Lunch with the Lowenthals in December 2011

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JoLynn and David met and had lunch with the Lowenthals in late December of 2011.

JoLynn met Mark at Craftways around 1994 when they both worked on the magazine “Cross Stitch and Country Crafts”. Mark created a Mac application to allow transcription of Cross-Stitch patterns to the computer, which could then be published in the new magazine that JoLynn designed.

Mark left Craftways before JoLynn and before long married Jeanine, his childhood sweetheart. We had seen Mark and Jeanine only briefly in the intervening years.

Now for the first time we got to meet Mia and Hanna. Mia is a couple of years older and very outgoing and Hanna is much more serious and a little shy.

Don’t forget to click on the photo for more!

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Christmas Eve 2011 at Jeanni’s

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This year we double-dated the Christmas Eve parties by going first to the Burlinghams and then to Jeanni’s.

We arrived after the meal but in time for the gift exchange, which was hilarious.

All the usual suspects were there and this year we were honored by Pat Clancy Senior and Sandy and Don Clancy and Karen.

We missed the Bur boys but maybe we will see them tonight for Christmas Eve.

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Holidays 2011 with the Burlinghams and the Lombardis

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We were lucky this year to be invited to both of the Burlingham Holiday celebrations: Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve.

We had such fun! Lucy and Rue hosted both parties and their sister Blair, husband Matt and kids Kelsey and Laurel and their father Vaughn were there.

For Thanksgiving JoLynn cooked a Turkey and Matt created a vegetarian Lasagna and separate Pasta Dish. Lucy and Rue added all the homey touches and everyone gritted their teeth at my terrible puns.

At this rate next year we are going to have Roast Prime Rib with baked and roasted potatoes and lots of lovely rich gravy.

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Wildcare Holiday Party 2011

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The Wildcare Staff Holiday Party was great fun this year. The Gift Exchange was as raucous as ever and a couple of the gifts were even something other than a Squirrel!

Karen and Todd did a great job hosting and the food and drink was purely delightful.

Maybe next year David Latour will don his tails and top hat again. That was really all that was missing. The humor was certainly in attendance.

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SL Holiday Lunch in December 2011

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This year Nina arranged us a beautiful Holiday Lunch at the Caprice in Tiburon.

We were lucky to have a lot of the “out of towners” present so we had almost a full complement.

These are the photos that David took and, if we are lucky, Ed Koo will share a lot more that he took in another album.

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Halloween at SL in 2011

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This year Mary organized a very special Halloween contest for the staff at SL Corp.

As you can see from the pictures there were some extremely creative costumes. My personal favorite was Darth Conner with Musical Mehran as a close runner up.

The “official” prize winners were Rodney the vampire, Elvis Burla and Mark the monkey.

The contributed pictures from the “out-of-towners” are at the end.

Well done everyone.

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Two outings with Mitchell and Helen in 2011

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David and JoLynn had two fun outings with Mitchell and Helen this year. On both occasions we ate first at the Fremont Diner, http://thefremontdiner.com/, just south of the town of Sonoma.
On the first day in August after lunch we proceeded to the square in Sonoma and took a walk which included the old Mission.

On the send day we drove to old town Napa and had a walk that ended up at the Oxbow Public Market.

On each occasion we had a great time. David and Mitchell met 25 years ago at Schlage Lock in San Francisco.

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New Blog Layout…

Yes, you are in the right place.

I decided to change the layout style to get rid of the black theme.

Doesn’t this look better?

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Samuel P Taylor Park in August 2011

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Here we are, lucky to live in Marin County: warm, awesome scenery and quiet.

OK, most of the time it is not so quiet. The house next door has suddenly been sold and the new owner has chosen to refurbish his new pride and joy with every power tool he can rent, steal or borrow. Not only that he is determined to leave them on “idle” at all times.

The last straw this weekend was the tree chipper. You know. The thing that was used in Fargo to dispose of poor William H Macy. Our neighbor is only doing tree branches not people, fortunately.

JoLynn suggested we seek some peace and quiet so we drove to Samuel P Taylor Park near Lagunitas and just sat by a creek and enjoyed the views. Of course, everyone else in the entire Bay Area had the same idea at the same moment so we saw lots of people.

Luckily most brought their swimsuits and not their power tools.

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A visit from Hawaii and a Birthday Party in July 2011

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We have just had a visit from the Mathews, who live in Kauai. Conrad, Linda and son, Craig came to visit Conrad’s mom, Marion and her sister Helen.

These pictures were taken on a trip to Pancho Villa’s restaurant in Fairfax, where we enjoyed a nice meal.

The cake was for Marion, who celebrated her 80th birthday on Thursday. We all had a great time at her party. Many happy returns, Marion.

Click on the picture to see more…

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