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Worked out at the very end of the day today. It felt good to get right back in the gym after missing day.

I was too busy at work today to fit in a work out. Sigh.

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Bad day yesterday at work. Today was OK but I'm still recovering from yesterday. It wasn't a very good Valentine's day although dinner out after work was nice. Poor sweetie of mine got an earful on the bad day at work though.

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I led a hike for GLS on Sunday. It went well. The weather was awesome and the scenery was nice. It was a mostly woodsy hike with some exposed parts with nice views of the woodsy valleys. We saw some nice big redwoods in the valley on the Pomponio trail.

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Ah shot ... puppy class is cancelled tomorrow. The instructor has a back injury and has been forbidden to go back to work this weekend. So the lessons will start hopefully next Saturday (if her back is well).

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Don't you just hate it when the sunny days fall during the week when you are stuck indoors. Grrrr! I hope the sunny weather holds out for my hike on Sunday and for puppy training class on Saturday.

Its my night to cook. I would like cooking better if I could walk in the kitchen and the menu is all planned out with instructions on how to cook it. It is the deciding what to cook that I don't like so much. The actual cooking isn't so bad once I get started. I much prefer washing dishes. I wonder what the ratio would be of folks who woud rather cook than do the dishes vs those who would rather do the dishes than cook.

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Astro and Cosmo

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Here is a picture of the new puppies on my lap. Astro is the reddish brown and white puppy while Cosmo is the black and white puppy.

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The puppies are here. They are small and cute cute cute. They wiggle. They bite. They chew. They whine. They sleep. They cuddle. They play. They pee and poo -- the usual puppy stuff.

Cosmo is a bit of a bully while Astro is sweeter. But Astro will let Cosmo know when he is too rough. Astro lay on my lap and slept yesterday while Cosmo found Charlotte's lap. It was amazing how wiggly they were one minute and how still the next when they fell asleep.

I'm a bit overwhelmed by the puppies. I worry that I am doing things wrong in terms of training them. I'll hang in there and follow Charlotte's lead on training until we start puppy kindergarten on Feb 11th.

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The puppies are coming! The puppies are coming! Cosmo and Astro are on their way. In about 35 minutes they will be getting off the jet and be picked up by Charlotte! When I get home I'll meet them.

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Got myself to the gym today after a lazy weekend. I was going to go geocaching Saturday but it was cancelled and all I ended up doing was running errands with Charlotte and not getting any exercise on Saturday. Sunday was spent getting to Berkeley and watching nieces Eva and Marlena in a gymnastics meet: an afternoon with my butt on a chair. Oh well. I'm back on track today.

Another day of not working out. Uh Oh.

I didn't work out today or weigh in. It has been such a roller coaster week that I decided to just rest today and not push myself to do anything in paritcular.

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Forgot my shorts today so no playing hamster on the treadmill. Running in jeans just doesn't work for me. Instead I took a forty minute walk along the Coyote Creek trail of which part borders my work parking lot. I decided not to weigh myself today after the walk. So tune in tomorrow for the latest weight.

Is TV bad for your mental health? Charlotte thinks so and a book I'm reading thinks so. The book is "Beating the Blues : New Approaches to Overcoming Dysthymia and Chronic Mild Depression" by Michael E. Thase, Susan S. Lang. But I love to watch TV. Is my love of TV making my mental health worse? Charlotte had me tipping towards trying to wean myself off TV yesterday but I'm not quite convinced yet. I keep remembering how much I enjoyed my TV before Charlotte came into my life and how it didn't feel like it was detrimental to my mental health. I find myself imagining ways to watch TV secretly so Charlotte doesn't know I'm doing it. Why do I feel a need to hide it from Charlotte? Maybe because I'm ashamed of my TV watching. I might wander around the internet and see what other opinions I can find on the affect of TV on mental health.

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Name That Puppy!

We haven't picked out names yet for our puppies. Any suggestions? We have some in mind but could use more suggestions.

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CCC and I have purchased two male Basenji Puppies due to arrive on Feb 1, 2006. Here they are as of January 8, 2006.

We ended up picking this breed based on

• desire for a dog that doesn't bark a lot - Basenjis don't bark (although they do yodel and whine)
• desire for a clean dog - Basenjis clean themselves a bit like cats do
• desire for a short haired dog
• desire for a unique dog
• desire for an intelligent dog
• desire for a dog that isn't too large
• we liked the pictures of the Basenjis in the books we poured through and on the internet

We got two dogs because there will be times we will be leaving the dogs at home (going to work, hiking at parks that don't allow dogs, etc.) and we didn't want to leave one dog all by his/her lonesome. We picked males because that was what was available from the breeder we choose to purchase them from. The dogs will keep each other company when we have to leave them home alone.

CCC will be roughly 75% reponsible for the dog care and I'm roughly 25% responsible for it -- mostly because I'm off at work 8 hours a day and CCC is home most days and she is the one who really really wanted to have pet dogs and she is more experienced with animal care. She has had many other pets in her life but never a dog.

We have stacks of books from the library about dog care sitting in the living room. CCC is busily reading them and figuring out how to prepare for the arrival of our new family members. I haven't started reading any yet but will soon. We also intend on signing up for puppy training classes.

For those who want to know even more about Basenji's check out the comments on this post with a link to a blog by two Basenjis: Scootis & Squish.

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The holiday damage is ... drum roll please ... 6 pounds. So it is off to the races yet again to shed those unwanted pounds.

It was worth it. The food was delicious on the holidays and I got to sleep in every single day and I didn't feel guilty for indulging. If I am going to indulge, I might as well enjoy it and this holiday I actually did enjoy it for once.

I have been extraordinarily busy at work. I haven't had time to work out or blog until now. I got a bit of a reprieve on having to work so hard yesterday. I was told that my due date for one task was not this Thursday but could extend into after the holidays are over. Phew. That gives me some breathing space.

We went out to dinner last night at an Indian restaurant called Shiva. I enjoyed my dish of butter chicken although it was a bit spicy for me. I'm very sensitive to spicy foods. I ate lots of bread and rice to ease the pain from the spicy food.

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Here is my weight record from 11/3/05 to today, 12/14/05. Went up and down the 5 lb roller coaster.

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You taste like tofu. You are a bit tasteless, but
you feel as smooth as silk. You're good for
the body and are preferred in the company of
hippies and health enthusiasts.


How do you taste?
brought to you by Quizilla

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Having fun today mucking about with my Blog template. I added links to other blogs I read every so often. I want to figure out how to put my flickr photos on my blog page. I'll go have a read on flickr's pages to search for the answer.

Saturday, C. and I did a movie marathon. We watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, followed by Shopgirl, followed by Walk The Line. I enjoyed all three movies but I was mightly restless by the third movie.

Sunday we went to the Gay and Lesbian Sierra Club holiday party. There was a great turn out of 20+ people. A lot of very good cooks attended the party and brought great dishes. It was exceedingly difficult to not pig out on all the wonderful dishes. As a matter of fact, I did pig out. The white elephant gift exchange was a hoot. The gifts were outlandish and we all had fun trading the gifts and laughing at the particularly weird ones. C. proclaimed that the fuzzy "It" was the best one. We ended up with a castenet and gave away a couple of banana split glass bowls.

We got all our presents wrapped last night and put in boxes to be sent to Philadelphia and Cleveland. C. will be taking the boxes to the post office today.

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Sending Packages at Christmas

Here are results of my research on sending packages from Mountain View CA to Philadelphia PA of size 10 x 10 x 10 inches and weight from 1 to 5 pounds with a sending date of Dec. 6th. Fed-Ex ground turned out to be the best for packages weighing over 2 pounds while the USPS was the best for packages under 2 pounds. DHL and UPS were both more expensive. In terms of time of delivery, the USPS parcel post was the slowest at 8 days while Fed-Ex ground was the fastest at 5 days and DHL and UPS both came in at 7 days.

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I gave a pint of blood this morning. The cookies and juice after giving blood were good. I had about four cookies and two cups of OJ. No strenuous exercising for 24 hours. That's cool as I got in my exercise at 7:30 a.m. this morning before I gave blood. Tomorrow I'll hold off on exercising till after 11 a.m.

Not sure if I am going to get a work out in today at work. So I might not have a weigh in today. Probably a good thing since I ate like a piggy yesterday -- the See's candy and M&M's we got for early Christmas presents were hard to resist. Also I was eating to feel better -- I have to come up with a better way to feel better that doesn't pack on the pounds.

Had a nice hike at Coyote Hills on Saturday. It was a very crisp sunny day. Sunday was a lazy day at home spent reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of something or other, watching Tennessee beat Stanford in women's basketball on TV, and doing a jig saw puzzle.

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It was a fun long weekend. Thursday and Saturday were full of family visiting and Thanksgiving feasts (one feast at my brother's house in San Francisco and one feast at Charlotte's parent's house in Carmel). I'm emotionally drained from all the socializing and pining for a day or two all to myself!

Friday we were going to go hiking but it was rainy out so instead we went to see the movie The Whale and the Squid. The movie was good. After the movie we hit the crowded stores to buy some Christmas stuff. Yesterday we went on a long hilly hike. We climbed 2500 feet and hiked roughly 8 or 9 miles. I'm really wiped out physically today from that hike. The long steep hills were what really wore me out. We hiked for 6 hours and 20 minutes. Phew. I loved it but it was tiring.

I now need another vacation to recover from my vacation. Instead, here I am at work. At least my next vacation is only 4 weeks away. I get Dec 23 '05 to Jan 2, '06 off from work.

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Two thanksgiving dinners coming tomorrow and Saturday nights. Hopefully the big hikes we have planned will help us burn off the calories we eat at the feasts: 8 to 13 miles at Calero County park on Friday and 18 miles on Sunday (Santa Cruz mountains to the beach).

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Another lame excuse for the weight gain ... I gained muscle not fat!

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Eee Gad ... 5 pounds gained in one weekend! :-( :-( :-(

Possible explanations:

• I ate a lot this past weekend -- more than four mile hikes on Saturday and Sunday could burn.
• The time of the month has me gaining water weight -- seems a bit early though at 10 days till my period and 5 pounds seems a bit excessive for a little water weight gain.
• The weight machine was recalibrated over the weekend -- my favorite explanation but I doubt its true.
• I weighed myself after lunch in the afternoon rather than in the morning before lunch -- but I don't think that could account for 5 pounds.

Needless to say ... I'm quite disappointed in this weight gain. Now I weigh more than when I started to try and lose weight ... Grrrrr. I'm exercising regularly. I just have to stop eating so much calorie filled junk food.

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Time to rethink the weight goal. Its Nov 15 and I'm 181. That means to get down to 160 by Christmas I have to lose (181-160)/(Dec 25-Nov15) = 0.52 lb per day or 3.64 lb per week. I think losing 2 lbs a week is more reasonable. So my new goal is going to be 170 lbs by Christmas.

This test result feels like a good fit to me -- especially the bit about my first date being "walking around aimlessly and talking." I really like that first date. I definitely have a laid back flirting style.

Your Heart Is Green

Love completes you, but that doesn't mean you seek it out. When love comes your way, you integrate it peacefully into the rest of you life.

Your flirting style: Laid back

Your lucky first date: Walking around aimlessly and talking

Your dream lover: Is both enthusiastic and calm

What you bring to relationships: Balance

What Color Heart Do You Have?

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I have been trying to lose weight and get in better shape lately with a dim goal of getting down to 160 lbs by Christmas and continuing on to an eventual goal of 140 lbs by whenever. Last week I weighed in at 183 lbs, perhaps the heaviest I have ever been. Ug. I can feel the extra weight when I go hiking and hit those steep hills. It pains me to have regained all the weight I lost several years ago. I guess I'm just your typical yo yo type. I haven't figured out how to get myself to maintain the weight when I reach my weight goal.

This week I have gone to the gym at work every day so far and worked out on the treadmill for 40 minutes. I spend 5 minutes at a walking pace to warm up, run at 5.2 mph for 30 minutes, and spend 5 minutes at a walking pace cooling down. I do a wee bit of stretching afterwards. I probably should do more stretching but I don't. The treadmill machine reports to me that for my efforts I have burned 360 calories and walked/run 3 miles.

I have had a good week at work. I am at the coding stage of my current project and really my favorite thing to do at work is write code. I thought my favorite part would be designing the code but after one experience of that, I prefer writing the code from an exisiting design to doing the design. I think if I wasn't so new at this work, I might prefer the design work. Its just hard to design something when you don't know much about how things work.

This weekend I plan on going geocaching by bike on Sunday in Half Moon bay with my geocaching buddies. Before we start we are having a pancake breakfast at V's house. Yummmm! ccc is joining us for the breakfast but has to work Sunday at noon so will pass on the geocaching. I'm not sure what ccc and I will be up to tomorrow -- Frontrunners, hiking, and/or doing chores are possible things we might do.

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Inverness Inn was beautiful and Point Reyes and Tomales bay were great.

We got checked in early on Friday and then took a nap. That night we drove at dusk to the Point Reyes light house. It was foggy and the sun was setting. The crowds were gone and we mostly had the place to ourselves. The path to the light house was closed though so we had to hang out on the beautiful platform above the light house rather than see it up close and personal. We saw lots of nature out at dusk: deer, mice, and a hare. We heard lots of sea lions but couldn't see them because of the fog.

Saturday we slept in. We did a little hiking at Tomales bay state park and hung out on a little beach there for a while. We had dinner out at Barnabys: decent food, slow service -- but we were forewarned about the slow service by a staff member at the Inn.

Sunday we slept in again. We had breakfast in the room and then packed up to check out by 11 a.m. We then headed to Drakes beach and sat on a log watching the waves and people and surfers. We also grabbed some fish and chips at the Drakes beach cafe. It was a nice lazy late morning and early afternoon. We left for home at 3ish.

Inverness Inn is a very nice place to stay. My only regret was we never got around to checking out the hot tub or the swimming pool (our room was right near the pool so at one point we did over hear that the pool was freezing). I would love to stay there for another weekend some day.

you are mediumauqamarine #66CDAA

Your dominant hues are cyan and green. Although you definately strive to be logical you care about people and know there's a time and place for thinking emotionally. Your head rules most things but your heart rules others, and getting them to meet in the middle takes a lot of your energy some days. Your saturation level is medium - You're not the most decisive go-getter, but you can get a job done when it's required of you. You probably don't think the world can change for you and don't want to spend too much effort trying to force it. Your outlook on life is brighter than most people's. You like the idea of influencing things for the better and find hope in situations where others might give up. You're not exactly a bouncy sunshine but things in your world generally look up.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

Weekend Escape!

Charlotte and I are going to Point Reyes this weekend to the Inverness Inn. We leave tomorrow morning and come back Sunday night. I have tomorrow off from work. I'm looking forward to a somewhat computer free weekend with hiking, swimming, geocaching, reading, and relaxing among the activities of choice. Charlotte might do some painting or drawing while I'm geocaching.

My case of poison oak is slowly healing. I did put some Aveeno cream on my arm this morning as the little spot there was itching awfully. The cream helped.

I did a lot of hiking this past weekend. On Friday I did a little geocaching after work and walked 2 miles to find Sharon's geocaches in Hellyer park. On Saturday I led a 8.3 mile hike for GLS at Joe Grant County Park. On Sunday I went off with geocaching buddies to find caches at Skyline and Long Ridge. I think we hiked at least 8 miles yesterday. My feet are sore today. I had planned to go the gym but I might skip it today to give my body a chance to recover a little more.

The poison oak has gotten worse. Check out the pictures:

http://people.delphiforums.com/CDRDASH/images/cathyspoisonoak.jpg

http://people.delphiforums.com/CDRDASH/images/charlottespoisonoak.jpg

Charlotte and I went to visit her friend, S, this weekend. S lives in the Santa Cruz mountains in a small cottage with a marvelous deck and an awesome view of the Pacific ocean in the distance. We went hiking on the property first. At one point we were bushwacking and went through some poison oak. I tried to avoid it but failed. Alas both Charlotte and I got poison oak. Charlotte seems to have a bit more than I. I have small patches on my hip, elbow, and calf. They don't itch too much so far. Knock on wood.

Charlotte's car is in the shop. Her ignition switch was burned out. Who knew that ignition switches run around $300.00. And who knows what damage was done elsewhere by the switch burning out. Hopefully today the part will arrive and they can install it and do the tests to see what else might be damaged. I really hope nothing more is damaged and the labor costs don't get too steep.

They are building a new office here at work in my part of cube city. I just heard a power drill making noise. I'll be glad when its done and the noise stops. The office is for a new executive. They pulled apart two cubes in the area and are now putting up walls (floor to ceiling) and a door and fixing up the air conditioning etc.

Understanding- Your inner power is Understanding! Lifes many mysteries have become your ultimate goal to work out. You are neither a good or bad person, just very neutral, very stable. You look down on nothing or anyone, merely observe their point of view and make no judgments. You can be seen as very shadowy and uncertain in what you believe in to an outsider, but this isnt always true. You simply dont flaunt your views around. You have a few, close friends who rely on you, and love you for the way your never scorn for the way they live their lives. You are very caring and would make a great mother, seeing you always try to help those who come to you for your aid. You are extremely hard to anger, and yet when you are, your forgiveness is hard to gain. You are loyal, secretive, very quiet and often impassive, with few able to break around the wall that you built to protect yourself. Not everyone acknowledges you even exist, but you dont really care. As long as you have your close friends by your side, you are right to go. Although they might not voice it, many people long to have your ability to accept change as well as what cant be changed. Dont ever let others bring you down, because you are truly special, and those who have the courage to venture passed your walls of silence will only regret not having tried to befriend you sooner.

Boy/Girl who will sweep you off your feet:
The mysterious boy/girl. The one who no one knows much about. You are attracted to him/her by the secrecy around him/her, and he/she loves how stable and unjudging you are.
Your stone/jewel: Sapphire
Your power: Life. The ability to bring those who have died back to life, as well as bring life back into those who have lost all hope.
Your element: Lunar
A quote that applies to you: "Do not be 'against' anything. Being 'against' weakens you. Be 'for' what you want. Being 'for' empowers you."

What's your inner power? (Girls only sorry. Beautiful anime pictures, lengthy results)
brought to you by Quizilla

Another weekend gone.

Saturday Charlotte and I joined a friend for a 3 mile walk at the Baylands before the Bayland's Frontrunner's walk. We walked on the usual path which was marked as closed by the time we finished our loop. So for the second loop, we had to go on the Front Runner's "rain route." On the second walk, Charlotte and I walked very fast. We got challenged by some dudes to catch them if we could so (they were on their way back from the turn around point and we were on our way there) we did. We booked and managed to pass them. We really got some good exercise! After the walk (almost run) we went to the Baylands Brunch. We snarfed down donuts, bagels, coffee, peanuts, and fruit and basically replaced all those calories we just burned. We met some lesbians new to Front Runners and had a nice chat with them. We also got to know some Front Runners that we just never had managed to meet much before: a lesbian couple who brings their little kids with them on most Saturday walk/runs.

Sunday, we slept in. We had some brunch and then went to see the movie Lord of War: a good but disturbing movie about a gun runner. After the movie we did some chores and then headed out for a hike at Rancho San Antonio. We hiked 8 miles. We hiked up to the top of the PG&E trail. Its about 4 miles up 1000 feet of elevation and we hiked fast. We hiked from 2:45 p.m. to around 6:00 p.m. It felt good to get in some more vigorous exercise. That night we had a light dinner at home and watched TV. It was a pretty good weekend.

This past Saturday Charlotte and I walked downtown to get some exercise and check out the Mountain View Art and Wine festival. We walked around for a couple hours looking at booths and munching on various junk food (pastries from the Hong Kong bakery, garlic fries, ice cream, a slice of pizza, and a coke). I got a new hat. Its a white hat with a big brim made to help protect the face and head from the sun. It works well and looks nice. I wore it on the walk home with my old hat lanyard around my neck and the hat hanging down my back. Charlotte found the hat and it was marked as costing $10.00. It turns out it was actually an $18.00 hat that someone labeled incorrectly. They sold it to us for $10.00 since the tag was their mistake.

Sunday, I went off to San Bruno County park to lead a hike for OAW while Charlotte went off to walk in the "Run for the Community" event put on by Front Runners. I headed to a park-n-ride to meet folks for the OAW hike. Alas, not a soul showed up so I was on my own. I had suspected this might happen as no one had inquired about the hike at all. My back up plan in this event was to go geocaching at San Bruno County park on my own. I found four caches: two up on the mountain and two below the mountain. It was a foggy windy day. It was cool sitting at the top of the peak, eating lunch, and watching the fog blow around the peak.

When I got home Charlotte was home. She had a good time at the race and managed to get a T-shirt for me at no extra cost as a friend of ours didn't want her t-shirt so Charlotte snagged it for me. I took a long shower when I got home as while hiking around I brushed up against some poison oak. I carefully took off all my cloths and put them in the washing machine and then cleaned my self up with Tecnu soap followed by a shower. Cross your fingers that I got all the poison oak oil off of me!

After my shower, Charlotte and I watched the movie Cold Mountain on DVD. It was good although a little violent and bloody (its about the civil war). I enjoyed the second movie we watched in the evening more. It was called "Door to Door". It was made in 2002. Charlotte found it at the Mountain View library. I recommend seeing it if you haven't done so already.

The work week is almost over. I'm quite busy at work on my newest assignment. Did I mention that I have been having to work overtime?

This weekend I lead an OAW hike on Sunday to San Bruno County Park. I should probably post a reminder to the list. Charlotte is opting out as she is going to participate in Front Runner's Run For the Community race on Sunday. She should get a nice T-shirt with her friend's Terri's art work on it in addition to the satisfaction that she contributed towards supporting good causes in the GLBT community (I think I missing some letters in there).

Last night I attended the Loma Prieta GLS board meeting. We discussed what we might do if we can't find anyone to be on the board next year. I'm not going to serve again. I'm over extended with volunteer work right now and I need to let something go and GLS is the unlucky candidate. We think that if no one comes forward we will have to let LP GLS go dormant. We'll discuss what that means if we hear from the nominating committee that they had no luck getting volunteers.

Labor day weekend is over. Charlotte and I stayed home most of the weekend.

We did go hiking on Sunday to Wunderlich after a nice brunch at Denny's. We hiked to the meadow and then hiked to the Salamander pond where we stopped to see if we could find some newts. We did. There were lots of them floating on the surface of the pond. We spotted them at first by seeing the algae on the pond move. Then we could peer in the water and see the newt under the motion!

Yesterday we had a dinner party at our place. Four friends came over for dinner at 6ish. We served a very simple dinner of pastrami sandwiches with lots of good fixings (romaine lettuce, onions, tomatos, mayo, horseradish sauce, and several types of mustard). We had some cut up apple too. We served Charlotte's sister's husband's excellent wine. For desert we had ice cream. We had purchased coffee to serve which was my responsibility to make but no one wanted coffee. Oh well.

Saturday we spent almost all day watching movies on DVD or on TV. Sometimes a day of couch potato'ing is fun.

I'm free now! The fire deparment gave the all clear for the chemical spill and we are free to go outside if we want now. That's cool. I can go home on time. I hope the traffic is normal on the drive home and not messed up by some traffic residue from the accident.

I'm trapped at work! There has been a chemical spill at Bernal and 85. Its sulfuric acid I believe that leaked out of tanker truck. We have been advised to stay inside the building until they get the spill cleaned up since breathing acid fumes is not a good thing. They don't know how long we'll be stuck in here.

Ten hour days at work are not my cup of tea. I decided to work 10 hour days the weeks of July 25-29 and August 1-5 so I could take July 29 and Aug 1 off for a camping trip and still get my 40 hour week in. I have determined after today (my last 10 hour day) I am not going to try this again. 10 hour days are just too much for me. It doesn't leave much down time at the end of the day. Next time I need a day off I'll use some vacation instead.

The GLS camping trip in the Eastern Sierra's was awesome. Check out my pictures. Charlotte and I had a great hike from Lake Sabrina to Blue Lake!

Wen asks ...
So, RQOTD: How much PTO/Vacation/Sick leave do you get?

I get ...

Vacation: 10 days/year
Sick: 6.5 days/year
Holidays: 11 days/year

Four of my holidays are for a year end company shutdown for the last week of December.

If there were a competition for weird sounds your digestion system makes, I think I would be winning now. I'm wondering just what folks around me are thinking of these sounds. Fortunately there are not that many folks around me at the moment. Oh well.

C and I went to Santa Cruz pride yesterday. It was mostly fun but my legs had a reaction to the sun screen lotion and itched like crazy for a while. What finally calmed them down was baking them in the sun. What a relief that was. We watched the parade first. The radical fairies had the best float with a down in the sea theme. There were brightly colored sea horses being carried around by mostly naked men painted various colors (blue, gold, black), a truck with mermaids on it, and a couple of guys running around with umbrellas decorated to look like jelly fish when the umbrella was opened. The SF cheerleaders were fun as usual. I didn't know anyone in the parade but C did. She ran over to say hello. Its always sort of fun to have a parade participant wave at your and run over and say hi.

After the parade we checked out the festival. I only saw one famaliar face at first at the Triangle speakers booth. C and I checked out all the booths and snagged candy from some booths and entered some raffles. We found a spot on the lawn in front of the stage and ate lunch. We watched the cheerleaders on the stage and listened to some proclamations (YAWN!). After getting bored of proclamations we left to head to the movie theatre to see crash. On our way out we ran into R and had a nice chat and then we ran into T and L and walked with them to downtown SC. They were off to eat.

We saw the movie Crash at 2:15 p.m. Its a good movie but a little disturbing. Its sort of about racism. After the movie we went to Saturn Cafe for chocolate madness. We were a bit mad to be thinking we could each eat one. Neither of us finished our madnesses. After our indulgence we headed to Natural Bridges State Park to hang out on the beach. That was nice. We had a very relaxing time just doing the tiny walk from rock to rock on the little beach, playing in the water, digging holes in the sand for our feet so we had a nice chair of sorts, and just watching the boogie boaders, little kids playing in the sand, the kite flyers, and the pelicans. We left at 7 p.m. and had an uneventful drive home.

At home we watched a DVD. We just got netflicks and are having fun watching all sorts of movies. Last night we watched part of a French movie called "Amour de Femme." Tonight we may finish watching it or maybe tomorrow. We got about 2/3 of the way through it before it was time for bed.

What a long hard week it was last week. I can't go into the details in this public forum though. Sorry to entice you so. Please send relaxing vibes my way. I'm still coming off all the stress and angst I went through last week.

The visit with my folks went well.

• Thursday: after a day of work drove to SF, greeting my parents, watched my nieces practice gymnastics followed by dinner at my brother's, drove back to Mtn. View
• Friday: after a day of work, drove to SF, watched two of my nieces do a dance performance (they were great) followed by dinner out, drove back to Mtn. View
• Saturday: drove to Carmel, had lunch with Charlotte's parents, hiked at Pt. Lobos, ate dinner out with Charlotte's parents, drove back to Mtn. View with my parents, got them settled in our room, and got some shut eye
• Sunday: slept in a little, hung out in the a.m. with Mom and Dad, had lunch, drove to SF, visited the gross anatomy lab where A works (yes, I saw some cadavars a.k.a dead people), went on a walk at Golden Gate Park, ate dinner at my brother's, drove back to Mtn. View
• Monday: got up at 5:45 a.m., took Mom and Dad to the airport, returned home, showered, ate breakfast, and went to work.

Phew! It was fun but exhausting. We did lots of talking and lots of driving and lots of watching. My parents looked pretty tired when I dropped them at the airport on Monday. Now they are happily settling in at Dyers Bay for the summer. They arrived there last Friday.

This weekend was much more relaxing. Charlotte and I went hiking at Point Reyes. We hiked out to Arch Rock. It hike started off in the clouds but it was sunny with blue sky at Arch Rock. We ate lunch on the rock. We saw a couple of gray whales from the rock. It was very exciting. It was a Mom and her baby as best we could tell. Sunday I slept in a bit. Charlotte went off to be with her Mother in Carmel for Mother's day. I called my Mom and had a nice talk with her. Then I spent the day just puttering around and doing chores (laundry, balancing my check book, and backing up my computer files) and enjoying the time by myself to regroup and think about the tough week I had last week.

Its early morning at work. I'm drinking my ritual cup of decaf coffee with cream and sugar. It is Peet's coffee but I'm thinking that the generic brands suit me just as well so I'll probably save some money and get a generic brand when the current bag of Peets runs out. I'm not much of a coffee connoisseur.

Mom and Dad arrive today. Bob is picking them up at the airport around 11 a.m. Tonight we drive to SF to see them. We are going to watch Eva and Marlena practice their gymnastics for a little bit and then go back to Bob and Anne's for dinner. After dinner is over we'll probably head home so I can get to bed. I'm off for another day at work tomorrow at 7 a.m.

Charlotte sent me this chocolate math thing. However it could also be called your age by asparagus math or by whipped cream math or etc. etc.

Your age by Chocolate Math

1. Pick the number of times a week that you would like to have chocolate (more than once but less than 10)
2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)
3. Add 5
4. Multiply it by 50 -- I'll wait while you get the calculator .
5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1755 .... If you haven't, add 1754.
   Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.

You should have a three digit number . The first digit of this was your original number (i.e., how many times you want to have chocolate each week). The next two numbers are your age! (Oh yes it is!!!!!) This is the only year (2005) it will ever work.

My result was 744. Yup ... I would like to have chocolate every day of the week and I am 44. I'm too lazy to figure out why this works but I'm sure I could.

Mmmmm ... organic Gorgonzola tomato soup with a nice slice of sour dough bread to sop it up with -- lunch at work this fine Tuesday at 11:40 ish.

I find myself squeezing into my trousers and lagging on hikes. I think its time to lose some weight and get back in good hiking condition. Charlotte may join me in this quest. The party this weekend didn't help much. We both downed lots of delicious pot luck food -- squash soup, a tasty salad (asparagus, mango, avocado, lettuce, tomato, and shrimp), brownies laced with espresso, maple/chocolate squares, a decadent chocolate cake, quiche, and cheese and crackers. All the leftovers are gone now.

This weekend Mom and Dad visit us. It will be a short visit packed full of driving and visiting. Thursday and Friday Mom and Dad will be in SF and we'll drive up after my work to join in the fun. Saturday we take Mom and Dad to Monterey and Carmel to visit with Charlotte's folks and have dinner at their house. Mom and Dad will spend the night with us. Sunday its back to SF for a day of visiting Anne's lab among other activities and then back to Mtn. View. Charlotte will probably take Mom and Dad to the airport Monday morning unless their flight is very early in which case I'll take them before I head to work.

The GLS newsletter is just about done. Being newsletter chair is one week of intense business followed by being mellow the weeks until the next newsletter. I do have to go to board meetings once a month. The next newsletter will be July/August so I'll be busy again at the end of June. Actually I'm volunteering at the gay pride booth and will be helping Tina get it nicely decorated. Come to think of it ... we are supposed to be meeting soon to talk about the ideas we have for the booth.

Happy Birthday to me

Happy Birthday to me

Happy Birthday dear Cathy

Happy Birthday to me!

I'm 44 today. I like being 44 so far. I'm actually roughly 44 years and 12 hours old right now. I was born in the wee hours of the morning ... 12:30 a.m. EDT March 24, 1961 in Columbus, Ohio at University hospital.

I opened some nifty presents this morning. Lets just say I'm all set to go shopping at REI and do a jigsaw puzzle. I got some cool birthday cards too. Charlotte found one that says "Happy Birthday, girlfriend." One had a cute picture of a little girl with a puppy. The third had a wonderful nature scene on it. Tonight Charlotte and I are off to the Fish Market for a birthday celebration dinner.

We were going to go backpacking for my birthday but I decided I didn't really want to go backpacking. It just seemed like too much work and I was worried we would get rained on and be wet and cold and uncomfortable. So I called off the trip. Maybe we'll go in April or May when the weather is a bit more reliable but still cool enough for Henry Coe where we planned on going.

Work is going well. I like the project I am assigned to.

I'm testing out the comments with this post.

Things have changed a bit since my last post. I have a job at Northrop Grumman. I have a domestic partner duly registered with the state of California, Charlotte, and we are living together. I have a gold ring on my left hand (ack ... me ... who never wears jewelry ... now wears a ring) signifying my committment to Charlotte. I have bifocals (the kind without the telling little line -- progressives) and new glass' frames which makes me look a bit more feminine so Charlotte says. I have a PDA now which I won in a raffle and I am having a grand time using it. I didn't get season tickets to Stanford women's basketball (Pac 10 champs again!!) this year but had fun at two games thanks to Moonshadow's generosity. I have gained weight yet again and am trying to lose it yet again. I am no longer at Kaiser after 17 years of giving them my business. I have been venturing out with my new insurance and seeing new docters this winter. The only constant in my life seems to be change.

Ack ... major non-blogging time since January. I would have thought being unemployed would leave me with lots of time to blog but ... no ... it doesn't. Job hunting is keeping me busy as is my new relationship that is almost one years old now (May 17 I'll have known Charlotte for a year).

Charlotte and I went on a backpack trip a couple weekends ago. We drove to the Henry Coe Hunting Hollow entrance on Wednesday morning and hiked 6.3 miles and 1500+ feet up to Kelly Lake. We set up camp there and did day hikes or hanging out for the next 3 days.

On day one we had a challenging hike to Pacheco Falls. It was a steep up followed by a long gradual down to the Falls. Then we had to retrace our steps to return. We climbed 2000 feet and hiked 9 miles. We got to see a nice garter snake on the way up the hill near the Falls. On the way we searched for two geocaches and found neither one of them. That was annoying. The falls did not have much water in them but were still beautiful to look at. The place where you could view the falls was riddled with poison oak so we didn't get to sit and eat lunch while admiring the view. I took a couple of nice pictures. Charlotte did a sketch but not of the falls.

On day two we just stayed at the lake all day. We did attempt to walk around the lake but found the route had too much poison oak on it so instead we found a nice shady spot in the trees with a view of the lake. I read allowed to Charlotte while she did a sketch. One fellow showed up on Friday so we no longer had the lake to ourselves. He was real quiet and unobtrusive though so it still felt like we were sorta alone. We got in a skinny dip!

On day three, Saturday, we went off on a day hike on an unmaintained trail. We failed to stay by the creek and lost the little indication of trail that was there. We ended up having to bushwack up hill through very thick dense bushes. We were both a little worried but after looking at the maps we realized if we just kept at it we would eventually find one of the three trails that surrounded the area we were in. We finally did break out of the bushes on to a delightful grassy hillside. We had lunch and revelled in the lack of bushes. After lunch we hiked up the grassy hills and found one of the trails and got back on course. Both of us had many wonderful scratches to show off our adventure on our arms and legs. We also tempted the poison oak goddess many times. After the hike we tecnu'ed ourselves and went swimming in the lake. That felt good. In the end Charlotte got a bit of poison oak and I managed to avoid it altogether. I'm not quite sure how I did that!! That night we gave each other massages while listening to the big group of 10 people camped on the other side of a hill from us. We missed our privacy of the previous nights.

We saw and heard lots of animals. Here is the list I made: garter snake, wild turkey, horned toad, mystery red bug, toad, mouse, turtle, coots, ruddy ducks, bats, swallows, red wing blackbirds, fish, bumble bees, ants, locust with orange wings, deer, hawk, turkey vulture, lizard, squirrel, frog, quail, dove, owl, malards, malard ducklings, orange red dragon fly, and a gopher. The gopher let us use his home for our kitchen ;-) It was cute to see his little head poke out of a hole nearby as we cooked dinner.

On this trip Charlotte and I got to know our camping routine together better. We figured out how we like to cook dinners (who does what and how we do it), ways to be more comfortable in the tent, etc. I got upset about some stuff and it all came out the day we were hiking out. I can say now that one unique way to get up a steep hill with a backpack on is to cry about stuff and discuss it with your girlfriend and use that to distract you from the discomfort of the uphill! The hill seemed to be over very quickly because we were so busy discussing things and working things out. Phew. We did a decent job of communicating and I felt better on the long downhill slog to the cars. It was a good trip. We look forward to doing more backpacking trips together.

I'm at a low point right now in my job search. That's because I got another rejection today. Those always hit me hard and it takes me a while to get my confidence back. This time I didn't get another interview because I didn't answer the "C" programming question with enough depth. Sigh. At least I did have a phone interview. I had a couple of real interviews in April but did not get the jobs. At least it was good to know that I could at least get job interviews. I need to keep plugging away. I have joined a group called
ProMatch. Its a nice networking, informational, and support group for finding a job. I highly recommend it to others searching for a job.

Oh ... pictures from backpacking will soon be up at my Webshots site. Look for the obvious folder which I will label something like Henry Coe Backpack May 2004. Feel free to check out other albums too.

OK .. so what has happened to me since Oct 15. I was indeed laid off at the end of October. My last day at work was October 31st. I have been searching for a job ever since.

I did most of my searching via web sites and some networking in November and December. With the coming of the new year I have been buckling down and really working on the job search. I went to an ASME meeting called "Building a Whole Career." At this presentation I heard about ProMatch and decided to look into what it was. I went to a ProMatch foundation workshop meeting the first Friday of January at a place called the Connect Center in Sunnyvale. It is a great resource center for job searching. They do workshops on resume writing, interviewing, networking, and career exploration. Last Friday I went to the ProMatch orientation meeting and filled out lots of forms and got on the ProMatch waiting list. The group is very popular and very effective in helping folks to find work. They estimated that it will be 5 weeks before we are contacted and asked if we want to join the group. While I wait, I'll be taking the free workshops at Connect center. I'll keep going until I have done all of them or found a job

I have been doing pretty well with networking. I sent an email to everyone I could think of in October telling them I was job searching. I also went to 3 holiday parties and mentioned to folks at these parties that I was looking for a job. I also networked at a FrontRunner's coffee after the Saturday morning run. I'm trying to get more involved with SWE again. I volunteered to be the SCV web master. I have been watching the meetings to try and attend them and also the monthly lunch get togethers. I'm slowly getting better at networking and understanding how to use it to my advantage in a job search.

CCC and I have had lots more time together since I was laid off. The honeymoon is over and we are both working hard at improving our communication and getting used to each other's foibles. This has taken up much of the time I am not job searching. I have little time left for blogging. CCC and I have gone on many wonderful hikes this fall and winter: Santa Teresa county park, Briones regional park, Diablo foothill regional park, Uvas Canyon, Point Lobos, Nisene Marks, Fall Creek, Skyline Open Space Preserve, Castle Rock, and Henry Coe are the ones that come to mind.

CCC and I went to Philadelphia for Christmas to my sister's house. My parents were there too. CCC got to meet half my family. Now the only person she hasn't met is my younger brother, David. I have met all of her siblings and her parents. We had a nice visit to her parent's in Carmel about a week ago. We hiked at Pt. Lobos and had a wonderful Thai dinner afterwards.

CCC is quite the movie buff so I have seen lots of movies on the big screen and on DVD or VCR. We have found the video section at the Mtn. View library and have taken out many movies to watch. Its free of charge although there is a steep late fee. We watched the Shipping News and Two Week's Notice recently. I liked the Shipping News. The scenery of Nova Scotia was marvelous and I liked the story. Two Week's Notice was funny and a good movie to cheer us up after watching Tuesdays with Morie earlier in the day.

Long time, no post. Things have been unsettled at work to say the least. First for most of September it was a waiting game to hear who won the ACITS contract. We never did find out in September. We found out in October who won the ACITS: QSS/Raytheon. Then a new thing to worry about arose. I found out that my task is going to be closed so essentially I'm out of a job when the task closes. That will probably be towards the end of October. Ug. I didn't seem to have any urge to blog through out all this.

I have another geocaching hunt under my belt. This past Saturday we went to Diablo Foothill regional park and searched out 8 caches in the shadow of Mt. Diablo. One cache was way up on a hill that took some steep bushwacking to get to the top. We also charged through this yellow plant that coated our pants legs with this sticky substance. CCC and I saw a tarantula. I got a picture of it. On Sunday CCC and I dragged her brother along with us to find an urban cache in San Francisco. We found it eventually but got off track when we didn't pay pay attention to the cache being only 140 feet away according to the GPS. We went up more when we should have gone down. I failed to see that there was a staircase to the downward side of the street. Oh well. We eventually figured it out. CCC's brother was jazzed about finding the cache. I'm up to 41 caches found now since I started geocaching last October.

Hey ... here is my resume in case any of my blog readers know of a position I might qualify for :-)

• 
  Cathy's Resume
  

Check this out ... sorta fun:

My inner child is ten years old!

The adult world is pretty irrelevant to me. Whether
I'm off on my bicycle (or pony) exploring, lost
in a good book, or giggling with my best
friend, I live in a world apart, one full of
adventure and wonder and other stuff adults
don't understand.

How Old is Your Inner Child?
brought to you by Quizilla

I have always told folks I'm an overgrown 10 year old!

I led a hike on Saturday to San Bruno Mtn. Park south of San Francisco. The hike started off overcast but the clouds burned off as the hike progressed so we finished up the hike with a blue sky and sunshine. We had many nice views of San Francisco from the park. We had a nice view of the bay bridge, the airport, a glimpse of the tops of the golden gate bridge, Candle Stick park, Mt. Diablo, Mt. Tam, Montara Mtn, the downtown buildings, and the Pacific Ocean. Only 3 of us did the hike but we had a good time talking and hiking together.

Sunday I slept in (ahhhhhh) and went to a barbecue in the afternoon with CCC. We left the barbecue early to head to my house to watch a DVD. I just got a new DVD player. We watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It was my second time watching the movie. I have my own DVD of it that I got when I bought my new computer a year and a half ago. I had watched it once on my computer. It was nicer to watch it on the bigger TV screen and with CCC.

On Friday and Saturday night we went to watch Stanford women's volleyball matches. Stanford beat University of San Diego on Friday night but lost to University of Florida (the Gators) on Saturday night.

My DVD player arrived but I was lacking the correct devices to hook it up. I have an "old" TV that does not have the proper outlets for the DVD cables. I just went internet surfing and bought a device to convert my old single cable outlet to a set of DVD compatible outlets. I will go pick it up at Circuit City this afternoon after getting the proper credit card from home for proof I'm me. I also got the two DVD's I ordered. I got myself the LOR movies. When the third one comes out, I'll buy it too. [LOR = Lord of the Rings]. Nothing is quite so frustrating as having a new toy and not being able to play with it yet.

Labor day weekend was nice. I got 30 hours of sleep: 10 hours each night.

Saturday CCC and I went to see Finding Nemo before heading to Rodeo to have dinner at one of CCC's good friend's, JJ. Dinner was yummy: roast chicken, asparagus, fresh baked bread, and some good wine. The conversation was somewhat dominated by T, JJ's friend. She had a load to get off her chest and couldn't stop talking about it. We all politely listened but CCC said later that she was disappointed that I didn't get to talk more with JJ. At 10:30 p.m. we said goodbye and headed to the Chabot science center to view Mars with a telescope. We stood in line for the telescope for 15 minutes and only moved about 10 feet. It was very crowded. We decided to bail and head home. We entertained our fellow line standers by describing what we saw when we took our glasses off and looked at Mars. I saw a snow flake. CCC saw a tree.

Sunday I helped CCC clean at her condo. Then she took me to see Matrix Reloaded as a thank you for helping her clean. I liked the special effects in the movie but found the plot just way too confusing.

Monday CCC and I went hiking at Skyline Open Space Preserve. We hiked from the Russian Ridge parking lot, past Alpine Lake, along the ridge, around Horseshoe Lake, and back. Its a beautiful little hike that not a lot of people know about. It was very hot though. We didn't get to the park till 2 p.m. when it was thoroughly baked by the sun. We still had fun despite the heat. We saw oodles of lizards on this hike. We saw some coots at Horseshoe lake.

My therapist has recovered and weekly therapy has resumed for me. I'm almost having to get used to it all over. I got accustomed to not going the last month or so.

Yesterday CCC and I did our usual walk from our neighborhood to Shoreline park. Then we watched the video, Chicago. Oh and CCC and I had dinner at my place. It is sort of nice to sit down and have dinner with someone instead of my usual cook a frozen dinner and then eat it while sitting on the couch watching TV.

Its been a nice week for the most part. CCC and I have been hanging out almost everyday. Wednesday we cooked our left over camp food for dinner and then last night we ate the last of the left over food. We had cheese tortellini with pesto sauce on it, corn on the cob, fruit salad, and mixed vegetables {with no evil mushy beans which I dislike ;-) }. We meant to have ice cream for dessert but we left it at CCC's house and we were eating at my house. Ah, but tonight we're eating at CCC's place and so will get that ice cream I imagine. After dinner we are going to go for a walk. I'm going to suggest we walk all the way to the dam at the Charleston Slough and back to burn off some of the much fat we ate the last two nights. We watched the video Songcatcher last night. I really enjoyed it. It even had a little lesbian content. I enjoyed the singing of the mountain people in Appalachia. This is a good movie to rent if you're looking for one.

I gave in to my desire to buy a DVD player to hook up to my TV. I bought it on the internet. It should arrive around Sept. 3. I was getting tired of watching DVD's on my little laptop screen and was too lazy to figure out how to hook up my lap top to the TV.

My kitchen sink drain is partly plugged. The water drains very slowly. If I leave the water on, its flow is faster than the drain flow so the water would overflow the sink. Fortunately I haven't done that! Its annoying so I expect soon I'll get a plumber to come in and fix it.

For once I'm staying home for a labor day weekend. I'm hoping to catch up on sleep. I may be able to sleep in tomorrow, Sunday, and Monday. That would be marvelous. Although I'm willing to get up a little earlier if CCC and I decide to go hiking or make a day trip somewhere. The U.S. Open tennis tournament is on TV this weekend. I might tune in to watch some of it.

I took a day off on Friday and CCC and I rented a red Mustang convertible and drove it through the Sierra's to Buckeye campground near Bridgeport, CA. It was a beautiful drive (after we got through the Sacramento valley part). We got there at 4 p.m. and spent some time trying to find where W. got a campsite. Turns out we were the first to arrive so we picked out a couple sites and left a note on the camp bulletin board as to where the campsites were. W. found us at 5 p.m. and let us know that it would be only 6 of us on the campout and that the remaining 3 were going to be arriving late that night.

We cooked our dinner and enjoyed chatting with W. and admiring the stars. We saw Mars. We went to bed at 9ish. While we were sleeping the other 3 arrived. We all slept in on Saturday. We ate breakfast and then headed to the Buckeye hot springs a mile down the road. We hung out at the hot springs for several hours. K1 and K2 left to go take a look at Mono Lake and do some shopping. CCC and I decided to walk back to the campground. W and K3 stayed at the hot springs for some one on one time. CCC and I had a nice walk back and then napped in our tent for an hour or so. We were being baked in our tent and decided to get up and walk down the hill to the Buckeye creek. While I soaked my feet in the cold water, CCC wandered around exploring the creek near where I plopped down. I had wacked my toe against a rock getting into one of the natural hot spring tubs ... ouch ... it was all swollen so I figured giving it a good soak in cold water would be helpful. We stayed about an hour and then headed back to camp to get our contribution to the evenings pot luck ready.

We supplied crackers and cheese (Brie and Blue Cheese), a bottle of wine, and a bowl of Strawberries. The other contributions were an excellent squash soup and a tossed salad. After cleaning up after dinner, K2 started a fire. W and K3 got out their drums and did some drumming for us. Then everyone got in a silly mood and started belting out all sorts of tunes. It was very fun. W then played her big drum and just kept going with a single beat. It made us all very sleepy so we put the fire out and headed to our tents.

Sunday morning we got up around 8:30 a.m. for a pancake breakfast. K3 brought buttermilk pancake mix and made pancakes for us that morning. I love pancakes and I had about 5 of them. Yummy. After cleaning up breakfast most folks started in on packing up camp and getting ready for the long drive home. CCC wanted to clean off in the creek so she went off with towel in hand. Meanwhile I packed most of our stuff into the Mustang. When I was ready to go I yelled at CCC to come up. She had missed saying goodbye to the others so I gave her a hug for each person she missed.

We finished packing the car and were on the road around noon. We had the top down and enjoyed the views and the sun shine as we drove home. We stopped at Pinecrest at the Steam Donkey restaurant for a late lunch at 3:30 p.m. We both had the chicken club sandwich. After lunch we pretty much drove right home except for a couple of gas stops or restroom stops. We got home at 7:30 p.m. It didn't take long to unpack the car. Then CCC and I parted company and went to our separate abodes to take showers and get some sleep! It was a long tiring drive.

It felt good to sleep in a soft bed last night. I didn't want to get up at 6 a.m. this morning. Tonight CCC and I are going to go walking probably at Shoreline park.

I'm taking a spam shower today. My Yahoo account is being peppered with those darn virus email messages. My delete key finger is getting tired. I'll be glad when this virus dies out. Ames Research Center has done a great job of filtering the messages so I'm not getting any on my work account.

I went to a Giants baseball game last night with CCC and my brother's family. The Giants beat the Braves 2-1. We had seats way up high in the nose bleed section. There was a great view of the bay bridge from our seats and we also had a nice view of the harbor right next to the stadium. CCC made a sketch of the bridge while sitting in her seat at the game. We got some of those yummy garlic fries to munch on later in the game because someone had bought them but didn't want them. CCC and I scarfed up most of them. We were game to play scavenger!

After the game as we walked back to the car I stepped on dog poop. When we got in the car, A. noticed right away the bad smell and that led me to discover the poop on my shoes. I did my best to wipe it all off with some toilet paper but it still made the car smell bad on the drive home. When we got to my brother's house, I left my shoes outside and went in to wash my hands. Then I went outside and borrowed a brush and the hose to clean off my shoes some more. I got most of the poop off this time. Although this a.m. I could still smell poop on them and discovered some stubborn poop in the small grooves of my sole. I believe I got all of it out this morning. I decided to wear different shoes to work today to be on the safe side.

This past Saturday CCC and I showed up for the GLS hike I was leading to Portola State Park (Peters Creek Loop). We were the only ones to show up but we did the hike anyways. It was a beautiful day. We saw very cool spider webs, two snakes, a lizard, and lots of poison oak on this hike. After the hike we decided to drive to Pescardero to have dinner at Duartes. I had some fish and chips and a cheese cake for dessert. CCC had some salmon and a olallie-berry pie for dessert. I tried her pie and found I didn't care for it. After dinner we drove back to my place and CCC offered to give me a shoulder massage. My shoulders had been aching on the hike from the heavy pack I was carrying (I was carrying extra water). The massage was wonderful and extended beyond my shoulders :-) It was a nice way to end a day with CCC.

Sunday CCC and I went to the GLS picnic at Sanborn. There was a fair turn out of people. The food was typical barbecue fare. The cool part of the picnic was the chocolate tasting. A baker gave a talk on the chocolate he makes (scharfenberger chocolate) and gave us three different samples to taste. It was delicious. After the picnic ended around 4 p.m., CCC and I went to my place and parted to eat dinner (I think) and then got back together to rent a video and watch it that night. We watched Go Fish. It was my second viewing and I had the same reaction that it was a good story but there was too much jumping around to different locales and scenes for me. After the movie CCC headed home and I went off to bed.

Monday we couldn't resist it and CCC and I got together again. We took a long walk to and in Shoreline park. We saw lots of Pelicans near the bay. We walked the last bit of the walk in the dark. We took quite a long walk.

An odd site but it might tickle your funny bone if you are sufficiently computer geeky

Well ... geez ... two therapy cancellations in a row which means four weeks without therapy. Instead I had hardware therapy. I popped over to the Orchard Supply Hardware from my therapist's deserted office and wandered about looking at all the cool gadgets. I ended up buying a foot stool for my kitchen, a rubber mat to put my little fridge on in the upstairs bedroom (if only the fridge would walk up the stairs for me), and this cool free standing thermometer/rain gauge. The thermometer and rain gauge are attached to a black metal pole with a point on one end. You pound the pointy part of the pole into the dirt till its solid and you have the height you want. I put it next to the cement patio corner in my backyard. Its big enough that I can read the temperature from inside the house.

Brain fart -- Hmmm ... another alternate therapy: hot tub therapy at Watercourse Way in Palo Alto. Maybe next time.

My weekend was fun. Friday night CCC and I walked to downtown Mountain View and had dinner at an Italian restaurant. I like walking to a restaurant -- you get to burn off a small percentage of the food you eat at the restaurant on the walk home.

Saturday I went geocaching with OAW. The usual crowd that has been showing up for geocaching was there. CCC and I got lost twice on the way to Briones park. The first oopsy was taking 580 East instead of 580 west to Oakland. I had to stop by P.'s house in Oakland to give her back her boots that she left in my car way back in early June. I realized I was heading the wrong direction when I saw signs for 680. So I got off the freeway and on it again in the opposite direction. The boots were safely deposited at P.'s home then we headed to 24 to get to Briones. We looked for the Happy Valley exit but it never appeared and what do you know, we ran into 680 again. We did another turn around and on the way back saw an Upper Happy Valley exit and took it. We finally got to the park at 10:50 about 50 minutes late. However the gang was still waiting for us as it turned out that almost everyone but our intrepid leader, S., was late.

The geocaching was fun. The second cache we found was hilarious. We spent ages wandering around looking for it. Finally CCC spotted an unusual looking cow pie which she thought might be the disguised cache, but she didn't want to pick it up to find out. So yours truly braved picking up a real cow pie to see if it was fake. It was fake. It was a very good plastic replica of a cow pie glued on top of a gallon container that was buried in the ground. I also got a vast amount of burrs in my socks and shoe laces while looking for this cache:

The rest of the caches were more typical. At one cache we left CCC behind to finish her sketching and when she came to find us she took a wrong turn and hiked quite a ways on the wrong trail. We got back to the trail and I was really worried when I couldn't find her. I ran up the hill to see if she walked up it and to get a view of the trails. No sign of her when I got to the top, but on the way down she popped around the corner much to my relief. We found one last cache and then headed back to the cars. We stopped at a group camp to drink some water. We were all quite thirsty especially SL's dog and SH's dog. It was good to find this camp and refill on water.

We went out to dinner in Orinda after the geocaching. We ate at a Greek restaurant. I had a gyro and Greek fries and a coke. It was an excellent gyro. The fries were only Greek in that some kind of Greek spice was sprinkled on them. Otherwise they seemed incredibly like French Fries or should I say Freedom Fries. For desert we walked down the street to an ice cream store. I had a single scoop cone of Almond Mocha Fudge ice cream. It was very yummy and a nice way to end the geocaching trip.

Sunday I got to sleep in. I went to bed at 11:30 p.m. Saturday night and got up at 11:30 a.m. Sunday morning. Hurray ... 12 hours of sleep in my comfy bed. I had breakfast for lunch and then headed to CCC's house. We drove over to Stanford to look at the New Guinea Sculpture Garden. It was a very relaxing afternoon and I enjoyed myself more than I thought I would. I sometimes get bored looking at art but with CCC, an artist, along it seemed more interesting. We also had fun making funny comments about the sculptures.

Sunday night I spent by myself cleaning house and watching TV. It was good to get my place cleaned up a bit. The floor was still strewn with backpacking equipment from last weekend.

I did laundry last night. One of the items to be washed was the underwear I dried out over the camp fire on the backpack trip. My oh my did it stink of smoke as did my nice fleece jacket. The wash cured the jacket of the smell but the smoke smell still lingered on the underwear. At least it was much less strong than before. Hopefully one more wash will banish the smokey smell all together.

Sleepy, sleepy, sleepy, sleepy, sleepy, sleepy, sleepy, sleepy, sleepy, sleepy, sleepy! Need coffee. Need coffee. Need coffee. Need coffee. Need coffee!

CCC and I are going to do something tonight but we are not sure what. Tomorrow we're going to S.'s OAW geocaching hike.

If anyone needs an acronym guide, let me know. I'm almost as bad as NASA is with acronyms.