Art Class for Katelyn
Katelyn and I went to Michael’s last week to buy Copic Markers, fancy artists’ markers. While there we met Barbara Golden, an artist who lives in Foster City and offers classes on how to use the markers. Katelyn attended one of her classes on Tuesday 7/31.
Company Picnic
I picked Haley up from the camp bus and we headed over to Menlo College for the Guidewire Company Picnic. It was great fun with good food, a petting zoo complete with fuzzy chickens, goats, deer, and bunnies, face painting (although the girls got their arms painted), carnival games, a bouncy house (the girls were too old, though), and lots of nice people. It was quite a contrast to last year when I knew almost nobody because I’d just started at the company. This year I knew lots of people and had a great time introducing Val and the kids to everyone.
Pictures here.
Tuba
Last week I dropped my tuba off at Manor Music because, well, it’s just a rental and it has to be returned each summer for cleaning. I’ve been considering buying a tuba so I wasn’t sure if I wanted to rent for another year, but then I checked out the prices. Turns out it’s not unusual to pay $3000-$8000 for a tuba! So I figure I’ll keep renting, especially since they pay for repairs and yearly cleaning. Last Saturday I got one almost identical to the other one, only in better shape.
Updated A/V
We decided to get a new remote because the olod one didn’t have intuitive programming, and with our new setup we really needed something different. Additionally, we needed a bit of help with the setup. So Val got someone to come in and take care of it all, so it works better now. We’re still getting used to the new remote.
Media Cabinet Part III
Irene came back on Thursday and she and Val got everything all in the cabinet and the doors on. It looks great!
Media Cabinet, Part II
So as much as Val tried hard to make it work, the sheer volume of cables made it so the slide-out shelf couldn’t slide all the way in. So last night Irene came over and spent several hours working with Val, taking out all of the shelves and carving additional holes, and assisting in Advanced Cable Management. Still not enough room! So she’ll be back in a few days to do more Shelf Surgery.
Katelyn visits Grandma
Katelyn had a fun trip to Grandma’s last Sunday through Wednesday. She took CalTrain by herself down to San Jose and back, whcih was a first. They saw a movie, did a little shopping, and hung out.
Media Cabinet!
Our new media cabinet, the last of the cabinetry and the last of the major home improvements, got installed on Saturday the 21st. Irene Pepping, the fabulously talented cabinet maker, supervised Cutberto and Mario doing the installation, and Val was in charge of taking apart the A/V components. I returned from my concert at around 2:30, just as the installation was finished, and Val was starting to reconnect everything.
Fast forward to 11:30pm. After 9 additional hours, 1 trip to Orchard Supply, a couple of arguments, and a slot of sweat and aggravation, we were able to watch TV. Val has been amazingly diligent in getting everything configured (changed some components, added our new blu-ray player and organized (horrible mess of cables). It’s still not all done, but excellent progress has been made. The most fun thing is the blu-ray player’s access to the internet.
Band Concert – it was hot!
I played tuba with the West Bay Community Band at the Relay for Life in Cupertino on Saturday. After two hours in 97 degree heat I was ready to get in the car and have the A/C on full blast! It was a fun concert, for a good cause. Picture here.
Sad News
We found out on Monday that the day before, Margaret Pometta, Val’s boss at a previous job with whom we’ve kept in touch, died suddenly of cardiac arrest during the swimming portion of a triathlon on Sunday. Time was arranged for family visiting on Thursday. Since Val was out of town, Katelyn and I attended. Very sad.
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