December 27-31, 1999: Diether, Jutta, and Ben drove to their
Greenfield country cabin to do some maintenance work and to wait for a
plumber and electrician from Budget Services in Seaside. The electrician
performed his part to install an electric water heater quite well, except
that the ceiling lights in the bathroom and the dining corner do not work
any more. The plumbing job is not completed yet after several attempts
to come to the place and do it. We may have to look for another company
do perform this kind of work. Maybe the distance to Seaside, a more than
1 hour drive, accounts for some of the problem.
Ben returned to the Bay Area on Tuesday to pick up a friend from the
airport. On Thursday Jutta and Diether drove to Cupertino to take Ben to
the SFO airport early on Friday morning to fly to Burbank for a New Year
party with his girlfriend Heather and her family.
Diether and Jutta returned to Greenfield on Friday morning to start
the New Year there. In the afternoon we talked to the relatives in Europe
to wish a happy New Year there. We also found out, that there were no problems
with the Y2K computer bug. We had a good dinner, played some cards, and
went to bed before midnight. Shortly after midnight Diether's parents phoned
from Europe with New Year wishes.
December 26, 1999: Diether's parents phoned from Europe to inform us about a violent storm, which had uprooted some trees close to their house, and damaged some of their bee hives. We phoned other relatives to hear, that there was some slight storm damage, but nobody was hurt. After a late lunch, Ben drove his new car to a friend. Jutta and Diether had dinner at home.
December 25, 1999, Christmas day: Diether, Jutta, and Ben celebrated Christmas with a 11am church service at Queen of Apostles church in San Jose. After the start of the preparations for Christmas dinner Diether and Jutta enjoyed the sunny afternoon walking in the Cupertino neighborhood. We had the traditional Christmas goose for dinner, and then watched a movie together (Jutta, Ben, and Diether).
December 24, 1999, Christmas eve: Diether took the afternoon
off, and Ben and Jutta picked up Ben's major 
Christmas
present, a $1500.- 1985 red Fiero car from it's previous owner in Cupertino.
Ben was very very happy after looking for such a car at an affordable price
for many months. In the evening the family celebrated Christmas in the
German tradition, and exchanged small presents.
December 20/21, 1999: After enjoying good weather in San Francisco
on Monday afternoon, Ben and Heather went to 
the
Monta Vista High School winterball at the TechMart in Santa Clara. Heather
returned home on Tuesday evening.
December 18/19, 1999: The family stayed in the Cupertino area
this weekend, because Ben expected his friend Heather from Southern California
for the winter ball on Monday. On Saturday we had lunch at the brewery
in Los Gatos, where Jutta bought some more stickers for the Christmas
letters (half way into the page of the link).
On Sunday morning, we picked up Heather at the San Jose airport. We
had lunch at the wharf in Santa Cruz, followed by a visit to the Natural
Bridges State Park, where we watched the ocean and the Monarch butterflies.
We returned back to Cupertino for dinner at home.
December 11/12, 1999: On Saturday the family drove to Alameda to look at a used Fiero for Ben. The engine sounded fine, but the car was blocked in a driveway, and could not be moved, because the owners of thye other cars were out of town. On the way home, we used the San Mateo bridge and decided to continue to Half Moon Bay to have afternoon tea at the ChartHouse. On Sunday we got a new cordless vacuum cleaner for less than $50.- and took some photos of the December fall colors (we have our Indian Summers, too, in California). These photos will soon be shown in the photo section of this website. In the afternoon, Ben and Jutta re-organized Ben's room, while Diether reduced some of the personal paper stacks.
December 3/4/5, 1999: Jutta picked up Diether at SFO on Friday, as he returned from a business trip to the east coast. In the evening, they drove to their Greenfield retreat to enjoy the weekend. We took the car to the "mesa" to explore the area more. It was cold and wet enough to use the woodstove for comfortable warmth in the house. Diether also cut some dead wood into pieces to replenish the firewood inventory. Ben had left on Thursday for a Monta Vista marching band trip for performances in the Los Angeles area. On Sunday afternoon the family re-united at the house in Cupertino.
Thanksgiving weekend 1999: We celebrated Thanksgiving at our
house in Cupertino with friends from Europe. In the 
morning
after a joint breakfast Kerstin, Hans, Diether, and Jutta walked to a local
park in the Linda Vista area of town, while Ben slept in. In the late afternoon
Hans, Jutta, Ben, and Diether ate the Thanksgiving dinner with turkey,
cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, and many more traditional dishes. On Friday,
we walked in Santa Cruz and had lunch at the wharf. On Saturday night Diether,
Jutta, and Hans went to the San Francisco opera to see Verdi's Nabucco
after dinner at stars. Ben stayed home to work on some college applications.
On Sunday Ben played at the Los Altos Festival of Light with the Monta
Vista High School Band. During the long weekend we also performed some
work in the house, on the cars, and in the yard.
November 20/21: Jutta is back from her trip. We all stayed in
the Bay Area to watch a local presentation of the Monta Vista band. However,
we missed the event due to a timing mistake. Ben attended a retreat in
the Santa Cruz Mountains, which ended on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday,
we enjoyed Santa Cruz and the Pacific Ocean scenery.
November 13/14: On Saturday Ben participated in the band competition
in Napa. The band did well. Diether did not come 
along,
because he had returned from the East Coast late on Friday night and did
not want to drive for two hours at 7AM. He did some minor work in the house
and on the car. On Sunday Ben and Diether had a late breakfast at Starbucks,
and a late lunch at Carrows. Diether cooked dinner at home. On Sunday evening
it started to rain as shown in the photo.
November 7: In the morning we prepared for Jutta's trip to Germany. Diether took her to the airport at around noon.
November 6: Ben could not participate in the band competition in Pacific Grove, because he could not practise enough during his sick leave. Therefore we did not drive to there, and had a family dinner at Joe's of Palo Alto instead.
November 2 (Election Day): Because of another business trip, Diether had voted by absentee ballot. Jutta went to the voting booth. The turn-out was extremely light; therefore our vote did make more of a difference.
October 31 (Halloween): In the evening we offered candies to trick or treaters coming to the house.
October 30: Following the orders of the family physician Ben
had been at home all week long. The diagnosis of his sickness will be firmed
up, when the lab tests are available on Monday. Diether returned from Utah
in the morning. Jutta picked him up, and they went to the company to drop
off some samples for analysis by others during the week, and to check mail
and email.
On the way out, they met a friend, who had returned from a vacation
in Australia a week earlier. They had lunch at the Tokyo Sushi restaurant
in San Jose, before driving home. For teatime we had another friend join
us at our house. After a quiet afternoon together, the family had dinner
together. Then they watched a movie.
October 23/24: Ben had a bad cold, and therefore we stayed in the Cupertino area. He had some rest, and watched some TV afeter some morning drill with the Monta Vista Marching Band. He was very tired after only part of the drill. Jutta and Diether had a quiet weekend. On Sunday they prepared for Diether's trip to Utah to support a company customer. Jutta took Diether to the airport for a flight to Salt Lake City at about 4pm.
October 16/17: After a week with a company research symposium in San Jose and another business meeting of the company on the East Coast, Diether arrived back in San Francisco on Saturday morning. Jutta picked him up and took me home. Ben had left htat morning for Southern California to attend the birthday party of a friend. In the afternoon Diether and Jutta drove to the retreat outside of Greenfield to enjoy the peace and qiet there. The weather was very pleasant. Diether and Jutta returned to Cupertino on Sunday afternoon, to be ready to pick up Ben from the airport in San Jose. Ben phoned from Burbank shortly before his flight was to leave to let us know, that he did not get a seat because of overbooking. Instead of arriving in San Jose, he arrived in Oakland two hours later. The airline provided a shuttle for a few passengers to San Jose. Jutta picked him up there. For his trouble Ben received ticket vouchers. He plans to use them to see his friend in Southern California again soon.
October 10: After lunch with two friends from Europe, they left for a conference in California, while Diether and Jutta drove to the Stanford Shopping center to buy some early Christmas presents to send to relatives in Europe. Halloween time is coming, and Diether took pictures of pumpkins at one of the stores.
October 9: With the Monta Vista Marching Band Ben participated in the 29th Annual Cupertino Tournament of Bands.In the morning Diether helped as a parent volunteer, Jutta took a video. Diether published photos from the parade and the filed show on a website .
October 8: We had a dinner at home with a local friend and three friends visiting from overseas.
October 7: We had dinner at a microbrewery in Sunnyvale with Martin (see Oct.6), another friend from Europe, who had just arrived, and a local associate of his. We could sit outside, because it was a very mild evening.
October 6: A friend from Europe, Martin, arrived in the evening to spend a few days with us, before attending a conference in California.
October 2-3: Diether returned from an East Coast business trip late on Friday night, actually flying out of and into Oakland to get a less expensive fare. Therefore we spent the weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area. On Saturday morning, we took some more pictures of Ben's marching band drill. On Saturday evening, we (Jutta and Diether) had dinner at Stars in San Francisco with a friend from Boston, while Ben was with some friends at SJSU. After dinner Diether and Jutta enjoyed the opera Louise; we got home shortly after midnight, quite some time before Ben arrived home. On Sunday Ben felt sick with a cold, and Diether worked on his different websites. In the early afternoon we had lunch at the British Bankers pub in Menlo Park, took some people photos, and browsed some books at Keplers.
September 25-26: On Saturday, we drove to the Greenfield retreat
again to check on the situation with the Kirk Creek fire in the Los
Padres National Forest. Driving in, we observed less smoke; however,
the fire is still burning. The weather was very hot (98F), therefore we
did not go 
to
our high observation point, and we returned on Saturday afternoon at about
4pm. On the way out, we talked to Mike, the neighbor, for a while. We then
returned via the Cachagua road. Past the water divide on Carmel Valley
road we passed a stretch of meadow, which was illuminated by the reddish
sunlight passing through the distant cloud of smoke from the fire.We passed
a heliport with a large helicopter and several firetrucks, from where we
had a view of a distant cloud of smoke again. From a ridge we observed
the smoke coming from distant hills. Because at about 7pm the coastasl
area along highway 1 became very chilly (we turned on the heater in the
car), we took the inland route through Prunedale, and returned to Cupertino
on 101 and 85. In Gilroy we turned on the air conditioner, because the
night was very warm there.
On Sunday, we enjoyed a few hours in Santa Cruz on the wharf in very
warm weather. The Cupertino area had very hot temperatures today.
September 18-19: Jutta and Diether spend the week-end at our
Greenfield retreat. From highway 101 close to Gonzales we observed an interesting
cloud behing the Sierra de Salinas in the western sky. At the junction
of Arroyo Seco and Elm road, we saw a camp for firefighters, and wondered,
if they had a weekend retreat. Driving along a bit further, we saw smoke
from a fire 
in
the air, and remembered the Kirk Creek fire (list
of US wildfires), which had been started by lightning a week earlier.
After confirming, that the fire was still about 10 miles away on Chews
Ridge, we decided to stay overnight. From a high point, we observed airtankers,
and helicopters fighting the fire. At a distance we heard and saw (cloud
of dust) bulldozers build firebreaks. After a delicious dinner and a quiet
night we checked the situation again on Sunday morning before returning
to Cupertino to prepare for a busy week.
September 17: We watched Monta Vista High School play football against Homestead High School. The marching band performed part of their field show for the first time.
September 11 -12: On Saturday morning, we watched another drill of the Monta Vista High School marching band.In the afternoon, we ran some errands like picking up the repaired cuckoo clock from a store in Mountain View. On Sunday we enjoyed excellent weather on the beach, where we had lunch on the wharf, and Jutta went swimming in the ocean.
September 4 - 6, Labor Day weekend: On Saturday evening, Ben
joined Jutta and Diether for a quiet family dinner. The plan to watch a
movie after dinner together did not work perfectly, as Ben remembered one
of his social reponsibilities, a late evening birthday party with some
friends. Diether and Jutta watched the movie, which he had rented.
On Sunday morning Jutta and Diether drove to the Greenfield
retreat. It was a very warm weekend with a need for rest and lots of fluid.
Early on Monday morning we drove to the upper part of the lot to enjoy
the lonely scenery. The climbing temperatures made us return to the house,
and then the SF Bay Area in dense Labor Day traffic.
August 29: In the early evening the Monta Vista High school marching band (schedule), where Ben plays the tuba, presented the skills acquired during drill-week to the parents, followed by a BBQ.
August 28&29: A well known expert in scientific software and his parents visited us at our Greenfield retreat to spend Saturday evening and Sunday morning with us. His dog came along as well.
August 27: Jutta and Diether enjoyed an evening presentation by Samuel Ramey at the Villa Montalvo in Saratoga.
August 22: After a quiet day with hot summer temperatures, we had dinner at the house of good friends in Los Altos.
August 21: Bay Area students from Germany, associated with the Studienstiftung, organized a BBQ in our backyard. It was a very pleasant afternoon, and evening. Photos will be shown in the Special Family Event section for a while. (For the password, please email to the address at the bottom of this page.)
August 14 & 15 : A quiet weekend in Cupertino with lunches on the wharf in Santa Cruz, and swimming in the ocean on Sunday (Jutta).
August 7 & 8: We returned to Cupertino in the early afternoon of Saturday. Friends from overseas joined us at our house at 5pm to spend the weekend with us. We had a good time talking, eating, and experiencing the Santa Cruz mountains and the coast north of Santa Cruz on Sunday. On Sunday evening we went to church at our local community.
July 31 to August 6: We finally had our delayed summer vacation.
We started the vacation on Saturday afternoon by driving to our retreat
in Greenfield in the just repaired Wrangler. After
a relaxing day in the wild of the coastal mountain range west of Soledad,
on late Sunday afternoon we continued to drive South on 101. Fortunately
the county fair in Paso Robles
did not slow traffic down significantly. At about 7:30PM we arrived at
the Cottage Inn by the
Sea in Pismo Beach, which sits on the cliffs above the ocean
with stairs to the beach. After moving our luggage to the room, we walked
the beach to town to have dinner. The two daily walks to town gave us welcome
exercise. On Monday after breakfast, we walked along the beach in the morning
fog. Then we drove the Wrangler on the beach in a special area south of
town. The fuel consumption skyrocketed, while driving in loose sand on
the beach. Shortly after noon, we drove to San
Luis Obispo about 15 miles away to have lunch at McClintocks.
We also looked at some of the stores in the town. On our return to Pismo
Beach we stopped at Avila Beach to look at the environmental cleanup
of some oil spills. On a side road, we found a lonely beach to which we
returned on the next morning.
On Wednesday, we explored the area around Morro
Bay, and left the Cottage Inn on Thursday morning after another walk
on the beach to return to our retreat in Greenfield. We stopped in Kings
City to buy some groceries and to refuel the car. With relatively moderate
temperatures from a cool weather system, we had too quiet days.
July 28 to 30: Diether has to travel to the East Coast for some business meetings. Jutta makes reservations for some days of vacation on the coast of central California.
July 24: Don, a friend from England, visiting the US, came for dinner this afternoon. We had a very good conversation.
July 18 to 24: We had planned a vacation at our traditional summer vacation place on Lake Tahoe. Because of changes in Diether's work schedule and Ben's summer school, we had tried to change our reservation earlier in April and again a week before the planned arrival date. The management of the Goldcrest Motor Lodge in Kings Beach on North Lake Tahoe was incooperative and did not even allow us to take part of the original reservation. We were "fired" as customers and lost our deposit for the first night. This week had cold weather at Tahoe, and so things worked out fine for us, except for the loss of the deposit.
July 17: For the first time, we tried to take the new Wrangler to Greenfield. Because of heavy traffic on 101, we took the old Monterey Highway. At the light to Cochrane Road we were rear-ended by a Dodge Ram. Because of substantial damage to the back of the car, we returned home immediately. The repair took almost 2 weeks and cost a small fortune, which was paid by the insurance of the Ram.
June 19:
Diether and Jutta spend a few hours to enjoy a sunny day in Santa
Cruz. In the evening the whole family went to a Japanese
dinner at Miyake's in Cupertino.
June 12:
From 5PM to
11PM we organized our annual summer party for many of our friends. With
excellent weather, we enjoyed the presence of about 100 friends in our
backyard.
June 10:
From 6:30PM to 8:00PM we attended the graduation ceremonies at Monta
Vista High School. Many of Ben's friends are members of the class of 1999.
Ben himself will graduate in 2000.
June 2 to 6:
Diether attended a scientific meeting in Salamanca,
Spain.
May 28 to 31, Memorial Day Weekend:
Jutta and Diether drove to the retreat in Greenfield
on Saturday morning, Ben planned to come in the afternoon. A movie
visit with friends delayed his plan to Sunday morning. After his arrival
we worked hard on covering the roof of the shed to protect it against the
solar summer heat.
May 15/16:
Jutta and Diether spent third consecutive weekend in the Greenfield
cabin. On Saturday afternoon Jutta and Diether cleared branches from
the road leading to the top of the hill. Ben visited on Saturday night,
driving the Oldsmobile, and returning early on Sunday.
May 8/9:
Jutta and Diether spent another sunny weekend at the retreat in Greenfield,
watching a biking rally on the road below the house on Saturday.
May 1/2:
Jutta and Diether enjoyed a sunny day at the retreat in Greenfield,
while Ben stayed with his teenage friends in Cupertino.
The burn season ended on April 30; therefore less yard work is performed.
April 25:
On a cloudy day we enjoyed the city of Santa Cruz and its wharf.
April 24:
The family returned from trips today and yesterday. Juta and Ben returned
from a vist of the University of Alaska
at Fairbanks, and Diether from several business meetings at the Maryland
facilities of BDB. Both trips were successful and very interesting. Today
we resettled into our home and got some rest.
Photos from Anchorage and Fairbanks are posted in the photopage (because
of less expensive flights Jutta and Ben flew into Anchorage instead of
Fairbanks). Ben took many excellent photos.
April 4 (Easter Day):
The change to summer time caused us to get up later than usual. After
breakfast, we cleaned up and left for Carmel,
where we attended the 12:30PM Easter Mass at the Carmel
mission. The church was very full, and we had to stand close to the
back entrance. For lunch, we drove to Pacific
Grove to eat at the Tinnery
with a good view of the Monterey Bay, of the Sunday picnics at the city
park of Pacific Grove, and of the surf pounding the rocks. At 4:30PM we
arrived back in Cupertino. Jutta and Diether
enjoyed the jacuzzi, and Ben met with Robie. After dinner Jutta and Ben
watched TV, while Diether updated the website.
April 3:
We spend the
Easter weekend at our Greenfield retreat to perform
some work and enjoy the solitude. Unfortunately the mice were back. Two
were caught in the traps in only one week. So we have to work on their
containment a bit more.
We had hoped to burn some more brush on Saturday, a "permissive burn
day" in Monterey County, but the winds were much too strong to burn safely.
Therfore Ben and Diether took down some old structure and cleared some
branches from an fallen dead oak tree, while Jutta worked in the house.
Later we enjoyed the warmth from the wood stove in the house, while watching
a hailstorm outside. After dinner, Ben and Diether played cards.
March 27:
After Diether was out of town for almost two weeks travelling in the
east of the country, we (Jutta and Diether) spend a quiet weekend at our
country home. We did some yard clean-up, and then we enjoyed the views
of the mountains of the Ventana
Wilderness, hiking in the hills above the house.
March 13/14:
As you may guess from the long delay between this and the previous
entry, we are all quite busy. But we enjoy work and the time with the family.
The water system at our Greenfield retreat is completely
repaired for about two weeks now. Jutta and Diether went there on Saturday
to check the place. The good news is, that not a single mouse was caught
in 2 weeks; hopefully they are all gone. Mice are a major problem there.
We use mechanical controls (wire mesh to plug potential sites of entry
into the house), and traps as a backup.
Saturday was sunny and warm, and we enjoyed most of it outdoors.
We returned to Cupertino on Saturday evening,
because rain was forecast for Sunday. On Sunday we did some shopping, and
had lunch at a Japanese restaurant. Ben ate lunch with his girlfriend Robie
at the Portola Valley cafe.
February 20/21:
After a busy week in and out of town, we spent the weekend at our place
in Greenfield. This time Ben came along to help with 
yard
clean-up. The water system still needs some repair, but we managed with
some water containers and a by-pass from the well directly into the house.
On Saturday brush burning was permitted by the air quality administration,
and we seized the opportunity to burn some thistles and brush. It is always
very pleasant to have a warm fire on a cold day. And in the evening the
reflections of the light emitted by the fire created a special atmosphere.
On Sunday morning there were many rain showers, and we left after a
short walk. We had lunch at Miller's Lodge followed by the drive to Cupertino.
We stopped close to Gilroy to take a photo of the snow-capped Mount Hamilton.
February 6:
As you can see from the large gap between this and the previous entry,
we are very busy with work and school. We have not been to our weekend
place in Greenfield for several weeks now. The water system is not
repaired yet, but today we ordered parts for the pump, which became leaky
after freezing in late December.
After a long time Jutta finally found a reasonably priced replacement
table for our backyard in Cupertino, after the glass of the original one
shattered through stress a few months ago. We are now ready for more backyard
parties with friends, once it gets warmer.
Ben's report card for the semester had positive and not so positive
surprises. Diether has been travelling quite a bit lately, and Jutta is
busy with her customers. Maybe we should have a bit more time for our local
and email friends. Today is a rainy day in the Bay Area, a local electric
power failure in the afternoon gave us some quiet time together. The rain
is predicted to continue until Wednesday.
January 9&10:
This weekend has perfect winter weather to enjoy the ocean beaches.
Diether and Jutta spent the early afternoons of both days on the coast
in and north of Santa Cruz. On Saturday we walked close to the lighthouse
in Santa Cruz after eating lunch on the wharf; on Sunday we had lunch in
Davenport and then walked the beach at the Greyhound Rock. It was so warm,
that children were playing in the water.
January 8:
On Ben's birthday the phone calls from Europe come in early for best
wishes before he goes to school. He opens most of his gifts in the morning.
In the evening he has dinner at home with his friends, and they play games
and watch a movie.
January 7:
Diether has another eye check performed in the afternoon, and everything
looks fine.
January 4:
Diether begins his new assignment at BD in San Jose. It is good to
work with a large number of good old friends again.
January 3:
The weather was nice and warm. Therefore we (D&J) went to the ocean
in Santa Cruz. We enjoyed a walk in the "Natural Bridges" state park followed
by lunch on the wharf.
January 2:
In the afternoon Ben goes to the movies with his girlfriend. In the
evening they go out with the parents to have a good dinner.
January 1, New Year's Day:
We phoned relatives and friends and sent New Year's wishes by email
on a peaceful pleasant holiday at home.