This week was wonderful! On Monday, Tim and I met in Emeryville. We went to Fossil to get a link put back in his new watch so that it fit better. We stopped at Williams-Sonoma because I can't resist poking around. Then we wandered over to Marmot Mountain in Berkeley to return the ski equipment we had rented over the weekend. I really like the people at Marmot Mountain; I was undecided between whether I wanted 175 Joules or 165 Joules. I felt like I would be happier on 165s but I wasn't sure if I'd be limiting myself by not going for 175s. The guy in the store agreed that I was a better fit for the 165s and he liked my choice of ski, so I left the shop feeling much more confident in the ski that I had decided to buy. I think we buy so many things offline nowadays that we forget how nice it is to go into a shop and talk to people with experience. You can get a good vibe about the person you're talking to and see whether or not you really trust his words. We chatted with someone about skis for a while and then we headed over to campus to grab a slice of pizza. After that, I went home to play with the dog for the night, and Tim went to play with his music group.
Tuesday had even more gorgeous weather, so after work, I hooked the dog trailer to my bike, and took Navi to the beach. Pam and Tim met me at the beach, and we played with Navi for a long time. She wasn't doing well with fetch on the beach, so I let her play with other dogs. When Tim and Pam arrived, we went for a walk on the peninsula. We found a big block of wood and threw it in the water, and Navi suddenly became a fetching machine. I don't know if she liked the location, or the block of wood or what, but I've never had such success with her bringing the block of wood back to us so we could throw it again. That tired her out! After wandering around some more, Tim went to Target, and Pam and I biked home to make fresh pasta for penne with vodka sauce! The bike home with Navi in the trailer is always slow and grueling, but such a good workout!
Wednesday was St. Patrick's day, and once again the weather was amazing! I headed home after work to pick up Navi, and then drove with her to Pam's. Navi stuck her head out the window the entire drive. When I got to 805, Sarah said that she'd watch Navi for a while, so Pam and I headed to 4th street to wander. I got some key lime sorbet on top of a chocolate cookie. We wandered around kitchen stores, glass stores, and cheese shops. I found some cumin gouda, and I bought some to take home. After a while, we headed back to Pam's and gathered Navi to take her for a nice walk at the Aquatics Park. We walked by the new Vik's, and I can't wait to eat there. Navi met lots of disc golfers who liked her a lot. I've been teaching her to shake water off on command so that I can get her to shake without shaking water all over me. She doesn't quite understand it yet, so a few guys at the park had a great laugh while watching Pam and I run away from Navi desperately trying to get Navi to shake the water off while not getting us wet and dirty!
Thursday, Tim and I met up with Jordan to go for a nice swim. The pool is so nice. We made it to 2800 yards, which is a nice step up from 2200 yards. Next time, we'll go even farther!
On Friday, I biked into work. I decided to take a different route, and I got pretty lost. Instead of biking down the hill to the water, and then biking to work along the water, I decided to bike along the ridge of the hills, and drop down the southern side of Oakland into Alameda. I biked along Grizzly Peak, Skyline Boulevard, and then I dropped down Shepards Canyon. When I got to Mountain Boulevard, I realized that maybe I hadn't looked at the maps well enough before I left. I wasn't sure where to go, and there were a lot of cars trying to get onto 13. I took the path of least resistance (fewest cars) and I ended up getting stuck because I couldn't cross the highway and I needed to. I had to go so far North to cross the highway that I ended up on Broadway. I'm really good at city biking and keeping up with traffic, so it wasn't a problem, but I was annoyed because Broadway took the wrong direction. Instead of going southwest through the city on Fruitvale, I was going northwest. So I finally got into the city and found a nice road to cut south on, and I hit Lake Merrit. You can't bike through a lake, so I had to bike east to get around the lake, and then west again. Then I kept cutting south through the city, and eventually I turned west again. I got under 580, but I had a lot of trouble getting across 880, because all the roads just ended at 880. I couldn't find any roads that went over or under 880 for the longest time. Then I finally found a road, and I had gone north again...so I was dumped on Embarcadero. At this point I knew exactly where I was and how to get to work, but I had taken a really inefficient route into work. I got to work and looked at the map and I know how to bike it now, but I'm pretty sure I added 10 miles to my ride! After work, I took the ferry into san francisco with Nathaniel and Jon, and met up with Tim. Tim and I went to Chinatown, and met up with Tim's friend Dirk. Tim and Dirk worked together at Dupont, and Dirk had been wanting to move back out to the bay area for a while. He had gotten his masters at Stanford and had a lot of friends in the area. He just moved out, so we met up for dinner! We had a delicious dinner in Chinatown, and the girl that Dirk brought along, Juju, knew mandarin. She spoke pretty fluently, and the woman running the restaurant adored her. After dinner, we parted ways, and Tim and I headed back to Berkeley by bart. When we got back, we got Tim's bike, and biked home to get the dog. We fed Navi, and then drove with the dog over to 805 where a bunch of guys were hanging out watching a terrible sci fi movie from the 1960's.
On Saturday, George, Marina, Ben, Vince, Tim, Jared, and I met up and went into the city to help George's mom with a program held by ACS (american chemistry society?). George's mom is from Michigan, but she works with ACS and they were having a conference in San Francisco. On Saturday, they held a chemistry program for kids at the California Academy of Sciences, and George's mom recruited a bunch of the mechanical engineers to help out. They had a whole bunch of tables with experiments set up, and I think the kids had a lot of fun. Tim and I worked at a table called "Iron for Breakfast" where we showed kids that there was iron in their cereal. We used coco wheaties, and we had the kids stir a magnet in a bag of cereal. Then we'd take the magnet and put the iron fillings onto a plate, and let the kids move the magnet under the plate (to move the iron fillings). When they saw the iron move, their eyes just popped out of their head in astonishment. There were lots of cool experiments like that, and it was a pretty fun day!
Yesterday, I went into work so that I can take this Friday off for the Avalanche course. On the way home, I saw a mexican guy selling strawberries out of a truck. I went over and asked how much it was for an entire box of 12 pints of strawberries. He was speaking a mix of spanish and english, so I had a hard time understanding him. I thought he said 4 dollars, so I replied in disbelief, "four dollars?" He waved his hand and said, "sure!" I was pretty surprised, but then another woman walked up and he sold a box to her for 12 dollars. So I basically managed to accidentally barter down from 12 dollars to 4 dollars! Sometimes it pays to be deaf; that is a lot of strawberries for 4 dollars! On the way home, I met up with Tim in Emeryville to go to home depot. While waiting for Tim, I went into a pet store and found a lot of bones for a really good deal for the dog. On the way home, we stopped at REI to pick up a new jacket that I had purchased. I always wore random layers of fleece that I had laying around while skiing, but its annoying to have three or four jackets on. I really liked a fleece jacket that Tim had, so I bought the woman's version. It is very nice, and for cold weather, I can now wear only this fleece underneath my goretex shell. It is a very warm, thick fleece, so it replaces all three fleece jackets I used to wear for cold weather. So now I have more options as to what to wear, which is great. We ate a late lunch at Chipotle, and then wandered around a little more. We stopped at a ski store and the North Face outlet, but were unimpressed with what we saw and headed home. When we got home, Pam came over and we made lemon poppyseed cake and strawberry shortcake!
Tuesday had even more gorgeous weather, so after work, I hooked the dog trailer to my bike, and took Navi to the beach. Pam and Tim met me at the beach, and we played with Navi for a long time. She wasn't doing well with fetch on the beach, so I let her play with other dogs. When Tim and Pam arrived, we went for a walk on the peninsula. We found a big block of wood and threw it in the water, and Navi suddenly became a fetching machine. I don't know if she liked the location, or the block of wood or what, but I've never had such success with her bringing the block of wood back to us so we could throw it again. That tired her out! After wandering around some more, Tim went to Target, and Pam and I biked home to make fresh pasta for penne with vodka sauce! The bike home with Navi in the trailer is always slow and grueling, but such a good workout!
Wednesday was St. Patrick's day, and once again the weather was amazing! I headed home after work to pick up Navi, and then drove with her to Pam's. Navi stuck her head out the window the entire drive. When I got to 805, Sarah said that she'd watch Navi for a while, so Pam and I headed to 4th street to wander. I got some key lime sorbet on top of a chocolate cookie. We wandered around kitchen stores, glass stores, and cheese shops. I found some cumin gouda, and I bought some to take home. After a while, we headed back to Pam's and gathered Navi to take her for a nice walk at the Aquatics Park. We walked by the new Vik's, and I can't wait to eat there. Navi met lots of disc golfers who liked her a lot. I've been teaching her to shake water off on command so that I can get her to shake without shaking water all over me. She doesn't quite understand it yet, so a few guys at the park had a great laugh while watching Pam and I run away from Navi desperately trying to get Navi to shake the water off while not getting us wet and dirty!
Thursday, Tim and I met up with Jordan to go for a nice swim. The pool is so nice. We made it to 2800 yards, which is a nice step up from 2200 yards. Next time, we'll go even farther!
On Friday, I biked into work. I decided to take a different route, and I got pretty lost. Instead of biking down the hill to the water, and then biking to work along the water, I decided to bike along the ridge of the hills, and drop down the southern side of Oakland into Alameda. I biked along Grizzly Peak, Skyline Boulevard, and then I dropped down Shepards Canyon. When I got to Mountain Boulevard, I realized that maybe I hadn't looked at the maps well enough before I left. I wasn't sure where to go, and there were a lot of cars trying to get onto 13. I took the path of least resistance (fewest cars) and I ended up getting stuck because I couldn't cross the highway and I needed to. I had to go so far North to cross the highway that I ended up on Broadway. I'm really good at city biking and keeping up with traffic, so it wasn't a problem, but I was annoyed because Broadway took the wrong direction. Instead of going southwest through the city on Fruitvale, I was going northwest. So I finally got into the city and found a nice road to cut south on, and I hit Lake Merrit. You can't bike through a lake, so I had to bike east to get around the lake, and then west again. Then I kept cutting south through the city, and eventually I turned west again. I got under 580, but I had a lot of trouble getting across 880, because all the roads just ended at 880. I couldn't find any roads that went over or under 880 for the longest time. Then I finally found a road, and I had gone north again...so I was dumped on Embarcadero. At this point I knew exactly where I was and how to get to work, but I had taken a really inefficient route into work. I got to work and looked at the map and I know how to bike it now, but I'm pretty sure I added 10 miles to my ride! After work, I took the ferry into san francisco with Nathaniel and Jon, and met up with Tim. Tim and I went to Chinatown, and met up with Tim's friend Dirk. Tim and Dirk worked together at Dupont, and Dirk had been wanting to move back out to the bay area for a while. He had gotten his masters at Stanford and had a lot of friends in the area. He just moved out, so we met up for dinner! We had a delicious dinner in Chinatown, and the girl that Dirk brought along, Juju, knew mandarin. She spoke pretty fluently, and the woman running the restaurant adored her. After dinner, we parted ways, and Tim and I headed back to Berkeley by bart. When we got back, we got Tim's bike, and biked home to get the dog. We fed Navi, and then drove with the dog over to 805 where a bunch of guys were hanging out watching a terrible sci fi movie from the 1960's.
On Saturday, George, Marina, Ben, Vince, Tim, Jared, and I met up and went into the city to help George's mom with a program held by ACS (american chemistry society?). George's mom is from Michigan, but she works with ACS and they were having a conference in San Francisco. On Saturday, they held a chemistry program for kids at the California Academy of Sciences, and George's mom recruited a bunch of the mechanical engineers to help out. They had a whole bunch of tables with experiments set up, and I think the kids had a lot of fun. Tim and I worked at a table called "Iron for Breakfast" where we showed kids that there was iron in their cereal. We used coco wheaties, and we had the kids stir a magnet in a bag of cereal. Then we'd take the magnet and put the iron fillings onto a plate, and let the kids move the magnet under the plate (to move the iron fillings). When they saw the iron move, their eyes just popped out of their head in astonishment. There were lots of cool experiments like that, and it was a pretty fun day!
Yesterday, I went into work so that I can take this Friday off for the Avalanche course. On the way home, I saw a mexican guy selling strawberries out of a truck. I went over and asked how much it was for an entire box of 12 pints of strawberries. He was speaking a mix of spanish and english, so I had a hard time understanding him. I thought he said 4 dollars, so I replied in disbelief, "four dollars?" He waved his hand and said, "sure!" I was pretty surprised, but then another woman walked up and he sold a box to her for 12 dollars. So I basically managed to accidentally barter down from 12 dollars to 4 dollars! Sometimes it pays to be deaf; that is a lot of strawberries for 4 dollars! On the way home, I met up with Tim in Emeryville to go to home depot. While waiting for Tim, I went into a pet store and found a lot of bones for a really good deal for the dog. On the way home, we stopped at REI to pick up a new jacket that I had purchased. I always wore random layers of fleece that I had laying around while skiing, but its annoying to have three or four jackets on. I really liked a fleece jacket that Tim had, so I bought the woman's version. It is very nice, and for cold weather, I can now wear only this fleece underneath my goretex shell. It is a very warm, thick fleece, so it replaces all three fleece jackets I used to wear for cold weather. So now I have more options as to what to wear, which is great. We ate a late lunch at Chipotle, and then wandered around a little more. We stopped at a ski store and the North Face outlet, but were unimpressed with what we saw and headed home. When we got home, Pam came over and we made lemon poppyseed cake and strawberry shortcake!
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