Seeing Double? - Gold Standard Productions

The Stone Tablets
Vol. XXII No. 1
An Occassional Collection of Stories about People You Actually Know - Circulation 300 ± a few
January 2015
Publisher’s Note:
2
014 has come & gone, but here’s
how it worked for us. Thanks
again for being a subscriber... hope
you enjoy this year’s issue! – GS
Inside this issue...
Around the Castle
pg 2
The Grindstone
pg 4
Milestones
pg 4
Pebbles
pg 5
© 2015
A visit to the Twin Peaks viewpont was a great day trip for Grayson, LeeAnn &
Gary during their visit with Jade & Mike in San Francisco.
Around the Castle
Seeing Double?
W
e capped the construction
in the back yard with the
completion of our outdoor
Taco Bell Cantina
living room, dubbed the Copa Cabana.
Visitors to our residential resort will immediately notice the similarities to the
Taco Bell Cantina, our outdoor kitchen.
The two structures serve as attractive
bookends to the backyard entertainment
complex. Outfitted with a fireplace and
recessed video screen & music system,
the space provides a nice retreat for
reading or catching a movie!
Copa Cabana
Not identical twins... more like first cousins – Various architectural and stylistic details are shared by these two enhancements.
The Stone Tablets: ”What Happens When a Family Newsletter Takes Steroids”™
The Rolling Stones
Sailing to a Pacific Paradise
E
ven though Dad is 91, he’s not
about to let a little thing like his
age get in the way of his having a
good time... like going on a cruise! But
have to travel to a distant port wasn’t
something he relished, so we narrowed
the search to our local ports and found
a great package on a Carnival ship
bound for Hawaii! Dad hadn’t been to
the islands in over 50 years. In all, we
had an entourage of 8 for this 2 week
excursion to the islands & back.
Traveling to Hawaii by ship meant
having many “at sea” days; 4 days...
each way. But Carnival runs a program
designed to have a lot of activities for
people that like to stay busy/engaged.
Add to that lots of music and entertainment on board and there’s never much
Coffee “cherries” – Berries ready to pick for
some great Kona coffee.
2 - THE STONE TABLETS - JAN. 2015
by Gary Stone
“downtime”. Oh... and like any cruise,
the food/dining is something we look
forward to!
– Island Hopping –
Once we arrived in the islands, we
had 5 port stops planned in 5 days.
Having been to Hawaii many times,
we opted out of the ship’s tour options
and instead booked rental cars in each
of the ports and set off on our own
group excursions. Our first stop was
to Maui, where we made the drive up
to the lookout on Mt. Haleakala. At the
top, we were afforded bright clear skies
and incredible views of the crater and
nearby islands.
On the Big Island, we anchored in Kona
for a full day of exploring. First was a
visit to a small coffee plantation. The
proprietors of Hula Daddy coffee were
on hand to give us a personal tour of the
groves, had us sample some ripening
coffee “cherries” and took us through
the roasting process. After that we
explored the Pu`uhonua O Hōnaunau
National Historical Park, (formerly
known as the “City of Refuge”). Here
is where defeated warriors or taboo
breakers could survive the punishment
of death... but only if they could reach
the boundaries of this sacred site. A
Warrior spirit – Giant carved idols keep
watch at the National Historical Park.
beautiful location steeped in rich Hawaiian history.
Day 3 in the islands put us on Oahu
and a visit to the Arizona Memorial
(since renamed WWII Valor in the Pacific National Monument). Jade also
discovered a boutique chocolate store in
Honolulu that required some, uh... “research”. (Of course, numerous samples
were brought back to the ship for ongo-
Stone Family Open Invitational – All eyes are on Grayson as he summons up some “mad
putting skills” during a nail-biting moment in the onboard tournament.
Jade & Mike, glad to be enjoying some beach
time after lots of cruising and sightseeing.
Presenting... the Stone Family Circus! – Celebrating Halloween on the Carnival Miracle.
L-R Back Row: Gary, LeeAnn, Hilda, Grayson. Front Row: Jade, Ed, JoAnn, Mike.
ing analysis!) Madre Chocolate...
we’ll be back!
The next day was a short stop
to the island of Kauai. As this has
always been our favorite island,
the few hours we had in this port
there wasn’t enough time to visit
any unique areas, so we planted
ourselves on a beach and enjoyed
snorkeling with the fish and sea
turtles.
Our final port in the islands
was to Hilo, again on the Big
Island. Our main adventure for
this day was to get up and explore the Hawaii Volcanoes Nat’l
Park (We sure got a lot of use on
this trip from our National Park
Pass!) While we weren’t able to
get “up close & personal” with
the news-making lava flows
that were occurring at the time,
we checked out the steam and
Cont. on page 6
Jewel in the Pacific – Pullling into the Kahului port on the island of Maui.
THE STONE TABLETS - JAN. 2015 - 3
The Grindstone
LeeAnn ‘s work...................... and fun!
I
have moved into my second year
working to build Custom Solutions
at Rosetta Stone. That means building “bespoke” content for corporate,
government and other enterprise clients. Just finishing up a large Spanish
Healthcare for Communications and
Interpretation program for the largest managed care org in the country. I
brought together a team from across
the country that included some of the
top experts in the field of Spanish and
healthcare communications issues,
medical advisors, interpreters and content developers. It is exciting to think
that Spanish speaking patients may
receive more effective treatment as a
result of improved communications
as a result of our program. Upcoming
projects may involve endangered Native
American and First-Nation languages,
a possible aviation-related project out
of the EU and other equally interesting
opportunities.
Another major factor of work pleasure
are the RS people. I have never worked
with as many capable, diverse, interesting people as here. With the Spanish
Healthcare project winding down, my
boss has lately been saying, “You don’t
want to see what happens when LeeAnn
gets bored!” Between the people and
the projects, I am far from bored… and
don’t worry Lisa, I’ll give you a head’s
up if I feel that happening!
I
’ve sat on the Academic Board of Advisors for Young Americans for a few
years now; this year I was invited to
join the Foundation Board as well. I took
some time to consider whether I could
commit enough to make my participation worthwhile to the organization…
and am glad I decided to join. My
involvement with YA continues to be
a soul-lifting experience (and I am not
using this term loosely). At any other
college (and I have been a teacher and
administrator at quite a few colleges in
the course of my career now) you have
a handful of extraordinary teachers; at
YA every one of them is a master of their
art and who, along with the YA students,
are “heart- and soulfully” committed to
the students and to spreading access to
music and dance to youngsters of the
world.
W
ith deep sadness, we said
goodbye to Douglas Finkelstone, Gary’s Uncle. Douglas
had just concluded a 2 week visit to
Southern California, visiting his brother
Ed and other family members. He was
just shy of celebrating his 95th birthday.
Douglas went into the family profession and practiced law in New York &
Connecticut. After retiring, he packed
up and moved to Arizona where he
enjoyed the milder winters, and visits
every other month by his brother and
nephews. Trips to the local zoo, aquarium, and museums or out to a restaurant
and a movie were his favorite activities.
He also became quite spiritual and studied Buddhist philosophies. While he had
no children of his own, he thoroughly
enjoyed interacting with young people.
Now, after quite a few years of YAtours throughout Japan, that country
is exploring ways to deliver this type
of arts education and outreach itself.
And so College Director Kat Dull, the
artistic leadership and visionary team
of YA, Bill Brawley (Executive & Artistic
Director) and his wife Robyn, and I have
been invited to meet with education
leaders in March in Japan to advise on
such developments.
Do let me know if you’d like to attend
a YA show (Spring Broadway or Magic
of Christmas). I’d love to treat you to
what you will be thoroughly delighted
by... I guarantee it!
Carnival Miracle – Our floating home in the Pacific
4 - THE STONE TABLETS - JAN. 2015
Milestones
Scan the code with
your iPad or mobile
device for a quick link
to this & past issues
of the Stone Tablets.
PEBBLES
LeeAnn shares details on what the “smaller stones”
G
are chiseling these days
rayson is currently doing a lot of
contract work with Panther Productions (Chapman University),
including producing a weekly series on
the video gaming industry in Orange
County; a great opportunity to make
contacts given his ultimate goal is to
work in the video game or animation industry doing sound design. With all the
Chapman work he’s doing, he moved
back to our area (5 minutes away). And
with this move, I’ve gained another local
tennis playing buddy!
Jade continues working at CEGA
Masterpiece
StoneStock 2014
(Center for Effective Global Action)
at UC Berkeley, thoroughly enjoying
living in San Francisco, and even…
recording music! She (on vocals) and
boyfriend Mike (on guitar) accompany
Emily Zisman on the song Knockin’ in
her new album Weeds and Wildflowers.
Good music, good fun!
While she doesn’t live close, I do get to
see her when I go to our San Francisco
office. Jade’s place is 3 miles from the
office, so I stay with her and get my
exercise walking to and from the office.
On the way home, Jade, Mike and I
typically meet for dinner at one of the
too-numerous-to-count wonderful restaurants in the city.
E
very year this event becomes
bigger and better. What began as
a evening of friends getting together for some karaoke fun has turned
into an annual event of food and music.
For our 13th annual StoneStock Music
Festival, we had a terrific turnout of
guests and talent with many incredible
performers and groups – both new and
returning – taking the stage and thrilling
our guests.
This year’s theme was “What a Wonderful World” and celebrated music &
food from cultures around the globe.
Check out the pics below, with more
available here on our Flickr site.
Gilman Carver
Brothers of the Castle
Ready, Willing & Mabel
Melodye
Sugar Daddies
Pasión Gitana
FlipSide
THE STONE TABLETS - JAN. 2015 - 5
needed a whole extra suitcase for all
the costumes & props we brought!) The
effort was all well received and appreciated; all evening we had folks asking us
to pose for pics!
Castle Guards
A
fter being “cat-less” for a few
years, our good friend Howard
Cowles brought us a rescue cat
that he needed to “outsource”. Our
parameters restricted our options as
we were only interested in adopting
a strictly outdoor cat. When “Buddy”
arrived, he quickly adapted to his new
environs and loves to chase after Gary
as he works in the yard. He’s also begun
to show off his hunting skills by bringing us his “trophies”. Buddy is certainly
the most affectionate cat we’ve had,
wanting to be petted anytime, and for
as long as you care to.
The Rolling Stones... cont. from pg 3
For more pics, visit my Flickr page here.
Let’s Communicate!
Our addresses haven’t changed in a
while, but if you need it, here’s how
to reach us:
Gary
[email protected]
LeeAnn [email protected]
Grayson [email protected]
Buddy – “May I have your attention... now!?”
Or if you prefer, you can also contact
us through the social network sites like
FaceBook and LinkedIn. Look us up!
sulfur vents, explored the lava tube, and
soaked up all the informative displays
and programs at the visitor’s center.
– Back to the Mainland –
Because our voyage occurred during
the last 2 weeks in October, we’d be
experiencing Halloween on this sailing. Knowing this gave us time to put
together a grand scheme. We came up
with a plan to create a group theme for
our costumes and dressed as the “Stone
Family Circus”! Our personnel included, Dad as the Lion Tamer, LeeAnn was
the Clown, Gary went as the Ringmaster, Grayson was the Bandleader (and
the entire band, providing us with music as we paraded around), JoAnn was
the Dog Trainer, Jade was the Tattooed
Lady, Mike was the Bearded Lady, and
Hilda was the Snake Charmer! (We
High-level meeting of the Stone “family”entourage – Mike, Jade, JoAnn, Ed, Grayson, LeeAnn,
Gary & Hilda pose at the Mt. Haleakala Summit viewpoint. (10,023 ft.)
Solemn Tribute – The distinctive profile of USS Arizona Memorial overlooks the submerged vessel and honors the men that gave their life in service
to their country
6 - THE STONE TABLETS - JAN. 2015