Welcome to NewsLand 1998!

Saturday, December 5, 1998
Today is the annual Los Gatos Children's Parade and it's definitely beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Silicon Valley. The weather is unusually cold with frost on the rooftops in the morning, a stark contrast to the 70+ degree weather on east coast. The easterners are getting a dose of what Christmas is often like in central California. Other than the weather being a bit backwards, the rest is much the same. I found a copy of "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!" and placed a link to it on our home page. Our 1998 ThomasLand Christmas letter is in the works, so stay tuned at ChristmasLand for that. Gregory is getting a notebook PC for Christmas so that he can run JumpStart Baby and Blues Clues educational CDs. Spencer is getting, well, another bottle of milk for Christmas, I guess. At 4 months, he doesn't want too much else, but he clearly does want that. He has been asking for quite some time and around the clock. Dad is getting a new job for Christmas. More on that in the Christmas letter later this month. Mom is getting a portion of Gregory's PC if he will let her use it. Santa is probably bringing her a new VCR as well. Building the library of Blues Clues TV shows, then playing them back for hours at a time tends to burn out even the most robust VCR. All for now. Season's Greetings from ThomasLand!

Thursday, November 19, 1998
My wife, Donna, spoke to my Mother today. Mom is in Philadelphia. We are in San Jose. Mom related a story of how she received an odd telephone call Wednesday from what sounded like a little boy from somewhere with a baby crying in the background. The little boy "jabbered" for a few minutes responding to questions about "Mama" and "Dada". My Mom talked to him, conversing as best as he could, but then there was a beep and the phone line dropped. Something sounded familiar to my wife as she remembered that our two-year-old, Gregory, happened to have found his way to our telephone answering system on Wednesday during the precise time of said telephone call. Donna had caught him, but not before he had placed a coast-to-coast telephone call to his Grandmother. The Pacific Bell one-digit speed calling feature probably had something to do with it. Isn't it odd that he should pick the one button that called Grandma. A bit more proof that there is no such thing as coincidence, at least not when little two-year-old boys are concerned.

Saturday, November 14, 1998
As a sequel to my news of last week, I returned to the Santa Clara County Superior Court this Monday for jury duty, but was not selected this time either. The net was that I spent 2-1/2 days doing relatively nothing, although the County tells me that I was doing a valuable service. Perhaps so, but somehow there should be a more considerate and productive use of the public's time. As I was not selected, they can call me again after a year. The irony is that the process could be improved with a computer system, but the public would probably not vote to spend the money on it.

Sunday, November 8, 1998
This has been an interesting week. I have learned more than I probably ever wanted to know about the Santa Clara County judicial system. My number came up last month for jury duty. I requested a postponement because Spencer had just arrived. In Santa Clara County, you are "on call" for one week. My week began last Monday. Sunday night I called the hotline and was requested to report at 8:00A on Monday. I was eventually assigned to a case along with over one hundred other fortunate souls and wound up in a courtroom for jury selection. Little did I know that it would take the rest of the day to "seat" the twelve jurors plus six alternates. At the end of the day, I left dejected, as I was not selected. I was recycled for the rest of the week, though. I called several times each day per instructions and was finally told to report at 9:00A on Friday morning. I went through the same drill and was assigned to a new case. The new "panel" of a hundred or so folks moved to a new courtroom to seat that jury. By the end of the day Friday, the jury had not been seated, unfortunately. That means that I am going back on Monday and may still be called as a juror if people who are currently seated on the jury are disqualified. Hopefully I still have a job left when this process is over. The good news is that the system is equitable and fair, if not a bit tedious. A better process? I doubt it, although computers might help if they could be afforded. It's good to do this once in a while. If I am recycled, I have a one year reprieve. If I am selected, I have a three year reprieve. Watch for updates!

Sunday, October 25, 1998
Ah! An extra hour of sleep this morning offsets the choppy Saturday night sleep with a newborn in the house. Spencer, our two-month-old, isn't sleeping through the night as yet. We were not expecting that, of course. Newborns are adorable, but they are definitely a handful. The food doesn't stay down. The sleep doesn't last long. The noise level is unbelievable. The diapers seem to last minutes instead of hours. Two-year-old brother, Gregory, is beginning to understand that the baby is his little brother, but that will take time. At age two, Gregory now surprises us with insight that continues to amaze us. He looks at a multi-line telephone that has one light lit and asks, "Is Daddy on the phone?" We ask how he is and he says, "I'm alright". Where did he get that? More surprises are coming soon to be sure. We're off to another Pumpkin Patch today, then lunch with some friends and back to make sure that the kids [and parents] have their afternoon naps.

Sunday, October 11, 1998
It's amazing how busy it gets when there are two kids in the house. Anyone with experience in this area is sure to agree. Donna is holding up well, but the race is always on to fill the bottles for the next newborn feeding. Spencer is about 6 weeks old today. With the exception of his lack of interest in feeding and apparent desire to lose some or all of it when he does feed, Spencer is doing just fine. His older brother, Gregory, has discovered that it is a trivial matter now for him to bound over the gate that divided the safe part of our family room from the not-so-safe area where Donna hides her reading material that she doesn't want ripped to shreds. The vertical blinds on our glass slider are also an attraction that this gate has tried to protect. Alas, children grow and childproofing becomes less effective over time, so we have relocated Gregory's playroom to his bedroom for the moment. Spencer can now spend time in the family room and still be out of harm's way from his older and far more agile brother, Gregory. Meanwhile we prepare for Halloween by decorating the house and planning to attend several parties for the kids. Gregory is a dinosaur this year. Pix to follow around the end of the month.

Sunday, September 13, 1998
Two weeks have gone by since our new son, Spencer, was born. It seems like a matter of days, but he is actually 14 days old today! It's taken that long for me to process my camcorder pics and post a few of them in VideoLand. Surf over when you have the chance. I promise to deliver some better pics soon particularly if I can arrange to have an alert baby and a camcorder in the same place at the same time. Gregory and I gave Mom a few minutes of partial peace this morning by crawling through tubes and jumping into pools of plastic balls at The Jungle. Mom, Dad, Gregory and Spencer are all doing well!

Sunday, August 30, 1998
Donna woke me at 4:00AM PDT this morning to tell me that "things were happening". We pulled the three of us together, loaded everything, except the camcorder which we forgot, into the Explorer and headed for Good Samaritan Hospital. Not only were "things happening", but Spencer was ready and not likely to wait until our doctor's appointment on Monday. When we arrived at the hospital, we went directly to Labor & Delivery and, after only 1 hour and 54 minutes, our second son, Spencer Bryant Thomas, was born via natural childbirth. He was born at 6:19AM PDT and weighed 6 lbs and 12 oz. Spencer is absolutely beautiful and has already begun to feed and, shall we say, eliminate. Mom, Spencer, Gregory and even Dad are doing just fine. Donna is expected to be coming home on Monday or Tuesday, but without any of the post-operative problems that she had when Gregory was born two years ago. Please join us in celebrating this very special moment which has fulfilled our wish of giving Gregory a little brother.

Saturday, August 29, 1998
Our second son, Spencer Bryant Thomas, is only a few days away. We just returned from the hospital. It's just after noon on Saturday. The doctors are trying to let Donna's pregnancy go on as long as possible while carefully monitoring her hematology. Her blood pressure has been elevated for about the last month, but still in the safe zone. Her blood platelet count is decreasing and this has become our main concern. Platelets are the clotting agents in our blood. Platelet count is used as a early warning of toxemia, an extremely serious condition. Donna has been in the hospital every two days for the two weeks undergoing a mix of sonograms, blood tests, non-stress tests and augmented by self-tests at home. She is being carefully monitored by a group of specialists at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Gatos, California. Spencer is already out of the danger zone and would no longer be considered a premature birth. Stay tuned for updates!

Sunday, August 16, 1998
Time has flown once again and the ThomasLand News has been out of date. Apologies but these are busy times at work and at home. At work, the Nortel acquisition of Bay Networks is well under way toward its completion at the end of August. At home, the pregnancy of our second son, Spencer Bryant Thomas, is well under way toward its completion in mid-September. Spencer will probably by here much sooner, however, because Mom’s blood pressure is on the rise. The odds makers are forecasting his birth in late August or early September. In a curious twist, our first son, Gregory Warren Thomas, was born on October 21, 1996, two years to the date after the Wellfleet acquisition of SynOptics which formed Bay Networks. It would be fascinating if the Nortel acquisition of Bay Networks happened at about the same time as his brother came along. Watch for news in the coming days!

Saturday, July 18, 1998
Our short heat wave is just about over. It is 126 degrees in Death Valley, but is in the 80s here with a cool ocean breeze. Donna is out running errands and making quick stops at yard sales for that special truck or car that Gregory will like. His sibling-in-progress, currently named Spencer Bryant Thomas, is doing excellent. He is on schedule for an arrival on September 12th. The largest problem that Donna has with this pregnancy is the typical inability to find a comfortable sleeping position, or room for that matter. She has kept extremely busy with the Las Madres mother and child support group. Between meeting the moms for play groups several times each week, she has interviewed over 50 pre-schools as candidates for Gregory to attend in September 1999. Yes, it is necessary to get started now for a fall 1999 registration if you want to be awarded one of the precious slots in a pre-school here. My work is moving along as well as any merger can be expected to go. Bay Networks will finalize the acquisition by Nortel this fall.

Saturday, July 4, 1998
As I was converting the NewsLand pages to the new style yesterday, I came across an entry for July 4th, 1996, that talked about how our first child, Gregory, was kicking Mom intensely three months before his birth in October of that year. This July 4th, Mom is undergoing the same situation with our new boy-to-be, Spencer, due September 12th if all goes well. All signs are positive and Mom is feeling well most of the time. She has gained about 10 pounds. Her blood pressure is just fine. I'm heading out to take Gregory to a park for some exercise as soon as I change the flag on the front of our house from hummingbird to stars-and-stripes. The warm sun and cool breezes have returned to Silicon Valley as El Nino has slipped away, so it's off to the great outdoors once again. Later today, I'll try to upload some new pictures of Gregory at the park, his first haircut, and maybe even a sonogram of Spencer! Best wishes for a happy and safe Independence Day.

Saturday, June 13, 1998
A friend has said that he wanted to have five children. So far he has two beautiful little girls who are very well behaved. Most of my friends seem to have daughters and they extol their virtues every time we talk about kids. I suspect that there are more parents alive who have little girls than those with little boys. I'm not sure of this, but from what I have seen, the life expectancy of parents with female offspring is much higher than that of parents with male offspring. Today Gregory was having a "time out" in his bedroom. He had fallen asleep, was nice and quiet, and all was good in the world. That was until he woke up and Mom went in to check on him. We have duct work that runs under the house for heating and air conditioning. The air vents are mounted in the floor. Little did I know that the air vents merely pull out of the floor to expose the duct work. Gregory determined this before I did. He proceeded to fill the air duct with his toys. When he ran out of toys, he opened his sock drawer, another new feat, and filled the rest of the duct with his clean socks. Donna and I spent the next hour retrieving clothes and toys from the 6 inch duct under his room. When we were done, we were still missing one of a pair of giraffes from an ark set. We searched the room high and low with no success. Figuring that we must have missed the the poor animal when we saved his friends from the air duct, I began the search again. With mirror and flashlight, I inspected the air duct and found the hapless critter. With trusty bent coat hanger and a considerable fatherly patience, I rescued him/her. It is difficult to determine the gender of plastic giraffes. The air vent now has two machine screws which attach it to the floor. My point is that, you too, may notice that more people have daughters than sons. It's not a population thing at all. It's just that the parents of boys don't survive as long. Cheers from the land that sun hath forgot.

Sunday, May 10, 1998
It's Mothers Day and Donna is playing dual roles. Our son, Gregory, is 19 months old and tearing the house apart. His brother-to-be, currently named Spencer, is doing just fine. Tomorrow is our 13th Wedding Anniversary if my math is correct. The weather in California still feels more like winter than Spring even though we're about a month away from Summer. The heater still runs every few nights and the hills in the Diablo Range to the east are still an uncharacteristic green.

Saturday, April 25, 1998
Thanks to El Nino it's still in the 40's when we start out the day in the Silicon Valley. By our standards this has been an extremely long winter punctuated by some nice days, but nothing like our minds or bodies are used to experiencing. Gregory gets cuter by the day, but that would go without saying. He adjusted easily to the move to his toddler bed. He doesn't miss his crib and enjoys the freedom of his room. The SIP, sibling-in-progress, is doing just fine and has begun to kick Mom at predictable times throughout the day. Last weekend I decided to try Yahoo Classifieds to sell a refrigerator and chest freezer that we originally acquired when we lived in Media, Pennsylvania during the late 1980s. The refrigerator sold within two days. Yahoo! also allows for a pointer to a private web site, so I created a page called It's Spring Cleaning Time at ThomasLand! to post pictures of the items. Amazing stuff, this web!

Saturday, April 11, 1998
The last month has screamed by with lots of new and time-consuming activities at work and at home. Gregory is participating in a variety of group activities. Last weekend Donna and I took Gregory his first Easter Egg Hunt at a local park. The hunt was sponsored by one of the local Los Madres chapters. Los Madres provides a wonderful exercise, learning and support service for mothers and babies. You can see some pictures of the hunt online at VideoLand. The other exciting news is that moments ago Gregory realized that he was strong enough to pull himself up and swing a leg over the top rail of his crib. The even bigger news of the month is that we have the results back from a recent amniocentesis to confirm the health of our new baby in progress. The test results, received only a few days ago, confirmed that we have another healthy baby boy on the way. Gregory's little brother has an ETA of September 12th. Stay tuned for progress reports. Suggestions for alternate captivity arrangements and name suggestions for Gregory's sibling-in-progress are being accepted at FeedbackLand. Rewards for the best suggestions will be considered.

Saturday, March 7, 1998
The Train Collectors Association (TCA) and Toy Train Operating Society (TTOS) held their 25th Anniversary meet at the Santa Clara Convention Center today.As card carrying TCA members, Donna and I were able to attend and we smuggled Gregory as well. Gregory was test riding in his new backpack on Dad's shoulders. The good news, for collectors at least, is that the tinplate is coming out again. There were many example of pre-war Lionel and Ives tinplate passenger and freight train sets, many in superb condition and at amazing prices, of course. Gregory enjoyed his tour around the large exhibition hall with row after row of trains and train-related products for trading or buying. The dealers kept trying to get him to point to something that Dad could buy for him. Later this afternoon is the Bay Area Matchbox Collectors Association (BAMCA) meeting that we may attend.

Saturday, February 21, 1998
If you have registered on our home page, you have been receiving daily notices of changes. This was due to the way that the URL-Minder software works. I added a real-time clock on the home page several weeks ago. URL-Minder sees that as a page change every time that it checks the page and sends out the notices. I have added programming to the home page to tell URL-Minder to ignore the date change. Let's see if it works. If you are still receiving daily notices, please drop me a note at FeedbackLand. Thanks!

Saturday, February 7, 1998
If you have been watching the California weather, you know that it has been raining heavily for days. Areas that are near creeks or rivers are very prone to flooding. Areas that are near hills are very prone to mudslides. When we bought our home in San Jose, I made certain that we were on bedrock to minimize the effect of liquefaction during an earthquake and that the water drained away from the house. There is excellent drainage in front of our house directly down a hill to another road and we have a large storm sewer grate directly in front of us. That removes most, if not all, of the flood danger. Two years ago our neighbor lost a tree in the direction of our adjoining fence and my roof, but the fence was the only casualty. We have no trees to impact us either, so we can ride out the winter storms here with reasonable assurance that we won't need to evacuate. Friends of ours are not so luck. We know people who are coping with the rain by sandbagging, moving furniture to second floors and even evacuating their homes. We are very fortunate.

Sunday, February 1, 1998
Did somebody say McDonalds? I'm not certain that this is the type of milestone that you tell people about, but this week marked Gregory's first trip to McDonalds. Mom was hungry for a hamburger and Gregory was introduced to a McDonalds Happy Meal along with its free Fisher-Price toy. He was thrilled!

Sunday, January 25, 1998
It's Super Bowl Sunday again. This day will always remind me of great competition among the leading teams in sports, of course, but it also reminds me of the day that Donna and I found our house. Super Bowl Sunday is a great time to go house hunting because everyone else is watching TV. It's been a month since I added to the news, but those of you who have been surfing ThomasLand regularly have probably seen some changes. There are new pictures of Gregory at VideoLand, a new comment form at FeedbackLand, updates to my railroad links at TrainLand plus some new links at the Main Entrance most notably the CBS Sports link for the Winter Olympics. Donna and I have been busy as well and we should have some more news to report from the stork one of these days, so stay tuned!