ca jkz blog

Horse Riding Lessons

2010-06-12T10:10:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the big break, work is taking up much of my spare time at the moment.

A few weeks ago the kids went to their horse riding lessons. They did really well and Nicolas had his own horse as you can see in the photos I've attached. It was also a beautiful day in northern California!

My Car Is Old Enough To Drive!

2010-05-23T08:31:00.000-07:00

I'm somewhat thrifty when it comes to cars and prefer to get the maximum value from my vehicles. Once I get one I like and that runs well I take care of it and they keep on going. This is the case with my current vehicle, a 1994 Mercedes Benz E420. The car is a somewhat stuffy 4 door sedan but under the hood the 4.2 liter engine gives it awesome acceleration and great cruising capabilities. The ride is Mercedes smooth and everyone who drives it remarks about how nicely the car handles and feels on the road. It is really great.
I was just doing the math and also realized that the car is old enough to drive. i.e. it is 16 years old! It is still very much going strong (although I sense a steering power motor in my future)

If you are ever around I'll give you a ride. I may even be able to keep this until Julia starts driving!

Crossing paths

2010-05-14T22:01:00.000-07:00

One of the websites that gets read around here from time to time is the Huffington Post. Now while you may not agree with everything (or anything) they say you have to admit that this is a strange occurrence. One of the investment partners in my new company wrote a contributed article for the Huffington Post and it went live this week.

Click here to read the article.

We are mentioned several times.

Enjoy!

Tan it or tone it or 6-5-6-5

2010-05-14T20:16:00.000-07:00

A good friend of ours was over the other day and we were talking about getting in shape for summer and she said her strategy is "tan it or tone it". This means you either need to find a way to lose unwanted winter weight or, make it tan so it looks good! There are lots of strategies for "tone it" including eating right and working out.

My strategy has definitely been to "tone it" through workouts and 6-5-6-5 are the lengths in miles of my last 4 runs in the last 6 days! Not bad, my legs have been tired but the added benefit has been the stress reduction from the extra hours at work (startup life!)

Back out on the road tomorrow!

Eulg?

2010-05-10T06:36:00.000-07:00

Nicolas: "Daddy is there something called Eulg?"
Me: "I don't know, what does Eulg do?"
Nicolas: "You know, it makes things break apart."
Me: "Makes things break apart?"
Nicolas: "It's the opposite of glue, which makes things stick together"
Me (with a giggle): "I don't know Nicolas but that is very funny, Eulg!!"

So is there? :)

Another Visit from Old Friends - Jim & Emerson

2010-05-09T17:49:00.000-07:00

Melissa and I have moved around a lot in the past prior to the rise common social tools like Facebook and LinkedIn which make it easy to stay loosely connected to folks. So there are people in our past that we have lost touch with. That said it is always very special and fun when we get to connect with some of our old friends and we had that a few weeks back.

To guys we worked with back in the Autometric days (now 10+ years ago) stopped by the house for dinner. Jim Gannon and Emerson Brooks were both engineers that we worked with and hung out with. We figured it had actually been 12 or more years since we had seen either of them because they had both left Autometric before we did.

We had a ton of fun catching up with them, playing the "do you know where someone is.." game.

It turns out that Emerson is using the software that my new company produces. That is truly small world stuff. Jim now lives out here in Mountain View working for Google in their Adwords group and his job as he describes it is "counting clicks".

What a fun time and we hope to see both Emerson and Jim more often in the future.

Three Red Hotz!

2010-05-09T17:41:00.000-07:00

We are nearing the end of Lea's softball season and it has been a great one! Although they don't officially keep score the Red Hotz have won the most games and are in first place in their league (but who's counting right?)

Additionally the coach took me aside and asked if Lea was going to play next year. He said she has fantastic hand eye coordination and is a really fast runner. Her only shortfall is her throwing, something I can work on with her. I was needless to say very proud of her. She currently bats second in the lineup because she is batting around .400-.500 (there are no strikeouts). Anyone who knows Lea knows how competitive and fiery she is. You should see her at the plate, so focused and so into the game.

There are two other girls from the neighborhood who we have been carpooling with and who are also good. Here is a picture of the three in their outfits, very cute!!

I hope they all play on the same team again next year.

Monsters in the garden

2010-05-09T11:24:00.001-07:00

We love to eat artichokes and they grow very well in the sandy soil and warm climate in California. Down in the Salinas valley and Monterey Bay you can drive past miles of them and they are some strange looking plants. In fact I wonder about the first folks to look at them and say "Hmm, i wonder if those taste good?" because from looking at them you wouldn't guess the yummy goodness inside.

Anyway last year Melissa and the kids decided to try and grow some in our garden and to our surprise they have done really well! In fact they have more or less taken up the entire back part of our space. The artichoke is a thistle with an edible bud and each plant apparently gives off multiple buds. We will try some tonight and I am anticipating a lovely feast dipped in melted butter and mayonaise with lemons from our Myer lemon tree.

I'm just saying...this could be handy...

2010-05-01T05:47:00.000-07:00

Won't say for who...

Big Fun on the Big Island

2010-04-19T06:48:00.000-07:00

Last week we spent 6 days in Hawaii on a fun filled vacation on the big island. We stayed in the Kings Land Vacation Club which is co-located with the Hilton Waikoloa and which is a really great family friendly resort. There is almost too much to blog about from the trip as we alternated days out on the island seeing local attractions like Volcanoes National Park to rain forest to black sand beaches. We could have spent our entire time on the resort and never partaken of all of the activities they had.

For example the pool area alone at Kings Land had a 3 level pool, faux beach, volleyball net, basketball hoop, 2 hot tubs and 4 water slides. There was also a game room, fitness room and daily activities for the kids. They also had a pool side bar which had a nice happy hour and made great Mai Tai's . There was also a massive pool and salt water lagoon over at the Hotel site which offered different and new kinds of fun.

You can see pictures from the trip by clicking here.

One of the days we went to a local beach called Hapuna State Beach which we were told (correctly) was extremely family friendly. Turns out it was really great and there was just the right combination of waves so that everyone had fun. Nicolas was a maniac in the waves so much so that I think it was a bit unnerving for Melissa. Check out this video of him playing in the surf.

wakeup time

2010-04-01T21:43:00.001-07:00

I'm not exactly sure when it happened but all of our children have acquired clock radio alarm clocks. There seems to be some appeal to having the clock alarm set to help them wake up in the morning.

On the surface this seems like a really good thing. Instead of having to go in and wake your kids up every morning and rushing them to get ready for school, they will be awoken by their alarm with plenty of time and there will be no rush. That, is the story anyway.

In our house what seems to be the pattern is that they set the alarm and drift happily of to sleep. The alarms are set sufficiently early that Melissa and I are still typically in bed unless I am out running (through that in for you DC). The problem is that when the alarms go off, instead of waking up the children, they seem to shove them into some kind of coma like sleep.

Litterally there is music of all kinds BLARING through the second floor and they will be out like a light!!! I don't know what is happening but it is a crazy symphony of noise coming from the rooms and the kids are snoozing away!

We are going to have to make a change to electric shocks I guess because these kids are deeeep in REM sleep, but we aren't!!

Turning off comments (revised)

2010-03-28T21:23:00.001-07:00

I've been getting a lot of spam comments on my blog lately so I am going to turn off the comments feature until I can see if there is a way to prevent it from happening. Basically it seems that automated programs have found my blog and are putting ads for products in as comments and it has become annoying. If you have a real comment about one of my posts then you know how to reach me.

I guess I should have looked at the settings first, seems I can force someone to have a registered account and moderate comments on older posts so i am leaving them on just tightening the restrictions.

Artsy week

2010-03-28T21:17:00.000-07:00

This past week has been really special because I've been able to spend so much time with the family. One of the things that has made it so fun is working with Melissa on some of her art projects and this was a particularly artsy week.

We started by dropping off her picture in Los Gatos for the art show there. I helped with the display samples for the competition for the Milpitas senior center. We went to Livermore so that she could survey the space at the Livermore Presbyterian church where she is doing some commissioned art for the sanctuary. And today we went to Oakland to pick up her work from the Joyce Gordon gallery and went by the opening of the Los Gatos show.

So all in all it has been an amazing past several days and I am so glad I have been able to experience it with Melissa!

Speedy Lea

2010-03-28T21:08:00.000-07:00

Lea has been playing a lot of softball over the last few weeks. I know this because I have been to every practice and game and we have been together a lot (which is good!)

Last Saturday was picture day (i'll post them when I have them) and they also had a fund raiser for the league which was called Jamboree. It was a pretty simple affair with three different activities designed as a competition with the winner getting a gift certificate. The fund raising part came from the fact that there was an "entry fee" of $3 for each kid to participate in the Jamboree. The three activities were running the bases, throwing and hitting a softball. Each girl in the league with the fastest time around the bases, farthest through or longest hit would win a $20 gift card to the local baseball and softball supply store.

Well it turns out our little Lea is pretty speedy because she was the fastest of the 50+ girls in her league!! This is pretty significant because the league is for 7-9 year olds which means Lea (having just turned 8) ran faster than all of the 9 year olds in the league and I know there are some! She used the money to buy herself a new batting helmet with face cage (which are required by the league).

Mega day for Lea

2010-03-28T20:59:00.000-07:00

I've been very lucky over the last few weeks because during my time off I've gotten to do lots of things with the kids that I would normally miss. For example last week I was able to go on a field trip with Nicolas over to the local hotel and he was VERY excited to have dad along instead of mommy. He held my hand almost the entire time!

Another thing that I was able to attend was one of the megaskills award ceremonies over at the kids school. The reason we went was that we had a heads up from lea's teacher that she won the 2nd grade megaskill award this month for empathy. The megaskills program recognizes a few kids from each grade for demonstrating key life skills (Nicolas and Julia have each won the trust award). It was great to be able to attend the event for a change and to actually see her go up in front of the entire school and accept the award and we were of course very proud of her! Here is a picture of her with her certificate.

Buuuusy weekend!!!

2010-03-22T20:21:00.001-07:00

This past weekend we were so busy I didn't even have a chance to blog about a couple of very important things. Being that I am in the middle of my vacation time I can see why retired people I know tell me they are more busy now than when they worked!

Here are the highlights from the schedule:

Friday afternoon we went to see the Cirque du Soleil - Ovo show. It was an incredible event with amazing tricks, acrobatic feats, music, lights etc. If you have not had a chance to see a show I highly recommend it. Afterwards we went out to dinner in San Jose.

Saturday morning (adter I went for a 5 mile run) Lea had her second softball game which consumed more than three hours, but the good news is they won and Lea had 2 hits and 2 runs scored! She is doing very well for her first season!

Saturday afternoon we hurriedly ran some errands.

Early Saturday evening we went to a murder-mystery play where participated in the play. The setting was a steam ship crossing the Atlantic in 1941 on the days following the declaration of war between the UK and Germany. I played a German engineer and Melissa played a cabaret singer. We dressed up in costumes as did everyone else and had a ton of fun. Neither of us solved the mystery but we sure had fun trying. We got back to the house very late so the kids were beat to say the least.

Sunday morning (after I went for a 6 mile run) we celebrated Lea's 8th birthday with a made to order breakfast and presents and cards. It was fun and she thanks everyone for the nice gifts.

Sunday afternoon we had a small group meeting with some folks from Church and then Sunday evening we went out to birthday dinner at Red Robin.

Whew, I think I need to go back to work to rest!!!

I'll post some pictures from Lea's games soon.

Summer hot?

2010-03-17T21:31:00.000-07:00

Ya gotta love "winter" in California. Today was a warm but not hot day but even still Nicolas and Lea insisted on running through the sprinklers in the backyard! We of course obliged them.

Click here to see more pictures.

Lea's First Softball Game

2010-03-17T21:21:00.000-07:00

Last night Lea played in her first ever softball game. It is a real pitching league (although there are no walks) and all the players did really well. Lea's team, the Red Hotz, played well and although they don't keep score they won 5-0! It was a fun but a little long game which started at 6 and didn't finish until 7:45.

The season is now in full swing and her next game is Saturday. After that it will be 2 per week until the end of May, so many games to go!

You can see a few more pictures from the game by clicking here.

Happy 10th Birthday Julia!

2010-03-08T08:34:00.000-08:00

Today is an extra special birthday for Julia, her 10th!! As I have blogged about in birthdays past they seem to go so fast but this one make us think back and reflect even more. 10 years ago we were in Australia, hadn't even been married a full year and were excitedly awaiting Julia who, true to form, was a few days late. :)

We are going to have a nice quite family party tonight with special guest Granne, and then a big sleep over party next Saturday with 10 friends and a puppeteer.

For now we wish her Happy Birthday and many more!

She's a natural with the younger men...

2010-02-28T21:10:00.001-08:00

We just got back from an amazing weekend at Costanoa (really amazing yuppie camping by the sea) where Lea spent some of the time hanging with one of the younger boys that was on the trip. This is a bit of a pattern with her as she really like, and is really good at, entertaining younger kids.

I also had a blog comment from our friend Darren which included video of Lea playing with his son Ryan the night of the birthday basketball game. She is really cute in the video and so is Ryan, dancing around at Darren & Carol's house.

BTW Lea comes by it naturally as there is a fair bit of "it" in the family...

Lea's Big Game Birthday Tradition

2010-02-21T10:44:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my good friend Darren and I had an early birthday celebration with Lea's in what has become somewhat of a tradition, we went to a big-time basketball game together.

This was the third year in a row and we went to see the Stanford Women's Basketball team crush the Oregon St. Beavers 82 - 48 and it wasn't really that close! Standford has an amazing team and they are so well coached which is why they are 25-1.

We had a great time (kicked off with some playtime with Ryan, Darren's son at their house) followed by heading to the game for some hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, cotton candy, yummy!

We had great seats and the the crowd was really into it because it was the last home game for the seniors.

We also got to see a little women's softball being played on the campus as we waled to and from the game which was great.

Early Happy 8th! Birthday Lea and thanks for a great time Big D!

Roller Skating - Take Me Back!

2010-02-17T13:29:00.000-08:00

We enjoyed our Presidents Day holiday on Monday and decided to take the kids for something fun last week so we decided to take them roller skating.

To my surprise there are still roller skating rinks in business not to far from our house. We went to Cal Skate Milpitas and this really Melissa and I back about (ahem) 25+ years to the days of middle school. This place looked like it hadn't changed in that long!

The skating came back to Melissa and I fairly quickly I am happy to say. The kids had their own stories, Julia was up and skating pretty quickly, Lea took a little longer but was eventually out in the rink although moving slowly and Nicolas, spent most of his time working his way around the wall.

The rink had all of the qualities that I remember from those Saturday nights: large rink, colorful lights (including disco ball), thumping music, disgustingly dirty floor and very greasy food!

All in all we loved it (well OK I did) and it made me feel like a kid again!

Ski Week??

2010-02-17T11:07:00.000-08:00

The kids have off from school this week and I wasn't really sure why. In fact they asked me this morning if they had the entire week off because of Presidents Day and I was pretty sure that was not it.

Then when I got to work I was speaking to some of the other parents and they said "are your kids off for ski week too?" And it hit me that, the kids are off primarily so that we can drive up to the awesome ski locations up in the Sierra! Is this a conspiracy between the ski resorts and the schools??

Very strange, and even worse, we aren't taking advantage of it! No skiing (yet!) this year.

(NOTE: the picture of me skiing, NOT)

Nicolas's good week

2010-02-14T16:19:00.000-08:00

This past week has been a very good week for Nicolas. He won the "megaskill" award for trustworthiness which was really cool. This means he was selected from across all of the kindergartners and is really a monthly award. Here he is in the picture with another winner.

Additionally he also was the Star of the Week in his class. As the star of the week he got to be the line leader, he got to work the calendar not sure what this was but he was excited), and was also a special teachers helper.

Joyce Gordon Gallery Opening!

2010-02-14T11:19:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to say that Melissa had a successful opening to her 2nd art show last Friday at the Joyce Gordon Gallery in Oakland. I was able to join her Friday night after returning from a business trip to San Diego.

It was a great event shared with many other artists and patrons. I was very proud of Melissa for being included in a group of such talented artists! I thought her work was the best there (of course I might be biased) :)

Here is a link to some pictures from the opening.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=202208&id=578330169&l=afeba67355

Wild Times with Wild Zones

2010-02-14T10:39:00.000-08:00

I took the kids out for a bike ride yesterday (yes Nicolas rides that well now) and we ended up riding down the levy near our house to the Ulistac natural area and had a wonderful surprise! We found a group from the Wild Zones who were setting up or some serious fun for kids.

The Wild Zones is a non-profit and according to their website: " Wild Zones are places where adults, children and adolescents can co-create a new form of public space that is dedicated to unstructured free play in nature. Wild Zones differ from parks and nature reserves because they offer opportunities to alter the environment rather than leaving it untouched."

This activity took me right back to my childhood where we had plentiful woods to play in around the houses I grew up in and where "be back by dinner time" was the primary rule of summer.

They encouraged the kids to build forts, explore, play in some very sticky mud etc. I built a tepee with the kids and they explored around in the woods and the other forts that were being built. Melissa brought a picnic up and we all hung out and had a blast (I am again reminded that I did not take any pictures of Melissa)

In all they had around 50 people (kids and adults) there before we finally headed back home. I signed up for their newsletter so that we can be ready the next time they are having an event.

Happy 90th Birthday Pop Pop!!

2010-02-11T04:00:00.000-08:00

Happy 90th Birthday Pop Pop!!

As they say it's not everyday you complete 90 rotations around the sun! (well I guess that is true about every birthday but still!)

It is certainly a wonderful milestone and we here in California are sending you the biggest 90th Birthday cheer ever!

Happy Birthday to you!!

Love,

John, Melissa, Julia, Lea, and Nicolas!

Melissa Goes to Philadelphia

2010-02-06T08:31:00.000-08:00

Melissa has had another major milestone with her blossoming art career, her artwork has been accepted in a juried art exhibit in Philadelphia (I'll explain why Philly in a moment) yeah Melissa!!

This means that a panel of judges looked at her art and all of the other submissions and she was amongst the 18 selected for the exhibit at the White Stone Gallery . The exhibit itself is entitled Fine Art & Faith. The theme of the exhibit was what inspired Melissa to submit to a gallery all the way across the country in Philly.

You can see her listed with the other artists by clicking here.

The exhibit will run from March 5th through March 28th and the winning entry will be shown for a year! I think there is also prize money but that of course is not the point.

We are all really excited and I'm super proud of her and can't wait to here how the event and showing will go.

If I can get a digital picture of the painting she submitted I will add it to the post later.

Coming clean

2010-01-31T07:27:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have visited us here in California you know that although there is a bathroom in our guest room there is no shower. This forces guests who want to be clean (and that is most of you I believe) to walk downstairs to the shower on the first floor.

Well I am happy to say that after taking care of item #145295-A from my "honey do" list there is now a shower available on the 3rd floor. In a successful 1 day project I installed a new faucet, shower head and shower curtain in the third floor bathroom. I will admit it is "Euro style" in that because of the slope of the roof in the bathroom it is a bit lower than normal so people my height "6'2" in the morning" as they say will need to bend slightly to wash your head. But still that beats walking all the way down stairs with all of your bathroom stuff.

So, now that we have removed that as a potential objection we expect a flood of guest to come and try out the new facilities!

"It's a you and me day Nick!"

2010-01-30T11:03:00.000-08:00

That's what I heard Lea say to Nicolas this morning. Awwww.

It is great when an older sister feels like hanging out and Lea, when she wants to be, can be really really great with Nicolas. In fact they have been playing all morning quite nicely. I was compelled to bring them some of the fresh muffins I made up to Lea's room so that they could have breakfast in bed which was a nice treat.

It is all so sweet that it reminds me of hanging out with my sister, like the time I dragged her down the stairs locked in a suitcase! Awwww, isn't that sweet. Not.

Why ME?

2010-01-28T06:42:00.000-08:00

When we purchased our first laptop as a couple in 2000, a simple Dell Inspiron 8000 , there weren't many choices of operating systems for it and memory at the time was very expensive. In fact if I recall correctly we had no choice and ended up with the Windows Millennium Edition (ME) OS which was a consumer focused very limited operating system that Microsoft stopped supporting in 2006. When we got it we lived in Paris and initially used it for all email and web surfing using a DIAL UP modem but ultimately got a high-speed cable modem (thankfully).

It was the first computer Julia ever used where she played simple educational s/w and I think is one of the reasons she learned to read so early. I would install the updates that came from Dell and Microsoft regularly but never upgraded the OS due to time and cost. Occasionally it would start to slow down and I would have to perform maintenance to get it back to a usable state before Melissa would kill me because it was one of her primary modes of communicating with folks back in the US.

When we moved back to the US we purchased another computer and the little laptop fell somewhat into disuse. Then when Lea became of age there was suddenly contention for using the computer so I resurrected the little computer that could and found that it could still adequately run most of the educational software we had for the kids. This meant that two at a time could go. The down side was that as I loaded more s/w it would again get crippled due to too much in the registry and too much on the disk.

More than once I had to perform major surgery in order to get the little computer back to life. With kids banging away on it who knows what actually would happen, I would jest get a "the computer isn't working" error code from the regular users and would have to go in and debug it myself. It was after several of these episodes that I began to appreciate a feature of Windows ME which is backup points. At some regular frequency the OS establishes a recovery point in time where it takes a snapshot of the system. When the system becomes corrupted, as has happened many times now, you can simple step back in time to a happier place where things work. As I have said I have used this many times.

Another time the disk had become so fragmented (the little pieces of information were so scattered the computer couldn't efficiently read them) that I had to de-fragment it for 4 DAYS!

But alas after that process the "little OS that could" came right back up.

Now mostly used by Nicolas the computer has seen a whole new level of abuse. To begin with he peeled off about half of the keys on the keyboard. I was able to replace all but about 5 of the keys. Unfortunately some of the missing keys involve the passwords to some of the games he likes to play so I had to hook up an external keyboard, which mostly sits on the ground getting stepped on when it is not needed.

Also, his version of "shutting down" the computer involves holding the power button down until it turns off. This is VERY hard on the little computer (CD drive no longer works too) and recently when I tried to start it it told me there was "no registry file" which is the file that tells the computer where all the software is, so that was obviously a problem. Hello January 15th restore point!

I am not sure if any of the other operating systems that MSFT produces have this feature but they should. I am sure they never designed ME to live for 10+ years with no updates or upgrades while getting hammered on by 3 kids.

So in this case only I say hats off to Microsoft and the little OS that could.

How big is a cubit?

2010-01-23T13:20:00.000-08:00

It has been raining cats and dogs around here for more than a week. I've seen all the rivers and creeks up near the tops of their levies with muddy fast flowing water and lots of debris.

So I've decided to start building an ark for me, Melissa, the kids, our two pet beetles, and our 15+ stick bugs (no exact count available). Of course any friends or family who are in town are welcome to join us.

I heard this morning that we have gone from being down on the seasonal rainfall total by more than 25% for the year to up by more than 25% in the span of a week. Now you have to keep in mind that the seasonal total at this time is about 9 inches but still!

So, given what is going on does anyone know how big a cubit is?

I might be addicted to...

2010-01-23T05:46:00.000-08:00

a tank game we have for the Nintendo Wii we have. So far I would say it hasn't adversely affected anything (I am not choosing the game over food or sleep YET) but I certainly like to play.

The tank game itself is one of several on our Wii Play game. The game itself is really quite simple in that you control a tank from a top down view (not even a fancy first person game) and try to eliminate the other tanks controlled by the game. The levels of course get progressively more challenging because of both more challenging layouts of the game and because the tanks you must eliminate become better, faster and more well armed than your tank.

One of the good but annoying things about the game is that the shells you shoot (and anyone else for that matter) will bounce off the walls of the playing arena 1 time. This means that you can accidentally shoot yourself if you are not careful.

I am not sure why this game is so addictive to me. I think maybe it takes me back to some of the games I played as a kid except the levels are more interesting and of course it has the Wii style interface with the motion capture/trigger combo.

At this point the kids will sit on the couch and cheer me on because I am able to go so much further than they can (unlike many of the other Wii games where they are much better than me). Maybe that is it, maybe I need my own little area of the Wii where I can be the best?

Who knows, either way hopefully Melissa won't have to send me to rehab. Now back to the game. :-)

Funny work video

2010-01-21T10:03:00.000-08:00

We have an bi-annual meeting called a kickoff where the entire company gets together to synch up on issues and to do some planning for the rest of the year. During this meeting we have an internal video contest for the funniest / most compelling/ best video from our internal teams.
Anyone can enter from an individual to a group of people.

This January there were many outstanding entries but the winner (of the $1000 cash prize) was a particularly clever video that highlighted one of our well know industry experts in XML.

Click on this URL to see the video. All of the people in the video are employees except for the woman.

http://greenllama.com/index.php?option=com_content&catid=7&id=12&lang=en&view=article

Aloha

2010-01-16T07:35:00.000-08:00

I work hard, some say too hard, but I am dedicated to my job and it has provided well for me and my family over the last 3 years. The company is pretty good about recognizing performance and as an enterprise software company each year they award top sales people with an annual trip to someplace nice. This trip is called quota club and usually is a 3 night all expense paid trip. The company provides the trip not only for the sales person but also their significant other. There are a few company related activities but mostly it is fun, good food and recognition for a job well done.

Last year for example they went to the Ritz Hotel in Whistler B.C. Canada for some skiing.

The company also selects a few employees from outside of the sales organization who were deemed to have a significant and meaningful contribution to the company over the last year.

Well this year I have been selected to attend quota club and I am of course honored and very excited! Club this year will be at the very exclusive Ritz-Carlton Kapalua Take a look at this hotel online,(you can see pictures by clicking here) it is an amazing property in a beautiful location. Many people actually take their kids (but find ways to spend time as a couple) and Melissa and I think we will bring them along on this wonderful trip.

Aloha indeed!

Pending battle

2010-01-16T07:26:00.000-08:00

It is a classic make vs. female household conflict. One uses it up and one uses it down. Some say it is a matter of convenience, others say it is a matter of courtesy. Debates and disagreements over this issue have nearly felled empires and changed the course of history.

What am I referring to? Why of course the toilet seat. :)

After spending some time trying to get Nicolas to lift the toilet seat when he uses the bathroom we are now working with him to lower it back down when he is done. I think all of the females here have fallen victim to a post Nicolas toilet seat, some with more outrage than others.

Now of course we have tried and tried to remind him that in addition to putting the seat up and washing his hands he also needs to put the seat down. Of course I am somewhat sympathetic to him on this issue but have long ago given up on the issue.

I am sure that over the long run he will eventually start putting it down, let's just hope it isn't a long and protracted battle.

Great Game, Great Friends, Great Time

2010-01-09T07:15:00.000-08:00

Hey I returned early yesterday from Pasadena where was attending the BCS national championship game at the Rose Bowl between Alabama and Texas. Unfortunately the game did not turn out as I expected in large part because the starting quarterback Colt McCoy got injured on the 5th offensive play. Texas lost 37 to 21 but the game was actually much closer and much much more exciting than the score tells.

After Colt went out an untested freshman Garret Gilbert had to come in and try to lead the team to victory, and he almost did cutting a 24 to 6 halftime lead to 24 to 21 with the ball and more than three minutes on the clock in the 4th quarter. By this stage my voice was almost completely gone from yelling! My head actually hurt from whistling as much as I was. Unfortunately for the horns the Bama defense stepped up and caused a turnover and that was it.
I went with my pals Richard and David Moxley and a friend from work JT (Jason Tidwell). All in all I still had a blast, we attended the Texas tailgate party, ate some good food, drank a few beers and screamed our heads off trying to urge our Horns to victory.

Richard posted pictures we took with his camera. Also in the pictures are his parents who are Bama fans and I am guessing much more satisfied with the outcome of the game.

You can't quite get a sense of the atmosphere before and during the game from the photos but I heard someone describe it as electric and I would have to agree. If you ever have a chance to go to a game like this you should, it is worth the money.

Hook em Horns!

The entire gallery is here on this link:

http://mox.smugmug.com/Other/Texas-vs-Alabama-Jan-2010/10893675_w9YFJ/1/760409645_ZYV2v

Some selected photos here below

Something happening here...

2010-01-07T06:22:00.000-08:00

What it is ain't exactly clear.. to quote the old Buffalo Springfield song, but actually it is clear.

There has been quite a bit of kerfuffle here in the Rivermark neighborhood lately regarding the local elementary school Don Callejon. The main issue has been that the school is overcrowded with kids and basically bursting at the seems and the local school board has been wrestling with some unpopular options for resolving the issue.

There is a huge influx of younger kids (including ours) which is going through the school that will cause it to exceed it's maximum capacity this year or next and because the students are all young that problem will go on for quite some time.

As an example in Julia's grade (4th) there are just 2.5 classes but in Lea's grade (2nd) there are 5 classes and in Nicolas' grade (kindergarten) there are 6!! The grade school (the school is k-8 where the middle school is in a separate building on campus) has already had to put grade school kids into the middle school building because of the "bubble" of lower grades coming through. All demographic indications are that there will continue to be more years of 6 kinder classes which will further strain the resources at the school. Another example of the strain is that on rainy days (fortunately rare around here) there is basically not enough room at the cafeteria for all of the kids to eat inside. Normally they utilize outdoor seating for lunch which generally works when the weather is nice.

So the Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD) now has a problem and is trying to resolve it. They have suggested various ways to resolve the problem including instituting a "lottery" system where kids entering in kindergarten would be in a lottery to see who gets into the school. Those who don't get selected have to get bussed to another local elementary school. This is of course a huge issue because we know that most parents like us bought in this neighborhood specifically because there was a new neighborhood school our kids could go to.

Now let me say at this point we are not affected because our kids are already in and even if Nicolas wasn't in there would be priority for siblings.

One of the problems is that the original school boundaries have been expanded to include some higher density housing which is adding a lot of younger kids. The Rivermark neighborhood has become extremely organized around this issue creating new Rivermark only mailing lists, meeting regularly, attending school board meetings in mass. It has been pretty impressive really and Melissa and I have been observing the activity because any negative change could dramatically affect our housing prices. Other suggestions for soling the problem include rezoning (to remove some of the high density housing) and adding portable trailers to the field near the school (this was actually our preferred suggestion).

There have been some very strong reactions to some of the suggestions from the school board, particularly to the rezoning which would negatively affect some housing prices. There is even a website against it which someone created, check it out: http://nocallejonrezoning.org/

Well today is the actual registration day for new students and the short term solution was to have a line-up for registration on a first come first serve basis. What's remarkable is that the line for today's registration started at 2PM YESTERDAY and that people have been out there all night. Additionally there have been "support teams" going over to the people in line (the government should run as efficiently as these people!) bringing them tea, coffee, spare tents, chairs, relieving them in line so they could go to the bathroom! It's amazing!

Here are a couple of links showing the people in line last night and with the tents!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3799598&l=90cd47a605&id=730436630

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3799573&l=b37226d6df&id=730436630

In one of these photos there is a school board member who stopped by to see the activity. This to me is all amazing to watch and Melissa and I are so glad that we are beyond these problems.

Happy New Year 2010!!

2009-12-31T16:58:00.000-08:00

I am sure everyone is happy to see 2009 go away.

I hope everyone has a prosperous and happy 2010!

Melissa's art has a website!

2009-12-29T18:52:00.000-08:00

Hey I'm really happy to announce that Melissa now has a website for her art! This is a culmination of many hours of work by her deciding which images to show, writing and rewriting her bio and making Nicolas take innumerable pictures of her until she had one she liked. :)

It is a really great site and hopefully is the start of many bigger things!

Check it out!

http://www.melissakreisa.com/

Congratulations Melissa!

Stopping the slide

2009-12-28T06:48:00.000-08:00

It's been a few months now since I last ran and I was really starting to feel bad about that. Additionally due to a few extra portions of holiday food and cheer I was starting to see the weight I had worked so hard to lose come back on slowly. I guess the final straw was related to the new Wii we got at Christmas. One of the "games" we have is called Wii Fit and includes this nifty little balance board that it uses for many of the activities.

In setting up my WiiMii (virtual John) in the Wii Fit it does a body mass estimate and everyone in the family came up in the healthy range, except me. Now, I'll claim that I am also the only one in the family who has worked out with weights and has a higher body mass but it still made for some well intentioned ribbing from the rest of the family.

So anyway I've decided to stop the slide and get back to running. I was going to make it a New Years resolution however the situation appears to be serious and cannot wait!

Week with Willie

2009-12-26T19:14:00.000-08:00

This past week we dog sat a 2 year old Bernese Mountain dog (sometimes called a Berner) named Willie for a friend at work. Willie is an awesome dog. He was great with the kids, REALLY attached to Melissa. He was a little skittish around me but eventually got very used to my presence and would let me pet him and scratch his ears. He was particularly fond of that for sure.

We loved having him here and he was really beautiful. In fact the breeder picked him up today to take him to a dog show over the next few days. He was a very high quality dog and we heard that he would cost $2000 as a puppy!! So we won't be getting one of these anytime soon!

We are missing him tonight.

You can see a bunch more pictures by clicking on this link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=187788&id=578330169&l=18c9bf0ff8

Weird videos the kids like: first edition

2009-12-24T07:01:00.000-08:00

There are MANY weird and random videos that the kids like on YouTube (YouTube is a user contributed video site where anyone can load almost anything). We don't let the kids randomly search on YouTube for obvious reasons so I guess they hear of these things from friends at school. Anyway I thought I would share some of them with you over a series of posts.

One that is really pretty weird is a series videos about magic unicorns focused around a grumpy and sardonic unicorn named Charlie. There are two other nameless unicorns that Charlie has to deal with and they are normally bothering him while he is trying to sleep. Ultimately they talk him into going on some rather hard to describe adventures where something happens to Charlie.
There is a series of 4 I think and they are fairly heavily viewed out there on the Internet. I'll post them in order so you can follow the "story" as much as there is one. They are really more like short episodes.

In the first episode the two unicorns talk Charlie into going to "Candy Mountain" whatever that is.

Here Charlie is the "Banana" king.

Here is the third in the series:

Here is the fourth - if you are still watching they are pretty weird right!

Strange!

Cool work videos

2009-12-24T06:50:00.000-08:00

We've started using a cool San Francisco based company called the Kenwood Group to create neat and inspiring opening videos for some of the events we do at work. We put on several large events each year, one for our existing customers called a user conference, one for our publishing customers called the Digital Publishing Summit and one for our government customers called the Government Summit (creative I know).

I really like the look of these videos and was just sharing them with Melissa and Julia last night so I thought I would share them with you!

This is from our user conference:

This is from our government summit in November:

This is from our publishing summit in December.

I hope you enjoy them!

More on being a boy...

2009-12-19T15:16:00.000-08:00

We've always encourage the kids to come in and snuggle with us in the mornings, particularly on weekend mornings when we are lazing around in bed (well one of the adults is anyway =). We figure that the kids will be too old (or too large) to care very soon -- so we value this special time...

Now a days it is still dark in the morning and we are dead asleep when they come in. There is a distinct gender difference in the approach to HOW they come in. The girls wander in almost silently, quietly walking up to the side of the bed, waiting on some acknowledgement that we notice them and want them to climb in. Then they ease into an open spot . Then then snuggle up keeping the covers high, find a pillow spot, and close their eyes and relax. The process is very warm, gentle and nice.Nicolas on the other hand is a different little beast. You can hear him coming a mile a way (well not a mile since our house isn't that big) but you get the point. He runs in with heavy footfalls (THUMP, THUMP, THUMP) in a very distinctive way. As he enters our room and rounds towards the bed he looks for a landing spot...

Now for a landing spot he is not really looking to see if anything is in his way, rather just aiming for somewhere -- anywhere on the bed. He launches himself up onto the bed usually landing on his knees. This means if he lands on the wrong place it can be really quite painful!!! He rarely misses body parts completely and if one of the girls is there first, he inevitably lands on one of them.Once on the bed he scrambles over to the top of the covers (again with disregard for where he is kneeing) and moves under the covers as quickly as possible.

This is all very disruptive. The unconscious parts of our brain has been trained to wake and be alert as soon as we hear his footsteps coming down the hall (a survival mechanism). Failure to take preventative action can cost you dearly, it has me many times.Even when under the covers he is the epitome of a whirling dervish (whatever that is) rotating around and around, climbing on Melissa, diving under the covers etc. He only spends a few moments sitting still before he is moving again.He is a disruptive force that shatters the quite tranquility that is the early morning sleeping chambers.

Little man - big voice

2009-12-18T19:38:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure whether it is the age, being a boy, being the third or all of the above but Nicolas has started to burst out at the top of his lungs! This can be at any moment, in a quite house, in the car, in a grocery store, outside (which is OK), where ever we are he will belt out almost anything!

The scenario typically goes like this. We are sitting at breakfast, eating, chatting what ever and I might ask Nicolas if he would like more milk, to which he responds "YES I WOULD LIKE MORE MILK!!!"

He might even do this if he is not addressed. He will below out things like "I"VE GOT TO GO TO THE BATHROOM!!!" and of course we say "that is great, can you use an inside voice?" and he will answer "YES I WILL!!!"

Now he is a little guy but he is getting amazing volume out of those little lungs! If his subliminal goal is to get attention he certainly does that. Everyone in the family ends up staring at him as if he were mad.

I am really hoping this is just a stage and not a trend!

"PLEASE!!"

Problems with Purple Puffles

2009-12-18T04:52:00.000-08:00

All of our kids are extremely enamored with a Disney online kids website called Club Penguin. Club Penguin is an interactive virtual world where kids are penguins and can interact in a limited fashion with other penguins (kids). The penguins are customizable in a limited way so they can choose a color, a hat and a few other things. This virtual world is quite rich and there are lots and lots of penguins running around. On any given Saturday there are thousands of penguins running around in literally hundreds of penguin towns. In fact you can see if a friend is in a town and go to that town to interact so our kids will go and play games together virtually in their little world and some of their school friends will meet them online.

As far as the little environment there are towns with shops and various kinds of interactive games the kids can play. For example there are skiing games, surfing games (penguins don't care if the water is cold apparently). The world changes based on the seasons (of the northern hemisphere so must be a little strange for those down under for example) and currently the club penguin world is all wintery with snow on the ground and occasional snow precipitation. It is really quite amazing. Penguins have an individual home and penguins can earn coins by completing skill games. With the money they earn they can by things like furniture for their home, which is actually an igloo.

Penguins can also have little pets called puffles. This is partially where the diabolical nature of this little world comes in. Puffles are little round balls of fur from what I can tell and they are available in a variety of colors. The puffles need to be fed and I think they have to be purchased with the virtual money so the kids have to earn to get and keep a pet which is not necessarily a bad lesson. The issue is that there are two modes to Club Penguin - free and paid. In the free world kids can do a lot, lots of games, lots of adventures, stores etc. They can also get a good number of the puffles. It turns out that for a modest fee of about $5/month they can "join" club penguin and there is more cool stuff available. In particular they can purchase a wider varitey of things in their little world. They can get different and fancier furniture for their igloo, they can take special rides, there are new and different games etc. And, they can get a wider range of colors for their puffles. In fact there are a limited number of puffles and in order to get "all" the puffles you do need to be a member.

The problems around here came when our kids (mostly Lea and Nicolas) wanted to get the last of the puffles which required them to join. This last puffle they wanted to get was as you probably have guessed by now, was purple.

So, both Lea and Nicolas are now members (Julia is a member of some other fairy site) and in addition to getting the purple puffle they will now be able to participate in the holiday sleigh ride which occurs today.

That is my problem with purple puffles.

Click here to see the start page for Club Penguin.

p.s. don't worry they still play plenty of "real" imaginary games (Melissa says pretend games) which are not on the computer.

BCS Championship Tickets! - Hook 'Em Horns!

2009-12-17T21:46:00.000-08:00

I just received my tickets for the College football championship game (called the Bowl Championship Series or BCS) which features the University of Texas vs. The University of Alabama. It's the Longhorns vs. the Crimson tide at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena CA. and the game will be played on January 7th. Needless to say I am excited!

Here's a photo, these are really nice looking tickets with 4 different images on each ticket. There are 4 in the middle, the rest is supporting information.

More about the game itself later.

Lucky future!

2009-12-17T21:30:00.000-08:00

I just saw this video for this really cool new prototype device for reading and interacting with magazine content on a handheld device. It is completely conceptual and I think it is super cool and represents and exciting new future in the way we will interact with information. It looks like something right out of a movie to me. Enjoy!

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

Pictures from my kayaking trip

2009-12-13T10:14:00.001-08:00

I am completely remiss! Click here to see pictures from my kayaking trip before Thanksgiving. It was awesome and I have tons of great memories!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=181686&id=578330169&l=0d3c3cbfc9

I know I owe a more detailed account of the trip and will follow up with one as soon as I can.

Greg Mortenson - Amazing Man!

2009-12-12T17:35:00.000-08:00

Last night Melissa, Julia and I were fortunate enough to go see Greg Mortenson speak at Foothill college in Los Altos. If you are not familiar Greg is the climber turned school builder in central Asia. He is the author of two books, "Three Cups of Tea" and "Stones into Schools" the latter being the sequel and recently released.

Greg is a good speaker and has some of the most amazing stories around his work. In short he believes that by building schools and educating girls he can bring about peace in this very tough region which is a hot bed of extremism. He has built more than 128 schools in extremely remote valleys to try and make a difference.

He is very passionate about his cause and it is hard not to get caught up in it. On our way over to the talk Julia (who has read the young readers edition of three cups of tea) said "I hope some of his light rubs of on me." Wow, did I say she was 9 going on 19? Might be that she is 9 going on 39, no wait, I'm still not that deep!

If you haven't had a chance to read his books I highly recommend them. His cause and efforts to help with peace are lauded at the highest levels of the government and the military. In fact his book three cups is required reading by military commanders operating in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Pick up a copy.

Hurray for the Symphony!!

2009-12-12T17:20:00.000-08:00

We just returned from an excellent holiday performance by the San Francisco Youth Orchestra!

The kids in the orchestra were amazingly talented (age range from 11-20) and the music sounded great. The event was in a concert hall at a local college and I splurged so we had 8th row seats dead center so no action was missed by the kids. You could see and feel every detail of the music and for the most part they stared with rapt attention.

The show was an annual Peter and the Wolf concert where they played multiple holiday classics.

I really wanted the kids to have this experience and it did not disappoint!

Here is the program:

Program
Tchaikovsky - Trepak from The Nutcracker
Tchaikovsky - Waltz from The Sleeping Beauty
Leroy Anderson -Bugler’s Holiday
James Tenney - Wake for Charles Ives
Ernst Toch - Geographical Fugue
Prokofiev
Peter and the Wolf (read byLinda Rondstadt!)
Sing alongs:
Jingle Bells - Arr. Manly Romero
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer
We Wish you a Merry Christmas

Ready for Christmas

2009-12-11T13:19:00.000-08:00

Well thanks to Melissa and the kids the house is ready for Santa's visit! We've got the tree up, the wreath is out, the lights are on the front bushes. The kids and I spent about 2 hours decorating the tree with all of the ornaments and for the first time I can remember they were very helpful in the process and did a great job of spreading things out. I'll have to include a picture when I land (still on the plane!)

There are more houses in the neighborhood decorated than I can remember so the it is very festive around us.

The presents do still need to be purchased so we have some work to do this weekend!

Happy holidays and Merry Christmas!

Mid-air communications

2009-12-11T12:14:00.000-08:00

It's been a little while since I've blogged so apologies to my regular readers, it has been a busy 3 weeks.

I am taking what I think will be an increasingly common occurrence to blog while flying back from a recent week long work trip to the east coast. The United plane I am on is equipped with a free wireless connection and I can connect to email and the Internet like I am sitting at my kitchen table at home.

As far as performance of the connection it is fast despite the fact that I see many other open PCs who are probably using it too.

I think overall this is exceedingly cool!

On the down side it robs me of one of the few times I had to stay completely disconnected (although I don't HAVE to use it of course) to catch up on other things.

One of the benefits however is that I don't land to a full inbox of things to do, i knock them out along the way. The other is that I can of course communicate with others.

I have to say that it was a little surreal when I was just on instant messenger (text way to chat with another person computer - computer) with someone on the marketing team and she is also flying back from the same trip. She took off about an hour after me and we were able to catch up on some things that otherwise might have had to wait. Pretty cool to think that we were chatting away at 38,000ft on different planes!

I think I like this new development although I am sure some would argue that the world is already too connected, which may be true. I don't have to use it but I can blog again! I prefer this to offering cell phone usage as I would not want someone blathering away on a phone next to me.

I just looked out the window and we are coming over the Rockies which have a beautiful covering of snow.

Over and out!

No more swimming for the girls

2009-11-30T19:53:00.000-08:00

Well after several years of continuous lessons and many many hours in the pool we have decided to end formal swimming lessons with the girls. We are doing this because they were starting to not be excited (read resistant) to the Saturday morning lessons. Since they are both swimming at a very proficient level (much better than I was when I recall my parents throwing me into the pool with a rock tied around my waste) so they are very water safe.

If some day in the future they want to pick it up again they have a fantastic base. Nicolas will be continuing his Friday afternoon lessons because he still needs to establish the basics. As far as other sports for the kids Lea will be starting both softball and soccer as soon as we can get her organized. They will both continue in the Karate lessons they have been doing and enjoy quite a lot.

Back from the trip -- all is good

2009-11-30T19:52:00.000-08:00

As most of you know I returned safely from my trip to the Bahamas. The trip was fantastic and I am just no processing the pictures from the trip. I will be writing several posts with the details of the trip so stay tuned!

Ready to go!

2009-11-14T20:09:00.000-08:00

I'm off tomorrow for my 9 day adventure kayaking and camping in the Bahamas. We will be leaving from Georgetown which is in the far eastern part of the Bahamas basically where it runs into the deeper part of the Atlantic ocean. It is on the eastern edge of the Bahama banks which stretches far to the west and is a huge area of pretty shallow water. We will be kayaking from island to island in a marine park and sticking to the Leeward (wind and wave protected) side of the islands. While there we will be traversing and camping through using a "leave no trace" method. This means that when we leave you will not know that we have been there. We will take everything, and I do mean everything, out with us when we leave.

I spent a good portion of today preparing, shopping and packing for the trip. There is a lot of gear for me to bring including common items like food, tent parts, cooking gear and my own gear including a sleeping bag, clothes, rain gear, eating utensils etc. I'll end up with two large duffel bags stuffed with gear.

There is a pretty strict limit to how much personal gear I can take with me in the kayak. For clothes I can have basically 3 shirts, 1 pair of shorts, 1 pair of long pants, 1 rain shell and one insulating layer and 1 swim suit. That should last me for the 6 days on the water although I am guessing I'll be pretty ripe when I get done!

I'm really looking forward to this trip. Uniformly everyone I have told about it has been both supportive and maybe a little jealous all at once. I'm missing a major event at work and even the folks I would normally be supporting for the event have been very supportive of me going.

I was talking to Melissa about it last night and she said that during the tip I get to be not a dad, not a husband, not a marketing executive, not a Californian, not a techie geek, etc. I've thought about that conversation quite a bit and I am not sure how it makes me feel. I don't really know what to expect from the trip, how I'll feel, what it will be like.

I know I am looking forward to "clearing" my head as far as work is concerned. I know I haven't been away like this for a long time. I don't really know the people I am going with so that should be interesting too. I am sure they are all nice people and hope we all will get along. Someone who I know who went on the trip last year said they "had time to think about things they normally don't get around to" so I am looking forward to that too.

I am trying to keep a very open mind with no expectations, which I think is the right way to go.

I look forward to reporting back after the trip with pictures and blog posts.

Diversity continues

2009-11-11T04:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Nicolas' kindergarten class when on a "field trip" to the local Jamba juice up at the shops near our house in Rivermark. A Jamba juice for those who have not tried one are yummy fruit and yogurt smoothy that this store sells and our kids love them. They come in a wide range of flavors and you can get a free "boost" including vitamins and energy and immunity boosting stuff added in.

One of the parents who went as a chaperon took a couple of pictures of the class and much like Julia and Lea's classes I was struck by the enormous diversity in the class and therefore in our neighborhood.

Here is the picture, Nicolas is 3rd from the right and I must say he looks like a giant compared to some of the kids:

Cold kayaking

2009-11-09T04:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had my mandatory kayak safety training prior to my big trip. The kayak safety training is designed to give us experience with both being rescued and rescuing someone who flips in their kayak while at sea and needs assistance getting back in.

Most of the people going on this trip had this training back in September and October when the temperatures were a bit warmer. I was never able to make any of the other training meetings so I had to go with our fearless leader Steve over to one of the other kayakers homes and use their pool along with her daughter Anna who is also going on the trip. They live in the Los Altos hills (as opposed to Los Altos Hills which is another town) and the evening temperatures there are dropping into the chilly 40's and 50's. Their pool is not heated. This means that their pool was a very cold place to get wet yesterday.

Anna (who was wearing a wetsuit) went first. Now there was only room for one kayak in the pool so that meant the rescuer had to "simulate" being in a kayak meaning standing in the pool while the rescuee flipped over, performed the wet exit and then got back into the kayak. I was only wet from chest down for this part of the exercise which lasted about 10 minutes.

During the rescue the rescuer has to maneuver their boat up to the flipped boat and help drain the water, manage the paddles, flip the boat and help provide a stable platform for the other person to climb back in. Fortunately Anna was comfortable and she only needed to practice her exit once.

Then it was my turn. I got all of the now wet spray skirt and PFD on and climbed into the kayak. The appropriate procedure when you flip calls for banging on the boat three times to alert the other boaters that you have flipped, then locating the release strap on the front of the spray skirt, releasing it, sliding out of our kayak while keeping a foot in so that it does not float away. All of this while keeping hold of your paddle. In general it is not too hard but the water was cold and that does tend to focus the senses. When I rolled the boat I did my requisite three taps and then started reaching for the skirt release to find that it wasn't as clear as it seemed when I was above the water (where it is easier to breath btw). On the spray skirt there are also other straps and a mesh bag for convenient storage. I was holding the paddle under my arm and hunting around for this strap and ever so briefly I started thinking "what if I can't find this damn thing". Fortunately in what was certainly seconds I found it and out I came. I completed the rest of the exercise without incident and we were done in the pool.

After 20 minutes in the pool I was cold to the core so much so that I was still cold when I came home almost an hour later.

Fortunately all of the temps, water and air, will be higher when we are in the Bahamas in a week and I am glad to have gone through the training.

Melissa's show now listed on the web

2009-11-04T06:14:00.000-08:00

A quick post to let everyone know that Melissa's upcoming show this Friday is now listed live on the web!

http://www.southfirstfridays.com/

Here is the entry below, there is a photo of one of her pieces there two but it did not copy over:

Downtown Yoga Shala – 450 South First St. map

Opening reception: Shimmer by Melissa KreisaJoin us after Candlelight Yoga (6:45-8:15) as we open our doors to welcome the Art Walk patrons and the downtown community. Our featured artist is a painter, mother, yoga practitioner and volunteer who helps new refugees adjust to life in the Bay Area.

For Melissa, painting is her chance to breathe. It forces her to slow down and find beauty in the smallest spaces. In this show called, Shimmer she invites you into a moment of reflection. Her work reminds us that nature continues to go about its beautiful and mysterious business, even when we are not paying attention. All proceeds from this show will benefit Refugee Transitions (and are tax deductable).

More on Melissa's upcoming big day

2009-10-25T13:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a note from Melissa with more details on her upcoming art show. If you are reading this in the bay area I hope you can come by and support her!

John

Hi Friends,

I have some exciting news to share...

I've been painting a bunch since the summer (acrylic on canvas) and there is a gallery in San Jose that is going to show my stuff!

Finalized details with the owner today and here is the scoop --

Show is opening on Friday November 6th from 8PM-11PM and will stay up the month of November during regular hours
It is all my show to do with it what I will so I'm going to make it a fundraiser / awareness event for Refugee Transitions (www.reftrans.org) and donate any proceeds
Not a huge gallery but big enough that I have a lot of painting to do in two weeks in order to fill the space!
The gallery is part of a yoga studio. Here is the venue http://downtownyogashala.com/
It is part of an art event that San Jose puts on the first Friday of every month called "South First Fridays" http://www.southfirstfridays.com/. The idea is the city encourages people to come eat and drink downtown and then walk through the gallery district (along South First Street) so the number of people attending will kind of be dependent on the weather =).
So it is pretty exciting. Not sure where all of this is going. Maybe my first and only show, maybe the first of others! Should learn a lot about the art scene in San Jose through this experience and hopefully find a few new volunteers and make a little bit of money for Refugee Transitions!

Hope you can drop by for the show opening. Details are:

Friday, November 6th
8PM-11PM
Candlelight yoga before the show so drop into that if you can (6:30-8:00PM)
450 S First St., San Jose CA 95113
Parking at the San Jose Convention center will be validated

I guess I need to get it together, no pressure!...

2009-10-24T10:50:00.000-07:00

I've noticed just recently that everyone in the family has been doing really well and I am starting to feel some pressure. What do I mean? Let's look at some examples.

Julia is taking violin, in an advanced book club and was selected into the GATE (Gifted And Talented Education) program at school.

Lea is the youngest swimmer in her pre-competitive class, reading at roughly two grade levels above 2nd grade, and nearly had the teach in tears during the parent-teacher conference because she is so wonderful to have in class.

As I've previously blogged about Nicolas is starting to read and having a great time in kindergarten and doing excellent in swimming.

And now Melissa has broken out too. In addition to winning the volunteer of the year award, she now has her first gallery show to exhibit her painting! She is on fire! (well not really of course because that would hurt). About 2 months ago she started to feel the passion and drive to start painting again (she has an art undergrad and near art graduate degree). Her event is on the 6th of November at the San Jose Art Walk which is designed to promote art in San Jose and occurs the first Friday of every month.

Well with everyone excelling I guess I need to figure out what my thing will be and I had better do it fast! No pressure!

solo weekend

2009-10-24T10:17:00.000-07:00

Well it's autumn here in the valley, the trees are changing, the kids are focused on their Halloween costumes and Melissa is getting a well deserved break away this weekend with her friends, meaning I'm on point, solo, the lone ranger, el jefe etc.

Melissa and 5 friends are off to Mount Madonna retreat for a relaxing weekend and it sounds pretty nice (although not exactly my cup of tea).

This is from their website:

"Mount Madonna Center is a conference and retreat center located on 355 acres of mountain-top redwood forest and grassland overlooking Monterey Bay, between Santa Cruz and Monterey, in Northern California. "

And judging from the picture on their website it should be pretty nice. I've got loads of things to do with the kids including catching up from my 4 day whirlwind trip to NYC and Washington DC, riding bikes, finishing costumes, buying pumpkins, watching movies, going to the park and more. We will have pleny of things to do and hopefully Melissa will have plenty of things not to do!

So while

Little man taking big steps

2009-10-15T19:41:00.000-07:00

This has been quite the year for Nicolas, he learned to ride his bike, lost his first teeth, started kindergarten and grew to where he has almost caught up to Lea!

He really likes drawing and has created some nice pictures lately as well.

One of the latest big steps Nicolas has taken has been in the area of reading and writing. We had his parent teach conference today and it was really quite exciting to see the progress he has made just since the beginning of the year.

Flashing back to summer Nicolas was continually frustrated because he didn't "get it" when reading. He would look a the words in the books and just make something up.

Well now is a completely different story. He has been reading at school and at home. We've been working through some of the Dick and Jane books originally used by Lea I think. Of course there are plenty of words he doesn't yet know but he gets the word boundaries and tries to sound out the letters of the words as best he can. His teach told us he was right where he should be in class. He is also trying to spell words out. For example he said to me last night: "Daddy, can you rub m-y b-a-c-k?" where he spelled my and back.

It is exciting and sad for us to see him grow up. He continues to grow and thrive and he is such a fun loving little boy that everyone loves to be around him!

Living the outbreak movie?

2009-10-04T14:21:00.000-07:00

over the last couple of years there have been several "rogue" disease related movies including the movie "Outbreak" in 1996. For some reason I have this strange feeling that I am living in the movie when it comes to the current situation with Swine flu.

It seems to have had a lot of attention earlier in the year and then things died down during the summer as other activities distracted the news services. Most of the news seemed impersonal taking place in foreign countries or places not near me. But, then lately I've started to hear more and more about it on a personal level including someone at work being diagnosed with it.

At the same time, and quite quietly in my opinion, things have started to heat up around here to the point that major institutions like churches are change policies (no hand shakes from greeters, no shared bread for communion etc.) and Santa Clara county has declared an H1N1 emergency. You can read more by clicking here. In Santa Clara county alone there have been 155 hospitalizations an 8 deaths!

Now I don't want to be alarmist but it certainly does seem to be real and creeping up on us right in our back yard. We have tried to be diligent with the kids regarding washing their hands at school and at home and so far (touch wood) things have been ok. They also had their seasonal flu shot however I was listening to NPR the other day and there has been some report in Canada which apparently seems to indicate that if you have had a seasonal flu shot you might be more susceptible to H1N1! Another twist in the movie plot!

Watch this space and wash those hands!

Finished!!!

2009-10-04T14:12:00.000-07:00

I happy to report that I successfully finished the San Jose Rock and Roll Half Marathon today!!

Admittedly my time wasn't stellar but given the back and hip problems I have had in the previous 3 weeks I am pretty happy with the result. We (me and 12000+ of my closest friends) had perfect weather for the run with a start temperature of the low 50's with perfect clear sky's.

My bib # was 5562 and you can check my splits (times at various intervals) online by clicking here. You can clearly see how I started off well but slowed down significantly towards the end. The main reason for that was my hips started hurting again as they had on my last really long 12 mile run. I think that I have figured out that it has something to do with either my shoes or my stride in general because it hurt more when I ran off of the crown (curved part) of the road. I had to stop and walk briefly a few times to try and let the pain die down but I was determined to finish. In fact I never really got tired on the race. No fatigue, no problems with my back, no blisters, nada except for my hips and I really tried to take it easy once they did and I am sure that helped.

The race itself was incredibly well organized. There were ample water stations, medical stations if needed and clear directions on what to do before and after the race.

I'm going to continue to run through the winter but keep my distances short until I can get to a running specialist to evaluate my stride.

I'm really happy to have completed this goal. I think I have also determined that I really don't need to do a marathon, the thought of turning around after 13.1 miles and doing it again does not appeal to me. I think my next big challenge will be a triathlon sometime next summer.

Until then I'll take it pretty easy!

Awesome Carl Sagan remix video - Cosmos

2009-09-28T21:28:00.001-07:00

I've just watched a really cool video which is a remix of the introduction to the classic Carl Sagan series "Cosmos" which originally aired on PBS in the 1980's. I had heard about this remix on NPR and then someone else at work also blogged about it.

You can see the actual Cosmos intro here. It has inspired me to buy the show and share it with the kids.

Week of appreciation - Yeah Melissa!

2009-09-26T18:41:00.000-07:00

This past week has been a big week of appreciation for Melissa for all of her hard work helping refugees resettle in the bay area. For nearly two years she has been tirelessly helping some of the most needy folks in the world get their feet on the ground. These are refugees who come from some of the worst conditions in the world. This in my opinion has been the epitome of concept of "think globally act locally" applied to our global community.

Things kicked off last Saturday with her receiving a standing ovation at our presbytery meeting (elders and leaders from all of our local Presbyterian churches). They also gave her a very nice plaque recognizing her efforts in ministry to those in need.

The next day (last Sunday) she received thanks from our church. She and Elsa (one of her co-winners) read from scripture and then received a thanks and applause by all of the members of the church. It was very moving experience for her (and for me).

Today was the capstone of all of the events. She flew to Portland Oregon with Elsa and Andrea (pictured on the left) for the official award she received for volunteer of the year from Catholic Charities. This was a national award and they were recognized over some pretty stiff competition.

You can read more about it by clicking here.

Needless to say me and the kids are extremely proud of her and work. We appreciate the hard work she does and the passion she brings to the effort.

Yeah Melissa! We love you!!

Great weekend - camping at Castle Rock

2009-09-22T07:29:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I took Julia and Lea for a new adventure in a nearby state park. We went backpack camping at Castle Rock state park which is a 5600 acre park that covers a ridge and rolling hills in the Santa Cruz mountains just west of Saratoga. It is only 45 minutes from our house but of course you feel many miles from home.

We went with our friend Scott Peterson and his son Ben (same age as Julia). I rented the equipment I needed from REI and let the girls use a couple of small backpacks to carry their own bed roll and sleeping bag. Backpacking equipment is MUCH lighter now than it used to be so I carried the tent, food, my sleeping back and bed roll. Fortunately there was potable water at the site.

We had a fantastic time and the weather was great. It was a beautiful trail and we hiked 3 miles to the camp site. We took plenty of breaks along the way which included walking through redwood, madrone and oak forests, scrambling along rocky trails and moving through low scrub brush. The trail had many spectacular views of the Santa Cruz mountains and we could see all the way to the Monterrey Bay and to Monterrey itself which was around 35 miles away.

The camp ground was rustic with 25 sites spread around and private. Some were in the woods and some in the open. We chose a site in the woods which had enough space for our two tents.

We had a yummy dinner of Macaroni and Cheese, Red Beans and Rice and Chicken and Noodles followed by a desert of Apple crumble and an mixed berry cobbler! all of this came freeze dried and was very good.

We also had many rousing games of UNO after the sun had set and were joined by a co-worker of Scott's who just happened to be camping at the same site (amazing coincidence!)

We all slept well and had a fun hike back which included more stunning views and some singing to help pass the time.

On the way back we saw a 3 ft Rattle snake traveling beside the trail! It was discovered by Ben and Lea who had the wherewith all to stop and point it out to us. (whew)!

Click here to see the photos. This will open a new viewer and you can click on a photo to see a bigger version.

You can also click this link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=162410&id=578330169&l=d3709eb4cd

activity. activity. activity.

2009-09-16T18:53:00.000-07:00

We've entered into the full fall swing here in NORCAL and find ourselves very busy across the board.

The kids are in various combinations of things including book clubs, horse riding lessons, karate, swimming lessons, violin, reading books, playing on the computer, and all of that on top of school and daily homework, visits with friends, etc.

Melissa and I have been getting more busy too with prep for an upcoming camping trip, prep for teaching various Sunday school and weekday activities, working on refugee activities, painting (Melissa not me), volunteering in school, shuttle bus driver (see activities above), taking yoga classes, training for a 1/2 marathon, and, oh yeah, and working at a startup in Silicon Valley!

So it is no wonder we are all a little tired and the start of this school year has been a bit shall we say bumpy. In fact you would be right if you said in your best pilots voice "we may experience some turbulence during takeoff"!

The routines are improving so I am sure we will all finally get into the groove and soon (

Family Camp 2009

2009-09-08T21:16:00.000-07:00

We've just returned from annual family camp at Redwood Glen near Pescadero CA and we all had a wonderful time. There was again a huge amount of activities to choose from including doing nothing and laying in the sun. We stayed pretty busy and even got a family oriented hike in.

This year was different because we gave Julia and to a lesser extent Lea some free reign around the camp. We let them go and get hot cocoa themselves, go down to events by themselves and even hit the playground without super vision. Julia ranged around the camp looking for puzzle pieces (part of a camp activity). Next year we will get some walkie talkie's for sure so that we can reach them wherever they are. The good news is that there are literally hundreds of adults who will help them and many older children who a) set great examples for them and b) would help them if they needed it. That is one of the reasons we like this camp so much because it is less like camping with strangers and more like camping with an extended family.

Another funny thing this year was Nicolas and his posse of pre-teen girls. He literally had 3-4 girls helping him our / holding him / carrying him and even helping him crowd surf during the events at the amphitheater. We hardly saw him once an event started. Here is a photo of him with one of the girls.

I am not sure he got how cute he was or why he liked the attention so much but suffice to say in a few years he will.

Once again the highlight was the talent show and for yet another year the Kreisa kids did great. There were some very amazing acts, everything from funny, to gross, to humbling talent in singing and musical instruments.

Everyone was all settled in when Lea and Nicolas opened up the 43 acts and nearly 3 hour competition (used in the loosest sense, burping the alphabet counts as talent here) with a skit that nearly brought the house down. Keep in mind that they did this in front of 420+ people who were attending the camp from our church.

Here is the video: (make sure your volume is all the way up and you might want to watch in full screen mode, little window on the video)

Julia impressed the crowd with her sensitivity by reading a touching passage from Louisa May Alcott.

Here is the video:

The audio is a little hard to hear so Melissa has transcribed the passage here (with editorial comments):

A few weeks ago, Julia was in the back of the car reading from the autobiography of Louisa May Alcott. She said, "Mommy, listen to this, it is from Louisa May Alcott's journal. It really inspires me". She read the piece below. I was so choked up -- amazed at how wise and wonderful Julia can be... So she read this at church camp this weekend -- on stage, at dusk in front of 425+ people:

"I had an early run in the woods before the dew was off the grass. The moss was like velvet, and as I ran under the arches of yellow and red leaves I sang for joy, my heart was so bright and the world so beautiful. I stopped at the end of the walk and saw the sunshine out over he Virginia meadows.

It seemed like going through a dark life or a grave into heaven beyond. A very strange and solemn feeling came over me and I stood there with no sound but the rustle of the pines, no one near me, and the sun so glorious, as for me alone. It seemed as if I felt God as I never did before, and I prayed in my heart that I might keep the happy sense of nearness in my life."

Family camp will no doubt be a long family tradition and we can think of no better way to reconnect as a family, a couple and as a community before we head into the hectic fall seasons. I always come back energized, humbled and refreshed.

Heading for The Hinterlands

2009-09-08T20:20:00.000-07:00

I've just signed up for a pretty exciting personal vacation trip in November! I'll be going to the Bahamas for a 6 day kayaking trip through an outdoor group with the church. I don't know too many details and actually hoping to keep it that way so that I can go with the flow while we are out there.

Selfishly this is a personal John get away trip. Though I've had many work trips I've had very few days away on my own. Melissa likes to call this my "mid-life crisis" trip and maybe I am having one and maybe not. Either way she has been very supportive and encouraging regarding the decision despite the fact that this will put her out on an already heavy travel season.

A friend Bruce who went on the trip described it this way:

"enjoy your kayaking trip. I'm sure you'll find it rewarding. one of the things I remember was the sense of total isolation. and not in a bad way at all - the outside world just seemed to disappear and become irrelevant. all that really mattered was the here and now - the water, wind, boats, etc. and it allowed me to think about "the bigger picture" stuff in a way I hadn't really been able to before. "

Needless to say I am pretty excited, check out this picture from last year's trip. That is some very blue water and some very white sand. Pretty amazing!

click on the picture for a bigger version.

Nicolas Looses His First Tooth!

2009-09-02T20:38:00.000-07:00

It was only a few weeks ago that I blogged about Nicolas having his first loose tooth! Well this morning that tooth came out thanks to a little extra wiggling from daddy. :)

When I woke up this morning Nicolas proudly showed me that his tooth was "really wiggly!"

It was in fact so loose that it would bend nearly all the way forward and all the way back and was being held in by the slimmest of skin. He wanted my help going the extra distance and asked me squeeze him so that his tooth popped out like it did for Lea. Squeezing him did no good so I had to put a finger on the tooth and give it a little extra shove.

Sure enough out it came. He was so excited he ran around the house showing everyone the bloody socket and tooth in his hand. He was also very excited about the tooth fairy who I am sure is preparing to pay him a visit right now. Inflation has been rough on the tooth fairy as the going rate seems to be 2$ per tooth!

Next is the tooth beside the now vacant socket. It was almost as wiggly when I got home so I am guessing the second loose tooth will be very soon.

Big day for Nicolas

2009-08-30T19:55:00.000-07:00

I suppose it is the curse of being the third child that many of your major milestones get less attention than the siblings who were lucky enough to precede you. Occasionally that is the case for Nicolas who has done some pretty cool things and gotten less than his fair share of the fanfare.

For example, Nicolas was the youngest rider by two years in the horse course this year yet he road solo around the ring and through the obstacle course! His teacher, our friend Barb, commented that she was amazed at his composure on a horse.

Yesterday was another milestone for Nicolas which should not go un-noted. For the first time, and by request, Nicolas rode his bike without training wheels. This was completely unprompted. He just came up and said, "Daddy I want to ride my bike without training wheels today." No maybe this was to be expected, we have not been pushing him to do it and he must have decided on his own that he is ready.

He did great and rode the first time with only a push from me to get going. As he headed down our alley he did have quite the escort (see pictures below). He also started to master stopping (very important to riding) and has yet to tackle turning. This meant that we had to wave Julia and Lea off a few times because they were buzzing around the wobbly Nicolas like bumble bees which distracted him. It was quite the scene for a little while there in the alley while Nicolas went back and forth and his sisters zoomed around simultaneously encouraging him and laughing all along.

For my part I got him going and then dutifully ran along behind him watching to see how he was doing and running interference for him to save him from a sister induced accident.

He never fell although he did tip over when stopping. He was not phased and got right back on the bike. Needless to say we are very proud of him and are looking forward to some great family bike rides!

Here are some pictures.

Going the extra mile in August

2009-08-30T19:26:00.001-07:00

I just finished my running for August and I am pretty sure this has been the best training month meaning where I have done the most running, and setting a personal best!

This month I ran a total of 94 miles! That includes weekend runs of 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 (this morning) miles as well as averaging 11+ miles per week. It has certainly helped that I did not travel and I have definitely had mornings where I wish I could stay in bed. For example we met at 5:30 this morning which meant I had to get up at 5 am to get ready. I woke up at 4am so I was juuust starting to get drowsy when the alarm went off. But, I knew I had to get out there and I knew that the others would be out there waiting for me, and they were. The last two runs were along the Los Gatos Creek trail which takes me past some of our old haunts from when we lived over in Saratoga including multiple parks and lakes. We are starting about 20 minutes before dawn so we start in the dark along the trail. At the beginning we are generally together but the faster folks take off after a short time.

I've really tried to focus this month in order to set a good foundation for my 1/2 marathon in early October. I still have two longer runs to go, a 12 and 13 miler which I will do in September. The 13 miler will be basically the same length as the race so once I complete that there will be no doubt about whether I can finish the race. The main challenge will be to keep from going out at too fast of a running pace.

With two weeks to go before the race I'll taper, running less and less per week, until I run just two 3-4 mile runs the week of the race just to stay loose.

Big Milestone Day Tomorrow!

2009-08-23T20:49:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is a big day in our kids lives and in our lives. It is the first day of school here in Santa Clara for ALL of our kids, Julia 4th, Lea 2nd and most significantly Nicolas in kindergarten! This means that for the first time in 9 years all three kids will be in full day school 5 days a week!

Probably the biggest impact will be for Melissa who will have time to devote to her passion of refugees and do some things for herself. She will of course also be volunteering in their classes and at the school as she did before and now she has 3 classes to help with.

It also means no driving over to Sunnyvale 3 days a week which is about 1/2 hour each way. So the extra time off the road is a bonus too!

All the kids are excited about tomorrow and I will certainly blog about how the school year goes as the grow and have new experiences.

Doubling down for the race

2009-08-23T20:38:00.000-07:00

Well as I get closer to my goal of completing the San Jose 1/2 marathon I have decided to double down to give myself the best possible chance.

The first thing I've decided to do is give up drinking until after the race which is on October 3rd. Now, I am definitely a fan of an occasional glass of wine, mug of beer or even mojito so this is a very serious step for me. The main reason I am doing this is to reduce the amount of "empty" calories I am taking in as I train. I have had a long time goal of losing weight and by stopping the extra intake I figure I can accelerate my weight loss. I also heard about a study that said for every pound you lose you take several seconds off of your running pace and I have also wanted to run faster mainly so that I can get these long training runs over faster.

I think it is working already as I have been consistently below 210lbs for the last few days, a level I haven;t been below in a long time.

The second thing I have done is continue to stretch my runs out and in fact I ran in the double digits (10 miles) for the first time ever today. It was a little painful but I think that was for a different set of factors. I went out strong but finished very poorly (it was 10 miles after all) and I think I have a slight cold.

Now this was a good milestone for me to achieve as the general rule of thumb for running long races is: if you can do 20 miles you can do a marathon (26 miles) and if you can run 10 miles you can run a 1/2 marathon so in theory I could make it today. This means I have 5 weeks to improve my running and reduce my weight. Fortunately I don't have any travel so I should be in good shape to hit the race perfectly in stride.

Family Picnic

2009-08-18T19:33:00.000-07:00

Last Friday was our annual company picnic. We missed last year because we were traveling down to Florida so I really wanted to make an effort to go. There is usually a really good spread of food and nice entertainment for the kids and this year was no different.

There was a huge BBQ with fresh fruit / salads and veggies and a portable stone pizza oven making some pretty good pizzas.

There was also an ice cream truck for desert which was handing out all kinds of free ice cream and I think the minimum number our kids had was 3 each!

Another highlight was the very talented face painter and our kids took it to the limit (we didn't expect anything else). Julia was a dragon, Lea was a tiger and Nicolas was a Zebra. All pretty appropriate for their personalities in the end. There was also an awesome balloon artist who matched Julia's impressive face paint with a cool pair of wings so that she could be a fanciful dragon. She was subsequently the talk of the picnic.

Here are a few photos from the picnic.

Viewing the Fire

2009-08-17T06:49:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we took a drive over to the coast principally to enjoy the scenery and I thought we might make it down towards Santa Cruz and the Lockheed fire which is currently burning in northern Santa Cruz county. At the time the fire was 15% contained but now it is over 70% contained with no injuries or deaths and only a few buildings destroyed.

After a stop a the beach and a place called the Pie Ranch, (hmm yummy pies) we did get down near the fire along route 1 which was still open to the public.

In fact there was a creek that the fire fighting helicopters were using to refill their buckets and drop on the fire line which was about a mile or so away. The wind was blowing in the opposite direction so we had a clear view of the water filling and dropping operations. It was at the same time sad and exciting. I took a few pictures before the batteries ran out on our camera. You can see the helicopter and the smoke in the hills behind.

Oh yeah we also hit a chilly beach and saw some kite and wind surfers taking advantage of the strong winds.

Day out at Great America

2009-08-17T06:11:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday we took the kids to the local theme park called Great America. Despite the fact that the park is litterally 1 mile from our house and we have enjoyed the free fireworks many times this was our first trip into the park. The occassion was our friend Steve and Jen's son Mateo's 7th birthday and we thought it would be a fun way to end the summer, and it was.

Julia in particular was game or riding some of the more aggressive rides so I took her and the other two older boys (Diego 9, Mateo 7) on two rollercoasters, one called the Deamon and one called the Grizzly.

The Deamon had two loops and a double corkscrew so it was a pretty fun ride although compared to the others in the park relatively tame. The Grizzly is a classic old wooden roller coaster like you might find at Coney Island or some other older theme park. They all liked both of them and I am sure we will go back. In fact I think we may get a season pass next year since we can ride our bikes over (saving on parking) and go on rides for an hour or two all summer long and really get our money's worth.

Steve shot some video with his iPhone when we were on one of the rides and there are a few pictures as well. The park also features a pretty cool water park with rides, slides and a wave pool and we also spent some time there as well.