Katy Dickinson

Roofing the Workshop and Cupola

My husband John Plocher has finished the roof of our former-garage turned model-train-room-and-workshop. He has been working on this project to rebuild what the termites ate, between job interviews and his obligations as a member of the OpenSolaris Governing Board (OGB). Our neighbor Felix Quintero is a professional roofer, so John worked with Felix on the roofing.

This week all projects are on hold while John and the OGB attend CommunityOne, meetings associated with Sun's huge JavaOne conference in San Francisco.

JavaOne Billboard on Highway 101 in Silicon Valley

roof work in progress

new roof and cupola

Felix Quintero

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

Posted at 12:18PM Jun 03, 2009 by katysblog in Home & Family  |  Comments[1]

Whirlwind Daughter Tour

My daughter Jessica was with us for a whirlwind visit after her Sophomore final exams at Carnegie Mellon University (in Pittsburgh, PA) and before starting her summer internship with the World Organization for Human Rights USA in Washington, D.C. We had not seen Jessica since January, so the whole family (and her boyfriend Matt) took turns enjoying her company. We are all very proud of our busy and clever girl!

We went to the movies (seeing Star Trek and Wolverine), many doctor visits for Paul, Paul's annual IEP to set up his classes and support for next year, and shopping. Jessica also joined us tutoring for Studio 17 at SMUM, and we had two nights of playing cards and board games. She and our little neighbor Sonia even washed the dogs. I think Jessica caught up on her sleep in between all the visits. We look forward to seeing Jessica again in August for a few weeks before CMU starts again. Until then, we go back to reading Jessica's blog for updates. I am very glad she is a good writer...

waiting for the doctor

Jessica and Sonia wash the dogs

Matt, Jessica, Paul

waiting for the doctor

Studio 17 Tutoring at SMUM

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

Posted at 11:22PM Jun 02, 2009 by katysblog in Home & Family  | 

SEED Mentor Matching Off to a Good Start

I started the mentor matching cycle late last week for the 15 June - 15 December 2009 SEED and PreSEED worldwide Engineering mentoring terms. Sheri Kaneshiro is providing support for the extensive SEED web tools designed by Tanya Jankot while Tanya is on leave with her new baby. It takes Sheri and me a little longer to work everything out but we are making good progress now. Since the first invitations to 80 potential mentors went out on 27 May, there have been 12 acceptances (5 for SEEDs and 7 for PreSEEDs). 68 to go!

Today, I was happy to confirm the last of the 15 rematches for mentees from four terms whose mentors left Sun since February 2009. SEED has a standing offer to re-match any mentee whose mentor leaves Sun within three months of their original match. Rematches are for a full six months. For some reason, rematches take longer than first matches but everyone does get matched in time.

Posted at 10:26PM Jun 02, 2009 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business  |