2005 Rap #7
December 3, 2005
This time it has been more than six months since my last "rapwrap" newsletter! Obviously I either have a very boring life or one so crammed full I cannot make time to write any kind of synopsis!
Considering this summer I swam not even once in our pool, never put the birdhouses out in the field or filled the bird feeder in the front yard implies it was the latter. Life has definitely been moving at warp speed for us.
I usually use this stage to write in-depth detail about what is going on in our lives other than the highlights shown on the Osborn Country home page. It now has been so long I fear it is too daunting a task to attempt to recapture all the details since my last "rapwrap." It's not like the details are lost forever though. I faithfully write everyday in my journal. Trying to go through all my journal entries and bring stuff back to this page in an abbreviated format however just ain't gonna happen.
However, thanks to Chris who introduced me to a blogging program called bBlog and help me install it on my own web site, I am about to reinstate a personal blog which I am hoping will get me to return to the same state of reporting I managed to pull off earlier this year. Back in 2004, I blogged daily for several months finding it to be an endeavor that challenged my mind (good for retarding Alzheimer's—so researchers say) and a way to keep me cyber connected (a fetish I have).
.My new blog currently includes three sections: The Grind, Commentary, and Piquing Interest. I am sure I will add more.
Inside "The Grind" will be a watered down version of my journal. More of a report on the regular stuff going on in my life without inclusion of boring stuff like "I fell asleep in my recliner at 8:00 tonight." Do not expect this to be a daily report by any means. It will be more of an occasional summary for those interested in what Robert and I are up to; like a recent movie we've seen, interesting places we have gone or projects we've got going.
The "Commentary" section will be what I call entertainment type writing. This is where I will select one subject and write my take on it to make for a fun or engaging read.This kind of focus on writing has the potential to retard the neurofibrillary tangles in my brain—hopefully.
It might be too late though.
In the last month I totally forgot to go to a bone density appointment, didn't remember to go to an important board meeting and just yesterday forgot to show up for an appointment for a fitting to pick up my new glasses!
In the "Piquing Interest" category I will share cool information and unusual stuff I come across.
You can visit my blog by clicking on the bee at the top of this page.
2005 Rap #6
June 19, 2005
Crazy I was thinking I would keep up writing these little newsletters on a regular basis. It has been three months since my last one!
Since March 20th I have not been able to settle down or find the diligence to write about what has been happening around here. And there definitely has been stuff happening. At least I still take lots of photos and a visit to our photo link at osborncountry.com helps to document our life even if I can't follow through with writing.
On April 15th we drove down to see Kathy and Tim and to help with decorating the baby nursery. By the time we left, the nursery was leafed out in jungle leaves with a leopard (actually a cheetah) hanging out on a wall.
In May, Kathy flew to Napa for her May 7th baby shower hosted by her good friend Nicole at our house. Everyone took home a baby jungle stuffed animal and enjoyed the clothesline of baby clothes in the living room. Nicole kept the party fun with lots of creative games. A big thank you to Nicole for being such a good host!
June 2nd, Chris and Patricia moved out of their house on Wild Rye. June 5th we put Wild Rye on the market and our ReMax realtor held an open house the same day. June 15 we received two offers on the house, one at our asking price and one 5K over our asking price. You can guess which offer we accepted.
Chris and Patricia decided they wanted to move to a place where they can have more room for all their arcade and pinball machines—a place they can do repair and rebuild of dozens of machines at a time for resale. Yes, even though Wild Rye has a lot of room, believe it or not, it is not enough. It also was tough hauling games up to the game room in the loft. Ideally they want to find a place that has a large workshop or a warehouse, or enough room to build one. They are now living in a tiny apartment in Sacramento until they can locate a new house. About 75 percent of their belongings are currently stored in our pool house, barn, bedrooms, office and entryway!
Paris is now taking agility classes. After three classes in Good Manners, a beginning agility class opened up at the Napa Valley Dog Training Club. She is a natural and being small glides over the jumps, boardwalks and through tunnels with ease.
We spent Easter Sunday at Dave, Stacey and Ashley's. Ashley showed off her expertise in sitting up and standing. By now I bet she is walking! Ashley has been introduced to the world of far away traveling having recently gone to Japan! Dave and Stacey had the honor of chaperoning a school band to the Far East.
Steve Stephens and Carol Hall (Robert's cousin) were married April 21st! Congratulations to both of them!
June 9th we were off to Seattle to attend the Austin Families Association of America (AFAOA) Convention. We hooked up with my Mom who stayed at Nissa and Kristan's place. Robert and I stayed with Marla, a best girlfriend of mine from childhood. Robert's Aunt Marjorie and Uncle Dana, also came to the convention from San Jose. There are Austins on both my side and Robert's side!
A big thank you to Marla and Don for being such wonderful hosts. We really enjoyed the wonderful home cooked dinner of delicious salmon they made!
The AFAOA convention is becoming a regular thing for us and may be even more so now that I am the web designer for the AFAOA.org site. I even was part of the two day seminar and presentation program giving a talk on the design of the site. I had fun presenting an animated Power Point presentation to go along with my talk. The animation and accompanying sounds were a nice break from the rest of the other talks, many of them filled with dry facts.
After the convention came to an end and before leaving Seattle, Robert and I took in the Seattle Underground Tour. What an unusual history early Seattle has, quite educational and very entertaining.
Our garden was off to a late start this year. We have adjusted for our busy summer schedule and are making changes for Chris and Patricia's September 17th wedding. I didn't even get my flowers into the ground until June 5th! Not only did Robert plant vegetables much later, he also turned a good portion of the garden into grass for wedding guests to walk on as they make their way to Chris and Patricia's wedding under the Evergreen trees in September.
And that's a (abbreviated) wrap for this week (and the twelve weeks before!).
2005 Rap #5
March 20, 2005
Chris engaged, Kathy telling us she is having a boy, definitely exciting stuff going on around here yet no time to write about any of it. Until now that is.
When and how did we find out about Chris and Patricia getting engaged? They showed up Saturday, the 26th of February, to bring Seven over to play with Paris. As soon as we all walked out in the field to let the dogs play, Chris grabbed Patricia's hand to lift it up to show us her engagement ring. He was beaming. So was she. We were surprised.
They had just picked the engagement ring up, had gone home to get Seven then came right over. The Tuesday previous they were both over at the mall because Chris wanted to buy tools. While there he asked Patricia if she wanted to go through jewelry stores. She did. They wandered through a couple before going into Zales and seeing rings Patricia liked. Chris asked her which one in particular she liked. She said to him, "Are you kidding me, you better not be kidding me. Are you serious?" When she decided on one that was close to what she liked and Chris asked the salesperson what it would take to make it exactly what she wanted, then liking what he heard, said to the salesperson, "We will take it." Patricia was stunned. She thought Chris was playing a joke on her. So on the spot he officially asked her if she wanted to get married. And that is how it happened. The ring had a diamond they liked but not in a band material they liked. That meant they couldn't take it home that day and had to wait until the following Saturday.
I had to tell them more than once, "This is so exciting!"
Now we have another daughter (well okay, officially not until September 17th). She is already calling us Mom and Dad. I do and will continue to enjoy her in our life. We will be spending lots of "mother-daughter" time together in the next few months for she is looking for help with flowers, has asked me to join her and her friends, Jenny and Lila, to go shopping for a wedding dress and their bridesmaid dresses, to make wedding favors, and decorations. I told Patricia when it comes to the wedding cake, between my Mom, Robert's Mom and me, we've got it covered. My Mom is on board to bring her cake decorating supplies when she comes down for the wedding!
We are already preparing for the wedding. Robert has moved the garden four feet to the east so guests, on their way to the ceremony, can easily walk between the Rosemary and new flowers I will plant along the west side of the garden. And Robert has decided to plant a strip of grass leading up to the site under the grape arbor to accommodate Patricia's long wedding dress.
Adding to the excitement of Chris and Patricia getting engaged was finding out Tim and Kathy are having a "son"! Knowing baby Pine is a boy creates a whole specialized realm of thoughts. No longer do we need to refer to "his or her" or "it." We can now give labels to this little guy who is about to bounce into our lives, a little fella who will show us new horizons, create new adventures for us, and lift us to new heights.
Tim will encourage this little boy to play baseball, soccer and football. He will take him fishing. He will teach him to swim, run and climb. I am already imagining the new discoveries he will find in the evergreens in our field. He will build a tree house with his Grandpa Robert's help. I will help them both paint it.
Kathy will teach him to cook and sew. So will I. I will show him how to make and decorate sugar cookies just as I showed Chris and Kathy when they were young. I will help him decide what he wants to dress up to be at Halloween and maybe even show him how he and I can create a costume together.
Indeed, we are looking forward to meeting this little guy in July!
Lately I have just been a working machine which is actually normal this time of year. Except this year it is not because of designing all those water quality reports that typically keep me so busy. So far I have only done Vacaville's.
We are not sure if we will even get to do reports for all the cities we've done in the past. Dixon and Suisun sent out a request for quote which we cannot respond to because of their specialized insurance requirements. To get the insurance they are asking for would cost us $100,000! We have been wondering why we haven't heard from Napa or Calistoga yet and now think maybe it's because they too are going this same "red tape" route.
No worry though. With the economy picking up, it seems more people are in a better position for graphic design services anyway. Happily, this is creating a huge inflow of work for both Robert and I. Caffino continues to keep me extremely busy accounting for over half of our billing. In fact Robert just finished our 2004 taxes and we were astonished to discover I drove over 4,000 business-related miles last year; more than half of them driving to Caffino meetings!
Clients I haven't heard from in years are calling. We just landed a 5K catalog job from one such client. This is going to be big plus toward the cost of our cruise this summer! We are also doing a bimonthly newsletter put out by a group of top performing Napa real estate agents. What is nice about both of these projects is they are perfect for Robert. His Empire game playing days are about to be trumped.
Robert caught Paris in the chicken house again. One day last week, after he again discovered her missing, he found her, just like before, standing in the middle of the chicken coop floor, with egg all over her face, this time having eaten three eggs!
Then last Saturday Robert still thought (incorrectly) she would be okay in the field with him and the free ranging chickens. Wrong. She now has the taste of their eggs in her head so apparently she thinks she needs a taste of their meat too! We both had to chase her all over, she absolutely would not respond to the ringing of the triangle, me yelling "cookie" or us calling her at the top of our lungs. I didn't use the ultimate "come" command because I knew she wouldn't respond and that is a command which should never be used if there is a good chance it will fail. She was determined to catch a chicken and she came close. Madison got in on the chase (if Paris can chase them so can I she told us later). That's when we were able to catch Paris because when she saw Madison's glee she pounced on a chicken. Robert grabbed Paris while she was focused on the attack, picked her up telling her she was very bad and carried her, yes, carried her, into the house.
The very next day Robert tested Paris around the chickens yet again! He just could not really believe she can be so bad. He took her out with him to get eggs while the chickens were still out of their pen and she pounced and bit one. No harm to the chicken. It looks like it is going to be a long time before she can really be trusted around the chickens. She just has too much bird dog in her blood!
And that's a wrap for this week (and the three before).
2005 Rap #4February 20, 2005
We stayed home this weekend. OK this is nothing unusual. However this time we actually have an excuse. We are keeping a close eye on Paris 24-7. In spite of the fact German Shorthaired Pointers are now going to be the "designer" dog for the next year because one won best of show in New York, we had Paris spayed. No "designer" puppies now. After her little surgery, Paris slowed down all of one day, now she is back to bouncing off the walls.
Going against the grain of our almost-all-the-time-stay-at-home lifestyle, we went out Tuesday night, first to a nice dinner at Fume Bistro, a new restaurant we've been wanting to try. Next we were off to the Lincoln Theater in Yountville to hear the Napa Valley Symphony. We were especially interested in going to this theater. We have lots of memories from dance recital days and we wanted to see its newly remodeled look. The refurbished theater is very grand indeed, high ceilings in the lobby and balcony boxes looking like something out of Star Wars. The acoustics were astounding; the evening, immersed in classical, classic.
Then there was last weekend, another time we didn't stay home. Well okay, Saturday we did. Sunday we enjoyed going with Robert's Mom to Ashley's baptism in Sunnyvale. Knowing how fast Ashley is going to grow, having the opportunity to share this day with Dave, Stacey, Stacey's sister, Amy, Dorothy, Don and Stacey's parents was special and appreciated. Ashley was an absolute angel the entire time and so precious looking in her pretty white dress. After church and back at Dave and Stacey's for lunch, Ashley beamed smiles and posed nicely for everyone and their cameras.
The week before last the weather was warm enough to leave the sliding glass door open in the afternoons. Robert spent a lot of time outside. And of course Paris was right out there with him. He started letting the chickens out with her in the field because she has learned to behave around them. So he told me. On the third nice day out, Robert heard a strange, muffled bark. He was puzzled, and at first, thought it was a neighbor's dog. When he realized it was not far enough away to be in a neighboring yard he figured out it was Paris and the barking was coming from INSIDE the chicken house. She was wound up tighter than a Coo Coo Clock trying to accost a chicken. She was sticking her barking head inside the nest box quite upset with the cornered chicken who wasn't letting her have any eggs. Robert opened the door and yelled at her to get out, which she did, squeezing back through the tiny coop door opening. At least she didn't eat the chicken!
Having a small dog is good for gathering up into one's lap to hug, not so good when she can go where no other dog of ours has gone before!
You'd think after doing laundry for forty years I would know the rules, or at least knowing the rules, I could obey them. Let's face it, I am a lazy launderer. Two weeks ago all of Robert's white shirts, socks and underwear came out of the washing machine a lovely shade of baby blue. He had thrown a never before washed blue shirt into the hamper, a shirt he has had for a good year or more.
There are times I actually do separate whites from darks. This wasn't one of them. My "separating" ambition usually lasts a couple of months, and yes you guessed it, often after experiencing an intruding garment of the wrong color. So you would think right after this recent blue fiasco I would have started doing laundry the way it is supposed to be done. Nope. I still didn't think it was important to switch over to playing by the rules. After all, I thought, it would be another year or so before Robert would wash"that" blue shirt again.
Wrong.
Somehow that shirt found its way into the hamper again this week. Everything that had turned blue before turned a deeper shade of blue! I knew Robert would not be happy running around in all this blue attire. I plunked down the money to make Rit richer and made everything white again. Am I going to separate whites and darks now? I doubt it. I'm going to ask Robert to throw out that offending blue shirt instead!
And that's a wrap for this week (and the week before).
2005 Rap #3February 6, 2005
Turning 59 on a Super Bowl Sunday sounded like fun so this year that's what I decided to do. It is working out very well. Because Robert likes beer and pizza for dinner on Super Bowl Sunday he took me out to dinner last night instead of tonight. So not only did I get dinner out I also enjoyed pizza and beer today!
I even celebrated last Sunday -- in concert with Dave, Dorothy, Patricia, Kim and Jean. We all gathered at Dorothy and Don's, sans Gary, Melissa, Kathy and Tim, to celebrate winter birthdays. We were especially pleased Jeanie and Nick made it! Gary, engagement ring in hand, left for the Philippines on January 28th. He returns February 13th. Melissa was rehearsing all day for a dance production. Kathy and Tim are banking their "travel" miles and "time off" days toward "baby" related events.
Ashley, Dave and Stacey's little girl, now four months, is as cute as a bug; she has definitely become center stage at family get-togethers. She smiles, giggles a whole lot, and has learned to roll herself onto her tummy.
Sunday was also Paris' and Seven's first birthday. Neither were invited to the party though. If they had come, I am sure they would have had more fun than anyone. Dorothy and Don have four, maybe five, cats!
Last week we enjoyed a visit from my Mom. Arriving on the 21st, her visit blossomed into a trip to visit my cousin Elaine in Clovis followed with spending a night and day in Morro Bay.
Elaine is a newlywed! She met a nice gentleman a year ago and married him last October. We enjoyed meeting him and seeing Elaine's very grown-up 17 year old daughter, Sydney, whom we have not seen since the 1992 Gray PEAR family reunion in Oregon.
Morro Bay is a very pleasant little town of 10.500 positioned right on the waterfront. The weather was a very warm 68 degrees the day we wandered in and out of many unusual gift shops. That's twenty degrees warmer than it was back in Napa! Our visit to Morro Bay was to rediscover the atmosphere and intrigue Mom experienced when she lived there as a teenager. Unfortunately, try as we did, we could not find the house she lived in. We finally gave up deciding it must have been torn down to make room for the many apartment complexes.
I liked Morro Bay so much so I am now making plans to move there. (Robert thinks I am just talking.) Checking into real estate on the Internet, I find housing costs are less and, I really like this, Morro Bay is halfway between Kathy and Chris! I also understand the weather is often mild year round and not as foggy as is typical along the coast. We could give up graphic design (I am getting more serious about wanting to retire from this business) and open up a little gift shop on the pier, complete with a view of Morro Rock, and make cute little things to sell to the tourists. :-)
Mom headed back to Bellingham on the 28th carrying a new laptop computer. She decided some of the money she made from the movie she starred in would be perfect to use toward a computer she could take on the road with her when she and Ray do their traveling. After researching current newspaper inserts and online, Robert discovered Best Buy in Fairfield had one just right for her needs. It was such a good deal, I was tempted to buy one for myself!
Two weeks ago we said goodbye to Travel Time, our resident pool house pinball machine. Travel Time sold for a whopping $400 and is now sitting in a game room just a few blocks away. She is now entertaining her new owner's grandson. {Do pinball machines have gender?) Robert's motivation for selling Travel Time was Hot Shots, a snazzier pinball machine Chris acquired last fall and moved into his loft. Chris happily sold it to Robert for $400. Nice how this worked out. Moving the pinball into our pool house has given Chris more room in his warehouse/house, a good thing since he keeps acquiring more and more pinball and arcade games to repair and sell.
And that's a wrap for this week (and the two before).
2005 Rap #2
January 16, 2005
In spite of the incessant rains of last week coming to an end, we still find ourselves parked in the living room just as much as ever. The rains have been replaced by very cool temperatures, as low as 28 degrees one night, so of course being near the fireplace continues to be our favorite place to be.
I am also becoming quite planted to our big easy chair with notebook on my lap for hours at a time. It has become my most favorite seat in the house, feet up, warmth from the fire, wireless Internet access, lots of room to work on a newly installed 60 Gig hard drive. Very grand.
Adding to the enjoyment of our wintertime living room experience is the ease of our new universal remote control (thank you Tim and Kathy for this cool Christmas present) which gives us unparalleled ease firing up the TV, DVD player, stereo, VCR or GameCube. This week Robert fine tuned the programming on our new LogiTech Harmony remote by connecting it to his computer. Viola! With final programming in place and a sweeping motion Robert cleared all our other remotes from our sofa console. In their place now sits one! Selecting a couch potato activity--such as watching TV or a DVD--now only takes one press of a button. Very cool!
Robert's dedication to cooking is remarkable and his cuisine discoveries continue. This week, from his most favorite magazine "The Joy of Cooking," is his newest find, an especially delicious, easy to fix dinner meal. Give it a try. Recipe below.
Friday was our annual trek to the city, to the world of Macintosh, to discover what is new, what is fun, what is a deal and what book or software or printer or computer we just could not do without. We were off to MacWorld Expo 2005, Chris, Patricia, Kim, Robert and I, to randomly meet up with Scott and Gary. who remarkably showed up just as we picked up our entry badges. What timing.
There was a time the MacWorld experience was truly phenomenal, raging with new technology and ideas. Yesterday's experience was flat. With half or less the number of exhibitors in half the space, two thirds of the focus of all exhibitors was on Apples' iPod which included a new iPod the size of a packet of gum, plus tons of iPod accessories and software. Disappointing. All seven of us had had enough by noon. We headed to "Where the Wild Things Are" at the Metreon for lunch. All of us having lunch together and Robert playing with his food (you had to be there) then balancing a salt shaker on its edge on the table was much more fun.
And that's a wrap for today, Sunday, January 16th.
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Turkey Taco Bake
Prep: 15 min.
Bake: 20 min.
2 cups coarsely crushed corn chips
1 can (16 ounces) refried beans
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided
1 cup salsa
2 cups shredded cooked turkey
1 teaspoon Mexican or taco seasoning
1 green onion, sliced
1 medium tomato, choppedPlace corn chips in a greased shallow 2 1/2-qt. baking dish. Place the refried beans in a small saucepan; cook and stir over medium heat until heated through. Remove from the heat; stir in 1 cup cheese and salsa. Spread over chips.
Toss the turkey and Mexican seasoning; sprinkle over bean mixture. Top with remaining cheese. Sprinkle with onion. Bake, uncovered, at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until cheese is melted. Sprinkle with tomato. Yield: 4 servings.
Source: Taste of Home, December/January 2005
2005 Rap #1
January 8, 2005
Here it is, already a week into the New Year. I have written 04 instead of 05 "only" six times. Our Christmas decorations are still up. I have no desire to put them away. My rationale is to keep all up until the end of the month so Mom can see them when she arrives on the 21st to visit.
I have addressed in my head whether or not to make new year resolutions, being pushed to do so by the DJs on radio, the talk and news shows on television. I am doing my best to ignore that intruding "media influence." I haven't given into the pressure yet. In fact, in defiance, I baked chocolate chip cookies on New Year's Day and have been eating them every day since. I have been taking second helpings at dinner and enjoying the last of the season eggnog. Heck, there are still 51 weeks left in 2005 to behave!
As it is, my resolutions for change are in my head everyday and they aren't going to happen by setting a certain day aside anyway. Changes for me will happen when I am in a place for them to happen, or, as in Robert's case which you'll read about shortly, through circumstance.
With an exceptional amount of rainy and cold days, this has been a great week to enjoy our new furniture in the evenings (having a choice of five recliners in which to do so) where we get to bask in the warmth of our fireplace.
The fact is, we have taken pleasure in that warmth more than just evening time. Our furnace went on the fritz Tuesday. Our sole source of heat, until today, has been our gas fireplace. Replacing the thermostat magically fixed the problem. After reading the manual for the new thermostat advising to replace the batteries if the display should go blank, Robert admitted maybe that was all that was wrong with the old thermostat. He didn't feel bad though. He has had a resolution for quite some time to replace it anyway. For a couple years now, it has been looking quite tacky hanging on the wall with a wire wrapped around it because of a broken plastic case. Ergo. Resolution set. Resolution completed.
We have had the busiest first week of a new year in the Osborn Graphics office ever. One of our longtime clients, Caffino Drive Thru Espresso, continues to keep our plate full (or should I say our coffee cup full?). This week I created an eight-minute video from two existing ones (move over Scott) and completed two marketing Power Point presentations. Robert has continued work on a project through the Napa Valley Unified School District; converting a 36 page Quark document into Word. This project is a prevention education booklet that eventually will be available by the state to all the schools throughout California.
A highlight of our week was the ultrasound picture from Kathy showing our grand baby-to-be at 13 weeks. At three inches in size, it is amazing how much the image actually looks like a little person! Kathy is doing well and is experiencing less morning sickness now that she is nearing the end of her first trimester. And of course she has started shopping for larger clothes!
Chris and Patricia's new puppy, Seven, is proving to be a handful, especially with all this rainy weather. Patricia brought Seven over on Thursday to give him much needed exercise by having him play and run in the field with Paris while Madison (old lady she has become) mostly just watched and scowled as the two eleven month old puppies tore back and forth, back and forth, totally wearing each other out. Amazing the magic this worked. Seven went home to sleep the rest of his day away. Paris, much to Madison's delight, was an angel for the next day and a half.
Keeping energetic Paris exercised is a constant challenge. To this end Paris and I have a new game. It involves running around the sofas, me trying to catch her after allowing her to have the giggling giraffe I received in my stocking from Santa. She goes absolutely insane when I take Giggling Giraffe off the entertainment center to hand over to her. I never let her out of sight for fear she will tear Giggling Giraffe open to rip out his giggler and beans. After she has worn "me" out I trade her a treat for Giggling Giraffe and return him to his safe spot. Giggling Giraffe is her new, most favorite toy. Whenever Paris wants something special to do she goes over to the entertainment center, looks up at giggling giraffe then looks at me until I give in for another game of chase.
And that's a wrap for the week.
