By the time I got home from work today, she was beyond exhausted. We took Yuki out into the backyard for a few minutes prior to turning her over. She really was not thrilled with the experience so I carried here back in the house, this time to my room so I could keep an eye on her while Pat got some rest. In due course, both girls fell asleep.

I doubt Yuki has gotten much satisfying sleep since her ordeal began. But now that she had had a drink of water and a little bite to eat and was reasonably comfortable, her eyes narrowed to little slits with just a bit of white showing and for awhile the only sign of life was the gentle rise and fall of her rib cage.

I was sitting in my recliner watching the news while she slept on her bed beside me on the floor. I heard the blankets and pads on her bed begin to rustle. I looked down to see her three good legs twitching, forward and back, forward and back, forward and back. She began breathing hard and fast. It looked for all the world like she was running hard in her dreams. Then she woke up…s t r e t c h e d, blinked a couple of times…I imagined she was running and came to a crashing stop as reality settled around her once again.

December – Christmas at the Castles’

The month did not start well for Matthew. One early morning when he went out to his car to go to work, he found it with the doors and trunk open and his laptop computer gone. Fortunately, it was insured and several months later he was able to get a replacement.

Jason taught himself to play guitar in his teens. He continues experimenting with computer and electronic tools and sometimes emails his compositions for us to enjoy. Zoram Strand arrived in our Inbox in December and was updated in October.

The highlight of December is, of course, Christmas. The best part of the day for us is spending time with the Castle clan in Olivenhain. In addition to being great hosts, Greg and Doreen have for many years now, made a tradition of preparing the best prime rib dinner to be had anywhere, at any price.

January – Peter DeVeau

My uncle Peter, the last DeVeau ( my mother’s youngest brother), passed away on January 21. He was diagnosed with esophageal cancer less than a year beforehand. In our last phone conversation he expressed his opinion that he had had a good run.

Our Disneyland friend, Terry, retired from SBC (formerly Pacific Bell, and now AT&T) in 2006. One of the perks was lunch for four at Disneyland’s very exclusive Club 33. So Terry, Karen, Jerry and Pat had one of the most memorable days in the park, ever, when his long anticipated turn came up.

February – Jason’s Visit

Jason surprised us with a rare Southern California visit. He was happy to have a few days respite from the cold and rain of Arcata and spent a couple of hours skimboarding at the beach in San Clemente.

March and April - Interview

Very near the end of March, I responded to a CareerBuilder ad for an engineering position at Micad Marine in Huntington Beach. Didn’t work out. You can read a little more about it in this earlier post.

May – Work at Hyundai

A phone call from a recruiter in New Jersey on a Thursday lead to a 120 hour contract job the following Tuesday in Fountain Valley for Hyundai Information Systems North America. So for the next three weeks I was a working man again. One of the people I worked with lives about five miles away in Lake Forest so we took turns driving and carpooled for two of those weeks.

June – Luke and Diana’s Wedding

Patty met Beth Wilson in a park in Torrance when our Jason and her Sara were infants in strollers. The friendship has endured even though the Wilson’s still live in Torrance while we have relocated several times since that first meeting. We were pleased and honored to be invited to the wedding of Steve and Beth’s youngest son Luke to his sweetheart Diana in Long Beach June 16, 2007.

The very next day was Jim Castle’s 80th birthday. There was an impromptu family reunion of the Castles, Wights, Wares, and Savages in Olivenhain to celebrate.

July – Rain Forest Cafe’

July began with a quick visit by Maria Ware and her charming companion Lars Bjorck. Lars has been in the film distribution business most of his life and was a producer on the movie “Havoc”. Very interesting! Of course we had to watch the movie a few weeks later and see if we could spot his bit part as a drug buyer.

In mid-month we hosted my brother Bill and his family for a few days as part of their 11th anniversary celebration. They enjoyed several days at the Grand Californian Hotel, Disneyland, and California Adventure as well. We joined them one evening for dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe’ in Downtown Disney.

August – Great Park Balloon

The old El Toro Marine base has begun a slow transformation into what will eventually be the Great Park. The first attraction to open to the public is the Great Park Balloon, which can be enjoyed free to the end of the year. The Disneyland bunch (Jerry, Patty, Terry, and Karen) got together one summer morning to check it out.

September – Patty’s Party

Turning 54 was reason enough for Patty to invite all her friends within shouting distance to help her celebrate. I believe that is the most people we have ever had in the house at one time.

Thanks to a direct mail advertising campaign and Jill Bennet we acquired tickets good for free admission to Universal Studios, Hollywood which expired at the end of September. So the aforementioned Disneyland bunch made an all day excursion on the 27th. Traffic on I-5 North in the morning is always bad and that day was no exception. Google Maps says “59.5 mi – about 1 hour 14 mins, up to 2 hours 40 mins in traffic”. It took 2 hours to get there, 1 hour 14 minutes to get home. In between we had one of the most fun days in a long time, I think because most of it was a new experience. We pretty much agreed that it would not replace Disneyland for repeat business though.

October and November - A New Beginning

Having become thoroughly disgusted with the job search, I decided to try something new. The past two months have been largely dedicated to learning the technical aspects of web logging, blogging for short. To date our two websites have earned us exactly $18.71, more than enough to offset the web hosting and domain name fees incurred in the process. And even though I stopped making online job applications, I still get occasional inquiries, so I figure I haven’t lost anything except the aggravation. Time will tell if we can make a go of it. 

While I make the finishing touches, Patty has been entering the data. We will give it a thorough proof reading, assign a password, and email a notice to all of the included family members in a few days.

Also on the subject of what I’ve been doing (while not posting ), take a look at the pictures at the top of these pages. Six of the nine different pictures are taken from panoramas made by my trusty little Canon digital camera. When the address book is finished, I intend make some pages to show them full-sized.