2002

Our family unfortunately didn’t make it out to aunt Carole and uncle David’s house for Passover this year, but someone was kind enough to forward these pictures. In other words, don’t complain about the picture quality. Looks like we missed out on a bunch of fun. John and Joni came down, and my dad (Ira), Karen, and Max came from North Carolina. Even my sister and her family came including Steve, Kyle, and Rachael. I love the shots of Karen nodding off. What a bonehead, we should have gone. ...

Charlotte has been making eye pillows and hot/cold packs for friends for some time. She’s expanded her repertoire recently and had an opportunity to sell some items at a friend’s home. Manufacturing went into full swing on a whole line of eye pillows, packs, oils, and bath salts. They’re becoming very popular in the area and she’s starting to sell quite a few. Here are those humble beginnings.

Our new neighbor just moved into across the street. It’s actually quite a tale, but I’ll only give the short version. These are well known business people in our area, and they used to live next door to Charlotte’s sister on the other side of the neighborhood. Turns out they’re was very little love lost between the two neighbors and they eventually moved away. I can’t really say if there was ever any real connection. It then turns out they move across the street from her sister, but we’re hopeful it won’t get as tense as it was with Valri. ...

Well it’s not actually new, only mostly new, but I just attached the numbers. Turns out after maybe 50 years for the homes on this small street, the county wanted to assign us all with new numbers. The new home that went up in the background triggered a county assignment of a new number, when they discovered the existing numbers were not following the correct sequence. Somehow the sequence issue was translated into a possible failure for emergency vehicles being unable to find our homes. There was a load rejection of the proposal to change addresses and the compromise was the clear placement of numbers that would avoid any confusion. I hope I can keep this address for at least another 50 years.

Charlotte and Valri are up in Bootjack again for a visit with their parents. Man it’s cold up there! Here they are at the Miscowaubik Club in Calumet. Gordon plays lots of bridge at the club. It’s also where we held their 50th anniversary party. Valri and Charlotte venture out into the cold for a bit of cross country skiing and snow shoeing. Gordon and Charlotte do some serious bundling up before leaving Valri’s house. ...

No, I wasn’t off to Cannes to accept an award for some great new movie I directed. I was scheduled to speak on a panel at the 3GSM World Congress. It was a real shame that Charlotte couldn’t make it out with me for the week. I wound up in a hotel in Moujin called Le Mas Candille. The hotel was awesome, though the only photo I took was from my balcony. I really didn’t want to rub it in. ...

Monica breaks out the makeup case and goes to town. Nothing tops painting on your own body, except maybe painting on someone else’s body. Monica really shows off some artistic skill with these body designs. Maybe I should get her to help with the design of this site.

I’m sure these photos were part of some school project that I can’t quite recall. Anyway they make a nice sequence. All these were taken in the backyard by the edge of our canyon.

We usually go to the beach on the west side of the Santa Cruz harbor. It tends to get less of a crowd and the big concrete jacks are fun for the kids to play on. We decided today to have lunch on the east side and enjoy the beach and the harbor. Here the kids are mostly playing along the rocks and on the dredge pipe. There’s a decent view of the new lighthouse at the harbor entry. ...

For my birthday this year, Charlotte and I decided we would spend the day together doing something fun outside. Our destination was Elkhorn Slough in Moss Landing. We got up early to take advantage of the tides and then headed out in our kayak. It was a beautiful and peaceful day for a paddle. Our tour was very interesting and there was no shortage of birds and other wildlife. We saw a huge jellyfish in the bay just beyond the US-1 overpass. I’ve been to the slough in the past as part of a school field trip with the kids. This place really goes way back into the mountains. There’s also a very nice beach on the other side of the bay. ...