The Latest News From Our Family Find out what the Zims have been up to lately

2008 has been the "year of the cruise" for us!  It had been 12 years since the last time we were on a cruise ship, but so far in 2008 we've been on TWO cruises already...  and we may just do one more before the year is over!

In January, we took a 5-day cruise to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, onboard the Carnival Elation.  Then, to celebrate our 27th wedding anniversary in April, we took an 8-day cruise on the Norwegian Star to Acapulco, Mexico.

Why so many cruises this year?  Several factors all worked together to make this a perfect year for cruising:  Normally, it's hard for us to get away because when we have puppies we need to be home to take care of them.  This year, we aren't expecting any puppies until much later this summer.  Also, with both Jim & Kellyn working and with only one kid still in college, we find ourselves with more money in the vacation fund than we've ever had before.  Finally, there's a sense that we're both enjoying fairly good health right now and who knows how long we'll be able to say that?!?  So, cruise while the cruising is good!

It was a special Thanksgiving for us this year...  with Jeff coming home for a few days.  We've missed having him around!  Earlier this year, he moved to San Diego to attend San Diego state university.  He's living in a house (right next to the campus) with about six other guys.  From what we've heard, it sounds like "party central"!  We figure that he's at the age where he should be living life to the fullest...  and we're glad to hear about all the fun he's having.  Here's a picture that I snapped of him the day before Thanksgiving...

By the way, the photo was shot with my Canon Digital Rebel XTi and was one of my first test shots with a fancy new ultra-zoom lens I bought.  If this photo is any indication of the quality of the shots I'll be able to get with the new lens...  I'm pretty excited!

Kellyn has a new hair-do...  and she looks pretty darned good, don't you think?

August 2007

In July, we had a family reunion at our house...  with my mom, all of my siblings, and our kids all getting the chance to spend a few days together.  It's rare that all of us can ever get together at the same time, so this was a very special opportunity.  Here's a photo of the whole family:

My mom is in the center of the photo.  Kellyn and I are over on the right side.
My brother is in the front, and his wife is sitting beside my mom.
In the back row, from left to right:
Our daughter and her husband, my sister and her husband, my other sister, and our son
 

We've got an empty nest now at our house.  In July, our son, Jeff, moved to San Diego.  He wanted to get all settled in down there prior to beginning classes in late August at attend San Diego State University...  where he'll be majoring in television, film, and new media production.

Jeff attended a community college here at home for the last three years, and put a lot of money away while living inexpensively and making good money at his job at KSBY-TV where he directed the evening newscasts.  He hopes to work for the NBC affiliate in San Diego soon.

What will happen to Jeff's old room at home?  Will it get turned in to a guest room?  A puppy room?  A computer room?  We're not sure yet!

Jeff recently bought a Canon Digital Rebel XTi camera...  after being impressed with mine.  Check out his web site at www.jeffzimmerlin.com to see some of his pictures!

Here's a great picture of me and Kellyn...  taken during "Pupapalooza Weekend", September 2006.

The picture was taken on our last morning with Joanna's puppies...   just before the first one left to go home with his new owners.  Susie Danielson took the photo...  she's the new owner of Toby, the pup on the far right.  For more pictures of this cute litter of pups, click here!

We have a new member of the family!  Here's he is, doing what he does best...

His name is "Mo"...  inspired by Pismo, the puppy on the far left of the preceding photo.  Mo was actually a present for Morgan, one of our Cocker Spaniels.  Morgan is absolutely crazy about cats...  and when we saw her with some calm Persian cats at one of our friend's house, we realized that if Morgan got together with a very calm and confident cat that would get scared and run away, she and the cat could become very good pals.  So, we headed off to our local animal shelter and found the friendliest and most confident cat that we could find...  one who had lived with a Golden Retriever (in Grover Beach, no less)...  and we brought him home.  He and Morgan didn't exactly hit it off at first...  but we're working on it.  As for Jeff and Kellyn and me...  Mo has impressed us with his calm and friendly nature!

One of my favorite things to do during the summer is to make the 1000 mile drive (each way!) to visit my sister and her family on their farm in Washington state.  This year, Kellyn and Jeff weren't able to go with me, so I took my mother instead.  I took lots of great photos during my farm vacation.  Here's one of my favorites, just to give you a sample.

That's me and my favorite "niece".  She's not really my niece, but that's what I call her since it's simpler than the full explanation!  She's just as sweet and adorable as she looks in the picture, and it's always a pleasure to see her during my Washington trips.  For a much more detailed look at all the fun I had in Washington this summer, click here.

Here's a gorgeous picture that I took in early May.  This photo was taken on PG&E property, just north of the Diablo Canyon power plant where I work.  I had the opportunity to take two hours on company time photographing some of the beautiful scenery in the protected buffer zone that surrounds the power plant.

  The picture above has been resized to give you a glimpse...  but the full-sized version is much more impressive!  Click on the picture above to see the high resolution (3230x700 pixel) version of the photo.  After the high-resolution version downloads, your web browser will probably resize it to fit your screen.  (That's bad.)  If so, point your mouse to the lower right corner of the resized photo and click on the "expand" button to see the high resolution photo in all its glory!
  

25 years!

On April 4th, 2006, Kellyn and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary.  To mark the occasion, we spent a few days at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel in Anaheim...  and had a great time at Disneyland, Disney's California Adventure, and in the Downtown Disney district.

For your amusement, here's a photo from our wedding day 25 years ago, and a photo taken on our 25th anniversary.

See more pictures and read my comments about the Grand Californian hotel and the Disney Resort by clicking here.

I have the most amazing and generous friends!

In August, my friends Robin & Gene Burdick absolutely rocked my world by giving me a laptop computer and an industrial-quality webcam that had been gathering dust at their house.  Gene & Robin used to work for Intel, and got all sorts of interesting high-tech stuff for free.  It seemed like a real waste to them for this expensive equipment to go un-used, and they new that I could definitely put it to good use here!  These were not outdated or low-budget items, either...  the webcam sells for about $1500 and is the type used for very sophisticated industrial and commercial surveillance applications.  The laptop computer is also very sophisticated...  nice and lightweight and with wireless networking built-in.  I've definitely been enjoying them...  thanks Gene & Robin!!!

As if that wasn't enough good fortune for one guy to have, in September two of my other friends did something very similar.  Janet Gingrich and her husband, Butch, bought a very expensive digital SLR camera a year or two ago...  but have found that they actually prefer to use their simpler point-and-shoot digital camera instead.  So, their Canon EOS 10D has been sitting unused in a closet somewhere for quite a long time.  They decided that this was a big waste of potential, and that of all the people that they knew, I would surely be able to get the most use out of this camera.  So, they gave it to me.  With three lenses and a bunch of accessories, this was about a $2500 gift.  Wow!

The camera arrived at a great time...  just a few days before our most recent batch of puppies headed of to their new homes...  so I was able to test out the camera by taking lots of puppy pictures.  Click here to see my first test photos with the Canon camera.  In the first ten minutes of playing with the camera, I got some of the best puppy photos I've ever taken!

This is the latest picture of Kellyn, and I think it's kind of cute!

Kel is in a two year training program to become an ultrasound technician.  She attends classes two days a week, and studies five days a week!  She takes it very seriously, and is doing very well in her studies.

Right now she's learning the basics of being a medical assistant...  everything from basic anatomy to how to draw blood.  Later this year she'll do an internship in some sort of medical assistant capacity. 

After a good foundation in the basics, she'll get trained in the specifics of working with ultrasound equipment later in the two-year program.

How did she get here?  After more than 15 years of clerical employment with our local university, Kel had to retire with a disability from all those years of repetitive motion.  It took several surgeries and a lot of recuperation, but now she's finally ready to get back to work. 

The state of California offered to pay for training in any vocation she thought she would be physically capable of doing with her disability.  She gave it a lot of thought, and decided that being an ultrasound technician would be within her capabilities. 

She's very excited about the new changes in her life, and looking forward to new challenges ahead!
 

Here's a somewhat embarrassing story, and I certainly deserve a "dunce cap" for this one!

We recently held our third annual "Pupapalooza", which is something of a reunion of puppies we have bred, combined with a Cocker Convention for Spaniels from all over California.  We had 34 Cockers all running off-leash at our favorite local beach.  People drove from hundreds of miles away to be there.  It was tremendously fun!

We were experiencing very warm weather that day, so minimal clothing was definitely called for.  I wore shorts and a t-shirt, which is unusual for me.  Normally, I try to catch as little sun as possible, at the advice of my Oncologist, following cancer treatments several years ago.

Since I knew I would be spending several hours in the sun, the very first thing I did upon arrival at the beach was to apply a total sunblock (SPF50) to all exposed skin.  This worked fine, and in retrospect I did not burn or even tan anywhere that I applied sunblock to.  However, there was one aspect of all of this that I didn't fully think through!

At the time I applied the sunblock, I was wearing shoes and socks.  A little while later, when I realized I was going to want to wade in to the water, I took the shoes and socks off...  and they remained off for the rest of the afternoon.  This exposed the top of my feet to the mid-day sun for several hours.

By the time Pupapalooza was over, I realized that my feet were getting sunburned, but I really didn't realize how severely I had screwed up.  To make a long story short...  by the next evening I knew I had a big problem, as my feet were not just burned, they were starting to blister.  Later, in the emergency room of our local hospital, the doctor informed me that I had sustained second degree burns to both of my feet.

I've got a picture that really is worth a thousand words.  I have to warn you, though, that it's EXTREMELY graphic and may totally gross you out.  Don't follow the link if you're squeamish!  But if you want to see what happened to my feet, and you're not easily grossed out, click here.  This is not some kind of joke where you follow the link and there's a funny picture as the punchline...  I'm serious about this being a gross picture of my burned and blistered feet.  Consider yourself warned!

I'll be off work and mostly sitting with my feet propped up for a while!

April 30th was a big day around here!  Our 21-year-old daughter, Sheri, married her long-time boyfriend, Jason.  They've been best friends for years, and now they're husband and wife.

Because the church that they attend is in the middle of new construction, they decided to have the ceremony at a local park.  It was a beautiful Spring afternoon, and things could hardly have been more perfect.  You always hear about wedding disasters, things that go horribly wrong, or embarrassing incidents...  but Sheri & Jason's wedding was a story of things that went right.  Truly a wonderful day and smooth, meaningful ceremony to begin their married life.

Ironically, we first met Jason about 8 years ago when we sold a Cocker Spaniel puppy to his family...  and that dog, Gretzky, is still doing fine and living with Sheri & Jason today.

Kellyn and I had a huge thrill on April 12th when we got to attend the opening game of the 2005 season at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.  We've been trying to get tickets to opening day for several seasons...  but they're hard to get.  This year, we managed to pull it off!

We were rewarded with an incredible baseball game that we won't soon forget!  The Dodgers played their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants...  managed to let the Giants score eight runs (five in the top of the first inning)...  and yet the Dodgers still pulled off a come-from-behind victory in the bottom of the ninth inning!  Final score:  Dodgers 9, Giants 8.

Kellyn has been a Dodger fan ever since growing up in the LA area and listening to Vin Scully do the play-by-play on the radio.  I grew up in the San Francisco area, but came to be a Dodgers fan in the 70's while working at a radio station that broadcasted all the Dodger games.

This was the first of several games we'll be attending at Dodger stadium this year...  and we'll even be traveling to Pac Bell Park in San Francisco late in the season to see the Dodgers beat the Giants again.

We had a lot to celebrate on April 4, 2005...  Mrs. Zim and I celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary!

It doesn't seem like all that long ago that I dazzled her on our first date with my home-made lasagna and my groovy bachelor pad.  The part I like the most is just remembering how comfortable it all felt right from that very first date on.  She sure seemed like someone I would enjoy spending a very long time with...  and that's exactly how it turned out.

We didn't have a huge celebration for anniversary #24...  just a nice day together and a quiet evening out at one of our favorite restaurants...  but we do have big plans for a Caribbean cruise when #25 rolls around in 2006!
 

Jeff had a week off from school for Spring Break in March, so he and I drove down to San Diego to take a look at San Diego State University and to meet the folks at the NBC owned-and-operated TV station in downtown San Diego.

We spent three days in San Diego, but the highlight was definitely a few hours spent getting an insider's view of the news operation at the TV station.  One of Jeff's coworkers introduced him to a director at the station, who gave us a fantastic look at life at a major-market TV station.

I took a whole bunch of pictures of our adventures in San Diego...  click here to see them.

Jeff has created a new web site for himself.  I find this particularly ironic since just a few years ago he was sneaking on to my computer in the middle of the night to delete pictures of himself off of our family's web site!  I guess he's got a lot more to be self-confident about these days!

Check out Jeff's personal web site at www.JeffZimmerlin.com

 For more about Jeff, click here to see some pictures I took of him on the job in the KSBY control room.  He let me sit in on a newscast one night, and I got some great shots of him directing the show.

Kellyn and I enjoyed a great concert at the California Mid-State Fair last August.

Country singer Phil Vassar entertained us for the second year in a row.  His concert at the fair last year was so good that we were delighted when we heard they had booked him again this year!

If you know your country music, you know Phil for his hits "Carlene", "That's When I Love You", and "American Child"...  but you may not know that he's the songwriter behind Tim McGraw's hit "My Next Thirty Years", Jo Dee Messina's hit "I'm Alright", and Alan Jackson's hit "Right On The Money".

Seeing musical acts at the California Mid-State Fair is one of our favorite summer activities.  We are always amazed at the quality of the entertainers they book, and the low price of admission.  Some of our favorites over the last few years have been Kenny Chesney, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, The Gatlin Brothers, and Highway 101...  for a $4 admission charge and $5 to park!  You can not beat that!

We had a wonderful time last July during a vacation to my sister's farm in Washington state.  It's a 1000 mile drive each way, but worth every bit of the effort.  It was basically a week of doing things we love with people we love...  including the little cutie you see pictured here in my lap.  That's our grand-niece, Kindra...  and she's every bit as sweet and adorable as she looks in this picture.

We took our 3-month-old puppy, Reese, along with us, too...  and she had just as much fun as we did!  She made a lot of new friends, and provided a lot of entertainment for us all.  Life is good for a dog on a farm.

I took about a million pictures on our vacation.  Click here to see some of my favorites!

As you can probably figure out from the photo, we got another one through high school!  Our boy, Jeff, graduated from Arroyo Grande High School in June of 2004, and is now attending Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo.

He went through a period for a few years where he just wouldn't let us snap his photo, but he's loosening up about it these days...  and he let me take this photo after the graduation ceremony.

What's next for our 19 year-old whiz kid?  He wants to continue working at the local NBC-TV affiliate for the next several years while he completes some general education classes at the local junior college.  By living at home and keeping his expenses low for the next couple of years, he hopes to put together a big enough nest egg to allow him to attend San Diego State University as a broadcasting major someday.

There's more information about Jeff, and some great pictures of him on the job in the KSBY control room, over on our kids page.
 

Mrs. Zim is doing much better now, after spending over two months with a cast on her right leg in 2004.

Kellyn had a birth defect in one of her feet that has caused her to walk with a limp...  and it just was getting worse and worse as she got older.  A prior surgery on the foot didn't really help much, but this time she found a surgical specialist that had some good new ideas.

Recovery from the surgery was painful, but things got a bit better every day.  She put on a nice smile for the camera, but that foot was hurting pretty good when this photo was taken.

But for the first time since I've known her, the foot points in the right direction now.  There are three screws holding it together...  I joke that her foot used to be all screwed up, and now it's screwed together!

After the successful foot surgery, she went through even MORE surgery...  this time on one of her arms.  Kellyn suffered repetitive motion injuries after years and years of doing repetitive tasks for the Cal Poly Foundation.  She was so impressed with the doctor that did the foot surgery that she let him take a shot a fixing her arm.  While he was able to improve things somewhat, it wasn't quite the miracle surgery that he was able to perform on the foot.  Let's put it this way...  she's never going to be able to go back to repetitive clerical work again.

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My email address is:  jimzim@charter.net

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