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March
27, 2006:
Well it's been a BUSY past couple of weeks, which has been good :)
Let's
see, the weekend of March 17-19 I spent most of my time with Mark and
Jessica Hamel who were in town from Germany! Jessica had to fly out
here for a pharmacuetical convention (LOL high class drug dealers :)
in the city and Mark got to tag along for fun! It was great to see the
both of them. They looked wonderful and both seem to be doing very well!
We all hung out on Friday night and did dinner together. On Saturday
morning, we all went out to breakfast at Savor in Noe Valley before
dropping Jessica off at the convention center. After that, Mark and
I spent the rest of the day cruising around the bay area. Hehehe, amongst
our travels, we couldn't resist stopping in for a quick wine tasting
at Rosenblum Cellars where a few bottles were purchased (of course).
On Sunday morning, I met up w/Mark and we spent about 1/2 the day together
and took a nice drive up through Mt. Tamalapias and down to Stintson
Beach. Was really nice. That night, I took to myself to chill and catch
up on some errands. I had planned to spend at least one more night with
Mark and Jessica before I left, but an unexpected business trip to Chicago
nixed that :( Ahhh well, looks like I'm going to have to fly to Germany
soon to see them again (yay!!! :)
This past
weekend was a good one. I got to see my friend Johny T., of whom I've
been friends with for many years since I moved to CA, was in town. He
and I got together for our annual night of dinner/drinks/amazing conversation.
LOL these nights are so full of intense conversation, that it seems
to take about a year for us to get through them. LOL, sounds weird.
It is :) We're gonna try and chat w/each other at least once a month
moving forward to try and break that pattern :).
LOL for
any of your WoW (World of Warcraft) fans out there, my character Busterian
(Dwarf Paladin) hit level 50 last night! I am very very happy :) LOL,
such a geek I am.
That's
it for now. Hope all is well in your world :)
Penz
March
13, 2006:
Sunday was a pretty good day. I was up at 5:00 AM as I had to host/lead
an effort to help troubleshoot a technical issues at one of our large
customer sites in Chicago, IL. I'd end up being on the call from about
5:30 AM to 10:30 AM. There are better ways to start a Sunday, but the
call/effort went well, and I had a pot of coffee to keep me going :)
After the call, me, Becky and Susan went out to do a little grocery
shopping and had lunch at PF Chang's. Afterwards, we stopped by an open
house on Atherton Avenue and were sadly disappointed at what 6.5 million
dollars gets you these days :P Heheh, we ripped that place apart, but
had fun looking around. Later on that afternoon, I'd head home and spend
the rest of the evening catching up on other stuff I had to get done
this weekend, as well as just taking an hour or two of 'me time'. I
was pretty tired as I had an early start to the day.
This week
should be fun. On Thursday, Mark and Jessica Hamel will be in town.
They are flying in from Germany as Jessica has a conference to attend
here in San Francisco. I plan to spend most of my time this weekend
with them.
March
11, 2006: So,
today was an awesome day! It actually started last night, after work,
when I headed to Atherton to meet up with Rob, Susan, and Becky (in
town from FL!). We had a fun night together. We met up around six and
went out for dinner at Rob and Susan's favorite Chinese restaurant in
Woodside (mmm, salt and pepper shrimp!). After that, it was back to
the house where we enjoyed some conversation over a 1997 St. Superey
Dollarhide Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon. Oh my, it was freaking tasty (and
one of the best 'old' wines from my collection). After Rob and Susan
headed off to bed, Becky and I would stay up until about 11:00 PM catching
up, talking and laughing before we finally crashed out.
Our Saturday
started about 6:30 AM. By 7:30, Susan, Becky and me were on the road
heading towards San Francisco. At 8:15 AM we'd find ourselves waiting
in line to get into Mama's for breakfast in San Francisco (1701 Stockton
St. - Northbeach district, yes, remember this address). I had been to
this place once before about a month ago with Justin, Erin and Trish
and oh my.... breaksfast there is to die for :) For breakfast, Susan
got the crab benedict; Becky got the dunegeness crab omlettte with white
cheddar cheese and leeks and I got the cranberry walnut french toast
with fresh berries and Italian sausage. LOL if that wasn't enough, we
also shared a piece of blueberry coffee cake and carrot cake! Heheh,
good think we part the car about a 4 blocks away, We needed that walk
afterwards :)
Mmmmmm,
so with our belly's full, we then tried to head up to Sonoma to see
friends, BUT we didn't know about the 32 car pile up that occurred at
2:30 am this morning and had closed off the route over the GG bridge.
We spent about 20 minutes sitting on the GG bridge listening to the
traffic report which told us it was going to take about 2 hours to clear
the bridge and the traffic in Saulsalito. Finally we said screw this
and then wegot to do what few ever get to do... make a U-TURN on the
GG bridge!!!! LOL, how cool is that!?!?! :) So, we headed back into
SF and would spend 5 hours kicking around China Town. We had SO MUCH
FUN! We shopped, shopped, ate and shopped some more. LOL, heheheh so
much fun!
Susan and Becky with the Trans America building in the background
Susan in Chinatown
Yeah, pretty cool! 5 dragons waiting to go downtown..
Heheheh,
we had a blast shopping. I picked up a few cool things for my apartment
(new pillows for the couch, a neat dragon scroll, and an interesting
dragon plaque for the wall). After walking around for many hours (trying
to burn off that breakfast), we headed back to Atherton (after a quick
shopping stop in Woodside to pick up dinner) around 4:30 PM. Susan put
together an amazing meal (grilled wild Alaskan Salmon, grilled asparagus,
sweet/baked potatoes, and petite fours for dessert :) Oh yeah, not to
mention some terrific freaking wine !!! THANK YOU LISA for allowing
us to open the 2002 Sullivan Cabernet Sauvignon (well you don't know
it it yet, but thanks anyway's!) LOL, I provided a few decent bottles
tonight including the 2003 Rosenblum Syrah (a fantatic bottle) , 2001
Kendall Jackson Reserve Cab, and the 2003 Signorello Cabernet Sauvignon
(also really good!). LOL, we drank well :)
Well gotta
head to bed. Gotta get up early in the am (5:30 AM on a Sunday) and
work. Long story, but it's gotta be done. Hopefully, I'll be free by
noon!
Hope all
is well in your world!
Penz
March
7, 2006: Great
news! On Sunday, Jame's was released from the hospital and is now recuperating
at home. His family will be staying with him for most of the week and
afterwards I'm sure his friends in the local area will be keeping close
tabs on him.
Been trying
to keep busy and not let my mind 'idle' as it seems to have a tendency
to think about 'stuff' that is illogical and emotional and that has
been 'annoying' as of late. Heheh, but no worries, I'm ok.
I'm pretty
excited at Becky will be flying into town from FL this Friday. She'll
be staying with Rob and Susan over in Atherton and I'll be over there
for most of the weekend. It's going to be great to have her here and
to be able to spend some time with her.
Next weekend,
Mark and Jessica Hamel will be in town from Germany (Jessica is attending
a conference out here). I'll be spending as much time with them as I
can while they are out here.
LOL, yes
I'm still playing World of Warcraft. Heheheh, trying to limit myself
to an hour or two each day. Hey, at the end of the day, it's fun and
it's keeping me out of trouble. AND starting yesterday, I'm instituting
a rule that I need to do at least 30 minutes of some type of exercise
(walking/biking/etc.) before I play. Those winter pounds (which commonly
accumulate on us 'bears') need to start to come off :)
Hope all
is well in your neck of the woods!
~Penz
March
3, 2006: Today I had the best phone call of the year. I got
to speak to James Canders :) His friend Jeff (who has been a saint and
has been with James each day since the accident) handed James the phone
and let me talk to him. Even though James' jaw is wired shut, he was
able to get out a few words and let me know he understood what I was
saying. I gotta say, it was so good to hear him and to be able to talk
to him. I had so much that I wanted to say, and throughout it all, I
was trying to not to cry! LOL, tears of happiness of course!! It was
great just to be able to talk to him and let him know how thankful I
was to have him still around and to tell him how much I care for him.
Hmmmmm, I guess the good thing is that he already knows that :)
Like all
of his friends who live outside of MI, we've all wanted to fly out there
and be with James to help him in some way. Of course, having 100 of
us show up at the hospital probably wouldn't' be a good thing. I mean,
it's not like they have a bar in the waiting room. Where the heck would
we all gather!?!?! LOL :) Seriously though, that feeling of helplessness
sucks, but knowing that he has good friends/family there made it a bit
easier.
The weekend
is almost here :) YEAH! Can't wait :)
That's
all for now :)
~Penz
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