How lucky are we? To have two beautiful, smart daughters is more that anyone can ask for.
Kate, in her first semester at Sac State, pulled in an outstanding 3.2 GPA.
Kelly, in her sophmore year at CSUEB, and the brainiac of the family, posts a whopping 3.8
Thanks girls for keeping up your end of the bargain. You continue to make your old man proud.
Keep up the great work!
Mentioned in a previous post that part of Barb’s recovery from the spinal fusion is to walk. Walk walk walk. And walk she has. We’ve been down and back on the Creek Trail numerous times over the last months. Barb’s friends and family have come to the rescue too. All walking with Barb. We always see something different when we go out for a walk 
and are always on the lookout for the Great Blue Herron. The great blue is one big bird, with very cool markings. I started to carry the camera to get some pics of stuff we see on our walks. Saw this great blue hanging out in the creek near the BART overcrossing. When we stopped to check it out, it decided we were to nosey so he took off for less busy waters.
What a great winter weekend. The rain has stayed away and the cold spell that settled into the area the last couple of weeks finally moved on, making for a sunny, mild California weekend. Got in a bike ride Saturday morning. Nice 18 miler out the creek trail to Coyote and back. 
The flamingo is still there. Went to Kelly’s first water polo game of the season. The alumni game was a tuneup for the Davis invitational next Sunday. Then a walk in the late afternoon with Barb. While on the trail we ran into team Lewellyn, who were also on a walk! We talked about our plans to eat at Toto’s pizza later that evening. Both couples getting in a pre-pizza walk to counteract the calorie intake later!
Toto’s was great. We came with Kelly and her bud Jackie, while team Lewellyn brought along Number 2 daughter and Number 1 son and rent-a-guest, Nick. We had the usual extra large #2 with garlic. Kelly likes the cheese with garlic so she and jackie had that. When the pizza pie comes to the table it smells sooooooo good! Sometimes I can dine on the smell alone.
Sunday was a kick back day. Went for an early walk then settled in to watch some championship football. Left over pizza for lunch and frozen yogurt for dinner.
Thanks for the hat Steve!
Mentioned below that Ted and I headed over to Starbucks after our bike ride yesterday. As we pulled into the patio area, there was a husband wife and small boy sitting at one of the three outside tables, coffees in hand. Just as we get off of our bikes, the young boy leans left and pukes all over the patio! Didn’t stick around out front too long, rushed inside to get our coffee. I mention to Ted that the kid just heaved. I saw the mom come in and thought she told someone about it so they could clean up, turns out she just came in for napkins. yuck! As we are heading out, its obvious that the family had attempted to cover the vomit with a couple of napkins. Then they moved to the next table, where the kid hurls AGAIN! So mom and dad cover that pile of barf with another couple of napkins, then commence to move to the last “unpuked on” area! So they are settling into the last table as me and Ted come out. Dad is watching us to see if we try to sit down. NO FRIGGIN WAY! We take a spot away from the vomit zone and watch as mom and dad try to ignore the obvious. The mom then goes into nextdoor Togo’s and comes out with a bag! Just in case junior blows chunks again. Since there is nowhere else for them to move they finally take a proactive step. NICE. We left at that point, with mom and dad enjoying thier coffees and everyone else stepping over and around puddles of throw-up.
A bitter bitter cold snap has settled into the Bay Area, sending Fremont temps into the 20’s overnight and hovering in the 40s during the day. Thats cold for us! Its cold enough to where the hose is froze in the mornings and Niya’s outside water bowl looks like a mini ice rink. I think it was the frigid temps that caused the spring on our garage door to snap over the weekend.
Kept a fire going in the fireplace all weekend, morning til night.
Got in a couple of good rides despite the weather, including a Sunday ride with none other than good neighbor Ted. Although it was cold, it was clear and oh so quiet out at Coyote Hills. Tons of birds out in the bay, including the lone Fremont flamingo. Capped off the ride with Ted with a coffee at Starbucks.
The flamingo that has been hanging out at the old Coyote hills salt pond is still there. Every time I ride by I’m amazed. That crazy bird must have endured the high winds last week as well. Must be good eating in what once were dead ponds of overly salty water. Now the ponds are full of birds! There must be thousands and thousands of them! Very cool.
Burning through our firewood pretty quickly this year so I called up Hillerman’s Firewood and had another cord delivered today. As I was stacking the wood, I realized that I end up moving the entire cord 6 times.
Hillerman dumps cord in Driveway –
#1- Jim puts wood (piece by piece) into wheel barrow and moves to back yard
#2-Jim takes wood (piece by piece) from wheelbarrow and puts on wood pile
#3-Jim takes wood from wood pile to wood carrier – then I carry it to the house
#4- Jim takes wood from carrier to inside wood holder next to fireplace
#5 – Jim takes wood from inside wood holder and puts into fireplace
#6- Jim takes ashes from fire place and puts in recycle bin
Whew! No wonder those relaxing fires wear me out!
Kelly and the CSUEB girls kicked off the 2007 water polo season with a trip to UC Davis to play a couple of games. Game one pitted Div III CSUEB against Div II rival Sonoma State, then a late afternoon match against Div I conference champ UC Davis.