A few weeks ago we had a wonderful trip to Florida where we combined a little work and a lot of relaxation with Mom & Bill in Ft. Myers. Fortunately we had a video camera handy. We captured some fun video of the kids and good times there.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
Salute to the Dark Racer
This morning I went for a scheduled "brick" which is a combination bike and run and
unfortunately my riding partner had her bike stolen so I had to go by myself at 5:45 am!
It was very dark when I started from the neighborhood. I headed out on a normal route which takes my along a road over to a trail.
Shortly after I started along one of the neighborhood streets I spotted another rider ahead of me going in the same direction. Since I was without a partner I thought catching this unknown rider would be a good goal and since this was potentially just a commuter going to work they should be an easy catch. I started to increase my speed to catch up to the flashing red lights I saw ahead.
As we both turned onto a trail on the way the mystery rider had aabout a 200yd lead on me. The trail is the San Thomas Aquino trail and runs about 3 miles along the levy next to the creek. It is flat except for where it goes under over passes for several roads, dropping down near the creek into the wisps of fog coming from the creek.
As my friend Darren reminds me I'm not in world class shape, California shape or even Santa Clara shape but I am ok! Over the first mile I worked my way up through the gears and closed the gap to about 100 yds. At this point I think the mystery biker noticed that i had closed the gap and picked up their pace.
Now I became more determined to close the gap and worked up to the top of the 21 gears on the high end road bike I had borrowed. I bent over on the handle bars and dug in to catch my prey.
My legs were feeling the strain and I was really starting to sweat. The gap between us narrowed more as we raced along in silence except for the wind in my ears and the smell of the reeds and creek. I crept closer and got to within 50 yds or so so that as I entered an over pass they exited.
I was now moving along at nearly my top pace and very slowly catching that flasing tail light. At about two miles along in the dark my prey started to pull away!! I dug deeper trying to keep pace. In my head I was thinking all I have to do is try harder and i can catch them. I imagined them seeing my flickering tail light as i went by and how satisfying that would be.
To my dismay the gap widened. not just to the200yds i had originally had but even more! Soon I could not even see the flashing light around the twists and bends.
As I approached the final over pass along the trail I saw the mystery rider sitting atop the bridge and I detected he slightest of a wave as I passed under.
So I salute you mystery racer!! May we race in the dark again and thank you for letting me know how much work i have to do.
btw I completed my brick after racing along for that first 3 miles - 12 mile bike and 2.5 mile run!
unfortunately my riding partner had her bike stolen so I had to go by myself at 5:45 am!
It was very dark when I started from the neighborhood. I headed out on a normal route which takes my along a road over to a trail.
Shortly after I started along one of the neighborhood streets I spotted another rider ahead of me going in the same direction. Since I was without a partner I thought catching this unknown rider would be a good goal and since this was potentially just a commuter going to work they should be an easy catch. I started to increase my speed to catch up to the flashing red lights I saw ahead.
As we both turned onto a trail on the way the mystery rider had aabout a 200yd lead on me. The trail is the San Thomas Aquino trail and runs about 3 miles along the levy next to the creek. It is flat except for where it goes under over passes for several roads, dropping down near the creek into the wisps of fog coming from the creek.
As my friend Darren reminds me I'm not in world class shape, California shape or even Santa Clara shape but I am ok! Over the first mile I worked my way up through the gears and closed the gap to about 100 yds. At this point I think the mystery biker noticed that i had closed the gap and picked up their pace.
Now I became more determined to close the gap and worked up to the top of the 21 gears on the high end road bike I had borrowed. I bent over on the handle bars and dug in to catch my prey.
My legs were feeling the strain and I was really starting to sweat. The gap between us narrowed more as we raced along in silence except for the wind in my ears and the smell of the reeds and creek. I crept closer and got to within 50 yds or so so that as I entered an over pass they exited.
I was now moving along at nearly my top pace and very slowly catching that flasing tail light. At about two miles along in the dark my prey started to pull away!! I dug deeper trying to keep pace. In my head I was thinking all I have to do is try harder and i can catch them. I imagined them seeing my flickering tail light as i went by and how satisfying that would be.
To my dismay the gap widened. not just to the200yds i had originally had but even more! Soon I could not even see the flashing light around the twists and bends.
As I approached the final over pass along the trail I saw the mystery rider sitting atop the bridge and I detected he slightest of a wave as I passed under.
So I salute you mystery racer!! May we race in the dark again and thank you for letting me know how much work i have to do.
btw I completed my brick after racing along for that first 3 miles - 12 mile bike and 2.5 mile run!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
The Kids World Now...
We had dinner with some friends the other day who have kids the same age as Julia and Lea and we were talking about the differences between being a kid now vs. when we were kids. We noted that for example:
- Kids accept that you can use a mobile phone to talk to anyone anywhere
- Expect to be able to see a picture immediately due to digital photography
- Know what a URL is and know their favorites
- From the earliest age know how to use a mouse or touch pad
- Accept the idea of using an avatar and easily move through 3D environments online
- cannot tie their own shoes (thanks to Velcro!!)
These are but a short list but i think pretty indicative
Nosey Neighbor Take That!!
When we returned from our recent vacation to Florida (more on that in another post) we had a surprise letter waiting for us informing us that we were violating some obscure rule regarding our garage. Apparently you are supposed to keep it so that you can get the designed number of cars (2). No if you know us we doubt that we can ever effectively get both of our vehicles in there but with the two we have that is not likely.
Anyway it turns out this all started from some nosey neighbor complaining about it which of course angered us both some.
So, Melissa took it upon herself to respond by cleaning up the garage (for looks) and then send an emailed response and I think put them in their place.
"Please find attached a picture of my garage. The shelving was put up years ago in order for two cars to fit... They still do! This is how it usually looks except for two occasions this year:
1. A few weeks ago, for a couple of days, we had our camping gear spread out on the floor to organize it for vacation.
2. A few months ago our garage was filled with household goods, clothing and food from a Rivermark Mother's Club donation drive. Mom's from our neighborhood group gathered the items and then spent a few days together organizing them in our garage. We were assisting mothers and children who were fleeing war and persecution in Burma.
Please inform the nosy neighbor who has nothing better to do than snoop around outside my garage, that next time they feel the need to report our family for a HOA violation ~ they can either come help us pack for vacation, or help distribute the food to the needy families in our community. Seriously!"
1. A few weeks ago, for a couple of days, we had our camping gear spread out on the floor to organize it for vacation.
2. A few months ago our garage was filled with household goods, clothing and food from a Rivermark Mother's Club donation drive. Mom's from our neighborhood group gathered the items and then spent a few days together organizing them in our garage. We were assisting mothers and children who were fleeing war and persecution in Burma.
Please inform the nosy neighbor who has nothing better to do than snoop around outside my garage, that next time they feel the need to report our family for a HOA violation ~ they can either come help us pack for vacation, or help distribute the food to the needy families in our community. Seriously!"
Take that nosey neighbor!!!
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Great New Blog For Cooks
A friend of mine named Ursula recently started a blog for busy cooks called "Jane Spice" and I know many of the people who read my blog like to cook so I thought I would pass along the link to the blog. She has a Lebanese background so many of the recipes are from the middle east.
Here is a link to a review of her blog. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/08/prweb1167674.htm
I haven't had a chance to try any of the recipe's yet but they sure do look good!
Check it out!
http://www.janespice.com/
Here is a link to a review of her blog. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/08/prweb1167674.htm
I haven't had a chance to try any of the recipe's yet but they sure do look good!
Check it out!
http://www.janespice.com/
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Walmart Virus??
Someone recently sent me a cool visualization that shows the growth of Walmart stores in the United States over the last 30 years. It looks like a virus taking over the USA!!
Check it out by clicking on this link.
http://projects.flowingdata.com/walmart/
Check it out by clicking on this link.
http://projects.flowingdata.com/walmart/
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Word up for Wordle
I found this cool little site called "wordle" which dynamically creates something called a tag cloud (a grouping of commonly used words where more common words are larget) of your own words. I've been playing with it and think it is kinda fun and created these simple samples:
Getting Dirty at Donner SP
One of the things I love about camping in California in the summer is that you are virtually assured that there will be no rain. This makes packing and planning easier however it does have one pretty major downside, especially when camping with kids. In many of the campgrounds we go to in the summer the dirt, which is bone dry from lack of water, is in a fine powder which when combined with running and feet shuffling kids means that it gets everywhere!
We just got back from 4 days camping in Donner Memorial State Park and had a slightly dirty but no less fun blast of a time. Donner is high in the Sierra Nevada range right at the pass where Interstate 80 goes over the mountain range. It has hiking, a lake for swimming and boating, a memorial and museum. We went with our friends the Wilde's and their 3 kids so there were 10 of us in total and plenty of kids running around.
The campsites we had were fairly open with just a few tall pines around but many white spruce saplings around to give privacy plus hiding places for the kids (they played many a game of hide and seek). As with other camping trips these days we gave the kids a fairly generous boundary around the two adjacent sites and let them have the run of it. This mean that they had lots of freedom and could be out of eye-site but never out of earshot. Daytime highs were in the upper 70's/low 80's and the evenings were cool in the upper 30's to low 40's. The nights were so clear we saw the milky way (one would forget it is there with the light pollution around Santa Clara), many satellites and many shooting stars. It was a great nighttime show.
For activities we did some short walks to explore the campsite and went swimming in the lake. The lake water was probably only about 65-70 degrees so it was a chilly transition but once you were in it was OK. On Saturday we rented 2 Sea Doo's which are personal watercraft. Think of them as motorcycles on the water and they are fast with top speeds of 55 MPH! On the lake there is a 35MPH speed limit but it was rather easy to creep up and over that. We took turns taking the kids out for long rides and Julia and Lea mostly liked it while the Wilde boys loved it. Nicolas even liked it for a little while but ultimately wanted to come back in which just happen to correspond to the end of our time so that was OK.
For me there was also a sad moment when we were going through the memorial museum and watching a short film which recalls the tragedy of the Donner Party which became stranded at Donner Pass in the winter of 1846-1847. Interestingly enough also the train tunnel which you can see from the campsite was built in 1868 which means that just 20 years after America was already making it possible to travel by train through that same pass.
All in all we had a great time despite the fact that the kids had a thick coating of dirt on them for a good portion of the trip, they didn't seem to mind!
We just got back from 4 days camping in Donner Memorial State Park and had a slightly dirty but no less fun blast of a time. Donner is high in the Sierra Nevada range right at the pass where Interstate 80 goes over the mountain range. It has hiking, a lake for swimming and boating, a memorial and museum. We went with our friends the Wilde's and their 3 kids so there were 10 of us in total and plenty of kids running around.
The campsites we had were fairly open with just a few tall pines around but many white spruce saplings around to give privacy plus hiding places for the kids (they played many a game of hide and seek). As with other camping trips these days we gave the kids a fairly generous boundary around the two adjacent sites and let them have the run of it. This mean that they had lots of freedom and could be out of eye-site but never out of earshot. Daytime highs were in the upper 70's/low 80's and the evenings were cool in the upper 30's to low 40's. The nights were so clear we saw the milky way (one would forget it is there with the light pollution around Santa Clara), many satellites and many shooting stars. It was a great nighttime show.
For activities we did some short walks to explore the campsite and went swimming in the lake. The lake water was probably only about 65-70 degrees so it was a chilly transition but once you were in it was OK. On Saturday we rented 2 Sea Doo's which are personal watercraft. Think of them as motorcycles on the water and they are fast with top speeds of 55 MPH! On the lake there is a 35MPH speed limit but it was rather easy to creep up and over that. We took turns taking the kids out for long rides and Julia and Lea mostly liked it while the Wilde boys loved it. Nicolas even liked it for a little while but ultimately wanted to come back in which just happen to correspond to the end of our time so that was OK.
For me there was also a sad moment when we were going through the memorial museum and watching a short film which recalls the tragedy of the Donner Party which became stranded at Donner Pass in the winter of 1846-1847. Interestingly enough also the train tunnel which you can see from the campsite was built in 1868 which means that just 20 years after America was already making it possible to travel by train through that same pass.
All in all we had a great time despite the fact that the kids had a thick coating of dirt on them for a good portion of the trip, they didn't seem to mind!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
