We poured concrete garden paths to replace the mud around our new porch – just in time for the ash trees to dump all of their leaves at once. Next week, the path bricks go in.
Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson
MentorCloud Blog
I have just started writing blog entries for MentorCloud. So far, I have written three:
- “Resources for Mentors and Mentees” (8 fascinating conversation boosters)
- “MentorCloud Offices” (Plug and Play, Sunnyvale, CA)
- “Remote Mentoring” (Benefits and Challenges)
The picture above shows my 2012 TechWomen Mentee and two of her co-workers in Beirut, Lebanon, with whom I met this morning by using Skype from my office here in the Silicon Valley. She and I are also using MentorCloud to communicate.
Image Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson
19 October 2019: Links Updated. For more about MentorCloud business practices, see Collecting a Labor Judgement (15 January 2016).
Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews
Reusing old, adding new
John and I last changed our garden paths in 2009. While I work in my office in WP668 (our backyard caboose) today, I can see a work crew noisily building forms to pour the new concrete paths and steps for the porch we are constructing.
Our 1930 house is a combination of Spanish Mission, and Arts and Crafts style. We want to make additions and changes look like part of the original house, so we are combining original and new elements. We are lucky that both styles are still popular. Our new porch will feature new tiles from Fireclay and lighting fixtures from Hinkley that go well with what is already in the house.
Our original downstairs light fixtures are black wrought iron Spanish style, while those upstairs are Art Nouveau (both styles being popular in 1930). Our next door neighbor’s house in Willow Glen originally matched ours. Some years ago, he took out all of his original fixtures during a remodel and generously gave them to us. In addition to replacing my son Paul’s garden-side window with two round windows as part of our porch addition, his room is getting a second wall sconce – since he wanted more light and we had a fixture that matched. Even though there are just a few brick paths as they were when we bought the house in 1998, we carefully saved extra old brick for reuse. I will be happy to see the stacks of old brick along our back fence, and the old roofing tiles stored on our driveway back in use.
Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family
Family Feast
Since our dining room is still full of stuff pushed out of the way by our porch construction, my friend Laura Biche generously welcomed both of our families for Thanksgiving dinner this year. No matter how organized the hostess, potluck dinners are always a little surprising: we ended up with three dishes of baked sweet potatoes and a vast selection of desserts but only enough biscuits for about half of us. Laura’s dog Cassie (who, from the size of her ears, seems to be part bat) was overjoyed with all the friends who came to visit her. She did her best to entertain all of her guests.
Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family
Happy Thanksgiving!
In between celebrating my brother’s wedding, honoring the first anniversary of my father’s death, trying to finish the apparently-unending construction on the new porch, and starting work at MentorCloud, this has been a busy autumn. Today, we take time to give thanks for our blessings and bounty among family and friends. I hope that you too can pause for this moment to consider and be thankful for the good in your life.
In Willow Glen California, the sycamore, pistache, myrtle, and maple trees are putting on a glorious display of red leaves. I delight in the color, even when raking them up…
Gathering Leaves
Spades take up leaves
No better than spoons,
And bags full of leaves
Are light as balloons.
I make a great noise
Of rustling all day
Like rabbit and deer
Running away.
But the mountains I raise
Elude my embrace,
Flowing over my arms
And into my face.
I may load and unload
Again and again
Till I fill the whole shed,
And what have I then?
Next to nothing for weight,
And since they grew duller
From contact with earth,
Next to nothing for color.
Next to nothing for use.
But a crop is a crop,
And who’s to say where
The harvest shall stop?
by Robert Frost
Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews
Lunch with The Girls
Today with mixed feelings I attended the going away lunch Ishita kindly arranged with my soon-to-be-former co-workers at Huawei. I will miss this remarkably capable group of women! Yingying generously gave me a purple frame for a picture of The Girls. After lunch, I chaired my final Patent Review Board meeting for Futurewei’s Enterprise Global Competency Center, John and I cleared out my office, and I returned my computers and badge. Tomorrow, I officially start consulting for MentorCloud.
Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews
Big Southern California Wedding
My brother Pete Dickinson married Julie Gutman last weekend at a big wedding in Southern California. The guests included dignitaries and creative folks and vast numbers of lawyers (since both Pete and Julie are in that line of work) in addition to family. Most of the joyous event was held at the Terranea Resort in a lovely coastal setting.
Except for the bride in white, the wedding party wore red and black – in honor of my father Wade Dickinson who passed away a year ago (his favorite color was red). The mothers of the bride and groom had a lovely time together, surrounded by all of their children and grandchildren. The Mayor of Los Angeles and the whole City Council signed a beautiful certificate of congratulations and best wishes. California Speaker of the Assembly John Perez participated in the ceremony, and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was a guest. My daughter Jessica sang a song to the couple.
The less extroverted guests retreated into corners to commune with their smart phones and avoid all of the excitement. A good time was had by all.
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Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
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