Tag Archives: John

January 27, 2014 · 12:15 am

Model Train Layout Tours

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Yesterday, John and I went to see some of the model train layouts in the San Francisco East Bay as part of the Bay Area Layout Design & Operations Weekend of the Pacific Coast Region-National Model Railroad Association.  As always, there were some hobbyists whose fascination is for precise modeling, others focused on prototypical operations, and a third group who are just having a good time playing with trains.  Some day, we hope that John’s N scale layout in our former garage will be developed enough to be on a operations weekend tour.

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Images Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson

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January 13, 2014 · 1:57 pm

“Old Lovers” by Eleanor Creekmore Dickinson

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Eleanor Creekmore Dickinson has a new art exhibit called “Old Lovers” at the Peninsula Museum of Art (1777 California Drive, Burlingame, California), 5 January – 16 March 2014. The opening reception was yesterday – with many colleagues, friends, and family attending. Love between older people has been a favorite subject of my mother’s large-format drawings on paper over many decades, and this is her second exhibit dedicated to that theme.

This show was curated by Robert Flynn Johnson (Curator Emeritus, Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco) and created by Ruth Waters (Founder, Chair and Executive Director, Peninsula Museum of Art). My brother Pete and I worked with Ruth and Robert for many months to support their development of this interesting exhibit. In the photos below, you can see how the drawings to be included were picked last year. I was on a business trip, so John and Paul went to the reception yesterday and took many pictures.

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Images Copyright 2013-2014 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

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December 28, 2013 · 11:08 am

After Christmas

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Only a few Christmas presents are left to be distributed. We sadly bid farewell to Jessica and Matthew, who have traveled back to their jobs. John and Paul and I are still happily investigating our own presents here at home. For me, this means watching the Joss Whedon’s “Much Ado About Nothing” and the four movie set of The Hollow Crown (Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, “Henry IV” i and ii, and “Henry V”). Yesterday, John posted his code and instructions on how to program a Christmas tree, on: http://www.spcoast.com/wiki/index.php/Christmas2013.  Paul is enjoying post-final-exams, pre-quarter-start downtime. John and I went out on a movie date to see “Ender’s Game”, which was a good representation of that disturbing and superb book. It is pleasant to have some quiet days together.

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Images Copyright 2013 by Katy Dickinson

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December 23, 2013 · 11:33 am

Dickens Christmas Fair, 25th Birthday

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Twelve of us gathered at the Dickens Christmas Fair at the San Francisco Cow Palace yesterday to celebrate the holiday with music, high tea, and shopping. John spent the day quietly at home, happily programming our Christmas tree lights with an Arduino.* After the fair, we met Jessica’s lifelong buddies (“The Uns”) in Mountain View to celebrate her 25th birthday.

* 12/27/2013: John posted how to program a Christmas tree on his website: http://www.spcoast.com/wiki/index.php/Christmas2013.

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Images Copyright 2013 by Katy Dickinson

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December 16, 2013 · 5:18 pm

Silicon Valley Bethlehem and Cable Car

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We enjoy Christmas events old and new here in the Silicon Valley. Our EfM class went to the Bethlehem – Walk Through the Christmas Story together a week ago – followed by dinner at Mio Vicino in Santa Clara.   An unofficial highlight of the show was watching one of the flock headbutting all of the other sheep in turn while the shepherds and angel said their lines.

Last night a group of us current and former-Huawei staff got together for dinner (at Il Postale in Sunnyvale) followed by a motorized Cable Car Ride to see the holiday lights in Willow Glen.

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Images Copyright 2013 by Katy Dickinson

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December 13, 2013 · 2:52 pm

Silicon Valley Lines Holiday Party

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John Plocher and I again hosted the Silicon Valley Lines Model Railroad Club holiday party at our home in Willow Glen last weekend. Highlights included visits to John’s N-scale layout (in our former garage), tours of WP668 (our backyard caboose), assembling a G-scale train route in the house, a potluck feast, playing with this year’s Conductor Duck party favor, and other delights of the season.

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Images Copyright 2013 by Katy Dickinson

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December 12, 2013 · 4:06 pm

Reading Dickens’ “Christmas Carol” Aloud

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The St.Andrew’s Shakespeare Reading Group decided to read Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” in honor of the season. Above you can see our hostess, Melita Thorpe, with John Watson-Williams dressed for his lead role as Ebenezer Scrooge. It took about 4-1/2 hours to read the entire short novel aloud (with breaks between staves for refreshments and a potluck dinner). We considered using one of the plays but decided that reading Dickens original 1843 text was better – since the plays both add and remove some of Dickens’ excellent prose. We distributed the text among our dozen readers:

  • Taking turns reading narration (about half a page before going to the next reader).
  • Dialogue was spoken as assigned parts.  Some famous parts (including the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come) have no spoken lines. We doubled up on small roles.

It was a delightful evening! Several of us plan to follow up by going to the Dickens Christmas Fair (at the Cow Palace) and to the ACT “Christmas Carol” stage play in San Francisco.

Image Copyright 2013 by Katy Dickinson

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