November 4, 1998
It was a pleasant October around the Gehlke home, and a busy one as well. Vacations are well behind us and now we turn our attention toward the holidays with lots of shopping to do and letters to write. Roni has been on the ball with the shopping duties, buying most of Benji's gifts before the end of last month. If you haven't already sent us your wish list, you might want to get it done soon. Glenn, naturally, is not as quick to jump into the holidays and will likely be out mall hopping on Christmas Eve.
Our biggest news of the past month was the enrollment of Benji in his first preschool class. He is attending a program in Antioch two days a week and so far has mixed feelings about it. He has found many new toys to play with and friends to make, in between sharing circles, storytime and snacks. His favorite part so far seems to be the fact that the community center where the program is held is located across the street from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad tracks, so he can hear the trains go by and that's sort of like home.
Halloween was a special time for us all as we trooped out to the Clayton Valley Pumpkin Farm for an afternoon of frolic and Benji dressed up as Blue the puppy dog from his favorite television show to take part in trick-or-treating. Grandma and Grandpa Gehlke and Uncle Sean came out to join Ben on his dash through the neighborhood Halloween night. Roni prepared a festive meal of batwitches, mummy dogs, Wolfman salad and other ghostly creations. Glenn was able to adjust his work schedule in order to be home for an hour and a half to join in the fun.
There were few major excursions for us during October, mainly because we were consumed with work, but we did brave the darkness the morning of October 19 to go out train watching in Livermore on the first day of service for the new ACE commuter train. We left the house around 5 a.m. and battled the commute traffic for a few historic photos, which can be found if you link to our ACE page at Milepost 1147.2. We also got some daytime shots when we went out the following afternoon to catch the return commute run.
We have updated our birthday calendar below. Although still far from complete, we have added some new names and faces with plans to do more next month. If you aren't already on the list please be patient. If you think we may not have your date (or if we have it incorrectly), please drop us an e-mail and let us know. We'll fix it. If your day is listed but your photo isn't, it either means we don't have a current picture of you or else we haven't had time to scan one in. You can help us by sending a current photo.
We are looking forward to seeing some of you for a belated Thanksgiving. If we don't see you, please accept our best wishes for a joyous holiday season.
Glenn, Roni and Benji