Whales!!

On our way home yesterday, the vanpool pulled over for some unexpected wildlife viewing! Humpback whales! It was really exciting to see their spouts. Saw a little glimpse of a tail fluke. The water was calm and glassy so it was easy to spot them. It was really neat!!!
http://www.oceanicsociety.org/whale

TTFN

AMAZING KID

My friend, J, just sent this to me. What an amazing kid! A little inspiration for us all.
http://www.heraldleaderphoto.com/2008/05/31/adam-bender/

Everyday life

Hi Everyone,

So, everything is back into full swing since my sabbatical. It's actually nice to be back into a routine again. They moved my desk at work to a new area. After 7yrs at this company, I FINALLY got a window! Still stuck in a little cube, but I'll take it if it means I can look outside when I want.

What have we been up to? Well, our friends that live 2hrs east of here needed our help with moving, so we headed out there on Labor Day weekend. It was really nice to spend some time with them and help them pack. Their little girl is getting bigger and smarter by the day. She's a sweet little girl. Pics to come. They were finishing up the move this weekend. Hope things went well.

This last weekend we went riding w/ our friends, the Starks family. We had a really nice time, but it was HOT. Had fun on the black diamonds in the morning! At on point I caught too much front brake and dumped my bike. It was facing down hill on a down slope. It was crazy difficult to pick it up, but I did it w/o M or G's help! I was excited I did it w/o help. Problem is, they'll now expect me to pick it up on my own EVERY time from here on out!. :)

It's been crazy hot here over the last two weeks. Yesterday was the first cool, foggy day we've had in a while. I'm really glad the heat has gone for a few days.

Well, I best catch my vanpool home (yes, I'm still at work...shhhhhh, don't tell!) I'll update again soon. TTFN

Go speed racer GO!

Yesterday my group at work had an off-site team building day. We got to do go-kart racing! Now, I'm not sure how good it was for "team building" but everyone had a lot of fun. This group was extremely competitive. There was about 40 of us, so they divided us into about 4 groups and we all got to do a practice round and then a qualifying round, and then if you qualified you got to go into the top 10 main race. The qualifying round was alot of fun because everyone had picked up speed from understanding how to drive the kart and take the corners. What was cool was you only had to get one really good lap to qualify. My team went 2nd to last in the qualifying rounds, so we knew what our times had to be qualify. I was really excited to make it into the top 10! Wooohooo. I was really disappointed when I started out the final race and realized I got the worst kart possible! It was popping and I couldn't get it to go fast or make the corners like I wanted! I was being passed every lap :( and was then slammed into on several occasions and lost ground (this was a competition of place, not time). Oh well, it was a TON of fun anyway. I'm paying for it now w/ sore arms, shoulders, neck and back...

OH boy! I hit 70mph on my street bike yesterday on the way home! That's the fastest I've been on it! I'm still uncomfortable going too much faster and really, there's no need to anyway. I've not split lanes either (you can legally do that in CA!), but I haven't really had need to anyway.

My 3rd cousin, Tomas, is coming out this way to go to school, so I'll be picking him up from the airport on Wednesday and taking him to his dorm! He's really excited to come out and it will be nice to have some more family here. His dad will be out to visit soon too, so we'll have company. Welcome Tomas!

My sister got to visit the DNC in Denver yesterday! Lucky her, she even got to sit in their seats! This has been and will continue to be an interesting year for presidential election!

Well, should get to cleaning the house before Matt gets back from the motorcycle shop (went to get his shims replaced on his dirt bike valves). Until the next post...Carpe Diem!

ZOO Day

Today we went to the Oakland Zoo for my "niece's" Birthday. Happy 11th EM! J got us in for feeding the giraffes! THANKS J! It was an amazing experience and neat to see the personalities of each one. Here are a few pics! Enjoy!

Update

Hi All. Thought I'd post some pics. I had a nice 6 weeks off! I enjoyed many books, movies, walks on the beach, sunny days gardening, and a week in Colorado. I also took my "Nieces" for a couple of days and we had a blast. I rode my motorcycle a couple of times and we went dirt riding too. The whole vacation was very relaxing. Now it's back to work.
Enjoy the Pics.
Em and Al



Girls Week in Colorado


Sisters


Cozumel

Sunny Day

Hello everyone! Well, this weekend was GREAT! Friday was a lot of fun! Our friends the Starks came over in the early afternoon. The guys took my new bike out for a ride and came back for Happy Hour. I had the kids make Dirt Pie! It was fun and messy. Al made the "dirt" and Em helped me make the "mud". Ian got his hands dirty too stirring in the butter and sugar. We put the dirt pie into flower pots and added some silk flowers and gummy worms to top it all off. Gail and her kids came over too, just in time for happy hour! We all had a really nice time even though the fireworks were in the fog!

Saturday we washed the cars and the bikes. We also took a nice long ride and then stopped for coffee before coming back home around 7pm. My bike is a lot of fun. :)

Yesterday we went for a 4 mile hike in the mountains about 45min from here and then to an early dinner at Alice's at Woodside. We saw some really great views, a couple of lakes, lots of lizards and birds and walked through the interpretive center. It was really warm, about 85-90 degrees, but was really nice when we were in the shade. It's amazing that we live so close to so many great places to hike. It's been a while since we've done a hike like that, so it was really nice.

Well, it's getting late in the morning and I need to get out of my PJs. ;) Until next time!