When the Blog Bug Bites

Phew.  This is the last day of NaBloPoMo.  I have come to the easy conclusion that I'm not a regular blogger and I prefer to blog whenever the blog bug bites me rather than do it regularly everyday.   Its more fun to write when the spirit moves me than at a designated time.  I suspect I will continue to blog at my usual snails pace of one or two blogs a month.    NaBloPoMo has not inspired me to blog more or to become more excited about blogging.  I'm not sure what I got out of it.  Perhaps the satisfaction that I made a promise to myself to do it and I succeeded.  Now that I know what it is like I probably won't participate again.  It was an interesting experiment and I'm still digesting what it told me about myself and my urge or not urge to write.

I'm off to watch a Stanford Women's basketball game tonight.  I nearly forgot about it until I got an email from the Stanford Women's Basketball publicity person reminding me of the game.  It was on my calendar also but I hadn't check the calendar out yet before that email.  I hate to miss a game as I paid good money for the tickets and the games are fun.  I do wish all the games were on weekends but alas about half of them are on work day evenings.   The PAC-12 games generally fall on Thursday and Saturday evenings every other week or starting in January till the beginning of March.  Tonights game is against an out of conference foe, UC Davis.

I got a new computer at work today and spent lots of time getting all the software upgraded that I need to do my job.   I didn't get much new work done but in the long run the new more powerful computer will help me do my job more efficiently.

Boring

Spent today figuring out sequence commands at work.  It sounds sort of boring but the main thing was I think I finally understand how the commands work.  Its fun to figure out something although a bit frustrating when the figuring out hasn't really resulted in any specific work getting done.  I have to think of the future when I'll be able to solve and fix the problems more quickly because of the time I spent to understand the commands.  Tomorrow I'll start using my new knowledge to debug the actual problem!!

After work, I went shopping at the drug store to get dental supplies. I have been approaching the end of the plaque rinse, the fluoride rinse, my dental floss, and my toothpaste.  Usually these items run out at different times.  I got two of everything at the drug store.  The grocery store doesn't carry the fluoride rinse my dentist recommends so I visited the neighborhood Walgreen's drug store.  As I was buying the stuff I remarked to the clerk that my teeth would be very clean.  I was hoping she would crack a smile but she didn't.

Head in the Sand

There is a part of me that just wants to stick my head in the sand when it comes to the Occupy movement and I'm feeling really guilty about that.  I have friends and family who are passionate supporters of the Occupy movement.  Perhaps I envy them their sureness that this is the right way to start fixing the unequal distribution of wealth in this country.    I am not as sure because I don't understand what is accomplished by camping for a long time in front of public places and I wonder what needs to happen before the occupiers will stop occupying public places.  I should probably get my head out of the sand and go read the Occupy movements web sites to further educate myself, eh?   My family has even admonished me to do so :-)   I should go search out that email and check out the web sites and put my head in the cloud rather than the sand!!

Restful Day

I was going to go on a long hike today but I woke up feeling so tired that I decided to just spend the day at home.   I watched the Jets vs Bills game in between falling asleep on the couch!   I managed to be awake for all but one touch down.  I'm presently listening to the Raiders play the Bears.  If I hear excited announcer voices, I turn around and watch the replay!  I'm not usually a big football fan but today I'm enjoying it.

I spent part of the afternoon transforming my dining room table from "where my lap top sits and mail piles up" to a clean table top with a jig saw puzzle spread out on it!   I had to sort through tons of junk mail.  Then I spent some time shredding this junk mail.  I had to take a break to clear jams from my shredder.  I guess I was working it too hard!  With the jam fixed, I shredded the rest of the junk mail and carted the shreds to the recycling bin in my condo complex.  Then I moved my lap top to a small dinner tray right next to the soon to be puzzle table.

I got out my hardest jigsaw puzzle and have spread all the pieces out on the table and I'm in the process of putting together the edges.  I find that doing jigsaw puzzles is very much a solitary pleasure for me.  When I do it with other people I have control issues.  I want them to do the puzzle exactly how I do it.  All the pieces must be spread out before you start putting any together.  Then you do the edges.  Then the middle.  I get frustrated when these procedures are not followed.

I also got the dishes done this afternoon and made myself a nice turkey sandwich with the left over turkey S. so kindly let me take home with me after the dinner last night.  The dinner at S's house was great.  She is an excellent cook and made many delicious dishes.  We also had some high quality wines with dinner and port to finish off the meal!  

Hiking and Thanksgiving Two

Busy day today so I better get my NaBloPoMo post done early this morning.  I'm going hiking with the Loma Prieta Gay and Lesbian Sierra Club at Alum Rock park.  The park is in southeast San Jose.  We are going to do the Boccardo loop trail and hike on the south and north rim trails.  I believe we are pretty much going to hit most of the trails in the park.  In all its supposed to be an 8 mile hike with roughly 1500 feet of elevation gain.  It will be good to get some exercise and burn of a small portion of my second Thanksgiving dinner after the hike is over.  When the hike is over, I'll scurry home for a hot shower and then drive to south San Jose to a friend's house for a second Thanksgiving dinner.   Hopefully the hike will end as advertised at around 4 p.m.  That gives me just enough time to drive home, shower, and drive to south San Jose.  Dinner is set to start at 6 p.m.

I have a hiked planned tomorrow but so far no one has RSVPed so I may bag it and sleep in and go on a less rigorous solo hike and perhaps go Christmas shopping.  Hopefully the black Friday crowds will have dissipated a bit.  I'm not real keen on shopping but I would like to get it done early this year and have packages in the mail by around Dec 10th.   I thought I might drive to downtown Mountain View and walk up and down Castro street stopping in shops there.  It might be nice to give business to the smaller shops rather than the big mall shops!  I suspect I'll end up in book stores buying books as presents.  Its hard to go wrong with books in my family and we are nearly all avid readers!

Launches and Losses

Nearly forgot about my post for today but its 9:53 pm and its still Nov 25 so on with NaBloPoMo.  I went to the satellite launch today at Space Systems Loral.  It was fun but I have to admit I was disappointed that they did not have a t-shirt in my size.  After most launches, SSL and the customer who ordered the satellite usually make a t-shirt and give it away to those that attend the launch.    Today there were no t-shirts in my size.  Instead I ended up picking up an Asiasat7/SSL coffee mug.  It has a picture of Hong Kong (where the Asiasat company is located) on the mug with SSL and Asiasat logos in the corners of the picture.  I guess you can tell one of the things I like about launches is the free gifts!

The launch itself went well but as usual it was standing room only in the cafeteria and I was shifting about to try and get a view of the screen.  I managed to get on my toes and see the liftoff pretty clearly.   As it lifted off we all cheered and then watched for maybe a minute and then many of us rushed for the swag line so we could get good stuff.  I'll have to check the web site tomorrow a.m. to see if the satellite has started its maneuvers to get in the proper orbit and get all set up.   Its probably a week or so till you know the satellite is set up how it should be and working properly.

I got in some exercise today by walking to and from work for the launch.  Its 1.6 miles to the cafeteria at work from my condo door.   It took me about 35 minutes to make the walk.  I was most surprised with how sweaty I got.  I wore a sweatshirt and a heavy rain jacket.  About half way there I removed the rain jacket.  I never needed it.  I would have been fine with just the sweatshirt.  Oh well.  Does being sweaty burn more calories?  On the way home I carried the coffee mug and poster and jacket all the way home.  I should have brought my backpack with me so I could put everything inside it and not have to have everything in my arms!  It was a pleasant walk home.  I spend the afternoon relaxing and in the late afternoon decided to bake some more chocolate chip cookies.

I took a small bag of the freshly baked cookies with me to eat while I watched the Stanford vs Cal women's volleyball match.  The first three sets were really tight.  Stanford took the first one.  Then Cal won the second.  There was a half time break.  Then Cal came out and squeaked out the third set.  Then the wind fell out of Stanford's sails and they just couldn't get it together for the fourth set and Cal won it easily.  So the final score was 3 sets to 1 with Cal winning.  This was the last regular season game of the season.  The first week of December the volleyball national championship tournament starts.  Stanford has a very good chance of making it into the tournament.  This Sunday, the brackets for the tournament will be announced.  Stanford will probably host a first and second round at their home court and I plan to buy tickets to see the games.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has gotten off to a wonderful start with being able to sleep in.  I stirred at 6:20 a.m. and had the wonderful realization that I did not have to get up for work but could keep sleeping.  I ended up sleeping till 8:05 a.m.  Now I'm eating breakfast and writing this post.  I figure once I jump in my car and drive to SF for Thanksgiving with my brother's family, I won't have time to get on the internet and write something.  I probably won't get home till around 11 pm I'm guessing.

Here are some things I'm thankful for ...

(1) My parents are still alive and healthy at 83 and 88.
(2) I have a good job that pays well and I like the work
(3) My health.  Except for being a tad bit overweight, I'm feeling healthy.
(4) The asexual community I have found on line
(5) The Loma Prieta Gay and Lesbian Sierra Club section
(6) Good friends
(7) Books and the authors who write them!

No Traveling!

Enjoying the fact that I'm not traveling on this busiest travel day in the US.   I did brave going to a grocery store after work.  It was crowded but I managed to pick the right line and only had to wait for one person to be rung up before I was.  I purchased four bottles of Martinelli's as my contribution to tomorrows feast at my brother's house.  Nine people will be there: my brother, his wife, a neice, a niece and her  boyfriend, a sister-in-law and her boyfriend, me, and .... I don't know who the 9th person will be.  It should be a jolly group.   We plan on going walking rain or shine on the beach before dinner.  The dog, Faith, needs to get her energy used up before dinner!   The weather forecast is for rain.  Maybe we'll get out there in between showers.  I'll bring my raincoat and maybe some extra dry cloths.

The day after Thanksgiving I'm going to work to watch a satellite launch.  It will be televised on a big screen in the cafeteria.  The actual launch will happen in at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.  The launch is scheduled for 11:10 a.m. but there is a number to call to be sure the launch is on schedule.   The launch celebration includes some speeches by project managers and then watching the launch and after that its time to pick up the free goodies: usually t-shirts and posters.   Its the anticipation of the launch,  the holding of your breath that everything go well during launch and being around people who have worked on the satellite that really make it a fun event.  The actual launch footage is usually the same.  Often you view it in the dark.  So you see the big launch pad all lit up.  Then you see the rocket launch and watch a light go up in the dark sky.   You can't really see on the TV screen that its a rocket with a satellite in the nose.   At some point the camera's picture is just a small dot so they often shift to simulated pictures to show what is going on in the launch.

Books

I have been reading books that I own for the last three months but I finally finished reading the one's I wanted to read and now I'm looking forward to a visit to the library to pick new books out.  I think I will continue my reading of mysteries.  I'll have to log into my library record and see where I left on what authors.  I love to find an author and read all the books they have written. I'll be looking for books by Donna Andrews, Robin Paige, and Stieg Larsson to name a few.  And I'll just be browsing.

I love to be in libraries.  I like the quiet.  I like the huge amount of books on the shelves.  I like the smell of books and the feel of them in my hand.  I just get excited thinking about all the books I haven't read that are just waiting there on the shelves for me to check out.  I fell in love with libraries at first sight.  I remember going to the children's section at the Beechwold library in Columbus, Ohio and then later to the adult section.  I remember being excited to learn how to drive so I could drive myself to the library!  I also liked the library at school and it was my favorite place to go to study during my free periods.

When I got to college I discovered the joy of stacks.  The library was so big you could lose yourself in the many floors of books.  I liked to do my studying in the english literature section.  Although this often backfired on me as I would spend more time reading a British novel than doing my engineering problem sets.  But the stacks were quiet and you could really get away from other people if you went to the stacks.  Sometimes I miss having a huge library.

I love my current library.  I still think of it as the fancy new library but realized that it actually has been more than 10 years since it was redesigned and rebuilt.  I like how open it is to the sunlight in the reading areas and it does have more room than it used to.  It also has lots of computers I can use but I rarely do use them since I have a computer at home!   I volunteer at my library and now I'm signing off this post as I have to delivery books to a home bound patron.  I'll chat with her and then head back to the library to return the books she gives me and to select some books for myself!!

I'm stymied about what to write about today.  Every time I think of something and start composing it in my head it becomes too personal.   Perhaps today's post will just be very short and about not being able to figure out what to write.  I just keep running into stuff that is too personal.  Just wrote a sentence and erased it as it was too personal.  Arg.  Perhaps its a problem of dwelling on a personal problem and not being able to get away from it to write about something else.  I guess today this will be my post.  Kaboom.  Done.

Decade Memories

OK just for grins I'm going to write about the first memory that pops in my head for each decade since I was born.

In 1965 when I was four years old my family spent a year in England while my Dad did research for his book at the British Museum.  We rented a house and this house had a staircase that was covered in carpet.  This was a new experience in my short life as our staircase was hard wood.  I then discovered the joy of sliding down the carpeted staircase on my tummy.  It was incredibly fun and I sort of remember that stomach dropping feeling it gave me.

In 1974 we had a big old elm tree in the front yard that was afflicted with Dutch Elm disease.  To attempt to get rid of the disease my parents had half of the tree cut down.  There were two big branches coming out of the trunk and they had one lopped off.  Then my big brother threw a rope around the stump of the cut off branch and climbed up the tree to the stump.  I was 13 years old and he challenged me, my younger brother, and my neighbor friend to climb up the rope.  The first of us that could do it, he would give a quarter to.  We tried and tried and I was thrilled to be the first one to succeed and the proud recipient of a quarter!

In 1983 I was a junior at Purdue.  I knew quite a few seniors and got invited to a graduation party.  I went to it with some trepidation as I was usually a wall flower at parties and felt very shy and awkward.  But somehow this party felt different.  I felt like I belonged and for the first time in my life I managed to shed some of my inhibitions and had a fabulous time dancing down a dance line.  Two lines of people lined up on either side of the living room and we took turns dancing down between the lines.  I don't know why this time was so different than any time before or any time since but I just let go of my worries and let my self go and danced and danced.  I often wish I could recapture that moment.

In 1991 I just turned 30 and had been doing a lot of thinking about who I was and what I wanted from my life.  And I made a decision on my 30th birthday to check out this group meeting I saw in the San Jose Mercury News about a Palo Alto Lesbian Rap group.  This was not a musical rap group but harkened back to the 60's meaning of rapping which was getting together and talking.   I went to the group and was amazed to find a group of women dressed like me in jeans and t-shirts and I immediately felt comfortable.  I also happened upon a night in this group where the discussion topic was being new in a group.  So I felt doubly welcomed as I could talk about being new to this group!  But the main memory is just that I felt that I had found my people and this was an amazing feeling.

At 12:01 a.m. on Jan 1, 2000 I was in London, England to greet the New Years with my parents.  We went to a party at a friend of theirs and at 39 years old I was the baby of the party.  It was a surreal but fun experience.  I remember eating a pasta that was just chock full of the most delicious shrimp.  At 12:00 we all spilled out doors to glimpse fire works going up around London.   Then my parents and I headed to my parent's flat in London and I remember staying up late watching TV as the New Year came to the U.S. cities.  And it was all very impressive since it was the millenium!

On June 26, 2011, I marched with the Asexual meetup group in the San Francisco Gay Pride parade.  A young woman in the group did a fantastic job of making the group look cohesive.  We all had similar t-shirts on and we had these great big silver ballons that spelled ASEXY if carried in the right order and we had a wonderful banner.  I really felt like part of group that was doing something important in raising awareness of asexuality by participating in the parade.

Garin and Dry Creek Hike

I went on a hike at Garin and Dry Creek parks today.  I thought it would be a small intimate group as only one person showed up at the car pool location.  She and I drove to the park to meet D the leader.  When we got there five more people showed up so we had a nice group of eight for the hike.  I volunteered to be D's co-leader and did the sweeping.  We headed off on the hike with blue sky scattered with fluffy white clouds.

The first part of the hike was fairly flat and we crossed creeks about four times on these narrow bridges.  I told D he should rename the hike the narrow bridges hike.  D showed us a place next to the creek sort of hidden behind thick bushes where he has visions of bringing a romantic date to make out.  I have no desire to make out there but it would be a nice private cool space for a nice long intimate conversation on a hot summer day.  After checking out this secret spot we headed off to Jordan pond where we stopped for a snack.  Lunch was planned at Gossip rock which was a ways off yet so this snack break was to fortify us for a late lunch.

After our snack we took advantage of the porta potty set up near the pond picnic area and then headed off up the hills.   There were wonderful views of green hillsides, blue sky, and white clouds as we made our way up the hill to Gossip rock.  We reached the ridge and walked along the ridge a bit.  You could see San Francisco bay and Silicon Valley from the ridge on one side and wilderness on the other side.  We soon reached Gossip rock where we saw small bowls carved into the rock where Indians used to grind grain.  We had lunch at Gossip rock but we did not gossip.  I got bonus lunch items offered by my fellow hikers: dried mango, licorice, and Dove chocolate.

After lunch we started heading downhill.  It was steep but the ground was fairly dry despite yesterday's rain so there was good footing as we made our way down.  The sky started to get a little more cloudy with more gray clouds rather than the fluffy white ones.  There was one more slight hill before we reached the bottom of the park near where our cars were parked.  We got to hike through some small canyons in the woods and that was a nice change from the open hill sides.  We finally reached the bottom and hiked to the trail head and had time left to check out the gardens right at the entrance to the park.

I'm not a gardener so I can't tell you all the names of the flowers that were there in the late fall but it was pretty and I took lots of pictures in the garden.  It was a nice way to finish off the hike with a small walk through the garden.  After seeing the place, we all said our goodbyes and S and I drove back to the park-n-ride lot where we said our goodbyes and I came home to a nice hot shower and good memories of the hike.

Cutting it Close

I'm cutting it closer and closer on getting my daily NaBloPoMo post done.  Only 2 hours to get this one done.  Although admittedly, its just because I had a busy day.  I had lots to do at work.  I had to run home for an hour  to meet my handyman and get the oven installed.  Then I had one hour after work before I had to head to Stanford to watch the women's volleyball game and I chose to play with my new oven for that hour.  Then Stanford ended up playing 5 sets in the volleyball game and losing in the end.  It was rather tortuous watching the match.  It wasn't that Oregon played super well but that Stanford did not play very well.  It is not as much fun watching a match full of errors as it is a match full of great rallies and shots. After the match I had to stop at a gas station to fill up the car for tomorrows drive to Garin park.  And then I walked in the door and realized the trousers I want to wear for tomorrows hike needed washing so I got a load of laundry together and its churning away right now.   By the time I got around to this post it was a bit before 10 p.m. !!

I'm wondering just why I'm participating in this NaBloPoMo.  I'm not a professional writer.  Its not even a huge hobby.  I just like to prattle on about this and that and I don't always care how well its done.  I want to say that I don't care if anyone reads it but that is not entirely true.  I'm certainly not counting on anyone reading it but it is way fun when someone does read it and makes complimentary comments.   But I don't care enough about having readers that I feel a need to promote my blog or tell people to read it.  I also decided to do NaBloPoMo to be part of a group of people also doing it and sharing in the trials and tribulations of posting everyday for a month.  Its just fun to share the challenge of it and get "atta girls" when I succeed!

Keeping Appointments

Sigh.  My handyman forgot to come to our appointment.  He abjectly apologized but this is not the first time he has done this.  I'm beginning to think its time to find another handyman who is more reliable at keeping appointments.   You would think when you run your own business that keeping appointments with customers ranks way up there in important things to do to keep your business viable.  I might like to find a handyman that is more internet savy also and will communicate with me via email.

On the other hand my handyman is well handy.  He is very good at what he does when he shows up to do it.  Also I pay him in trade sometimes by working on his web site for him.  I haven't done anything to it in a long long time but it was sort of cool to trade skills with him and not have to deal in cash.  I created the web site and he fixed some plumbing for me!   All in all he is a great handyman but not a great business man.

He is supposed to come by tomorrow at 11 a.m. I think he will make it as he felt so bad about missing our 2:30 pm appointment that I believe the 11 am time is branded in his brain!

My new range arrived today but it doesn't quite fit in its slot and the plug doesn't quite reach the outlet.  So I need to have my handyman come in and fix things up.  I'm asking him to saw off a part of the ledge above the stove so it will fit and cut a whole in the cabinet so the plug can be pulled through it.  The plug right now has to be threaded under the cabinet and then up through a hole in the floor.  It probably could be done but it would have been very tedious and I decided I wanted to make it so it is easier to unplug in the future and bringing the plug directly into the cabinet will be much easier.  If I had appropriate tools I would be tempted to do it myself but I don't have the tools.

Albert, my handyman, will be here tomorrow at 2:30 pm.  So I have to take time off from work again.  Its annoying.  I wish the range had fit in the slot and was all set up.  But ... C'est la vie.  I also expect that Albert might not be able to do the actual work tomorrow.  This is more of a visit to find out what I need and give me an estimate for the work.  So I will have to make due with my toaster oven and my microwave oven for a few more days.  Ug.

New Range

My new range is supposed to be delivered tomorrow.  I hope the delivery goddesses are on my side and the range arrives when scheduled.  I'm always nervous about deliveries.  It seems like a fairly straight forward thing to do to deliver a range but then I don't know what the deliverer will be up to before my delivery time.  My delivery time is between 9:30 am and 12:30 pm.  I have brought home a pile of work so I can work at home while I wait for the range to arrive.  I really really hope it arrives at 9:30 am but I suspect it will arrive at 12:30 pm.  I have bad luck when it comes to deliveries being close to the beginning of a range of time.  What lucky soul gets that first delivery of the day!  I hope its me tomorrow.

I have purchased myself a GE 30" Free-Standing Electric Range.  I got myself a new range because I finally got tired of my old oven not working or rather only baking at 350 degrees F.  I broke my temperature setting knob in 2008 and have been stuck with only being able to have the oven at 350 for 3 years now.  My handy man Albert looked at it and the only way to fix it was to replace the entire thermal setting device (not just the knob) and that would have run me around $300.00.   I decided at that point that I might as well buy a new range.  It just took me 3 years to get the desire to purchase it and get it installed!!  I seemed to be happy with just using the stove, my toaster oven, and my microwave the past three years for my cooking needs.  Finally this fall the desire to bake combined with having saved up enough money for a range  conspired to push me to buy the range!

I think I shall go grocery shopping tonight and get chocolate chip cookie fixings so I can bake them in my new range tomorrow or the next day!   That will probably be the last baking for a bit.  I'm really not a cook.  It doesn't capture my imagination to dream about cooking stuff and come up with recipes.  I would rather dream up software or dream up new hikes or do a challenging jigsaw puzzle.  Cooking is just not high up there on things I like to do for fun.  If I cook, it is usually really simple easy stuff that doesn't require much planning or thought.

Snooze City

Its been a rather dull Monday.  The alarm went off at its usual time of 6 a.m. on a work day.  I muttered and moaned about it till 6:20 and finally hauled my butt off the bed.  I had a quick breakfast and got to work at 7 am.  I spent the day studying how code works.  Its a rather tedious chore but one that I need to get done.  I'm supposed to update the code so its important I understand how it works.  Its much more fun for me to design code and write code than to figure out how someone else's code works.  Although there is a sense of accomplishment once I do understand the code and successfully update it.  I think I have a couple more days of work before I will feel good delving into the code and making the needed updates.

I'm starting to think about Christmas shopping more seriously.  I have ordered 5 presents so far since mid October.  I'm planning on giving about 15 gifts mostly to my siblings, parents, nieces, and nephews.  We are a book loving family so probably most people will get books from me.  A few years ago we all did a book exchange at Christmas.  We exchanged books we already owned.  It was fun and affordable!  All we had to pay for was postage to get the books to each other!  It was also fun to get a peek into my siblings and parent's book selection and see what they read.  It does take lots of communication and a bit of work from everyone and I think that is why we haven't done it recently.

I'm struggling to keep myself exercising and eating well.  I get home from work and just want to collapse on the couch and read or watch TV.  I don't want to get into my gym cloths and head to the gym.  I know if I can get myself there I'll enjoy it.  I just feel draggy.  I hate to say it but it does feel like a touch of my chronic depression raising its head.  Ug!  I hope I can throw it off and get back to being more healthy.  Depression and exercise do and don't mix well.  They don't mix well in that the depression robs me of my motivation to exercise.  But they do mix well because exercise really helps the depression.

My Sunday

I got to sleep in today.  It was nice only I forgot to turn off my alarm from the day before set for 8:30 a.m.  So I woke up briefly at 8:30 and then turned over for some more sleep.  I only slept 15 or 30 minutes more and then got up to go to the bathroom.  I came back to bed and read for an hour or so before getting up for the day.  I'm reading a book about the Race Across America, an ultradistance bike race across America.  Its a fascinating book about the race and what motivates these folks and how much they suffer in this race.   I'm about two thirds done with the book.  I'm sure I'll finish soon as its very gripping.

I got up finally around 10 ish for a late breakfast and a nice cup of coffee.  I popped on the TV to watch something and discovered that the Family Channel was showing Harry Potter movies all day long.  I just finished the last book of the Harry Potter series yesterday and was sort of delighted to get to watch the movies and see how they match with the book.   They are showing 5 movies today.  I set my DVR to tape them.  I watched the end of the first movie and then started in on the second movie until it was time to turn off the TV and go to the Stanford women's basketball game.

The basketball game was fun.  Stanford played Gonzaga.  Gonzaga kept close to Stanford all first half and ended up one point a head at the half.  Whatever Tara said to Stanford during the half time break worked well and Stanford came out and started to dominate Gonzaga.  They won by 12 points in the end I think or maybe more.  It was a fun game to watch.  It is nice when your team wins but not so easily that the game is boring!

After the game I returned home for more Harry Potter.  I finished up watching movie number 2 and now I'm watching the thrid one, Prisoner of Azakaban.  I have movie 4 taped and movie 5 will start in 40 minutes.  I think I will let movie 5 tape too and watch both later this week.

Hidden Villa Hike

I led a hike at Hidden Villa for the Gay and Lesbian Sierrans today.  It was a very mellow hike on a gray but dry day.  The slightly dull weather seemed to cut down on the use of the Page Mill park and ride lot and for once we had an ordinary park-n-ride experience of meeting there and being able to park and then ride somewhere!  We reached the park at about 11 a.m. and I did my hike start spiel and we introduced ourselves. There were 7 people on the hike four women and three men.

We started out by hiking the Long Bunny Loop trail.  The trial starts out following the Bunny creek which in November was quite bone dry.  Not a water fall or creek to be found as we hiked up the trail.  It was very different than the spring time hike where the water was cascading over the rocks with a wonderful gurgling noise.  Now it was just quiet, but even with out water the creek was still beautiful.  At the top we stopped at a nice bench and had a water break and rest.  We had a view of the Hidden Villa valley from the bench that was nice.

We descended the Long Bunny Loop trail and had to take a slight detour at the bottom where a portion of the trail was closed due to a rattle snake den being near the trail.  This was the first time I have ever seen a trail closed for a rattle snake.  I thought it was cool to give the snake its space and keep people off the trail.  I assume that at some point the snake will leave this den and they can reopen the trail.  Our detour was easy and short though and we soon left the rattle snake den behind.

We hiked along the beautiful and relatively flat Adobe creek trail.  The Adobe creek was big enough to still have some water left in it.  We walked next to the creek and ambled along having fun talking and keeping an eye on plants.  Someone spotted a plant with white pods on it.  One of us said it was a berry plant of some sort.  It really did look rather alien.   Shortly after spotting this plant, we Adobe creek trail melted into the Ewing Hill trail and we climbed steeply to Ewing Hill.

On Ewing hill we found a flat spot on top of the hill and sat ourselves down for a nice lunch with a view of the valley below.   Lunch seemed to be dominated by people with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!  My co-leader passed out his traditional Dove chocolate candies at the end of lunch and we shared the little sayings written on the Dove wrappers.

After lunch we did very slight up and downs to make our way to the Hostel trail.  We had many views of Silicon Valley from the trails.  The valley was in the sun while we were still in the clouds.  It made for interesting views like the valley was being highlighted for us.   As we descended Hostel trail down many switch backs to Hidden Villa the sun started to creep out from behind the clouds.  We soon arrived at Hidden Villa and passed by the gardens and the hostel to the parking lot where our hike was finished.

It was a very mellow comfortable hike.  I think everyone had fun and were looking forward to the rest of the day to get chores done or just relax.  One fellow stayed at the park to scout out future hikes while the rest of us headed back to the park-n-ride and went our separate ways.

Its Veteran's day.  I am not close to any veterans.  My Father was a conscientious objector in World War II and served in the civilian public service camps rather than go to the war.  My Mom's brother was a staunch pacifist and refused to serve in or support WWII in anyway and was sent to jail.  My own brothers managed to be born in a time where they did not get drafted.  They were too young for Vietnam and too old for the Gulf War.  My ex-girlfriend had veterans in her family but I never got that close to them.   I wonder if the holiday means more when you are close to a veteran.  I expect it does.  I do appreciate all the veterans out there who fought in wars to keep the world safe.  I wish that fighting wars was not the way to make the world safe but as long as it continues to be so I thank the veterans for making that sacrifice and serving their country.

I did not get Veterans day off from work.  I used to get time off for it when I worked at NASA Ames Research center because it was a federal government facility.  Now I work for a commercial satellite company so no Veterans day off for me anymore.   It was always an odd holiday in that if it fell on a weekday, that was when we had the holiday.  So sometimes you got a day off in the middle of the week.   I rather liked it as it gave me a day of rest.  Usually holidays are smashed up against the weekend and I often have big travel plans for them and although its fun I get worn out.  With a random day off in the middle of the week, I usually just sleep in and enjoy being at home and getting rested.

Random Purposeless Questions and some Answers

The directions on frozen dinners say to carefully remove the dinner from the microwave oven.  Has this bit of instruction really prevented someone from carelessly removing the dinner from the oven and getting hurt?

How did the questions "what's up" come to mean what is going on?  I annoyed a friend of mine by always answering this question with "the sky".

What really provokes you but you find it hard to defend your reaction?  I have a strong reaction to anyone who talks to me about dressing a certain way to attain some goal. It seems like my reaction is over the top and I find it hard to defend why I'm so irked.

Has anyone ever thrown you a surprise birthday party and did you like it?  My Mom threw me a surprise party for my 18th birthday and I liked it.

When I have high expectations for travel, I often don't enjoy it as much as when I have low expectations.  When I was about 21 years old, I went traveling to Wales to a town called Portmeirion.  I had no clue what it was about but one of my chums wanted to go there.   It turned out to be a really fun unexpected surprise.   Have you ever had this experience?

How many things can you think  of that you could "come out" about?   Have you or would you want to come out about them?

Do you have a favorite blanket?  I do.  Its a lavendar fuzzy down comforter.  I like the fuzziness and the warmth!

Are you a bumper sticker fan?  My car has no bumper stickers while my last one was rather plastered with them.  I have been going back and forth on whether to add bumper stickers to my current car.

Go with the flow

I don't seem to be able to settle on one particular thing to write about so I guess its yet another go with the flow post and just see what comes out on my key board.

I have been thinking about the movie "Its a Wonderful Life" today.  I wonder what the angel would show me.  Whose life have I touched in a way that made them go in the right direction when if I hadn't been there they would have gone the wrong direction.  I'll never know but I really would like to know.  Sometimes I do feel like if I wasn't here, no one would really notice.   That seems a bit maudlin.  Am I just fishing for people to tell me I'm important and matter to them??  Probably.

Its Wednesday night and as usual I'm sleepy.  I routinely stay up too late and so as the week progresses the sleep deficit builds up.  I love to stay up to 11 p.m. and watch TV.   Then I get in bed and feel compelled to read for about 30 minutes or until I can't keep my eyes opened.  So I don't usually get to sleep till 11:30 p.m.  Then I'm up at 6 a.m. for work.  6 hours and 30 minutes of sleep a night is not quite enough sleep for me.  By Wednesday or Thursday, I'm yawning lots and telling myself I should get to be bed early but rarely do I listen to that sensible advice.

I took a four mile walk at Palo Alto Baylands tonight.  I started at 4:05 p.m. and finished at 5:25 p.m.  It was beautiful as the entire walk was during sunset and the start of moonrise.  I especially liked it when the sun dipped behind the Skyline ridge and turned the sky a wonderful pinky red color.  I plodded along and just got to look and look at the sky.  Then I peered to my left and there was the moon rising and it was reflected in the bay also.  It was quite incredible to see sunset to the right and moonrise to the right.  I also saw coots, ducks, and pelicans on the water.   Moments like this make me appreciate life more.  Its amazing that I live somewhere like this where I can be admiring the ocean, mountains, etc. just minutes from home.

My Dad

My Dad's birthday is this Thursday.  He and his twin brother were born on Nov 10, 1923 in Changsha, China.  Uncle David came out first followed by my Dad.  My Dad is not Asian though.  He was born in China because his parents were there as Missionaries.  He spent the first two years of his life in China.  He doesn't remember any Chinese but he does remember growing up in Seattle Washington and having Chinese immigrants stay in their house and his Mother ended up using her contacts in China to open a Shop of China in Seattle WA and became a very competent business woman which helped the family get through the depression.  In China my Dad's nickname was Di Di and my uncles nickname was Go Go.  I'm not positive but I think Go Go is the first twin born and Di Di the second twin born.  My cousins call my Dad Uncle Di Di and I sometimes call my Uncle David, Uncle Go Go.  And I believe they called each other these nicknames all through their childhood.

My Dad was a mountaineer and skier as a young man.   He hiked to the top of Mt Rainier and skied down it!  He backpacked all over the Cascades and Olympic National park in Washington state.  He would tell us stories about building shelters and cooking over fires all of which now are considered not environmentally sound.  He had no fancy light weight equipment.  He carried an army rucksack and cooked dinner in a number 10 tin can with the lid taken up and a wire threaded through it to serve as a handle.  The food was usually plain rice and beans.  I don't envy him not having the modern comforts of backpacking but I do envy how wild the wilderness was when he was out adventuring.  He didn't have to worry about getting permits or reserving campsites.  He and his friends could hike for days without seeing another party.   I envy that.  It would be so nice to have the wilderness to myself for a bit of time like that.  It can be done now but you really have to work at it to find a vacant area.

My Dad became a historian.  He went to Washington University and Whitman College.  He got his PhD at Cornell University and three of his kids followed in his footsteps at Cornell (but not in history): me and my two brothers.  And now his grand daughter and a grand nephew has also gone to Cornell.  He met my Mom while at Cornell and they fell in love and got married in 1952.  He then worked as a professor at Ohio State University for 30+ years.  He wrote 4 books and many papers and managed to publish and not perish!  So yours truly grew up in Ohio.  

His has been retired for a while now.  I lost count.  I think he retired at 67 so that means he has been retired for 21 years.  At least he retired from teaching.  He continued to write history till a couple years ago when he finished his final book.  He is now looking for a publisher for it.  Its hard as the publishing world has changed a lot since he started this book.  He would dearly love to get it published but he is not having much luck.  I hope he finds a publisher eventually.  I think he mostly just enjoyed writing it over the last 10 years or so.  Sometimes it stressed him out a bit but it kept him  motivated and happy in his retirement.  Now he enjoys doing less intense writing.  He writes us kids once a week.  He writes lots of letters to the editor for the local newspaper.  I very much look forward to his weekly letters.  He has been writing us letters since we left for college.  That's nearly 30 years of weekly letters!!  Now that's a blogger, eh?

Lag Time

Uh oh.  I'm beginning to lag in when I write my daily posts.  At the start of the month, I had 2 done in advance for the first two days.  Then I had one in advance.  Then I did the posts in the morning.  Now I'm doing the post in the evening.  We'll see if I can stop the lag and meet the goal of blogging daily in November.  I'm really not quite sure why I am doing this.  I'm not terribly concerned with becoming a better writer.  I'm not that concerned that people are reading my writing.  I just like to ramble on and write stuff and I like to be part of a bunch of people who have committed to writing daily.  Eee Gads.  I am succumbing to peer pressure at my age?  Whatever, I'm enjoying myself and that's good.

Just finished a one hour workout.  All last week I did not make it to the gym so I wanted to start this week off on the right foot and get in a workout.  I did 30 minutes on the elliptical machine and 30 minutes on the treadmill.  It was quite uncrowded at the gym on Monday at 4:30 p.m.  I didn't think I would get to exercise on my favorite elliptical machine.  My favorite machine is in front of the TV with the sports on it and it is well lubricated and does not make lots of squeaky noises as I pump up and down on the pedals.  I burned 330 calories on the elliptical machine and 250 calories on the treadmill for a grand total of 580 calories.  That's a decent workout!

Now its time for dinner.   I have some pork which I'll probably microwave.  And some asparagus to microwave too.  I'm a lazy cook.  Whatever is quickest, least effort, and uses the least dishes is usually how I roll .  I sacrifice taste for ease of cooking.  Maybe when I get my new range, I'll be more motivated to really cook something.  I bought the range 9 days ago but it has not been delivered yet.  I'm hoping it arrives this week.  I have a call into the appliance store asking about the latest status of it.

After dinner I'll settle down to Monday night TV.  I suspect I'll be bouncing back and forth between the Sing Off and Dances with the Stars.  Its going to be a light night of TV watching.  I have my DVR set to record both shows.   I start watching one show till the first set of commercials.  Then I watch the other show (via DVR) till the first set of commercials, when I return to the other show till commercials appear, etc. etc.  Two weeks in a row now I have been able to watch both shows in a little more than 2 hours and see no commercials!   Its a kick!

Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve hike

The hike at Sierra Vista Open space was meant to be a grand exploring adventure today of originally 15 miles but now changed to 10 miles.  The intrepid hiking crew of me, S. and E. all showed up promptly at 9:30 at the Rustic Lands parking area in Alum Rock park.  It wasn't that rustic but there was lots of land around.   We bundled up a bit as it was a cool morning, put on some sun screen, visited the restrooms and then headed off on our adventure.

We started on trails at Alum Rock: North Rim and Todd Quick trails.  At the end of Todd Quick trail we reached Sierra Vista Open Space preserve.  We went through the gate (to keep the cows in the right place) and found the Bocardo Loop trail.  We decided to do the loop in a clockwise direction in order to do the steeper section uphill and the less steep section downhill.  The Borcardo trail was very exposed with wonderful views of San Jose in the distance.  We got rained on twice as we made our way to the top of Borcardo but it was not very light rain and went away quickly.

When we reached the top of the Borcardo loop we were excited to find the new Sierra Vista trail and start our exploration of the trail.  Alas we were thwarted in our attempt.  The heavy rain of the night before resulted in the trail being closed.  What a bummer to hike 3 miles uphill and not get to see the trail that was the whole motivation to hike here.  Oh well.  We obeyed the sign and decided to head up to the top of Borcado hill to have lunch and enjoy the view.  It was a wonderful lunch spot but we ended up finishing up lunch quick when the wind started to blow and we got cold.

We headed back down the Borcado loop trail on the less steep bit.  It was a wonderful section of trail that took lazy long switch backs down to the loop beginning.  When we got back to where the Todd Quick trail intersects the Borcado loop trail we decided to add some miles to our shortened trip by exploring the Weather Loop and more of the North Rim trail.  These trails took us down to the Penitencia creek trail.  It was only an extra mile but was fun.  We arrived at our cars at 2 p.m.  In all we hiked for 4.25 hours with about an hour stopping time for lunch, admiring views, and finding some geocaches.  We hiked 7.38 miles according to my GPS.

All in all it was a marvelous hike but disappointing that we did not get to explore the newest trails of Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve.  S. and I may return later this month or in December to try again.  Unfortunately E. doesn't have free time for further exploration till January.

Random Writing

I'm not sure what to write about today.  I guess I'll just let it flow and see what comes out.  I got to sleep in today.  It was nice.  I initially stirred at 6:45 a.m. and had the wonderful realization as I peered at the clock that I did not have to get up and could just turn over and sleep some more.  I slept about one more hour when biology got me up.  If its light outside, I have not managed the art yet of getting up to go to the bathroom and not waking up.  So once I was up to take care of biology, I was up for the day.

I have spent my morning so far puttering around doing little stuff and watching TV.  I have gathered all the dishes from my dining room table and coffee tables in the living room and put them in the sink.  I have gathered various junk mail and shred it with my trusty shredder.  I folded up the cloths I was drying on the dryer rack ready to be taken upstairs.  I messily sewed a rip in the couch cover.  It is a see and do morning.  I saw something that needed doing and did it.  

I have been watching reality TV this morning.  I watched an episode of Flip This House and now I'm watching an episode of Hoarders.  Unlike other episodes of hoarders these two folks seem to be much cleaner.  They have clutter but no really disgustingly dirty stuff in it.  Well, they haven't really gotten to the bottom of their piles yet so maybe I'll see icky stuff later in the show.

At 1 p.m., I'm off to go see Stanford women's basketball.  They play an exhibition match against Vanguard.  I got to see them play last Wednesday night against UCSD.  That one was a blow out.  They won 106 to 56.  I wonder if this one will be the same or if Vanguard will do better than UCSD.  Stanford has six new freshman on the team this year and it was fun to watch them play on Wednesday.  I also enjoy seeing the upper class women play and see who takes over the leadership position on the team.

After the basketball game, I will get ready for the hike tomorrow.  My hiking buddy and I are going to do some geocaching while on the hike so I need to get the caches loaded into my GPS.  Oh and I need to do laundry tonight.  My hiking trousers are in the washer from last weekend.  I always dump them in the washer after a hike to wash off any poison oak oil I might have rubbed on during the hike.  I'll pack my maps into my backpack and pack a lunch.  Which means I need to go the grocery store as I have no bread for a sandwich.  Plenty to do!

Asexuality and Intimate Relationships

As an out asexual, I get asked how my relationship with another asexual would be any different than just being friends with that person.   Being asked this question makes me sigh inside.   It rubs me wrong.   I find it devalues friendship with the word “just” and it seems to indicate that I can’t have a intimate relationship with someone if I don’t want to have sex with them.  

Just what are intimate relationships? There is physical intimacy.   There is emotional intimacy.  Must an intimate relationship be physically and emotionally intimate to be a true intimate relationship or can an intimate relationship be just emotionally intimate?  Does physical intimacy have to include sexual intimacy or can it be physical intimacy like cuddling that doesn’t involve sex?  For me, an intimate relationship is mostly emotionally intimate with a component of non-sexual physical intimacy.    I don’t believe sex has to be a part of an intimate relationship to make it legitimate.

But that still begs the question of how my relationship with another asexual would be different than a friendship.    Well, first off, it might not be different. It really depends on how you define friendship.  If part of your definition of a friendship is declaring that you love each other and only want to be with each other and put care for each other first before family or other friends, then my vision of my asexual relationship will be no different than a close friendship!   I’m cool with that.  Friendships can be as deeply intimate as any other kind of relationship!  But if that is not how you view friendship, then my asexual relationship is different than “just” being friends with the person.  

Planning Hikes

I thought I would write about how I come up with hikes today.  When I first started, I got most of my ideas by going hiking on Sierra Club group hikes and other group hikes.  Someone else actually did the picking and route planning and I just showed up for the fun.  And then later, I led the same hikes myself.  I also co-led hikes where I was the assistant and did the sweeping on a hike (hiked in the back of the group and made sure we didn’t lose anyone) and learned the hike that way.   I also bought myself hiking guide books to the San Francisco bay area and would lead the hikes described in them.  After doing many hikes this way, I got my hike leading experience.

Now I often pick hikes by picking a park and looking at the trails in the park on a trail map and finding a route to do.  Then I call on a hiking buddy to go scout the hike with me and see if its any good.  To tell the truth this is my favorite part of the whole process of planning and leading a hike.  I love going somewhere new and seeing whats there and finding the route.  I also pick new hikes through word of mouth from other hike leaders.  They let me know about really cool hikes and I’m off to the races to hike there.

The latest hike I am investigating I found out from a newspaper article in the San Jose Mercury news.  A new portion of trail was completed recently that connects Alum Rock Park to the new Sierra Vista Open Space preserve in southeastern San Jose.   I’m now dying to go out and see it and I found some crazy friends that are willing to give it a go with me on Sunday!  The reason I say crazy friends is its a challenging looking route: 15+ miles and around 4000 feet of elevation gain.  We’ll have to move fast enough to avoid finishing up the hike in the dark.  Three of us will attempt it.   One friend has said she may bail on the hike if its too much.  If both bail on me, I’ll bail too as I do not do tough challenging hikes solo.  Its just too much risk.  I don’t want to be stranded with an injury and no way to contact someone to come help me (I never count on there being cell phone reception in the wilderness).

Caste Rock State Park hike

This past Sunday, Oct 30, I met my friend L, and we went hiking at Castle Rock State park.  This is a state park that was on the list of California state parks slated to be closed next year (2012) to save the government money.  I want to be sure and hike there lots before it closes.  When we arrived there, the parking lot was nearly full and the off street parking was also filling up.  We parked across the street about 50 feet from the entrance.  The ranger actually asked us to move the car.  L had parked it parallel to the street and the ranger requested she park it perpendicular.  L decided to park across the street as there was a big ditch on the side we were on and she did not want the nose of her truck to get stuck in the ditch.  

After getting the parking figured out, we walked to the restroom and then headed out to the Ridge trail.  The first beautiful sight you get to see on the Ridge trail is a deck built right next to a water fall.  We went out on the deck and admired the view of the falls and the view from the ridge top.   We had the deck to ourselves for the short time we were there.  We then continued on the Ridge trail with our eventual destination being the Castle Rock campground.  I love this portion of the Ridge trail.  It meanders slightly up and down and has many many lovely views of the mountains and valleys of the Santa Cruz mountains  At one point it has a cable set up to help one scramble up a rocky portion of the trail.  I love rock scrambles so felt right at home.

We soon arrived at the campground and discovered that the old trailer with a make shift office in it had been removed since the last time we ventured here.  Instead there was a nice picnic table in its place.  We chose to sit at the other older picnic table in the shade.   Soon another party of hikers showed up.   This was a collection of adults and boys.  The boys were very rambunctious and were having the time of their lives hitting trees with sticks while the adults settled at the picnic table to eat their lunch.

After lunch we retraced our route back to the car.  We enjoyed the hot afternoon sun shining on us when we reached the exposed sections of the Ridge trail.  We had gotten a little chilled sitting in the shade for lunch.  There is nothing quite like hiking on a beautiful trail with the sun warming you up and the blue sky making for stunning views.  It was so peaceful and so toasty warm.  We got back to the car at around 2:30 p.m.   We probably hiked about 6 miles.

Pictures from the hike are at https://picasaweb.google.com/cdrdash/CastleRock_1030_11?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIHe1PmCxcr0Dw&feat=directlink

Russian Ridge Hike Report

Last Saturday I went on a hike with the Loma Prieta Gay and Lesbian Sierrans at Russian Ridge. Russian Ridge is the park at the top of Page Mill Road above Palo Alto. Our trip started with an adventure in the park-n-ride lot. Six of us showed up at the appointed time to car pool to the park from the Page Mill Park and Ride lot just off highway 280. I got there first and there was not a parking spot to be found in the lot. I decided to hang out in my car for a while to see if someone would leave and a spot would open up. While I was doing this I saw a woman walking across the parking lot. She came to my car and said hello and asked if I was there for the hike. I’ll call her M. I asked where she parked and she had driven up the road a ¼ mile and found street parking and had just walked back to the lot. As we were chatting four more folks showed up for the hike each in their own car. We had one of those group moments of confusion as to what people should do since there was no parking.

In the end these folks headed off to the street parking that M had found. I volunteered to stay at the lot in case anyone showed up. As M and I were standing there waiting, my cell phone rang and I pulled a typical blunder on my part and tried to answer the phone with the “hang up” button. So I hung up on someone obviously calling from the street parking to coordinate with me. Poor M got to witness me struggling with my cell phone that I rarely use and cursing the fact that I couldn't figure out how to phone this person back!! As I was doing this, the hike leader showed up in her car and told us that she would wait at the lot and we should go to the street parking area. So off M and I went to the street parking. We arrived and a few minutes later the hike leader showed up. There was enough parking at this street location for all our cars. We finally got organized and tumbled into 2 cars to car pool to the park. I do believe it is time to give up on this particular park in ride lot as a hike meeting location.

The drive to the park was up a narrow twisty road. As we started up we saw a deer with brand new horns growing in. We had to make our way slowly up the road as it was full of bike riders and blind corners. So we had to slow down to the bike rider speed till we got around these blind corners and see that it was safe to pass them. I had volunteered to drive and my passengers said they were glad of it as they don’t like to deal with twisty roads and bikes! I just poked along up the road and only passed the bikes when it was safe to do so. We got to the park in about 30 minutes. Thankfully there was plenty of parking in the Russian Ridge lot!

We all visited the rest room and then headed out on our 5.5 mile hike on the ridge top. We hiked up a mild hill and had marvelous views of Silicon Valley to one side and the Pacific ocean and Portola Valley to the other side. The wind was blowing hard on the ridge and we saw a young girl having fun flying a kite. After about an hour of hiking we reached a wonderful deck built by a boy scout troop on the hill where we had lunch. The sun was out and the sky was a pure blue but the wind blowing over our now sweaty shirts gave us a chill at lunch. Some of us pulled on our windbreakers to stay warm. After lunch we headed back on different trails. We dove into the woods at one point where I had to be careful of poison oak. Its easy to spot in the fall when its often a bright red color. In the woods we stopped to oogle at a very large lizard. Lizards abound on the trails in the bay area parks but this particular lizard was huge and worth stopping to look at. After the lizard siting we came out of the woods and had pleasant half mile climbing up the hill and then descending to the parking lot.

The trip back to the street parking was easier as the bikes had pretty much left the road by the mid afternoon. I dropped off my riders at our street parking location and headed home for a nice warm shower followed by an impromptu nap in front of the TV!

Pictures from the hike: https://picasaweb.google.com/cdrdash/RussianRidge_10_29_11?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNHqwdys4cGDbg&feat=directlink