1812 Tchaikovsky Spectacular

I attended my first Summer Pops Festival and possible the first time I've seen the San Diego Symphony. It was an enjoyable night, with perfect, not cold, weather and a great view of San Diego Bay from our seats. Either I'm going deaf, or the music was very quite, especially during the cello solo. During the concert I heard barking dogs, beer bottles being opened, ships motoring by and even cheering from Petco Park, where the Padres won against the Rockies. The last song was the 1812 overture, which included very loud cannons with bright flashes of lights and fireworks over the bay. Quite a spectacular ending.

Day One Winding Down

I feel like I just lost 10 pounds of water after finishing my bike ride. It seemed cool outside when I started, but about half way up the big hill, it felt like 100 degrees! My A/C never felt so good, until I just opened my SDG&E bill, which is the largest by far for me. But after living here with no A/C for the first nine years, I'll pay the price for comfort. Now I can relax, crack open a beer and watch the Charger game. One more thing, I don't usually talk politics, but I was shocked at McCain's choice for VP. Nothing against Gov. Palin, but who is she? I liked Romney. What we need is a third-party candidate that is a combination of the best of McCain and Obama, but that will never happen.

Dreaming about Work

I am soooo looking forwards to my four-day weekend, which has officially begun. Last night I had a long dream about work. It was quite detailed, with a specific problem I had to solve, conversations with co-workers and the usual weirdness my dreams have. The night before I woke up at 3 AM and started thinking about work, but luckily I fell back asleep. Tomorrow I will take care of all my usual pre-weekend tasks so I have the next three days free. Saturday I'm attending the Summer Pops concert featuring music by Tchaikovsky. I have never been to the Summer Pops so it should be fun. Sunday I'll get some exercise and then relax for Monday, when I'll be going up to the Rose Bowl with friends to see the Tennessee at UCLA college football game. The game start at 5 PM, but we'll be leaving San Diego by 10:30 AM. I'll be lucky to be home by midnight.

In two weeks I have my re-scheduled trip to Key West, but the storms and tropical waves are lined up in the Atlantic as can be seen at the NHC site. The following week I'm traveling to Virginia, which has been known to be hit by hurricanes also.

I hope everyone enjoys their Labor Day weekend, even if you have to perform laboritorious (is that a word?) tasks.

Pictures From Family Reunion

The silent auction turned into a more exciting loud auction, with many items under bidding wars. I didn't know auctions involved so much laughing!


There were over 100 leftover hot dogs. We donated most to the veteran's center.


The word puzzle/game intrigued everyone. For some reason, I'm not very good at games that involve thinking. I turn my brain off when I'm not at work.


My cousin Nancy married a man who carries pink handcuffs, and he placed them on her sister for being bad, I guess.

We sat around waiting for the rest of the family to show up. At the peak, almost all the tables were filled. However, we were expecting more young children. There were games to play and movies to watch, but the movie room never got used.

Family Reunion and TS Fay

I just got home from my short trip to SLC for a family reunion. The reunion was nice and I had a good time, I do regret not meeting everyone there. Some cousins showed up later, and some left earlier. I did get to talk to some aunts, uncles and cousins I hadn't seen in over 15 years. I took pictures, but they all came out bad - either blurry or people had funny looks on their face.

This morning I received the phone call officially postponing my trip to Key West tomorrow due to tropical storm Fay. There is a mandatory evacuation of all non-residents. This trip was important and rescheduling it will be a hassle, with the Labor Day weekend coming up and a trip booked in September already. However, I won't have to wake up at 4:14 AM tomorrow.

Four Flights Planned

For the first time in my life I have four flights booked at once! I don't mean all four at the same time, just four booked. Even though the first one is this weekend, I'm already thinking about the next three, and what I need to pack, and how early I have to wake up, and so on. Flying is stressful!

Desert, Dessert and Falling Arches

After work on Friday I made the drive north to Desert Hot Springs to help some friends house and cat sit. Well, it was just really just an excuse to drink beer and relax around the pool. I found a nice cool place behind the waterfall. The cat spent most of the time hiding under a bed.

Then Sunday morning I drove to my brother's house for a belated celebration of his birthday. We were going to have a late lunch at Stone Brewery, but their lunch menu was very limited, so we ate at an Italian buffet, which had lots of good food, but not as good beer.

The headline in cnn.com this morning was Wall Arch, in Arches National Park, had collapsed sometime during the night. I guess I was lucky enough to see this arch and take the photo above, which looks just like the one in the article. This was a photo I didn't post to my blog or Picasa, but after looking though all my photos, I realized that I did take a picture of the arch.

Hot!

An empty pool being heated by the desert sun.

Hiking Blog

While reading a hiking message board, I came across this link to an interesting, yet sad, blog about bad hiking experiences. It was interesting to read about people being lost or even killed at places I've been to recently. A woman died while hiking to Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. I guess it is good I didn't take that hike. I was also surprised to read about two people who had to be rescued while hiking Camelback Mountain in Phoenix. How do you get lost on a "hill" that is surrounded by houses and golf resorts?

Mission Bay Bike Ride

After a haircut and trip to Costco, where I paid 1/10 of one penny less than $4.00 per gallon for gas, I put my bike on my bike rack and drove down to De Anza Cove at Mission Bay. I casually rode along the bike/pedestrian path, circling around Sea World, past Crown Point and then I made a detour into Campland By the Bay to see if I could find a friend who was camping there with his family. Turns out they left yesterday, but at least I got my first look at this very crowded and busy camping park. There were huge motor homes, trucks towing boats, kids running around and no one was watching where they were going! So I headed back out and finished my ride taking the short-cut just past the high school back to my car. I think it took me about an hour. I was hoping to ride longer, but it was a nice easy trek anyways.