May 2010

More Prom photos, courtesy: Wil Mandac

• The month started out with Eric's 48th Birthday. We celebrated it quietly at home.


• Tory had dive finals at Los Altos High School on the 4th and scored First Place for Junior Varsity Girls and Fourth Place overall for the meet. Excellent end to her high school sports career. Now if only we could find her a college with a dive program.

• We did a pair of school events for our guild, as well as a faire and a picnic. Details can be found at danceanddestruction.blogspot.com.
• Tory attended Prom with her friend Jason. They went on a dinner cruise of the SF Bay.

Queen Bess & The Pyrates, Fresno, CA 5/15 & 5/16














DeLuna Farm Community Event, Brentwood, CA 5/8

• Coming up on my 40th birthday I went out on a limb and reinvented myself. I had a hair cut, perm and a treatment at simply beautiful new you (simplybeautifulnewyou.com). I don’t know if it helped my attitude, but it was definitely an experience.


• We hosted an ‘unbirthday party’ for our friends who had birthdays in the months of May & June at Benihana’s in Cupertino. Patty gave me a beautiful set of claddaugh earrings. Here are some photos:

Unbirthday Party, Benihana's Cupertino, CA 5/22

We sold the pop-up trailer. Yay!

• Doxie and Stellie went to the vet and were both declared healthy. I received a quote from the vet to remove the weird-o moles that Doxie has on her back and neck. Not pretty. We’re looking at just north of $700. Fortunately the vet didn’t think they were anything to worry about.
• We took a trip down south to Porterville to visit with June. Eric had started back up at the Moss Landing Power Plant the Thursday before on a short term assignment working 12 hour swing/grave shifts, so he did not accompany us. Tory and I spent a relaxing two days (when Doxie wasn't driving us insane with the squeeky toy) with June and Petey.
  

April 2010

• On the 3rd we had an Easter party for our friends. Kids numbers were down from last year, but we had a good turn out. Our friends Kieran, Robin, Laurie, Steven, Orion, Gavin, Andrew, Gisch, Jenn & Dane all attended, plus two of Tory’s friends (Megan & Kaitlyn). The kids enjoyed the easter egg hunt, in fact, they even found one from years past (one of the missing eggs that Tory hasn’t been able to find). The candy inside was pretty gross, but at least its one less that we have to worry about.
• On the 4th (Easter Sunday) Tory and I attended Jordan Sean Mandac’s baptism. It was a lovely affair, without the baby making a fuss. The one big chuckle of the event was when the pastor got his middle name incorrect, so he was baptized ‘Jordan John’ instead of ‘Jordan Sean’. Later that afternoon Eric, Tory and I joined the family for their Easter celebration. It was a lovely dinner of ham, tri tip, mashed potatoes, green beans, green salad, and ambrosia salad followed by cake.
• Tory’s favorite drama teacher (Tim Shannon) passed away on the 6th. We’re not sure of the cause, but I suspect that it was either aneurism or a heart attack. He was 49 years old. His death took a toll on the entire school. He’d taught at Fremont from the beginning (25 years), and was a big part of the school. The kids had a vigil for him the night he passed, the school had a candle light vigil the night after, and then they had a memorial service on the 24th. They’re planning yet another service on the 15th of May. Tory’s grief allowed her to write a song for him, called ‘Your Memory in My Mind’. One of the teachers and her husband (Tim & Sue Larson) helped Tory record the song, and took photos. Below are the photos, and I’m going to try to include a link to the song.
  

• I continue to have lunch with Deb and Jordan each week, or as often as I can. Tory was off on spring break the week of the 12th and stayed with Jordan while Deb & Wil painted his room, so that she could get used to babysitting such a small baby. She’s hooked. She told me that now she’s changed her mind, and could see possibly having kids at some point, just not any time soon (thank God).
• Tory was turned down for CSUMB (Cal State University Monterey Bay), as she hadn’t all of the requirements to get in. Tory is continuing to finish the English class that kept her out of the running, and will continue to try to gain admittance. In the mean time, we’ve decided against St. John’s in NY and she’s applied to a few local community colleges.
• Tory had a dive meet with Wilcox High School on the 22nd and scored First Place for JV Girls. First time she’s placed in a dive meet.
• And then we did some more guild stuff. Details can be found at danceanddestruction.blogspot.com.

March 2010

• This month started out with a bang! Tory received her acceptance to St. John‘s University in New York. They accepted her as a Liberal Arts Major. Not exactly what she had in mind. She is trying to major in Marine Biology with a minor in Forensic Anthropology.
• I’ve continued to have my weekly lunch dates with Deb and Jordan. He’s getting so big, and changing every day. They’ve hit some rough spots, trying to get him comfortable to sleep through the night, but in general he’s doing well.
• With our Federal Income Tax Return we went crazy and bought a new travel trailer. I must say that I did an excellent job negotiating it. Our friend, Bill, is still repairing/upgrading the pop-up trailer. Once he’s done we’ll put it up for sale.
• We did a lot of things with our ren faire (http://danceanddestruction.blogspot.com / http://www.danceanddestruction.org/) group this month. We had a training with a guest speaker (Sir Ryk Tucker) to talk about heraldry, we completed a school day in Sonora, as well as the Sonora Celtic Festival (we found an excellent camp site within 1.5 miles of the site: Woods Creek Mobile Home Park, where we’ll stay again next year) and the Lompoc Renaissance Faire. Here are a couple of photos from Sonora:

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• We went to see Alice In Wonderland. We have mixed feelings about it. I think it will be better on home video, if only for the subtitles. Louis Carroll used a lot of made up words, and with some of the accents they were very difficult to discern.
• Tory continued to work on her play, Witness for the Prosecution. Because of the work she was putting into it (she was Stage Manager and Set Designer), she was unable to join us in Sonora, but stayed with Aunt Patty instead. Patty and I attend WFTP on Friday night. The set was awesome, by far the best that we’ve seen at her school. The cast did very well, some were having problems with their British accents, so they were fading in and out (volume wise), but over all it was an excellent production. Here are some photos:
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Our good friend, Andrew, had a house warming party. Since his mother’s death he and his sister have been roomies in the house and have been remodeling. It looks fantastic. What a drastic change to the interior!