I upgraded from a Canon EOS M3 to a Canon EOS M6. A lot has changed in the 2 years since the introduction of the EOS M3. The M6 has WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity.

I can continue to use my current Canon lenses with the M6. Primarily the fantastic L series lenses with a EF -EOS M adapter. Plus the superb EF-M 22mm 1:2 STM lens from my EOS M3. To make the M6 a better travel camera, I bought a used EF-M 18-55 lens on MPB. Sadly, MPB shipped the wrong lens, an EF-S 18-55. A zoom lens of the same range but with a different mount. MPB acknowledged their mistake but wouldn't ship a the correct lens until they had received the incorrect lens. It took weeks to resolve the matter. Quite frustrating!

💮 Google Blossoms

The flowers on the Google campus reached full bloom, making walks around campus a real pleasure.

🥬 Craigslist Greenhouse

Tatyana picked another greenhouse up on Craigslist. As before this greenhouse needs some TLC too. The plastic cover has holes and rips in need of repair.

💈Haircut

Got the fresh, short, haircut I so deperately needed. Thanks T!

🛶 Start of canoe practice

Casper and I will canoe down the Sacramento river with Troop 633 in June. In 5 days we'll cover almost 80 miles on the river. To make sure we're well prepared we practice our skills and stamina on Schwan Lagoon each week.

Casper has an account with the troop to pay for Scout outings and the like. The troop raises money each year by puting on an auction and pancake breakfast in May. The scouts sell tickets to the pancake breakfast where the auction takes place. Proceeds of the auction go to the general troop funds while ticket sales go into the account of the scout who sold the ticket.

Casper started selling tickets in front of Wholefoods with a handfull of fellow Scouts. He was excited by the prospect of earning some money. The did quite well, each added ~$40 to their Scout account.

📸 How To Stay Zen On Social Media

Trey Ratcliff came to Google to speak about "How To Stay Zen On Social Media".

Bradley Horowitz interviewed Trey about Trey's book Under the Influence.

Sidenote: I know Bradley from our time at Yahoo! where Bradley started the Yahoo! Hack days.

📵 Casper's phone stolen/lost

Casper stepped off the bus when he got to the bus stop at school listening to an audiobook. To his horror he realized that his phone was still in the bus when his Bluetooth headphones lost connection to the phone as the bus pulled away from the bus stop.

Casper called distraught from school that his prized brand new phone was still on the bus. I immediately tracked his  phone using Google's Find My Phone and could confirm that the phone was still on the bus as it made its way to he Watsonville bus depot.

Frustratingly, Santa Cruz METRO's information number wouldn't connect me to the bus driver or relay a message. The phone was still on the bus as it started its route back to Santa Cruz. Tatyanna sprang into action and picked Casper up from school to intercept the bus on its return trip. But when they did shortly after it passed Caspers school they could not find the phone.

Meanwhile, I had put the phone in "Lost" mode with a message explaining the phone belonged to a kid and to please call my number.

None of the passengers on board had seen the phone either, or so they claimed. For soon after the phone's location no longer followed route 71. The phone headed to a CVS in Aptos half a mile from a bus stop on the  route.

Casper and Tatyanna, tried to find the phone based on the reported location. At first it wasn't clear whether the phone was in the CVS or an adjacent building. I joined them later in the day in an attempt to narrow down the exact location with Casper's Bluetooth headphones. We would have confirmation of the phone's location when the headphones connected to the phone. Unfortunately, they never did.

Tatyanna even had a deputy from the sheriff's office come out. Sadly, even his presence wasn't enough to scare the thief into returning the phone. The phone stayed at CVS until the evening when it traveled back to Watsonville. To my surprise I received a call from Casper's phone at 9:20 PM while the phone was en route to Watsonville. Nothing but silence on the other end and the call didn't last for more than a minute. Soon after the phone stopped moving at 124 6^th St in Watsonville and we lost connection. We've never seen it since.

We're pretty conviced that a worker at CVS found the phone on the bus when Casper and Tatyanna boarded to search for it. Rather than handing it over she kept it for herself and stored it in the back office of the CVS she worked at, not knowing what to do with it. After her shift she took it home (or a friend's place) to wipe the phone. Which made it impossible for us to track the phone any longer and made the phone hers.

Needless to say, Casper was heartbroken. The only saving grace was that he could fall back on his old phone. So sad, how short his super upgrade lasted.

🔨 Retaining wall nearly finished

I'm practically done with the retaining wall. The last rows are in place. All that's left is to glue the cap stones on and burry the rest of the drainage pipe.

🐝 Inspecting bee hives

Spring time and thus time to take stock of our bee hives to see how our colonies survived the winter (or not). We usually lose one or two but als tend to gain a couple. This year we lost a colony to mites. They leave quite a mess.

🥚 Easter brunch with the Riggs

As is tradition, we enjoyed a lovely Easter bruch with the Riggs family up the road. The kids had fun egg hunting and we all basked in the sun while admiring the view.

🌲Homeless on N Rodeo Gulch Rd

Homeless people have made their way back to the undeveloped property half a mile up our road. They camp out hidden from view by redwoods in tents across the creek.

They have carved out steps from the road to make the steep descent to the creek easier. As before they are leaving a lot of trash in the bushes and the creek. So sad they have to live like this. Such as shame that homelessness is so wide spread and systemic in Santa Cruz.

🐍 Gopher snake

Came across this sizeable gopher snake when I pulled a tarp away. She showed her annoyance by hissing at me. She wasn't aggressive at all, nor did she posture to be a rattle snake. I wished her well and asked if should could kill many gophers for us. We need her help as the gophers are out of control this year.

⛰️ Visiting Yosemite with Marijn's Family

My good friend Marijn was touring California. His family made their way up from LA to SF and stopped by for a day at our house. Their tight itinerary didn't allow for a longer stay, but we could come visit them in Yosemite a few days later.

Marijn's family had a hotel booked outside the park but we were fortunate to snag a last minute campsite in the valley. This was our home base for the weekend. The kids played in the river and Casper introduced Lucas and Sophie to roasting smores over a campfire. We explored the valley on foot and bicycles. The rivers ran high and the waterfalls were magnigicent thanks to the record snow year.

Marijn and I hiked up to the Mist Trail to Vernall Falls with the kids. We were rewarded for taking the long way back with a glimpse of a black bear.

☾ Last but not least

Casper started in the 4x4 soccer spring league. It is at Depot Park in downtown Santa Cruz near the boardwalk. A bit of a drive, but also a great excuse to explore this part of town during practice.

After practice one time we met up with Jeff Gurrola and his sons at Saturn Cafe to catch up. Jeff and I met patroling Pinecrest's sidecountry with the Pinecrest Nordic Ski Patrol. Together with a few other controllers we completed the Sierra High Route Traverse in 2005 after a failed attempt the year prior.

Taxes filed on time!

The housing for the Nest cam at our gate is done. The camera is now better protected from the weather. The only downside is that the infrared light attracts insects. A spider noticed this and is building a web in front of the lens. 😠

⚒ Re-grouting kitchen counter

I continued making improvements in the kitchen. Grout between the tiles on the counter was breaking loose. In other places, the grout was so thin that we often had some standing water in between the tiles. To address both problems, I removed the old grout and replaced it with new, mildew resistant grout. Such an improvement, even though we still have an ugly counter.

☕ Re-finishing coffee table

The countertop where we keep the coffee/tea makers wasn't looking so good either. It had some water stains and its finish was looking thin in places. To refinish it, I temporarily replaced the countertop with an upside down cabinet door. I stripped the finish and sanded the countertop in the workshop before coating it with a new finish.

🍽 Re-finishing kitchen table

Last, but not least, our kitchen table needed some work. The table is made from particleboard with a thin veneer. The finish on the veneer was worn through in places. To the point that the veneer started to wear through.

I took a chance and sanded down the finish. Being careful, I kept the veneer below the finish intact. Then patched the worn veneer spots with wood filler. And finally, sprayed a new finish on. This was the first time I use the High Volume Low Pressure (HVLP) spray gun I'd picked up on Craigslist a while back. I'm super happy with the super smooth finish I was able to attain. 👍

🏀 2^nd place basketball

Casper's basketball team placed 2^nd in the Boys and Girls club league. They played the last few games in the Kaiser Permanente Arena, home of the Santa Cruz Warriors.

The team played really well. The final game for first place was a nail biter! They just lost. The team has come a long way from their first training session. Casper's skills and confidence grew a lot along the way.

🇳🇱 Goodbye Dutch "cookbook"

The Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant (in Dutch only), had a fun cooking column when I attended the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). The humorous column covered cuisine from all over the world. I collected my favorite recipes in a notebook. Years later, I brought this notebook with me to the USA.

I rarely cook recipes from this hand made "cookbook" anymore and since I'm the only one in our household who reads Dutch, it was time to let go. But not after photographing a few recipes I might want to hang on to. Including some Southern USA comfort food. 😋

🏢 Casper visits Google

Casper came to work with me during a school break. I swear he just comes for the food. And maybe wasting away the time on a device in between meals.

⚜ Casper sworn in as Scout

Scout master Scott Caldwell of Troop 633 swore Casper in as a Scout in the troop. Casper now wears the troop's neckerchief.

🌸 Spring is here

It has been nice to notice the weather change. The blossom on fruit trees, the rising temperatures and the sunny days have been a lovely change from the wet winter we've had.

🛀 Hot tub research

Though there is still more work to be done before we can install a new hot tub, we started researching hot tubs. There are only a couple of hot tub stores in Santa Cruz so we must travel to test several brands.

Costco often has attractively priced hot tubs on sale and we want to be ready to make a decision when the next sale comes around. At the moment we don't know how Costco's hot tubs stack up against the competition. So, we've started our due diligence.

Casper's best friend Kadin couldn't make it to Casper's birthday, and we made up for that with a sleepover. During which the boys colored their hair with Henna.

Soon after, Casper had to stay in bed for a couple days weathering a flue.

At school, Casper and his classmates performed Take Me Home Country Roads by John Denver for the parents during a get together to celebrate the beginning of spring.

Later that month we had a Parent/Child/Teacher conference where Casper walked us through his teacher evaluations. Once again, Casper made us proud parents. Way to go, Casper!

Casper's basketball skills continue to develop too. His shots at the hoop are getting better.

We attended a Pacific Collegiate School (PCS) lottery meeting at the end of February in order to enter the lottery. Casper's current school, Pioneer Academy, is closing next year and we're hoping he can get in to PCS. 🤞

🗑 Illegal dumping

Why someone would dump trash in a creek is beyond me. One morning, I found a poof, a mattress and a muffler off the side of the road. Immediately snapped some pictures and reported it to the county with the My Santa Cruz County app. A few days later, county workers has cleared the trash. This system works well. Issues I've reported have been handled promptly. Kudos!

♻️ Clean up

There was plenty to clean up on our property. A few Cypress branches snapped in the recent storms and fell onto our deer fence, damaging the gate. Fortunately, the gate's latch broke off protecting the gate from more extensive damage. I could repair the damage to the gate easily.

Our mailbox threatened to fall over in the wet soil. The post is in the middle of a gutter which means that the soil around the post is saturated in the winter. I secured the post with some cement.

The bottom strip on the right rear door of the Subaru kept popping out. Time to clean that up by gluing it in place.

And lastly, we sold the futon on Craigslist to make room for an upgrade.

📸 Photo management

I worked on several photo projects in February:

• I backed all of my dad's photos on Flickr up to STACK storage. Flickr had announced that:
  
  Free accounts will soon be limited to 1,000 photos or videos. Flickr isn't Flickr without the contributions and participation of our free members, and we remain committed to a vibrant, free offering.
  
  And I didn't want to put my dad's photo legacy at risk.
• Moved Tatyanna's Flickr photos to Google Photos to bring all her photos together in a single location.
• Migrated Tatyanna's photos from her MacBook to Google Photos to free up space on the laptop's drive.
• Started scanning my slides from the early '90s. A slow process as each slide takes several minutes.

⌚ Lost Fitbit

Within a month, I lost my new Fitbit. Like before, I lost the Fitbit on the Boys and Girls Club parking lot where I get on the shuttle to work. Never felt the watch falling of my wrist. By the time I noticed that the Fitbit was gone, I was in the bus riding to work. No remains of a Fitbit upon my return that evening. And no one had brought it to lost and found of the Boys and Girls Club.

I think the Fitbit came off when the tracker got stuck behind the backpack shoulder strap as I put my arm through. Perhaps I didn't properly clip the strap to the tracker. Perhaps the clip has an issue like the Charge 2. Tried to argue the latter, but Fitbit would not replace the lost Charge 3. Sad I lost it so soon. We'll see how long I can hold out replacing it.

🔨 DIY

We got one step closer to a working gate opener. I plumbed the post the gate swings from. Though set in concrete, the weight of the gate had pulled the post out of plumb. I straightened it out and poured ample concrete around the existing concrete so it will not sag again.

To better protect the indoor Nest cam on top of the gatepost, I started building a housing for it. Thus far, I'd protected it with an upside down can with a hole in it. It was a fun little project. Build from scraps in the workshop.

Our kitchen floor gets the most foot traffic in our home by far. We put oak hardwood flooring in when we bought the house in 2006. By now, the kitchen floor has bare spots that turned a horrible gray color. Time to refinish the kitchen floor!

We love this Oak butcher block, made by Ron, but it is also heavy, making it harder to move. At times we move the butcher block to accommodate the extended kitchen table. We have to extend the table when we have guests over to give everyone a seat at the table.

So I gave it 4 locking casters and shortened the legs by the height of the casters to keep the work surface at the same height (flush with the adjacent counter). The butcher block now rolls out of the way effortlessly.

🐅 Land of the Jaguars: Wild Wetlands of South America

After years of living in Santa Cruz, I finally attended a presentation by Frans Lanting, a much more famous fellow Dutch countryman living in Santa Cruz. Frans Lanting presented Land of the Jaguars: Wild Wetlands of South America with his partner Chris Eckstrom at the Rio Theater.

Beautifull images from Fans Lanting, as always. But I found the presentation less impressive. Not as immersive as the images. Still made for a lovely date night though.

We started 2019 in Monteverde with Tatyanna's friend Adrianna. Casper and I ended 2018 not with fireworks but zip-lining and a super mega Tarzan swing. After all four of us explored the cloud forest canopy in the morning, hiking across suspension bridges through the treetops at Selvatura Park.

On New Year's day, Adrianna and I took turns driving to La Fortuna for hot springs, sloths and views of the Arenal volcano. Sadly, one can't hike up Arenal. The string of eruptions starting with the massive eruption in 1968 indicate that the volcano is merely "resting" and thus considered an active volcano.

Watching sloths with Giovanni Bogarin in La Fortuna was a highlight. Just steps from the main road through town, Giovanni has created a remarkable ecosystem that attracts sloths, native birds and frogs. He turned what was once forest but had been converted into pasture/farm land, back into native habitat. His vision and endurance is paying off. Though still small, we saw more wildlife in the forest Bogarin restored than anywhere else in Costa Rica.

That evening we visited a commercial hot spring in La Fortuna. Hot water is guided into concrete pools of different temperatures. We received discount because we visited in the evening. There were still many Tico families picnicking on the lawn when we parked after dark. Lamp posts continued to provide light. The water's temperature was nice though not very hot. We relaxed, chatted and played for a couple of hours.

We experienced the diverse terrain and micro climates of Costa Rica on our drive to St Gerardo de Dota, the next day. From level pasture land, through pouring rain across densely forested mountains, traversing San Jose's urban sprawl up into the Talamanca Mountain range.

Along the way we stopped for excellent chocolate and lunch at Sibu Chocolate. And a few hours later for coffee at Dota Coffee, a cooperative in the mountains of the Santa Maria de Dota District, close to our final destination: St Gerardo de Dota.

Most of our route followed the Pan American Highway. Mainly a winding two lane road (one in each direction) through mountainous terrain. Not a quick road by North American highway standards, but a major artery nonetheless.

At an elevation of over 7,000ft (~2100m), St Gerardo de Dota is markedly cooler than much of Costa Rica. The nights are cool, while the day is pleasant in the shade and hot in the sun. We hiked and lounged for a day and half before returning to San Jose.

Adrianna took us to Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles a Basilica in Cartago. This Christian church houses La Negrita, the Black Virgin, Costa Rica's patron saint. It's eclectic mix of devotion, superstition, kitsch and history is fascinating.

Visiting a nearby market was no less fascinating. Adrianna introduced us to more native fruits while we looked around in wonder at the myriad of vendors operating out of small stalls.

Our hotel for the last 2 nights stood in modern contrast to all our Costarican accommodations with character. There was little that set this Holiday Inn apart from any other Holiday Inn. Now, without a car to our disposal, we stayed near the hotel. Ate at local restaurants, swam in the hotel pool, exercised in the hotel gym and lounged in our room.

🌧 Rainy California

We returned to a wet California. On the day of our return home, our weather station measured 3" of rain. These rains are taking a toll on our driveway. A lot of water that falls on the back half of our property flows down the driveway. I must change that for next winter.

✈ Booked flights

I booked flights to Europe in August to go climbing with Siemen and Marijn, while still had a tan from our Costa Rica adventures. It looked like prices might go up if I waited much longer. The flights were not cheap though. About twice as expensive as my last climbing trip in Europe. This time we're going a week earlier and that means peak flight prices.

🏃 Fitbit

We're now a family of Fitbits. Costco's Fitbit Charge 3 sale proved to be irresistible. Tatyanna got one because this model is waterproof and can track swimming (one of her favorite exercises). I got one for the improved display and longer battery life. And passed my Charge 2 on to Casper. We can now compete on steps in the weekly family & friends leaderboard. Let me know if you'd like to join the competition.

💻 Nerd side project

After years of using Growl to send myself automated notifications, I switched over to Pushover. Growl doesn't include mobile clients, but relies on 3^rd party apps such as Prowl on iOS and Notify My Android (NMA) on Android. Unfortunately, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU, proved to be to too much for NMA. This made me look for an alternative that could deliver notifications to whatever device I might use at the time:

• my Macbook,
• my Linux workstation,
• one of my Android devices, i.e. phone or tablet, or
• my iPhone.

Pushover fits the bill perfectly, it has no recurring fees and supports all my use cases. Adopting my automated tasks from Growl to Pushover was easy too.

🎈 Celebrating Casper's 13th birthday

We ended the month with Casper's 13^th birthday celebration. He brought cupcakes to school. As per tradition, we had sushi at Mobo Sushi where Casper received a Tempura Banana with ice cream for dessert on the house. He saw Spider-Man: Homecoming in the theater with his best friend, Kadin. And his now the proud owner of a Pixel 2 phone. He is over the moon with this big upgrade from his old phone.

The Nightingale, written by Kristin Hannah, tells the story of two French sisters during World War II, and their struggle to survive and resist the German occupation of France.

Married Vianne, a schoolteacher with daughter Sophie endures the occupation up close as she is forced to house an SS officer. Vianne adopts Ari, the 3-year-old son of her best friend Rachel and raises him as her own under the nose of the SS officer when the Germans deport Rachel to a concentration camp. The Germans draft her husband Antoine to fight for them and captured in battle by the allied forces.

Younger sister Isabelle joins the French resistance, becomes a member of a cell in Paris where her estranged father lives. There Isabelle devices a plan to smuggle downed English pilots across the Pyrenees to the English embassy in neutral Spain. The harrowing journey is a success and Isabelle repeats the trip many times, earning the nickname "Nightingale".

The Nazis hunt the Nightingale more and more ferocious as the Nightingale's reputation grows. When the Nazis capture Isabelle, her father saves her life by claiming to be the Nightingale. They send Isabelle to a concentration camp after the Nightingale's execution.

Vianne and Isabelle briefly reunite at the end of the war. The closing chapter reveals whose memoires we're reading and what happened to sisters' next generation including Ari and Sophie.

Rating

East of Eden was my first John Steinbeck novel. Living in Santa Cruz, I'd heard of Steinback, who lived in the area, but he wasn't the same household name for as he is in American literature.

I picked up an audiobook of East of Eden while Dogfooding Google Play Books. Listening to Steinbeck's description of the Salinas Valley, I recognized many vistas and aspects of this valley South-East of Santa Cruz.

Set around the start of the 20^th century, Central California is being farmed and ranched by homesteaders. Even today, the Salinas Valley is largely used for agriculture in between commuter towns south of Silicon Valley.

I enjoyed this fictional depiction of life in the region I now live in (or near to). Santa Cruz gets a mention in East of Eden as the next town over. A town one could escape to when Salinas became too "hot". Today, Salinas and Santa Cruz are an hour apart by car.

The family saga in East of Eden follows brothers Adam and Charles from their youth until their death. And reads like the story of Cain and Abel with a central theme of sin and redemption.

Rating

Killing Floor is the debut novel of the Jack Reacher series, introducing ex-military police major Jack Reacher. Immediately, we learn that Jack is a loner with a past. Despite keeping to himself, the local sheriff has Jack arrested in Margrave's diner shortly after his arrival in town, for the murder of his own brother Joe.

A classic thriller twist! It doesn't look good for Jack, but Jack convinces the female detective working his case, Roscoe,  that he is innocent. Another classic twist —a twofer really— both underdog against the world and a beautiful woman to stand by his side. I'm sure you know how this ends.

Rating

Die Trying is the second novel in Lee Child's Jack Reacher series. Jack is being a gentleman helping a young woman with an injured leg, Holly, when they are captured and tossed in a van.

Holly turns out to be an FBI agent and soon the bureau is looking for her. Jack quickly becomes the prime suspect, placing him in the familiar underdog role he is known for.

The real kidnappers drive Holly and Reacher across country to their community of secessionists in the mountains. There we learn from their leader Beau Borken why he had Holly kidnapped.

Held captive and cut off from the United States, it is down to Jack Reacher to save the day.

Rating

Tripwire is a classic Jack Reacher story. This 3^rd book in the series follows the usual plot line of Jack being pulled into some injustice despite minding his own business.

The book opens with Jack digging pools in the heat of Key West and ends with him convalescing in a New York hospital. Somehow, Jack's hard physical labor in Florida saves his life in New York. (Read the book to find out how. No spoilers here!)

Tripwire's injustice involves beautiful childhood friend Jodie, now a successful lawyer, a missing in action Vietnam veteran and a Peter Pan like hook. An enjoyable romp if you care for the genre. A bit of a trope if you don't.

Rating

🌴 We closed 2018 out in the tropics with Tatyanna's family in Samara, Costa Rica. 🏄 We surfed. 🐬 We saw dolphins. 🌅 And we saw many lovely sunsets.^*

🏠 Casa Pacifica

We shared Casa Pacifica, the main house, with Tatyanna's family. Our family plus cousin Forrest slept in the adjacent Casita Pacifica. Both houses are on the same enclosed property. Casa Pacifica's pool was a hit with everyone and a great place to cool off.

This rental is a few miles/kilometers outside of Samara. The shortest and most scenic route into town was via the beach. At low tide we could even ride the bikes available to the house over the firm wet sand to Samara and back.

🏄 Life is better when you surf

Casper and Forrest spend a lot of time boogie boarding in the surf. Everyone but Sunny and Ron took surfing lessons at Pato's Surf School where Life is better when you surf. The best part is that you have use of their surfboards for 5 days following the 1.5 hour lesson.

Throughout the week we'd surf when conditions were friendly to the absolute beginners we were (and still are). We either walked to the Pato's Surf School on the beach just before you get into Samara. Or call a cab to take us into town. The kids loved riding in the back of a pickup on some of these rides.

On Christmas eve we made a non-traditional Christmas meal of pot pie and fish tacos with locally caught red snapper. Then held a photo shoot with Christmas decorations as props for a new family group picture. The opening photo of this post is the result.

🐬 Dolphin watching

The day after Christmas we hopped on a pickup to take us to a charter boat one cove over. From where we set out to see dolphins. After motoring out a few miles offshore we encountered two pods. The dolphins danced in front of our boat's bow.

Back in the cove we snorkeled close to the shallow reef. While there were some colorful fish, there was hardly any life coral. It was a fun outing for all.

🌅 One last sunset

We ended our stay in Samara with one last sunset viewing on the beach. The next morning, we boarded the charted minivan with Heidi's family and said goodbye to Sunny & Ron. Heidi's family would fly back from the capital San Jose where we'd arrived, that same afternoon. Our family, however, left the minivan half way to San Jose at a gas station where we met up with Tatyanna's Tica friend Adriana.

I published this post roughly a year later. At least I completed 2018 before the end of 2019. 😉

📖 Mom is sending a book. 🛄 A last-minute travel purchase: day pack(s). 🏠 We pack and prep our house for house sitters. 🇨🇷 And we're off to Costa Rica!^*

📖 The Eight Mountains

My mom is sending me a Dutch copy of The Eight Mountains by Paolo Cognetti. She read this book herself and thought I would appreciate it too. I'm looking forward to reading it; as a physical book no less!

🛄 A last-minute travel purchase

I decided on a packable day pack at the last-minute. I didn't have a small backpack for everyday carry in Costa Rica. Did some online research and settled on the Eddie Bauer Stowaway Packable 20L Daypack in Onyx. Tatyanna followed suit with the same backpack in "sea green". Thanks to 2 day shipping both arrived in time for our trip.

🏠 We pack and prep our house

Per usual, we didn't finish packing until late the night before our departure.  When we left for Heidi's on Friday, we knew the animals would be cared for in our absence. Soon Honey would have new humans to love her.

🇨🇷 Off to Costa Rica!

After chilling for a few hours at Heidi's underneath the Christmas tree, it is time to call Uber & Lift for 2 cars to the SFO airport.

Costa Rica, here we come! In a mere 20hrs we'd be in Samara for a week with the family in Casa Pacifica.

I published this post roughly a year later. Sorry, I only have excuses. 😊

🔨 The shed is complete! 🎥 I'm experimenting with the GoPro: shooting Timewarp lapses and editing footage on the phone. 🛒 The GoPro needed accessories. 👓 I've got my glasses.^*

🔨The shed is done

I'm done painting and caulking the shed. Trim, sides and doors all received 3 coats of paint. Casper has been sleeping in the shed for some time now. He calls it his shed-bed.

I celebrated the completion of the shed with two GoPro "Hyperlapse/Timewarp" time-lapses. Not only to show off my work but also to get to know the GoPro better.

🎥 GoPro experiments

There is a lot to learn about the GoPro. It has so many ways to capture a scene:

• Film
  • Normal/Wide angle
  • 24 - 240 fps
  • Hyperlapse/Timewarp
  • 1080p - 4K
• Time-lapse
  • Timewarp
  • Photo series
• Photos
  • Normal/Wide angle
  • HDR

To choose, I need to identify the pros and cons of each. Learn what's in frame with a normal angle vs. wide angle. Get a sense of the wide angle. Experience Timewarp and compare it to a photo time-lapse.

Honey in slow motion was my first experiment on the day the GoPro arrived. That evening I experimented with mounting the GoPro on the tractor for the first time-lapse. A time-lapse of Casper and me collecting and loading firewood. Which I edited in GoPro's editor Quik on my phone, combing the two scenes with some music.

Quik is good for simple edits of short clips. The editor is leaning heavily towards social media sharing on Instagram, Twitter and the like. These sites limit video to a few minutes

I found no good alternative video editors for Android. PowerDirector looked promising, but I didn't like their interface or their subscription model. The prominent watermark in their free version was the nail in the coffin. I plan on using Quik for instant edits on my phone and will look into a full-fledged desktop video editor for longer content.

🛒 GoPro accessories

A bare GoPro is great, but to get to most out of an action camera I needed some accessories. A floaty to prevent the GoPro from sinking to the bottom when using in/on the water. And a suction mount to film trough the window while travelling. Plus a chest/head harness for point-of-view filming. As well as some glue on mounts to attach the GoPro to kayaks, surfboards and the like.

Ordering a set is cheaper than purchasing just the items I needed. Maybe I'll like that selfie stick or wrist mount included in the ZOOKKI 41-in-1 Action Camera Accessories Kit that I ordered in the end.

👓 My glasses arrived

My first pair of prescription glasses arrived. What do you think?

My second pair is still waiting for the lenses

I published this post roughly a year later. I told you that video editing was time consuming. 😉

🏹 I had a fun offsite with the Google Play Movies & TV team in La Honda learning Kyudo. 🍸 Tatyanna had a seminar in San Francisco over the weekend and we made a date out it. 🎥 Last but not least, I got Go Pro, to document our upcoming trip to Costa Rica with.^*

🏹 Japanese Archery in the Redwoods

The Google Play Movies & TV went on an offsite on Wednesday to the Redwood Kyudojo in La Honda. Where we learned about traditional Japanese archery — Kyudo. Kyudo involves mind, body and spirit to focus on each shot at a fixed target.

Our instructors were dressed in traditional Japanese clothing and demonstrated the ritual movements that go into firing an arrow at the target. Afterwards we all got to practice and take aim ourselves.

🍸 San Francisco Date

Tatyanna had a seminar in SF for a few days which offered us the opportunity of a date in the city. Casper and I drove up on Saturday. He stayed with his cousins and I took the Muni to the financial district to meet Tatyanna at the Hilton.

We had a lovely dinner at Slanted Door at the waterfront in the Ferry Building. The Dorchester cocktail was a fun new discovery for us both.

🎥 GoPro Hero 7 Black

I broke down and pulled the trigger on an action camera. I got myself a GoPro Hero 7 Black to film our upcoming trip to Costa Rica with.

I'm both excited and weary of the post processing of the footage I'll be producing. Processing photos is already a fair amount of work. Video post-processing is bound to be even more.

Still, I'm excited to enter the world of more serious video editing.

I published this post roughly a year later. Oh, how time flies!

It was a quiet week, not much happened. Casper had his optometrist appointment to get his eyes checked. He also started basketball practice at the Boys & Girls club. While I ordered the Öga frame I’d selected for much less in Canada.

🤓 Casper's Optometrist Visit

Casper wanted to check his eyesight too, after our optometrist visit. To know whether he should get glasses. In part, to know the quality of his eyesight, and in part to find out if he was in the market for glasses he could accessorize with. His eyesight is good and he does not need glasses. Win-lose?

🏀 First basketball Practice

Casper started his first basketball practice. He is new to the game, blank slate so to speak. We hope he'll acquire many skills and love the game. We'll be watching from the bleachers.

👓 Swedish Designed French Frame from Canada

It was cheaper to order the Morel frame online than purchase it from the in network optometrist where I had selected at the frame. Even with our good vision insurance, the out of pocket cost was higher than buying the frame in Canada.

The full price at the optometrist was 2x what I paid by shopping around. The optometrist only highlighted the portion covered by our insurance. But failed to mention that they're charging full price, well above street prices.

I could however purchase the frame wherever I wanted, bring it to them and they would place the prescription lenses. A little shopping around and some back and forth with the Canadian retailer to clarify their prices saved myself a small bundle.

Optometrists are counting on clients with insurance agreeing to paying their share after seeing how much they don't have to pay of the full price. Thus optometrists receive significantly more for retail items. American health insurance is insane!

I came across a beautiful hawk. Heidi and the cousins came over for Thanksgiving. I continued to organize the workshop. Casper has a bed in the shed.

🦅 Morning Run Hawk

I came across a hawk eating a fresh kill on one of my morning runs this week. The hawk stood steps away from the path I ran on and was unperturbed.

Even the vultures surrounding her didn’t seem to bother her. Those vultures must have a healthy respect for her for they kept their distance.

🦃 Thanksgiving

Heidi, Raven and Forrest came over for Thanksgiving. We ate well and enjoyed their company. Raven, Heidi and Tatyanna made lovely wreaths from dried flowers. Casper and Forrest roamed our land or played video games. We all watched movies at night.

🛠 Workshop Organizing

I organized the workshop some more. All my clamps are together now and within easy reach from the workbench. This is such an improvement! I’m slowly chipping away at improving the workshop. If only I had more time...

🛏 Shed Bed

Casper expressed a desire to sleep in the shed. He enjoyed sleeping in a tent this summer until we returned it to Costco. The shed is another chance for Casper to have his “own” place again. For as long as the shed is warm enough, that is. And so we set the “guest” bed from his tent up in the shed for him.

With two duvets and a Honey for extra warmth and company, Casper loved his new accommodations.