A Great Year

Wow, it has been a LONG time since I posted anything... I thought that since it is New Year's Eve of 2012, I should sum up the last couple months!

October: October was a SUPER fun month! We went on many bikerides to Goodwill and the local High School. For Halloween we had the awesome opprotunity to trick or treat just around our neighborhood! It was loads of fun (along with a acquisition of many KitKats!). I dressed up as a Ghost; A white sheet with eye holes cut out. Lots of fun and lots of chocolate.

November: A relatively boring month, school homework sleep school homework sleep...

December: This was definitelt one of the funniest months of this year. Lots of playing, parties, sleep, and relaxing made this month very happy. Our cousins came over for christmas, and with them we went to San Francisco and played frisbee in the lawn. For Christmas I recieved a laptop (!!!!!), which I am typing this post on. The whole family had lots of fun together.

Overall this year has been very fun and relaxing. I have been enjoying watching Battlestar Galactica and spending time with family and friends. It has been a great year

- J

2012!!!!

I am writing this at 5:15 PM on December 31, 2012. In 6 hours and 44 minutes (it just turned to 5:16 PM) it will be.............
                           !!!!!!!!!!!!!2013!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG!!! Also A big Announcement! WE SURVIVED 12/21/12!! AND ALL THE FRIDAY THE 13ths!!!! What a big Gigantic scary awesome and crazy year!!!!!! Break a leg in 2013 Everyone. BTW for Christmas I got lots of fun stuff and i hope you did too !!!!


Cheers!
         -G

Little League Championships

We came back from the River and we saw lots of signs in windows and people carrying tshirts ...

Petaluma Little League gets third place! GO PETALUMA!!!!

- g

Downtown !!!

Labor Day Weekend

Today is labor day. My family decided to follow what labor day was meant for and just lazied around all day. Apart from a bikeride (2 hrs!!), we watched "The Wonder Years," a TV show. Thats pretty much all!

Bye!

-g

Purple Flowers at the Petaluma River

Swans in the Water Recycling Pools

Bike Path at the Petaluma River 

Wedding Bells

Hey! Guess What? J and I have been asked to play piano in a wedding in about a year! It's going to be soooooo much fun! Bye!


-G

Our Piano 

SUM, SUM, SUMMERTIME!!!!!!!

Hey! I just wanted to tell you about my summer so far! I pretty much have been at home except for the occasional beach or swimming pool outing. At Casa we (G,J,C and Dad) have been on tons of bike rides all around town.

Summer in the Valley

Beach Days....

Painting 'Daisy Belle' 

Summer Movies

Life at Casa ... simple and easy

... and MORE beach days !

County Fair

At moms house we are going to Canada! This Summer has been fun, but I can't wait till school starts. It's going to be really fun! HAPPY SUM, SUM, SUM, SUMMERTIME!!!!



- G

CAMPING!

Hello, I have not blogged for a while and I decided to do a blog about our camping trip!

It was a Thursday afternoon and we were deciding on what to do, and on our list of things to do there was camping, so we waited some days, then G said "Lets go camping!" we all agreed and we started to pack, My that was a LOT of work. At night I started to get tired and I went to my room and I thought about all of the things that we would have to do to make this trip final, but dad had already made the reservations. Everyone came up to our room and discussed how long were we going to stay. We decided that we were going to stay one night and see if I liked it. I kind of wanted to go home, but i loved that beach so much that I could not give it up. We stayed one more day (or maybe 2 I forgot) and so that was another sand filled day at the beach.

Simple Life

It was funny, there was people called "beach bums", because they lived on the beach. They went through the recycling every night. Once we even heard someone shout "WOO!!" because they probably found something.

River Beach

We all went floating underneath the full moon, and that is rare to do, but I did not go. I didn't go because i the water was WAY to cold.

Full Moon Over Campfire

The last day was sad, we had to go home because J wanted to.

On the camping trip we ran out of sodas, so G got the last one, but what I did not know is that Safeway was like RIGHT there. And when we left we saw it and dad said "why did you not ask me if we could go to safe way?" I had no answer, exept "How would I know?" well, he said that just about anywhere is california there is a safeway. Well that was a lesson to learn. See you later!

- C

J's Book DONE

At last.... After many days of non-stop reading.... Many bike rides lost due to the nessisity to finish this book... J has finnaly completed reading his book.

The book was titled: The Once and Future King, and is based on the life and times of King Arthur. From the teachings of Merlin the wizard during his youth to the final battle between England and France, this novel was  filled with honour, bravery, and the teachings of chivalry. I kind of think of this book as a bible, due to its unique feature of having many different people's stories into one. However, this feat was not done the usual way (one chapter about person 1, next about person 2, then person 1, then person 2...), but as five seperate books, once one was done a whole new story began, so it was more like reading five books. Along with the stories there were many detailed instructions such as how to make a battleaxe-proof door, how to correctly hold your weapons during a joust, where on the armor you should hit during a joust, and how to make a castle impossible to take by assault. I would rate this book five out of five stars due to the vast amounts of knowledge it gave me but also for the excellent way the author peiced this book together.

This book was the best one I have ever read, and kept my focus the entire time. I reccomend to everyone who reads this post: READ THIS BOOK. It will definatly be worth the time, and at the end you will wish there was more. That is all.

-J

[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Once_and_Future_King ]

BIKES!

As of just a few short days ago, our family recieved EVEN MORE BIKES!!!!! These new and welcomed additions include two more mountain bikes, perfect for our riverside adventures. One of the two bikes is a nice red color, and the other a sleek silver beauty. They came to us in pieces, but over the course of this week we have been putting them back together. So far, we have nearly put the silver one together, and the red one is still is peices (We need a Derailer-shifts the gears- for us to continue). I hope the red will be an excellent bike, as red is my favorite color and the bike looks amazing so far (suspension, shocks, the works). I can't wait until we complete it. Until then, we will continue riding our bikes everywhere we go.

-J

Dad's Sunday Cruiser

FAB CASA

Only a short while ago, our family successfully completed repairing the Tandom bike. When it first arrived, the tandom was an ugly green color, and was overall destroyed. Now, after a completly new paintjob, tires, logo, rims, and many more adjustments, the old-school 2-person bike is ready to roll. As I type this, the innovated bicycle is being commandeered by two brave people, my sister and my dad. In our test runs, we found that this bike is completely unlike a one-person bike: Imagine driving a compact car your entire life, and then one day try driving a bus. You will get a similar expierience. The tandom has VERY wide turns, is much slower, and you always feel as if you are about to fall off.

We decided to name the bike FAB CASA, since you can connect the words to make a cross, like the skateboarders in the 70's did with Dogtown. It is a very creative idea, and FAB CASA is stenciled on the side of the bike. Altogether , FAB CASA is a beautiful bike worthy of a great home. I will try to get some pictures up ASAP.


-J

J's Going to HS

Only a couple short weeks ago, I graduated from 8th Grade. This was a big event in my life, as next year I will be attening a school of which almost none of my childhood friends will be attending. As sad as it is, I am actually kind of happy about highschool. New friends, lots more people, bigger campus, I think high school will be great. I also think that taking the same classes as people from other grades will be fun. To be honest, I cant wait for high school. Being at last one of the shortest kids will be a nice change for once. Although I will miss all of my friends at my middle school, I am sure that I will make many new ones. New teachers will also be an upside. Having the same teachers all three years of middle school got boring after a while, and I am sure that having new teachers EVERY year will be great. Also, it is stereotyped that the four years of high school will be the best four years of my life. I cant wait.

-J

THE FAIR

My brother J and I are entered in the Marin County Fair's piano competition. We will be competing in different groups which are separated by age, so we will not be against each other. I am playing a song called "Nocturne Mystique" by the composer Jennifer Linn. For entering, I get a free family pass for 2 days, and the prizes for winning are:

         First: $30 and a ribbon

         Second: $20 and a ribbon

         Third: $10 and a ribbon

Wish us good luck!!!!!!!

Thanks!

               -G

TOO MUCH TV FOR ME !!!

Too much tv! wow, that was a lot of tv at out home! watching TheWonder Years, Malcom in the Middle and The Twilight Zone. and we have ebeen playing to much computers. well, we went on some bike rides and rollerskating, but we were watching to much tv. I have been playing battlefield 2 and need for speed carbon.

TO MUCH T.V

I dont blame us, we are on summer vacation! summer vacaition has been fun, we are only on our first week, so we have alot of more time left. wright now im typing, I am trying to think about what I should wright. OH!

yes,  I am going to build a go kart and I am going to ride on some parking lots.

yep, but not that kind. mine will be much different. not as neat. more messy.

well, I thought of somthing to type. this blog is kind of short but its not over.

i want to watch some malcom, but bloging is pretty fun. well i want to say one more thing again.

TO  MUCH T.V!

WELL, i cant just stop blogging now, past things  in the last few months: we moved, got bikes, got rollerskates, made topas, fixed oven, fixed stove, got to school on time, got a tandem, got a rat rod, got a schwin, got another schwin, got a road bike, I accendently broke a pot, I can do the cross over on rollerskates, i can do a weelie, i can pop a weelie. that is a list of things. not alll of the things but most of them.

H.A.G.S!

^

have^a^great^summer!

bye!

C

REDUX - OUR NEW HOUSE

Recently we got a new house!  we call it casa grande or "casa" for short. we love the new house. It is amazing, I love this house. Casa is much bigger than the "old house". It is still 2-story but MUCH more rooms. We all have our personal bedrooms, we have a music room and a tech room, and a play room. Now Dad does not have to work in the garage. AND Casa has MUCH faster internet. we have about 4x faster than our old  house.

When we fist moved into Casa, the stove took FOREVER to warm up. It was a drag, dad soon got it fixed and now it warms up MUCH faster. ALSO the oven was broken, dad got it fixed VERY soon, we never had problems with the oven ever again. My room is AWESOME, i have it set as a half indian half cowboy room. I love my new bed, it is very comfy because dad put new blankets on it. I think that this house might actualy be better than the old one.

Our 'Casa' 

We had our christmas is the old house. That was the last christmas ever there. It is very sad that Tatiana died, we brought here inside then she did not like the unnatural air and water. it was over, she was wilting. Well, lets think of the good side, christmas was wonderful, I received "spicy" chocolate, it is spicy! and need for speed Carbon and need for speed pro street, well, dad had to return them, Prostreet was for mac OS, and carbon had an invalid code, dad returned carbon and the code worked, we installed it and played forever, it is now my all time favorite game.

Oh, I forgot, we all got new bikes! AND I got nw schwinn roller skates, they are inline:) I ride to the deli and get an ice cream :D. After my birthday I got a schwinn bike, I LOVE it. Then shortly after G received a pair of roller skates, G wanted a  pair too. we eventully got her skates. THEN G got a bike, it was a schwinn too. And then dad got a Rat Rod, it has flames on the sides. Before I got my schwinn, I had a BMX, i still have it, but the petals wont turn. SOOOOO....

Today I raced J, he was riding G's bike, We raced around the block, AND... So CLOSE!! I had lost the race by 2 SECONDS, but J cheated :P.

Let our family way be new,  special, and ours, Our Family Way.
THE END. - C

OUR COLUMBIA TANDEM

About a week ago, I decided that we needed a project for the summer. The kids will be spending a significant amount of time at our new house 'Casa' this summer and I wanted them to have something interesting to do. This whole month I had been visiting garage sales and watching Craigslist for used bikes for the kids to ride this summer AND a friendly person in the town north of us said they had an old Tandem bike that they would like to get rid of and asked if we would be interested. I talked to the kids and told them this could be our summer project if they were interested. They all thought the idea was great so I picked it up on Tuesday and spent that evening doing some research online and found out that it is probably a Columbia Twosome Bike built between 1960-1975. Because the color behind the Columbia script is faded we cannot tell if it was originally orange or red. Orange was used from 1961 until 1975 and the badge does say Columbia Mfg. so we think the date range is on target. IF we could find a serial number we may be able to get a more detailed date of manufacture but even after cleaning gunk from rear drops we still can not find a serial number on the bike ... hmmmmm did these '73-'75 bikes not have stamped serial numbers?

The bike had been white and was now painted lime green but all the pieces seemed to be there :) I called the kids that night and told them of our acquisition and judging by the response I received - THIS IS OUR SUMMER PROJECT!

At first review we identified the following issues that we needed to resolve. The rear axle was bent, the chains master link was missing the clip, the front handle bars may be stripped, the rear seat post was missing and of course, this was besides no tires or tubes. So, the first thing we did was 'divvy' up parts of the bike. I got the wheels (Thanks Kids!), J got the drive train, C gets the seats and handle bars and G will figure out colors and painting requirements.

I spent a couple of hours on google getting a basic understanding of what was required to rebuild the rear hub. Seems shimano is fairly popular setup and the axel from an old kids size rear wheel was the perfect match for our bent one. I watched the various YouTube videos on tearing down the hub and started the greasy, messy job of taking ours apart. The best advice I received during the "training" was to lay out the parts EXACTLY as they are removed on the ground or a table to facilitate putting them back together. This all worked great except for the two little metal bits (Brake Shoes?) which promptly fell out of the hub as soon as the dust cap was removed - I would have a 50/50 chance to replace them correctly.

The next day I stopped by the local used bike charity house and talked to the mechanics and people hanging around about what the various pieces of what I found inside the hub did (quite an engineering marvel!); while there I picked up a couple of 26 x 1.75 tires and tubes very cheap. These may not be the final set for our Columbia but will get us rolling ...  

While researching the web for information on our bike, we found an encouraging article on tandems at the NY TIMES which reminded me of the old song “Daisy Bell,” written by Harry Dacre in 1892:

     Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do,
     I’m half crazy all for the love of you.
     It won’t be a stylish marriage -
     I can’t afford a carriage,
     But you’d look sweet upon the seat
     Of a bicycle built for two.

     We will go tandem as man and wife,
     Daisy, Daisy,
     Wheeling away down the road of life,
     I and my Daisy Bell.

In 1961, the IBM 7094 became the first computer to sing, singing the song Daisy Bell. Vocals were programmed by John Kelly and Carol Lockbaum and the accompaniment was programmed by Max Mathews. This performance was the inspiration for a similar scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

From The Milwaukee Journal Oct 21, 1971

DREAMLAND AND OURLAND

SILVER STARDUST FILLS THE AIR
SONGS OF BIRDS ARE YET TO BE SUNG
GOLDEN PHOENIXES DRIFT THROUGH THE LIGHT
AS CRIES RISE FOR THE TIMES BEFORE


THE MOONLIGHT NOW WHISPERS
NOT MUCH BUT A PEEP
FOR THE MOON KNOWS WERE SAFE
WHILE WE SLUMBER AND SLEEP


WE NEED NOT AN HOUR
OF REST TILL WE WAKE
IN THE WORLD OF DREAMLAND
WHERE WE ALL KNOW OUR FATE


THE PHOENIX ARISE
THE DUST IS NOW SETTLED
WERE YAWNING IN BED
MORNING IN ANOTHER WORLD

-g

RAIN

CLEAR DROPLETS OF DIAMOND

CRYING FROM THE CLEAR CLOUDS OF DEW

FALLING LIKE HALOS FROM THE HEAVENS

THE TEAR DROPS OF ANGELS


-G

NEW RAINS

A NEW PINE-FRESH SMELL

DRIFTS SILENTLY THROUGH THE AIR

THE SMELL OF NEW RAINS



-G

Cristmas time!

Ok... here is what I got for christmas, I got a pump action BB/Pellet gun! And I got Need For Speed Pro Street and Need For Speed Carbon! And even funnier... I got Tabasco spicy chocolate... When I first ate one peice it was not even spicy, but when I swallowed it somthing felt wrong... Ahhhhh!!! That was spicy! Then my bro tasted it, same feeling. Ahhhhh! His was spicy! I got the movie Kung Fu Panda and All Dogs Go To Heaven, they were good. Grandma, Sis, Bro, Dad, and me had a very good time.
- C