Main Blog

Tahoe skiing

Last weekend my family went cross country skiing at Lake Tahoe. Even though the lake is about 2 hours from Sacramento, Gary and I had never been there before. Gary had never really seen snow before. So it was a bit of an adventure. My family has been cross country skiing for over ten years, so we are pretty experienced. But, as you might guess from someone who had never seen real snow, Gary did not know how to ski. I have to hand it to him though, Gary had a fabulous attitude and gave it his best. Even when he fell down, he had a big grin on his face as he staggered back up. He did very well for a beginner.

The landscape was just beautiful. Although the snow wasn't the best, we were very fortunate to have any snow at all considering there hadn't been any precipitation for over a month. It even snowed a little bit the last day. My favorite area was Fallen Leaf lake. I hope to post some photos from my Dad's digital camera soon.

It was nice to spend time with my family, although they can get on my nerves sometimes. My brother, Ari, particularly made me mad at times. I'm usually a pretty calm person, but he definitely has a talent for pissing people off. Yet, overall, we had a good time. I'd be happy to go back to Camp Richardson to ski again. Since we all live in different parts of the state, it isn't very often we can get together.

George Carlin and Aging

My friend Cathy sent this to me.

George Carlin's View on Aging

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is
when we're kids?
If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you
think in fractions. "How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!"

You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on
five! That's the key.
You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to thenext number, or even a few ahead.

"How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16!" You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16!

And then the greatest day of your life . . . you become 21. Even the
words sound like a ceremony . . . YOU BECOME 21. .

YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like
bad milk. He TURNED, we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40.

Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 . . . and your dreams are gone.

But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You get into your 80s and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch;
you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime.

And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; "I was
JUST 92."

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!"

MRE's

Want to see what the troops will be eating in Iraq? This factory makes MREs (meals ready to eat) for the military, basically heavy duty TV dinners. Hmm, a 2,000-pound vat of spiced apples, looks yummy.

Running Photos

Check out these pictures of me running the Davis stampede. My favorite is this one. Don't I look so happy ( I think this is about mile 5). Should I buy them? I am inclined not to purchase them.

Visit to Irene's

Gary and I spent the last couple days visiting my dear friend Irene and her husband Preston. They live in Los Altos, about a 2 hours drive from Sacramento. They took us to NASA (where they both work) to see the computer history museum. Since I'm not a huge computer geek, alot of the information went over my head, but I was impressed none the less. My favorite was the first calculator created for the 1890 census.

We also saw the movie The Hours. I had really wanted to see it since there was alot of critical aclaim and the movie had won a few golden globes. But I have to admit, even knowing the film was about three women contemplating the meaning of life and sucide, I didn't expect it to be so depressing. I should have known I wouldn't like it. I am glad I saw it, at least to know what all the hype was about.

We did some other cool stuff like eat sushi and go house hunting. But mainly I was just glad to spend time with a good friend. In this day and age where friends and family are constantly relocating to distant parts of the country, and relationships are so easy to let slide, I am gratefull that one of my oldest friends lives close enough to drive over and visit. It was good to hang out and keep in touch.

Valentine's

I had a very nice valentine's day. Gary and I mainly celebrated Thursday night by going out to eat yummy Mexican food and then seeing a show at the Mondavi center at UC Davis. We saw Voice of the Dragon, a dance show based on martial arts. The only thing is somehow Gary scratched his eye that evening and is still in pain. Gary also sent me a dozen red roses at work. It made me feel special - one more gold star for being a good boyfriend.

Yolo Hike

Today I went on a great hike in Cold Creek. The weather was wonderful- sunny, clear, and crisp. The company was excellent - Gary, my Aunt Nancy, Uncle Michael, and cousin Mallory. The exercise was a pretty good workout - 5 miles roundtrip with a 1000 ft elevation gain. The scenery was fabulous with great views of Lake Berryessa. And we ended the day with some wonderful homemade taco soup Chez Nancy. Overall, a fantastic day.

Jogging Buddy

Last week I went jogging and started talking to one of the joggers who I've seen running lots of times at the park. He seemed nice enough and asked if we could jog together. I wanted to be friendly and agreed. So the last times I went jogging he was there so he joined me. He is nice (a chemical dependency counselor) and it I can be great to have someone to exercise with. But he is slower than me and doesn't run for as long. I also have a feeling he is just hitting on me (I think I realized it when he asked if I wanted to go out for coffee afterwards).

I want to be polite, but I don't think it's a good idea for us to be jogging buddies. Maybe I'll try the coward's way out and just avoid him. Another option is to have Gary start jogging with me to discourage him. But I suspect the later is incredibly unlikely to happen. So most likely I think I'm just going to have to be honest and tell him that he is too slow, I'd rather go solo, and I'm not interested in him in a romantic way either.

Black and White

I've been enjoying my newest computer game Black and White. Similar to other strategy games there are no pretense about your absolute power. In Black and White you play a God, and can be either good or evil - hence Black or White. You perform miracles to create food, rain, or lightening. You can inspire disciples. And you have an avatar, or creature, who has its own mind and carries out your will amoungst worshipers. The more followers who have faith in you, the more power you have. It is alot like other strategy games, for example Sim City, Age of Empires, etc. I love it.

Stampede

I would like to brag that I completed my first 10K race, the Davis Stampede, yesterday with a time of 1:00:00:40. That's figures out to be almost exactly a 10 minute mile. Not too shabby.