Jim Schrempp's Web Home

This quarter started with a fabulous trip to Pass Christian, Mississippi to help rebuild homes that were damaged two years ago when hurricane Katrina threw 27 feet of flood water over the peninsula. The place is still denuded and in need of help. Other pages here tell the story of our trip with photos and video. I think we'll go back again.

We were home just a few days and then Halloween hit. Thanks to all our friends we had another great party. I thought my Ninja Turtle costume was pretty clever, but it turns out the kids don't even know what one is. I guess it was just another case of showing my age. There were a lot of clever costumes and a few new comers showed up.

Wendy arranged a trip to see Women On The Wire at Dance Mission. The show started with Project Bandaloop rappelling half way down the outside wall and doing their performance by floating off the wall sideways. Susan Voyticky did a great piece where she's half ballerina and half boxer. Some stunning physical pieces were intertwined with swimming rope flights. There was no throwing up this time. We loved the whole show.

We took a quick trip to Vegas. It was quick because we'd botched communications. I thought they said they had to leave on Sunday at noon, but they really wanted to go anyway. OK, we'd fly in Saturday AM and see Jeanne before leaving Sunday evening. Turns out they were leaving MONDAY at noon. Oh well, we still had a great time seeing the sights. Google Earth showed that we were just a stone's throw from Area 51. Spooooky.

We also got out to visit the Ravizza's for another year's Christmas party. My Hillary nut cracker got a big laugh. And Gina hosted a pre show dinner before we went to the Gryphon holiday caroling show at Gunn HS. I'm not a caroling fan, but this show offered old chestnuts in a new sauce.

Two great lectures got us thinking and laughing. Chris Mathews was a sparkling speaker. He talked us through his exploits as a foreign correspondent. All the while building his credentials for calling the current Bush administration the most incompetent in our country's history. Bravo. A few weeks later we were being tickled by the slow humor of Bob Newhart. He's up there in years but did a strong showing with an hour of stand-up. There was also time for another astronomy lecture; Marty joined me and it turned out to be one of the more technical ones. Oh well.

I got on the lecture circuit myself when I was invited to speak about my career to a group of students at Canada College, a local JC. These young adults wanted to know what the working world was like inside an office. These kids are already hard working. Many of them support themselves by working two jobs around their school work. I gave them a variant of my old HP "what job for you?" talk and I think it went over very well. I'll put the pitch up on the web site soon.

Several of the students at Canada sported Ron Paul stickers on their cars. I had to check him out. I hear that many people like his strict constitutional interpretation, but a quick look at his web site shows that to be untrue. I found that he only stands behind the constitution when it supports his position - otherwise he tosses it in the trash can. You'll find Ron Paul's site says things like: "The language is clear- Congress simply is prohibited from passing laws establishing religion or prohibiting the free exercise of religion." Then when the constitution doesn't support his ideas he just ignores it. For example, while the constitution says: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States", Ron Paul says, "End birthright citizenship." Did Ron Paul just fail to read that part of our constitution? Ron, the language is clear. Obviously Ron's ideas are unconstitutional. In my mind Ron Paul is the worst of politicians: he supports a convoluted personal policy by perverted use of our national icons. It makes me sick. If you are a Ron Paul supporter, don't email me about this; if you're smart enough to read, then read his web site, the constitution, and then spend your energy supporting someone with a better policy set.

On a happier note, lots of friends came by. Bill and Georgia were down for a Sunday dose of my chicken mole - they loved it, but frankly, it wasn't my best. I think I cooked it too long. Brent has stayed with us several times. Once he came early enough for me to make my Orange Short Ribs - and this was truly a great meal. Bob and Carolyn stopped by on their way East and we managed a nice dinner with them. Ray was absent most of the time traveling the real East; he's back now but I can't say for how long.

Thanksgiving was a quiet afternoon in Pacifica. Christmas was a bit more raucous in Saratoga. This year everyone but Nancy's family was in town and we had dinner for 22! Honey Baked Ham sat in the center, surrounded by beans, broccoli, more beans, and key lime pies. We've been doing a Kolm family gathering every Christmas for the last 50 years. Grandma Kolm was the hostess for years in San Francisco, and then for even more years in Seacliff. I did one in 1982. Then once at Rich and Jackie's. Since then it's always been my special treat to host it. I love having the family over; I'd do it every couple of months if people were in the mood to party.

Wow. 50 years of family Christmas. That's quite a tradition.

Read my previous journal entries

If you read this drop me an email... ... and just say, "hello."

Here's a list of some sites I've enjoyed

Who am I?

For those who want to know, I've put together a whole page, just chock full of the trivia that comprises my life.

Friends

I'd like to link here to the home pages of all of my friends, however few of them are networked enough or interested enough in this web stuff to have a page. (Of course, some are!) So, I've put up a few pages for my friends.

Genealogy

Some family names that we research (well, if someone writes we write back):

Engelhorn
Englehorn
Kolm
Hopkins
Lewis
Bernitt
Schrempp (of course!)

Mentions for no reason except that they want a search engine hit:

Jennifer Vanya or Jen Vanya

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