Feeling Blankity Blank

Steamer Lane from on high, a cam snap from video I shot with my 3DR Solo drone. Here's a direct link to the video this is from.

I'm going to start doing more flying and videowork and expect to be posting more videos to YouTube.

Here's a link to my channel, if you're down, give a sub and help me get to that fabled 100 subscribers number that'll empower me to choose my own special, custom URL.

Beyond this, life goes on. We celebrated Sully's 11th birthday this last weekend with a long and occasionally epic Nerf war. In the run up to his birthday we acquired many, many new (to us usually, most are used) Nerf blasters. To the degree that we now have a rather large arsenal that requires upkeep to prevent it from completely taking over the living room.

And I'm still getting out and SUP surfing as much (almost) as I can. I'm mostly sticking to Indicators, Middle Peak and Steamer Lane these days as Cowells' generally meager waves are either too crowded or there's just not enough of them. Links to SUP Surfing videos as well, mostly mine but occasionally mixing in another SUP video as need be.

Next up is summer break and lots of time off from work and time to spend with kids. Summer plans include trying to get out and camp again, we didn't go at all last summer and I missed it. Maybe even some bike camping if we can make that work.

Happy We Littered The World Day! or the Fifth of July!

It is so odd, we buy fireworks from China to celebrate our independence from England. Isn't that a bit like trading out one pimp for another? No matter though, our world was full to the brim with explosions, star bursts, booms and sparkling fountains. And we didn't even have to go anywhere! Aside from my hound dog having another really long night of panting and semi-panicked ducking and covering last night was a pretty good night.

My wife and the boys walked/rode in the town parade yesterday for the pre-school. I took photos for the teacher and enjoyed blasting around downtown on my mountain bike. But the downside is that the staging of the parade took hours and hours are too much to try and keep little kids engaged. Plus, I got a light sunburn on my arms which I wasn't sure was possible. But not bad at all.

Where Does The Time Go?

Today is the end of the second week of the summer school session. I'm halfway to being totally free and clear for the rest of the summer. And let me tell you, these four hour work days are HARD! No, not really. Yesterday I worked the Help line that was set up for district folks to call in with tech issues. I answered five calls in four hours.

But even with that low call incidence, the day ripped right by. I got in a decent workout after work with a swim which always helps me feel more settled and balanced out (though I'm rather irritated that the gym has now seen fit to literally lock up the kettlebells to keep non-Crossfit folks from using them. That's lame and kind of stupid but I'll just have to buy or make my own kettlebell to get those swings in (kettlebell swings are fantastic for strengthening your core).

Sully Turns 5 and Other Miracles

On Monday the 9th of May, my youngest son, Sullivan, turned 5. He told me this at 6:30 in the morning when he climbed into the big bed and informed me with the biggest grin ever. He is, if nothing else, a ham. He loves to put on a show about pretty much anything and everything. It can be a little annoying sometimes, like when he's supposed to be at bat for Tee Ball and is just goofing around, but most of the time he's funny, engaging and really just a joyful little guy.

Very little phases him, very little upsets him and he still appears to be nearly incapable of walking anywhere, he's skipping, jumping, running or otherwise locomoting himself with style and enthusiasm. He is a curious boy, he loves to paint and draw and create and he's made some pretty impressive Lego constructs as well.

One of the more interesting things he recently did with the Legos was to have created a large plane. A pretty basic plane but with a larger than usual wingspan, a wall on the tail and a little cockpit section on the front. The interesting thing is that, a few days later, he built a super car that, when I put it on the plane, fit perfectly between the cockpit and wall at the tail. And I mean perfectly, the front wheels were held just right and the car's spoiler rested squarely against the wall. It was very cool and probably means nothing but I was impressed by Sully's spatial interconnectedness nonetheless.

I need to remind myself more often of how magical and wonderful and special and, most especially, fleeting, these years are. I need to capture to remember these moments, the smiles, the curiosity, the joy, the happiness and excitement for all of life. My sons are my greatest contribution to the world and I should enjoy them for as long as I can.

Happy Birthday, Sullivan!

On Tap for This Week

Note, NOT Dodger Blue.

After last week started off pretty well, I got a little ill mid-week and it mostly kept me on the sidelines until yesterday. Not sure what the deal was, it felt like my brain was too big or something and would send shooting pain through my body if I moved my head too quickly.

Not too much fun, especially with one or two little boys constantly clamoring for "uppy" or horse back rides or for me to toss them around like tiddlywinks (which they surprisingly love).

But this week is gonna be big, fun and awesome with a little work thrown in to make the fun time that much more fun by comparison. And I'm jumping back into my training schedule after last week's near complete washout. I will take it a little easy to start but will need to start getting in some hard workouts as the race is just about six weeks off now.

We are very likely going to go to see the Giants play the Dodgers tomorrow night which should be lots of fun, especially if the Giants bat's spark up a little hot streak. Heck, I'd just like to see Pablo Sandoval get on a tear, he's so due, he's getting calls from collection agencies!

And any week that includes the San Francisco Giants playing against the Los Angeles Dodgers is gonna be a week to get "up" for. Ideally we'll see the Giants crush the Dodgers three games in a row, and by crush I mean double digit whoopings!

Plus, "The Lost Boys" will be shown on Wednesday at 9pm at the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz, Corey Feldman will intro the movie! It should be one of those wonderful Santa Cruz memories and I'm looking forward to seeing the movie again, this time shown mere feet from where it was filmed! Plus, its totally got vampires AND motorcycles AND the Feldman/Haim super Corey twin power so suck on that Twilight!

This coming Saturday is going to be a blockbuster day. Combined with Grady's sixth (how in the heck did he get to be 6 already?) there's this little thing called UFC 116 that is headlined by 530 pounds of men in Brock Lesnar taking on Shane Carwin for the unified UFC Heavyweight Championship. These are some big, big men and they will be throwing bombs at each other. Someone's getting their lights turned off and I'm betting/hoping it'll be the classless ass Lesnar getting put down and out.

Since we've already had a party for the boys, Saturday will likely be less friends and more family oriented stuff. Maybe a beach trip, maybe some bike riding, maybe something else altogether but definitely an all-family event.

And in between now and then there will be lots of training going on! I feel healthy again, I feel ready to rip it up. I'm throwing some road semi-slicks on my Ibis Mojo to do some training rides for the style of bike stage in the Santa Cruz Sprint Triathlon (one long dead straight ride out and then swoopy, curvy awesomeness along West Cliff back in) and I will be working on both my swim stroke and my running. I am going to shave minutes whenever and wherever I can. I expect to do well in this race!

Time to get on it!

Successful with a Side of How'd That Happen

Well, we survived the weekend which included one birthday party in Aromas and one double birthday party we put on for Grady and Sully at a park in Watsonville. Of course, the effort to attend a party is nothing close to the effort it takes to put one on so yesterday was by far the more tiring day of the weekend.

But the weather was fantastic, we had a great spot with a shaded spot with a bunch of picnic tables and a bounce house with a slide and not too many meltdowns or bashed bodies (which always amazes me when there is a bounce house involved).

The morning prep was interrupted by a not very fun trip to the emergency room as my wife, in the midst of making frosting for her fabulous gluten-free cupcakes, got her finger caught on the wrong end of a Braun stick blender. It gashed her finger up pretty good and I could tell that it really, really hurt like a mofo. But, a mere $220 later, no stitches as the damage was superficial and could be repaired by butterfly closures and a good wrap. Oh and some antibiotics and pain pills.

The party itself was a good time once we got everything sorted out and set up. I wish we'd known about the parking issues as there was a soccer game being played and literally every single parking spot was occupied, people were even double parking and blocking people in!

One annoying aspect of having the party in a park, especially one where there was an adult soccer game being played is that there are scads of bored kids looking for something to do. And that big puffy bounce house looks like something fun to do. I didn't really want to have the bouncer opened up to the entire group of kids at the park before our party started. Not only was there no supervision of them, there were a bunch of them, they were older and our kids aren't very big yet. But we consented to let them play around. Then they asked for a drink and then another wanted a drink. It becomes a very slippery slope.

You don't want to be a jerk and tell them to piss off but you also don't want them invading your party, eating and drinking all of your food and generally just adding to the chaos. Of course, there are no parents keeping an eye on their kids, they are on their own.

And two older brothers came over, asked to bounce, got permission, got inside and started getting wild almost immediately. I booted them out because I had no interest in one of them accidentally clocking my kids as they flipped around.

The food we'd gotten was outstanding. I mean, really, really friggin' excellent. We ordered the food from the same place that did our wedding a number of years ago and their food is every bit as awesome now as it was then. And I've been eating the leftovers all week and loving every bite. Seriously, if you're local and you want an awesome deal on an even more awesome meal then go hit up D'La Colmena on East Lake in Watsonville. They will do you up right!

It was fun but I'm glad its done though I am doubly or triply happy that our cousins were able to be here for the party. We don't get to see them enough but when we do, Grady and his cousin, Aiden, are like the absolute bestest of best friends ever. It is kind of pretty awesome.

It also makes me miss my own cousin, Davy (or Davis as he likes to be called now since we're in our 40's). We used to be the two peas in a pod pals but somewhere along the way, he went one way, I went the other and that's that. It isn't like there is any reason just that he lives in Vermont and I live in California and there's not a whole lot of contact. He's also got two wild boys of his own (and I think a third on the way) so his "free" time is pretty limited.

Anyway, we survived, everyone had fun and we're still working through all of the awesome gifts the boys received.

Birthday Shoutouts to my 9/11 Peeps

There are lots of pretty cool folks born today. Let's give a quick shout out to some of them.

Ludacris, Maria Bartiromo, Harry Connick Jr., Kristy McNichol, Tom Landry, Bear Bryant, D. H. Lawrence, O. Henry, Lola Falana, Brian de Palma, Ellis Burks and, let's see, who else, oh yeah, ME!

Of course, today has been permanently clouded over by the terrorist attacks in 2001 but it will always be our birthday first.

To celebrate, we are heading to the beach with the whole family including Nande, our over-sized wild dog. And next week I am planning on going sky diving over the Monterey Bay. We're also going up to San Francisco on Tuesday for the Giants game against the Colorado Rockies, I scored a great deal on some club level seats a couple of weeks ago!

Milestones

In just about a half of an hour the day will turn from September 10th to September 11th and I will turn from 39 years old to a rather astonishing 40 years old.

I haven't really done much thinking about this major change but, when I do, I'm struck by the implausibility of it. It doesn't seem possible or normal or right or anything of the sort.

I don't expect to lose my mind and go running down the street buck naked to play in traffic or anything but the thought has, obviously, crossed my mind.

Forty years old.

I had no idea I'd live this long when I was a teenager. I had no idea I'd be where I am in my life at 40. It is a rather substantial shift from 30's to 40's.

I'd hoped to have been further along by now, I'd hoped to be more settled, I'd hoped for lots more than I've got right now.

But there is hope and then there is reality. I hope that I'll be able to make my hopes more of a reality. Everyday I live is another day to move forward, another day to work for a better tomorrow for me and for my children.

There's so much that I could say, maybe should say, but I won't. I hope I have a decent birthday tomorrow and that it leads us into a year of unparalleled growth, success, peace and happiness.

In the end, I hope. I have always been hopeful, its the doing that has oftentimes stymied me. I hope tomorrow is a better day.

Weight Lifted

I knew that a good portion of my ennui, frustration and general frustration of the last week plus was wrapped up in the fact that my birthday and Patriot Day were fast approaching.

I don't think I gave it as much credence as I should have because it was like a weight lifted off my shoulders when my birthday actually did come. I think it was really the anticipation of the day, the flipping over of another number on my cosmic timecard as I inched to the last step before hitting forty years old next year.

And that seems almost ludicrous when typed out. I'm going to turn 40 next year. Forty. How in the hell did I get here? I fully expected to punch out in my 20's or early 30's. Not on purpose but just because of the manner in which I lived my life. I'm not the only one either. I've had conversations with my brother about those years when there was speculation about the source of my deathwish.

But the reality of my reality is that my birthday has become a source of dread, not something I look forward to in pretty much anyway anymore. The tragic terrorist attacks are part of it, of course, but I think there's also an element of regret in that the years keep passing me by and there's still so much left that I want to do, want to accomplish and want to experience.

Now being two days beyond my birthday, I am having a hard time even recollecting the doom and gloom that followed me around for the last few days leading up to 9/11. One thing that really did help was that I got quite alot of happy birthday wishes via email, phone, twitter and directly. Its nice to know that other folks are thinking about you, even if your head is stuck in a toxic cloud.

And my demeanor is returned to my normal, optimistic and generally pretty happy self which is good because I missed me.

Wrap Up

Aside from numerous distractions this morning, including one incessant reminder on my wife's phone and two calls from my boss, I did get to sleep in more than usual today.

I got to laze around, I got the house to myself and enjoyed the peace and quiet while I fiddled around online and had a late breakfast.

I opted to head out for a ride thinking the trails and the park itself would be mostly deserted. And I was right.

I took this during a river crossing (the park service puts up temporary bridges across the waterways). I ended up doing two loops in the park, taking my time and enjoying the scenery, listening to music and having fun on my bike.

Not a bad way to spend a birthday at all. Sure beats working!

Happy Birthday to Grady

I can't believe this beautiful and funny and imaginative little guy is turning four today. He never ceases to amaze, amuse and awe me. He has a sharp memory, for example, he asked where his cousins were when we got into San Francisco the other day because that's the last place he saw them (he misses you, Andrew and Nic!). He can so sweet it just about melts your heart. He creates elaborate stories with his cars and even more elaborate scenes with dozens of cars involved (and don't you DARE move a one of them or he'll know!).

Happy Birthday, Graydon! You are one of the best parts of my life and I've truly treasured spending time with you, exploring the universe and laughing together.

You make me want to be the best dad I can be and I love you more than anything!

My Little Button Pushing Monkey Gets to Two

During my long day of complaining, my wife mentioned that she had a stomachache around this time two years ago. If you can call being nine months pregnant a stomachache.

Sullivan was born the next day and will turn two friggin' years old tomorrow. To say that the kid is a pistol is an understatement.

The delight he takes in baiting his big brother and the twinkle he gets in his eye when he grabs the centerpiece toy from Grady and runs like only he can run. His grin gets even bigger when Grady chases him screaming. This happens pretty regularly but we are working on teaching Grady how to not react which will, hopefully, convince Sully to find another way to have fun.

Happy Birthday, Sullivan. May your next year see you find a wee bit of restraint and some way to take just the top edge off your scream (or you can choose to employ your scream less often, that would be alright too). Either way, you never fail to make me smile even when you're being a wicked little bugger.

You Say Patriot Day, I Say Birthday

Today I have turned 38 years old. That seems like an alien number and I have a hard time believing that I've been on this planet for 38 years now. Nine eleven sixty nine. I used to love my birthday and still like it quite a lot. I expect and hope that it will, eventually, become a national holiday and a day off.

But we'll have to have a more compassionate president for that.

Anyway, thirty eight years. Maybe I should take a little stock and see where we are now.
I weigh 170 pounds and am still five feet nine or ten. I've been 170 or close to it for the last 20 years. I still have a 32 inch waist and my feet remain as flat as pancakes, well pancakes with metacarpals and such in them.

I've got lots and lots of scars, some with cool stories behind them, some with stupid stories behind them. I've had several operations, mostly on my right ankle after a stupid accident.

I've broken my share of bones, abraded my share of skin but still done a reasonably good job of keeping my body in something resembling decent shape.

At one point, after I'd been training with powerlifters, I set new personal bests in the bench press, the leg press and in the squat with 305, 740 and 415 respectively. A few years ago, I was watching the Olympics while working out and successfully benched 310.

But I get most of my exercise on my bicycles these days. Well, mostly just my Ibis Mojo which I go trail riding on at least once a week. I'll try to get out for a road ride at least once a week as well but it is hard to get to and easy to blow off sometimes. But I also know how important the pedaling is for my sanity and health so I try not to.

I'd talk about career stuff but I don't currently have a career. I've been trying to kickstart a professional photography thing but it is taking some time to start up. And, in the meantime, I need to go back to working for someone else. The only thing I want for my birthday is a call from Santa Cruz Bicycles asking me when I can start the training process to be the Production Coordinator. That would totally make my day a very, very happy birthday indeed!

Here are some folks I share my birthday with.
O. Henry - short-story writer (1862)
D. H. Lawrence - author (1885)
Paul (Bear) Bryant - football coach (1913)
Tom Landry - Football (1924)
Daniel Kahikina Akaka - U.S. Senator (1924)
Brian De Palma - director (1940)

And they probably approach their birthdays with the same mixture of anticipation and sadness that so many died and are still dying on our day of birth. I'm reading an article in Discover about the downstream effects of the inhalation of toxic dust and fumes at ground zero causing up to 300,000 post attack deaths. If I dwell on it then I tend to become very melancholy and depressed. And that's no way to spend your birthday, even if the rest of the world calls it Patriot Day.

I hope you have a nice and thoughtful Patriot Day, I'll try to have a nice and enjoyable birthday.

Mom's Rule!

At least my Mom rules! As some of you are aware, we celebrated Sullivan's first birthday last weekend and he just got a fantastic present from his grandma, my Mom, and grandpa. Actually, it's a dual gift for Grady and Sully because there's no way we could keep Grady out and that would cut down on the fun anyway.

The present? Its called a Jellybean Jumper and is a small (but big enough for big fun) indoor jumphouse. It came with an inflator so it was easy to pump up and it has occupied a good space in our living room since yesterday afternoon.

To say the boys like it is extreme understatement. Sully has been giggling like mad and Grady is showing off his daredevil prowess by trying to jump over the side into it from the arm of the couch. We're discouraging that behaviour but the underlying deal is that both the boys absolutely love it.

And the timing for the delivery could not have been better because we are having an all-day playdate for Grady and one of his best pals. So we've had three little boys bouncing, laughing, rolling and wrestling in this thing all morning now. I predict solid naps from all three this afternoon. And maybe a meltdown or two as well but that's pretty much SOP with little kids.

Thanks Mom!

We Did It, We Survived, One More Birthday Party to Go

We celebrated Sullivan's 1st birthday today at a park in Corralitos. As expected, the weather was fan-freakin'-tastic with hot sun and a nice cooling breeze. Want to get hot, go out in the sun, want to cool down, go in the shade. Awesome.

And we learned a valuable lesson about having parties in the park, it is waaaay easier than having them at your house. When the party is done, you load everything up, throw all the trash away and then go home to a quiet and clean(ish) house. Really, really nice.

Other quick highlights before I pass out from exhaustion. The pinata was supposed to be a cactus but that one got lost so I went and got a three foot bright red chili pepper pinata. It was very cool. And very tough, every kid there got as many whacks as they wanted and it still didn't break. Eventually the piece tying it to the rope broke and I ended up tearing the thing in half and showering candy all around.

The Weber Q grill was perfect as well. With its cart and bit tank, it can cook continuously for days if need be. But we didn't need it to. It was quick to get set up and then get going. For the amount of food we had, it was the perfect size. I could have done all the hot dogs at once and still had space for burgers, even the mushroom hockey puck vegeterian things my wife eats.

Nearly in every instance, giving squirt guns away at a kid's party is a bad idea. Unless it is really warm out and the kids can have a ball blasting each other without really getting wet.

Also, a really important thing to keep in mind is a good mindset. Things could have gone south quickly because Sully basically dumped an entire box of juice on himself within three minutes of getting there. Instead of it being a problem, he lost his shorts and got a swabbing and we kept on rolling. There were little meltdowns here and there but nothing major because it just didn't fit in with how things were going, if that makes sense.

I'm sure the 15 year old having her birthday party right next to us enjoyed having a raucous crowd of little kids around. Especially when one unloaded on her and her friends with two squirt guns. But even that rolled off people's backs.

I think pretty much everyone had a great time. I know both the boys had a great time and they were both asleep by the time we got out to the main road to head home. Sugar and excitement can only carry you so far. I'll put up some photos later, I think I got some cool ones during the pinata beating and some of Sully stuffing a cupcake into his face.

But for now, I'm going to go lay down and enjoy the peace and quiet for a little while.

Huzzah, Hurrah, He's ONE Today!

That's right, Sullivan has turned the big corner from sub-1 to 1! He didn't really care all that much except he did get some whipped cream with his pancakes this morning and he thought that was totally cool. Hard to believe that he's been around for a year already. But we've also been seeing friends with their new tiny, tiny babies and yeah, he's HUGE. He's a heffalump baby. But that's a good thing, big plump healthy babies are fun.

Today is also Grady's best pal's birthday, he is turning 3. Sadly, for his birthday he's going to be having surgery on his tonsils. Hopefully this will help him breathe more easily, he's had non-stop congestion for a long time now and none of the meds or therapy have offered any long term relief.

Anyway, Sully's first year has been a bit of a rough one for his family. But it has also been, on the balance, a good year together. Grady is becoming a great big brother with only occasional bad big brother episodes that mostly involve cars and not being able to share them.

We'll be having cake to celebrate tonight and his party will be the weekend after next because the coming weekend has already been reserved for Grady's pal's party.

Do Not Mess With 5 Year Old Girls

Especially when pinatas and candy are involved.

We went to a birthday party yesterday afternoon, the daughter of son of our daycare provider. She was turning 5 and was very much into the "Princess" birthday theme. Graydon has gone from being the littlest piker at the party to one of the mid-ranged kids.

I spent the party keeping an eye on Sully and then Grady and then Sully again.

When it came time to bring the bash down on the pinata castle, these previously cute little girls became demons possessed. One girl took five whacks at the castle in the space of time others got one in, and none of the hits were soft taps, these were candy-fueled precision blows intended on releasing more candy from the pinata.

The payout was pretty good, lots of mini candy bars and other goodness in that pinata. Grady didn't really get the idea of gather as much as you could so much as he'd pick up one piece of candy and ask to have it unwrapped for consumption.

But nobody got whacked with the stick, which was good because I was in the right position to be the whackee. And both Sully and Grady had nice good and long naps through the afternoon.

[Update: Here are a few cropped in shots to better show the fury that possesses the 5 year olds when pinatas are involved.
Pretty amazing really, she was such a nice little girl before the pinata came out. And she wasn't the only one, but she was the one I got the best captures of, she was nice enough to turn so I could get her profile. But it was fun to watch and fun to watch the kids have such a good time whacking the holy bejeezus out of the castle.

Tags: birthday party, pinata, possessed, candy