Mike and Jody treated us to a weekend in San Francisco, a Jimmy Buffet concert and the hotel room to boot.  We were joined by Gina and Connie for the night. This is the last known photo before “Wasted Away Again in Margaritaville.”  Thanks Mike and Jody! We had a blast.

We made the trip to Fog Willow Pumpkin Farm for the second year in a row and met Mike and Jody and the kids. We also ran into former neighbors Staci and Kyle Karnow and their three little ones. The farm’s annual free event is getting quite large, and while it’s barely worth fighting the huge crowds , the magic hour just before sundown makes for some great photo op’s. I’m glad we went.

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At age 6, Patrick wanted his own blog. That was just the trendy thing to do in 2007. This summer when Vox decided to shutter it’s doors and send emails threatening that users will lose all of their content in less than a month, I took a look back at Patrick’sPlace.vox.com to see what was worth saving. (Don’t click on the link. It’s not there any more. Didn’t you just read the part about Vox taking down their shingle?) What I found there were exactly [Read more →]

Labor Day weekend’s cabin project was to extend the plumbing that we ran under the cabin last summer to an outdoor shower overlooking the lake.  Victor came up to help Steve and Mike finish the deck below it.  Steve broke it in properly with the first midnight shower under the stars and in the buff.

You too can shower in nature when you rent the Mielcasz cabin. Get more information at TheMielcaszCabin.com.

Serene Lakes Days is a standard for this family. Once a year Serene Lakes families all get together to participate in events from horse shoes to three-legged races to running to cycling. This year was no different except for the fact that we didn’t participate in much. The adults spent the weekend working on the outdoor shower and refinishing the row boat.

Lauren and Patrick got off to a rough start in the three-legged race, but managed to take home a participation ribbon at this year’s Serene Lakes Days weekend. Emily got to bring friend and Neighbor Taylor Jolli with her and eventually showed off her ribbon for the three-legged race.

Jody Wassermann invited me to bring my unicycle, juggling pins, balls and my best skills to the Sacramento CCHAT Center (Children’s Choice for Hearing and Talking), Jody’s place of employment, to entertain and educate the kids.  I have to admit I was a bit nervous at first, but I kind of got into character and had a blast. Jody ad-libbed with me and we created an act on the fly. In another life I’m sure I was supposed to be a clown, but I’m just too shy in this life.

Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; to our sons, ambition; but to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express.

– Joseph Addison 1672-1719, British Essayist, Poet, Statesman

Click the photo(s) here to see a larger version.

Emily didn’t just graduate from sixth grade, she graduated with honors. Her friends and family would have been proud just to see her strut across the stage and receive her certificate of promotion, but at her 6th grade promotion ceremony Emily was awarded the American Legion Award, one of only two such honors bestowed upon [Read more →]

It’s about four weeks since my May 3 double operation—two knee replacements at Kaiser in Roseville. After three days in the hospital, I had a miserable six days in Sierra Hills CC (and that does not stand for Country Club). It’s a care center dedicated to recuperation, but they also house ailing seniors on limited time. It was a depressing [Read more →]