Wednesday, July 23, 2003

I have jury duty this week. So far all it has consisted of is looking at the jury web page everyday to see if I am supposed to report to a court house. So far the only messages I have gotten on the web page are check the web page again between this time and this time. I'm hoping that this continues all week long and I don't have to be on a jury. I have a backpack trip planned Aug 1-4 and if I end up on an actual jury I may have to just backpack Aug 2-3 and I'll mess up CCC's plan to car pool with me.

Last weekend was fun. My hike to Coal Mine Ridge went well. 6 people showed up for the hike. That's a nice number. The Coal Mine Ridge trails were mostly in the shade and the predicted 100+ F temperatures didn't seem to materialize. We even had a nice breeze for the last bit of the hike. We had lunch under these two big trees that had a real nice hammock strung between them. I gave the hammock a try. It was very comfy. Later CCC also gave it a try. She liked it too. Everyone enjoyed walking around the green algae covered lake.


After the hike, CCC and I drove home. I got to see her condo. CCC only lives a couple blocks away from me. We logged on to her computer to find out when Winged Migration was showing. We decided to go to the 4:15 p.m. showing at the Acquarius theatre in Palo Alto. I headed home to take a shower before the movie. The movie was awesome. I highly recommend it. Its a film about bird migrations with incredible shots of all sorts of birds. At the beginning of the film the announcer said that all of the film was film of actual birds not special effects. They must have had truly patient filmers and ones willing to fly next to the birds way up in the air (maybe using an ultra light plane) to get the shots of them flying on the migration routes. After the film I dropped CCC off and had a quiet evening at home vedging and watching TV.

Sunday CCC picked me up at 1:30 p.m. I was off to a CCC family barbecue party with her. It was held at a retirement place for folks from the military near Fairfield. It was a pool party. The swimming pool was inside but there were lots of glass doors all around it so you could see outside. I liked this I got the sense of being outdoors but didn't have to slather myself with sun screen. We had fun batting around a big beach ball with all of CCC's nieces, nephews, cousins, sisters, and sisters' husbands. After swimming we all sat outdoors under the canopies and had hamburgers, potato salad, and the other usual barbecue fare. CCC's family is a very lively bunch. It was a fun party. I was happy that I felt comfortable and my shyness was not so bad that day. I was a hit with one of CCC's aunts because I was willing to take home some left over potato salad, chocolate cake, and soda. On the drive home CCC and I had a nice long talk. We disclosed a lot of personal stuff to each other.

Yesterday I went in for my estate planning appointment with Linda Silveria, a lawyer. She convinced me to set up a revocable living trust instead of a will. I weighed all the pros and cons and thought the trust was a better option. She will be drawing up the trust and call me to come in for another appointment to go through it and be sure everything is how I desire. Its gonna cost me about $1000.00. A will would have been cheaper but I deciced the trust was worth the extra cost.

I also went walking with CCC at Shoreline park yesterday evening. Unbeknownst to us while we were walking to and from Mallard hill, L. was having Max, her second baby boy. Baby Max Roberts was born at 10:30 p.m. EST last night. I now have two nephews: Sascha and his brother Max. Max weighs 8lb 2oz and was born with a nice head of light hair. L. was in labor for 8 hours which was much better than her labor of 30 hours with Sascha. She and baby Max are doing fine.