This kid has potential, keep an...eye...on him!
Monday, December 29, 2008
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Target speedway
Tricia, Lee, and I went shopping at Target today.
The best part was the insanely loud beep...beep...beep noise Tricia's "Amigo" made when backing up. Only one near accident with dozens of snowglobes on a low shelf. Priceless. George, this will be you in 10 years if you don't start exercising.
The best part was the insanely loud beep...beep...beep noise Tricia's "Amigo" made when backing up. Only one near accident with dozens of snowglobes on a low shelf. Priceless. George, this will be you in 10 years if you don't start exercising.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas!
It looks to be a cold and rainy Christmas here in Oakland, definitely a good day to light a fire in the fireplace. Plan is for a mellow Christmas since TK is carrying a giant pumpkin around. My mom and brother are coming by in a few hours for an early xmas dinner, and we'll call the Kellys in VA later.
Hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas and that we get to see you soon. J&T, safe travels tonight - looking forward to having you back home. And I'm excited that we'll get to see Lee tomorrow! George, Cindy, Kate (I think the only other people that look at this blog), wish we could see you this week too.
And here's to an awesome 2009 for everyone...including the arrival of a few more Baumfields and Kellcocks. And hopefully we'll get to see Jacob and meet Lenny in person this year. At the least, we're due for a video hookup.
Love you all,
g
ps will take a picture tonight but my neighbor across the street (who is from Vermont) put up a n excellent, giant glowing snowman figure on the hill. Getting blown around by the wind and rain now, but he still looks pretty stoked to be a snowman. I'm going to find a giant snowman companion for next year so he has company. Maybe a laaaady snowman...
Hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas and that we get to see you soon. J&T, safe travels tonight - looking forward to having you back home. And I'm excited that we'll get to see Lee tomorrow! George, Cindy, Kate (I think the only other people that look at this blog), wish we could see you this week too.
And here's to an awesome 2009 for everyone...including the arrival of a few more Baumfields and Kellcocks. And hopefully we'll get to see Jacob and meet Lenny in person this year. At the least, we're due for a video hookup.
Love you all,
g
ps will take a picture tonight but my neighbor across the street (who is from Vermont) put up a n excellent, giant glowing snowman figure on the hill. Getting blown around by the wind and rain now, but he still looks pretty stoked to be a snowman. I'm going to find a giant snowman companion for next year so he has company. Maybe a laaaady snowman...
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
Final sonogram appt today
Unless Tricia really overachieves, today's appointment at CPMC was probably our last before the little sleep spoilers arrive. Everything looked good so we're go for countdown. Begin ignition sequence and arm separation boosters. Girl measured in at estimated 4 lbs 9 ounces and gigantor measured in at 5 lbs 12 ounces. That means all told TK is carting around more than 10 lbs of baby. You can, ahem, uh, hardly tell. Baby A (girl) is at 40th percentile for singletons (pretty good for a twin) and baby B (boy) ranked 76.8% for singletons or in the baby huey class for twins. We have the most awesome and hilarious sonographer (sonogramologist...?) - we'll really miss the visits with her.
Wish we could spend a few days with all you guyses. Miss you all and bestest holiday wishes to all of you.
Love,
g&t
ps How I Met Your Mother is almost on. If you aren't watching it, you should. It's one of the best shows on TV IMHO.
Wish we could spend a few days with all you guyses. Miss you all and bestest holiday wishes to all of you.
Love,
g&t
ps How I Met Your Mother is almost on. If you aren't watching it, you should. It's one of the best shows on TV IMHO.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
jennings flickr pics
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jacob_oliver
not sure how to do the fancy slide show thingy gman got going on over there. saw Kate and Lee in Colorado and had a great time. beautiful area. g2
not sure how to do the fancy slide show thingy gman got going on over there. saw Kate and Lee in Colorado and had a great time. beautiful area. g2
Thursday, December 18, 2008
MBA!
Hi Friends,
After a accelerated program, it is official...I have my MBA!
Thank you all for your kind words of support, and kicks in the ass...you all helped me complete one of my dreams.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Thanksgiving weekend
Everyone came to our house for Thanksgiving this year which was great. Mom, Nick, Josh, Tonya, Tricia (duh), and special guest stars cousin Ariel and boyfriend Dylan (shown below). Was great to catch up with Ariel who is currently living in LA. Nick did an awesome job cooking as usual and I did a good job cleaning the house. Twice.
Below - Tricia at way way too much.
Friday after Thanksgiving Tricia, Josh, Tonya, and I drove up to Monte Rio which is on the Russian River sort of near Guerneville.
We mostly took it easy but had a very good stay. Josh and I went for a couple of runs... we ate pretty much all our meals at a cafe with a french name I can't remember that was really good. Went to see Madagascar II in a seriously funky little theater that looked like a barn and had no heat (but they supplied blankets, just like they used to for the double chairlift in Stowe). Then back to reality.
Work has been good since - pretty interesting. Keeping busy planning out some fairly complex projects.
And the kids are due pretty soon. Good ultrasound today. We're at 31.5 weeks. Doctors want us to get to at least 34, and a few more weeks than that would be even better.
Below - Tricia at way way too much.
Friday after Thanksgiving Tricia, Josh, Tonya, and I drove up to Monte Rio which is on the Russian River sort of near Guerneville.
We mostly took it easy but had a very good stay. Josh and I went for a couple of runs... we ate pretty much all our meals at a cafe with a french name I can't remember that was really good. Went to see Madagascar II in a seriously funky little theater that looked like a barn and had no heat (but they supplied blankets, just like they used to for the double chairlift in Stowe). Then back to reality.Work has been good since - pretty interesting. Keeping busy planning out some fairly complex projects.
And the kids are due pretty soon. Good ultrasound today. We're at 31.5 weeks. Doctors want us to get to at least 34, and a few more weeks than that would be even better.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
No joke
I ate chocolate covered bacon yesterday. Basically a chocolate bar, but with bacon inside.
Not bad, I say.
Not bad, I say.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Ansel Adams Wilderness and Mt. Ritter
Just back from an awesome 4-day trip into the Ansel Adams Wilderness, which is just south of Yosemite National Park and north of the John Muir Wilderness. Definitely no shortage of wilderness out there. Our target was Mt. Ritter which is the highest peak in the Ritter range at about 13, 200 feet. Huge. Imposing. Glaciers. The real deal.
Day 1: Up early to meet in Pleasanton for the drive to Mt. Ritter. Our path to Mt. Ritter took us through Yosemite which remains freaking completely epic and beautiful, passed near Mono lake which looked incredibly low, then took us into Mammoth to get our wilderness permits. All ski towns really do look alike, but Mammoth has a rustic charm.
First bit of excitement was when we realized 30 minutes from the ranger station in Mammoth that we were 3 hours too late to get our wilderness permits which had expired at 10am. We finally got to the ranger station and snapped up 5 walk-in permits just as several others got in line. Lucky.
We hit the dusty trail around 2pm and started gaining altitude pretty quickly. The hike in took us past Shadow Lake and eventually up about 1,000 feet to Ediza Lake which sits at about 9,200. High enough to require extra effort to carry everything we needed for four days of hiking and climbing.
I'm really having fun though it's hard to tell in this picture.
Some horses passed us along the way. The guides were headed up to Ediza to pick up some artists that were painting for a few days. Nice way to travel.
We got to Ediza around 7 pm, just at dusk when the temperature was dropping pretty fast. Got our tents set up, had dinner, then headed to bed around 9pm. 'Cause it was damn cold. Like long johns and multiple layers of polypro and wool socks in your sleeping bag cold. Not quite as bad as the winter camping outings, but nippy.
Day 2: Saturday morning we slept in until around 7 then moved our tents into a sheltered site in the trees after some other campers headed out. Around 10:30 we departed for our acclimatization and training hike. Idea was to get to a snowfield to get crampon and self arrest practice. We had to hike a couple of miles to get to the snow field - including a nice scramble up a steep talus field - but it was well worth it. Crampons are awesome - took some getting used to but it's amazing how well they grip the ice and snow. Also took a leap of faith to let go and start sliding down the snow field to practice self arresting with an ice axe. Once I got the hang of it and got over the fear of sliding down the hill into sharp rocks, it was really fun.
Saw a family of deer on the way out. Hard to see but they were damn cute and cuddly.
Did I mention Mt. Ritter looks scary as hell from the valley floor? This next pic below gives a nice sense of scale (look for the people standing on the snow). This was the first snowfield we found, but not nearly steep enough for self-arrest practice. The same snowfield is shown at the bottom of the second picture below. Hoo mama, big mountain.
So we then hiked up a talus field to a steeper snow field.
Hiked back to Ediza lake and had an REI instant gourmet meal - beef stroganoff. Tasted awfully good. Then early to bed knowing we were heading out in the dark for the actual attempt at Mt. Ritter. Day 3: Michael Ritter (my good friend and trip organizer (you can guess why this mountain was chosen) woke us up in the dark of the cold night at 4:20am, just in time for a couple of packs of instant oatmeal cement before flipping our headlamps on and heading off into the darkness. Morning is definitely not my time of day. And turns out it's worse at 10,000 feet after a crappy night's sleep on an old thermarest. Thus the first hour of hiking was pretty miserable. We filtered some water from a pristine mountain stream about half a mile from the real start of the ascent then.
To be continued...
Day 1: Up early to meet in Pleasanton for the drive to Mt. Ritter. Our path to Mt. Ritter took us through Yosemite which remains freaking completely epic and beautiful, passed near Mono lake which looked incredibly low, then took us into Mammoth to get our wilderness permits. All ski towns really do look alike, but Mammoth has a rustic charm.
First bit of excitement was when we realized 30 minutes from the ranger station in Mammoth that we were 3 hours too late to get our wilderness permits which had expired at 10am. We finally got to the ranger station and snapped up 5 walk-in permits just as several others got in line. Lucky.
We hit the dusty trail around 2pm and started gaining altitude pretty quickly. The hike in took us past Shadow Lake and eventually up about 1,000 feet to Ediza Lake which sits at about 9,200. High enough to require extra effort to carry everything we needed for four days of hiking and climbing.
I'm really having fun though it's hard to tell in this picture.
Some horses passed us along the way. The guides were headed up to Ediza to pick up some artists that were painting for a few days. Nice way to travel.
We got to Ediza around 7 pm, just at dusk when the temperature was dropping pretty fast. Got our tents set up, had dinner, then headed to bed around 9pm. 'Cause it was damn cold. Like long johns and multiple layers of polypro and wool socks in your sleeping bag cold. Not quite as bad as the winter camping outings, but nippy.
Day 2: Saturday morning we slept in until around 7 then moved our tents into a sheltered site in the trees after some other campers headed out. Around 10:30 we departed for our acclimatization and training hike. Idea was to get to a snowfield to get crampon and self arrest practice. We had to hike a couple of miles to get to the snow field - including a nice scramble up a steep talus field - but it was well worth it. Crampons are awesome - took some getting used to but it's amazing how well they grip the ice and snow. Also took a leap of faith to let go and start sliding down the snow field to practice self arresting with an ice axe. Once I got the hang of it and got over the fear of sliding down the hill into sharp rocks, it was really fun.
Saw a family of deer on the way out. Hard to see but they were damn cute and cuddly.
Did I mention Mt. Ritter looks scary as hell from the valley floor? This next pic below gives a nice sense of scale (look for the people standing on the snow). This was the first snowfield we found, but not nearly steep enough for self-arrest practice. The same snowfield is shown at the bottom of the second picture below. Hoo mama, big mountain.
So we then hiked up a talus field to a steeper snow field.
Hiked back to Ediza lake and had an REI instant gourmet meal - beef stroganoff. Tasted awfully good. Then early to bed knowing we were heading out in the dark for the actual attempt at Mt. Ritter. Day 3: Michael Ritter (my good friend and trip organizer (you can guess why this mountain was chosen) woke us up in the dark of the cold night at 4:20am, just in time for a couple of packs of instant oatmeal cement before flipping our headlamps on and heading off into the darkness. Morning is definitely not my time of day. And turns out it's worse at 10,000 feet after a crappy night's sleep on an old thermarest. Thus the first hour of hiking was pretty miserable. We filtered some water from a pristine mountain stream about half a mile from the real start of the ascent then.To be continued...
Monday, September 1, 2008
Weekend in Colorado
Tk and I spent a couple of days in Colorado to visit her friends Claudia and Andrew and to check out the area. Boulder is a really beautiful little city, nestled against the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It has a great downtown area that reminds me quite a bit of Burlington, VT's Church St. It has lots of nice neighborhoods (pretty pricey) and just a few miles out of town are lots of farms and open space. I loved Boulder though the more affordable neighborhoods just outside the city feel a little Pleasantville.
We took a nice walk on the Sanitas trail in northern Boulder, shown in the pics below.
We drove around Denver a bit too and I wasn't all that impressed. We really didn't know where to go so perhaps we missed what we were looking for, but everything seemed dominated by large highways (Littleton even has a fast 2-lane highway running directly through the center of town - not exactly a kid friendly downtown).
Did I mention I loved Boulder?
We took a nice walk on the Sanitas trail in northern Boulder, shown in the pics below.
We drove around Denver a bit too and I wasn't all that impressed. We really didn't know where to go so perhaps we missed what we were looking for, but everything seemed dominated by large highways (Littleton even has a fast 2-lane highway running directly through the center of town - not exactly a kid friendly downtown).
Did I mention I loved Boulder?
Sanitas Trail in Boulder, CO
We look miserable but really were enjoying the hike.
Claudia and Tricia plus random background people.
Tricia stops to use her portable armrest.Sunday, August 24, 2008
Happy [belated] birthday, Tonya!
Hope you have a very happy birthday month, Tonya. For the record, you look way younger than this woman.
Love,
Gareth and Tricia
Love,
Gareth and Tricia
Monday, August 11, 2008
Happy Birthday T-Bone!
And thus begins JB's birthday month....
Hope you have a great 39th, old man winter. Looking forward to dinner tomorrow night.
Love,
G
ps. your present is shown below. Great for commuting to the peninsula. Hope you like it!
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Woohoo! First crash!
Ok, so I'm not posting from Alta Bates but did leave a little skin behind today during a ride with bad-ass mt biker T. Redrind. We did the West Ridge/Canyon/Ridge loop from Moon Gate in Redwood Regional Park which is packed with insanely steep and long ups and downs. Tonya rocked it of course and I did pretty well and started getting used to the new bike.
And yep, had a nice crash not 1 mile into the outing. More of a tip over than a crash I guess for I was going exactly zero MPH up a steep rocky hill. I think it's probably the same clipless pedal lesson many people learn. Coming to an intentional stop and clipping out - no problem. But it hadn't crossed my mind that I might lose momentum going up something steep. Turns out it would have been a good idea to have a foot out before I lost all speed and really, really needed to have a foot out. Boom, crash, topple, smack. Lesson learned? We'll see. Definitely was closer to the forefront of my mind for the rest of the ride.
Wussy scrapes aside, the ride was great - even when I was eating Tonya's dust which was most of the time.
And yep, had a nice crash not 1 mile into the outing. More of a tip over than a crash I guess for I was going exactly zero MPH up a steep rocky hill. I think it's probably the same clipless pedal lesson many people learn. Coming to an intentional stop and clipping out - no problem. But it hadn't crossed my mind that I might lose momentum going up something steep. Turns out it would have been a good idea to have a foot out before I lost all speed and really, really needed to have a foot out. Boom, crash, topple, smack. Lesson learned? We'll see. Definitely was closer to the forefront of my mind for the rest of the ride.
Wussy scrapes aside, the ride was great - even when I was eating Tonya's dust which was most of the time.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
omg. It's awesome.
My new mountain bike that is. Like upgrading from a '74 Buick to an '08 Lexus.
And the clipless pedals. whytf didn't someone tell me those are so freakin awesome also? Goddamn those rock. I have the Crank Brothers "smarties" (cuz I'm smart like that.. ok, actually I didn't know diddly jack about them but apparently they're good according to georgie). George, thanks for telling me to look for more pieces parts... that did the trick. Might need some adjustments but they're totally easy to get into and out of. Screw toeclips omg!
And I gotta say, the 3-way locking rear suspension? Sweet. Definitely makes a difference if you stiffen it up before going uphill. And freaking hydraulic disc brakes? Jeebuz.
Can't wait to get out for a ride tomorrow. I hope my next post isn't from Alta Bates hospital.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Bush has earned this
Impeach Bush!
I signed previous petitions that got the articles of impeachment before a congressional panel, now it's time for the next step!
I signed previous petitions that got the articles of impeachment before a congressional panel, now it's time for the next step!
Sunday, July 27, 2008
El Diablo
Got in a training hike today, this time on Mt. Diablo. That is definitely the devil to you and me. Training for a mountaineering expedition to Mt. Ritter in mid-September. Michael, Tony, Sienna, and I met at 6 am at the Mitchell Canyon entrance and took off from there.
We gained 3,000' + of elevation which meant it was steep going up and steep going down. We covered about 14.5 miles start to finish. Hot. Dry. More poison oak than I've ever, ever seen in one place. Like a freaking forest of poison oak everywhere you looked - on the ground and 10 feet overhead. I think I avoided it all. Man am I going to sleep tonight.
We gained 3,000' + of elevation which meant it was steep going up and steep going down. We covered about 14.5 miles start to finish. Hot. Dry. More poison oak than I've ever, ever seen in one place. Like a freaking forest of poison oak everywhere you looked - on the ground and 10 feet overhead. I think I avoided it all. Man am I going to sleep tonight.
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