David Multer

I think Charlotte took these pictures as part of our refinance. Time to lock in those low rates yet again.

Charlotte is very happy now that she’s got her computer all to herself. The kids and I used accounts defined under Windows XP and would switch as needed. Most of the time I would be competing for time with Charlotte. Now each of the kids have their own computers and everyone is happily clicking away in each of their rooms. I finally made the switch over to my Mac, so Charlotte is on her own. She sure looks happy.

That old boating fever keeps coming back. I caught wind of a boat show in the area and decided to make a day of it with the family. The NCMA boat show was held in Jack London Square in Oakland. The show had both indoor displays and a large number of boats in slips. It was a beautiful day to be outside and around boats, and I had never been to this area of Oakland before. It’s a great area with lots to see and do. ...

I’ve been to quite a few places around the world, especially Europe, but I was really looking forward to my trip to Rome. I was headed out to Italy for a standards group meeting for the Open Mobile Alliance. I won’t bore you with what went on at the meetings, but unfortunately they chewed up most of my free time. I did manage to get a full day away to check out the city, but of course it had to be raining that day. Who really cares about getting wet anyway. ...

While I was in Rome for the week, Charlotte tooks the kids up to the San Francisco zoo with their cousins. I hear that they’ve rearranged things quite a bit since I was last up there. Charlotte went for our usual secret parking spot close to an entrance, but they closed that gate. Sounds like they’ve done a great job on the new layout. Guess I’ll have to take the whole crew up again sometime soon. ...

I hadn’t seen my uncle Jeff and aunt Eileen in such a long time. When Eileen called me to say she was coming to Santa Cruz for a dog show, I tried my best to talk Jeff into coming as well. To our great pleasure, even Ari came along. Eileen has got quite a travel setup for her three dogs Mary Jane, Luther, and Lacy. The kids loved hanging with the dogs, though Abby seemed a bit overwhelmed with the sheepdog pack that came to town that day. Here Gabe can’t take his eyes off Mary Jane. ...

There’s this beach north of Santa Cruz and just south of the Pigeon Point lighthouse that we call sand dune beach. It’s probably our very favorite beach in the whole area. It reminds me a lot of the beaches back on the east coast. It has towering grass covered sand dunes, a long walk to the water, and not a whole lot of people. It’s become a bit more crowded lately since they built a classy campground/lodge nearby. ...

Looks like both uncle Gordy and grandpa are needed to help Gabe land this northern pike. Gabe definitely gets the prize for best dock fish after landing a small mouth bass, and now a pike.

Guess we couldn’t get enough of the Dreamland for dinner. Tonight we dinner out with Gordon and Charlotte. The smaller kids got their own table, and Chris is hanging with the grownups now.

The Dreamland restaurant is only a few miles from camp, and a good destination for dinner when we finally get tired of making dinner for our whole pile of kids. Here the three sets of cousins pass the time waiting for their food. Gabe and Doug ham it up as usual for the camera.