Anniversary Weekend

We celebrated our Anniversary weekend by going up to Mendocino/Fort Bragg. We stopped at a few places on the drive up. One place was the Redwood forest. (Had I written this sooner, I would remember the name) So here is a picture from there. It was so beautiful and significant since we were married in a redwood grove. We saw a small deer family but they ran too quick to get a picture.




These pictures were all taken from out room or a walk down the path from our room. The place was a great location. We did have a hot tub in the room. Neat idea but I don't recommend it. It did not get over 97 degrees so was just barely like a warm bath. Then at about 5 am it starts running again, every 10 minutes it runs. UGh.



We had a nice dinner in Fort Bragg. Actually our room was in Fort Bragg also. We went to the handmade ice cream place after and then went to the beach and drove around.

Sunday was fun. Shannon actually got to look at the beautiful setting because we went on the skunk train. It was fun and excellent weather for this.








These are all pictures from the Skunk train. We had lunch and headed home. We missed the Botanical garden that was on our list so we will have to go back. We had a wonderful weekend!!

Have you known me since 1984?

If you knew me in 1984-1987 maybe. You know I babysat for the lady next door, Robyn. They had a huge old english sheepdog and then in 1984 Lauren was born. I babysat her a lot. Took her everywhere and to Baskin Robbins. I think Robyn probably practically paid for my first car since I earned money from then. Well here is some pictures and Robyn is on the end, then Lauren (now 22) and me and our neighbor Lynn Caldwell. Just sharing the picture of people I knew then.

Reunion of Cry Wolf - A few will enjoy this

Michael/Kelly Larsen and Mike - remember he had red hair and is tall!

Kristin Steve Jenkins and Tami

Me, Michael Larsen, Sona and Michaels wife. (I recoginize her but just dont remember)


Brad Braden, Scott Zimmerman and Brian Braden (I think is his name) Old neighbors

Obviously me and for those of you that know him, that is Kelly Larsen Michael Larsen, it you all recall he switched names.

This is the singer from Cry Wolf

This is Sean McKeon, Brian Braden, Scott Zimmerman, John Link (drummer # 2 for Cry Wolf and drummer from Murder Bay) and Steve Jenkins.

So for those of you that have known me long enough or hung out with me in the late 80's early 90's, you will get a kick out of this. Saturday night was the reunion show of Cry Wolf. (www.crywolftheband.com) I still can not believe I went to this or how strange it was.
This may not be all that interesting to anyone unless they were in the scene or knew me or some of these people.
Tami went with me to this place called Vinnies in Concord. The place was full of musicians. It was an odd collection of people for me. I not only saw people I hung out with in the day of the bands but I also saw ones that I knew and were not really people I expected to see there. Such as the guy on the board of directors for the Walnut festival. Or Scott zimmerman, my neighbor from when I was 9-16. I will label people. If I can find the old pictures from the bands, I will post them. Then there was also Sona and Rob Teed (darn it, no picture) and Brie and others. It was really very interesting. We definetly felt young in the bar. I was 18 or 19 when I had started to hang out in this scene. At the time, the guys in the bands all had long hair. Now it is short, shaved or completely different. I saw a lot of people that I recognized the faces but had to ask who people were. Apparently everyone was doing that. It is hard to put into words what we saw that night, it was an experience. Tami will add to this I am sure. I can also lead those of you interested to another place to see more. Here is one location to see more. Michael Larsen's myspace (http://www.myspace.com/boardmadd)

August

Another view of the tunnel insides

The chipmunks are so little and cute, see him?



Shawn and Shannon

Slate creek bridge built in 1910

Port wine bank remains.


Opening to tunnel

Inside of tunnel I guess, I was not there, this was the boys.


So we have had a busy month. First we spent 5 days in Minnesota. Of course I had a wedding the following wedding. It was the most local one I have had, right in Danville. Then after that it was get ready to go to the cabin. We met Shawn and Alison at the cabin. Shawn rode his motorcycle from Minnesota and Alison is actually from Woodland (on the way to the cabin) and we picked her up. By the way, Shawn is a friend of Shannon's from college and work in MN. We had fabulous weather up there. Shawn had a great time riding out to Ca. He was stopping in National forests, as many as he could and some other sites. I am eager to see his pictures as he does take great pictures. (a hobby of his I think) So while up at the cabin, we all went one day and did some exploring of old gold mine country and mines and such. La Porte was a mining town and actually there are some old mines and hydrolic mines. The guys were more adventurous than we were and went to explore some tunnels and stuff. We found an old ghost town area called Port wine and the cemetary and old bank. We have been before but could not find the bank and this time we found the remains of the bank.
The next day Alison and I spent the day at the cabin doing nothing and the guys went for a hike on the Pacific crest trail. Over at the cabin, we had a lots of little chipmunks running around. I put some food out for them and they were coming up on the deck, while we were sitting right there and eating it. I had flip flops on and they were coming way to close to me and my toes. (Which may resemble peanuts to them? I was afraid they would get me) The guys ended up doing a 10 mile hike that day and came back pretty tired. They seemed to have a great time though.
Friday was more a lazy day. We all drove to the dam, then around the resevoir. We had lunch in La Porte at Reilly's saloon and cafe. I had never ever been in the bar there and the food was pretty good. We headed home in the afternoon and stopped in Woodland to drop off Aliston but also had dinner with them.
Then Saturday morning Shannon left to go flying in Truckee, I mean early, left about 6 am. I had an appointment with clients that took all day. That evening was another uh adventure. Read the next post

Pancho & Laura are getting Married

Pancho and laura are very excited to be engaged and plan on having the wedding sometime next year around September.

Anne's First Annual Last Ever Birthday Celebration

Tootsie the cat!

We headed to Minnesota on August 1/2. It was a red eye at midnight so we went to the airport on the first and arrived at 5:30 am on the 2nd. On the first I had a client to meet at 6:30 pm in San Jose and then race home to get packed so we could leave to SFO about 9 or so. This was also the same day the bridge in Minneapolis collapsed. So I got home from my meeting and tried to pack but had a few calls and such regarding the bridge and is everyone back there ok. Thankfully, everyone was ok.

So we took a red eye on the vampire plane, Sun Country. (The Minnesota people told me vampires fly it as they were only flying at night) Since they got us in that morning before the sun came up, it might be true. But I did see the pilots and they didn't look to vampire like. Anyway..... we spent the first part of our day sleeping. Well Shannon had a project to finish and send to work and we both slept maybe 5 hours. Then we had things to do to help to get ready for this party. We went to lunch and a few stores to get some things we needed. Hershey kisses and name tag holders and stuff. Spent the rest of the day doing some prep for the party and then went to dinner with Shannon's parents. It was a good relaxing day and the next day had a lot in store for us.

Friday Shannon and I drove to Owatanna to pick up the pig (cake). Isn't he cute??? He was so good too.

Around noon Shannon's Aunt Barb arrived with her dog Bandit. She drove from Washington state.

She and I had never met and we clicked really well. I got to meet a lot of Shannon's family on both sides for this trip. We all took a trip to Costco. Shannon's parents, Barb, Shannon and I, it was the adventure trip to Costco. It was fun. Once we got back to the house, people started to arrive. Friday evening we had Joan and Allen and their son Ron. (Anne's sister, huband and son) Alice and Carole. (Anne's high school friends she had not seen in years) Muriel and Steve are people from the hospital. Ellen and Ed, (Annes cousin who had the triple transplant) Peggy and Rod (Anne's other sister) Barb is Dan's sister. Jed and Yang also made an appearance. Shannon's cousin and wife and Shannon had not seen his cousin in about 15-20 years. We had such a fantastic group of people and everyone was nice and great personalities. Dan bbq'ed and by the end of that night, Anne was beat. I think everyone left around 9.

Saturday we had thunderstorms in the forecast. Our plan for the day was everyone meeting around noon at the house, doing light lunch (make your own sandwiches) and then going to St. Paul to the Paddleford boat and going on the boat on the Mississippi then returning to the house for a casual dinner and cake. It rained!!! It was a lot of fun. Anne loved it! The boat was Dan's idea so he gets points for that. This is just everyone getting lunch and then on the boat pics.

After the boat ride we all went back to the house. (Shannon and I drove by the Oscar Meyer weiner car) For dinner, we had a wonderful meal brought in so that made life easier. Then it was just visiting and eating and cake!! Long night but really great and Anne loved it. So I am really glad I was able to help in making it such a great day for her. Below is Anne and Chucks wife Rachel and the next one is Anne and her cousin Ellen that had the triple transplant. Above is Shannon's cousin Ron and Anne on the boat and the building off the river is some building I forget the information on.

Below is a picture of Shannon's Dad, Dan, cousin Jed, Aunt Barb, and Jeds wife Yang. Other pictures is Chuck and Rachel, Shannons Uncle and wife.

Sunday we had breakfast, then it was another adventure. Shannon's parents, Shannon, me, Joan, Chuck, Rachel and Barb all went to R.E.I and then Michaels. That was fun. Then Shannon and I packed up and met Allison and Shawn, SHannon's friends for dinner and went to the airport. The flight was a little delayed and we left around 11PM or so and got home to the house at 2!!! Yikes, I had to get up to be at work to do payroll at 7:30. It was a hard day!!

Mars

Everyone and their mother and their children and children's children should see this as it will never be again for any of us...........

27th Aug the Whole World is waiting for!Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky starting August.It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. This will cultivate on Aug. 27 when Mars comes within 34.65M miles of earth. Be sure to watch the sky on Aug. 27 12:30 am. It will look like the earth has 2 moons. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287.Share this with your friends as NO ONE ALIVE TODAY will ever see it again.

TAC

So wondering what TAC is? It is the temp place that has put me in the temp to hire job with Safeway. The new job as HR coordinator admin assistant, or whatever it is, is at Safeway in the corporate office in Walnut Creek. Lots of people in the office, maybe 300 but I dont see many. So far I have had 4 days. 2 were a crash training and then 5 days on vacation and then started back again. Needless to say, I don't know much of what I was trained on in 2 days. The second 2 days I have done not much at all. The gal left and there is another gal trying to cover her desk and everyones busy so I am not doing much. Today I created nametags and some other things. Kanika would be proud of my using excel!
Anyway, cafe is decent and has some pretty cheap things. Not much else to report, just trying to figure out the people and job. It is similar to what I did (or rarely did) at I-hire. I am sure I could tell you more, but I don't know what to tell.

July 4th adventure

July 4th Weekend Shannon and I did a little trip up North. We went on the 3rd to Truckee. We were able to stay at our Friends, Vicki and Vince's cabin. Well it was a cabin I had never been to, but more like a huge house. Beautiful place to stay. We are very thankful that they let us stay, it was nice and convenient and saved us a ton for a hotel. We would have camped at the campground but it was dark when we were arriving and then more than a day or so of camping out can get old. This was the first year in years that I was not around for the Danville 4th of July parade, however as I drove through town, there were hundreds of chairs out and ready for the next morning. Its a sight to see all these chairs set up. July 4th we went to the Truckee airport, there is a side that is a glider airport. It got hot pretty fast. Shannon took off around Noon and I went into Truckee. I was just 15 minutes after the Truckee parade so I just barely beat traffic. I had lunch, shopped a little (most stores were closed) then went to the grocery store. I was not sure how long Shannon would be flying. He had a goal of 750 kilometers so I knew I didnt need to be back to get him until 5 or so. I did go back to the airport around 4:30 and socialized a little. Shannon had a good flying day but it wasn't a great day. He only made it about 300 km so no where near his goal. He came back really happy and very hungry. We wanted to try to get to the fireworks somewhere that night. There were fireworks in Tahoe City, South Shore (huge) and Donner lake. So we went to the only place we could find open, Pizza and then to Kings Beach to sit and watch fireworks. One of the other glider pilots joined us, Sebastian, as he was up in Truckee on his own. It was fun, a little far away for fireworks but weather was great.

July 5th we went back to the airport and it was getting hot early. When I left I really didn't know where I would go. It was earlier, about 11 and I knew I had a full day. Shannon was saying the weather looked promising and probably be back more like 6 or 7 that evening. So off I went again into Truckee. Shops were open so I wandered in and out of nearly all the shops on Donner Pass Rd. I also went to the grocery stores and Longs. I needed to find what to take for an appetizer at the picnic we were going to on Saturday and needed a raffle prize. I also took a drive, was planning on going to South Shore but made it to Tahoe City and got sick of traffic. It was a record breaking 100 today in Truckee. I went back to the airport around 5:30. I new it would be a while before Shannon got back because I had seen how the clouds were early in the day and knew it was great soaring weather. So I just hung around and socialized with the people already back and listened to the stories. Shannon had a great flight and returned about 6:15. He had gone 856 km, down passed Mono Lake I think. He came back very happy and excited.

Friday July 6th we headed over to the airport. Shannons owns the glider with someone else and he was going to be taking the glider flying so we had to meet up with him early. Today it was my turn to go fly. We had to take a different glider that has 2 seats. I have not been flying since 2005. It was a great flight. We were heading towards a place north of Reno but didn't get that far as there were thunderstorms and we could see lightning. Apparently the lightning started 5 fires.

Its not easy to get great pictures but here are some I took. It was great to go fly. These pictures are Donner lake, Northstar, Us, and Lake Tahoe and Truckee glider portion of airport both from the air and on land and then an airplane above us. I actually did a video of us landing, let me know if you want to see it. It may make you motion sick. It is funny to watch though.

When we returned, we packed up to head to La Porte where my cabin is, for the festivities on the 7th. We had a full cabin. Uncle Tom went up to the cabin Thursday. We went Friday evening and then not long after we arrived, James and Sarah and Carole arrived. Shannon and I were just beat and went to bed before Amy and Mike arrived. We had a full cabin. Saturday after we all did breakfast, we went down to the picnic grounds for the general meeting and then picnic to follow. Amy and I had volunteered to sell the raffle and food/drink tickets. It was not too much of a crowd this year at the picnic. Next year I will volunteer to bartend. Things went fairly well. It was the first time we had all been up for a picnic together in many years, maybe 16 or more. It was Carole's first time up in about 16 years. So we were all sort of excited to be there and make sure people knew how we were and that we now own the cabin, not Lenore. Well then..........I saw Lenore arrive. Not sure why or what made her do that but that has a long and not so great history. We all handled her very well. I was just waiting for her and Carole to get into it. Anyway, we stayed until Sunday. Shannon and I were the last to leave and we had plans to head to the mining areas and explore. It was great weather and we had a great time. Didn't explore too much. Most the mining areas are from hydrolic mining. We saw an old bridge, old mining equipment, old cemetary and stuff. Then we headed home.

Tami- note how the sunflowers look now compared to when we came home? They are all drying up. (Shannon cut one for me but it was not in a sunflower field it was in a random place with some other crop. ) So that was our trip.

*** Take note that my brother has a new venture, and the link is up at the top right of my blog. **

New Venture

So today I interviewed for a jop opportunity with Safeway in corporate offices. The job is Human Resources Administrative Assistant. Hmmmm the job duties do not sound like the title now that I think of it, but oh well. They called me an hour later and wanted me to start today! Well I could not do today so Monday at 7:30 I start a new job.
I sort of wanted to work and sort of don't because I am getting bored. I hope I get my mind ready. Wish me luck

Animals, people and things

So yesterday I made a drive to Santa Clara to participate in the Diabetes Expo planning kickoff. On the drive down 680, (which only took 45 minutes from San Ramon to Santa Clara), guess what I saw?? Yep, more goats. A couple hundred of them on the other side of the freeway. Its kind of neat to see, well so I thought. Driving back from Santa Clara, which I left at 5:15, the goats were not so cute. The traffic report kept reporting that goats were on the freeway. So I was waiting to see what happened when I got up ther, which took about 45 minutes, only about 10 miles away!!!!! Freaking goats, freaking people. What is wrong with people, they haven't seen goats before, just drive, don't stop and stare. The goats were not in any way on the freeway. The hill they were on put them right next to the freeway, so if they did chew threw the fence they would be. Oh brother!!!
Next was we went to the fair. My friend Jim called and said they were going after dinner and it was the day of $2 to get in. So Shannon and I went to the Alameda county fair. I had not been in years. I want to go back actually. Shannon and I got there before the others and the gate we went in had the livestock. There was a section of newly born calves, sheep and pigs. It was actually cool. There were several sheep and their babies that were 2-5 days old. Many other sheep and all are due to give birth during the fair. I thought that was cool. There was a huge pig and then the 6 babies of 3 days old I think. They were under the heat lamps. There was a 1 month calf and its 8 year old momma cow. There were also so very very quiet chickens that lay brown eggs each day. It was neat to see. We also checked out the other livestock, which included various types of sheep and some small cows and rather huge cows. Apparently we missed the small animal exhibit, which I now want to go back to see.
Wandered through the exhibits: gardens, collections and not sure what else. We really didn't cover the entire place. There were tons of things to see.
The others showed up, 2 other couples and we wandered around more. We watched the teenagers trying to ride the mechanical bull. A few of the others got beers and we checked out a few more things, heading towards the rides. They had a great price for unlimited rides so all 6 of us got the unlimited rides. The rides were great, but I also love the rides that make you go upside down and stuff. Apparently even though all of us loved the rides, the 3rd ride we went on, one of the girls with us completely tossed her cookies at the end of the ride, when it stopped. It was awful. I have never been with people that got sick from rides. She was so sick, then after that she wanted to go on more. I could not believe that. So they went on another and only 3 went as 3 of us did (Jim, Shannon and I) not want to get thrown up on. When they got off this ride, one of the guys ran away as he was sure he would be sick. I could not believe this. Sure they had dinner earlier, and the one girl was saying "oh its because we ate dinner first". So did Shannon and I and for that matter, we also ate a plate of nachos at the fair, but we were not throwing up everywhere. So then I turn around and she is sick again. This is unreal. So the 3 of us went to see the animals again and not sure where the others went. They wanted to go on more rides, even though they were throwing up!!! So sure enough when I said it would be fun and interesting to go with a group of people, it was.
Shannon and I both had the same thought today, we wanted to go back to the fair and see the animals and the ones we missed. We might before the fair ends. We will take pictures if we do!