Today Gramps left very early for a golf tournament in Santa Rosa. He got picked up around 6AM and it was an all day affair. Noni and I took the green machine (Noni’s car) to Walgreens where all the sales people know Noni, but of course she has her favourites. We then went up to the martinellis and switched to Auntie Lindy’s car for a trip to the fabric and craft shops, Joanns and Michaels, both of which are full of stuff for Halloween. Noni and I have been waiting to get up to these shops but we had not managed it yet. It was fun to go up with Linda. Usually Gramps brings us up there and you feel a boit guilty because he is sitting in the car waiting for you. Not that he ever complains about waiting.
Back at the Martinellis I did a demo of Skype with Dad and this was a big hit. We had called Dad the day before from Noni and Gramps’s house just to see if the new skype name ssfvisit 2010 worked. But I wanted the Martinellis to see it in action. I have loaded Skype onto their home computer but this has no camera or microphone so without those items we cannot test it out.
After lunch I went with Linda and Mike and the boys to Sacred Heart High School in Menlo Atherton where Tony is on the Sports staff. Linda wanted me to see the new Science building there. Although I had never been to this school I had some friends in college who went there when it was a small girls boarding school. The old building is still there but the school has developed around it and is fully co-ed. They have around 600 students and it costs $30,000/year to go there. Yes all those zeros are correct. They raised all of the $32,000,000 for the new science centre just through fund raising.
The building has a lot of green features and all of these are explained on an interactive screen in the foyer of the building, the water and energy production and consumption, the green design features and the overall carbon footprint of the building. We stopped to look at it and Tony said that he really did not know much about the screen or about how to use it. “that’s ok” I said, “this is my world” and proceeded to demonstrate how the screen worked and what the screen could tell you about the building. It is exactly what we want to have for our new building at the wetlands. Auntie Lindy and Tony both cracked up.
Of course the school has a big gym and we spent some time here letting the boys run around. Then it was off to Geoffrey’s for Hamburgers. I tucked into one of these quite easily as I had only had a small brekkie. But it was a challenge. Uncle Mike had his burger, fries and a strawberry milk shake with whipped cream! Tony had a salad with a few fries on the side.
Back home at Nonis around 5 PM I went on line to check for emails and saw the little green skype sign for the Mackie avenue crowd and we managed to hook up with J&L, Sophie and Tristan and Non and Gramps and me. This was of course a big hit and Noni and Gramps were so happy to be able to see the kids and talk with them and see Linda moving around behind everyone. Sophie had a shirt with a dog’s head on the front and honestly we thought it was a real dog at first. Tristan showed us his new light saber that he got at the circus. Noni and Gramps are just amazed at the technology.
The day was not over yet as this was the opera night at the ball park. It was an all girls affair, me linda, Krista, michelle and marla. We got to use the special staff parking area and were given special stickers to go in through the staff entrance. This made getting in and out very easy. The opera was a live transmission from the smaller SF opera house where I think they said there was an audience of 3000 compared to a 32,000 strong crowd at the park. It was a free event and you could apply for 4 tickets. Seating was in the stands or directly on the outfield on blankets. That was where we were. It is the 5th year that they have done this and it sure looks like people are supportive and will come to this sort of thing. Jerry the opera was Aida so that made it a bit easier. We had a moment of uncertainty at the start because there were no subtitles but these came on after a short while.
At the end of the show, each of the stars came out one by one wearing or waving giants paraphernalia and the crowds went wild. All up a great night.
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