2010

Merry Christmas Family and Friends,

This is the first year since the mid 1980s that I have not mailed a card and letter. Back then few people included xmas letters with their cards. But now many more people are including nice letters with their cards, and I appreciate reading them. Increasingly there are many people that I only connect with via Internet, and these days "sharing" is best done via online photos and videos. So it's likely I will only prepare e-Xmas cards in the future too.

Holiday greetings and best wishes for 2011. Both of my kids are now of legal drinking age! After graduating from USC with BS/MS in civil engineering, Stephanie enjoys her job as a construction project manager at Intel in Chandler (Phoenix) Arizona. Stephen will graduate from Cal Poly SLO in June 2011 with a degree in computer engineering, and already has a job lined up at NetApp in Silicon Valley. (As I write this on 12/15 California is having endless rainstorms while Stephanie and Stephen are having an early xmas in Cabo San Lucas with their Aunt Ingrid and cousins.)

In April Stephen narrowly missed serious injury when an Escalade driven by a guy on suspended license turned left in front of him while Stephen was driving to campus on his motorcycle. News report and photo here.

I had always vaguely known that I was named after the Rudyard Kipling book “Kim.” My mother gave me a copy of the “Kim” comic book that was published four months before I was born. I scanned the entire thing and placed it here.

In February we spent a day in Napa Valley with some other families. The tour of “Castello Di Amorosa,” an authentically constructed 13th century, 107 room, Tuscan style Castle, was amazing. It was a long project of the V. Sattui family: www.castellodiamorosa.com. Video highlights of our trip here:

This year I also discovered Mezcal. The Del Maguey "single village mezcal" has a smokiness like Scotch, and is certified organic - and is mashed with horses. (Warning - it is not cheap.)

In February we accompanied my mother at a time when my brother Jay was in town on a quick trip to Reno just to eat at Miguels Mexican restaurant (South Virginia at Mount Rose - 775-322-2722) that we had been eating at since I was a kid. We talked to the current owner and he said they made conscious effort to retain the original recipe. I ordered "#1 La Favorite" same as when I was 8 years old - except this time my mother allowed me to have a top-shelf margarita!



In April we rented a new Camaro for the weekend and took it up the Foresthill Highway – and down the dirt road to Colfax. Video is here:

I spend the Fourth of July at Folsom Lake with my Raw Food Friends.

The farthest from home this year was to Carmel to visit my sister for a long weekend on in July. My sister had rented a house across the street from the historic Robinson Jeffers Tor House so I enjoyed the tour of that house. We spent one evening at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk - the first time i have ever been there. Stephen came after work from his NetApp job, and brought his girlfriend who also attends Cal Poly and worked for the summer at Cisco. On my birthday we walked to the wine tasting rooms of Galante Vineyards and Cima Collins - both were excellent.



When my brother visited in October I hosted a 50th birthday party for him. This includes us singing Jay's “Please Come to Boston” cover that was on the Country Music charts and getting airplay in several countries a month later. (You can get the mp3 by signing up for Jay's newsletter at www.jsbmusic.com/)  My friend Michael R. provided the sound system, and his girlfriend joined in singing - including a duet "You Don't Bring me Flowers" with my brother - none of this we rehearsed:

As a former Hewlett-Packard employee and activist against how HP moved U.S. jobs and technology to China - thus contributing to our demise and China's economic strength - was in a "Carly Fiorina for Senate" opposition video (I first appear at 1:20):

While setting up the remote camera I was like: “I’m a software engineer with 20 years experience. I worked HP in R&D on both PCs and high-end servers…” Control technician: “yeah yeah, well if you have any problem setting up give me a call.” Five minutes later I have to phone him – “How do I turn on the laptop that you sent me?” (The power button was at the end of the hinge where the screen opens.)

In October I had taken a day off to be part of the Carly video press conference in Los Angeles. But that fell through, so instead I spent the day relaxing at the American River, just 10 minute drive from my house.

In November we drove to San Francisco with “Raw Food” friends Christian, Dan, and Sunshine to attend the huge www.greenfestivals.org. We filled up on the free health food samples and attended some lectures:

  • Michael Slade - Strawbale and other alternative home construction techniques
  • Lloyd Kahn - Profiled his own house as tips for "half-acre homesteading"
  • Matthew Stein – Addressed Peak Oil and his survivalist book "When Technology Fails"

This year I reconnected with several people I had lost touch with for many years:

  • Darren B. was my classmate in Electronics at ARC, then we were co-workers at Signetics until 1986, when he left to work at Intel. I had not seen or heard from him since then. But through Facebook another friend John from that era found me and invited me to hear Darren’s band. This was even more bizarre because when I knew Darren he always talked about his “band from high school.” Then at their 25th San Juan High School (here in Citrus Heights) they decided to re-form the band with essentially the same set-list - consisting of many of all time favorite songs. www.NightfallTheBand.com.


  • Tom R., ARC classmate and guitarist in the Plan B band we played in 1982 in found me online.


  • Mark, Mitch, and Matt lived next door to my grandparents, and were our childhood friends when we visited Sacramento. Through Facebook we are re-connected, and Mark and Mitch stopped by when Jay was in town.


  • In November I saw "Kim T." quoted in an article about a bear in South-East Reno. He was another guy named Kim - my classmate from first grade through high school.

  • Just last week I ran into Vu T. at Trader Joes. We had met in the lobby at Hewlett Packard in January 1989, on our first day of work for both of us.

Finally, on December 20th at 11:30pm i took some video of the "Winter Soltice Lunar Eclipse of 2010":

Let's see what 2011 brings...