Sunday, January 28, 2007

Taking a Break

I'm off to help my mother now for the next week. My laptop does not have the ability to process videos, so there will be no videos until I return, though I may be making videos to post after I get home.

Friday, January 26, 2007

Homecoming!

Watch the video
My mother finally comes home!
Tags: ,

Favorite Things

Watch the video
Part 3 of 3. When I made the 1987 retrospective about our Pinata group, I also wrote lyrics to "My Favorite Things" for Jeri, Ned and Paul to record at the end of the tape. Listening to it 20 years later, I'm rather proud of it!

Thursday, January 25, 2007

20 years of pinatas

Watch the video
This is Part 2 of my 3-part series. Among the five families who all married in Berkeley in the 60s, we have 22 children. We began having yearly New Years Day parties, all of which included a pinata, when the kids were babies. The last party we had was at the 40th birthday party for five of the "kids." In 1987, I put together a video that celebrated the then 20-year history of these parties and this is an excerpt from that video.
Tags: ,

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Lifelong Friends

Watch the video
We are part of a very special group of friends, who all met in college back in the 1960s. We all married within 4 years of each other, among us we have 22 children.  

We lived near each other when our kids were small and the kids all grew up as siblings to each other. Every year for many, many years, we got together each New Year's day to have a party.  

In 1987, I took all the old 8 mm movies and the photos and some early videos and put it together into one big history of the group. It's much too long to post as one video, but I'm going to excerpt it in three sections.

This is Part 1, the weddings of all of us.  

The sound for this is a recording taken at our wedding. The singer is the now-late Kari Windingstadt, who, along with the Newman Hall choir and string quartet, gave us the wonderful gift of performing special music for us.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Family faces

Watch the video
My attempt at doing something "artsy."
Tags:

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Look Who's Back!

Watch the video
We were only babysitting overnight. It seemed like they'd doubled in size in the couple of days they'd been gone!
Tags: ,

Friday, January 19, 2007

Thursday at the Nursing Home

Watch the video
My mother is doing so much better. We went with my cousin and her husand to spend the day with her. Such fun!

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Touching the World

Watch the video

This video is to accompany my journal entry for Jan. 19, which is about the foreign students who lived with us for 10 years. This particular video shows Rafael, the leader of a group of students from Chile, who lived with us for 3 weeks, and the going-away party for his group and the families who hosted them.

Hosting foreign students was really a wonderful time for us. Over 10 years there were some 70 people from 14 different countries who came through our house for stays ranging from one night to 3 years.

We learned so much.  Some were absolutely wonderful and are still friends; others were not so nice, but I would do the whole thing again in a heartbeat, if I still had kids living at home. 

Tags: ,

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Goodbye to more puppies

Watch the video
The "Xmas Puppies" left today, to move to an interim foster home. It will be great for them, because there are children, age 6 and 9 in the house and they are right at the place where having someone to play with will be great. Before they left, I took a video of their last romp with Lizzie.
Tags: ,

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

More Musings

Watch the video
Spending so much time in the nursing home with my mother causes me to think more deeply.
Tags:

Tug of War

Watch the video
The puppies have perfected tug of war.
Tags: ,

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Lockjaw!

Watch the video
My biggest problem with Dasher at the moment. I realize that when I made this video, I didn't have the use of my hands, so he would think that it was all a big game, but this goes on all. the. time. and those teeth are just razor sharp!
Tags: ,

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Lizzie Cleans Up

Watch the video
She's developed new tricks.
Tags:

Friday, January 12, 2007

The missing video

I actually have a video to process for today but I'm just really too tired to do it tonight, so I'll work on it tomorrow.

Scrappers

Watch the video
This is just a video for people who aren't tired of pictures of puppies playing yet.
Tags: ,

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Lizzie and Dancer

Watch the video
This is the first litter of puppies we've had who are fighters.
Tags: ,

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Hospital Thoughts

Watch the video
I recorded this after Ned and I visited my mother on the day when she was being so funny on her meds.

Monday, January 08, 2007

Flying High

Watch the video
Now that we know my mother is OK and just needs time to heal, it's time to make fun of her! Today was her first day on serious meds and she would be with it and then somewhere in lala land. Things really got funny when the nurse reminded her to use her breathing apparatus.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Locked out!

Watch the video
As it explains in the video, a friend was here overnight and she really didn't like Sheila and Lizzie's constant presence. In the morning, to keep peace, I locked them outside. It had been raining and the ground was damp and the air freezing. The dogs had never been locked outside before. This is what happened.
Tags:

Saturday, January 06, 2007

The Long Day

Watch the video
I just love driving. Not.

Friday, January 05, 2007

Puppy Play

Watch the video
Lessee. The puppies have been here almost exactly a month, so it's time for an update video to show how they've grown (and how they have grown!) and how they have matured. Also a soupçon showing how they are learning to fight with each other.
Tags: ,

Thursday, January 04, 2007

A Girl, a Car, a videocamera

Watch the video
What to do while killing time at a casino.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Year of the Dog

Watch the video
2006 was officially the "Year of the Dog." We did our best to make it so. This is a compilation of all the puppies we fostered in 2007.
Tags: ,

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Christmas House

Watch the video
This is a wonderful house in San Rafael, CA that used to decorate each year. This was taken pre-computers, and is from 1987.