More to Yahoo! About

The Ticker is back! Yahoo just relaunched the desktop ticker, which allows you easy access to any RSS feeds, without the need to have a browser open. Access all your favorite syndicated content (including this blog) with the improved Yahoo! Ticker.

Get your Ticker here

Search Your Desktop
We also recently launched a beta version of new desktop search tool. Need to find that long lost email, Word or Excel file? Y! Desktop Search allows you track down those hidden gems.



Download the free beta version here

Ski, Sun and Fun Weekend

The Bear Valley Gang
[click on any photo for a larger image]
If you haven’t been up to the Sierras this year, you’re really missing a treat. Sonya, the kids and I were all invited up to our friends Robin and Ron’s cabin up at Blue Lake Springs this past weekend to celebrate their daughter Tessa’s fifth birthday. We were joined by their son Walker and two other families, Steve, Tracy & son Matthew, and Anne, Doug and their kids Ayla and Jason. It was a weekend filled with skiing, sledding and lots of fresh mountain air.

We were all able to enjoy the 15+ feet of snow that was dumped on the Sierras during New Year’s in what felt like 70 degree weather each day. It was a sun and snow filled weekend topped off with great company. Our hosts treated us a wonderful weekend at their mountain retreat, and somehow made a deal with Mother Nature to top the weekend off with some of the best weather I’ve ever experienced up in the mountains.


Wingaurdium levio'sa
We were the last ones to arrive on Friday night, but we were welcomed with ice cold beers (we must have looked pretty haggard, because everyone was handing us beers!). Ayla, Karsyn, Matthew and Tessa were all enrolled in ski lessons on Saturday morning, so it was great to be able to wake up less than 45 minutes from the resort (day trips from the Bay Area usually require 4am wake up calls).


Tessa, Karsyn and Ayla learning to ski
We trekked up to the Bear Valley Ski Resort Saturday morning and got all the kids setup with their gear for their morning lesson. Sonya and I decided to split a days worth of skiing while the other watched Ryan down in the lodge. I took the morning shift, getting in about 15 runs, primarily on Bear’s backside.

The snow was a little crusty in the morning, but it softened up as soon as the morning sun got a chance to beat down on it. It was the first chance for me to break in my new boots, so I had great conditions and new equipment! There really is nothing better than comfortable feet on the slopes!


Ready to tear up the hill
By the time I got back to the lodge in the afternoon, the kids had wrapped up their lesson and were practicing their new skills on the bunny slopes. I got to enjoy lunch while Robin and Anne held Ryan (thank you, thank you, thank you ladies), before heading out to see how the kids had progressed.

To my amazement they were all little downhill demons, zipping down the hill like they had been skiing for years. Kids have no fear (I guess you have farther to fall when you’re all grown up), and this pack of munchkins was no exception. [Checkout the video] of them buzzing down the hill.

After a great day of skiing we all headed back to the cabin to enjoy a fiesta, complete with Senorita Robin’s margaritas (que lastima! muy bueno!). I figured the kids would have all been dead tired and in bed early, but most of them were up until 10. The margaritas apparently acted as a sedative for a few hours, but somewhere between midnight and 2am that sedative wore off, and my left knee reminded me that I am no longer 18 and I am not half the Johnny Moseley that I used to be.


Robin & Tessa
We woke up on Sunday to a tasty breakfast, then took all the kids back up the hill to do a little sledding. Everyone (including moms and dads) took turns bouncing down the hill on sledding disks. What a blast!

It was a perfect weekend.

[Click Here] to see more photos in the photo album I setup.

Three bits

Haven’t had much time to post any new news as of late. I spent the entire weekend in bed with the flu, which was miserable to say the least. It seems that it gets worse each winter, and the recovery process is more and more painful each year. Perhaps I should start taking vitamins?

I did want to share some cool happenings. First off, I think I mentioned that Karsyn lost her first tooth. Now I have the pictures to prove it. Check out ole’ toof-less. She earned a whole dollar from the toofus fairy. Her harabojee (Anglecized Korean word for grandfather) was the first to point out that he expected the toofus fairy to kick down more than a buck.


Miss Toofless
Sonya and I also enjoyed dinner with some friends last weekend. Tom & Dafna Brown, and Steve & Tracy Vezian joined us for a night on the town. We supped at Kuleto’s at the Hotel Los Gatos. Good food, great wine, better company.


The look so relieved
And finally, the Ryno, is now ‘Ryno the wounded frog’. At least that’s the moniker his mother has given him after seeing him crawl for the first time. He drags a leg, which closely resembles, well, a wounded frog. You have to see it to really see what she’s talking about, but trust me, it’s accurate.


The Wounded Frog

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! 2005 is finally here and promises to be a great year. 2004 was certainly a fantastic one for our family. We grew by one with the addition of Ryan in April, Karsyn started Kindergarten in October, and Sonya & I continue to bask in all the great things that happen to us. It was certainly one of the more memorable years in our lives. We’re blessed with a terrific family (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and beyond), and have great friends to share in the ins and outs.

We rang in the new year up in Tahoe at our friends Roger and Joanne Sherrard’s cabin just outside Tahoe City on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe. We decided to try and tackle one of the biggest storms to hit California this year and drive up even though the local media was reporting horror commute stories up in the Sierras.


The Snowball Gang
The drive up would have taken us 4 hours had it not been for a jack-knifed big rig on Highway 89. The normal 15 drive from Truckee to Tahoe City ended up taking two hours. It was a small inconvenience, considering the fun that was in store for all of us.

We joined Roger, Joanne, and their two daughters Amy and Laura, and Robert and Sherrie Tsuchiyama and their kids Allison, Justin and Zachary. Sonya has known Roger and Robert for 20+ years, and commented that the last time she went on a trip with them was about that long ago.


Card Sharks
The weekend was filled with snow ball fights, sledding, poker games in the evening, and lots of r&r. Justin gave all the adults poker lessons on New Year’s eve, taking plenty of chips from everyone. Thankfully, we weren’t playing for money, or we may have subsidized his college education.

Karsyn had a most memorable New Year’s eve, after losing her first tooth. You have to understand that this thing has been loose for what seems like the past three months. It finally popped out, and our gapped tooth princess is primed to have the Tooth Fairy pay us a visit. Wonder what the going rate is on baby teeth these days?

She lost the tooth on her mom’s birthday, which will make it all the more memorable. Sonya turned 25 for the 10th time! Great milestones for my two favorite girls.


Ringing in the New Year
We all rang in the new year outside with champagne and silly string. It was snowing at midnight, which was the perfect touch to a fun evening.

For more photos Click Here