John and Marita Visit

Our previously local friends moved to southern California a couple years ago and they came up north for a visit June 18-23. We had a great time. John and Marita arrived Thursday 6/18 evening and we saw them again on Friday 6/19, Sunday 6/21 and Monday 6/22. We kept the food and the activities low key, relaxing and enjoying our time spent together.

Costco to the rescue for our meals. We had Chicken al Fresco one night, Stuffed Bell Peppers the next night, and, on a third night we ate leftovers from each of those other dinners calling it "a night to remember". I only needed to add rice, or a salad, or fruit, to round out the meals.

We had planned a local Chinese restaurant, the Yin Yin for our Monday night meal, only to learn they were closed on Monday's. Oh well, that was poor planning on my part. But we recovered on the fly with plan B, not as elegant but satisfying, fast, and easy. Marita and I hopped in the car and drove out to get an assortment from Panda Express.

Snacks were not at all overlooked — Costco to the rescue again. Some snacks were even healthy! All the peaches from the flat were delicious, the best I have had the past several seasons. Often times grocery store peaches are the right color and soft enough but they rot rather than ripen fully. These were awesome, sweet and just the right texture.

We watched some television. John and Marita recommended the movie Holiday in the Wild. They had already seen it but were willing to watch again with us. They urged us to find it and turn it on via Netflix (where it was free, by the way). The Africa and elephant scenes were amazing and well worth the time invested watching. I recommend it.

Frank and John had a lunch date on Monday with their colleagues from the lab, aka The Beam Boys, where they watched the classic movie Dr. Strangelove. The six guys ordered in pizza and there was a popcorn cook off for the connoisseurs comparing different recipes and techniques. The popcorn cooked in avocado oil and drenched in butter won.

John and Frank also bonded over watching YouTube. As evidenced in the photo, both employed their habitual watching techniques. There is companionship even in slumber. Marita and I finished off a 500 piece jigsaw puzzles while the guys "took a break" and "relaxed".

We assembled several puzzles during their visit: one with 500 pieces and two with 300 pieces each.  All were Ravensburger and large-pieces format that went together like a dream.

We played a few round, of Rummikub, some just with Marita and me (while the guys "watched" YouTube), and other rounds with all four of us. We modify the game to include a 3-D version. Our set is a Target exclusive that has four different wild card jokers: regular joker, double joker, mirror joker, and color change joker. Per the rules, the player who gets rid of all his tiles first is the winner. We play that when someone becomes tile-less, we all work together to see if now, with what is on the table, we can all go out. We all agree this final skirmish is the most fun and challenging part of the game.

We spent  most of the time talking and enjoying being together. John and Frank are the same age and Marita and I are within one year of each other so we all have a lot in common and share the challenges of the "golden years". We tried to repeatedly steer the topic away from the "Organ Recital" (health issue discussions) common among the elderly. We were moderately successful. We were never short on topics of mutual interest, and we laughed a lot. Here is a cute poem about the "golden years".

I cannot see, I can not pee.

I cannot chew, I cannot screw.

My memory shrinks, my hearing stinks.

No sense of smell, I look like hell.

The golden years are here at last.

The golden years can kiss my ass.

And one final joke to end this blog post:

A senior citizen was talking to his friend about getting married. "Yep!" he said, "I finally found someone." His friend asked, "Is she a good cook?" The man replied, "Naw, she can't cook." "Well, is she wealthy?" "Nope, poor as a mouse." Exasperated, his friend asked, "Then why on earth are you marrying her?" The man beamed, "Because she can still drive!"

Frank's 77th birthday

On November 10th, Frank turned 77. I had a few simple gifts for him to open in the morning. There were two front zip hoodies and two books. One book was Delivering For America: How The United States Postal Service Built a Nation about the 250 history of the postal service. The other book was Making Mary Poppins: The Sherman Brothers, Walt Disney, and the Creation of a Classic Film about the behind-the-scenes making of the Disney movie Mary Poppins.

During the day, Frank was serenaded by Robin, Isaiah, Jeremy, and Autumn via text message. Here is the Happy Birthday Quartet.

The iconic year of this particular birthday reminded me of a 60+ year old TV show 77 Sunset Strip. Per Wikipedia

77 Sunset Strip is an American private detective crime drama television series created by Roy Huggins and starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Roger Smith, Richard Long (from 1960 to 1961) and Edd Byrnes (billed as Edward Byrnes). Each episode was one hour long when aired with commercials. The series aired on ABC from October 10, 1958, to February 7, 1964.

I was only five to nine years old when it was on TV and I probably only heard the sound drifting upstairs when I was in bed. Perhaps I caught glimpses of it when I was older, but I particularly remember one of the characters, hair-combing Kookie. Even now, I cannot get the catchy opening song — complete with finger snapping — out of my head! Listen to 77 Sunset Strip here.

More dominant than an old TV show this birthday for Frank was the current TV show of Wheel of Fortune.  Frank and I had tickets to see a live performance of the show on the road at our local Bankhead Theatre. The stage was set up with a wheel, a bonus wheel, and the large puzzle board, of course. There was an equivalent of Ryan Seacrest (Pat Sajak) played by Mark L. Walberg and a Vanna White equivalent played by a woman selected at random from the audience. The woman was especially amusing because she was so short, she had to jump up to touch the letters on the highest row of the puzzle board.

There was an announcer and a strolling camera man. The announcer mingled with the audience to warm them up before the show began. That was where Frank had his claim to fame. Frank was picked to be interviewed. When asked where he was from, Frank replied proudly, "Washington, DC! And I don't mean Virginia or Maryland to that little state up in the northwest." When asked about his interests he  boasted about his over 1000 railroad cars in the garage and showed off his QUILTER'S HUSBAND shirt he was wearing. The camera view of the exchange was projected up on a large screen and I took a photo. Unfortunately I was holding my cell phone over my face but it really is me.

The set up and process of the show was well thought out. Five people were selected at random from the audience and brought up on stage to compete. A bonus puzzle with only some of the letters showing was posted and whoever figured it out first got one point. Whoever of the five accumulated three points first, went on to a final round in the second half of the show. The three winners from three groups of five comprised this final round where they actually spun the wheel and called letters. The pre-screening of the fifteen players from the first half assured the final round was a decent competition without any turkey players.

The second half mimicked the TV show more closely with calling letters, missing turns, or going bankrupt with spins of the wheel. There were money awards, on the order of $50's or $100's. Frank got a souvenir pen. We had a really good time and, after the show, posed for a photo op in the lobby in front of a publicity poster.

After the show, we celebrated with a pan of brownies. I had baked them earlier in the day and we had been snacking on them rather than waiting for a formal candle ceremony to dig in. We did keep up the traditional "make a wish and blow out the candles" eventually, though not with a particularly pristine receptacle for the candles. I wonder if the quality of the wish is compromised...? Even if so, the brownies were delicious anyway.

Dan's Family Visits from Colorado

Wednesday, July 30th, our daughter-in-law Carrie arrived from Colorado with Vivian (age 11), William (age 7) and Irene (age 4). Their plane was delayed a few hours and so they arrived at the local BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station very, very late. The kids were exhausted from travel, it was dark, and it was cold. Hugs and greetings were greatly foreshortened to deal with getting all into a warm car and readjusting Irene's car seat to the level of satisfaction only a mother can assure. Grandmothers are relatively unskilled and barely versatile in car seat installation. The second photo, with all the smiling faces, is a contrast to facial expressions on arrival night. The happy photo was taken a day and a half later, Friday, August 1st, during an outing where Carrie took the three kids to San Francisco. Later on in the evening of August 1st, my son Dan would arrive with daughter Lillian (age 9). Dan and Lillian  delayed their departure from Colorado because of a horse event in which Lillian was involved and did not want to miss.

Thursday, July 31st Carrie had to work all day remotely for her job while the kiddos bounced back from travel exhaustion and chilled at home. They played games of motor skills like Bedbugs and Wiggly Worms, and built tall peg towers.

Vivian studiously worked on building a Vintage 1980 Little Tikes Build N Play Farm Set. The next morning the younger ones delighted in smashing it down. Vivian shrugged and was philosophical about it. She expected as much.

Vivian also intermittently challenged Grandma and Grandpa (also her brother and sisters) to the game of Otrio.

Thursday evening Carrie and I took the three kids to a local park, May Nissan Park, to blow off some extra energy.

Friday, August 1st, Carrie took three kids to San Francisco. I quote her outing description from her Instagram account.        

Epic day in San Francisco with 3/4 of the kids. We arrived in the Bay Area two days ago (after less than 72 hours in Colorado) and today we walked over 8 miles throughout the city to see as much as possible. We took BART into Embarcadero and then hit up the Ferry Building for delicious food and beautiful Bay Bridge views. Took a bus to the Golden Gate Welcome Center and walked nearly 2 miles across the bridge. Then decided to walk 2 more miles down to Sausalito. Took a ferry across the bay and back into the city. Rode the Ferris wheel, got sourdough at Boudin, stopped at Fisherman’s Wharf, walked down Pier 39, rode the double-decker carousel, and saw the sea lions. Walked to Gharadelli Square for over-the-top sundaes. Rode the cable car back to Market and then took BART back to the East Bay with two blondies fast asleep on my lap.

While she and the kiddoes were doing all that, I stayed home and sewed on patches: on William's Boy Scout uniform, on William's Karate Gi, and on Lillian's Adventure Guides Vest from California. Details are in my DianeLoves2Quilt 8/4/24 post and DianeLoves2Quilt 8/5/25 post.

Later that night Dan arrived late with 4th kiddo Lillian. Not surprising, their flights were also delayed and their Uber got them to our house close to midnight.  There were some brief and tired hugs exchanged, a bit of a snack nibbled, and then they too were really tired and trailed off to bed in short order.

Saturday, August 2nd, Dan and Carrie left early in the morning to wine country in Napa for an overnight stay and (hopefully) a romantic interlude. They'd been wanting to attend a release for a wine, and they did so at Silver Oak, a vineyard whose "fermented grapes" they liked.  They attended that release Saturday afternoon; then, later that day and on Sunday, they taste-tested at a few other wineries in the area. Frank and I held down the fort with the four kids.

Vivian found out how to make her own Wordle puzzles. Sadly I do not have a picture of her sitting in front of my computer doing that. I took no picture since their mom had instructed me to limit their screen time, but I was guilty of indulging them some, anyway. There was not enough screen time anyway to warrant a lot of photos. The puzzle Viv made for me was XEBEC which I failed to solve in the allotted six moves. She was pleased she stumped me, but I claimed "unfair" because of the obscure word.

There was lots of Duplo building and the little tactile animals I'd bought for them were a big hit. One Duplo build was a home for those squishy pets. There was a JIAHO 6 Pcs Dog Mochi Squishy set and a 6 Pcs Animal Kawaii Squishies set.

Another  toy that was VERY popular was a set of foam ball shooters. For the Thanksgiving November 2023 visit I had bought three pair of air pump powered foam ball shooters, each set with 36 foam spheres. I do not know if this visit started out with all 108 balls, but the shooters still proved to be a rousing diversion enjoyed by everybody. Yes, everybody. Although I will admit the grandparent enjoyment derived from watching and dodging. At one point I set a timer, 5 minutes as selected by William as an equitable duration, as a challenge within which to gather all the balls. If successful, there would be an ice cream cone reward. They challenged me, how would I know that they had them all? I conceded that after 5 minutes, if they had an equal number of each color, I would rule it good and be ice cream cone worthy. All nodded solemnly that these were acceptable conditions. Boy, did they scurry, even fishing some balls out from under the piano with a yardstick. And, yes, they all earned ice cream.

Sunday, Aug 3rd, Frank and I chose to take the four kids plus our son Alex bowling. Since Dan and Carrie had borrowed one of our cars we needed to figure out the logistics of transporting three adults plus four children — one needing a car seat and one needing a booster seat — with only one remaining vehicle. This is somewhat like the fox, the chicken, and a sack of corn puzzle.

A man has to get a fox, a chicken, and a sack of corn across a river. He has rowboat, and it can only carry him and one other thing. If the fox and the chicken are left together, the fox will eat the chicken. If the chicken and the corn are left together, the chicken will eat the corn. How does the man do it?

Our solution was not quite as complicated as the man with the rowboat. I drove Lillian, William, and Irene with me up to San Ramon to get Alex. The five of us then drove back down to the Earl Anthony's Dublin Bowl. Meanwhile, Frank called an Uber and he and Vivian rode that to meet us at the bowling alley. We reversed the whole process when we finished bowling. 

The kids' consensus was that they wanted a girls' team and a boys' team so that is what we did. It took a bit of confusion and intervention from the staff to do the reorganizing because Alex threw the first ball before we had the lineup set and entered into the computer.

 Lillian had the highest score of all ... 105! Look who did worst. Me ... 71!

After bowling one game, we ordered pizza, ate, and then posed for a photo.

On the ride home with me. Irene fell asleep in her car seat. I parked the car in the driveway and Frank sat next to the open car door near her while she slept. We knew better than to wake a sleeping child only to have to contend with perhaps a particularly cranky little girl missing her parents. Dan and Carrie arrived back to Livermore while she was still asleep, so when she did wake up, she was rested, surprised, and happy.

Monday, Aug 4th, Dan took Vivian, Lillian, William, and Irene to the Jelly Belly Factory, located halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento off I-80 and Highway 12, about a one hour drive north of Livermore. Before he left that morning there was a near disaster in the kitchen. One of four supporting pegs of one of the shelves in a kitchen cabinet broke. The board hung dangerously at a tilt, ready to dump a plank's load of breakable glassware, bowls, crashing down onto the shelf below or the ceramic tile countertop. While Dan held the precarious load with one hand he handed pieces of the contents one by one to Lillian who was standing nearby. Whew! Crisis avoided. He later helped fix the shelf and I was able to restock.

At the Jelly Belly Factory there was a proposed list of activities. Dan and the kids did it all. What to do while you're here

1. Self-guided tours allow you to explore the ¼ mile journey above the factory at your own pace, enjoying the all-new look at our candy making.
2. Interactive exhibits and games along the tour lane
3. Browse the Jelly Belly Jelly Bean Art Gallery
4. Shop the Jelly Belly Candy Store
5. Dine at the Jelly Belly Café
6. Shop the Jelly Belly Chocolate Shoppe and Fudge Counter
7. Sample your way through the Chocolate & Wine Experience

Frank and the grandkids enjoyed some model train time out in the garage in the evening of Monday August 4th after the Jelly Belly outing and also in the morning of Wednesday August 6th before their departure. Their imagination knew no bounds. They established six stops along the railroad route: a candy factory, the yellow house (established ~1599 per Lillian), a bowling alley, a school, a coaling tower, and the falling down houses per William (but really houses under construction). Holding a hand over the mouth as if talking into a public address system microphone like an intercom, they announced the stations en route and stopped the trains accordingly. Frank initially told them to wait until he was there to operate the trains, but they figured out how to do it by themselves. The morning of their departure they went out to the garage independently and ran the system without him there, even re-mounting cars that derailed. The 42 second long video shows their conductor and engineer skills in action.

Tuesday, Aug 5th, was the last day before their departure. We had not all gone out to a meal together yet this visit and so Dan campaigned we go to our  local Mexican Restaurant Casa Orozco for lunch. This was a favorite haunt of Dan's when he lived in Livermore or when he visited home during his college years at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. It was also a day to squeeze in all those things we'd wanted to do and hadn't gotten around to yet. I submit a sort of potpourri of activities.

We had a list of odd jobs for which we needed Dan's help. A bathroom switch Frank had changed out had some issues that Dan was able to fix with a hammer and chisel and some brute force finesse. We also had a broken cord on one of our silhouette blinds. No business that sold those kind of blinds would fix them unless they had sold them to us. I even tried to go straight to their install employees to no avail. It was a simple enough fix per a YouTube video and I had pre-ordered the part. The gotcha was that this eight-foot wide blind had to be removed from the window in order to access the end. Neither Frank nor I were going to attempt a ladder climb nor try to wield an eight-foot long potential baton and clobber someone in the process. Dan took down the blind and switched out the cord for us. Yay! He was even patient when both Frank and I had to stick our noses in and micromanage the task.

 

We also had a soap dispenser that despite all my efforts would repeatedly stop working. I bought a new one and wanted Dan to crawl under the sink and swap it out for the new one. Miraculously, in his presence, the dispenser began to work consistently so we abandoned the replacement. It is still performing fine. Fingers crossed ... Not anticipated as needing help was the ceramic crash aversion for which Dan's heroic intervention avoided a disaster. Dan's guidance and participation in the repairs and replacement of our cracked and dangerous front sidewalk were very much needed and appreciated. Dan worked remotely in concert with a college classmate Ryan, also a 2006 Cal Poly graduate, who has a degree in construction management and a list of contacts. Just goes to prove, it is not what you know but who you know.  

A running joke is that when our son-in-law Jeremy visited, he addressed a number of tasks we requested. Dan marked our whiteboard with his tasks to show that Dan too was a solid contender in the helper competition. Note: Crash aversion and sidewalk repair are absent from the list but still count, big time.

I also eked out some time to sew with Vivian and Lillian while they were here. Vivian made a lined tote bag and Lillian made kitten pillow. More  details of their projects are shown in my DianeLoves2Quilt blog post for 8/9/25.

Wednesday, Aug 6th was devoted to preparing for departure. While Carrie ran around in her efficient frenzy to gather and pack all their belongings, there was another visit to the trains and a few more game challenges with the Connect Four game. While Dan's family were here, this game got a huge workout with every combination of opponents there could be — every kid against a grandparent and every sibling against another. Alex uses this game  to drop in the markers with no logic or game goal in mind so it was a real wake up call to me to play it as it was actually intended. I got trounced many times! The next photo is father versus daughter. I think Frank and I are going play against each other after the visit has ended.

The kids exhibited great creativity during their entire time here with their imagination at the trains, with their inventive building, with quirky stories they built around the squishy creatures. I wanted to record one last unexpected surprise. I had given them each a funky, tactile weird pencil topper. I have shown one of them in green in its original intended form on top of a pencil. The kids determined these toppers could be inflated into other critters. Here is their repurposing of those toppers.

We took the requisite "one photo for posterity" before they left. Frank and I each drove a car to get them all to the airport. Then we came home and collapsed.