12-25-2021: Christmas day walk! We were staying at John's sister's house in Pasadena, and went for a nice long walk
in the canyon.
12-23-2021: Holiday card selfies! Our holiday card concept was going to be selfies, because
of distance and timing. But we ran out of time.
12-19-2021: Fourth Advent/At-Home Christmas smorgasbord! Nomnomnom. We ate and watched Elf.
11-27-2021: Fun and games and a visit from Aunt Bea. Bea came to visit! She's Barbara's cousin.
We all went to Marieta's for brunch. Later, we played Rummikub with Grammy. A night walk turned up this curious night cat.
11-25-2021: Giving thanks! Leo, Grammy, and Barbara joined us for Thanksgiving dinner. Leo
made the cranberry relish, cornbread (from scratch), and prosciutto-wrapped asparagus, John made the roasted Cornish game hens,
and Ondine made the roasted root vegetables and yams.
11-22-2021: Boosted! John got the COVID-19 booster shot from Walmart, hence the bear.
11-01-2021: Diploma time! John's AA diploma from City College arrived, so he took a few photos. The first
with a few of the books he's read as part of the associate's degree program, and the second overlaying his CSUF BA from way back.
10-31-2021: Happy Halloween! We went to Old Town with Barbara for brunch, then walked around the park.
10-30-2021: Field class in Anza Borrego. Part of the archaeological technician training with the California State
Parks, through the Colorado Desert Archaeology Society.
10-29-2021: John's unit is a clean unit. So far he's gone down one full level, and is almost down to a second level.
09-24-2021: John in his happy place. Here's John in one of two units he cleared out at Rancho Penasquitos.
Those disastrous sidewalls aren't his - they collapsed during the year and a half the site was abandoned due to COVID closures. His job was
to clear and screen all the wall collapse down to the level of the plastic sheeting. You can see his new unit to the right. So far, he's
working on leveling that one quad.
09-18-2021: Leo was here, and an unexpected journey. Leo came to town for a brief stay. But, his ride back to L.A. didn't work out,
so John drove him back, meaning a round-trip drive to L.A. At least there were really good fish tacos near Leo's digs!
09-12-2021: A quick trip to Venice! Either that, or lunch at Filippi's Pizza, where we had lasagne and clam linguine,
and took a couple pics in front of their wall mural. One of these days, though ...
09-10-2021: John gets down and dirty. John loves his field class, where he gets to root around in the dirt all day
and come home all covered in sweat and soil.
09-06-2021: Dog Beach! We stook Shadow to Coronado so he could run around off-leash at dog beach. So much fun!
John took pictures of shells to try to identify them.
08-29-2021: Auf Wiedersehen, Schaho! We said good-bye to Schaho, who came from Mannheim, Germany to
attend SDSU, and stayed with us for a few weeks until his housing lease started. Here we are with Barbara and Schao at Tajima Izakaya
in Kearny Mesa.
08-27-2021: John's first day of field class. Actually, this wasn't the first day of class, but it was
the first day in the field at the school's research site at Rancho Penasquitos.
08-22-2021: We solo! With Leo's departure for L.A. this weekend, we're officially empty nesters for the
first time! We have Schaho staying as a houseguest, so the place isn't completely empty. But, woo hoo, here we are! After the Ishida family
reunion at Nancy and Jay's, we went for a walk along the beach at Torrey Pines.
08-20-2021: Roy solos! Roy left today to drive to Colorado Springs and UCCS! A long drive, but he broke it into
a few days. It was also the first long road trip for the Corolla in years, but it motored along with no problems and both arrived safe and sound.
07-09-2021: John solos! For the first time, John was the sole archaeological monitor for a site. Nothing was found,
but he still took photographs, collected data, and filled out the forms for state and local agencies.
07-07-2021: John digs a hole! His first archaeological hole, a shovel test pit (shown here about half finished). Also, his
first use of his new trowel, and his first find, a small possible flake that was photographed and recorded. Here's the day's team! That's his boss Josh, Lexi
on the screen, and John on the shovel. He went back the next day to do some mapping.
07-06-2021: John is also doing this. John is taking a class in geographical information systems, focusing on
ArcGIS Pro 2.8. Here's one of his assignments.
07-02 to 07-04-2021: Dropping off Leo in Los Angeles! Leo is going to a music production school in Los Angeles, and will be
living in shared housing a short bus ride away from the school (Point Blank Music School, in the historic Mack Sennett Studio building). Included in these
photos: a final sift of clothes, breakfast, the Blue House on Hobart (and the house cat, Sushi), and Leo's "pod," a private sleeping capsule. Also, what
Leo made for dinner that night, and a brief get-together on the Fourth of July with John's sister Elaine and family - we picked up Grammy at her place, so
Leo is playing the piano in the lobby at the retirement community. Before leaving Leo in L.A. and heading home, we got Leo a hat and sunglasses, and paused
for iced boba.
06-27-2021: Leo made pizza! This was what Leo made for dinner when John and Roy returned from Los Angeles. Yum!
06-25 to 6-26-2021: John and Roy visit Grammy. We stayed at John's sister's place while we visited Grammy for the first time in over a
year. We also retrieved her car, which had been sitting unused in the parking garage since March 2019. We stopped at the cemetery on the way home. Also included
in this set are photos of the car itself, taken later.
06-10 to 06-19-2021: Ondine, Roy, Leo, and Shadow return from Sand Pond. Here are a few photos that Leo sent to John while they
were away. Included: going up the Buttes, lunch on the Yuba River, a campsite deer, and the drive home (on which Shadow threw up on Roy).
06-10-2021: Roooooaad triiip! The Prius is packed and Ondine, Roy, Leo, and Shadow headed out early in the morning
to go camping for a week or so at Sand Pond! Google Maps said the drive would take 11 hours; in real life it was 15 grueling hours, but they made it!
06-05-2021: Roy turns 21! Danielle and Barbara joined us celebrating Roy's birthday at Olive Garden!
06-04-2021: John has a job in a whole new field. And sometimes the field has flowers, and sometimes the field has goats.
These fields also had a lot of faunal bones!
05-15-2021: Leo made dinner: Ramen with homemade tonkatsu broth and udon noodles because we prefer it that way!
05-13-2021: John got his second vax jab! Here he is in the monitoring area in the food court at Grossmont Center mall.
05-02-2021: Leo made dinner: fried chicken sandwich on homemade milk bread brioche buns with homemade pickles, yum!
05-01-2021: New mechopet, and Leo bakes milk bread brioche buns.
We got a Bissell Spinwave robotic vacuum cleaner/damp mopper. It's been fun watching it work its way around our stuff. Leo and Ondine
made milk bread brioche buns for the dinner he planned.
04-29-2021: John's scholarship award presentation!
Look what came in the mail - it's a scholarship check from the San Diego City College Foundation! The awards ceremony was online, so there was no live
in-person presentation or ceremony. But, the virtual ceremony did include some pre-recorded speeches and clickable slides with voiceovers announcing
recipient's names. Here's John's slide!
04-23-2021: Shadow gets comfy in Leo's lap.
Because his bed on the floor just isn't plush enough, apparently.
04-21-2021: John monitors a hole.
The crew used a hydrovac and jackhammers to no avail, this hole wasn't going to be a hole today.
04-18-2021: Orange chicken and fried rice by Leo.
He used blood oranges instead of regular oranges, and they gave the orange chicken an added sparkle and tanginess!
04-14-2021: John surveys poles in east county.
John got called out to do a survey of some poles scheduled for replacement/removal in the backcountry.
04-11-2021: Leo made dinner again!
It's turning into a weekend tradition, Sunday dinner by Leo! This evening, it's homemade ramen, made with udon noodles because Leo wanted the
heartier, chewier noodles, and that was a great call! Topped with ground pork and other fixings.
04-03-2021: Leo made dinner!
Pork in spicy peanut sauce with rice and toppings, yum!
03-31-2021: New hard hat day!
On the advice of his superior, John got a full-brim hard hat.
03-29-2021: John got called out again!
This was his first day doing site monitoring, which means looking for anything historic or cultural in the spoils created by the work. Nothing came
up, but he thought it was very exciting the whole time! Here are his very first archaeological hole, and his second.
03-28-2021: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!
It sure doesn't seem like 23 years; we sure have been lucky in so many ways!
03-16-2021: John got called!
This was his first day in the field, working part-time as an archaeological field tech. There was snow still sticking on the ground
as we drove out east on the I-8! We're not posting photos of the site because CRM (cultural resource management), but here are
the thumbnails he sketched when he thought back over the day, highlighting the things he saw the most.
03-15-2021: John got stuff!
Now that he has a job, John has taken that as an excuse to go on a small buying spree, getting various bits that he needs for fieldwork.
Here's his current backpack, although he ordered another. Then, he got a Suunto MC-2 compass, which is belatedly replacing the Silva Ranger
he lost in Berlin when his pack got stolen.
03-14-2021: Snow in Colorado Springs!
Colorado got hit by a major blizzard that made the national news. Here's Roy's view out his apartment window.
03-11-2021: John got a job!
He's now an on-call archaeological field technician for a local cultural resource management firm! Here he is in his work togs, a hard hat and
reflective vest!
02-24-2021: John got archaeology themed face masks!
The first shows stratigraphy, and the second shows a frozen Woolly Mammoth.
02-19-2021: Roy heads back to school.
Here he is at San Diego International, heading back to Colorado Springs via Las Vegas, baby!
02-14-2021: Valentine's Day take-out.
Yum, Himalayan food! Daal, vegetarian samosas, chicken vindiloo, chicken biryani, aloo gobi, naan, basmati rice, nomnomnom!
02-13-2021: Passports and kaffeetrinken.
Before kaffeetrinken, Ondine took Roy and Leo to SDSU to get their new adult passports!
01-30-2021: Kaffeetrinken and an evening hike up the mountain.
After kaffeetrinken, Ondine, Roy, Leo, and Shadow went up the mountain. Roy evaded photos, but here's Leo at the summit taking in the lights below.
01-24-2021: A late afternoon walk.
Photo 1: It's a lovely day as we leave the house. This is a climbing rose right outside our front window. Photo 2: The view from the bottom of the hill
across the canyon to the sun setting behind Grossmont College. Photo 3: It's always neat to see Shakespeare in a Little Free Library. John already has
both of these, though, in his preferred editions. Photo 4: Hmm, those cloud are ... looming ominously, and moving fast too. Photo 5: Hoo hoo hoo's there?
Can you spot the Great Horned Owl? We heard him first then spotted him, but the photo shows him and a possible her! We watched him for a while even as
the weather palpably changed and ... Photo 6: Wait, no, what's this wet stuff, we live in San Diego this can't be happeninggggg! Actually we love the rain
and just kept going. Yeah, we got totally drenched and so did the dog, but it was so totally worth it to see and hear a Great Horned Owl!
01-09-2021: Oshogatsu feast!
We did our oshogatsu/osechi feast the weekend after New Year's because life. Actually, it worked out great, Mitsuwa still had
all we needed, with no crowd at all. Here's the ozoni in the pot for breakfast, and a small sample of our osechi, with inarizushi,
makizushi, teriyaki chicken, konnyaku, daikon-carrot salad, cucumber salad, and three kuromame (sweet black beans).
01-07-2021: Hope for a better future, from nature.
As armed mobs break into the houses of Congress at president Trump's urging, in an effort to overturn by force the election of 2020, here are a few
examples of peace, growth, and regrowth, from our own yard.
12-31-2020: Old Year's Night!
Things were very different this year due to many circumstances, of which the pandemic was one. At any rate, we didn't do the traditional
Japanese Osechi feast this year; instead both Ondine and John focused on making the German dishes. Here's bohnensuppe with bratwurst
(usually landjaeger), mashed potatoes (usually with weisswurst), rotkohl, and obst for dessert. There was also sauerkraut, herringsalat,
and barbeque potato chips and onion dip at midnight.
12-30-2020: A year-end hike!
Ondine and Roy and Shadow went up Cowles Mountain this morning.
12-25-2020: Merry Christmas!
Again, kind low-key around here with four adults. Still, we opened presents and had a great Christmas morning breakfast of waffles.
Here are some of our favorite ornaments. The first batch are among the oldest, and the first two are from the Cassidys, old, old family friends.
The little bell is a souvenir from Brienz, Switzerland, given to John's parents in 1953. The little wooden wagon is dated 1973, but that's when it
was given to John as a kid after he became utterly entranced by it. It actually dates from earlier. The little angel gift topper is one of John's mom's
collection, and dates from the early 1950s. Finally, there's an angel in a ring, which belonged to Ondine's grandmother; it could be pre-war.
Next is our newest ornament, a model USS Enterprise given to John from Roy, who printed it on his new 3-D printer. We saved some of the bvest for
last, kid-made ornaments from our own little offpsringen! The reindeer is actually a table top decoration, but we love it in the tree. The beaded icicles
and rings, and clay stars and snowmen are from other years.
12-24-2020: Christmas Eve.
A somewhat different-than-usual Christmas celebration because we're at home. So we got out the good china and had a feast of
our own, with Barbara. Here we all are! Afterwards, the kints played Connect Four using the chessboard and chess pieces,
and later played chess while we took a night walk.
Archived Photos from 2020
Archived Photos from 2019
Archived Photos from 2018
Archived Photos from 2017
Archived Photos from 2016
Archived Photos from 2015
Archived Photos from 2014
Archived Photos from 2013
Archived Photos from 2012
Archived Photos from 2011
Archived Photos from 2010
Archived Photos from 2009
Archived Photos from 2008
Archived Photos from 2007
Archived Photos from 2006
Archived Photos from 2005
Archived Photos from 2004
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