Holly, Thais and Carson, Leah, and Rita (talking with a friend).
Leo’s (Holly’s son) Kindergarten class sang about taking a bath.
Sophia’s class sang about bugs – yes, God loves bugs too, no matter how annoying they might be sometimes.
Lauren (Leah’s daughter, at far left) and friends performed a dance.
At the end of the 2-hour performance, awards were given for Pi Day – the student at each grade level who memorized the longest string of numbers for pi 3.14— A second grader memorized 107 digits after the decimal point. The school winner was a fourth grader with 114 digits. What! Each grade level winner got a pie, of course!
Meanwhile, at home, Carter kept watch – the pink gun made him feel fierce.
Neighborhood bike rides
I was hired by 50 Corridor TMA, along with a few other LCIs, to lead small groups of students on bike rides in their Folsom neighborhood as a culmination to 10 hours of bicycle-driving instruction.
In this program, students provided their own bicycles.
Three days of work, but mostly fun. Great kids. You could see skills and confidence grow daily.
Sophia at Buzzardball
Sophia at soccer
Avery kept turning Justin’s head around so he could talk to him. 
Cousin Lauren with Carson:
Goodbye Honda Civic
And hello Subaru Outback! I had a feeling everything would work out on the test drive when the salesperson, Rion Spears, asked me if I knew where Orchard School was in Rio Linda, and then if I knew principal Paula Roach. Rion taught school at Orchard for a few years, but he kept getting laid off in the spring and rehired at the last minute in August. So he became a car salesperson.
When I gave him the name of a friend for the application, he whipped out his phone to show me a name in his contacts – his mother’s name is Phyllis Thompson. Working with car salesmen has not been a good experience for me in the past, but Rion was excellent to work with. And so was the rest of the Maita sales team.
I have to give Justin a big thank-you for helping me. He is definitely Ed’s grandson. After our first visit, as soon as he got home, he downloaded a car-buying app, consulted a few other online resources, and started filling out post-it notes with information. He compared invoices with actual selling prices from surrounding dealerships to figure out what the average discount was.
I went in the second time by myself but with a definite range and clear instructions to walk out if my max price could not be met. And that’s what I had to do. About a half-hour later, I got a phone call from the sales manager,
“Can you pay just $100 more than your max offer?”
I don’t know. I’ll have to call my son and get permission.
“But at $100 less, you don’t need to get permission?”
No.
“Alright then, you can have it for your price.” Fist pump and a big smile!
Thursday at Merrilyn’s
Always great food! 
and dessert!
Thank you Merrilyn for hosting our get-together every time.
Coffee with friends
With Adrienne and Sandy.
Lambs and calves
Next door to Justin’s house, there are lots of new babies. Several sets of twin lambs
and one set of triplets.
Also twin calves.
Celebrating Mike Clark
Adrienne’s husband passed away on December 8. Today was his celebration of life.
Adrienne and her children, Alyson and Adam, did a great job!
Great food, wonderful stories, lots of tears and laughter, seeing family and friends again – but most of all, hearing how loved and respected Mike was in every aspect of his life.
North American Handmade Bicycle Show
At the Sacramento Convention Center:
I volunteered to do the Bike Valet for SABA (Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates) – free secure bicycle parking inside the Convention Center.
Bicycles were checked in, tagged and set on racks in numerical order.
Over 1000 bicycles were parked over the 3-day show!
As a thank-you for volunteering, after a shift was completed, the volunteer was able to see the show.
Who knew there were so many companies, both large and small, plus many individuals who make bicycles by hand.
Mavic from France, not a bicycle-maker, but a company that specializes in servicing racing teams around the world. 
A few of my favorites.
A bicycle-carrying rack for motorcycles:
A wooden bicycle from Germany:
Bicycle for two with sun canopy:
Biwakoguma Bicycles, handmade in Japan. The artist is also the builder:
The paint job was amazing. I hope the gold leaf shows up in the photo.
And finally, a 9.9 pound bicycle. You could have one just like it for a mere $13,000.
arletelouise 