Tag Archives: San Jose

July 13, 2011 · 7:24 pm

Van Gilder Glass – 3rd Home

Walter Van Gilder stained glass panel

My Great Grandfather was Walter Van Gilder, a glass maker.  You can read my 2009 blog entry about his home at 1007 Circle Park Drive, Knoxville Tennessee. I own several engraved and picture mirrors made by him but I think Walter Van Gilder’s best work is a stained glass panel (about five feet wide) which until this morning was over the door of my parents’ house in San Francisco. The panel is lovely but in deteriorating condition, so I asked Architectural Art Glass expert Vince Taylor to remove and fix it. Vince has created three stained glass panels for our house in San Jose and he does beautiful work. Once the lead has been replaced and the frame restored or replaced (depending on what is possible), the Van Gilder panel will be ready for its next hundred years. Ours will be the third house it has graced and we look forward to welcoming it home later this year.

Image Copyright 2011 by Katy Dickinson

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July 12, 2011 · 11:43 pm

Guadalupe River, Canada Geese

Canada Geese Guadalupe River . Canada Geese Guadalupe River

Living on the Guadalupe River in San Jose, California, is always interesting. A few days ago, I saw more than a dozen of our noisy local Canada geese walking under the bridge intermingled with a smaller flock of Mallard ducks. The birds had to open their great wings to balance as they climbed up the bank to nibble on dry weeds. This is the same bridge that four months ago spanned a river full bank-to-bank with a rushing brown flood waters.  The bank that the geese climbed up was far under water last Spring.

Guadalupe River March 2011 . Guadalupe River March 2011

Images Copyright 2011 by Katy Dickinson

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June 26, 2011 · 6:02 pm

TechShop San Jose Opens

TechShop San Jose

Yesterday, John and Paul and I went to the crowded opening of the new TechShop in San Jose, California. We also joined as lifetime family members!

TechShop is a membership-based workshop that provides members with access to tools and equipment, instruction, and a community of creative and supportive people so they can build the things they have always wanted to make.

Location: 300 South 2nd Street San Jose, CA 95113
http://www.techshop.ws/ts_sanjose.html

We heard the opening talk by my former boss, Greg Papadopoulos, on the topic “Think Global, Innovate Local”. There were at least dozen ex-Sun-Microsystems Engineering staff there to cheer for Greg.

Being the owners of WP668 (backyard caboose), our family already has developed a basic workshop but having access to some of the larger TechShop equipment and the classes will help with a variety of home and hobby projects.  Some of the equipment I want to learn to use: FlowJet 4′ x 8′ CNC Water Jet Cutter, Epilog Helix 60-Watt Laser Cutters, Tin Lizzie Quilting Machine, Hand-Held Plasma Cutter, and the Computer Controlled Embroidery Sewing Machine.  Paul and I plan to take classes together in Autodesk Inventor, and Arduino 101 (Board Soldering) later this summer.

Greg Papadopoulos TechShop San Jose . TechShop San Jose

Images Copyright 2011 by Katy Dickinson

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June 11, 2011 · 11:28 pm

Fun Fanime Shirts

Fanime Doctor Who tshirts

My kids love to dress up and go to the Japanese and anime culture event called Fanime here in San Jose, California. This year, my daughter Jessica, her fiance Matthew, his sister, and my son Paul went together. Fanime is as much about people watching as anything else. Jessica came home with stories about great costumes, vendors, and tshirts.

Today, three Doctor Who shirts she ordered at Fanime arrived:

  1. Tardis Express – When It Absolutely Has to Be There Before You Sent It
  2. I ♥♥ The Doctor
  3. Gallifrean Institute of Technology

She also told me about a shirt she saw at Fanime which I want to buy for myself:

English doesn’t borrow from other languages. English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammer.

According to Pegasus Publishing
This shirt has a paraphrase of a quotation made by James Nicoll. “The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.”

Images Copyright 2011 by Katy Dickinson

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June 7, 2011 · 9:27 pm

Wedding Shopping

Bride and Maid of Honor

We went shopping on Sunday for wedding party outfits.  The Mother of the Groom, the Bride, the Maid of Honor, and I went to the Valley Fair mall Macy’s and Nordstrom’s. This post is partly to celebrate the girl fun we had and partly to publish the colors we picked (teal, hot pink, white, black) so that the rest of the wedding party can coordinate if that is their desire.

Bride, Mother of the Bride, Mother of the Groom

Mother of the Bride Colors

Images Copyright 2011 by Katy Dickinson

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June 4, 2011 · 10:49 am

Wedding cake, flowers, catering

Flower Flower Mimi Jessica Matthew

My daughter Jessica just paid the deposit on her wedding catering. Mimi Chiang-Brown at Flower Flour in Willow Glen is providing both the flowers and the food for August’s big event. Costco is providing the cake (Bride’s choice!).

Jessica and Matthew (The Couple) and Paul (Groomsman) and I (Mother of the Bride) went last Saturday to Flower Flour to look at pictures and discuss plans.  The same day, Jessica and I also visited the deliriously colorful Britex Fabrics in San Francisco to buy 2-1/2 yards of pink-violet raw silk for a sash for her dress for the reception.

Tomorrow, the Mother of the Groom, the Bride, the Maid of Honor, and I are going shopping to buy the Mothers of the Couple their dresses. I am torturing Jessica by saying that we will be looking for matching polkadot miniskirts…

Jessica at Britex Fabrics San Francisco . Britex Fabrics San Francisco

Costco cake
Images Copyright 2011 by Katy Dickinson

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June 2, 2011 · 9:54 pm

Last After School Session

SMUM Studio kids with backpacks

For the last three years, my husband John and I have been after-school teachers on Thursday afternoons for the Santa Maria Urban Ministry (SMUM) Studio program. There is another group of volunteers who offer Studio on Tuesdays. During the summer, the Studio kids enjoy monthly activities.

Last week was our final session for this school year. My daughter Jessica is home from college so she was able to join us. We had a party with cake and pizza. The kids posed with backpacks for a picture for the SMUM Canticle Newsletter. In 2010, over 800 backpacks were distributed at the end of the summer to grade school, middle school, and high school students in the SMUM community of inner city San Jose. Backpacks and their contents are donated by churches and community service groups like the Willow Glen Lions.

SMUM Studio cake . Jessica at SMUM Studio

Images Copyright 2011 by Katy Dickinson

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