September 2018

We started the month out with our “koi project”. A neighbor had 3 beautiful koi she needed to get rid of, so we offered to put them in our pond. We were able to catch 2 to start out with and within a day, it was obvious it was not a good move. Large fish need a lined pond. These 2 kicked up so much silt from the bottom that we couldn’t see them at all. Not good for them to try to live in such dirty water either. The waterfall filter clogged up almost every hour with all the silt as well. So we had to return them to the neighbor. Easily said….not easily done. We were able to catch the first one fairly quickly but the other one alluded us. After numerous days and trials, I finally purchased some black netting and stapled long sticks to it to make a sort of moveable fence. I got in the pond and slowly moved the fence, corralling the fish to a net Rog had in the water. When I ran out of space to move the fence, I had Rog lift the net. He didn’t think the fish was in the net, but when he lifted it up, there she was! Success. We returned “Jackie” to her previous owner and had the pond back in order in a few days.

Rog drove down to SF with Mike to see Sensei Jim Sagawa and take him and his wife to lunch. And pick his brain.

Rog had his 50th class reunion in Albany. It was a dinner/dance and was a lot of fun. I was able to last for a couple of slow dances and one fast one. A little clumsy, but my partner carried it off.

We went to a seminar and made a plunge and bought into Goldrush Getaways. Maybe not the wisest financial decision, but we are having fun going to their classes and learning something new.
We also started working with the nutritionist at our physician’s office. Another project for both of us.

The grandkids came over for a different kind of project this month. I had a bunch of old electronics and let the kids have at them. They tore open an old computer, cell phones, remote controls….I started with a couple of online electronics videos and we looked for the different components as we dissected each unit. It turned out to be a really fun project. I then took the bag of parts to Staples for disposal.

We had a fun day with both of them while their parents celebrated their anniversary. They spent hours flying airplanes in the backyard, then we went to Cool Cars and Hot Chili in downtown Rocklin. We watched a movie, then delivered Karissa to a Harry Potter themed birthday party. They spent the night and Michelle picked them up the next morning.

This was Karissa’s month for a date and we asked if she would mind combining her date with Max’s and we would all go to Circus Vargas together. They were both fine with it, so we took her out for breakfast this month as her special time with us. We tried out the new Huckleberry’s in town.

Max had a Court of Honor and he was one of the scouts chosen to be the emcee. He did such a good job running the meeting and seemed totally at ease. He also earned a few merit badges!

Rog’s project for the month is the shed. I am still fighting moles, now in the front AND back yards. Ugh.