Glorius Weekend...

that was 8 years in the making! Sure we've been away separately for more than a week individually and had been away together for over night trips. But we had never been away together for more than 1 day together IN THE PAST 8 YEARS!!

This past weekend Melissa and went to Seascape which is a resort down on the Monterrey bay near Aptos to have those two days away. We went down with good friends of ours Steve and Jen who as it turns out had not been away from their three children in 8 years as well.

Here is the link to more pictures from the weekend:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12565717@N00/sets/72157604796440223/

The weather was awesome, the condo was on the beach, the company was great! We went to dinner, we cooked leisurely, we played croquet, we played Wii (Guitar hero baby!), we did nothing, we read 2 papers cover to cover!!

It was awesome and I owe a HUGE thanks to Mom for coming to California to watch the kids. According to Mom they were great, they listened, didn't get too upset that we were gone.

Wow!

$4 Dollar Gas

I filled up my car today at a gas station in San Carlos and it costs $4 per gallon!! It cost $56 to put 14 gallons in my car and that was not even filling it up!

I hate to think if what the prices are going to be in mid-summer!

p.s. don't even ask how much it costs to fill up the Expedition - suffice to say I've taken a second job!

Dancing with R2D2

A co-worker Ann forwarded this video of her daughter Ella dancing with an R2D2 robot and I thought it was pretty funny! Enjoy!

Our Lemon Tree Can Hear Us Talk?

Several birthdays ago I bought Melissa a Meyers Lemon tree because she had started to like Limoncella's so I thought she could make her own with fresh lemons. :)

We planted the tree in a sunny spot in the back of our garden and expected it to grow like mad (like everything else in California). For some reason it never really seems to have done well, always looking anemic with yellow leaves and few if any lemons. We've tried special fertilizer and it gets plenty of water and sun so we were not sure what to do. This year we decided we should go ahead a replace it because it had such a prime spot in the yard it was a waste and did not look good.

Well apparently talking bad about it and discussing replacing it did the trick! In the last few weeks it has more than doubled in size, sprouted tons of green leaves and lemons! There are blossoms all over it so there is promise of many more lemons to come. Melissa is now drinking lemons in her water and we are looking at enough to create lemonade!

I guess all of to apply that to my other plants that are not doing so well.

Loosing the handyman touch?

Anyone that has known me for a while knows that I am generally a pretty handy guy around the house and have never shied away from projects big and small. Outdoors I've redone yards, done extensive work on cars (including replacing the CV joint of my Honda Civic in high school) and even today perform minor maintenance on my vehicles like replacing the rear wiper motor on my Ford Expedition. Indoors I also have a long history of taking on projects including refurbishing a house which included rebuilding the kitchen from bare walls, finishing the 25x24 ft basement and many small projects. In our current house I hang all the lights (nearly every room at this point) and shelves in the house, unclogged sinks and toilets (including freeing a pair of swimming goggles lodged in our bathroom commode thanks to Nicolas).

So when I recently tried to tackle two small problems I confidently thought I could quickly solve them. One problem was the disposal was apparently jammed with food or some object and shorting out. I tried all the tricks to get the thing working again including getting wrench's out to hand turn the mechanism. No luck. At the same time our freeze door has been sticking open causing us to loose food I've tried taking the door out, fiddling with it, putting additional lubricant etc etc. No luck.

The other thing about me with regards to these things is that I am stubborn and don't want to call help, so in this case we lived with both of these situations - sink that didn't drain and no disposal and freezer sticking open, for several weeks. I finally broke down and asked Melissa and asked her to call a repair man JUST FOR THE SINK.

The guy comes does exactly what I did and boom it works. Melissa then casually mentions that we are having having a little trouble with the freezer door and he fixes that in 5 minutes too!

Damn! Am I loosing my touch??

Nicolas Birthday Pictures

Just got a link to the photos from Nicolas' birthday adventure to Roaring Camp with me and Darren.

He had a really great time (still talks about it) and loved riding the train up to the top of Bear Mountain. Darren was of course providing entertainment for the little man as well as a working camera to record the trip!

You can see all of the pictures by clicking here.

Running with Steve

About a year and a half ago I found a new running partner who has really helped me keep up with my running and encourage me when I am tiring. He has been a tremendous help and duing this period I have lost about 20lbs. This particular running partner is steve boyett and he is a dj who builds incredible mixes for running and makes them available via his websites called Podrunner and Groovelectric as well as iTunes. I like a wide range of music and what I like about steve is he draws from a wide range of mixes to make his music. He uses everything from the eagles "hotel California" and simon and garfunkel "Mrs. Robinson" to Janet Jackson "nasty girl" as well as throwing in some cool classics like remixes of the devils tower scene in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Apocalypse Now. He definitely tends towards the funky which for me is awesome for running.

If you are looking for a running (or exercise partner in general) to help keep you rocking forward you should check out Steve's site where you can subscribe to his podcast, send him an email or buy a shirt by going to his home page.

It just keeps getting better!

The other day I was working from home in the morning when I took a break to walk the kids up to Jamba Juice to take advantage of their offering for a free juice. On the way, Julia suggested a game for all of us to play which I was not quite sure Nicolas was ready for but as kids often do he surprised me and was great!

The game goes something like this. Someone starts by saying a thing and the next person says a thing that is related in some even small way, and the next person does the same thing and so on. So what you end up doing s going all around through lots of different things. So for example Julia said cow, Lea said milk, I said cookies, and Nicolas said dessert and so it went. We kept going for 15-20 minutes covering the sky, planets, oceans, cities. Not terribly complex for sure but something the whole family could do and have fun with Nicolas.

As all of the kids get older it just keeps getting better and better!

Happy Birthday Nicolas!!!

Just 4 years ago today Nicolas Aidan was born at Los Gatos Community hospital in Los Gatos California! (and for those that have been following along that's 3 kids on 3 continents). One of the really good things Melissa and I did was keep a journal on the day that each of our children were born. This morning we read Nicolas' birth story and it was wonderful to recall all of the little details that fade with time. If you are expecting I strongly encourage you to do this, you will be happy you did.

We had his Birthday party on Saturday night with our "California" family - a small party with close close friends (9 adults and 10 kids!) who we wanted to share the happy times with us. It was a super hero party and Nicolas was Batman, Spiderman and Darth Vadar (a super hero?)

Today Nicolas wants to do his favorite thing and ride a train. His Godfather Darren and I will take him to Roaring Camp railroad to ride on their steam train, have lunch and generally have a day with the guys.

Yeah for the little man!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICOLAS!!!