Waltham / Crash on the 405

Last Tues I flew to our Corporate HQ in Waltham Mass. Beautiful this time of year but the sun never came out. But it really didnt matter as I was in a conference room most of the day anyway.
I came home last night on Delta. My flight was scheduled to leave at 530pm and connect through Cincinnati but when I arrived at the airport I noticed a direct flight to LAX leaving at 4:20. I ran to the gate, made the flight and I was even upgraded to First class! I was thrilled, instead of getting home at 1130Pm I was now going to arrive at 730PM.

We arrived on time but once I got on to the freeway my luck ran out. It turns out that earler in the day a big rig crashed through the center divider on the 405 in Long Beach and the freeway was shut down to 3 lanes in each direction. Read about crash here . I finally got home 2 hours later completely exhausted.

Today has been relaxing catching up with emails and just hanging out. We are having a heat wave but the ocean breeze is starting to kick in. Tomorrow I have tickets to the Padres Giants game down in SD. I havent been to PETCO park nor have I seen the boys play this year and I am really looking forward to it.

Thats it for now

MacKenzie's ballet recital

Z's recital was over the weekend. Z has also inherited the showmanship from my wife's side of the family. She looked beautiful, she was confident and best of all she was smiling. I am really proud of her! Z has been taking classes at the Focus Dance Center and the preformance was at the Irvine Barclay.

They didnt not allow photos during the show but here are some from before and after.

Travel and Car

Sorry for the lack of posting, I was home last weekend and then it was off to Provo again for 4 days of intense meetings. Typical day: 30 + people enter a room at 8AM and don't leave the room until 7PM.

Anyway, (as luck would have it) while I was gone our 97 Lexus 450 SUV decided to breakdown on Kim. New Radiator and Thermostat are getting installed this morning and I am praying the heads not warped. Whatever the case we have decided its time for a new SUV.

My good friend (and my Boss) has a Landrover LR3. I asked him this morning how he liked it and he suggested this model instead.
...Ah thanks Martin, Looks like it has plenty of seats but does it only go down hill??

Alisal Ranch

What an extrodinary place.

Tell me it ain't so? How can I enjoy a trip with No Phones, No TVs, No Internet (though I did find a connection), no local Starbucks . Not only did I make it through, I honestly throughly enjoyed every minute. What did we do to get by... Swim, Golf, Tennis, Horseback Ride, Rodeo's, BBQs, Arts and Crafts...I could go on for ever. Alisal will become a family Vacation tradition... we will be going back to Alisal for many years to come.

We are finishing our trip in Santa Barbara and will be heading home tomorrow. There are lots and lots of pictures to sort through. As soon as I get home I will post up some favorites.

Adios for now

Eric's 40th has commenced.

Eric's 40th has started, got in last night. There are 8 of us here now and whole bunch more on their way up this morning. Beautiful day outside...should be a great day for golf! Link to cabin.

Summer

Worked in Utah earlier this week and headed back to Orange County last night. As luck would have it my flight was delayed. Good news is vacation starts today. I fly up to Sacramento this afternoon and then on to NorthStar for Stiffy's 40th birthday. I return Sunday morning and then the girls and I will be heading to El Capitain for a night and then Alisal for a week. I will have limited access during the trip and probably will not post until my return. I will be sure to take lots of Photo's.

Ah yes, How could I forget to mention...It is the last day of school for the girls today, Summer is here. It just blows me away that they are going to be in 2nd grade next year. Not to sound like an old crodger but " I feel like I am going to wake up one day and being walking them down the isle." When it does happen, I am praying for one at a time and a few years a part :)

Birds

The sparrows have been building nests on top of my outdoor speakers for years. Every spring they return. I thought the birds were done nesting until next year but we have a late family nesting on one of the speakers in front of the house. Building the nest on the speakers provides them protection from the crows. The crows line up on the front lawn waiting for a chance to steal a chick. Nasty creatures.

Weather

May and June are usually foggy here but we have had a change of luck. A late rain storm came through on Monday and by Monday evening the rain was gone... and the fog has left along with it.
Absolutley, glorious weather yesterday and it looks like more of the same today.

Last night we had dinner on the patio, our entertaiment was our 6 month old Puppy "Bentley' Or "Ben, Ben" or "Meat Head". Bentley decided to take a bath ...In the bird bath.

Camcorder

Went out and got a new camcorder last friday and returned it Sunday afternoon. I chose the Canon DC10 DVD Camcorder that records directly onto dvd. Video quality was not good and the recording had some jerky scenes. For now we stick with the old reliable 8mm tape camcorder :)

Sunday morning recovery

Yesterday was a glorious southern california day with lots of sunshine; it was also a very, very busy day that didn't end until 10.
In the morning, M&M went on Amtrack with their teachers down to San Juan Capistrano. The little trip was something that we won at the school auction. They went for a horse back ride and had lunch at Ruby's. I went down to pick them up at 1:00 and was surprised to see how busy it was down there. I parked illegally in front of Ruby's and noticed live music and lots of Harleys in front of the pool hall across the street. I paused for a moment and thought about running into the pool hall for a pint or 3 but thought the better of it and grabbed the girls. As you all know SJC is known for two things the Mission SJC and the annual migration of the swallows. As we left through town the mission looked beautiful with flowers blooming everywhere.

As for the rest of the day and night Madison had another performance at 2:00 and her final preformance at 6:30. In both shows it was interesting to see her confidence grow and once again I was a proud Papa.



Example of confidence below...Madison skating beyond the line and doing a little solo :)

Madison in Wonderland

Family tradition moved to a new generation last night with Madison's first Ice Skating performance.
We took our seats with No dinner, bad coffee and stale cookies. I was dreaming of Cheeseburgers and then the show started... Seeing my 7 year old skate onto the ice for the first time, in front of all those people, brought tears to my eyes. Two more shows today, I am going to do a little more roaming aound and snap some more pictures.