We completed our bathroom remodel and took a trip to San Fransisco. You can see the photos here:
Bathroom & San Fran

Summer Trips: Mr. and Mrs. Al the RA

Our friend Al and his wife Jeanette (seen below as husband and wife for the first time) were kind enough to schedule their wedding to coincide with our East Coast trip to help Jessica move into college.

We celebrated Al and Jeanette's wedding at the picturesque Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, MA.

After taking the questionable advice of our portable GPS system, I delivered our group (me, Julia, Rajeeve, Melissa and Patti) to the ceremony just as it was getting started. Whew... just in time! Al's Holy Cross roommate Malcolm did a great job as the officiant. I think that he introduced Mr. and Mrs. Al "the RA" at the end of it but then again I might just be making that up. As the sun set and the bride and groom were officially married the large group of Holy Cross alumni in attendance gathered for a few photos.

The dinner, dancing and catching-up that followed was a blast.
Several of us spent the night at the Cerreto house down the street in Micheal Bolton, MA.

The next day more friends arrived at the Cerreto's for a BBQ but Julia and I had to catch a flight home and couldn't stay long. We had a lot of fun though and hope to see our friends again soon.

By the way, Raj and Melissa are next. So we have that wedding to look forward to.

Summer Trips: Helping Jessica Matriculate

Once Julia's youngest sister had made the scholarly decision to attend our alma mater, The College of the Holy Cross, we started planning to help her get there. In fact, we took Jessica there ourselves. Who better to get you moved into college than two alumni? And why not make a vacation out of it for ourselves?

So Julia, Jessica and I flew to Providence during the week before Labor Day. We got in a game of Scrabble on the way out. Julia won but I have protested the outcome of the game sighting "discrepancies and other things."


We landed late in Providence and drove to southern suburbs of Boston to spend the night. Of course Julia and Jessica were hungry and nothing is open late for food in those parts. Well, almost nothing. We grabbed some microwaveable burritos at a gas station. They were surprisingly good and moods improved.

The next morning we got up, had breakfast and headed into Boston - technically we got on our way around noon but our internal clocks were still on Pacific time. We had a reservation to stay the night at a hotel in Beacon Hill called the Liberty Hotel. The hotel is located in a building that was a jail until the 1990's. They have done significant remodeling but some of the bars still remain.


From the outside the building looks great. Also, we were only yards away from Rajeeve's Beacon Hill condo. Rajeeve was one of my college roommates and still is one of our best friends. We had a great view of the hotel from his roof deck.


And that's where we went next. He has great views of the Charles River too.


After taking in the view we grabbed lunch in Beacon hill. Then Raj took us through the Boston Commons to Newbury Street. Jessica was happy to find out where Boston's fashionable shops are located.


We did some more Boston sightseeing and had dinner at Raj's place with another Holy Cross alumnus, Luke O'Neil (now world famous writer and performer - watch for his new rap album). After dinner Raj, Julia, Jessica and I headed over to The Alibi, the bar at the hotel. At Alibi I almost felt like we could have been at an LA bar but I don't know of any in LA with that much outdoor space. Too bad they can only make use of it part of the year. I guess because we can be outside year-round out here in LA we don't appreciate it as much as they do in Boston. Alibi had a full crowd of patrons even on a Wednesday night.

The next morning we got up to see some more Boston sights. We strolled through Beacon Hill and eventually made our way to the Green Dragon. This is the tavern that served as the de facto headquarters for the early American Revolution. But earlier in the day Raj took us to the site of the first ever surgery administered under anesthesia. The site is called the Ether Dome and it is housed within Mass General Hospital. I think that this may have been the highlight of Jessica's day. Blood, gore etc. (she wants to be a dentist)!


As matriculation day was quickly approaching we headed to Worcester, MA Thursday night. Somehow I was able to remember the way to Dino's, an Italian restaurant that Julia and I went on dates to when we were Holy Cross students. We enjoyed a filling Italian dinner and then drove over to another college haunt - a coffee shop called Cafe Dolce. Now that the tastes from our Holy Cross days were back in our system Julia and I decided to reacquaint ourselves and introduce Jessica to our former campus. We drove over to campus and gave ourselves a midnight tour. Some things have changed there - I think mostly for the better.

Friday was spent gathering the items that Jessica would need to start her college career. The folks at the Auburn Bed Bath and Beyond eventually got us on our way with way more stuff than I remember having when I started college. In the midst of shopping we were able to visit one of our favorite restaurants, O'Connor's. Oakies! We didn't even look at the menus once we sat down. We ate a couple of Guinness pot pies and we were satisified. Next we popped in at the Eskander house and Julia and Jessica got to meet the Eskander kids for the first time. Meg brought out some old college photos and we reminisced on our former college days... all on the night before Jessica's college adventure was set to begin.

Saturday, day one, was here! Jessica's big moving day went smoothly. Although she and two other first-year students were assigned to a room designed for two and not three students somehow we made all their stuff fit.


Jessica was moved in and ready to start a college adventure much like I and her big sister Julia did thirteen years before. I can't believe that it was that long ago but the memories are so vivid and happy that I feel like I walked that campus as a student much more recently. I'm so excited for everything that Jessica and her fellow classmates have to look forward to. I'm glad that Julia and I got a chance to help her move in.

Matriculation successful!

Summer Trips: Maui

For our seventh wedding anniversary I surprised Julia with a trip for both of us to Maui. We got to spend 6 days in Napili Kai, Maui. Our trip started very early (I think that we left our house before 5 am) on a Wednesday morning. Because I had booked our flights near to our travel date using some frequent flyer miles our flight options were a little limited. So instead of flying directly from Los Angeles to Maui we flew first to Denver. This added a significant amount of travel time to our trip but we got to have Denver omelets in Denver and I got to see the deciding stage of the 2008 Tour de France while we ate them.

Also, the flight from Denver direct to Maui took us right over our house in Los Angeles. Julia was disgusted to know that several hours after getting out of bed much earlier than usual that she was right back where we had started. I thought it was neat to look out the window and see our house.


Once we arrived in Maui we quickly settled in at the Napili Kai Beach Resort and got into a lazy routine that consisted of swimming, snorkeling, eating, drinking and relaxing. There are so many things that I love about Naplini Kai Beach Resort. First off I love the location. The beach is calm and the water is clear. It's perfect for snorkeling and it's very close to other great snorkeling spots like Honolua Bay and Slaughterhouse Beach. I like the relaxed family atmosphere. We made all of our own meals together while we were there.


I love the sunsets and torch lighting.


We made frequent trips to the nearby fish market and ate fresh catches every day. We also studied up on one of the most dangerous fish in the world, the Walu a.k.a. Butterfish a.k.a. Escolar. Look it up here in Wikipedia: Escolar. Yikes!

We had a great view from our room.

We saw sea turtles and other neat creatures every day.

It was a great trip but it was definitely too short.

Julia Finishes in Fourth Place

in
2008 Ventura Breath of Life Triathlon

Early Sunday morning (leaving the house before 6 am) Julia and I drove up to Ventura, CA so that she could compete in the 2008 Ventura Breath of Life Triathlon. She was signed up to compete on the sprint course which consisted of a 400 meter (0.24 mile) ocean swim followed by a 20.4 km (12.7 mile) bike ride and finished with a 5 km (3.1 mile) run. Julia had previously competed in the Carpenteria Triathlon and a few Santa Barbara Night Moves duathlons (swim and run events). I had not been to any multi-sport events and was excited to see what they were all about. I was still recovering from my bicycle crash I could not compete so I did my best to cheer Julia on throughout the race.

We had a little confusion arriving at the race location but we found it in time to get Julia checked-in. After receiving the check-in materials and a bag of goodies Julia started to set up her equipment in the transition area. While she set up, the race director explained the event rules and detailed the plan for the start. Julia would be in the 6th wave of racers to enter the water. Her wave would be the first adults to start the sprint course. After setting up, Julia wriggled into her triathlon wetsuit and we made our way onto the beach for the start of the swim.

Once we were on the beach it became apparent that there were a lot of people at this event. There were probably about 1,000 racers on the beach. The competitors were divided into 8 groups or waves. The racers in each wave were issued matching swim caps at check-in to help identify their group. Julia's womens sprint group wore white caps. We stood on the beach and waited for the first 5 waves to take off.

After about 15 minutes of waiting we spotted Julia's co-worker and fellow racer Olivier. He was wearing a baby blue cap and was set to race in wave 7 (the men 40 year old and up group). Looking for Olivier demonstrated how hard it is to pick out people in this crowd once they all don matching swim caps and wetsuits. After some more waiting it was time for Julia to get on the starting line. With her experience competing in previous swim events Julia knew that the starts can get rough and thought it best to enter the water after the initial rush of racers. She let about 75% of the women get a head start before she started swimming. I stayed near the start line and watched Olivier's group hit the water. They seemed a little more intense than the women at the start line.

While Julia swam out into the ocean I strolled down the beach to where the swimmers would exit the water. Some time after Olivier started I saw the under 40 men dash into the water with their orange caps. They were the most intense racers and they really dashed into the water. While I waited for Julia to finish I didn't think that I would have any chance of recognizing and snapping a photo of her as she finished the swim but there she was. She finished the swim faster than most of the ladies that she gave a head start to. She passed more women as she sprinted to the transition area. She looked like she was having a great time.

It took some effort the get the wetsuit off but once it was off Julia got her cycling gear on and hit the road. I was impressed by how composed she was for only being in her second triathlon. I saw many people at the start of the bike stage dropping water bottles, shoes, and other items. They seemed too hurried for their own good. I even saw people forget to put their helmets on and heard the race officials inform them that they had been disqualified for failing to do so. It was fun at the bike start. Occasionally someone would start up the bike ride on some non-race bike like a beach cruiser and they would get a good cheer from the onlookers.

A while later I got some good shots of Julia near the end of the bike stage. She was all smiles and moving at a good speed. Her second transition seemed more leisurely than the first but she got to the run in good time. I still had not seen Olivier on the bike but I must have missed him.

After giving a couple quick cheers of encouragement for Julia at the start of the run I moved to the finish line to watch her finish. While I waited I saw the first men on the sprint course finish. The first few had times under an hour. Wow they were fast! Julia finished about 17 minutes after them with a time of 1 hour 26 minutes. She had a good kick at the end of the run and was in a foot race to the finish with another girl. I think that Julia won but it was close. Well... maybe she missed, you be the judge. Her time put her in 4th place in her age group. Way to go!

Next, we packed up the gear and met up with Olivier. Olivier and Julia seemed happy with the race. We ate some BBQ at the post race party while we waited for the preliminary results to get posted. I felt like this event had attracted a great group of people. There was a good mixture of competitive spirit and camaraderie. I'm looking forward to getting in shape to join Julia in her next triathlon adventure.
You can check out the photos from her race here: 2008 Ventura Breath of Life Triathlon.

Where Have I Been?

It's been a while since I have posted. Lack of posted news hasn't been for lack of notable events and happenings. We have been pretty busy over the last few months. I guess I left off in November posting about Julia's car. She still loves the car.

Since the last posting we celebrated Christmas in Thousand Oaks, worked a lot, went skiing in Utah, celebrated my 31st birthday by riding 50 miles in the Solvang Century Half / Century Ride and I went to Spring Training in Arizona with some good friends. More recently I have been playing a lot of hockey. I'm on the ice or roller hockey rink practically every other day. The ice teams that I played on over the winter finished the playoffs as champions in both of their leagues. If you have checked my cycling stats recently you would have noticed that all of the hockey has reduced the number of bike rides that I have gotten in.

We did manage to get in a great ride a couple of weeks ago that made a round-trip ride from Encino to Rosebowl. Riding along Riverside Drive in the valley is very pleasant and the climb up Chevy Chase Drive in Pasadena was a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to discovering more local rides and also riding in the Ojai Century at the end of May, the Windmill Century in July and any other Southern California Century ride that I can fit into my schedule.

Hopefully I do a better job documenting our activities... not that anyone is really interested.

Julia Buys New Car - In Love with Automobile

This week Julia bought a 2005 BMW 325i. Her dream of replacing our trusty old 1988 325i convertible with a newer version has been fulfilled. The old convertible has served us well. With nearly 292,000 miles of virtually trouble free operation the old car has earned its current resting place parked inside the garage.

On Wednesday night Julia picked up the new beamer and drove it home for the first time. Her smile entered the house a minute before the rest of her made it through the front door. Never before has an imported luxury automobile had such a positive effect on a woman's happiness.

The local priest was called in to celebrate the uniting of car and woman...
"Do you, car, take this woman to be your driver... do you promise to break land-speed records at her will, start every time on the first time and always remember her powered driver seat setting?"

The ceremony went by so fast and at the end a flock of doves were released from our backyard, then Julia and the new car drove off to live happily together forever and ever.

The End