Family Diary
For the most recent part click here.
2002, January to June
June 29&30, 2002: Ben and Ruth
were out for the weekend with Ruth's parents for a family event
in Los Angeles. Diether had to work on Saturday morning.
Therefore Jutta drove to Santa Cruz with our friends from France
in their rental car. Diether joined them for a late lunch on the
wharf. After swimming in the ocean (Jutta), we returned to
Cupertino for dinner and talk. On Sunday morning, we drove to the
Big Basin Redwood State Park. On the way we had lunch in Boulder
Creek in the sandwhich place, recommended by Kerstin (see June
22&23). In the park, we admired the redwood trees during a 90
min walk. Unfortunately one of our friends dropped her camera,
and it seems to need repair. We returned on Bear Creek Road, and
after arriving home in Cupertino Diether worked on the many
photos, while Jutta and the friends went swimming. At 7:30PM
Diether, Jutta, and the visiting friends had dinner. At 8:35 Ruth
called to let us know, that they had returned safely from Los
Angeles.
June 27, 2002: In the evening, Jutta and Ben
picked up friends arriving from France for a vacation in
California. Diether worked too late to join them, and was asleep
by the time they came home.
June 22 & 23, 2002: A friend from Germany
moved to a house in Boulder Creek on Friday. Ben helped moving
things from Sunnyvale in his truck. Diether and Jutta had planned
to help unpack things at the new location on Saturday, but this
help was rescheduled for Sunday. Therefore on Saturday we
finished some shopping and small tasks around the house. On
Sunday morning we drove to Boulder Creek, and helped set up the
kitchen. After most kitchen items had been unpacked, Jutta 
continued to organize shelves, while Diether took
photos of the house and the neighborhood for the friends
relatives in Europe. In the afternoon, everybody (Diether, Jutta,
and Kerstin) went to a sandwhich place in the town of Boulder
Creek to eat lunch. After lunch Diether and Jutta drove to the
beach, taking the Jamison Grade Rd to Empire Grade Rd via Boony
Doon to highway 1. They stopped at the Natural Bridges State
Park, and walked to the beach along the creek past the lagoon. We
saw a big heron in the lagoon, and Diether took several photos.
We also saw, that one can ride a bike on the trail. After about
an hour in the park, we returned home to Cupertino via highway
17. We went to church at Quuen of Apostles in San Jose, and had
dinner at Hamasushi, one of our favorite Japanese restaurants.
June 16, 2002: Shortly after midnight, our
house guest started packing to make room in the guest-room for
some new summer guests from Europe, who are scheduled to arrive
shortly. After breakfast, Ben and Ruth gave Diether a box of
See's marzipans for Father's Day. After completing some
paperwork, we (Diether and Jutta) left the house shortly after
10am to drive to Greenfield to check on the cabin. We took the
Buick, because we did not want to put up with the noise of the
Jeep Wrangler. After the determination, that the resident mice
had not made a big mess, we checked on the water level of Paloma
Creek under the road bridge. It
looked lower
than usual, which made us concerned about the water situation. We
continued our journey to Carmel Valley, where we had lunch in the
"Running
Iron" restaurant and saloon.From there we continued to
the beach on Reservation Rd, but did not stay there for more than
5 minutes, because of cold winds. We stopped again at the Salinas
River Beach State Park, we we walked the beach for about 40
minutes. The return drive was a bit lengthy, because of
stop-and-go traffic on highway 1 close to Moss Landing and on
highway 101 between Salinas and San Juan Bautista. We took side
roads through Aromas to avoid the traffic. We arrived at our home
in Cupertino shortly before 6pm.
June 15, 2002: After some housework in the
morning, we (Diether and Jutta) went to Diether's work to see, if
a team on an urgent program needed some support. We were
impressed with the team's commitment to accelerate the program.
In the evening we drove to Half Moon Bay for a walk on the beach,
followed by dinner at "Pasta Moon". After dinner, we
drove south on highway 1 to watch the sunset over the Pacific
Ocean. We returned home via Tunitas Creek Rd with tall redwood
trees, Skyline Blvd, 92 and 280.
June 9 through 14, 2002: Diether had a
stressful week at work including an eye exa, which took
additional time out of the schedule. Some good discussion on
Friday helped substantially to relieve some of the stress.
June 8 & 9, 2002: On June 8 we had the
large annual family party (The first Saturday after one of our
birthdays) with friends at our house in Cupertino. In the morning
we prepared the house and the backyard 
with help from
Ben and Ruth. More than 70 friends joined us between 3pm and
10pm. (Photos of the party will be available for some time in the
"Special
Events" section of the website; email us for the
password -bottom of this page). On Saurday night and Sunday
morning we cleaned up, supported by Ben, while Ruth had to go to
work. We spent the rest of Sunday at home, and had dinner with a
friend. Diether worked on a few computer tasks.
June 1 & 2, 2002: On Saturday we
(D&J) drove to Half Moon Bay to have lunch at the Mezza Luna
restaurant. It was foggy and cold, and after lunch we walked on
the coast for only about half an hour. We returned to Cupertino
on 92 and Skyline. There were fog and drizzle on Skyline Blvd to
the Page Mill Rd intersection. We continued past the highway 9
intersection, and joined 17 at the Lexington reservoir. On
Sunday, we had a slow day at home with lunch after shopping at
Whole Food and dinner at Hamasushi after evening church.
May 25 through 27, Memorial Day weekend, 2002: Originally,
Diether and Jutta had considered to drive to Greenfield for the
Memorial Day weekend. But based on an invitation to a Sunday BBQ
from Ruth's parents, we stayed in Cupertino. Diether also liked
to get some rest with less driving on a long weekend. Therefore
on Saturday, we relaxed and worked around the house, and watched
a movie on Saturday night. On Sunday we attended church in the
morning, and relaxed in the afternoon before joining the BBQ
dinner with Ruth's parents and some of their friends and
relatives. We had a fabulous dinner with good conversations, and
returned to our home at about 11pm, where the teenagers from the
party had gone earlier to watch movies without disturbance by
parents. After breakfast on Memorial Day, Jutta decorated the
house with flags before joining Vicki to go swimming. Diether
stayed home to update this diary.
Rest of April through May 24, 2002: Jutta
started a new job with a software company in San Francisco,
Diether had a lot of variety at his job with some increased
travel in April and May to three conferences in New Orleans, San
Diego, and Europe. Because of the short notice for the European
conference, there was a scramble to get a visa. Finally an
arrangement was made to notify the airline, and to pick up the
visa at the destination. In addition to time out of the office
for travel, Diether spent 2 days at a county courthouse for jury
duty. Ben continues his studies at DeAnza. We still have one of
Ben's friends in our guest-room, which we will need soon for
visiting friends. When Diether was not travelling, he and Jutta
enjoyed weekends at home or in Santa Cruz at the beach. Before
and after the San Diego conference, we had visits from European
friends (photo).On Saturday, May 4, one of Diether's conference
weekends, Jutta also had a party for the locals of the
Studienstiftung in the backyard.
April 6 & 7, 2002: Ben and Ruth were in
Arizona for Ben K's graduation. Diether and Jutta went on a 2 day
week-end vacation except for
quite homework. On Saturday,
after packing suitcases for an overnight stay, we drove to
Monterey for a stroll and lunch at Rappa's at the end of the
wharf. Then we continued the drive to Carmel for window shopping
and a cappucino at Cardinale's. The cheese cake there was very
good. From there we returned to Lovers' Point in Pacific Grove
for some walking and climbing. Diether risked his life to climb
down a cliff to take photos of a three year old female seal
(information provided by Jutta). After the disappointing message
from our favorite motel, that they were booked out, we retuened
to Cupertino for a delicious dinner of left-overs from Thursday's
BBQ. On Sunday after Jutta's swim with Vick, Jutta and Diether
drove to Santa Cruz to enjoy the sunny but chilly day, followed
by dinner at home.
April 2 through 5, 2002: Friends from the
Lake Tahoe area stayed with us. We enjoyed good conversations and
TV together. On Thursday we invited some local friends with their
children to have a joint BBQ.
March 30&31, 2002: This was a
sunny and warm weekend. On Saturday Ben and Ruth went on a trip
to visit a friend ("grandma") in Southern California
for a few days during the college spring break. Diether and Jutta
went to Diether's workplace in the morning to help prepare some
laboratory space for a project. We also organized files in
Diether's office. After lunch at home in Cupertino, we had a
quiet afternoon and evening. On Sunday after church, we first
phoned the parents to wish them a happy Easter. Then we drove to
Santa Cruz to enjoy the beach and to have lunch. In the late
afternoon we went to the swimming abd tennis club for Jutta to
swim and Diether to review emails.
March 23&24, 2002: Saturday was a rainy
day, spent at home. On Sunday, after church, we drove to Santa
Cruz for lunch, and a walk on the wharf and in the city. It was
windy and cool. The town had two demonstrations, one 
group demanding driver
licenses and social security numbers. A elderly lady remarked,
that "you apply for those". The other demonstrators
protested against banks charging interest on loans to the
developing world carrying crosses with palms, and calling it the
14 stations of the cross.
March 16&17, 2002: On Saturday morning
Jutta and Diether drove to their place in Greenfield to check on
the cabin and the water system. They arrived shortly after noon.
They had not been there in several weeks. They found the new
creative rain gauge (a funnel on a large wine bottle) almost
full. They calculated (Jutta by hand, Diether with an Excel
spreadsheet), that it was from just 1'' of rain. After lunch,
they went over to the neighbors to admire their new construction,
and to ask them to look at ways to put a water tank into the side
of the hill. After returning to the cabin, they worked on
thinning brush close to the house. They had a good evening warmed
by the fire from a wax log. In the night it started to rain. The
rain continued through the morning, when the neighbor stopped by
to discuss the move of the water tank. After he had left, they
decided to wait for the rain to end to depart for Cupertino. When
that did not happen by 1pm, they took off to arrive at the
Cupertino home in mid afternoon.
March 9, 2002: We explored a new beach in
Half Moon Bay, and because the Pasta Moon restaurant was too
crowded, we had lunch at the Mezza Luna restaurant again.
March 2, 2002: We had lunch in Santa Cruz and
enjoyed a lovely day at the beach, taking many digital photos
(not shown).
February 24, 2002: We drove to Half Moon Bay
through Pacifica, because of heavy traffic on 92. We only made it
to the harbor, because of traffic on highway 1. We had lunch at
the Mezza Luna restaurant in Princeton, and a walk on the Devil
Slide Beach, before returning home via Pacifica and 280.
February 17, 2002: Jutta and Diether had
lunch on the wharf in Santa Cruz, followed by a stroll through
Capitola. It was a 
very cold day, with snow on
the peaks of the Santa Cruz mountains.
February 15&16, 2002: On Friday around
noon, Jutta drove to Stanford to attend a scientific symposium in
honor of the 70th birthday of a friend. Diether joined later, and
was only able to attend the last talk of the symposium. In the
evening, there was a dinner with many guests. On Saturday
afternoon, Jutta and Diether went to join other guests at the
friend's house, and in the evening there was a dinner with many
guests, followed by some unique live music. Ben and Ruth were
invited, too; Ben was able to join, while Ruth was tired from a
day of work.
February 12, 2002: Jutta and our neighbor
Salwa were guests at other neighbors' wedding in Oakland. They
drove in Jutta's Wrangler in the early afternoon, and returned
late at night.
January 1, to January 31, 2002: Diether,
Jutta, Ben, and Ruth had a good start of the new year with a
party at their house in Cupertino. Ben and his friends lit a fire
in the BBQ Weber to celebrate the New Year. Because of some new
assignments at work Diether became very busy, and did not have a
lot of time to update the diary in January. Ben and his
classmates are working on the very old Jeep Cherokee at school to
repair the engine, which overheated, while Diether was driving it
in December.
(For the other parts of the family news click:(Jul-Dec2001,Jan-Jun2001,Oct-Dec2000, Jul-Sep 2000, Jan-Jun 2000, 1999, 1998)
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