Well summer is officially here with it's annual boom, boom, boom. Judging from some of your blogs, you all had nice 4th weekends. We enjoyed ours as well. One of the unexpected benefits of living in our small noCal town was being in walking distance to some great fireworks. The overall atmosphere of the festivities throughout the day reminded us of Ada - the local parades, barbeques, etc. All we were missing was the flea market across the street.
Shelly and Claire were ready for the show! it was the first fireworks experience for Claire. She was super excited - and not disappointed. Shelly even remembered her fireworks glasses. She bought these a decade ago and talks them up every forth, yet somehow always manages to forget them. This year though, everything was ready...
i grew up on this game, and while i can't take credit for this particular run, i had a few of these w/ bo jackson myself:
sorry this post is late. they have been a sunday night fixture recently, but this weekend we had shelly's parents (aka mema and bepa) out for a visit. no time for blogging.
it was crazy hot here in the bay area this weekend. mema and bepa got here late thurs night, and they came downtown SF to visit me friday at work, and also to do some shopping in chinatown. ni hao floyd!
on the way bepa found lemo's farm w/ goats & pony rides:
claire loved it! next we made our way to the pacific. the surf was full, and it was a nice saturday afternoon, but it made shelly and i miss michigan... the beach here pales in comparison to saugatuck, holland, grand haven, or anywhere else on the west coast of MI.
we had fun anyway...
sunday we found an amazing church w/ in walking distance to our house. it was a beautiful day. after supper we checked out tilden. such a good park:
claire's love for animals is amazing, and as a parent, i love the fearlessness:
i'm glad mema got to witness. she has an amazing daughter and granddaughter, truth be told...
it was a pleasant weekend overall. i had to take a self portrait just to get in the mix, and then another favorite photo for good measure!
c
today was my 2nd father's day. shelly had to work so claire and i kicked it around the house and neighborhood, and generally rested up after a very active saturday.
we spent the morning hiking and exploring the lake chabot regional park. this is about 15 minutes from our house:
we hiked the hills and had some great views of the surrounding valleys, the bay, and even downtown oakland and san francisco.
after the hike we headed into SF to meet up w/ J, em, and phia. we all went to golden gate park and had a very nice afternoon looking at flowers and butterflies, and riding the carousel and playing on all of the great playground equipment.
the spinning ride at the park is particularly fun for the kids!
great father's day weekend! i really love being a dad.
c
uefa euro '08, could it be the tourney?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/euro_2008/7363369.stm
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/euro2008/team?id=449&cc=5901
http://www.euro2008.uefa.com/
seriously, a 7 - 1 combined score over the '06 world cup finalists in their first 2 matches? am i playing fifa on playstation?
regardless, it has been nice to watch the dutch side so far...
life is too fast. life has been really fast this week. luckily we've spent some time the last couple weekends enjoying new/old friends and exploring.
i love this shot of claire's best friend, phia:
she and her family have been great since our move out. it's been nice to reconnect a bit. our daughters really enjoyed kicking it on the back patio with balloons. being a kid is so amazing - the joy:
kaleigh came exploring with us and brought her dog. we all spent a good part of the afternoon walking the beach.
mom enjoyed the view as well.
especially when it leads to friends, oceans, and hugs like this one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yo_Gabba_Gabba!
one of the more interesting aspects of having a toddler includes programming choices. back in the day, parents were limited to saturday morning cartoons as a way to sleep in a bit. now we have dvr's plus on demand and teh internets w/ unlimited viewing options anytime for the youngins...
the old school way of thought says all things digital are bad. a whole new mind (and personal experience) differs in opinion.
the crack about sleeping in on saturdays aside; as a parent, media choices for CB today are on my mind -- all the time. thanks to DJ Lance Rock, and yo gabba gabba, we don't have too much to worry about when it comes to parent/child "T.T." (aka "TV") conflicts. check this out, the best show (child or parent alike) on the satellite/cable/radio spectrum is definitely on noggin weekends:
and to close, the puppet master dance w/ elijah in german has to take it:
so i've been working w/ a few skype employees on a project recently, and really enjoy their product as a means for teams w/ individuals located all over the world to effectively communicate and get things done.
typically, we have a running chat room, so as individuals from various timezones come on and off line they can ask/answer questions as needed. more clarification required? no problem, just place a quick skype call or fire up the webcam. this is so much better than endless rounds of annoying email copied to 20 other individuals in hopes that someone will get back soon with an answer - unproductive noise... and sadly talking on the phone or in person (especially in the tech world) is becoming a lost art. so much more can be communicated through an actual conversation. combine that with the convenience of instant messaging or email and you have the most productive and flexible working environment the flat world has to offer.
as a side benefit i sent nana and papa a nice webcam this week, got them on skype, and tonight we all had a great live conversation for 20 minutes. claire loved it. she kind of gets the phone, but when she actually saw her grandparent's faces, house and dogs as we were all talking, she really understood and felt like part of the conversation.
so, if you haven't already, get a webcam, skype, and hit us up.
i'm in awe of how well a simple photograph of a little girl in a park can capture the essence of a 3 month long family journey.
right on the cusp, there is still a twinge of apprehension about the other side... regardless, it was a good day at the playground:
on a personal recap, one benefit of being back in a city is professional sports. friday i had a chance to go to the A's vs. red sox game w/ my college friends (most of whom are from boston - so annoying). it was an enjoyable game with a lot of action. i'm also really enjoying the fact that i can take bart to all of this, and never have to drive anywhere here.
i received excellent news today that a great friend from grand rapids got a job offer in san diego today. he and his wife will be joining us out here shortly. we are very happy for them and looking forward to adding a couple more good michigan folk to the california mix!
also today, i finally plugged into facebook. shell has been on for awhile now but i've been hesitant. w/ email, instant messaging, voip, skype, a blog, and a feed reader, how much more 'social networking' does one really need? now that we are so far away from many of our closest friends though i thought i'd give it a try. i'm finding it is definitely a more well rounded and complete platform for socializing than email or instant messaging. it has been nice to reconnect with old acquaintances i hadn't heard from in years, and more importantly there is an added dynamic of communication w/ close friends and family as well.
alright, we miss everyone and hope you are all having a warm, fun, and relaxing holiday weekend! we'll be grilling out tomorrow w/ some good friends and family and are very much looking forward to it...
few outside of my semi close knit gaming community (aka nate and kevin - ha!) are aware of my penchant for the premier league, particularly man u and cristiano ronaldo.
my sport rankings go:
1) michigan football
2) all things nfl
3) premier league - manchester united
so this morning's uefa championship was particularly great. the match definitely lived up to the drama that has been building over the last few months in this tourney:
the match was decided in penalty, which is always a disappointment to those of us in the US who would like to see them just play on, but the better side did pull it out in dramatic fashion:
and after a dignified showing, manchester united are uefa champions: