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.