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Kay's webpage  
This page is an update for Kathryn. The most recent news is at the top.
Your weather:
Weather today for Dan, Sherry and Robert:
Weather today for Carol and Annie:
And just for fun:
April, 2005
In the SF Chronicle a favorite political columnist included an link to a website with picture of cats in odd sleeping poses:
http://www.themoggy.com/
March, 2005
Webcams are website pages with photos of a place, frequently updated, as often as every minute or less.
My current favorite webcams are: (you can click on the http link to see them)
The Grand Tetons
http://www.jhnsyn.com/webcams/grandteton/index.php
Two views of Yosemite. Sometimes in the winter they are either full of clouds, or the snow level builds up so high in front of the camera on one that you can't see much of anything but sky.
http://www.yosemite.org/vryos/index.htm
Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone (in the spring, summer and fall they predict when it is next expected to erupt).
http://www.nps.gov/yell/oldfaithfulcam.htm
The San Diego Zoo polar bear plunge
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/zoo/polarcam.html
or the San Diego Zoo panda cam
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/pandas/pandacam/index.html
A pair of peregrine falcons nesting on the 33rd floor of PG&E's downtown San Francisco headquarters.
http://www.pge.com/peregrinenestcam/
and for you, USC has a one picture at a time cam and time-lapse movies of a whole day.
http://www.usc.edu/about/visit/upc/tommy_cam/
Feb. 11 The students had fun talking to you on the phone about their adventures on the snow camp trip. Two of the people you talked to were Erika and Rani, as in this picture:
More pictures are at:
February 2005 Yosemite camping and Upper Yosemite Fall hike
In the December package to you I wrote about the dinner for the teaching assistants. Look at: teaching assistants' dinners pictures. I also sent you a rough draft of the new page road trip bingo or scavenger hunt.
Do you have anything from your experience to add to it?
end of December: the panels are on and the system is running and our electric meter is running backwards.
Mid December
Nov. 4, 2004 the solar system is going in:
October 30 My swimming students really enjoyed telling you about their successes in class. Did you realize we were on the phone for almost a half an hour?Their first trip to deep water is always exciting. You can read more that previous people have had to say about learning to swim at:
Letters from novice students
October 19 :
Rain storm (according to the weather people of 7 on a scale of 1 to 10).
The editorial from the Lone Star Iconoclast, as mentioned in the Oct. 15 Doonebury, is at:
http://www.iconoclast-texas.com/Columns/Editorial/editorial39.htm
In the Oct/November package I sent you copies of the some of the letters to the editor and the original editorial. You can find all of them the online.
I was not able to find the George Will column mentioned in the Oct. 16 Doonesbury.
Mid October:
From the letter I sent, the three articles quoted in the Doonesbury cartoons are at
Wall Street Journal writer
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45&aid=72659
Salon
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/09/10/conservatives/index/index_np1.html
Rep. Doug Bereuter's letter to constituents
http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2004/08/19/letters/doc412532f09fbbe438621096.txt
September 28 We did not feel the central California earthquake this morning, but we noticed it. The chimes on the grandfather clock bumped against each other and rang, the chandelier was swinging and Alan noticed his mini-blinds waving.
September 26 I wish I could convince you to use email. It works quickly, across the globe. This morning I emailed a link to an article on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle to a former student who is now stationed in Iraq. He responded (at 5 p.m. Iraq time, still morning here) that he had followed the link and a picture he saw was familiar.
"Hey Mary, Camp Victory is where I go to everyday to go to that PX. And that is a picture of where the Army sleeps. They are in their own 'boxes'. Two to a unit. We are in open bay so to speak."
The article is
How the occupation looks to an American soldier
at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/09/26/MNGGP8VC8V1.DTL
It said, in part,
"the U.S. military has brought America to Iraq.
Inside the concertina wire and perimeter lights of the forward operating bases -- FOBs -- everything is air-conditioned. The electricity is always on, powered by roaring diesel generators. There are chow halls with American food -- spaghetti and pork cutlets are popular. Camp Victory, the huge base north of the Baghdad airport, has a short-order grill, where burgers and Philly cheesesteaks are made to order, a salad bar, a pizza bar, a sandwich bar and an ice cream bar.
Camp Victory also has what the troops call "the mother of all PXes." You can buy DVDs and DVD players, CDs, candy, gum and protein powder. There are TVs, gas grills, air conditioners, microwave ovens and even picnic benches...
The bases have Internet cafes, weight rooms, basketball courts, phone centers and snack bars. Burger King has a stand outside the Camp Victory PX."
I'll mail you a copy of the article.
September 20 First day of classes. I am teaching with a jackhammer in my classroom. A great big one mounted on a tractor. They are tearing up the locker rooms for the remodeling and they are see-through from the pool area to the track. I have to yell through class. Or rather, I have to project my voice. The singing in high school and church choir paid off.
 
September 14
A swimming class at Del Mar Community College in Corpus Christi, Texas, has online assignments, including an assignment for Oct. 27/28 to read my webpage on the History of Swimming. She emailed me first for permission, as they have no textbooks for the class on the subject. The instructor put a link you can click on, too.
http://www.delmar.edu/kine/jpswimming.html
If that link does not work, you can read the webpage at:
"History of swimming section'.
September 7 to 14 We took some of the Outdoor Club to Wyoming for kayaking and hiking. We watched a family of river otters steal a fish from a bald eagle.
Pictures are at this link: Grand Tetons September 2004
August 31 The pears from our garden I am mailing you today are supposed to ripen off the tree, so they seemed like a worthwhile experiment. Here, a picture just before they were picked, with a color coordinating daylily.
August 18
It's raining and 17 degrees in Oslo today. How can I tell? Because even though I can't read Norwegian, I can tell by the symbols at the Norway newspaper I was looking at.
For some practice reading in Norwegian, try this link to national and local media:
http://www.abyznewslinks.com/norwa.htm
Not all of their links work. Some are in English as well.
August 12 to 15 we took 28 students kayaking, hiking and camping in Yosemite. Six had never been camping before.
I made a bear costume of sorts and we used it for a picture of the group shaking pine needles out of a tent in preparation for packing up.
click on the link below to see more pictures and find clickable links to even more pictures
August 2004 Tuolumne trip
August 6 Alan took this picture of House Finches in one of the birdbaths at our house.
You weren't the only one getting flowers from my yard. I make up bouquets from my garden and bring them to offices at De Anza. Here is a photo of three packed in a tub, sitting on the Jeep hood in our yard just before I left for work. One administrator in the Security Office says she is certain that people are on better behavior when they come in with a problem and there are flowers at the front desk.
August 5 I emailed you some links to practice your Spanish. I found a couple more, so here they all are, along with a couple of other news sources.
La Opinion (Los Angeles newspaper) at:]
http://www.laopinion.com/
Escondido:
http://www.hispanosnews.com/planos/news.html
San Francisco:
http://www.elmensajero.com/
San Jose
http://www.el-observador.com/
Hawaii
http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/index.html
BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
July 29 Have you been watching Jim Lehrer's coverage of the Demos' convention?
Some of my students refuse to register to vote because they might get jury duty. I would hope they might change their minds if they listened to Barak Obama or Jimmy Carter.
If you missed the floor speeches, most are at:
http://www.dems2004.org/site/pp.asp?c=luI2LaPYG&b=118014
You can scroll down and click on any name to read the speech they gave.
Ron Reagan did a good speech explaining stem cell research. A transcript of it is at:
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-27-2004/0002219530&EDATE=
July 16 I found the website for the Deerfield.
http://www.preshomes.com/community/index.iml?Community=deerfield
July 14 your dark blue agapanthus is starting to bloom.
On July 11 we took a bunch of De Anza students to volunteer at a San Francisco swim race.
More pictures are at:
Sharkfest 2004 lifeguarding
I sent an email with this same link to the Chancellor of the Foothill De Anza District (she was a lifeguard when she was a kid) and she was so impressed she said she would be forwarding it to the Board of Trustees.
July 9 pictures from your garden:
 
Alan has a politics website you might like to read. It is updated frequently. The author researches his own news stories and also does news analysis. He has a Doctorate in history from Brown University. Click on the link below:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com
June 24 to 27 we took our first vacation without students in quite awhile. We found a hotel outside of Yosemite that is much cheaper than the ones in the park, with a bathtub almost big enough to play waterpolo.
Brought our raft and saw baby ducks:
 
On a hike saw a marmot family:
 
June 17 First ripe tomato.
Alan finished getting the new water heater in and a couple of hours later the clothes dryer made an awful sound and seized up. Photo below of Alan taking it apart. He found the remains of a ballpoint pen in the fan and about nine dollars in change on the floor that had snuck through the drum. The new part cost $11.
For your June 15 birthday, pictures from a previous birthday party in our yard:
 
Notes from June 11
Alan and some of my current students posed for pictures for a website page I made of safety precautions for people learning to be waterfront lifeguards.
To see the page and the rest of the pictures click on the link (sentence) below:
rescue board safety tips
Yesterday Alan allowed as how the novelty of no hot water had worn off. It's amazing how little water it takes to wash hair when you have to heat it in a pan on the stove. We are making progress and we did know when we bought our fixer-upper house that there would be times like these. It is better than after an earthquake when there's no running water at all.
The pictures from your garden in the section below were taken June 9, 2004.
 
 
I thought you might also like a picture of the hills at the end of Rainbow Drive with a cloud peeking over them.
We are having more adventures with our fixer-upper house. The hot water heater rusted through, only we did not know it because it was at the side that was facing away from where we could see it.
When the water broke through it mostly went under the house, but also flooded the laundry room, kitchen and part of the breakfast room. At least we were home when it happened and we could quickly mop it all up before it did any damage.
Home Depot had a good price on a new energy efficient water heater, but they wanted $249 to install it, so Alan of course, said he would. It turns out that newer ones are bigger diameter than the old ones, to have more insulation, so he has to rearrange some pipes. We are heating water for dishes, hairwashing over the stove for a few days until he can find the time to do everything.
Alan and I and seven of my current and former students volunteered as the lifeguarding staff this last weekend at a triathlon for children.
To read the whole story and see lots more pictures, click on the link (sentence) below:
guarding the Silicon Valley Kids Triathlon, 2004
The flower pictures below were taken June 4, 2004
You were concerned that the flowers be kept blooming at your house, so I took these pictures so you can see that all is well in the plant kingdom. Your Agapanthus is blooming before mine. If you email me the proper names I will put them on this page.
 
 
 
 
 
May 23, 2004
Jane Rosenthal and Ray Moreno were both there for the first open house. The new carpeting looks great. Mary Lester came by right at the beginning of the open house and she agrees everything looks much better.
May 18, 2004. As per your instructions, we have stopped cleaning up your house. We did go to see Lucy Ravey and she said the paint overspray from the house painters cleaned off her car completely. But when Comcast came to turn off your cable, they turned off hers instead. When she initially called them about it they said it was impossible. Later that day they realized their error and sent out a guy who fixed it and apologized.
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The pictures below were all taken on May 8, 2004.
As of May 8, Alan and I had made six trips/car loads to the house to empty the cabinets, etc. We cleaned up the dead brown bulb fronds in the front yard. We are keeping the roses clipped so they don't form rose hips and stop blooming. We have not yet taken the food out of the fridge and freezer, but we were going to get to it later until you instructed me not to.
Lucy Ravey from next door took in the wheelchair and bed frame for safekeeping until the company could come and pick it up, which they did.
I spotted the heavy, black Japanese lantern sitting by the front walk and took it inside and scrubbed it and re-hung it on the front patio. It had a little white paint on it, but Alan was going to bring some black paint and touch it up. The next day it was gone.
Unfortunately, the house painters did not take care to cover plants or properly mask before they painted.
They painted over the house numbers.
Spray got on a solar yard light
This paint on the front porch could almost look like sunlight, but it is not.
They even painted the hoses at the front yard corner.
These could also look like sunlight, but it is paint.
 
More overspray, this time at the backdoor to the garage.
The backyard plants along the back wall of the house and even the ginger along the fence across the patio got painted.
    
I tried to gently rub some of the paint off some leaves, but it does not all come off.
Pictures I took of overspray along the tops of the kitchen cabinets were out of focus, but these of paint on carpeting and doors are not.
  
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They also got overspray on Lucy Ravey's new car. The hood looks like it has a coating of dust on it. She is going to take it to the car wash and see if the paint comes off.
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