Tag Archives: John

October 24, 2012 · 6:52 pm

Pizza and Art

Last Sunday after church, we went out to a pizza lunch with my mother (retired Professor of Life Drawing at California College of the Arts) in San Jose. Between conversational interludes, John read a book, Paul played a game on his smart phone, and my mother drew Paul. As usual, people walking by the table stopped to admire her drawing. Paul is studying Art at Foothill College, having grown up seeing art as a constant and necessary expression of creativity.

Silicon Valley Leaves and Sky

The Silicon Valley is famous as geek-central but can also be a beautiful place. Our annual rains have started and it is getting cold at night. My husband likes to say that the Midwest has two seasons: road removal and snow repair. California’s two seasons are mudslide and wildfire. We are now in autumn, that lovely interim when the land is too wet to burn but not damp enough to slide.

More pictures on: Silicon Valley Autumn 2012 Pinterest page.

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Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews

Tagged as Geeks, John, San Jose, Silicon Valley

October 23, 2012 · 9:28 pm

Porch Progress

We have continued to make slow progress on adding our new porch, although yesterday we had a setback. John discovered that the special-order outer window (despite being carefully measured by two experts) turned out to be the wrong size for the heirloom Van Gilder stained glass panel it was made to protect. So we are now waiting to see how long a replacement will take to make. We are also waiting for the test tiles from the special-order mural from Fireclay so that we can check the color. We are about to place the order for the wrought iron railing from Brian’s Welding. The good news is that the two new round windows above the porch in Paul’s room look good. Construction is a slow business. Even though the rainy season just started, we hope to be done by Christmas (this year!).

July 2012:

August 2012:

September 2012:

October 2012:

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Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews

Tagged as House Work, John, Paul, San Jose, Willow Glen

September 20, 2012 · 10:20 pm

New Porch

This summer, we have been fixing up our home – doing small construction and repairs, including: refinishing the front door, filling in missing baseboards, refinishing the floor in John’s office, eliminating some dry rot and fixing a floor that shifted out of level in John’s model train room and workshop, adding a side fence and creating a pottery studio for Paul. Our next project is to add a side porch to the house. The contractors poured the concrete foundation yesterday. Months ago, we bought hundreds of old ceramic roof tiles from a neighbor – which match those already on our 1930 Willow Glen house roof. The “new” tiles will go on the porch roof so that it will look like a natural part of the house.

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Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews

Tagged as garden, House Work, John, Paul, San Jose, Willow Glen

September 16, 2012 · 11:48 pm

TechWomen Dinner at Home

The Huawei TechWomen mentors and mentees gathered in my home for a potluck dinner tonight. My husband made a halal chicken curry with rice as the entree. There were women from at least seven countries around our table: China, Egypt, India, Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, and the USA. The guests had fun visiting my office in WP668, our backyard caboose. The food was interesting, plentiful, and delicious. My mother and husband joined the party. What a delightful group of new friends!

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Filed under Caboose Project and Other Trains, Home & Family, Mentoring & Other Business

Tagged as China, Egypt, Eleanor, Huawei, John, Mentoring, Middle East, technical women, TechWomen, WP668

September 11, 2012 · 10:44 pm

TechWomen at Huawei

We are having a good first week with the three TechWomen mentees hosted by Huawei in Santa Clara, California. We are still sorting out offices and equipment and accesses and orientation and starting work on our projects. Tonight, John and Paul and I went to a sushi dinner with two TechWomen and then on a tour of the San Jose TechShop where we have a family membership. We visited the textile area, wood shop (including my favorite Powermatic lathe), metal shop, laser room, and other technical and tool delights.

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Filed under Home & Family, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Geeks, Huawei, John, Mentoring, Middle East, Paul, technical women, TechWomen

September 2, 2012 · 11:23 am

Play in a Garden

Last night, my husband John helped to run the light board for a community theater group presenting the short play “Christ in the Concrete City” by Philip W. Turner. The production was by the Saint Andrew’s Players, directed by Melita Thorpe, and was held at dusk in the garden of St. Andrew’s Episcopal School (Saratoga, California). It was an interesting play, at times disturbing, and a fun evening.

Tag Archives: John

Pizza and Art

Silicon Valley Leaves and Sky

Porch Progress

New Porch

TechWomen Dinner at Home

TechWomen at Huawei

Play in a Garden

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