"Anonymous" posted the following:

I'm just wondering why a couple who has chosen to leave their country has taken the trouble to get involved with its politics? Shouldn't you be trying to gain citizenship in Costa Rica and vote there?

Fri Oct 24, 01:55:00 AM CST

Below is my response, I put it on the main page because I think that the question was interesting and know that most folks don't go back to read comments much.

Fair question!
Our goal is to someday enjoy spending as many as three to six months/year back in California.

We love the USA and still refer to northern California as "home" when speaking to each other.

Our decision to move to Costa Rica was partly born of a sense of trying something new and different, partly due to enjoying the weather in the tropics (usually) and partly due to knowing that there is a great big world out there and that restricting ourselves to living in just one little part of it wasn't enough to satisfy us.

Beyond that- we also recognize that the US political scene has far-reaching effects upon the economies and lives of millions of people who live outside of the USA. Just look at the economic situation in the news today if you need more evidence. Or try telling an Iraqi that the US presidential elections only affect people living in the USA.

As for Costa Rica- we are legal residents but have no intention of becoming citizens largely because the USA doesn't recognize dual-citizenship, but partly because we still consider ourselves guests in this country and *from* California. I do, however, participate in politics at a very local level in an attempt to help steer towards more sustainable development and increase infrastructure. It may not be much, but I think I help out.

Labels: california, Costa Rica, news

I went back to California to share in celebrating my Grandmother's 95th birthday. Then found out my buddy, Soop, was headed to Moab, Utah for a week and last-minute changed my flight so that I could ride along and share the adventure.

---

Like any great road trip, we started ours A) Late (almost 6 instead of almost 1) and B) looking for some electronic gizmo so that we could listen to music. Road trip without music? Are you crazy?	The first morning "on the road" we awoke at my sister's place in Nevada. Great mountain views from that neighborhood. Curious absence of photos of the people in the house, Brian and I were exhausted after 4 hours sleep.	My Sister's home in Sparks, NV. She was kind enough to let us roll in at some ungodly hour (1am? 2am?) and sleep.	Hwy 50. Desolate.
This is a "major landmark" on Hwy 50 according to the sign. So major that they named it.... "Sand Hill". Lots of imagination those Nevada explorers.	Shoe Tree.	Not sure what an L is. Or why it has its own sign. But there is one out there, somewhere, apparently.	Quaint little towns pepper Hwy 50. Ok, maybe not "pepper". More like, once in a great while, a little town pops up.
Mom's Cafe. Looked like a good place for coffee and pie. It was.	Morning 3. Our campsite in BLM. I'll call it Camp1	The first of many, many photos of rocks	There were also wildflowers, really beautiful ones, not infrequently.
More rocks. These were stacked by someone to create a little cave in a natural crevice.	rocks, sky. Lots of that out in Moab.	This is the view to the west from Camp1	Camp1 was pretty much on the trailhead for Kane Creek Canyon. So instead of driving back into town to run a trail with a bunch of folk, we just started driving eastward.
This is just before we started out, the two cameras that I used weren't synched to the same timezone, so there will be occasional chronometric anomalies here.			stopping for a beverage and for the dogs to frolic in the cool water
	I don't know what makes the black face on some of the rocks, I assume minerals, but it was really beautiful and refracted the light into an almost oily-looking sheen.	The predominant feature of Kane Creek Canyon, not surprisingly, is Kane Creek	Thus the trail involves many crossings of the creek
Soop is kind enough to frame the naturally ocurring S in the rock face	If you look carefully, you can make out the upper trail, it is at about the 2/3 height on this image. The lower trail is where you fall if you fall off of the upper trail (and an alternate route). Long ways down.	One of the toughest spots on the trail, big stair step.	More amazing geology
Waiting for some folks to get through the tough spot	Seth. Waiting.	Another time problem... this actually came after the next few shots. A pretty creek.
Here you get a better perspective on the size of the stair steps.	Soop went first. Two tries and he was through.	Requires a little articulation from the truck. Those are 35" tires, by the way, it wasn't small bumps. There was also a dropoff to the right that went about 400 feet down.	We finished off the evening in downtown Moab, decent meal at Slickrock Cafe, then back to camp.

Labels: 4wd, california, camping, landcruiser, nevada, travel, utah, vacation

Here's a recap from several months ago (should have been posted end of April, 2008).
As Steve was up in California for a day, Marty suggested we sail (good practice for the BVI trip coming up). We couldn't have asked for better weather in which to go sailing on the Bay. It was one of those days that is so perfect it almost hurts.

---

Steve's Maiden Voyage with Marty in SF	Marty at the helm	Sailing under the Golden Gate, a fun first. Note the helicopter which had just flown under the bridge.
Alcatraz Island. Note the guy heeled over in front of it. Pretty decent wind blowing.	Excellent post-sailing margaritas with the family. Delicous meal with great company.	Steve, Austin, Marty

Labels: california, day trip, sailing

Bad news today, a good friend to us had his cruiser stolen last night.
It's hard for me to express my frustration over this without a long stream of expletives, so I'll just refer you to this link for a photo and description. The California license 4XTS869.

If you see this awesome looking truck on the road- call 911. Please.

Someone stealing someone else's vehicle gives me black thoughts. I'm not usually a proponent or advocate of violence, but I actually frighten myself when I think of what I would do if I came upon somebody stealing a vehicle.

Labels: california, landcruiser, stolen

I saw a satellite photo of California yesterday, it was apocolyptic.
Let's hope that they get things under control.

Got up early today (5:30) and went down for a surf (Steve) and run (Jocelyn & Caly). It is a
beautiful morning!! The air temperature felt cool, the water was a nearly perfect 80 degrees with a
light breeze blowing. Decent waves, felt great to be out in the water surfing for the first time in
over a week. Jocelyn had a great run on the deserted beach. Caly is Caly: any time at the beach is
time well spent in her book. I'd like to think she enjoys it more on pretty days than other days,
but truth be told I suspect that she is pretty close to maximum joy-capacity every time her toes hit
the sand.

We've both (us humans) been fighting a vicious head and chest cold. Mine seems just about gone,
Jocelyn is a day or three behind me, but improving rapidly. I'm feeling lucky that I've got a
fairly un-scheduled Sunday to spend around the yard and pool. It really is heart-breakingly
beautiful out there right now.

And since my coffee is done, I'm going to fill a cup and head out to read my new "Medicinal Plants
of Costa Rica" book and watch some birds.

Labels: california, garden, weather

About two weeks ago we celebrated the 95th birthday of my maternal grandmother.
Ninety five. That's three 32-year old lifetimes (close enough!). Whoa.

It was a beautiful day and nearly everyone in the family was able to attend. I flew up rather last-minute (no minute like that last minute) and am so happy that I was able to attend, see most of my family and enjoy the pleasure on my Grandmother's face. She was delighted at all the attention.

I enjoyed some great spring weather in California, which I surely miss sometimes, and also the company of my family. The visit was too short, as usual, and Jocelyn couldn't break away from work as she had just returned from Atlanta full of jewelry orders.
I spent the day before the birthday sailing on San Francisco Bay in PERFECT conditions with my brother, then enjoyed a great dinner with his family. I also got a chance to visit my sister's place near Reno, Nevada on Sunday night. Then spent the following week wandering around through Utah. I'll post pics shortly, it was a beautiful trip!

Now I'm back safe n sound in Tamarindo, enjoying the beginning of the rainy season and trying to get our yard ready for what promises to be a very wet "winter" indeed.

Labels: california, nevada, sailing, utah, vacation

We were excited to read that several states are taking action against non-native plants that invade natural areas. You can read a Yahoo News story about it or you can head over to California Invasive Plant Council for more information.
Not exactly fun reading, but we have a devil of a time getting information on native/local plants down here (just 50 miles away here is non-native in many regards), so it is good to see that other areas, at least, are providing resources for everyone.

Labels: california, garden

Finally made it back to sunny California. Two whole weeks with very little Costa Rican real estate, hardly any time spent making jewelry (though Jocelyn did get some fantastic work done on a whirlwind visit to Los Angeles), and plenty of time spent relaxing. We've enjoyed more than our fair share of delicious California beverages, plenty of great food, and most importantly- family and friends.

Of course, we'll be returning to Tamarindo shortly to dive right back into Costa Rican real estate and jewelry making... but for another day or two we'll just keep enjoying great weather, wonderful people, and a relaxing vacation.

Labels: california, jewelry, travel, vacation

As a nice contrast to US energy policy, it appears that foreign manufacturers are planning for a less-polluting future. Honda announced today that it will begin construction on a plant in Japan to produce solar electric cells. Good work, Honda!

For those that continue to stick their heads in the sand believing that alternative energy can't compete with petroleum resources, stop and think for a while about how much Honda must have thought about this investment... the future is now, people!

On a related note, my Dad installed a solar power system at his home in California last year-- works great and he's tickled pink at "earning" money all summer towards his winter power bills. We never really acknowledged that move until now, but we're proud of his investment. If you are interested in powering your home (at least in the SF Bay Area) contact our close friend Brian at Palo Alto Solar.

Labels: california

I have to backtrack a little here, as I forgot to include some great photos of the camping trip the night before the wedding. Soop, Steve and I took a short walk down the river in the early morning and much to our surprise Soopy found a little water snake tucked up against the rock in a small pool of water. He’s hard to see, but Steve got a great shot. It was cool out, with grey cloud cover which Soop said was unusual for this time of year. The low water and the wide, smooth rocks sitting out in the little sun there was that morning, reminded me of being a kid and sunning myself on those same kinds of rocks with my sister in the summers. That was one of my favorite parts of being up in the mountains: the cold water and those hot, hot rocks to warm back up on.

Okay, back to the wedding. So we partied on down the night of Robyn and Steve’s wedding. This of course included a couple of shots of tequila (or if you’re reporting to gramma Sunny) those were glasses of, um, water.

The cousins managed to stay up fairly well into the wee hours – and we even persuaded The Bride to stay up with us!

Travis danced just about every woman in the room – thanks Travis! -- and I even got to dance with the bride, though there’re no pictures to prove it.

The next morning was easier on the mid-generation than I expected it to be. We gathered out front of Dave and Liz’s cabin for this year’s group photo. We had all of the cousins with us, and all of their children. When we got back to Bonnie and Bill’s, Bonnie dug out some old pictures of the family in the same parking lot. This one’s from 1982!

Although we were all standing for the 9:00 a.m. photo shoot, we were nonetheless feeling the effects of the night before, so we walked across the parking lot to the lodge for breakfast. We took over the patio (there were probably 15 or so of us) and had ourselves some burritos, eggs, bagels, juice and coffee. The sun was out and it was warm enough for Jocelyn to take of her sweaters and sit there in jeans and a tank top. Bliss.

We took off around noon to head out to my Dad’s house, leaving Ryan and Cory and the other cousins with a little seed planted in their heads about a cousin get away in the next year. As of a couple of days ago, Ryan and Cory reported back with good news about San Jose del Cabo – looks like we might actually make this happen!

The drive from Bear Valley to Tuolumne is just gorgeous and not very long, even if you do miss the exit that didn’t used to be there! The hills are golden and the oak trees drape their limbs over the cows and horses. The wind is hot and the sun is thin and light and low. There is nothing more beautiful to me than Northern California late summer sunshine (I think we’ve been over this before). We drove about 10 minutes too far before we both realized we were not going to Dad’s anymore. We doubled back and figured it out, arriving with plenty of time to enjoy the late afternoon views out over the foothills.

We only visited with Dad and Greta for a couple of days, but on Monday we decided we needed to get out into the country and spend some time enjoying the sun and great weather, so we took a fancy picnic out to the river. We spent the better part of the afternoon there, sunning ourselves, eating, and playing games.

Tuesday morning, our eighth anniversary, we drove on back down to Steve’s parent’s place in Carmel. After much debate, we decided on dinner at one of our favorite spots in Monterrey, Passionfish. We had a lovely meal with Bonnie and Bill full of treats like lamb, fried kalamata olive salad and good good wine.

The next morning, Bonnie and Bill took off for the Bay Area, and theoretically, Steve and I weren't far behind. We just had a few things to do before we could leave. Those few things turned into repacking all of our stuff, going through nine months of mail, answering emails and doing some business. We left Carmel around 3:00 p.m. Just in time to get up to Menlo Park, drop our things off and get back in the car to hit some good 'ol rush hour traffic on our way to dinner with Keith. We dined at Kuleto's Trattoria off of the 101. I only discovered this place because I used to meet my friend Dyna there when she was living in the city and I was living in Redwood City. Aside from being a great meeting spot between those two places, it's a fantastic restaurant.

We woke the next morning at Soop's place and of course had Peete's and bagels for breakfast. So good. We must have done something on the 15th, as I know we didn't have a free minute the entire trip, but for the moment I can't remember what we did!

I do know that Friday was an up-early day (weren't they all) to meet Heather and her new baby, Emily, at Stanford for coffee and shopping. I still needed a dress for Carrie's wedding and Steve needed a suit. Soopy went with us and we sat outside Max's Opera House Cafe sipping good hot coffee (not from Peete's) and enjoying the crisp morning and sunshine. Heath arrived on time, of course, around 10:00 a.m.; Soop left us to get some work done; and we walked into Macy's and found Steve's suit.

Okay, it wasn't really that easy. We did find his suit in the first one we looked at, but it would take us the better part of 45 minutes to get back to that suit and get him into it. We finished his suit shopping around 1:00 p.m. -- do you believe it?! -- and he took off for lunch with Soop, while Heath and I opted for Nordie's cafe. Emily was a doll the entire time and Heather takes to being a mom like a fish to water. I loved meeting her daughter and getting to spend an entire morning with them. After lunch, Heath and I spent another couple of hours finding my dress. She talked me out of a floor-length teal number and into the gorgeous fucia dress you all saw in pictures of the wedding. Thanks Heath!

We were supposed to meet up with Donnora (Donn Denman and Nora Kim) who's house and dogs we sat way back in . . . 2001? Is that possible? We realized that we didn't have time to really get much of a visit in and changed our date to Tuesday breakfast which worked out perfectly. We barely had enough time to hurry over to MKIA's house (Steve's brother's family's acronym) to be late for a family dinner. Not that anyone told us what time it started, but that's beside the point, as we wouldn't have gotten there any before we did either way! Marty cooked us up some incredibly delicious apple-marinated ribs. I simplify by that description the work that went into these ribs, and how many different types of appleness helped them become some of the best ribs I've ever had. Marty is a true talent in the kitchen. Dinner was too short, but it was nice to have all the Broyles at one table. I was exausted, and crashed out early, leaving the boys to talk for a couple more hours.

The kids were up early on Saturday, and therefore, so were we. But I got to read the comics with Isabelle and bead with both Isa and Austin before my sister got there to pick me up for our weekend trip to Santa Cruz. Cristie and I haven't spent more than two hours together in over two years, and that was with other people around. So we were both looking forward to the time together.

The drive over the hill was gorgeous and SC was sunny and warm! We made a bee line for Aldo's, where you'll find the best fried calamari in California. His restaurant sits on a little pier in the SC harbor across from the Crow's Nest. He's remodelled in the years since we've been going there, but it's still a mom and pop place and he still has the best seats of anywhere in SC on his pier-deck. Cristie and I managed to put away at least half of our calamari, ceasar salad and onion rings. The rest of the day pretty much revolved around talking, eating and drinking and where we were going to go next to do some more talking, eating and drinking, with a great trip to the Boardwalk thrown into the mix! We rode the pirate ship, the Big Dipper (of course) and the sky car thing. We searched all the arcades until we found a photo booth where we made goofy faces and got our little strip of pictures. We both liked them so much we did it over again, so we'd each have a strip. We shared an ice-cream sunday on the sand and generally had a wonderufully childish time of it.

We still had plently of late afternoon left, so we decided to spend some of it on the Crow's Nest's patio. We enjoyed the sun and a glass of pinot grigio until we decided it was time to go downtown and figure out where we were going to eat dinner. We made a brief detour into Urban Outfitters, ostensibly looking for a bathroom, and got caught doing a little shopping instead. I found some great t's for both me and Steve and Cristie made it out empty handed. We finally found our bathroom in Pearl Alley Bistro, an old favorite of mine and Katie's way back when. Pearl Alley treated us well with a nice pinot noir and some oysters on the half shell. We had ourselves a couple of glasses of wine and some fresh bread and olive oil, some wonderful conversation and directions to a good Thai place to take us on into the rest of the evening.

We stopped by the Thai place, didn't like it, and found another one just down Mission where we ordered a handfull of yummy things to go. We got to our hotel, put on our swimmies and eased our way into the . . . luke tub. Luke or not, it was fun and relaxing and the freezing run back to the room full of giggles. We feasted on our Thai food, relaxed in bed with the new In Style and fell asleep happy and full and tired.

Labels: california, travel, wedding

We really skipped over our trip to California, so here's a bit about all the fun things we did.

Monday September 5:

With the time change up there in the states, we actually got to fly straight through to California from CR without having to spend the night in Atlanta. This was a first for us, and we loved it, although it made for a very late/early arrival at SFO around midnight or one a.m. But, ever faithful friend that he is, Soop (aka Brian) was there to pick us up and shuttle us back to his place in Menlo Park.

We managed to stay up long enough to have a celebratory (albeit very short) drink from the bottle of Nicaraguan rum we’d brought him (Nicaragua has some of the best rum we’ve ever tasted) before falling into the most comfortable futon I’ve ever slept on.

Next morning found us up pretty early and ready for Pete’s coffee and a bagel. Bagels, while technically speaking they exist in CR, they really don’t. And BB has a penchant for bagels and cream cheese for breakfast. It was a lovely early September morning in Northern California: sunny and a bit cool in the shade, with that crisp, not-quite-fall air that Cali gets at the end of her long summers. We ate our breakfast on an outdoor patio and I think I drove everyone crazy with my big smile and continuous praise of what a glorious day it was. People have asked where one goes to vacation when one lives in paradise: Northern California in September/October. There is nothing like it in all the world, I am sure of it.

The boys (Steve and Soopy) were hatching plans to go camping, or stay in Palo Alto, or some of both, while I had to get ready for my whirlwind trip south. I had a business meeting in LA on Thursday, and would drive down on Wednesday to San Diego to have dinner and spend the night with one of my best friends, Axel. In order to do this, we had to go pick up the Explorer that Steve’s dad had kindly loaned to us for our stay in California and had even more kindly brought up to Steve’s sister’s house in Newark for us. (Newark is just across the San Mateo Bridge from Palo Alto, on the east side of the peninsula and only about a twenty-minute drive from where we were staying with Soop.)

Soop took us over to Newark where we chatted briefly with Steve's sister and mom and said hello to his niece and nephew. It was great to see them, but we had to be on our way to a lunch meeting. After lunch I sorted through all of the clothes that his mom had brought to us. Since we would be attending a wedding in the mountains (very cold to us!), I had my trip to LA, Steve would be camping in said mountains (even colder to him!), and then we would be doing business and social activities all over the Bay Area, we’d asked Bonnie to dig through our stored clothing for some clothes that were appropriate for cold weather, weddings, etc. This took up the entire back of the Explorer and we needed to sort through what I was taking with me and what Steve needed to stay warm while I was in sunny San Diego. The plan was for us to meet back up in Bear Valley when we met up with the rest of Steve’s immediate family for his cousin’s wedding.

Next day, I was up very early at about 5:00 a.m. to start my drive to San Diego. It was a lovely and uneventful drive (then again, I was on the 5, and how eventfull can that possibly be) and I arrived in San Diego around 1:00 p.m. I had a couple of hours before Axel was off work (he’s a fabulous teacher) so I went shopping! I needed a dress for both weddings, possibly shoes as well and a warm coat. I ran some other errands; the drug store and a pet store for toys for Caly.

I found Axel at home around 4:00 or so and it was such a glorious day, we decided to walk the 15 or so blocks down Mission Blvd. to the beach and then stroll on the beach. (This is the same beach where Steve and I lived way back in 1997/98.) We had a couple of margaritas and wonderful conversation at Lahina’s, then headed back to his house where we got cleaned up and then strolled out to an enchanting little hidden-garden restaurant just down the street from his apartment. We kept up the talking all through what became about a two-hour dinner (we hadn’t seen each other in nigh on three years) and then on through the dip in the hot tub and on into the wee hours of the morning, when we both decided we’d be really unhappy all the next day (that day) if we didn’t go to bed. We woke after about four hours of sleep (you’ll notice a sleep-deprevation theme throughout the entire California/Savannah trip that we don’t make up for until we get back to CR!) and I headed out to the car to get some paperwork I needed to prepare for my appointment later that day in LA.

Well! I knew we’d had a few drinks the night before, but I also knew that I hadn’t moved the car. The other thing I knew was that as Axel and I carried my most valuable things (and my new clothes!) up to his apartment, I actually said to the man, “Do I need to take everything in?” And then, stupidly, “No one can actually get a car stolen in the same town twice.” Ha. And so it was that I stood in Axel’s apartment around 7:00 a.m. with him leaving apologetically for work, calling the San Diego police to report a stolen car. For the second time in my life.

Needless to say, the morning went much differently than I had anticipated. But having no other choice but to muddle on through, I made the necessary calls, rented myself a car, drove on up to LA, and had my meeting. I then called up my friend George, we went for some amazing sushi in Newport and then I greedily and thanfully crashed out around 10:00 p.m. at his place. We were both up early and off to breakfast so I could get rolling back up California and into Bear Valley by nightfall.

The drive back up was just as good as the one down. But instead of heading to Bear Valley, Steve and Soop convinced me to come camp with them. And what a great decision that was! We met up at a cute little wine bar in Murphy's where we all had a nice glass of pinot noir and then set off for the camping. We started pretty late, but had a gourmet time of it with brie, chocolate, wine and pasta a la Brian. This definitely was not the roughing-it camping that I’ve seen Brian do, and I was thankful for that. We had a great time- drinking our wine, keeping warm (even Brian was cold enough to put on a hat) and eating the chocolate the boys bought to keep me happy.

Next day was wedding day, so we got out of there early and back into Bear Valley in time to meet up with the family for lunch. It was fun to see everyone again and we chatted with various family members until it was time to start getting ready.

The ceremony was atop a bluff, at the very edge of what must have been a few-thousand-foot drop into the canyon. It was truly a breathtaking spot. Robyn was fabulously beautiful, Ryan dashing in his kilt and the bagpipes a perfect accompaniment. The ceremony was short and very very sweet, including a ring for Robyn’s young son as part of the threesome made that day. There are lots of pictures, and I urge you to take a look, if not just for the sheer beauty of those mountains.

Labels: california, landcruiser, photo, stolen, travel, vacation, weather, wedding

California river rocks

While we've got plenty of fun stuff about which we want to write- spending time with friends and family in the Bay

Steve, Bb and our close friend Keith

Area- at the moment we are sitting out in front of a Panera Bread shop, sipping coffee, waiting for one of Jocelyn's accounts to open up for the morning.

Oh, and we are in Georgia.

Our introduction to the area hasn't been all that great so far. That could be on account of the fact that we took the redeye out of San Francisco last night (this morning?) so our bodies are feeling like we got up at about 3 am after getting about two hours of really uncomfortable sleep. That could be it. Or it could have something to do with the fact that Steve took a somewhat devil-may-care attitude about getting us a rental car reservation but failed to take into account the notion that there wouldn't actually be any people in the rental car kiosks in the airport at 5:45 am (local time). Or it could be that despite having signs at the rental kiosks saying "we have cars", the only "car" that Alamo had is a Minivan that costs about twice as much per day as a smaller, more comfortable, more fuel efficient vehicle.

It just might have something to do with the fact that the very nice woman behind the counter at the Alamo (actually National, but same building, same counter, same cars...) couldn't (wouldn't?) do much for us in terms of giving us something that resembled a deal on the car and thus we opted to save ourselves about $50 and just put Steve on the contract, so now he is the official chauffer of this leg of our journey.

It is just as likely that the cause of our initial discontent is Steve's inability to effectively merge and therefore completely miss our exit on the highway, which resulted in a few extra miles of driving and an extremely slow-speed viewing of five or six cars which had crashed earlier. Slow because we (and a hundred or three other cars) were stuck in stop and go for 10 minutes, all of which would have been avoided had Steve been paying attention to where he was supposed to be driving.

And speaking of accidents, we've seen more of them in the last hour than in the last month. Crazy. Must be something special in the air today.

If all of the above isn't enough, when Jocelyn finally found us coffee (mmmmm, coffeeee) the girl behind the counter shortchanged Steve a dollar. She coughed it up when he pointed out the mistake, but the whole situation gave the distinct impression that it might not have been a mistake. Taking advantage of people before they've had coffee is just plain wrong....

But now, coffee in belly and correct change in pocket, we are sitting here enjoying free WiFi, getting directions to where we need to go next, and looking forward to heading off to Savannah. Pictures to follow as soon as we take some.

Labels: california, photo, travel

Monday morning finds Steve sitting in a cafe in Santa Cruz, sipping a latte, talking to sponsors on the cell phone while updating the site from the laptop… odd that I've never felt so much like a yuppie as I do right now- homeless and jobless state not-withstanding. Life is funny like that sometimes. Beebee is off hunting for beads and heaven-knows-what with her mother.

Steve is also fighting off the beginnings of a cold/sinus thing. Probably because he spent 3 hours standing up to his thighs in 50&#deg; F water while learning how to surf-fish at Manresa State Beach with his Dad and his new rod/reel (Thanks, Dad!). Didn't catch any fish, but the weather was perfect, albeit windy, and both Steve and his father considered the trip to be a success and are already looking forward to going again.

Lunch finally rolled around and we got to enjoy a few hours with lovely Katie-lynn (Jocelyn's maid of honor). Ate at Shogun Sushi, yummy.

In the evening, Joyce (Jocelyn's mom) took us out to see Ray Brown's "Great Big Band" at the Kuumbwa in Santa Cruz. Wow! We sat 4 rows from the front of 20 people on a little tiny stage playing big music. The band was great. We had a blast. (Thanks, Joyce!) click here for more pictures from Kuumbwa.

After the show, Jocelyn took Steve out to her favorite late-night restaurant, Manuel's, for another dinner.

Labels: california, food

Spent the day with the Broyles clan at Mom and Dad's new home in Carmel. Great day of relaxing and playing with our three-and-a-half year-old niece, Isabelle and 19-month nephew, Austin. Spending the day with them is a great way to remember how wonderful kids are, and how very, very little we want to have any of our own any time soon!

After dinner, Isabelle and Austin helped Uncle Steve open some more birthday presents.

Later, we saw the new Bond movie with Steve's brother and sister and their spouses. Overall the movie was great but Beebee was disappointed that there weren't enough cool gadgets and Steve was disappointed out that the bond-girl (Denise Richards) couldn't act her way out of a box. We both thought it was about time that Bond got tough again. All of us were a little bummed that the theater's sound-system was on the blink. Oh-well.

Labels: california