Tag Archives: John

November 8, 2010 · 11:41 pm

Convention, Theology of Marriage

The Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real here on California’s central coast, held its annual convention at St. Andrew’s, Saratoga two days ago. I have been a convention delegate for many years. This convention was short but very well managed. Our Bishop, the Right Reverend Mary Gray-Reeves, was President of the Convention. She lead us in worship and took care of business effectively, with charm, intelligence, and humor. My husband John and Rev. Stephenie Cooper ran the computers and projection system for the event, sitting behind the screen and only dashing out to vote as needed.

One of the highlights of the convention for me was the very interesting presentation on the just-published Report  of  the Diocese  of  El  Camino  Real  Task  Force  on  the  Theology  of  Marriage . Four of the eight authors talked about their work, process, and findings. The authors are: The  Rev.  Dr.  Ernest  L.  Boyer ,  Jr. (Chair  of  the  Task  Force) , The  Rev.  Michael  Ferrito,   The  Rev.  Dr.  Caroline  J.  Addington  Hall,  The  Rev.  Fred  W.  Heard,  The  Rev.  Lawrence  Robles,  The  Rev.  Deacon  Judith  A.  Sato,  Dr.  Marilyn  Westerkamp,  and Mrs.  Julie  Zintsmaster. Even though the task force included men and women with a very wide range of opinions, they were able  to  identify  seven  theological statements of a Christian Marriage:

Christian Marriage is a vocation, a calling, a way of living
Christian Marriage is a covenant between two persons and God
Christian Marriage is an expression of human beings as the image of God, that is, an expression of God as Love and God as relationship through the Trinity
Christian Marriage is a call to discover what Christ meant when he asked us to seek Christ in others and to love one another
Christian Marriage is a physical embodiment of our spiritual reality
Christian Marriage is an expression of Christ’s ministry of reconciliation
Christian Marriage is a foundation for community and a Christian service in the world

To see more of John’s and my ECR convention photos in addition to those below, check out the diocesan web page.

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Tagged as Episcopal church, John, marriage, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Theology

November 6, 2010 · 10:11 pm

Homework Club Party

Communications got messed up, so John and Rev. Stephenie Cooper and Rev. Lawrence Robles and I held the Halloween party for the SMUM Studio after school program a week late. The kids wore their costumes on 28 October but we did not have the pizza celebration until 4 November. Twenty kids and two moms came – everyone had a good time and enjoyed their special treat.

I took the shells and sea glass all of the kids gathered during our Lover’s Cove field trip last summer and glued them to a frame. On the day of the party, I gave the Studio kids the frame with a picture of themselves standing in front of the ocean. It is now on the wall of the SMUM computer room.

We had planned to take the kids on three field trips last summer but the final trip had to be canceled. When I had to go to China on a business trip, there weren’t enough adults to supervise a swim trip to Raging Waters. After much discussion and voting by kids and teachers, we decided either to go ice skating in San Jose or on a trip to Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. We held the final vote on Thursday and we are going to Alcatraz! We are still working details but we want to go before the new year.

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Tagged as John, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Maria Urban Ministry, SMUM

November 2, 2010 · 10:52 pm

Open Source Hardware – For Model Railroads

Some of the creators of the award-winning open source software for model trails called JMRI have just developed open source hardware called the Railroad Shield layout interface board. John Plocher is leading the hardware development, working with Bob Jacobsen and others on the openLCB software, providing interfaces to electronics for experiments in model train control.

This small computer board is clearly the product of Cal Berkeley fans. Blue in color, it will feature Blue and Gold LEDs. If you look closely, you will see printed onto each board such phrases as

Go Bears!
Model Railroading is Fun!
So it’s up with the Blue and Gold, down with the Red…

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Tagged as John, University of California

October 31, 2010 · 3:55 pm

Smart Car Wrap

Since I bought my Smart car, I have been accessorizing it. So far, I have added

A dealer-installed iPhone 3 holder, charger, and microphone – resulting in much better sound quality for both phone calls and audio books
Smart’s “Smart Drive US v1.01” iPhone application – almost a complete waste of $9.99 – this software is in need of serious work by a competent usability engineer
Rubber floor mats
A red plastic crate to hold small stuff so that it does not slide around behind the seats
The “Kite Flight” design car wrap

I very much enjoy driving this car. The negatives are that it does not have much power and going over speed bumps or uneven pavement in a tiny car is rough. But my Smart Car is fun to drive – especially with the top down. It parks in tiny spots (like the half parking space otherwise taken up by someone’s trailer, and in the corners of lots with diagonal parking), and drives about 35 miles per gallon. There is enough room behind the two seats for the amount of stuff I usually carry to work (or two large bags of dog food). My 6′ 3″ tall husband (who bought me the wrap for my birthday) fits into the Smart Car comfortably. My teenage son Paul says my car embarrasses him.

Here are pictures of my car being wrapped this week:

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Tagged as John, Paul

October 30, 2010 · 12:18 pm

Trick-or-Treat Trail Crossing Guard

Yesterday, I was one of the Willow Glen Lions who were volunteer crossing guards for the Trick-or-Treat Trail put on by the Willow Glen Business Association. This is our Lions Club’s second year serving our community through this school-day-before-Halloween safety project. It was fun but I have much increased respect for the difficult job of a crossing guard. I was last a crossing guard when I was in 6th grade. As John Plocher wrote:

What’s scarier than vampires, ghosts and dragons? Drivers on cell phones making left turns and jockeying for parking spots as thousands of kids and their parents descend on downtown Willow Glen for the WGBA’s annual Halloween trick-or-treat event!

The children and families and school groups paraded around Lincoln Avenue in two two-hour shifts (10 am – 12 pm for little kids, 2 pm – 4 pm for bigger kids), collecting candy from businesses. There were clear categories of costumes:

Super heroes (Iron Man, Buzz Lightyear, Spider Man, Superman and Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Mario Brothers, Batman, ninjas, Star Wars)
Fantasy characters (Dragons, fairies, elves, wizards or sorceresses, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Tigger, jack-o-lanterns, clowns, cowboys and cowgirls, pirates, knights and medieval ladies, Roman soldiers and ladies, aliens, robots, devils, Disney princesses)
Storybook characters (Dorothy and the Witch from Oz, Snow White, Cinderella, Beauty, Thomas the Tank Engine, The Cat in the Hat with Thing One and Thing Two, kings and queens and princesses, Alice in Wonderland with the Queen of Hearts and Mad Hatter)
TV characters (Sponge Bob, Rust-eze Cars, Power Rangers, Sesame Street)
Animals (Cats, Dogs, Dinosaurs, Tigers, Zebras, Giraffes, Lions, Bugs, Cows, Skunks, Monkeys, Rabbits, and one small elephant)
Food and plants (pumpkins, grapes, bananas, hot dogs, flowers)
Horror (ghosts, witches, vampires, murderers, zombies, skeletons, werewolves, Munch’s Scream, Death)
Unique costumes (a marionette puppet, outfits on real dogs, hippies, a Lego block, Mustard, a mime)
Sports costumes (Giants, Raiders, Sharks)
Work costumes (police, firefighters, army and navy, ballerinas, prisoners)

Some costumes were store-bought, some were home-made, many were a combination. My favorite pair costume was a big sister with ghastly bloody-looking makeup on her neck and face walking with a smaller boy all in black. When I asked what they were, she pointed and said: “He murdered me!” at which he smiled happily.

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Tagged as John, San Jose, Willow Glen

October 26, 2010 · 5:37 pm

Birthday at Eliza’s, San Francisco

On Sunday, John and Paul and I took my parents to Eliza’s Chinese Restaurant to celebrate my father’s 84th birthday. (Eliza’s is his favorite.) I am not sure if he likes the modern art glass displays or the food better. Eliza’s food is very good and fresh (but not traditional-Chinese style). Be sure to check out the glass fish swimming up the walls of the bathroom when you visit.

Eliza’s
2877 California Street
(between Broderick St & Divisadero Streets)
San Francisco, CA

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Tagged as John, Paul, San Francisco

October 24, 2010 · 4:22 pm

Camp Clay

One of our annual August activities at the Lair of the Golden Bear family camp is playing with clay. Most of the family ends up in the Lair’s Art Grove sooner or later, either to keep my mother (Eleanor Dickinson) company while she is drawing and painting, or to do art of our own. This year, I bought four bisqueware plates at the camp store. (Bisqueware is once-fired clay.) Recruiting Jessica, Matt, Paul, and John, I traced one of each of our hands on a plate. I painted in between the lines in colored glaze, then covered the whole with clear glaze.* I fired the plates once at camp and then painted over the hands for deeper color and fired them again after vacation at Clay Planet (Santa Clara, California).

My mother mostly painted tiles and sketched in her traveling journal. This year, she painted a special bowl in honor of my son Paul’s 18th birthday. It features images of rock crystals and a large beetle.

* actually, John painted on the clear glaze for me because he smudges less than I do