December 22 to 31, 2003: Diether and Jutta
retreated to Reno for the holidays to spend some quiet time, and
to work on 
some project by phone and Internet with
an overseas contractor. For Christmas eve and Christmas day Ben
and Ruth joined them for the celebration of Christmas with an
exchange of gifts. Ben enjoyed taking pictures of the
snow-covered hills and mountains. With Ruth he returned to the SF
Bay Area the day after Christmas to have a party on New Year's
eve with their friends. Diether and Jutta had a good New Year's
eve dinner together.
December 20, 2003: Diether, Jutta, Ben and Ruth started their holiday break (Hanukah, Christmas, and New Year) today continuing with some necessary chores.
December 7, 2003: After coming back from a conference in southern California, Diether decided to update the diary. Diether, Jutta, Ben and Ruth had a good autumn time with different activities. Ruth and Ben were busy at school, Diether at work. Diether and Jutta took some time to visit some of their favorite places in Nevada, including a one week vacation in the deserts and on the lakes within one hour of Reno. They timed the vacation to coincide with the resurfacing of the hardwood floors at the house in Cupertino, taking care of some un-anticiapted issues by cellphone from the "middle of no-where" in the Toiyabe National Forest. In November Jutta visited her parents in Europe again.
August 16&17, 2003: On Saturday morning
Jutta and Diether drove to their Greenfield cabin. As they did
not have any plans to drive 
around on the
dirt roads on or near to the property, they took Diether's Buick,
which is a lot quiter than Jutta's Jeep Wrangler, especially with
strong headwinds between Soledad and Salinas. They arrived
shortly before noon, and started to unload the car. Then Jutta
spotted a large rattlesnake close to the stairs to the house.
They watched it and waited for it to leave the area. Diether also
took some photos. After 15 minutes, he got a small shovel to take
care of the snake. When it saw him come towards it with the small
shovel, it turned around and moved towards him, making him back
off. While he looked for a shovel with a longer handle, the snake
disappeared into some bushes, allowing them to move into the
house. Diether and Jutta were happy, that they were not forced to
hurt the snake. They had a nice relaxing week-end there,
returning to Cupertino on early Sunday afternoon.
July 19&20, 2003: Jutta and Diether spent most of the weekend at their Greenfield retreat. As a result of a weather situation in the south, Saturday had overcast skies and relatively cool weather. Mice and ants had taken advantage of the many weeks of Diether's and Jutta's absence. Jutta suffered from a strong reaction to some ant bites. After a few hours the house was made ant-free for a pleasant quiet weekend. We left Greenfield early to join Ben, and Ruth for dinner. Ben had returned from Europe on Sunday afternoon.
July 12&13, 2003: Ruth returns from
Europe. Ben spent a few more days in Germany with the
grandparents. Diether and Jutta have dinner 
with her and her parents. On the
next day she shows photos to Diether and Jutta. Because of the
hot weather Diether and Jutta attached covers for the skylights
on the roof of the house on Alcazar on Saturday. The winds blew
all of them down, and Diether had to get back on the roof to
re-attach the covers.
July 4 to 10, 2003: Diether participated in teaching a scientific course in Berlin, Germany. He enjoyed seeing old friends again. Jutta joined him there, and explored Berlin during the day.
June 28, 2003: Diether took Ben to the airport to join Ruth in Europe to continue on to a visit to Israel.
June 21&22, 2003: On Saturday Ben and Diether helped Moni with some of her preparations for moving to the area for a year. On Sunday morning after breakfast she left for the airport to return home. Diether was performing some computer and business work; Ben completed school-work and preparations for some finals. In the evening Diether and Ben had dinner at the Hamasushi Japanese restaurant in Cupertino.
June 20, 2003: Jutta and Ruth left for a visit of the relatives in Europe; Joachim returned on the same flight. Moni cooked dinner for Diether and Ben.
June 19, 2003: Diether and Jutta had dinner with Bernie, Edith, and Anna at a Stanford restaurant; later in the evening they talked to Moni and Joachim, who plan to spend a year in the Bay Area on business.
June 14 &15, 2003: Ben, Ruth, and Bobbie had driven to Southern California for April's graduation. On Saturday afternoon Jutta and Diether went to the annual Studienstiftler party, this time at a house in Redwood City. We saw some old friends and met many new intereting intellectuals, talking about journalism, environmental issues, forestry, catalysis, biotechnology, and computer science. We had first planned to leave the party early to drive to Greenfiled; but the interesting conversations made us change our plan. Therefore we drove on the next morning to enjoy most of Sunday in the pleasant setting of our country place. Just before we left the cabin in the evening, we received a phone call from Ben and Ruth - returning from April's graduation - with the suggestion to meet for dinner. We met at the Harvest Inn retaurant in Soledad.
June 7 &8, 2003: On
Saturday afternoon we had our annual party with many friends
again. Jutta had started preparations days before; Jutta,
Diether, Ben and Ruth worked on Saturday morning to set up the
backyard. The first guests came at 3pm, many brought spouses and
children. We enjoyed conversations, food, and drinks until almost
midnight. Jutta and Ben took photos
(Email here for the
password). On Sunday, we had party leftovers, cleaned the house
and backyard, and relaxed.
May 31& June1, 2003: This was another weekend in Greenfield for Diether and Jutta. Diether used the new mower to continue to keep the weeds down and to cut a new path. He also sprayed the poison oak, which was to close to roads and trails. Jutta sprayed the thistles to keep them from multiplying too much. Together they installed a "hydrokinetic" tank overflow detector, constructed from a plastic water-bottle (used as funnel) and some hose to have the overflow water ("hydro") run ("kinetic") down close to the house to signal tank overflow. The testing of the setup was positive. There was also time to wash some laundry in the washer. To save electricity we hung it under the carport rather than using the electric dryer.
May 24&25, 2003: Diether and Jutta drove to the Greenfield place again to relax, and to cut more weeds. It was still humid enough for the weeds to re-grow a little. On Sunday morning they found time to drive to the upper part of the property, where we enjoyed the view of the green hillsides.
May 17&18, 2003: We stayed in the Bay Area for some small chore. There was enough time for Diether and Jutta for lunch in Half Moon Bay, and a walk on the beach there.
May 10&11, 2003: Diether
and Jutta drove to Greenfield to continue some work and to enjoy
their country place. Ben and Ruth joined them for a while to drop
off a lawn mower and some gasoline for it. Some of the gasoline
spilled, and Ben had to clean the truck bed. Ben and Diether put
the mower into service and started to cut the high weeds. Ben
also tried the sicklebar mower, which needs an oil change badly.
After Ben and Ruth left, Diether continued to cut weeds for a
while.
April 26&27, 2003: On Saturday Diether, Jutta, Ben, and Ruth drove for a late lunch to the Mezza Luna restaurant in Half Moon Bay, close to the airport. After lunch, they walked on the ocean for about 90 minutes. After returning to Cupertino, Ben and Diether bought a weed mower for the Grennfiled property. Later we all had dinner at the house in Cupertino. On Sunday, we stayed in Cupertino, phoned the parents in Europe, and shopped for some plumbing utensils for the place in Greenfield.
Weekends of March to April 20, 2003: With the
new water system in place Diether and Jutta enjoy the Greenfiled country retreat more. 
The burn
season, which ends on April 30, also entices them to cut some
brush and to burn it. Despite the clean-up the brush grows faster
then it can be removed. They also think about and work on
improvements to the different systems to make the maintenance of
the place easier. The interior of the house needs some care from
time to time, too. Spring days there can be from chilly to very
warm. Mornings, evenings, and nights are quite cold. The wood
burning stove is used with modern wax logs (a mixture of wax and
sawdust) to keep the mobile home warm. To relax Diether and Jutta
hike locally, or sunbathe on the deck or on a grassy spot. In
spring it is important to watch for woodticks, which are very
abundant right now. We do not know, if they carry any major
disease organisms in the Central California area. Therefore, we
check for the ticks every so often. The quiet seclusion of the
place is ideal to re-energize for the work during the week.
March 15 & 16, 2003: With a rainstorm in the forecast, everybody stayed in Cupertino for the weekend, with excursions to the beaches in Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay for Jutta and Diether. The weekend days were mostly sunny with about one inch of rain in the nights and early Sunday morning.
March 7 to 9, 2003: Diether and Jutta drove
to Reno for a long weekend. They did not book in advance, but
found a pleasant motel with a good rate easily. It is located
close to an excellent dinner
place, where we ate on Friday and Saturday night. During the
days, we explored 
places between the Red
Rock area north of Reno to Carson City in the south. On Saturday,
we had lunch at Adeles
in Carson City. We drove backto Cupertino on Sunday afternoon
after a late lunch in the Truckee hotel. Traffic was extremely
happy from skiers returning from the slopes.
March 1&2, 2003: On Saturday Ben and Ruth drove to Carmel to spend the afternoon. They had asked Diether and Jutta to go the the Greenfiled retreat to join them there for the evening and the night. We agreed, becuase Ruth never had spent the night in Greenfiled before. They arrived shortly after dark, and we had good family time over dinner and conversations until late. All slept well, and after breakfast Ben and Ruth continued to San Luis Obispo for the Mardi Gras parade. Everybody re-united again later in the evening at the house in Cupertino.
February 22&23, 2003: We (Diether and Jutta) drove to the Greenfiled place again for more brush burning and other activities.
February 15&16, 2003: After many weeks
Diether and Jutta drove to their country retreat close to
Greenfield again. The well company had 
installed
a new water storage tank the week before, and they checked it
out. It had not been connected to the well and the house yet, but
progress towards a satisfactory water system is made. We also
took advantage of the wet countryside to burn more brush. In the
evening we enjoyed the comfortable heat from the wood burning
stove.
Late January and early February 2003: Diether spent one weekend on the US East Coasst on business between a cold spell and a major snow storm. The other weekends Diether and Jutta used to enjoy Santa Cruz and it's beaches.
January 17 to 20, 2003, Matin Luther King Holiday weekend: We continued the tradition to spend a long weekend after Ben's birthday in Pismo Beach with Jutta, Diether, Ben, and Ruth. We were lucky again to have sunny weather for a relaxing short vacation on the beach.
January 11, 2003: Diether and Jutta drove to Capitola and Del Mar to walk on the beach and to look at the debris accumulated from a major rain storm.
January 10, 2003: Many of Ben's friends
joined us for dinner to celebrate Ben's birthday. After dinner
the youngsters - supervised by one experienced adult (JPW)- went
to visit some bars in San Jose. They learned, that certain drinks
don't mix or cause un-easiness. After a small incident 
with some strangers in the parking
lot, who blocked their exit, they returned safely later in the
night.
January 8, 2003: In the evening after work, we celebrated Ben's birthday with a smll number of his close friends.
January 5, 2003: We enjoyed sunshine and the impressive high surf at the beach in Santa Cruz.
January 2 - 4, 2003: Diether and Jutta spent some more time with Jutta's parents over meals and shopping in town. The weather was rainy with flooding by the Blies river visible in the area. On Friday evening they took one of the German trains, which makes may people motion-sick (no other choice on the specific tain line of the Deutsche Bahn), to Mainz to stay at a hotel close to the train station. Fortunately the intensity of rain decreased, and they had a delicious dinner with good wine at the "Haus des Deutschen Weines". On Saturday after breakfast, they took a train to the airport to return to San Francisco. They were picked up by Ruth's mother, came home at about 6pm for a full night's rest.
January 1, New Year's Day: Jutta and Diether begun the New Year with Jutt'a parents. They had champaign at their house and started with New Year's wishes directly or by phone. In the morning they attended mass at the Missionshaus with Jutta's father. Then they had a quiet day, because Diether had turned of the ringer on the phone, when trying to connect to his company's email.
(For the other parts of the family news click: (present, July-Dec 2002, Jan-Jun2002, Jul-Dec2001,Jan-Jun2001,Oct-Dec2000, Jul-Sep 2000, Jan-Jun 2000, 1999, 1998)