October 2016

I started the month dumping my new (used, but new to me) Apple iPhone into the toilet. I immediately put it in rice but over the next few days, it slowly died completely. I went to the Apple store in the mall, thinking that I could drop it off for them to look at. No dice. I could either wait to be seen (2-3 hours) or make an appt for 10 days later. I made the appointment. Ten days with no phone??? I texted Ryan to see if he had any old phones and he had one. He gave it to me and I had to pay off its remaining balance, then activate it. But now I have an iPhone 6. And it doesn’t go into the bathroom with me.


My sister, Laura, married Tom Allen on October 3 and had a “Walsh” get together a week later to sort of break him into the family gradually. It was a warm enough day for the grandkids to get into the pool and then Tom let them play on the drums for a bit. With the most delicious array of tasty desserts, a great afternoon was had by all.


Roger’s karate dojo hosted their third annual Karatefest midmonth. Rog and I did the shopping for the BBQ dinner and continental breakfast and then joined the Godon trainer, Kei Teramoto, on Friday afternoon for a tour of the sake plant in Folsom and then dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Rog was the official photographer for the weekend and they had a great attendance. We hosted a couple of guys from the Redding dojo Sat night.

Rog had jury duty for a week but never had to report. We joined the Zauchas for lunch and an afternoon chat. It has been over a year since we saw them and we had a lot of catching up to do. He did a bit more work on the playhouse deck and completed the electrical out to the pond. Meanwhile, I started cleaning out closets and got every room done but the project room.


The project for the month with the grandkids was cake pops. I had all of the pops made and in the fridge. The kids decorated them, making mummies, ghosts, bats, monsters...whatever they wanted! They were absolutely delicious and there were way too many hanging around the house for the week afterwards.

It was Karissa’s turn for a date. We had planned on taking her for a bike ride and lunch, but she came down with a cold and was just getting over it, so we changed plans and took her to see ‘Storks” at Studio Movie Grill. She got to eat lunch in the theater and then we went to Icing on the Cupcake after the show for a Halloween cupcake.

The family came for lunch at the end of the month and we took the annual family picture. We take about 50 pictures and pick the one we all like the best. Then we let the grandkids take some wild and crazy pictures. It is not an event that our kids particularly look forward to, but we ended up having a great time.

We ended the month attending a life celebration for an old friend, Rick Dann. We joined the Nordstrums for the drive up to Lake of the Pines and then had dinner together at Sierra Grill before getting in a game of “64” before heading home.
The month was one of the wettest on record...since 1899. I thought it might be interesting to compare our backyard now to what it was a year ago. I can’t wait to see what it does next Spring.