TGIF

What a week. What started with a great bike ride and a shocking view has ended with a Friday night at home on a treadmill. Still not losing weight like I'd like, but that's mainly because I'm still snacking too much. Without my wife to chat with, don't have any one to discuss all those daily things we encounter. Not sure why, but this week seems to have had more than usual. Let's give them a quick run through.

First and foremost the wife and child. They're still in Chile and doing well. However, in talking with Maria, Nate's got a cold. Combine this with Sabine's cold and Maria is spending a lot of time with 4 kids, and she doesn't have me to help give her a break. When we chatted, she seemed kind of stressed about the whole thing. Nothing serious, I think it's just being tired after a long day. Although right now their long days are by the pool, with the sun high in the sky. Apparently Nate and blonde boy self are quite the attention getter. He's also getting a bit of a sunburn just below the eyes. Maria's is applying sunscreen by the gallon, but apparently the sun's really bad there. I've been talking to Maria almost every day, but the time zone difference of 5 hours make it a little difficult. She still doesn't have internet, so I've actually been using Skype to call the land line there. Not bad rates, ~$0.02/minute. They are leaving on Tuesday for the island in the south for 9 days. Then I'll really be out of touch with them. Maria tells me that Nate has been talking more in spanish, but is also saying he misses daddy, misses Lilo, misses his toys and wants to go home. Maria has asked, but apparently he doesn't really miss Ohana.

On Monday, John, Brad, Steve and I played Darkhorse. I really do love that course. My favorite around here. And as usual, it really destroyed me. Actually only shot a 101, I remember when that was a really good score. I started off well, but there was a stretch of holes, starting on #5 that really messed me up. Before John and I headed up to Auburn to play, we waited in line ar RC Wiley as they were having some door buster sales. I picked up a 7" portable DVD player for nate for $20. It was supposed tob e 1 per family, but several people in front of us in line grabbed more than one. It was limited to the first 100 people and as it turns out they sold out about 6 people before me. Luckily however, they had only ~50 in stock, when they were supposed to have 100, so I was able to pay for it an will pick it up later, when they come in.

I got a call from Jo, Tony's caretaker, that she had a seisure this week. Apparently it was 8 minutes long, so they called 911 and she was admitted into the hospital. I went to visit her, she was doing well. In fact, I have to say she was in one of the best moods I've seen her in, in a long time. She had a big smile on her face, but it could also be because she was laying in bed and getting lot's of attention. They released her yesterday from the hospital and I was planning on trying to take Lorraine and Tony out for brunch on Sunday.

Speaking of Lorraine, I stopped in and visited with her after seeing Tony. Wanted to let Lorraine know what was happening with Tony, and had promised Tony that I'd have her mom call her. A bit surprising, but Lorraine didn't seem all that worried about her and acutally brushed off the whole ordeal. It's a bit of a strange feeling for me. Lorraine and I talked about the usual things, her going home, missing her home, her plans for going to Hawaii, her hopes and fears of what it would be like if Sherry and her were to live together. She seems convinced that Sherry's trailor is a 1 room place, but unless she's moved, last time I was there it was a 2 bedroom place with a living room and kitchen. Nothing to brag about, but it is what she chose. There was a brief conversation about finances, I've tried to keep Lorraine from worrying about her running out of money. She's always been cash poor and dirt rich, but the current drain for daily care has really squeezed me, as I've put in a lot of cash to keep her in a good place. I'm having tos pend a lot of time contemplating what to do with her house. I really think it's getting to be the time to sell it, but I know that will break her heart and Sherry will do everything she can to make it difficult for everyone. Funny, but Lorraine actually discussed selling it, as the place was too big for her to live in, and talked about buying a place closer to us.

After working from Home Tues and Wed, I decided I'd better get my butt into the office Thurs and Friday. It felt good to get back on a bit more of a routine. I was a bit worried about Lilo. I know we've left her in the crate for 8 hours, but I don't liek to push it. With Maria here, its not something I have to worry about, but she's not here. So I went to work Thurs, came home early to check on the dog, figured I'd work at home for the last few hours, and wished I would have stayed home. Apparently Lilo had the runs, and you could smell it as soon as you walked in the house. She crapped all over the crate, got it on the walls and carpet and of course all over her. Spent the next 90 minutes cleaning the shit up, literally. Gave the dog a bath and was so ready to hop online and kill something. Glad it was game night with the guy's. Nothing like a good hack and slash to relieve some frustration.

All that brings me to today, Friday. Ahh, ready for the weekend. Now I know my home PC is getting old. Had it for a little more than 3 years. Which, by HP standards for our work PC's is the time they're deemed ready for retirement. It's been running sluggish lately and I wasn't sure what was going on, so I had starting to try and tune it up and was trying to decide what to do, when scanning my hard drive turned up bad sector after bad secot. After running scan on it for 36 hours, and only at ~23% complete, I figured the hard drive must be dying. Sure enough, good thing Fry's had a 1.5 TB drive on sale, because that drive won't boot anymore. Not sure what I've lost yet. I do backups pretty regularly, so I'm not too concerned, but may have lost some of our Xmas photos from this year. We'll have to see as I continue to recover that drive and install the new one. I don't think I'll have a full idea of where I'm at for another few days, while the software does it's work on the drive. Good thing there's no shortage of PC's around here.

Oh, one more thing, I'm borrowing a new toy from Wally, checking out how it's working. It's a Iomega device that let's you make a digital copy of movies, TV etc. Plug in RCA jacks to it and press record and it'll save it to the internal Hard Drive. It has a 1 TB drive in it, so plenty of space. You can also copy files from your PC onto it, and then carry it from TV to TV. Sort of a portable digital media center. Thought it would be a good place to store all those episodes of Handy Manny, Little Einsteins and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for Nate. They run ~$220, depending on size of Hard Drive.

Well, I think that's about it for tonight. I'm going to go finish watching the Dark Knight on Blu-Ray, and then get to bed. I'm supposed to be playing Lockeford with John tomorrow. Should be a nice wet day. Also need to stop by and seen Nene, as they're having Claudia's birthday party tomorrow as well.

Bike Ride

Had a great day today. It was an amazing day, the temp was in the upper 60's, the sun was shining and I couldn't wait to get out and go for a bike ride. While getting ready to go was a chore, couldn't find all the pieces necessary to get the bike rack mounted to the car. Spent over an hour looking through the garage before finally getting all the pieces together and the bike loaded on the car. Drove down Sunrise Blvd and parked near the river, hopped on my bike and figured I'd head up to Folsom Lake. While the ride was great and most of the scenery was spectacular as always, I was shocked when I saw how little water was left in Folsom lake. I had read in the paper that the lake was down a lot, but never imagined it looked like it did. The damn looked like it wasn't even holding back water. Words can't even describe how low it is.


After the ride, I came back, heated up the spa, cooked dinner, talked to Maria and watched some football. While that was going on, I caught up on the football games today. I'm looking forward to playing golf tomorrow at Darkhorse with Brad, Steve and John. Hope I play better than I did yesterday.

whewww

OK, feel much better now. Got the call from the wife that everyone made it safe and sound to Chile. Haven't had a lot of time to talk with her, but at least the worry can go away.

I spoke again with her on Skype this morning. Heard Nate running around the house with his 3 new best friends. Maria said he's trying to speak some Spanish, so I think all signs are pointing to him really speaking it well by the time he has to leave. They were at Carlos' place, so no webcam, but they were able to see me, Lilo and Ohana. I've decided I have to go to Aggie's place and get her setup on Skype so she can get in on the action. I couldn't tell, but I think they were leaving Carlos' place today. Hard to get details it was all too hectic there.

As for me, not much going on. Hard to believe how quiet the house is without Nate and Maria. It really seems lonely. I guess that means more time for me. While it sounds exciting now, I wonder how it'll be sounding in a few weeks. Played some PS3 last night with Shawn and Jason, got a new game Marvel Ultimate Alliance, kind of like the old Gauntlet game, but with Comic heroes instead. Fun, but not to detailed. Graphics are good, and it seems to be good for blowing off steam. I think I still like Bad Company better. I'll have to re-hookup my Xbox so I can play Call of Duty 4. Had to put it in the gym for Shayne when they came to visit for New Year's.

Speaking of the gym, I guess I need to get back in there and do another run. Will also try and get some stretching in before I head out for golf today. We're playing with Shawn, Brad and Steve out at Mather. Have a 1:30 tee time. We've talked about playing somewhere tomorrow too, but no plans made as of now. I have the next three days to get stuff done.

Off to sweat...

Full Day

As we wrap up our busy day, I thought I'd take a moment to discuss the highlight of Nate's day. Per my previous posts, you may have thought it was the trip to the mall, playing on the play ground, or where he begged for quarters to ride those cheesy machines out front. For those that know Maria, and her ritual with Nate at the mall, you may have though it was the Pretzel and Orange Julius (although this time it was some red drink) that Nate absolutely HAD to have. According to Maria, this is a mall ritual that occurs every time they go, if Nate's good, and I don't think Maria would ever tell him he's bad. You may also think it was the time spent at Carino's glued to his Itouch, watching Mickey Mouse ClubHouse and eating his Chicken strips while sipping on his soda water with Lime. However, that was not what captured Nate's mind all day. While we were at Costco, Nate spotted a twin size bed, actually a trundle bed, so I guess it's really two twin beds. However, this one was made up to be Disney/Pixar Car's bed. Or as Nate put's it his Ka-Chow bed. HE swears he HAS to have this bed and it will make him want to sleep in his own room. Yeah, he still likes to sleep with Baba and Daddy, and Baba is a sucker when it comes to that. So, while we put him to sleep in his room, we have anywhere from 2-4 hours before he crawls back into our bed. So as we debate the purchase of this $500 bed, I wonder how long will a three year old's promise to always sleep in his Ka-Chow bed last before he says take it back, he want's Baba and Daddy's bed.

Oh, if you're interested in seeing the bed, go to:
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11330156&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCat=BC|93|75982|56265|2212&N=4025263&Mo=38&pos=4&No=3&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=2212&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&ec=BC-EC10582-Cat56265&topnav=

Dinner

After a long day of shopping and playing we took advantage of Carino's
happy hour menu. Nate is entertained with his itouch while eating
chicken strips.

Nate at mall

More photos of Nate.

Nate at mall

Nate is learning the value of quarters.

Time for the next vacation...

Maria and Nate are leaving for Chile, so I've decided it's time to close the chapter on our Scotland trip and make this blog about our every day lives. This will be the final post for Scotland activities, really just trying to retain the heading from that blog as this one is migrated.


From the Scotland Blog Header:
Maria and I are traveling with Mike and Lilia to Scotland. Following the lead of the Three stooges (Gerhard, Charlene and Robert) we've decide to try our hand at this blog thing. BTW - If you want to check out their blog, visit robryano.blogspot.com