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!

February 2010

• On February 6th we participated in a food sort at Second Harvest Food Bank for our non-profit group. Also, Jordan Sean Mandac was born!

• Tory was treated to Cirque de Soleil’s performance of Ovo for her birthday present from her Aunt Patty on the 7th.
• On the 17th, while Tory was out of school we went to the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum [www.egyptianmuseum.org] with our good friends Dave & Bonnie. We watched the planetarium show and toured the downstairs areas before we left. They came back to the house with us for Eric’s chicken curry.
• On the 18th we headed to Capitola Mall to do a promotion for the Santa Cruz Scottish Renaissance Faire in garb. We were there for four hours.
• Tory and I stayed at Cullen & Gwen’s on the 19th (Tory’s 17th Birthday), as we were to attend the Renaissance Symposium on Saturday. Tory thoroughly enjoyed her classes and took several.
• We travelled to Ripon for some more difficult dance training with our good friend Jen. We learned one basic Italian dance and two more difficult English Country dances.

January 2010

• As indicated in last month’s blog, we started out with a bang…between going to Detta’s to ring in the New Year and then hitting Riverdance on the First, we had a terrific start!
• Unfortunately Eric was laid off from the cement plant on the 2nd, so that was a bummer, but he really needed to get a rest after all of the hours he put in. It took quite a while for him to recover from his laryngitis.
• Eric and I attended Tory’s school talent show, as Tory and her friend Willa were playing their guitars and singing a song that Willa had written (entitled ‘February’). They sounded fantastic however they didn’t make it into the top four.
• We had some friends over the second weekend of the month for our non-profits property repair. That went pretty well fortunately we never have a lot of things that need to be fixed.
• On the 16th I had the pleasure of assisting with Deborah’s baby shower. It turned out great… The food was terrific and everyone seemed to have a good time. Deborah and Wil made out. I think they’re all set now.
• I finally got Tory in to see a pediatric orthopedic surgeon right before the new year. He prescribed physical therapy (PT) for her shoulder, and thus we spent the majority of the month commuting back and forth to the PT’s in Saratoga. She went three times a week most weeks.
• Tory’s boyfriend, Justin, broke up with her three days before the Winter Formal. We encouraged her to go even so. She went with her friend, Thomas, and they seemed to have a great time. With no pressure.
• Tory worked on the run crew for the school play (As Bees in Honey Drown), working for her ex-boyfriend, who was the director.
• Of note, we went on a tour of CSUMB (Cal State Monterey Bay) at the end of the month. It will be a perfect school for Tory. We’ve got our fingers crossed. The campus is smaller (about the size of golden gate park), they’re still developing their sports teams (right now they have a girls water polo team, but no swim or dive teams). The dorms seem great, they have a policy of no alcohol in rooms that have folk under 21 in them. To keep from pressuring folk they even have dorms that are ‘clean’ no smoking or anything else. If you have problems with your room mate you just say so and they’ll move you. Can’t get much better than that. She won’t even need a car. There’s a target about a mile from the campus, and regular bus service into Monterey. If you catch the bus from campus to campus (there’s a community college in Monterey) it’s free. Seems too good to be true.
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This is the program from The Talent Show

Photos from Winter Formal:

Campus Map: CSUMonterey Bay

Wil & Deb's Baby Shower

This is the program from As Bees in Honey Drown

Photos from Detta's New Years Eve Party

December 2009

• This month has started out slow. I completed some chapter summaries for my book club, which pretty much drained me.
• The first Saturday of the month was very busy. Tory and I did some much needed shopping (including stopping by Laurie's costume sale) and then headed to Marine World (Discovery Kingdom...blech) with a carload that afternoon. We picked up Orion and Gavin and then Tory's boyfriend, Justin to join us. It was very cold there. According to the car it was 55 when we got there, and 42 when we left. Marine World doesn't open in December until 3pm, closing at 10pm. We got there at 3 and left at 9. Justin didn't bring more than a hooded sweatshirt, and froze to death. Thank goodness my car has a terrific heater.
• The following Saturday was our renaissance groups 'Yule Ball'. For more information, including photos, please see: http://danceanddestruction.blogspot.com/
• Following the Yule Ball, Detta and I shared a room, with Tory and her friends in another at Hotel Metropolis in downtown SF. The rooms were small but decadantly furnished (the beds had multiple pillows with down comforters that rustled as you moved). Very posh!
• I had my traditional Ladies Christmas Lunch. Our numbers were down from years past, but quality rather than quantity I always say!
• Eric is continuing to work at the cement factory in Moss Landing. He's working lots of over time (including double time) and seven days a week! He was made a foreman, which was really nice! Of course we don't see a lot of him, but the money makes up for it. It'll help out when he's not working after the first of the year.
• This year we moved the caroling back a day to accommodate some of our friends, and we ended up with a very poor turn out. Next year we're back to Friday before Christmas. :) Hopefully more of our friends will be able to join us that way.
• Christmas was spent at home with some of our closest friends (Patty, Orion, His Grace, Kieran, Robin, Anthony, Anne & Detta) stopping by. We had a huge dinner (Ham, Pork Florentine, Roast Beast, Lamb, Baked Potatoes, Rolls, Salad & Corn), with pies (pumpkin & cherry) for dessert. We spent a terrific afternoon and evening with everyone. The best part was that Eric had the day off (as well as Christmas Eve).
• The following week was a blur. Tory and I spent a lot of time doing things, but I can't remember everything we did! Eric developed laryngitis and came home from work on Sunday, and spent Monday at home as well. Wednesday Gwen & Laurie came to stay with us. We took them with us to Marine World for the last time of the season. Laurie is still one inch too short! She was pretty bummed and wouldn't be consoled with the 'baby' rides (her word). We spent a few hours there...until they kicked us out. :)
• New Years Eve was also a blur. Laurie & Gwen joined us for breakfast before heading home. Then Tory and I tore around doing errands before heading to Detta's for New Years. Eric had to work a 14 hour shift, so he got to stay home. We had a great time and headed back on New Years morning, to prep for our tickets to see Riverdance in San Jose. Patty and Eric joined us for the performance...with Patty picking up dinner at Paolo's before the performance. It was absolutely terrific...the food, the company, and especially the show!

November 2009

• This month started out with Tory's appearance in her schools first two plays of the year. Woody Allen's Death and God. In Death Tory played a boy. And unfortunately I couldn't figure out how to turn off the flash, so I don't have any photos. In God, Tory was part of the chorus and was on stage for about half of the play, so I have lots of photos...added here for that!
  
  Thanks to stupid Blogger, all of the photos are in reverse order.
  

This is Tory with her good friend, Marissa.

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• Then we did an event for our renaissance group, where we attended the IFMA Renaissance Faire (yearly party for their members) at a local hotel. We performed a series of dances for the crowd and had plenty of time for meet and greet.
• The following weekend we attended Kearney Park with our renaissance group. More information on this (including photos) can be found at http://danceanddestruction.blogspot.com.
• We were then lucky enough to attend San Jose Ballet performance of the Pirates of Penzance. What a terrific show. I imagine the play would be better, as then there would be speaking parts, but the show itself was wonderful! It was my first Ballet.
• Then we had our traditional pre-Thanksgiving potluck. This year we had twenty-two people in attendance.
• Eric went back to work the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, so it ended up being a good thing that we didn't plan on going to Pismo this year.