Tag Archives: John

May 27, 2008 · 10:55 am

Caboose Stained Glass, Bookcases

The Memorial Day long weekend was a very busy time for WP668, our backyard caboose. Now that the rough electrical inspection has been passed, on Saturday, we finally filled in the trench running through the ballast under WP668. Vince Taylor delivered and installed our new stained glass bay window, and the three big red bookcases were delivered by Crate and Barrel. We were getting ready for Sunday when we served a brunch to the winners from the SAMA Auction. We did not get everything done but the caboose looks great and our guests said they had a wonderful time.

It was a delight to see the lovely windows Vince created. You can see his initial drawings and art glass samples on my

11 Feb 2008 blog entry. Here are some photos from Saturday:

John finishing exterior wiring

Open electrical trench WP668 caboose photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Filled in electrical trench WP668 caboose photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Vince and John prepare bay window

first stained glass panel going in bay WP668 caboose photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Train silhouette detail stained glass WP668 caboose photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Lizard silhouette detail stained glass WP668 caboose photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Vince Taylor in window WP668 caboose photo: copyright 2008 John Plocher

Vince Taylor and John installing window WP668 caboose photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Vince Taylor starting on 2nd stained glass window WP668 caboose photo: copyright 2008 John Plocher

Two windows done WP668 caboose photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

3rd window ready to go WP668 caboose photo: copyright 2008 John Plocher

Three windows done WP668 caboose photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Delivery truck WP668 caboose photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

1st bookcase arriving WP668 caboose photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

3rd bookcase going in WP668 caboose photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Glass and bookcases in place

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Filed under Caboose Project and Other Trains, Home & Family

Tagged as garden, House Work, John, WP668

May 5, 2008 · 6:08 pm

Caboose Work Update

Last weekend, John was wearing his OpenSolaris Governing Board hat at the 2nd OpenSolaris Developer Summit on the University of California at Santa Cruz campus. Today, he is at the CommunityOne event at The Moscone Center in San Francisco and JavaOne starts tomorrow, also at Moscone.

So, I have been gardening but we haven’t gotten much done on WP668, our backyard caboose. However, four caboose projects which depend on other people’s work are creeping toward completion:

The metal roof should be installed on within a week – I am waiting for the
exact date to be set.
I ordered the Western Pacific Feather River Route replacement decal today
(from the Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola, they had extras). The metal
plate on which the decal will go is is 23-1/2″ tall by 25-1/2″ wide.
The new subfloor and linoleum go in on 19-20 May.
Vince Taylor may have the stained glass panels done this month. He came by on Saturday to show me the scale drawings and more glass samples. He would have been done sooner but had a big show at Filoli which changed his schedule.

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Tagged as garden, John, San Francisco, San Jose, WP668

February 20, 2008 · 12:29 am

Flying to See Whales in Laguna San Ignacio, Baja

Last weekend, John and I flew south to see the grey whales at Laguna San Ignacio in Baja, California. Our pilot was Charlie Jackson, Sun Labs’ Webmaster. Our Cessna 182 Skylane II was one of four private planes of the Shoreline Flying Club based in Palo Alto, California. We went out on two boats hosted by Antonio’s Ecotours (based in Laguna San Ignacio). These pictures were taken with disposable water sports cameras. I will write more about our amazing trip but first, here are some whale and dolphin photos. Yes! That is my very own hand petting a baby grey whale.

El Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve Sign

Pelican

Laguna San Ignacio

Shell Mound

Whale Bones on Beach

Tour Boat

Charlie and the Whale

Grey Whale Nose

Grey Whale Under Water

My Hand and a Baby Grey Whale!

Dolphins

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Filed under News & Reviews

Tagged as John, Sun Microsystems

January 14, 2008 · 11:16 pm

Caboose Kiss on Front Page

Back on May 25, 2007, I wrote about our WP668 caboose move being the front cover story of the Willow Glen Resident, our local newspaper. We were surprised to find that at the end of last year, my husband John and I made the Year in Review 2007 front page story again with this picture:

We did not see the 28 Dec 2007 paper, so we only found out about the photo being republished when people sent email about it. (Surprise!) The Willow Glen Resident folks were very helpful and gave us extra copies of the paper plus permission to scan and publish it in my blog. Here is the May 25, 2007 story plus the new December 28, 2007 “Year in Review” story:

Two videos of the big WP668 move are on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJPm7ebfUl8 “Caboose Move” (11 May 2007) by sfineberg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE-dBtEfwHQ
” WP668 – crane lifts caboose into backyard – webcam” (11 May 2007) by johnplocher

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Page updated 17 June 2016 and 3 April 2020

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Filed under Caboose Project and Other Trains, News & Reviews

Tagged as Jessica, John, Paul, San Jose, Willow Glen, WP668

December 24, 2007 · 3:00 pm

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

from My Family to Yours

Paul and Jessica

Paul and Jessica - Christmas, 2007
photo: copyright 2007 John Plocher

Eleanor and Wade

Eleanor and Wade - Christmas, 2007
photo: copyright 2007 Katy Dickinson

John and Katy

John and Katy - Christmas, 2007
photo: copyright 2007 Jessica Dickinson Goodman

Birdie

Valentino

Images Copyright 2007 by Katy Dickinson, John Plocher,
Jessica Dickinson Goodman

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Filed under Home & Family

Tagged as birds, cats, Jessica, John, Paul, Wade

December 24, 2007 · 10:44 am

Dickens Christmas Fair & Cable Car Carolling in San Francisco

Last weekend, we enjoyed many of our family’s traditional Christmas events, including: going to The Great Dickens Christmas Fair and singing carols on a cable car in San Francisco. We picked up my daughter Jessica and her boyfriend Matt at SFO airport on Wednesday. (They were due home from college Tuesday night but their second flight was cancelled and they had to stay over in Dallas, Texas, courtesy of American Airlines.)

On Saturday, Jessi and her friends dressed up to go to the Dickens Fair at the San Francisco Cow Palace. My mother and friend Laura went too. Sunday, we went to the Lessons and Carols service at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Saratoga, then picked up Matt and drove to the city to sing carols with my parents. (Jessica revised our carols book this year.) We rode from Van Ness and California up and over Nob Hill to the Embarcadero. We walked around there to see the decorations before taking the cable car back. Today, my mother is coming to San Jose to assemble and bake fruitcakes. Tonight, we go to Christmas Eve service at St. Andrew’s. Christmas is at our house tomorrow; we are expecting 12 for dinner.

SFO: Jessica and Matt

home from college

Dickens Fair – Mad Sal’s Ladies’

Oratorical and Recreational Society

Dickens Fair – Gilbert & Sullivan’s

Pirates of Penzance

Dickens Fair –

Pirates of Penzance

Dickens Fair –

Jessica and Friends

Dickens Fair –

Dark Garden tableau

Dickens Fair –

Dark Garden tableau

San Francisco

cable car sign

Family Christmas

carol song book

Eleanor and Paul

with cable car

San Francisco

cable car view

John and Paul

singing

John and Eleanor

singing

John and Jessica

singing

Family with

cable cars

Paul and Eleanor

on cable car

Cable car on

California

Giant red ornament

plaza decorations

Paul inside

red balls

Jessica inside

red balls

Matt inside

red balls

Family with

red ornaments

Hyatt Regency

sculpture and lights

Jessica and Matt

pool reflections

Hyatt lights

and tree

Hyatt tree

and hanging lights

Paul and Jessica

and Matt at Hyatt

Wade at

Hyatt

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Filed under Home & Family

Tagged as Charles Dickens, Eleanor, Jessica, John, Matthew, Paul, San Francisco, Wade

December 17, 2007 · 2:08 pm

Christmas Traditions: Lights, Trains, Nativity…

We are about a week away from Christmas and great preparations are being made. Last weekend, John and Paul put up our house
lights. I worked on my living room Christmas train line (G-scale, eventually to be moved outside as pieces of my to-be-constructed garden railway), put together a candy cane flower arrangement shown in the December 2007 Sunset magazine, and wrapped presents. Jessica flies home from CMU tomorrow at midnight. We are in negotiations with friends and family as to who is coming with us to the The Great Dickens Christmas Fair at the San Francisco Cow Palace this Saturday. Christmas dinner menu offerings and logistics are being discussed…

Last night, John and I drove around Willow Glen (San Jose, CA) to see the Christmas lights. The new LED lights are very popular this year, as are the big lighted blowup figures, icicles, and musical light sets. Nothing shows off the taste of the neighborhood (or lack thereof) as what they do with their holiday lights. Here are some snapshots of our Christmas so far:

Our Bethlehem Olive Wood Nativity

(with extra camels and angels)