Santa Barbara

Lindsay and I enjoyed some time away from SF in Santa Barbara. We ate well, saw pelicans, enjoyed staring at the waves, and dealt with the normal experiences when dealing with United.

We stayed at the Inn at East Beach for the long weekend. It was a pleasant enough room and well located to all the sites. We couldn't be too picky with the holiday weekend and the film festival in town. And, outside the door, there lived a huge spider. I couldn't get a good picture and didn't want to get too close. That guy was obviously an effective hunter.

The best meal was at Restaurant Julienne . They dealt with Lindsay's food allergies without any trouble and the food was all solid. The servers and the wine guy were all friendly and informative. The standout was the pork belly. Then again, when is it not?

We also had a few Mexican lunches at Lilly's and La Super Rica. I thought they were equally good but the La Super Rica's 90 minute wait was not worth the time.

It was a chill Valentine's Day weekend. We got what we wanted: an easy going, relaxing weekend.


Lindsay "ruining" a self portrait.


La Super Rica.


I like pelicans.


Lilly's.



All the pictures:

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Goodbye to Little P

My mother had to euthanize Puccini last night. Little P was 16, almost 17 years old.

Even though we did not get along well (too much nipping- her, not me), Little P was a great companion for my mother during the tough times. Puccini could be quite sweet and supportive as a care giver. Usually only to my mother, however.

RIP, Little P. If there is a doggie heaven, please remember that you are not as badass as you think so play nice! Be cute, stay furry, and keep on doing your Pomeranian twirls.

Kudos to Steve

Steve now has a fancy new name: Associate Dean Calandrillo and Stone Professor of Law. I may not know exactly what that means but he does get a medal.





The speech he gave, and the introduction by a friend of his, is pretty solid.

The highlights from the speeches:

1. Dean Nicolas: "Chryssa, who many of you know as his current wife..."
2. Dean Nicolas: "Using those excellent skills, as an economist, he spent some studying Wheel of Fortune, watching how many times certain letters came up. With that knowledge, he tried out, competed on the show and was a three time winner and took that money and handed it directly over to the Dean of Harvard Law School."
3. From Steve when getting the award: "Dean Testy, I have to say this has just been a fabulous start to your deanship. We are so excited..."

Congrats, Steve. I have nothing to base this on but I'm sure this is well deserved.

The Kidlets Turn 4

That's right, Arlo and Leyna are now 4 years old.

Before:







Arlo, as chunker.


Leyna as chunkette.


After:

Leyna






Leyna was shunned.


Leyna was unshunned.


Their Godfather now:

Christian "Steve Perry" Hull

If Journey ever needed a replacement for their current Steve Perry replacement, Christian is ready. He's my three year old nephew and pretty much rocks "Don't Stop Believing"!

Don't stop believing, little man.

Playing with my new toy

I wanted to see how easy it would be to post from the iPhone. Pretty easy so far.



iPhone app to take pictures on phone and Photoshop them.



Mona Lindsay.




Lindsay as art piece.

So far, this iPhone does do some impressive things easily.

I can check all my email accounts and access info on the road. Even when it is a 42-3 Cal loss.

Yes, there is an app for anything.

The only complaint, not unique, is the shortish battery life. It's not a huge issue now but I could see it as a problem when traveling.

So far, so good.

Home Run Ball

Click here to see me miss a HR ball at the Giants game. The ball was lost in the sun and I didn't make a move on the ball.

I'm in a brown shirt and green hat. It's better if you view it full screen.

What you can't see too clearly is that the woman next to me got hit by said ball in her leg.

This SuperMom simultaneously moved to cover and protect her other daughter from getting beaned, as she held her other baby in her arms. Dad, sadly, looked to move away from the ball (he probably lost it in the sun too). She was fine. Just swollen.



The Giants staff were all attentive and brought her first aid and kept checking in no her. As a bonus, she had a somewhat creepy ER doc (self described "I'm an ER Doc!") who also checked in on her status. But, it was about 10 minutes after she got hit. She was a trooper.

This was a company outing and we all had fun. You can't go wrong with three home runs, Cha Cha Bowls and beer. And, as a bonus, the Cal Field Hockey team sat behind us. Go Bears! (The coaches had surprised the team with a Giants game. Nice!)

So what if the Giants didn't win? Sorry, Michelle.

River Living

To celebrate Lindsay's last full week of "retirement", we decided to have a weekend away.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

I did get to have fun with my new camera. It's waterproof, and still is, but you do suffer a bit in picture quality. This camera doesn't like movement so there's a bit of fuzziness on some pictures.

We stayed at Boon, in Guerneville. If you find yourself in Guerneville, stay here.

The best part of our stay was seeing that one of the other guests decided to bring their own rave/disco equipment: flashing lights and neon. Sadly, I left mine at home.

Lindsay proved herself to be the better mini golf player. She was able to overcome the course's shortfalls and obstacles to lay the hammer down on me. She dominated.

In terms of meals, Lindsay did slightly better than me. Overall, I felt snubbed each meal. The fancy pants meal was at Mosaic.

Click if you want more details but the meal itself was a mess; everything was overly sweet. The staff was great but the food was so rough that it was tough to enjoy ourselves.

On Saturday, I had some Jonathan time in the woods. It was very hot, almost oppressive, so I had to scale back my distance a bit. Instead of 9 miles, it was closer to 7. The heat and elevation gain made it seem hotter, dustier, and longer.

Some pictures:

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On the way back, we visited Napa to see Leyna, Arlo, Cath, and Josh. Kudos to Josh for a delicious gluten free meal. I do have to say that the kids are warming up to Lindsay at my expense. (When Arlo fell down and bonked his head, he went to Lindsay, not his mother.)

I think it's time to remind them that I am their favorite...

Here are pictures:

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In all, a very relaxing weekend for us. We got out of the City, Lindsay got some time on a deck chair near a pool, and I got to wander around the woods for a while.

Testing The New Camera

I recently bought an Olympus 1050SW camera (I found a great deal and was impulsive) and thought pictures of my nephews would be a good test run.

It's one of those shock and waterproof cameras. I dropped the camera a few times and it kept on working. I need to take some underwater pictures next time I find myself near a pool.

The pictures aren't super but you give up a bit to make it unbreakable.

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Old Timey Cal Basketball Bears News

No reason to post this now other than I just remembered that I hadn't posted it here before.

This was a card in response to a letter I sent to the then head coach of the Cal BBall Bears, Todd Bozeman, complaining about them missing class and practice for the Million Man March. I had no idea I would get a reply. And one this interestingly spelled.