Life in and around S.S.F.

Back to work tomorrow. Christian said things have been crazy. I’m not surprised. They abandoned the balance I had established between in-house and outsourcing the work. It’s a ton of bricks that has now fallen over. Dropped mom and Gil off at Budget car rental. I haven’t been through the new rental center at SFO in a few years. It was hilarious. I drove through the rental return only lanes. The security gaurd actually turned his back on us as we pasted. We weren’t suppose to be there at all but made it into the center without any problems. A Budget worker was upset that I made it into the garage. It worked out great because I was able to drive to the car they rented and trade the luggage into it. There were so many suitcases and golf bags that it would have been very difficult to transport several floors and through the garages. They were nice enough to give Gil and extra exit card so I could get out. Then we went and picked up Sporty to play with for a few hours. She is an awesome dog and will be coming over for a sleep over Friday night. The girls are super excited. I’m sure they will want her to sleep in there room with them. I’m very comfortable with that as she is so loving and gentle with them. There was a news report of a pit bull attack just now on the news. So sad that people train such great dogs to do such horrible things. I’m sure Sport will be able to change peoples opinion of pits. Well off to bed. I have to get up tomorrow for work. One last thing. I’m grateful to God for giving me the gift of being able to repair instrumentation. It’s the perfect type of work for my personality.

It rained all night and most of the morning. We didn’t get out to Poplar Creek till around 12:30. It drained pretty well so it wasn’t too bad. I shot a 97. Not as good as I would like to. Gil beat me by two strokes. He gave me ten strokes for the whole round. I gave them all away on the front nine. Then I caught fire on the back. He only beat me by two strokes on the back nine. That gave me some hope for my game. I’m going to join the Poplar Creek Men’s Golf Club so I can participate in tournaments this summer. Should be  fun. Then out to dinner at Kinkaid’s in Burlingame. Had the cioppino. Pretty great. Abby and Sarah had great “resteraunt manners”. I was so proud of them. Abby had shrimp of course. We finally went to a place Gil liked. I think we have to pick more expensive places when they come out to visit. When we got home, I opened a can of whoop scrabble. I’m looking forward to the next time we can play.

Started off by making pancakes for everyone. Erica made the batter the night before so all I had to do was heat up a pan and get flippin’. Then did dishes. Aren’t I a good husband??? Then we loaded up for the California Acadamy of Sciences relocated to 4th and Brannon. It wasn’t as good as the last time we went because the army ant exhibit wasn’t going. The leaf cutter ants were cool still. Watching them all work together without thought of self was intersting. I wonder if they ever have civil wars or coup d’etat? The girls went from exhibit to exhibit without seeing much. Grampa lagged behind because he wanted to see everything. Then we went to Mel’s Diner for lunch. Simple and satisfying. The service was worst ever. Not crowded or anything, just really scattered waiters. Probably new. I took everyone home and went to Home Depot Pro to pick up more items for the chain link fence. Of course I bought some wrong stuff so I have to take it back tomorrow. I’ll post some pictures of it layed out on the grass and post them tomorrow. It’s going to be a pretty clean installation because I have it all but bolted together on the back lawn. That way I know for a fact I have everything before I start. Got to hit the futon now. We have a 7:39 tee off tomorrow morning at Poplar Creek. Should be a pretty close match since I know the course pretty well. It will be only the second time Gil has played it. If I play conservatively, I should do pretty well. Maybe even break 90 for the first time on a legitimate course. Over and out. BTW: POSH is not from Port Out StarboardHome for those of you disseminating incorrect information. Boy I love the internet as a research tool.

Started off with an Easter egg hunt for the girls. They were so great finding the eggs. Still needed some coaching though. Then opened Easter gifts. I have a hard time with Easter turning into Christmas. The wife enjoys it and it makes memories. We do focus on Easter being about the resurrection of Christ and the girls know that. Then off to Crystal Springs golf course. I shot a 97. Not bad for seven weeks of rust. Had a few great drives and a couple of fantastic chips. One came within a few inches of the cup. There were deer on the fifth as usual. Scrambled back to the house. Barney, Becky, Mike, Lila, Russel, Kati, Mom, Gil, Erica, Sarah, Abby and myself played and goofed off. Talked conservative politics. Long discussions about Terri Schiavo. My opinion is the husband is a slime ball murderer. If Terri wanted to die, she certainly didn’t mean for it to be by starvation. Why not a mercy shot? Nope, just starvation. Can’t even get away with doing that to a dog in Florida, nope. Human O.K. to starve, dog, not O.K. to starve. Doesn’t make sense to me. Type at you tomorrow.

Started off great. Did a lot of work getting ready for Abby’s B-Day party. Family came over before hand for lunch. It was a sunny pleseant day. We hung out in the back yard. People started to show up. Only a few kids made it because some got sick last minute. Had an egg hunt and cake. Then just hung out for a while. It was casual and not hectic. A perfect kids party. Then off to church. Great service. Four baptisms. A Chinese couple. “I was bitter and learned how to love my spouse all over again because God loved me first.” Then a couple of football players from Diablo Valley college. Then we gave a ride home for a women studying the Bible. What a great day.

Day one actually started the night before. I got off work and finished cleaning the junk from the garage. The debris bin was scheduled to be picked up the next morning. We let the girls stay up late so they would sleep in. Then we could sleep in also. Well, when shower time came, the girls started freaking out because the tub was backing up. I looked in the toilet and it was starting to fill also. Erica was washing, Abby had pooped and flushed and with the shower going it was just to much to drain. I tried the plunger, then upgraded to removing the toilet and snaking a couple of feet. No go. This morning I hit up Lowe’s and got a $250, 50ft, two bladed professional snake. That did the trick. Started on cleaning the floors when Christian from work called. Water got pushed into the mass specs. That’s almost $250K worth of equipment. He’s never looked at the thing, Jason has a scheduled day off, Sid is out sick. I ran into work and shut the systems down. Jason can deal with it on Sunday. Then back to the floors. Picked up mom and step dad from the airport. They are here for five days. Went and picked up Sporty for a visit. She is a cool dog! Took her to the park, then a short run. Came back home and let her off leash. She did fine. Now I’m really motivated to get that fence in so she can come stay a couple of days with us just to make extra sure we are ready to have a dog. Dinner, egg coloring now shower time again. What a hectic, busy, productive and great day.

I decided to just go for it. I rented one of those debris containers and emptied out the garage. So much was water damaged and it just got tossed, never to be seen again. Just in time for Abby’s B-day party and Easter. We got Aunts and Uncles coming over. Should be fun.

Easter Service is at the Santa Clara Marriot on Great America Parkway just past Great America. My mom and step-dad are coming with us. Very encouraged!!!

The walk-a-thon fund raising is going great. If you haven’t heard, Erica and I are participating in the Walk America walk-a-thon. The fundraising will help prevent premature births like Paul was. Go here if you want to help sponser me. I’m only a few hundred dollars away from my goal.

Sunday afternoon there was a tornado in SSF. We were gone till evening and didn’t see it but met some people that did. When we got home, nothing was disturbed. I have some scrap wood in the back that didn’t budge. Also, there was some broken down card board boxes that didn’t move either. I thought somebody was just exaggerating. Then I went to SFGATE and found a few pictures. The map below shows it went right over our house!!!!

I started Saturday off by filling the drain ditch. It’s suppose to be a “French” drain. I’ve renamed it a “Mexican” drain. I have a perferated tube covered with rock. It drains to a hole with a pump. The pump sends the water to the street. The street is higher so it’s the only way. I pulled a bunch of weeds from the front. I also replanted my chives. We cleaned and organized the attic.  The moving boxes from work are perfect. Everything is labelled and positioned to be able to know what’s in them. They are somewhat sorted. I’ll probably  completely sort them after Easter. We boxed up the stuff from the garage that we wanted to keep and put it in the attic. All I have to do now is toss out all the junkey stuff from the garage. I’ll completely gut the thing and start it off from scratch. We’ll put the side door back in. The previous owner had removed the door because they installed a shed and wouldn’t be able to access it. The new door will have a doggie door also. More on the dog in a minute. Erica wants open shelving for storage of baking stuff. Maybe we’ll have enough space for a pantry also. I’ll need some space for the kid’s outdoor toys. i.e. balls, buckets, baseball, sidewalk chalk. Then some space for yard tools. That will allow us to get rid of the rusty shed. I’d like to make that part of the backyard into a BBQ and socializing area. Maybe a retractable awning as well.

The dog: We met Sporty this afternoon. She’s a great dog. Very well behaved, active but not overly so. She lived with a family that had two kids and never any problems. She’s a Staffordshire terrier mix. If we get her, the girls want to call her Jenna because of the movie Balto. After seeing her, Oreo is what came to mind. Here’s some more information on her. Reunion Rescue: Sporty

Swim lessons tomorrow, Tuesday is parent teacher conference, Wednesday is dad’s at church, Thursday is Abby’s birthday, Friday is Bible Talk get together. Have a great week everyone.

Erica’s cake               Twins inside        Do I know you?  Don’t you be eyeballin me!!!!

Check out the baby shower photo album here. There are captions on the left. You can click on the pictures to make them bigger.

It was a beautiful day in Hercules, CA. We were at my brother Rick’s new house. Velia was in charge of food. The big hit was carne asada. Other delites included: spanish rice, Velia’s famous beans, fried chicken wings and drummetts, veggie platter, spinich dip, mixed fruit, cheese and cracker tray, a watermellon made into a baby buggy, pickles, marinated mushrooms, pepperoncinis.

The games were: Guess who this famouse Matthew or Mike is. You can ask someone three yes or no questions to try to figure out who’s name was taped to your back.

Guess how many M&Ms (Matthew and Michael, get it) are in this baby bottle. Patty won with an exact guess of 267.

Poopy diaper game. A diaper had a microwaved candy bar in it. Had to guess which candy bar. There were twelve total. It had a four way tie with seven correct answers. Won my Big Mike, Cousin Tony, don’t remember the other two.

Baby gift bingo. Had to fill in a bingo card with gifts you think they would get. Don’t remember who won that.

Finaly, baby diaper surprise. Tammy made a little paper diaper dipped in wax and filled with candy. Only one had the surprise at the bottom. Cousin Tony won. That figures…

No drama took place. Everyone was polite, cheerful and social. Very impressive with so much history in that room. Hat’s off to everyone!!!!