Out the door, down the stairs, across some parking, through a gate, along a rocky beach to a big rock.
In 482 steps, I can be sitting on this giant rock watching and listening to the waves lap the shore.
(sigh)
Nice.
We had a blast at the Asha Stanford Holi 2009! Thanks so much to John for letting us know and Heidi (Mary's cousin and fabulous Stanford Frosh) for playing too!
COLORful Flickr set here.
We capped off the Indian day with a massive Indian buffet dinner at Bombay Garden. Yum!
The birds outside are chirping away and we are surrounded in green.
We are off to Palo Alto to enjoy Holi the Indian festival of color. We are going to celebrate the coming season with splashing colors and Indian food. What a wonderful way to commemorate the passage of the cold, dark, freezing, dreary winters here in the Bay Area. Finally, we can get back to the months of no rain (phew ... wink)
This is a shot standing on our front porch this morning. I'm sitting here now, drinking a beer watching/listening to birds. I just identified a white-tailed kite earlier this evening and we watched it hover for prey.
Things are going nicely. Work is good. The planning program continues to rise at a near neck-snapping speed. I daily change my perspective on the futures of both advertising and education; they both have not been nearly as responsible as they should have been these past 50 years, but both will experience dramatic rebirths. This summer there is going to be a lot of planning going on in this city (including the major planning conference) and for our planning department.
Today, I gave my heart some much needed time @ 150+bpm. I still freak about having a grandfather whose heart decided to quit before making it 50 years (even considering the handful!) I know I should take better care of it. Hopefully these pools and exercise room will help.
We are trying to plan the summer. Sam will be doing some pretty cool camps. I Flickred one day when we visited an open house at a ranch camp. He is also looking at a kayak camp + others. I am looking at visiting Anthony, Jeanette and Lucas in May. Possibly Lucas' first MLB game and my first MLB game in Atlanta! We are starting to play around with the idea of doing a driving/camping vacation in Northern California in August: Humboldt, Redwoods and Lassen Volcanic. Plus I've got to go see these guys at least once!
I am reading some great stuff lately. My current active books are Local, Pistol, Your Brain on Cubs, Designful Company, Usagi Yojimbo and World War Z.
The cats are alive and still fat.
The new apartment is so lovely, but we still need stuff on the walls. We are thinking we may buy some student artwork when Spring Show hits.
Tomorrow we are going to get colored. Sunday Mary and Sam will go river-rafting while I chill and prep for the coming week.
OK, time to go make some food. I just wanted to give an update to the people who follow my life here. Like Mary, I've been doing too much Facebook and not enough blogging. I won't say I'll be better, because I haven't a clue. But laptop wireless computers on the front deck looking over a bird sanctuary bodes well for blogging time.
Following up from last year, once again my students have submitted short videos about improving the world (in no particular order) Enjoy!
Suruchi
Iris
Katie
Kat T
Joe
Denise
Erica
Barbara
Noah
Kat K
Estefania
Amy
Jose
Hunter
Kyungtak Kim
Mint
Yoon
Zach B
Marcey
Adaye
Nisara
Tiffany
Gina
Chainsaw
Javier
Rory
Jack
Tomoki
Marlene
Sean
Kelly
Andrew
Mary and I are about to take of for a lovely evening ... enjoy some of the music we'll be enjoying soon at: http://brettdennen.net/
So, this is the kind of silly situation that they show in a Dyson ad and you go "When the frick am I ever going to need to do that?!"
I must admit, I love our Dyson.
And I love having a storage loft!
We are fitting into the new space nicely. We are still working on the place some though.
Pros:
1) The hill is gone! Sam is riding his bike a lot more. It is very nice that our primary reason for moving has turned out well. This also means that after-school friends are able to come over more often.
2) The high ceilings! We are loving them. It appeared to be "wasted space" at first, but they really give you more personal space. We are liking all our skylights. I had a cramped shower before, but now I've got tons of room above me ... so I now literally "jump in the shower."
3) The birds! Wow. Having giant windows and a small deck against a bird sanctuary is so lovely. I enjoy both coffee or wine while watching the birds with our binoculars. The cats dig it supremely.
4) Exercise. We are using the exercise room and indoor pool regularly. We have an easy walk to Blackie's Pasture. Once it warms up, all these outdoor activities will increase.
5) Living space. We have a separate area for dining and living, so this has allowed us to dine at the table much more. The table flows nicely to the kitchen. The Wii is very playable in the living room. It's a good layout.
Cons
1) Noise. We've had a few issues with neighbor snoring and crying young ones. My super-hearing meets thin walls. But whatever. People snore, babies cry ... I'll get used to it, but so far it has been a bit rough.
2) Small kitchen floor space. We increased our counter space, but the limited kitchen floor has us crowded and trouble finding room for cat-stuff and trash can.
3) Missing Gaju, Jennifer, Timila and Anika. They were the best neighbors ever! Soon we'll have the place in order and can have them over.
Yea! Successful move. Now, the slow last 10% of moving in - woo-hoo!
After taking a season off from Gorilla Ball - Fantasy League last year, we brought it back for our 9th season in the 2009 season. We wiped the slate clean. New teams, new keepers. Today was draft day. After medaling in 2005-7 (2, 3, 3 ... and a silly 3rd place is a non-Gorilla league last year) but failing to get the gold, I changed up strategies. I've always been obsessed with the sluggers. It may be because of my fixation on nimble giants; or because it makes sense to have people who get home-runs, since that gives you runs, avg and rbi's as well. Well, this year I focused on avg (eat that Billy Beane) and stolen bases (something I lose every year). So, if my team had a true line-up, here it would be:
1. Ichiro, OF (He kills me every year ... so this year I took him. A bit early, but I am sick of going against him. Against me he played like Jayson Werth vs. the Cubs)
2. Brian Roberts, 2B (I like 170 SBs in the past 2 seasons from my two lead-off guys; this will be a new experience for me.)
3. Lance Berkman, 1B (Granddaddy pick - got to take the Astros' team leader)
4. Miguel Cabrera, 3B (AL MVP this year)
5. Chipper Jones, DH (OK, he's so freakin injury prone ... but he's a horse. So I took him and built a back-up plan)
6. Nick Markakis, OF (A machine)
7. Alex Rios, OF (Can he finally put it together ... I'm not sure?? I hope so.)
8. Troy Tulowitzki, SS (Coors field future super star; I'm hoping he starts his prime early.)
9. Chris Iannetta, C (18 home runs in only 333 ABs last year ... and no Coors Field advantage. Got him at the end. Love this pick.)
On the bench:
10. Derrek Lee, 1B (Had to get a Cub! He's my trusty filler for when Chipper is injured ... a great back-up option)
11. Andre Ethier, OF (I don't know if Rios will put it together this year, so I'll get Ethier in case. Rumor is he'll bat in front of Manny, so he'll be in when Manny is being Manny the ballplayer.)
Pitching Rotation:
12. Tim Lincecum (Took him with my second pick. I so wanted him as my pitcher keeper for the next few years. He makes 1 out of 5 Giants games some of the baseball around. Timmy!)
13. James Shields (Stud.)
14. Felix Hernandez (Pure raw talent ... please let him have figured it out!)
15. Zack Greinke (Father-in-law pick - got a Royal ... ok one of two Royals REALLY worth getting. This kid puts up ridiculous numbers, but flies under the radar in a tiny market that doesn't win.)
16. Matt Garza (Game 7 ALCS - awesome. The grit will expand.)
In the wings:
17. Kevin Slowey (AL WHIP leader?)
18. Hiroki Kuroda (NL WHIP leader?)
19. Fausto Carmona (Last year was just a young person's fluke ... he'll be back)
Closing games out (sorta, I hate drafting closers; I pick up better guys through the course of the season):
20. Francisco Cordero (They refuse to take this dude out!)
21. Heath Bell (Why not?)
Play Ball!
Hey everyone. I just wanted to write a quick note about the new place.
It is fabulous. We all really like it. The "living space" is so much better/bigger. The high ceilings give more space than you realize. The morning views of the bird sanctuary are pretty ideal, especially in all this rain: lots of green and lots of flowers.
I've got to give a shout out to my students Apo, Gavin and Martin for helping in the move. We couldn't have done it without them. Many, many thanks!
So, I've been pretty drained by it all, but I am starting to catch-up. I should be in full story-telling mode this weekend.
