Welcome to NewsLand 1997!

Sunday, November 16, 1997
Babyproofing has become a real challenge as anyone who has attempted to do it already knows. Our current house has a half dozen sliding doors, sometimes known as "pocket doors", that can be used to section off the house. Two of these are located in the kitchen, one going to the dining room and the second leading to the living room and hallway. A third door can section the family room off from the kitchen. Gregory plays in the family room, so its door is frequently used. Recently, as he has begun walking, we have opened the family room door and closed the two kitchen doors, effectively widening his territory. Pocket doors don't open when you push them, so they are counterintuitive to babies. Babies don't think to try to slide them to one side and, when they do, their little hands tend to slide across the door anyway, making the doors a reasonably good baby barrier. Well, Gregory has figured out the kitchen cabinets, so they are not baby-proofed. The next thing that he figured out, as of yesterday, is that if you press the pocket doors repeatedly, they tend to move slightly to the advantageous side. Then, opening them is simply a matter of placing those small fingers in the widened opening and pushing sideways. Doorknobs are sure to be next.

Sunday, November 9, 1997
Donna and I have been trying to arrange with the stork to deliver a sibling for Gregory. We are thrilled to announce that we have made a deal with the stork. More details to follow after Donna sees her perinatologist later this month.

Sunday, October 19, 1997
Mom is back at her home in Philadelphia once again. She visited us for nearly two wonderful months and all of us had a great time. Is it me or does it take you awhile to adjust to the shorter days of Fall? I think that the only thing I hate more than driving home in the dark is getting up in the dark. Perhaps I'm part plant and the sun is my coffee? No, that can't be. I still need the coffee. In two days it will be one year since Gregory was born. It's quite hard to imagine that time has gone so quickly, but the pace if quickening, not slowing. Last week was his first full week of walking unassisted. Today we are having a birthday party for him and new pictures will be online in a matter of days. Gregory has his first Indian cuisine for lunch today, spinach pakora, and loved it. Work is underway on a sibling for him, although the effort has been fruitless thus far. Everyone on the west coast is concerned about El Nino and what is may bring this winter in terms of wind and rain. Roofers and fathers working on siblings are very busy these days.

Saturday, September 13, 1997
The Editor is falling behind the times. Last Sunday, Donna, Gregory, Mom and I decided to take a car tour of San Francisco with the excuse being lunch at Hunan Restaurant, 924 Sansome Street at Broadway. We headed out relatively late, so the fog had cleared by the time that we arrived in the city. I made sure that I took a few of the rather frightening up-hill and down-hill routes, the ones that are fun to do with first time visitors, then headed for the restaurant. After lunch, during which Mom had her first Garlic Chicken and I had a terrific perspiration-inducing Kung Pao Chicken, we followed Embarcadaro around the city and drove across the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin County. We then turned around at the Stinson Beach exit and headed back. This route offers some of the most amazing vistas of San Francisco and its Bay with colors changing as the hours go by. It's no wonder that local KPIX-TV calls the San Francisco Bay area "the best place on Earth".

Saturday, August 30, 1997
Donna, Gregory, Mom and I headed out early along curvy Highway 9 from Saratoga to Big Basin Redwoods State Park near Boulder Creek for a picnic lunch among the big trees. The Labor Day Weekend seemed to have lured other travelers on longer trips, so the Park was quiet enough to hear the rattling of Acorn Woodpeckers and the screeching of Steller's Jays. We had a relaxing lunch in a picnic grove, then returned home via Felton after making a quick stop at the Roaring Camp and Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad. Great fun!

Saturday, August 22, 1997
Donna, Gregory, Mom and I headed out early for the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was Mom's first time to see the Pacific and the unique creatures that inhabit the coastal region. We spent about four hours at the Aquarium, then headed south via 17 Mile Drive along the Pacific to Carmel-by-the-Sea. After leaving Carmel and encountering heavy traffic, we decided to go the additional 26 miles south along California Highway 1 to Big Sur. We spent a bit of time touring Pfieffer-Big Sur State Park, then headed back home. It was a long but very enjoyable day for all.

Sunday, August 16, 1997
We introduced Mom to Indian cuisine today at our favorite, local Indian buffet restaurant, Sneha. Evidently chicken maharaja, spinach pakora, palak paneer, chicken pakora, vegetable kurma and pappadams agreed with her. Donna hit the yard sales yet again this morning, this time by herself while Dada played with Gregory at home. This week's treasures included a pedal-operated firetruck, a collection of original-box Little Tykes toys and missing parts for several previous yardsale finds. Oh, then there was the railroad engine which was missing a battery compartment door on the underside. The seller said, "just put some tape on it to hold the batteries in." Dada doesn't think that will work, but the person did sell the train to my wife. What was it W. C. Fields said?

Sunday, August 9, 1997
For the first time in over four decades there are three generations of Thomases under one roof! Amazed? We are as well. My Mother, Edith, is flew to San Jose on August 4th to vacation for an indefinite amount of time. Gregory loves having his Grandmother with him. The fog has returned and temperatures are back to normal with cool 50s overnight and sunny 70s during the day. Donna and I hit the yard sales again this morning and found many treasures that Gregory is sure to love as he grows up.

Sunday, July 19, 1997
Gregory will be 9 months on Tuesday. It's difficult to believe. The last 18 months seem to have gone by so quickly. Gregory has learned to say, "Dada" and "Mama" plus some things that we cannot quite figure out. We hit the yard sales this morning and bought a play car for him to ride in, some more books for him to read, a swing for the apricot tree in our backyard, some stuffed animals and one more of those electronic button things that says, "let's play". We also stocked up on some of the things that we borrowed the first time around because Gregory wants to have a little brother or sister!

Saturday, July 21, 1997
Gregory is 8 months old today! I guess we must be doing something right. Teeth are coming in and, with them, a bit of crankiness is coming back, but he's been great. If he could sleep through the night, it would even be better. He has this wonderful habit of waking up at 1:30 and 4:30 in the morning. Two weeks ago Donna and I participated in the Santa Cruz Mountain Vintners Festival by visiting about a dozen wineries and discovering entirely too much wonderful wine to take home with us. Yesterday, my employer, Bay Networks, announced the acquisition of Rapid City Communications, which will move us ahead in the network technology race against arch rivals 3Com, Cisco and Cabletron. Today is opening day at Roger Penske's new California Speedway in Fontana, so I'm outta here to watch the race.

Friday, June 13, 1997
Yes, Friday the 13th, a day which will live in infamy in the sleepy little Lancaster County, Pennsylvania town of Quarryville. This Friday the 13th was the day that the dog ate the new fly that had just been wound for fly-casting, a type of sport fishing. Flies are fishing hooks. When a dog eats one, roughly the same thing happens as when a fish eats one. And, because flies are designed not to come out, they don't. Major, four-figure, four-foot surgery is required to remedy this situation, and time is of the essence. Dumb? I never said that Labrador Retrievers were dumb. It's the Labrador Retriever owners that I wonder about.

Sunday, May 25, 1997
Weeks have passed and, although there has been news, I haven't found time to add a headline. I just returned from a business trip that took me to London, Paris and Copenhagen. I'm home for a week, then off to Cologne, Frankfurt and Berlin. Gregory is becoming quite the little person. He started saying "da-da" this past week, although he may not have the sound associated with Dad as yet. Gregory has been eating solid food for several weeks and especially likes his sweet potatoes. Mom and Dad are doing fine. Babies are hard on the hearing, though!

Friday, April 18, 1997
Melvin Roy Thomas passed away today, according to his wishes, at the home in Pennsylvania that he had built 43 years before. He would have been 88 on July 18th. He was a dear father, a loving husband and a hard worker, who always put his wife and son ahead of everything else. Although we will miss him dearly, we are thankful that he was able to remain at home and is now at peace after his long battle with poor health.

Saturday, April 5, 1997
Well, I think that we're in deep tofu now! Gregory has learned the first phase of crawling. His form isn't too good just yet, but he is moving around much more than this time last week. It's particularly noticeable when there is something just out of arm's reach that he wants. It's a baby milestone to be sure!

Sunday, March 30, 1997
It's Easter Sunday already and that makes it Gregory's first Easter. He's 6 months old and he doesn't know what to make of it all. He does know that he likes the pacifier that his baby, stuffed bunny-bear came with. He has figured out how to remove it from the bunny-bear's mouth and insert it into his. There are new pictures of all of this at VideoLand. Gregory is doing very proper push-ups and has learned tummy-based floor-swimming, the last step before he starts to crawl. We celebrated Easter Sunday with a 3-hour car ride west across the Santa Cruz Mountains, then north on Highway 1, the Pacific coast road, to the town of Half Moon Bay, then returning home by way of Ccnada Lake on Interstate 280. The trip is absolutely beautiful on a Sunday morning in the cool, crisp air as the fog retreats back to the Pacific. Endless miles of wildflowers bloom amidst the lush coastal foliage as Spring, too, is resurrected.

Saturday, March 15, 1997
Today was a bad day for Julius Caesar, but it's a great day in ThomasLand! As if by some miracle, I was playing with RealAudio^. yesterday and got it to work on my MAC at the office. Today I got it to work on my Win95 machine at home. RealAudio offers, you guessed it, real audio through your web browser and connected stereo system. If you have a fast connection to the Internet, as I do at the office, you can listen to CD-quality stereo on your computer. An expensive, and somewhat challenged stereo system to be sure, but it works. Thank the Lord for technology, I guess. Well, at about the same time that I was surfing through the live audio feeds on the net, BOOM, the thought came into my mind to look for my old friends at the Prairie Home Companion (PHC) and reporter emeritus, Garrison Keillor, direct from Lake Wobegon. Sure enough, not only was his PHC program available as a RealAudio feed, but it was on NOW. Well, Aunt Mable said that there was "no such thing as circumstance," so may I tell you that I sat right down and reveled in PHC for two hours. That makes for a good day in ThomasLand and Lake Wobegon alike, for in both places, all the men are good looking, the women are strong and the children are above average as well. If you know not of what I speak, follow the link to PHC. Look up the netcast times and stations. If you have RealAudio, join him live every Saturday from 5:00p-7:00p CST or check your local National Public Radio (NPR) station for time and enjoy!

Friday, March 14, 1997
Gregory has found his sleep schedule. Its evening component is just about the same as ours with the exception of that 4:30 am thing. He's developing his own personality with giggles, bubbles, other audibles. He will meet many family members on a whirlwind trip through Pennsylvania's Delaware and Lancaster counties at the end of April. Family is fine. Work is fine. Spring is in the air and life is good.

Saturday, January 18, 1997
Happy New Year! The last three weeks have ripped by and it's almost February already. Nothing much to report. Donna, Gregory and I are doing well. Gregory is beginning to sleep a bit longer, something for which we are very grateful. New babies showing up to friends Clive Hallatt and David Solomon, both formerly of Bay Networks. Congratulations to them. All-star Hockey Weekend in San Jose. Check out the NHL or San Jose Sharks or ESPN Sportszone websites for details. Coverage is on Fox and ESPN.