For those who don’t watch our flickr page to stay up on our wear abouts which I am guessing is probably about everyone except for maybe Deb, here’s a photo update of our recent outings.
Our first and definitely not our last trip to Yosemite.
Christmas in Reno, kids make it all so much fun.
First hike at Mt Diablo, amazing views.
A New Year with new friends!
A tour of the California Academy of Sciences – dorky fun goodness.
My grandmother used to say …gun. Or at least I think that’s how my mom tells it. Elliott and I like to say camera. Fortunately we were able to fetch a camera before this bird left its post at our building this morning. We went to work to pick up my computer and were welcomed by this striking fowl. If anyone can identify as guaranteed a…. (vulture, turkey, eagle, hawk… I don’t know) please let me know. I think it was looking for a mate, that or airing out…
We watched my new favorite movie today, Curiosity of Chance, I highly recommend it if you are up for something beyond the typical. We watched the Bank Job last night. It was ok, the thing that made it is that is based on a true story. Although because of the setting and language Elliott and I have been over using the word wanker. I just looked up the meaning of it, not what I expected, well don’t be a wanker and judge me over that.
We also went on a walk about today. From our house to downtown Pleasanton. About 7 miles round trip! We had a great time. We took our newest toy a Diana camera. We wanted to take our first roll to see how it works. It was fun. We forgot multiple times to focus it and then realized we had it on the wrong setting, we had it set to take 16 pictures although we didn’t have the mask thing on so we meant to take 12 wider pictures – which matters when you are hand turning the film. Oh well, who knows how it will turnout, hopefully some of them worked out. Elliott was set on the pictures needing to be gritty. So we focused on stopping at sites like the railroad tracks and overpasses. Watch for our fav’s coming soon.
Otherwise we are taking a break now. Catching up on laundry. Made our shopping list for the week so have to go grocery shopping, our fridge includes only milk and condiments. Over and out.
I lost the last few weeks. Between my high school reunion in LV and strategic planning in Tahoe for work the rest has been a blur. A typical night has been make dinner and have some wine or out to dinner for margaritas. That means the next day at work is a 2-3 cups of coffee day, finish the day and repeat. I don’t want to sound like it has been out of control binge drinking, I have just felt disconnected. Like I have been going through the motions. I believe I was working while at work and still thinking although a bit more like a computer responding based on previous inputs and outputs with little consciousness.
This weekend I started a detox. It being Halloween I couldn’t necessarily give up cocktails so I gave up coffee as a start. I think coffee makes me crazy. It just adds to the monotony of the work day and contributes to my fog in the morning. We decided to stay home this weekend instead of traveling to Reno mostly because we needed it. We got invited to a party Friday night which was great! We didn’t dress up, I joked with Elliott that we were going to the party as lame-o’s. Because we didn’t dress up I insisted that we bring the ingredients for a cocktail that would be Halloween related. So we brought – Dracula’s Kiss. It was a hit so I felt like we contributed. We also joked that we looked like Old Navy models, which was pretty true. Who knew that two people who went through a phase of skull t-shirts and dark eyeliner with jeans held together with safety pins would turn out to be so preppy! We learned a new game called liars dice which was a lot of fun (similar to the card game bullshit), it will definitely be making an appearance at the holidays if we can get any traction with it at either of our families.
As a back track Friday day we went to the Ardenwood farm in Fremont. Including a tour of one of the old farm house. I am not usually into museum type stuff although the house tour was cool. They had an ice box that was the refrigerator of the day. And so many kitchen appliances that were hand powered, it was pretty cool. We didn’t have a camera so no pictures to post…
Today, despite the grand entrance of the rainy season we decided to hit another bay area back road. Totally unsustainable, I know, driving is still one of our favorite things to do. We drove up towards Sonoma. We went up 101 to Healdsburg and then headed west to Stewart’s Point. What an amazing drive! It was so beautiful. Some of the first pictures are at the Sonoma Lake with a really cool overlook area with a great view of the earthen dam.
We continued on and eventually hit the coast and highway 1. I wanted to visit the small towns general store although it was closed… So we headed south to see Jenner. We stopped when we saw a cafe open, I had a banana for a snack although approaching 1:30pm I think Elliott was pretty hungry. The food was perfect. May be just the thing to inspire me to set up a yelp account! We were the only 2 in the place, not surprising for a rainy day on the coast. We had hot tea, chowder, ham & swiss, a burger – yum!
Then we drove through Jenner and through Bodega Bay. I really wanted to go to Bodega Bay because I always think that a certain is bridge is there that I want to see. I don’t know why but my brain can’t remember that the bridge is in Redding. My mom put me onto this bridge and I think every time I ask her about the bridge in Bodega Bay and she looks at me questionably until she can extrapolate my reference. Well we never found the bridge because apparently it is in Redding, just a little off!
At any rate we had a great day together. Stopping to take in the ocean. Listening to the rain. Snapping pictures. Oh and we saw some of those happy cows you hear about in California. They were walking along highway 1, I have to agree they most be really happy cows!
We posted pics of our adventure here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elliottgoodwin/sets/72157608581224327/
Oh, I totally forgot, saved the best for last. We don’t have a picture to prove it, both me and our camera are too slow. Although we saw a wild boar walking down and then cross the street right in front of us. We are such yuppies that this was nearly the highlight of our day! I had never seen such an animal. Pretty cool.
With Elliott being gone I have tons of time on my hands. I am reading 2 books and the other night spent some time surfing the Internet – normally that is Elliott’s schtick. I started looking for something don’t remember what now when shiny blinky things distracted me on the MSN page. I read a few stories, watched a few videos when this caught my eye: http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-us&vid=cfbf32a8-2be8-4cdc-9791-8493896297d9 
. I had never seen the music video so I went looking for what was so leud and suggestive that warranted “I kissed a girl and I liked then I went to hell”. I have a 2 friends who are gay who used to live in Ohio who left and moved out here looking for a better life where they would be more accepted, I think they made a good choice.
Looking for that link just now I learned that Paul Neman died. I watched some of the videos, he was an amazing actor and gave back so much later in life. That made me cry… I love that he stayed with his wife for over 30 years.
Running update. I ran my loop the regular way today and ended up walking 1/2 of it, not sure why I wasn’t feeling as good this morning. Maybe because it was hotter than normal since I went later. I did go in shorts and a sports bra which was a big step for me. It is my goal to be in good enough shape to feel comfortable out and about in shorts and sports bra, its silly although my goal. So I did it and felt good. It was nice to get some sun on more than just my arms.
I listened to quite a bit of the debate last night. I didn’t see the video I listened to in the car and then on the Internet. I found it frustrating at times. I would be more impressed if they answered questions rather than spouting out their agenda without responding to the question. I normally shy away from politics and taking a public view although I think McCain was more direct about answering questions than Obama. The other thing that frustrated me was their word choice. I heard a lot of gonna’s and we got to. I hate to be the snobby Toastmaster although I found it borderline offensive. Do they think they have to talk down to our level so we can understand them? Or are they just that poor at using proper grammar while speaking? I was not impressed.
Elliott comes back tonight! I have some errands to run and more reading to do, gotta run!
