We are about to leave the mother ship and head over to get the wedding done.  Los Gatos is  about 160 miles away from Merced. In some ways I fell we are on a space walk.  A thin cord holds us. 

Alan, one of Sue's brothers has checked in by phone. They spent yesterday in the napa valley.  We will meet up  them today.  In Campbell. We are headed over there..

Car got cleaned inside last night.  ready to put the extra seat in it.  

I had a bit of difficulty trying to track down some of those cardboard trays that cans of soda go on for the fruit that I will pick this morning.  So much of that is produced in cubes.  Three grocery stores three trays.

It will be nice to see the family.. my mom and  dad and my sisters and spouses at the rehersal dinner tonight in Los Gatos.  

We are going to play some bocci ball after dinner.

Today.. remember to pack everything, pick the fruit, remember the check book, directions, make a ben photo.. be nice to my wife!

Pat



 

Thursday

Take a deep breath or a chill pill.  Just another day home and we are on the road.

Wednesday we met again to bargin. Primarily we are after some structure for the extra jobs that some teachers get from the Principal's discretionary fund. With 5 new principals in the district (out of 6) we felt that this would be a good time to bring some fairness or an element of structure as to what the jobs are, how many, and for how much into focus.

Unfortunately no TA was accomplished. We took their team out to lunch with us however.  It was really nice to socialize with them.  Their lawyer, Todd lives in  Oakland.  He and I compared notes on Eithopian food.  

We are getting our jobs done for the wedding.  
I need to clean out the car today and get the extra seat in the back as  our car will be used to get the people from the christmas tree farm to the wedding site.  

Neice Cammie has done some great graphic work in the form of booklets that will go into goodie bags for people that are unfamiliar with the area.

Got to get up and get my 40 minute walk in this Am to Starbucks and back. 

Ripe peaches and apricots for breakfast.

Pat

Tuesday Day 2 Negotiations T A

Our very strong team met with the district's team today. We achieved a TA (tenative agreement) YEAH. We are trying to get our side letters back into the contract itself. The reason they are side letter is that they could based on shaky agreements that have to stand the value of time before they may become somewhat permanent parts of our contract.
We worked on one such today. We came to an agreement and the assistant sup brought in her easy button from staples and punched it. We opened a serious can of worms as the table next. It is an idea that the district is not willing to discuss but must since we brought it to the table and it has to do with money and working conditions. It will be interesting to see where it goes.

When I got home Sue was not excited about me being gone for the the day.. despite the fact I brought her a piece of sugarless berry pie from Jantz the Mennonite bakery.

I had a turkey sandwich on home made roll for lunch. Wow it was good.

Tomorrow we are taking the other side out to lunch with us.. that way they can become better acquainted with our team members. It will be the last of the negotiation sessions for a period of time.

Still doing a lot to get the wedding to occur on Saturday. We are stuffing goodie bags,

Last night we stuffed jordan almonds into net circles and tied them off with a ribbon. We found out that Megan a bridesmaid is wearing a brown dress. Sue and I went off to Ross to find some alternate sun dresses for Heather. She found 2 more that would fit in the brown schema. So whatever is not used will be taken back to Ross.. or so the theory goes.

Nice to watch some of the game last night over the phone with my sis. We also watched the 50 biggest sports blowups.. She was watching without sound.

Catch her blog..

First day of negotiations are over.  We got the ground rules and I told them in some detail about what we expected out of the 11 provisions of the contract we wanted to change.  It took most of the morning to get this done. We have 2 more days (Tues and Wednesday).  It was kind of an early start.  we were at the Breakfast meeting spot at 7:30.  There are 8 of us on the team.  I am the head spokesman. 
We also got our hair cut today afterschool. We went back to Micheal's the craft store and got some of that great purple flowered ribbon.  They also have some baskets that we have our eye on and bought.  
We ate lunch at applebees.. I am sure Heather is smirking now.  We had fun in the neighborhood.. or so the ad goes.  I took off before we got their and picked up the dress that was altered downtown.  Sue was a little disappointed that they didn't piece in some material when they made the material hooks.  It all gets down to whether the bride will wear a bra or not... LOL
I finished the big picture map and have a few small ones on my agenda tonight.. getting to the hotel and the rehearsal dinner site. 
I talked to Sean this afternoon on the cell phone.  They are going to use our expedition to ferry people up to the wedding site.  They have rented the parking area of the christmas tree lot and hired a driver to get people from the tree lot to the wedding.
Mom bought Lindsay a surprize at jacque penne today.  
We also have little holders for battery run tea candles.. thanks for the cool idea cammie!
We confrimed going to the CTA training institue in UCLA the end of July. We will probablly get a motel near since the accomadations that allow Sue and myself to stay were all taken. The training institute will be paid for by our local CTA chapter.  

Love to all
Pat

Its Sunday morning and everything is nice and quiet. It wasn't however at 3 am as the neighbors across the street (the 20 somethings) came home from the bars and were shouting and carrying on. We usually live on a very quiet Cul de Sac so this is out of the ordinary.  This disturbance lasted for a good half of an hour and was almost reportable to the local authorites.

Yesterday we made a quick trip to Dublin CA to pick up Heather and have her try on the alternate dress.  Sue found a very nice white eyelit sun dress for her for 20 bucks.  Its a little tight in a spot or two.  Mom wants to have it alterned and Heather wants to lose some weight to get it more comfortable.  I am sworn to not take it down to be alterned but Sue does not want to take a chance. 

Heather has been ganashing prior to taking the MFT test.  She took the first part of the MFT (Marriage and Family Therapy) State exam and passed it Wha Hooooooo!  My hat goes off to her and to my sister Kelly who tirelessly worked to get the hours collected and sent in and helped with studying.  Now she needs to study up for the situation part.  She thinks that she may do that in the early Fall.  Way to go girl!

Todays goal it to get out the big picture graphic to the people that are coming to the hotel and the rehearsal dinner and the wedding.  Its going to definitely be a highway 17 kind of thing.  

Also this Am I need to get the berry bushes from returning in the backyard. So a little pick work is in order.

Wish I could send our all some of my juicy juicy necterines.. They are falling off the tree ripe today.  
 

Yesterday was the big first meeting with the negotiation team.  I was re-elected by them to be the spokesman.  We have two new members. 

Our DTA exec. board met with us. We start on Monday for a three day meeting.

Several of our members are upset that we were meeting in the summer.  We also got committments from many us to go to the big UCLA conference the end of the summer.  One week long.  Of course I signed up for the advanced bargining strand.  Sue is reluctantly going to go with me.  It should be fun however, since it will get us down to big D. etc.

Talked with mom and dad.  I ordered some ink for his printer back there. It just arrived.  They drove to ridgeway, redstone and over the grand mesa in there two weeks there.  They are headed home Sunday.

My sis the real speech and lang in the family has her own blog and it is a gas.  Full of photos and other cool stuff.  Please drop by and see it too.  http://movingalongwithkelly.blogspot.com/

The nectarines are falling off the tree they are so ripe.. big suckers.  Plum season is about over and the peaches are about 3/4ths done on the front lawn.  What a marvelous year for fruit.  We are eating about 5 peices each every day this summer.  

I started a movie I piced up in the 2 for 11 dollar bin at WalMart.. Stir of Echos with kevin Bacon.  This movie is a little out of my usual genre... I see dead people sort of thing. 

We pick up the altered dress today.  I hope it works out.

Talked to Kelly this pm. She is my youngest sister.  What conversations we have! She is a speech and language specialist like me. She has been working for Albany Schools for the last few years in the Jr. High. We talked about her moving to the Silcon Valley and a favorite movie that I had just seen in DVD form, music and lyrics with Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant. We both think that Drew is truely an actress and that is why she is so interesting to see in her latest movies.  Of course we had to bring up the others that we knew and love.  Selma Hyak, and Reese Witherspoon.  
We are getting ready for the wedding next weekend.  I had my negotiation dates all messed up and thought that we would be negotiating on the Friday before the Saturday wedding.. not so... negotiations will begin this Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday.  Yahooo.

I have been working of the maps that will go into the goddie bags for the people that are going to the wedding and make it to the first place, the hotel.  We have a stack of rooms rented so hopefully it will work out.  We are having the rehersal dinner at an Italian spot in Los Gatos also on the 17.  Each of these placese has a tricky combination of turns to get to the place because there is limited access on highway 17.  

Peaches are in full harvest.. they are sweet and big this year.  We are doing our best to eat as many as we can.. and share some with the neighbors.

Its amazing how long it takes for the fruit to actually get some sugar in them. Swet and juicy!

Blasting from the Past

Tuesday AM
My email included a blast from the past.  My best friend in high school, Earl, now Francisco emailed me about running into one of the directors that we auditioned for at the Hyatt theater in 1965. He has struck up an email connection. The director does not remember our audition or our call back, but we certainly do. It was one of the first time that  our nervous energy made our voices go down instead of up. We were just too tall for Ann Marie Albergetti who was playing the lead in Peter Pan.  Life would have been different if we had landed those parts.

Since I was blasted to the past I googled my old friend from college, Shep.  He is now a VP for a real estate holdings company in Denver.. at least that is what the web site says.  He emailed me back immediately to confirm that I had indeed landed the right one. He was happy to hear from me and wanted my phone number. He also asked about the family. 
Pat

Sunday Morning

Last night we took a drive to Winton to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant.  Everything was very hot.. which anymore is difficult ot come by in a Mexican restaurant.

We drove up to Turlock from Winton and drove around the campus of Stan State.  It has really changed since we went there last.  I love the new duck pond beside the art building.

Sunday Evening

I watched the coverage of the US Open from Oakmont near Pittsburgh. Tiger was there until the end.  It brought back memories of the two opens that I covered as press back in 98 and 2000.  Tiger blew them away in 2000 desipite the wind that ripped the coastline play.  On the final hole of the final day, Ernie Els was the runner up and they literally lost his ball on the final hole of pebble.  The rough was so dense.  It is a much more friendly course for the ATnT pro am in the winter. We had a chance to be in the press room with Tiger after his victory.  Almost every question to the other golfers was what was it like to play against Tigert.  Some of the golfers got a little upset. Tiger was very articulate and remembered every hole that he hit three years before. 
At the Olympic course in 1998, the winner Lee Janzen won with a score that was very close to par.  Tiger was not a major contender but was very popular on the course.  Dad helped me out with some photos for the day before the final.  It was quite an experince for both of us. He met his banking neighbor in the crowd.  He was amazed to see him. Tickets are very hard to come by.  

Pick up the Truck, Pat

The car got fixed on Wednesday. It the light on the dash that said that it needed service soon was actually indicating a hose was not connected to the crankcase. After the multipoint inspection, the hose was connected and it only cost me 145 dollars. Great. I freal that if I can get out of the place for under 500 dollars I am doing well.

To pick up this car was something else. We live 3 miles from the dealer. Linzi has our other car in Sacramento. So I needed to shelp down there to get the truck before they closed at 5:30. The pick car for this dealer went to voice mail so I decided instead of relying on that that I would walk to the mall and get a bus. Temp was about 103 and it was the afternoon. The mall is one mile away so I walked over. Just as I arrived the buses arrived in mass and took off in mass. They would return about an hour later. The bus costs 1 dollar. Most of the bus riders were my old students. I made another mistake as the bus first went to wallMart, then through the back strreets of Merced, I should have pulled to stop cord as it crossed R street. I didn't the bus took me away from where I wanted to go so finally when I arrived downtown, the lady in front of me pulled the stop. At 5:05 the 15 blocks in the heat looked like picking up the truck might not be in the cards. I made it at 5:31 and they had one door open. My service advisor was still there. Everyting turned out okay.

Yesterday we encountered a problem. Sue has been getting ready for our daughter's wedding and spending accordingly. The idea was there was support for this spending temporarily from the large check we received from the insurance to cover the water damage. This was to tide us over until we could get some long term money out. 

The problem arrives in the form of the little word "and." Our check I was told by the head cashier of the credit union requires that the mortgage lein holder of our property sign off on it as well.

This morning on top of getting that pesky "this vehicle needs to be serviced soon" light to go off,a 7:15 apoointment at the car dealer, I need to call the insurance company that issued the check and then probablly the credit union that has our home equity lein.  

Its supposed to get to over a 100 degrees today.

Fruit and Inspirations

Today Sue and I going to see the doctor. Its our quarterly check up. We get our blood checked and a new lease on the world. I need to go in and pay for our space in the storage and get the check in the bank that we got from the insurance.
This morning I have been working on a Mt. Garfield drawing using some new watercolor pencils.
They are similar to the watercolor crayons that I have been enjoying this spring. caran d' Ache. They seem considerably better than the Drewey ones that I have been packing around in the art bag.
I am thinking about mom and dad doing the Grand Junction trip yesterday. San Jose to Grand Junction Colorado. All in about 3 hours time. Mt. Garfiled is the big shale mountain that looks down on Grand Junction Colorado.
Lesson learned.. don't overdo it. Just a little goes a long way. I have been working on a sketch pad. I am going to pick some of my better thumbnails and do big ones later in the summer.
The bonanza peach crop is about a week away. I had to prop up it limbs so that I wouldn't lose a big portion of the tiny tree. Polinization was complete this year. It was very warm and no rain so it allowed me to thin to a fist apart. It was all this little treee which stands 6 feet tall could stand. in previous years there was so much fruit on this little tree that it broke out the cente. It looks more like a bonzai with interesting branching now. I have already harvested a dozen nice plouots off the 5 in one tree near the street. The plouts I think were the dapple dandy variety. Mine were sort of green on the outside and intensely red on the inside.

First Day of Summer Vacation

Its Monday and I am not at work... Wow.
Sue and I went to see Oceans 13. Iverakk a great movue.. It really moves and will make you stumble if you are not following.
We called Tony C up to get our addition started. Tony C is going to build us a new addition to our house. It might be 2 months before he can start.. more complicated plans need to be made and approved by the city. The current bid is for 74 k without permits and drawings.
This weekend we met the girls in Morgan Hill CA. Cousin Acacia is now graduated from High School and is headed at the end of the summer to UCSD. We had a very nice party at the VFW hall in Morgan Hill.. Salmon and Tri Tip.