July, 2025

For Rog’s birthday, we drove up to Tahoe City and spent a couple of hours sitting in our spot near the edge of the lake, watching the ducks and kayakers and just enjoying the view. When we got home, I BBQ’d a steak for him.

The next day, we spent some time with Max. Ryan joined us for a trip to IMAX to watch the F1 Movie. After dropping Ryan home, we headed to Don Quixote’s for dinner. The following week, we had a fun day with Karissa. We watched the movie Phantom of the Opera in the morning, then headed to Daphne's for lunch. When we got back, we watched Sound of Music.

On my birthday, the whole family had lunch at Ryan and Beth’s Max and Karissa had spent the day before decorating the place inside and out. Inside there was a collage with 75 pictures. We had a great time looking back over the years. Outside there was a birthday sign and lots and lots of balloons, some filled with glitter. As they floated on their tethers, the sun warmed them and would occasionally pop them. The weather was great and we enjoyed the early afternoon outside as the kids took advantage of the pool. Great day.

The weather has been superb! We had one day over 100 the entire month. We were usually in the 80’s and the nights were in the 60’s. Incredible. My project for the month was to redo the “stream” in the front yard. I dug up all of the black rock, cleaned them and then put them back in the stream bed. I also cleaned out all of the drains.

At the end of the month, we left for the Walsh family reunion in Garden City, Utah. We did the trip there in 2 days with an overnight in Winnemucca. I had made a couple of lasagnas for the first night dinner and we got to the VRBO about 5:30. Peg helped us get dinner on the table. The next day we headed into town to see “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” at the Pickleville Playhouse. What a fabulous show! Rog and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We hit the local milkshake shop on the way back. On Thursday, most of us went to the marina and relaxed on a pontoon boat that Jenny drove on Bear Lake for 3 hours. She treated us to sliders and chips before we headed back to shore. Beautiful weather and nice flat water….fun! Back to the house, Tom and Linda and their team served carbonara.

Friday was a relaxing day of conversation capped with twice baked potatoes that Jenny and Katie put together. Before bed, we cleaned up the place and got ready for departure the following morning. Rog and I left about 6:30 and decided to make the run in one day. We stopped every 2 hours and got home about 5:30. It was one of the best reunions we’ve had.

June 2025

What gorgeous weather we had! Gave me a chance to get lots of outdoor projects going. The tomatoes are planted, fertilizer regime began, lots of weeding and trimming and I tackled the patio pavers. After more than five years, the polymer between the pavers was slowly being replaced by dirt and moss. I scraped between each paver, cleaned everything up, then spread new polymer, pushing it into the spaces. I finished it off with water spray and the patio is like new again. There is a section of sunken pavers that will need to be taken up and shored up underneath, but that will need Rog’s help so it will wait. I also touched up a few holes in the driveway pavers. All good. We tried to put a pipe inside the drain pipe but need to do more drain cleaning so that project is on hold. On Father’s Day, Ryan and Beth came over to watch F1 with Rog while I BBQ’d some trip. Michelle and Max came over the next day and gave him an F1 t-shirt. Our good friends, Jim and Ellen Nordstrom, have pulled the plug and sold their house. They will be moving to Georgia. We snuck in one more dinner at our place and a game of 64 with the usual group. Fittingly, Jim won the first game and Ellen won the second. Rog has been tackling the electrical on his model railroad. For Father’s Day, I got him 14 Tortoise switches. He has the track pretty well wired up and now can concentrate on the switchouts. Lots of crawling around under the layout.

At the end of the month, Ryan and Beth drove us to Jake’s at Tahoe City for our annual birthday celebration. The weather was perfect and the lake was the fullest we have seen. Great Day!

MAY 2025

May started with an aikido seminar. Not particularly exciting for Rog. I guess that means that he is getting to a point where new info is harder to come by. We finally got notice that Keith was done converting the Shay locomotive so we headed over to the clubhouse to pick it up. Rog was thrilled. Keith was able to get everything inside the locomotive; no need to put a cab on the back. Rog can now use lights, horns, engine sounds. He has started wiring the layout. The switches require a lot of work.

We are losing another friend from Auburn. Nordstroms are moving to Georgia. Which means we also lose our dentist. We met with Jim for a final cleaning/checkup and even got in an evening for cards. If their house doesn’t sell quickly we will squeeze in another round of 64 with them. Karissa had a school drama performance. She was in 3 of the numbers which included solo speaking as well as solo singing!! She did super well.

May is birthday month for the Blooms so we took them to a breakfast at Mimosa House. Rog finished the bench/cabinet for the bathroom. I painted it and ordered some baskets for it. I love it!! Works perfectly.

On Mother's Day, we headed to 2BGlass in Cameron Park for their "Big Event". We met up with the wole family, including Mary. We watched a couple of demonstrations of them making plates and wandered through their gift shop. Fascinating. Then we headed into Folsom for lunch at The Melt. Both kids gave me gorgeous bouquets as well as a Handel's gift certificate. Great Day!!

I spent a lot of time in the garden this month. I got the rosemary trimmed, the hill raked and cleaned out under the playhouse. Lots of trimming and weeding as usual and I started the bimonthly fertilizing schedule. The hydro system is planted.

We ended the month with a snack potluck at Blooms to welcome Max home. He spent 3 weeks in Thailand: 2 weeks getting scuba certified and working on the coral reefs and swimming with sharks. Then a week in northern Thailand working with elephants. He had a fabulous time and will spend the next 2 ½ months here in Rocklin, working at REI, and saving money to buy a car.

April 2025

The weather has turned quite nice so getting lots of outside projects done. But first on the agenda was a trip to Long Beach for our annual Indy race with Ryan and Beth. I was going to rent a motor scooter for the weekend but decided it would be easier to just buy a used one. I found what I wanted right here in Rocklin. We drove a mile away and picked it up. It is a VIVE. It folds up and fit easily in the RAV. But for this trip, we are using Tess.

It took us about 10 hours to get to our destination, the Elks Club in Oceanside. On Sat morning, we headed to the Marriott where the kids were staying and found a parking spot right in front…and with my disabled placard, we parked for free with no time limits. Good thing…the parking pass I had for the race was in a garage and Tess would not fit. Nor would she fit in the Marriott garage.

We spent Saturday touring the venue and doing some reconnaissance on how to get to our seats on Sunday. On Sunday, we got to the Marriott early enough to get one of their outdoor parking spots. We took the kids out to lunch for their March birthdays, then headed over to the race. Our seats overlooked the pits so we were able to watch their pit stops and caught glimpses of the cars as they whizzed by. Crazy trying to keep track of who was who and what places they were in. We didn’t have much trouble getting out after the race. We headed to Van’s for some ice cream and decided to spend the night in our parking spot. We got up the next morning at 3am and took off. The trip home took about 7 hours so we were home by noon.

When we got home, the roofers were hard at work. The old roof was gone. It took them about 2 ½ days to complete the job and we love it! The new gutters really topped it off. They did a great job of cleanup but my hydroponic system was pretty sad. Full of asphalt.

Karissa and Michelle came over to color eggs for the Easter hunt and it sounds like they had a super camping trip as well. Easter morning, everyone came over for brunch and the hunt. I tried to help the Easter bunny out by tracking the location of each egg, but inthe end we were still one short. Oh well. The day was so nice we all relaxed on the patio and chatted.

Rog and I did a power wash of the house and replaced the shade covering on the patio and that got rid of most of the remaining mess. I cleaned up the hydroponic setup and ended up emptying the tub out and using the wet vac to get all of the grit off the bottom. All clean now and the basil is in. I also got the tomatoes and zucchini planted. Meanwhile Rog worked on the bathroom tub bench.

Spring has brought out the wildlife in Rocklin. A hawk visited us one morning, then a pair of ducks that Rog had to shoo away. And we have a dove sitting on a couple of eggs in our patio. We are hoping the deer stay away this year!

NEOS LOG March 2025

We spent a lot of time planning our next project. Time to replace the roof. We got bids from 5 roofers and made our decision. It will be done next month. Rog also finally got started on the tub seat. This project has been a tough one for him. Pretty intricate, so he has been doing more thinking and planning than executing. But he bought the wood he needs and will be working on it next month. There was an aikido seminar so I had a weekend to do a special messy project. I washed the upholstery of Rog’s recliner. It turned out so well that I tackled our leather loveseat. Unfortunately. 😮‍💨 It actually scuffed the leather. My options ranged from making a slipcover to hide it, to buying a new couch, to trying to fix it. I decided to buy some leather dye and if it didn’t turn out, I would make a cover. I ended up buying a darker dye and blending the colors and I am pleased with the result…also pleased I don’t have to make “old lady” covers!

On St. Patrick’s Day we headed to Pt. Reyes on the coast and stayed in Olema Campground for 3 nights. Max had traveled down from UM with a group of volunteers and would be spending the week removing vegetation and cleaning up trails. The campground had been flooded with the rains the previous week but our spot was fine. Other than a bit of mud and puddles (and constant generator noise of their pumps during the day) we were fine. We toured the entire peninsula from top to bottom. We were really impressed with the Bear Valley Visitor Center and spent almost an hour with a fabulous docent at the William Patrick Visitor Center who gave us a great education about the elephant seals. We never connected with Max but he told us where they were staying and we were able to drop off a batch of brownies for them.

The rain stopped and we had some nice weather for a few weeks. We trimmed bushes and trees, filling all 3 trash barrels for a couple of weeks. The rain returned at the end of the month and I was able to get chicken compost spread in the whole yard.

Rog and Jay headed to Redwood City to visit their retired sensei. They also had an outstanding meeting with Manfred, their senior mentor who lives in Roseville. Happy birthday month for Ryan and Beth. We will celebrate with them when we get down to Long Beach with them next month. We ended the month with a WSCA play. Karissa was stage crew for a play written by one of the seniors. Well done, as usual.

February 2025

Rog did some intensive planning and we were able to install the new carved tree in the bedroom window. It looks absolutely awesome!! And it changes when the light behind it changes. We love it.\

We started and ended the month with a visit from an old high school friend. At the beginning of the month, Dick came with his wife Judy. After catching up on what’s been happening, we headed over to KT Noodles for lunch. At the end of the month, Dick came back with his sister, Nancy and brother in law, Marty. They wanted to see what we had done around the place since we bought it. I even pulled out the video I made of before and after pics. Then Marty gave us a spin in his cyber truck. It’s wrapped in red and looks so awesome!

Rog headed down to Santa Barbara for his annual Shotokan Black Belt Meeting. He drove with Jay, leaving early Friday and returning Sunday night. He had some great one on one training. We took Karissa to Petroglyph for her date with us after lunch at Olive Garden. The place was packed and there was a waiting list of an hour and a half. So we went back a few days later when they opened and were able to get a table right away. Got to have lunch together again at Panda Express and followed it up with ice cream at Handel’s. We picked her mug up a week later. Looks great!

Our home project this year is to replace the roof. We had a number of contractors come to take a look and we will make the final decision next month. We had a few weeks of great weather and I took advantage of it, trimming and cleaning under all of the plants. Major trimming will be next month, but the plants are happy for now.