(For other parts of the family news click: 2001,
this page, Jul-Sep 2000, Jan-Jun 2000, 1999,
1998)
December 30, 2000: After breakfast, Jutta and Diether picked up the Oldsmobile from the local 76 service station, and to test it, drove it to Palo Alto for lunch at Il Fornaio. After returning to Cupertino, they rode their bikes to the post office to check for mail in our PO box. At 3pm they phoned the parents in Europe for New Year wishes. Diether and Jutta had dinner at home. Ben and his friends came shortly before 8 pm. They had a bon-fire in the Weber outside, and heated pizza for dinner. Everybody stayed up until after midnight to experience the first few minutes of the new millenium.
December 30, 2000: After talking to the
parents and sending Internet birthday wishes in parallel, Diether
and Jutta had 
breakfast with the leftovers in the
house, ran an errand, and then met with a local friend to treat
him to a late 2pm lunch in Santa Cruz for his birthday. After
lunch Jutta went into the ocean to enjoy the cold water. It is
winter!!! After returning to Cupertino, they went shopping, had
dinner alone (Ben had told them, that he would have dinner
outside with friends), and continued with reading and work on
this website.
December 29, 2000: Diether and Jutta spend a few hours up on the hill again. After arriving on the top, Jutta walked the new trail with Diether in heavy cloth to be protected from the brush, after seeing all the scratches on Diether's hands from the work on the day before. The southern exposure of the trail, and her heavy cloth got her heated up a bit. They then found a picnic spot with a mix of sun and shade, and enjoyed the solitude, watching plants and animals, and airplanes in the sky connecting Northern and Southern California. After the descent from the hill to their mobile home, they packed and drove back to Cupertino, where they met Ben with three friends in the house. Ben gave Jutta a late Christmas present. The teenagers then went out to have dinner at a Chinese restaurant, and after a short stay in the jacuzzi, Diether and Jutta had dinner in a Japanese place.Before going to bed, they considered to wake up at about midnight to phone Diether's father for birthday wishes, but they only woke up from a phone call from his mother the next morning to remind him.
December 28, 2000: After breakfast,
and Jutta's office work (email, phone calls)we drove up the hill
to the higher portion of our land to work on the tarp cover of
our brush pile. After that work was completed, Jutta took a sun
bath, while Diether was cutting a new foot trail through about
200 yards of brush. The trail has southern exposure, and Diether
was quite exhausted after finishing a first path at the trail in
about one hour of work.To cure the exhaustion, they had a picnic
lunch, followed by some rest (Diether mostly in the shade, Jutta
in the sun). After two turns of hide and seek on the brush
covered hill (Diether won both), they returned to the mobile home
for a 4pm coffee and some more offcie work for Jutta. After
dinner, they enjoyed a movie from an old 1989 tape.
December 27, 2000: Diether and Jutta had
planned to start an excursion to the Los Padres National Forest
at 8am. There was a delay getting up, having breakfast, and for
Jutta to check email, and to make a few phone calls. Therefore
they finally left at 10am driving to King City on Arroyo Seco
Road, Elm Road, Central Avenue, and a short stretch of Highway
101, followed by Jolon Road to the Mission San Antonio on Fort
Hunter Liggett land. There in the mission's gift shop they bought
a yearly "National Forest Adventure Passport; to be allowed
to enter the forest lands, and a map. Fortunately these places
accept credit cards. Then they continued on the Indian Road to
the Memorial Park Area of the National Forest. Unfortunately most
of the unpaved roads, shown on detailed maps to lead to
interesting areas, are closed to the public (even in areas of
exclusively public lands). We took a few open un-paved roads, and
enjoyed the scenery. Shortly after we turned around at 
the winter end of the Indian Road, we stopped to
walk on a rock formation, and to take some pictures. About a mile
south of there, an un-paved road leads to some camping areas
without services next to a small creek. We found a good swimming
hole for summer use, and stopped close to it for a picnic lunch.
From there we continued to the parking lot on Indians Road for
the Wagon Cave. It took us a while to find out, that the trail
starting at the parking area does not lead to the cave. We walked
it for about 3/4 miles. After returning to the car, we noticed,
that the cave is in the rocks closest to the parking area.
According to some stories (Book on Place Names of Monterey County)
the cave was used by early settlers of the Big Sur coast to store
a wagon and later a car for travel to King City and beyond, while
keeping the pack horses in a natural rock 
corral adjacent
to ther cave. After exploring that area, we tried an open dirt
road across from the parking lot. The road runs east for about
half a mile, then it turns north. At that point a few people were
camping. We continued to see a grandfather with two teenagers
engaged in target practise. We stopped until they noticed us, and
then continued on the Jeep trail. At one point Diether walked the
trail for about 100 yards to check, if it was safe to continue by
car. We continued to a point, where a low heavy tree branch
blocked the trail. As we did not have a saw in the car, we turned
around. During the return to the paved road we wondered at a very
steep stretch, whether we had taken that part of the road before
- it had not looked that steep on the way up. We took the paved
road back to the Mission San Antonio area, where we had coffee
and cake in the Hacienda Inn coffee shop. From there we returned
to the our mobile home in Greenfied, to have dinner. On the way
we admired the sunset over the many wineyards close to San Lucas,
King City and Greenfied. After dinner, we worked a bit more.
December 26, 2000: After some morning work,
errands, and lunch at home, Diether and Jutta drove to their
retreat in Greenfield to spend a few quiet days. Jutta had to
take her office materials, because she planned some office work
there in preparation for the challenges of the new year. They
arrived at about 4pm, unloaded the car into the cabin, started
the heater 
(the night temperatures had been around
30F), packed a box with old newpapers, got a water tight tarp, a
rake and a shovel into the car, and drove up the hill to cover a
small part of a huge brushpile from some bull-dozing earlier in
the year. They also left the box with paper and the tools there
in preparation for burning the pile in wet weather, when the hill
is only accessible on foot. To spread the tarp and to attach it
took a while, and they returned down to the cabin in the dark.
This was the first time, they drove the road up or down without
daylight. After dinner in the now confortably heated mobile, they
went outside for a few minutes to look at the stars in a clear
sky. After seeing a shooting star, they returned to the warm
house, and after a phone call to Ben in Cupertino, they turned
off the heater, and went to bed.
December 25, 2000, Christmas Day: In the
morning Diether and Jutta got up at 8:30am to have breakfast,
while Ben and his friend were sleeping in. They then drove to
church to find out, that the 9:30am mass had started at 9:00am.
They drove home to return for the 11am mass. Ben and his
girlfrined did not want to come along, therefore Diether and
Jutta drove alone to the wharf in Santa Cruz for lunch. Parking
on this Christmas Day was free, and several restaurants were
closed. There was a large crowd of people there, and we had to
wait for more than 20 minutes to be seated in our favorite
restaurant there. After lunch, we 
went to
the lighthouse to take photos of surfers with an unusually high
surf. Back home, we used our new bicycles to cruise through Monta
Vista. While Ben and his friends had lunch at a coffeeshop in the
neighborhood, Jutta and Diether enjoyed the spa, followed by a
coffeebreak with Christams cookies. Then Jutta started to read
one of her new books, while Diether worked through the first 2
chapters of "Teach Yourself Java2 in 21 Days". Jutta,
Diether, and Ben had dinner together at home, and after dinner
they continued with their books.
December 24, 2000, Christmas eve: For Christmas eve Diether, Jutta, Ben, and Ben's girlfriend had dinner together, followed by the unpacking of Christmas presents.Then another friend joined Ben, and the kids started their own celebration with a wood-fire in the BBQ pit to roast marshmallows. They also invited some more young people from the neighborhood. Shortly before midnight, everybody was tired, and the party ended.
December 23, 2000: After breakfast and spa,
we picked up to cruisers (bicycles) from a bikeshop close by. For
noon Jutta 
had a dental appointment in Palo Alto to
re-attach a temporary crown. After grocery shopping at Whole
Foods they had lunch at home, tested the bikes, cleaned out some
cabinets, and went shopping for some last minute gifts, bread,
and some peroxide and Bandaids at Longs. In the bakery we met two
mothers of Ben's friends and had a short chat. At home Jutta
started cooking dinner for herself, Diether, Ben, and two friends.
When Diether phoned Ben at 8 o'clock, he was told, that Ben and
friends were eating at a restaurant. So Diether and Jutta had
dinner without the children, and leftovers for some future lunch
or dinner. After dinner, Diether and Jutta drove to Palo Alto to
admire and take photos of the Christmas lights on a residential
street lined with Chrsitmas trees.
December 22, 2000: After work for Diether, Jutta, and Ben - we all came home a bit earlier - we had to pick up two cars from repair, the Oldsmobile for wheel allignment, and Ben's Fiero for overheating. Diether first dropped off Jutta in Sunnyvale on Wolfe and Kifer, and then Ben at the GM service on Stevens Creek Boulevard. In the evening Jutta, Ben, his girlfriend, and her father had dinner in Menlo Park, followed by book-buying at Kepler's. Diether could not come, he rested at home to cure a headache.
December 21, 2000: Diether took a vacation
day for some pre-holiday errands. The day was chosen perfectly,
because on 
Wednesday evening a large Caterpillar (Cat)
machine had been dropped off in the neighbor's driveway. We heard
engine noise at 7:20am in the morning, and Diether went outside
to see, what was going on. The Cat was positioned to tear down
the old house on the neighbor's lot. It took less than an hour to
completely demolish the house. We thought, the detached garage
adjacent to our fence would stay, but after some of the debris
from the house had been hauled away on a big truck, we missed the
wrecking of the garage. The Cat driver was very skilled, because
even though the fence was only a few inches away from the garage
building, except for one loose board on the fence, it remained
untouched. The photo shows the Cat in action. A complete
collection of photos of the event can be viewed at http://home.att.net/~localevents.
At noon, Jutta and Diether took the Oldsmobile for an urgently
needed allignment of the wheels, followed by a lunch at the
Japanese restaurant, close to Stevens Creek Blvd and Lawrence
Exwy in San Jose. After getting home, Jutta continued the work
for her job, and Diether prepared the photos for the websites.
They had a break with coffee and cake, and a few minutes in the
spa. After dinner at home, they continued the work, until they
grew tired. The kids (Ben and a friend) came home for a very
short while to show photos, which Ben had taken in San Francisco
yesterday. They left for their own dinner with the father of Ben's
friend.
December 17, 2000: We had breakfast at 9,
enjoyed the gorgeous view of fall colors from our dining area,
and phoned Jutta's and Diether's parents. They reminded us of
Arthur's birthday on Thursday, and we phoned immediately to 
congratulate, and to apologize for being late. We
saw Ben and Ruth, before they went to work, while we went to
Santa Cruz for lunch and a long beach walk on a pleasant sunny
day. We then went shopping in downtown Santa Cruz. In the late
afternoon, we performed some homework for next week. We concluded
the day with a church service at Queen
of Apostles (we saw a serious car accident on Lawrence
Expressway and Mitty on our way there), and dinner at home (the
Hamburger meat from the Greenfield store was not very good).
December 16, 2000: In the morning, we took the Jeep Wrangler to our retreat in Greenfield. We bought groceries at the Nob Hill store in Greenfield, and arrived at the cabin shortly before noon. We used the new hose adapter for the water system, started the heater, because the house was very cold, and walked in the sunshine around the house. Then Jutta prepared lunch, and we sat outside in the sun to eat it. When the sun disappeared behind the hill, it became very cold, and we moved to the inside. Even though only 0.1'' of rain had fallen a day or two earlier, it was too wet to drive to the tob of the hill. Therefore we enjoyed the afternoon in the house, playing a few games, and trying to fix Diether's company notebook computer. When it started to get dark, we decided to return to Cupertino to enjoy the fall colors in the backyard, and some of the other luxuries of the house in the city. Traffic was extremely light -except at the Stevens Creek exit of 85, because of a Flint Center event -, and we arrived at the house in less than 2 hours. After a dinner of delicious leftovers -heated in the microwave-, and a bottle of wine, we enjoyed the spa.
December 15, 2000: At 6:45PM Diether and
Jutta drove to the Holiday party, organized by the company, where
Diether works. The party was at the Mexican Heritage center in
San Jose. There was an open museum with an exhibit about the life
of Cesar Chavez for some culture, many good friends, food and
drinks, and a band. After enjoying the party, we returned home at
about 10:30PM. We found the hot tub open and the jets running,
and Ben and three friends in the house. We must 
have surprised them, and they must have left the hot
tub in a hurry, even leaving their unfinished Coke cans there. We
wonder, what was going on? Diether, still in his best party dress,
had to close the tub, after removing the cover from the cleft
between the spa and the fence.
December 9 & 10, 2000: In preparation for driving to Greenfield, on Friday evening after work we went shopping for food and then to Home Depot for some plumbing supplies. Because the store was noisy, and service was awful, we left our half-filled shopping cart to go home. On Saturday morning, the weather looked rainy with lots of clouds in the satellite image. Therefore we decided to stay in the Bay Area. In the morning Jutta worked on some lawn rehabilitation. Around noon, we walked on the bay at San Antonio Road in Palo Alto followed by a good lunch at Il Fornaio. After a short stop at home with a visit to the "hot tub" (move finally completed), we went to Orchard Supply in Sunnyvale to get the plumbing supplies for Greenfield. We liked the contrast in service. After dinner, Ben showed up with Curtis, and we had a good conversation about cars and other topics. On Sunday morning, we participated in the 9AM mass at Queen of the Apostles, followed by a champaign lunch at home. Then we finished the year end letter for families and friends, enjoyed the hot tub again, and prepared for a dinner with a friend from Europe, visiting the area.
December 2 & 3, 2000: The holidays are upon us; Jutta bakes Christmas cookies, and sets up the tree. On Sunday, we had lunch on the wharf in Santa Cruz, went downtown to watch and photograph people. In the evening we went to mass.
December 1, 2000: 
Action in our
normally quiet street, when Jutta is on the telephone with
Diether at work, there is a noise. Checking on the source of the
noise reveals, that a distant neighborhood teenager has driven
over the neighbor's fence (wall). He was driving a pre-seatbelt
car with a bench, and lost control, when turning into our street.
The neighbor was quite surprised to hear, that the nice white
wall had been flattened. The teenager's father was upset, but
happy, that the kid was not hurt; but the car may be totaled. The
photo shows three ladies from the neighborhood, looking at the
flattened wall. The parked car is the neighbor's car; the car
involved in the accident has been towed to a service station or
wrecking place.
November 27&28, 2000: Diether has to travel on business again, this time only to a Rocky Mountain state.
November 26, 2000: Lunch on the wharf in Santa Cruz with the friend visiting from Germany, followed by a walk close to the Santa Cruz lighthouse, watching the surfers in the Pacific Ocean.
November 24 & 25, 2000: On Friday, we drive to our retreat in Greenfiled with our friend visiting from Germany. When we arrive, we find a neighbor's disabled car in the driveway to the entry gate. Diether and Hans-Joachim help to push it out of the way, while the nighbor is steering. Arriving at the mobile home, we found the water line cracked from freezing. After some thinking, we decide on a by-pass with a hose, and stay. We have lunch, turn on the gas heater, and then walk on the county road for some exercise. After dark, we start to prepare dinner. After a late breakfast in the morning, we leave towards Carmel Valley, where we have lunch at a Mexican restaurant. From there we drive to Monterey via the Los Laureles grade to stop at the fisherman's wharf for some walking. It is very crowded with locals and tourists because of the holiday weekend. At approximately 3pm, we start our return drive to Cupertino on highways 1, 17, and 85. In the evening, we have dinner at our house in Cupertino with a local friend.
November 23, 2000, Thanksgiving Day:
We are celebrating our important American holiday with the
November 7 presidential election still unresolved. Diether leaves
the group for a few moments before dessert to post the photo of
on the left. In addition to Ben, Jutta, and Diether, there are 6+1
guests at the dinner table. Several of Ben's friends join the
dinner for a short while.
November 18&19, 2000: On Saturday morning, we (Diether and Jutta) drove to the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto to buy some shoes for Diether, and some fruit for the weekend. From there drove to CompUSA on El Camino Real and Lawrence Expressway to look at some computer equipment. This was followed by lunch at the Japanese restaurant on Stevens Creek Boulevard and Lawrence Expressway. We tried to reach Ben by phone at work to have him join us for lunch, but he did not pick up the phone. We stopped by his workplace afterwards, when he just returned from a break. In the afternoon, we walked in the neighborhood. Jutta went into an open house on our street, liked the layout, but was shocked about the price. Diether and Jutta had a nice dinner at home followed by some R&R, while Ben attended a play at Monta Vista High School with friends. On Sunday, we discussed the completion of the move of the Jacuzzi with Bobby, and performed some other chores at home. After a lunch of pancakes and white asparagus at home, we walked in the neighborhood.
November 17, 2000: In the evening Diether was going to the "oldtimer" dinner at the company. The conference center has been converted to a dinner place for a very tasteful event. Some of the company associates have been with different divisions for more than 25 years.
November 14-16, 2000: Diether attended some scientific meetings in San Diego, staying in a simple motel in the Pacific Beach area of town for $59.- per night. Jutta had to attend another business meeting on Wednesday and Thursday. Diether was flying in and out of San Jose, Jutta San Francisco. She did the driving, dropping him off in San Jose on Tuesday morning, and parking her car at the San Francisco airport. On Thursday night, just a few seconds after she drove into the driveway at home, Diether arrived with a taxi from San Jose.
November 11&12, 2000: On Saturday morning Diether and Jutta drove to Santa Cruz to have lunch on the pier, and to buy a pie for the evening event. As they forgot to buy the pie in Santa Cruz, they stopped in Los Gatos on their return drive to buy a cake there. In the evening, they went to a wine tasting party with very good friends. On Sunday they hiked in the San Antonio Open Space area, surprised by the many new houses in the area. In the afternoon, they relaed at home, and Diether took some sunset pictures in the backyard.
November 6 to 10, 2000: On Monday, Jutta had to take the night flight (red-eye) to the East Coast for an almost week-long business meeting. Diether took her to the airport in San Francisco. Tuesday was election day, and Diether voted before going to work. He reminded Ben, but he was too tired in the morning, and voted after work in the evening. Diether followed the election results until about 11:30 at night, and went to sleep, when he noticed, that no definite result would be available for a long time. On Thursday night, Jutta returned from her trip, and Diether picked her up.
November 4&5, 2000: On Saturday morning,
Jutta and Diether drove to the weekend retreat in Greenfield. The
weather was nice, and they drove up to the mesa for some walking.
On the way up, they noticed a car, which had become stuck in the
mud earlier after a rain. It had almost slid down the hill. On
Sunday morning, Diether took photos of the fog in the valley.
They returned to Cupertino early to prepare for Jutta's travel in
the following week.
October 30, 2000: Jutta had to leave for a business-trip from the SJC airport early in the morning. Diether dropped her off, and started work very early at about 6:30AM. This worked out find, because Ben phoned in the afternoon to ask for help with picking up his Fiero from service at 4:30PM. Diether helped him pick up the Fiero, which had needed a new clutch. Later in the evening, he picked up the repaired Oldsmobile. The "ancient" car still drives well, but needs a clean-up of the interior after many months of use by Ben.
October 28 & 29, 2000: This was a rainy weekend, and instead of spending it at the cabin in Greenfield, Diether and Jutta stayed in Cupertino to organize some of the files at home. On Sunday, they interupted the work by driving to the wharf in Santa Cruz for lunch. On the way back home, they stopped in downtown Santa Cruz to buy a bowl. After some more work at home, they went to church at Queen of Apostles, followed by dinner at home, and additional homework especially for Jutta, who had to pack and prepare for a business trip on Monday.
October 24, 2000: We had dinner with a local friend and friends from Finland, whom we had not seen in about ten years. We exchanged many stories and had a good time. Earlier, Allen from the service stations had given us the good news, that the Oldsmobile can be repaired at a reasonable cost.
October 22, 2000: After breakfast and an
errand to Sears in the Vallco shopping center, Diether and Jutta
drove to San Francisco for a matinee opera performance of "Dead
Man Walking". After finding a parking spot, they bought
standing room tickets, and then ate lunch at a small Japanese
restaurant close to the opera house. The performance started at 2pm.
Diether stayed through the first of two acts. Jutta continued to
experience the opera, while Diether walked around the San
Francisco 
Civic Center to take photographs. At 5pm
we met at the entrance, walked to the car, and returned to
Cupertino for a dinner at home, and some after dinner work.
October 20 & 21, 2000: Friday was Jutta's
birthday. We had breakfast, and then everybody went to work. In
the afternoon, Diether hosted a student delegation of 20 German
students for a company visit at his place of work in San Jose.
Three other company scientists helped with the presentations. The
event had to be shortened substantially, because the first
charter bus to take the group from Berkeley to San Jose broke
down, and another bus had to be found. Despite these difficulties
the visit turned out very well. At 6pm in the afternoon Jutta met
Diether at the company in San Jose to drive to Berkeley for a 7pm
dinner with the student group, and an overnight stay in a hotel
for the Saturday workshop. Traffic on Interstate 880 was very
heavy, and to add to the problem Diether took a wrong turn in
Oakland to Interstate 80 West rather than East. However, he
managed to minimize the delay from this mistake to about 20
minutes by cutting across about 15 lanes of stop-and-go traffic
in about 200 yards in front of the toll plaza, to turn aroung
through the toll plaza parking lot. However, they arrived so late
at the hotel, that Diether suggested not to join the group dinner
on Durant Avenue in Berkeley. Instead they had Jutta's birthday
dinner at their expense in the dining room of the hotel at a
table with a beautiful view of the San Francisco Bay and the
bridge. The restaurant even had a dry Riesling from Alsace. Jutta
ate crab cakes followed by venison, Diether an endive salad
followed by braised duck. Afer a short walk in the hotel area,
they returned to their room for Diether to once more go over his
material for the Saturday morning workshop. Then they went to
rest.
In the morning of Saturday they had breakfast with the students
before taking a taxi to the Haas Business School building on the
UC Berkeley campus. After the plenary talk, presented by a
professional photography artist, the workshops were held,
including Diether's. After the workshop, Diether and Jutta
returned to the hotel by taxi, had a small lunch in the
coffeeshop, and started to drive towards San Jose, picking up the
car in the company parking lot, and arriving home at about 4pm in
the afternoon. Before and after dinner, Jutta performed some
cleanup around the house, while Diether worked on this website.
Ben came home for a while, and then tried to take the Oldsmobile
(car) to Santa Cruz with some friends. As we found out from a 10:30pm
phone call from Ben, they ran into car problems (wheel or axle
issues) close to the Lexington reservoir on Highway 17. They had
the car towed to a service station close to home, walked to the
house, and took theJeep Wrangler to complete their plans.
October 14 & 15, 2000: On Saturday morning after Kevin had left to the SFO airport to return home, Diether and Jutta drove to the country retreat in Greenfield. After some chat with the neighbors on the way in, they arrived in time for a late lunch at the cabin. After lunch, they spent some time on the "mesa" to enjoy the solitude with gorgeous views of the Junipero Sera mountain. After a gourmet dinner, they watched the full moon, before going to rest. On Sunday morning they performed some maintenance work: the chimney cover of the house had been blown down by a strong wind, and had to be put back, and the heat/rain cover of the shed had to be maintained, because some of the tape, holding together differnt lanes of the cover, had come loose. After lunch, they returned to Cupertino, stopping on the way at the Garlic World store in Gilroy to buy some fruit and peppers.
October 13, 2000: Jutta picked up Diether, who was returning from a 4 day long business trip to the East Coast (NC and MD), at SFO. In the afternoon, we had coffee and cake with a local friend and his East Coast relatives. In the late afternoon Kevin came back from his trip to Southern California.
October 7 & 8, 2000: After a
late breakfast at home in Cupertino, Diether, Jutta, and our
guest Kevin, who had come to San Jose for the vision conference,
drove to Sausalito. The traffic on Highway 1 to the Golden Gate
Bridge was very slow. In Sausalito we parked at the Spinnaker
restaurant, and signed up for a table. The projected wait was 40
minutes. We used the time to buy a birthday present for Jutta at
a store in town. We returned to the restaurant, and were seated
immediately. We enjoyed lunch, while watching the boats on the
bay. For fleet week, there were many old sailing ships in the
water, and a demonstration of the "Blue Angels" in the
air. After lunch, we drove to San Francisco, and found a parking
spot on a steep street in the North Beach area, where we had
coffee. From there we strolled through Chinatown, where people
prepared for a parade on the occassion of a national chinese
holiday. Diether took many photos of the colorful scenery. Back
in North Beach, we admired the work of some street artists, who
created lively paintings on the street.
Before the start of the parade, we left San Francisco in
exteremely dense traffic (about 45 minutes from North Beach to
the freeway), and drove back to Cupertino to cook and eat dinner
at home. On Sunday morning after breakfast Diether, Jutta, and
their guest Kevin drove to the beach in Santa Cruz
. Jutta went swimming in the ocean for a while,
Diether took photos, and Kevin went shopping. Then they had lunch
on the beach. After lunch Kevin started a trip to Southern
California; Diether and Jutta returned home to Cupertino.
October 4, 2000: On the occasion of the vision conference in San Jose, Jutta and some associates invited Diether to join them in the evening. He met with them in a company hospitality suite in the San Jose Hilton. Ben had come, too, but had to leave early because of his school commitments. A small group looked for the dinner place, and stopped at a ".com" company event, which offered free snacks, T-shirts, and other goodies. We missed the company presentation, and had to rely on a few posters and slides to learn about the company's activities. One slide suggested to rent a cow rather than buying a carton of milk for breakfast. We concluded, that the comany offers unconventional good advice to it's clients. During this stop, we lost one of our male group members, who involved himself in a lengthy chat with the lady singer of the event. With the rest of the group, we had an excellent dinner with good conversation.
October 1, 2000: With Jutta travelling in Europe, Diether stayed at home, and ran a few errands. He also waited for one of Jutta's principals to pick up a tradeshow booth from the garage of the house.
Earlier 2000 events (July to September)