobsen the latest on  JMRI and the KAM Open Source dispute.

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church had a children’s Christmas pagent, and the craft fundraiser for SAMA (St.
Andrew’s Medical Assistance).  Sun Labs held its Holiday Cookie Exchange (to which John Plocher sent his famous peanut butter K Bars).

On our evening walks around our Willow Glen neighborhood, John and I admired the Christmas lights. One neighbor programmed a wonderful yard display that lit up different parts of their house as well as trees, bushes, and figures (candy canes, a seal, snowman, bear, and igloo) exactly timed to the movements of Christmas tunes. My favorite music was the Vince Guaraldi theme from “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. John and I stood in the rain the hear it twice.

We finally finished glazing and firing all of the ceramics we brought home from camp in August, including three tea cups by Jessica. My best Christmas present was one of a set of three beautiful and
well crafted ceramic cups my son Paul made at school: one each for John, Jessica, and me.

Borte and Khan

Borte and Khan, Siamese kittens photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Laura and Borte

Laura and Borte the Siamese kitten photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

19 Dec JMRI Hearing, Federal Court

JMRI, 19 December Hearing, Federal District Court, Victoria Hall, Dr. Bob Jacobsen, Jessica Dickinson Goodman, Katy Dickinson photo: copyright 2008 John Plocher

Sun Labs Cookie Exchange

Sun Labs Cookie Exchange photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

sheep practice

St. Andrew's Christmas pagent sheep practice photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

angel practice

St. Andrew's Christmas pagent angel practice photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

St. Andrew’s cross

St. Andrew's cross with 3 Christmas trees photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

St. Andrew’s pagent

St. Andrew's children's pagent photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

St. Andrew’s children’s pagent

St. Andrew's children's pagent photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

SAMA craft sale

SAMA craft sale photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

SAMA craft sale

SAMA craft sale - embroidered purse photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Cuthbert’s Tea Shoppe

Dickens Fair

Tea at the Dickens Fair, Jessica Dickinson Goodman, Matthew Holmes, Eleanor Dickinson photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Pirates of Penzance

Dickens Fair

Pirates of Penzance, Dickens Fair photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Ladies’ Oratorical & Recreational

Society at Mad Sal’s, Dickens Fair

Ladies' Oratorical and Recreational Society, Mad Sal's, Dickens Fair photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

SF Cable Car Carols

San Francisco Cable Car Carols, Eleanor Dickinson photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Seeing the SF Hyatt’s decorations

Seeing the San Francisco Hyatt's decorations, Eleanor Dickinson, Jessica Dickinson Goodman, Matthew Holmes, Paul Dickinson Goodman, Wade Dickinson photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Jessica and Paul

Jessica and Paul, San Francisco Hyatt photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Hyatt lights, elevators

San Francisco Hyatt lights and elevators photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

decorating our tree

Jessica and Paul decorate our tree photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

giving tree advice

John Plocher giving tree advice photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Jessica, Paul, tree

Jessica, Paul with tree photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Willow Glen lights

Willow Glen Christmas lights photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Paul’s mugs

3 mugs by Paul Dickinson Goodman photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Jessica’s mugs

Jessica's mugs photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Jessica’s 20th

Jessica's 20th birthday party photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

Leave a comment

Filed under Home & Family

My Daughter Dressed as Open Solaris

My soon-to-be-20-year-old daughter Jessica is in her second (Sophomore) year
at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is majoring
in Political Science with minors in Music and Computer Science.
We have been giving her Sun clothes and giveaways all of her life.
For Halloween last month, Jessica put it all together in a costume:
she dressed up as OpenSolaris,
complete with blue hair. For pictures, see her blog:

FeelingElephants
. She is coming home for Thanksgiving in
less than two weeks – hooray! Here we are together at the airport
after attending the
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing
together last month.

Jessica and Katy
photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Image Copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Leave a comment

Filed under Home & Family

Caboose Art Tour

I am still decorating the inside of WP668,
our backyard caboose. The last big piece of furniture, the

Victorian fainting couch
, is still not finished. Below are pictures of
some of the art currently inside. Two of the artists are in my family:
Eleanor
Creekmore Dickinson
is my Mother, and

Evelyn Van Gilder Creekmore
was my Grandmother.
Elkmont
is where our family cabin was in the Great Smoky Mountains, near
Knoxville, Tennessee. Some of the furniture in WP668 was hand carved by
my Great-Grandmother, Ellen Bolli Van Gilder.

“Gay Street, Knoxville”

with Eleanor Dickinson

1951

Gay Street, Knoxville by Eleanor Dickinson, 1951 painting and artist
photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson
“Gay Street, Knoxville”

by Eleanor Dickinson

1951

Gay Street, Knoxville 1951 painting by Eleanor Dickinson
photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson
Victorian Etchings – Shakespeare’s Heroines:

Katharine and Cassandra

circa 1900

Victorian Etchings circa 1900 - Shakespeare's Heroines, Katherine and Cassandra
photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson
Dream of Evelyn V. Creekmore,
Elkmont

by Eleanor Creekmore
Dickinson


1970

Dream of Evelyn Creekmore and Elkmont 1970 painting by Eleanor Dickinson
photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson
Elkmont,
Tennessee, Creek Paintings

by Evelyn Van Gilder Creekmore

circa 1980

Elkmont Creek Paintings circa 1980 by Evelyn Van Gilder Creekmore
photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson
Inside WP668

Inside WP668 Caboose
photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson
Inside WP668

Inside WP668 Caboose
photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson
2008 WP668 Caboose drawing

by Eleanor Dickinson

WP668 Caboose drawing 2008 by Eleanor Dickinson
photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson
WP668 Caboose

today

WP668 Caboose today
photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Images Copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

2 Comments

Filed under Caboose Project and Other Trains, Home & Family

Paul’s Glass

My 16-year-old son Paul is taking Ceramics class at Paly (Palo Alto High School). He has recently started to work with glass as well as clay. Paul is looking forward to taking a full year of glass blowing next year. For now, he is enjoying learning to work with rod glass. Each piece has to cool for 24 hours; sometimes the colors change unexpectedly during cooling. I have a feeling we are all getting small glass flowers, leaves, and mushrooms for Christmas presents this year.

Paul’s first glass flower
Paul's first glass flower photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Paul’s second flowers
Paul's second glass flowers photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Paul’s leaves
Paul's glass leaves photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Images Copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Leave a comment

Filed under Home & Family

Sun Family Changes

My husband, John Plocher, was laid off yesterday from Sun. We will be packing up his office on the 3rd floor of Menlo Park 17 this morning if you want to come by and say goodbye to him. You can read John’s farewell blog and other information. Anyone looking to hire a very experienced senior software and systems architect and developer with solid experience in 6 Sigma program management and open source development process design, please contact John. He is smart, personable, and has a wicked sense of humor. This is an entirely objective analysis, of course!

I am still working at Sun – business as usual for all of my programs.

John Plocher 

John Plocher 2008<br /> photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

John teaching Arduino assembly 

John Plocher teaching Arduino assembly<br /> photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

John teaching Arduino assembly 

John Plocher teaching Arduino assembly<br /> photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Images Copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

1 Comment

Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews

Win Ng Chicken

For my birthday, my mother gave me two books and a chicken. The chicken is an elegant ceramic cooking pot made by Win Ng in the late 1960s. It is practical and well made and has cooked many family dinners.

Win Ng was a family friend, ceramicist, and co-founder of the popular Taylor & Ng store in San Francisco. When I was a little girl, he adopted one of our Siamese kittens, which gave us something to discuss when we visited his store. Long after the store closed, my mother rented studio space from Win Ng on Belcher Street in San Francisco. She still has one of his larger ceramic sculptures on her garden deck.

Win Ng Chicken Cooker:
Win Ng Ceramic Chicken Cooker owned by Katy Dickinson

Win Ng Ceramic Chicken Cooker owned by Katy Dickinson

Win Ng Ceramic Cube:
Win Ng Ceramic Cube owned by Katy Dickinson

Images Copyright 2008-2011 by Katy Dickinson
Updated 17 August 2016

2 Comments

Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews

Keeping in Touch with my College Kid

My daughter
Jessica
is now in her second undergraduate year at
Carnegie Mellon University
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is
doing well and enjoying herself despite the un-California-like weather of her
school home. She is in CMU’s
Humanities Scholars Program
majoring in Political Science with minors in Music and Computer
Science. She also working on the P4
project
at CMU’s
Posner Collection
(to record more of Shakespeare and Twain for
YouTube) and she teaches karate.
She is a very busy kid. I miss her. How do we keep in touch?

One way is through our blogs. Reading

FeelingElephants
lets me know some of what Jessica is thinking and experiencing.
My respect and admiration for my daughter grows when I read her blog (although I
despair that she will ever learn to spell). Jessica says she started blogging
to reduce the number of status update calls required for friends and family.
I find it easier to write for
Katysblog when I have Jessica in mind.

Another way to keep current with my busy college kid is through scheduled
weekly phone calls, sometimes using Skype.
Also, for the second year, Jessica and I will be attending the

Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing
conference together soon.
In 2007, Jessica was on my “Girl Geeks” panel at Hopper, this year her own poster
(on academic plagiarism) was accepted.

Jessica bought me a book before she left for college last year called
I’ll Miss You Too: An Off-to-College Guide for Parents and Students
by mother and daughter Margo E. Woodacre Bane and Steffany Bane
(Sourcebooks Trade, 2006, ISBN-10: 1402206410, ISBN-13: 978-1402206412).
It is a good resource book on the transitions, joys, and challenges of
having a kid in college.

Katy and Paul and Jessica using Skype

Katy and Paul and Jessica using Skype
photo: copyright 2008 John Plocher
Jessica on Skype

Jessica on Skype
photo: copyright 2008 John Plocher

Images Copyright 2008 John Plocher

Leave a comment

Filed under Home & Family