A Day in the Life of the Lee's

Ry Ry's Vancougar Olympic Recap

2010-02-21T10:49:00.000-08:00

Like everyone else on the planet, we've been watching the Olympics for the last week. Ry was excited to hear that the Olympics were in "Vancougar", because he played for the Cougars hockey team last spring.

We noticed that after every event, he would mimic that event. So I decided to grab my camera and ask him to demonstrate each event that he's seen so far.

We added our own touch in the middle, re-enacting an interview that Dutch speed skater Sven Kramer gave to NBC. You can see the original interview here.

Don't you want to win?

2010-01-31T21:52:00.000-08:00

Even though my schedule is already overbooked, I decided to take on coaching Ryan's Kindergarten basketball team (I'm also coaching Karsyn's girls team) this season. We played our third game on Saturday, earning an exciting tie with a last second basket. We're now 2-0-1 after three games.

One thing that's become very clear, is Ryan is physcho about basketball. He's been hanging around the gym since he first learned to walk because his older sister has played for 5 years now. So he's been around a basketball before.

He loves it. He's actually a bit obsessed by the whole thing.

What's more amusing is that he HATES losing. I can't imagine where he gets it from, but I digress.

So last Saturday, he's not showing his best behavior after the game. We're driving home, when I tell him, "if you can't behave yourself, then I may have to bench you for the next game."

He immediately shrieks, "What?!?!?!?"

Then he reaffirms my fears that his early season success is starting to go to his head.

"Don't you want to win?" he crys.

I can't respond, and looking at Sonya laughing doesn't help matters much.

I wish it was Christmas today

2009-12-22T15:30:00.001-08:00

Uh, No It's Not!

2009-09-09T11:34:00.000-07:00

So Ryan comes home from school the other day and tells Sonya that his teacher made the following statement.

"Coming to school is much more fun than staying home and playing with your toys."

Ryan then shakes his head, holds his hands out to the the side and retorts, "Uh, no it's not!"

Back to School

2009-08-21T15:34:00.000-07:00

Summer unofficially came to an end at our house on Thursday, with the new school year starting. This was a big deal for us, because Ry finally started Kindergarten. We’ve been trying to get him excited about the whole thing, especially when it comes to familiarizing him with letters and numbers.

His take on the whole thing has been let’s say, less than enthusiastic. He’s a little kid, and this is a big change for him, because a) it takes him out of his comfort zone and b) he doesn’t have the free reign that he did when he was in pre-school. I get all of that, so I have to be a little more patient with his transition.

Meeting Mrs Uchiyama

The sad thing is this is the only year both Ry and Karsyn will be attendingthe same school.

From what I remember about Karsyn, she was a little more in to the whole school thing when she started Kindergarten, but there was a little transition for her as well. I think Ry will do fine with the whole thing, but he’s been able to charm his way through life up to know. School is about getting out wheat you put in, so charm alone won’t get you very far.

Karsyn on the other hand is an old hand at school. For her, she’s the big fish on campus, because her school only goes up to 5th grade. She seems excited about her teacher, and her classmates. We don’t know much about her new teacher, other than she was born in Korea.

As soon as I heard that, I was instructing Karsyn how to say hello in Korean. It never hurts to grease the situation! What better way to establish a rapport with someone than to call out your similarities. Most people have no clue that she has Korean in her, so it always comes as a surprise. Spring “hello” on another Korean in their native tongue, and you’ve just created an ice breaker.

5th Graders!

This is the launching pad to junior high school, which is the spring board to high school, which is the predecessor to college. That means that this is the year that her future really begins to establish itself. She did a great job in 4th grade, by taking more initiative in her studies. For that I was really proud.

She mentioned to me the other day that she was disappointed that she didn’t score in the highest ranking for math on the state proficiency testing (she was one group below), so I told her that rather than fret about what she didn’t accomplish, she now has a target set on an area she can improve on.

Her attitude is what I’m most proud of. I just hope her brother picks up the same trait. She’s becoming more competitive about her grades, which is a good thing, because the competition is stacked.

In any case, it’s the start of another school year, which is always fun. Some old faces, some new faces, and plenty of opportunity. Almost makes me wish I was back in school.

Thank Ya Very Much

2009-08-14T21:25:00.001-07:00

The King stopped by for a visit to the Lee house tonight...

Camping at Lake Huntington

2009-06-30T00:07:00.000-07:00

We spent this past weekend up at Lake Huntington, for three days of camping, fishing and boating. Our friend Dafna and her boys Nate and Ben were all sailing in a regatta on the lake, so we joined them for a few days of wilderness action.

Nestled between Yosemite and Kings Canyon, the lake is about a 4-hour drive from the South Bay. From Gilroy, it’s almost a straight shot through Los Banos and Madera, before cruising though the mountains up Highway 168, past Millerton and Shaver Lakes.

The lake is one of the prettiest in California, reminding me of Pine Crest Lake and Lake Alpine to the north. We had a nice big camp site that easily hosted our family, Dafna & her kids, as well as two of the boy’s friends Chris and Rylie.

I got to spend some time hanging off the side of a 20-foot catamaran with Dafna at the helm. It was great except for me almost falling off the boat as I tried positioning myself on the cable that dangles you over the side of the boat. After a couple of attempts I got it down, and really got to enjoy the real speed of a racing catamaran.

The highlight of the weekend for me though was seeing Ry catch his first fish. I’ve taken him fishing a couple of times, but he never had any luck angling. That all changed when he landed a nice 12-inch rainbow off the shore.

Karsyn brought home her own 14-inch brown a few minutes later. I loved to fish when I was a kid, so it was cool to see them experience the thrill of feeling a fish on the end of your line. Trout are fun because they’re active, but easy to land. Ry certainly got a kick out of bringing home his first catch.

After the first day of boat racing, we all trekked to a restaurant that overlooked the lake and enjoyed beer and pizza. The weather was perfect (warm, but not baking like the Bay Area), and the kids all seemed to have a great time.

We had the option of renting a cabin, but I opted for the tent thing, because the kids really wanted to sleep outdoors. I think that was the right decision because all the other kids were at the camp ground and it made for a real camping experience.

Sunday was highlighted by Nate & Ben taking 4th place in the final race of the weekend. These are teenagers that beat quite a few adults in their 16-foot catamarans. Watching the start of the races was pretty exciting, but watching them cruise to their best finish of the weekend was just plain cool.

After lots of smores, camp fire songs, fishing, lounging by the lake, and just plain relaxing, I have to call it one of my favorite camping trips.

All in all, it was a great weekend.

Here are more [Photos and Video]

Spring Soccer is Here

2009-04-07T00:05:00.000-07:00

Not that our lives aren't already overloaded with work and play, but spring soccer is finally here. Karsyn continues to play on her Under 10 Girls competetive team. That would be the same team that Sonya coaches.

Karsyn's game schedule can be found here:

http://devils98.blogspot.com/2009/03/spring-2009-schedule.html

We moved Ryan up to the Under 7 boys recreational team this spring, because we wanted to get him on a team that would be comprised of kids that he'd be going to school with. He's playing for teh Green Goblins. All his games are at West Valley.

Ready, set, Go!

An Olympic

2009-03-09T23:41:00.000-07:00

We're sitting at dinner the other night and Ryan declares that he's going to, "be an Olympic!"

"A what?" I ask.

"An Olympic," he says.

I had to think about what he was trying to say, but before I could put two and two together he fills in the missing pieces.

"I want to be an Olympic, like in China on TV last summer!" he declares.

"Oh, you want to be in the Olympics," I say. "You know, you have to compete in a sport in order to be in the Olympics. What sport do you want to compete in?" I ask, waiting for swimming or water polo (the sports I competed in in high school and college).

He thinks about it for a second, then let's me have it.

"Ping Pong!" he confirms.

Ugh.

Bear Valley 2009

2009-02-26T20:29:00.000-08:00

The family trekked to Bear Valley for our annual cabin trip. We rented the "Rest A While" cabin in Dorrington with our friends Steve & Tracy. Ry has outgrown the training harness and it skiing ON HIS OWN!

We timed our trip perfectly (all by chance), arriving after the biggest storm of the winter, and leaving right before the next storm blew into town. The weather was perfect. I skied in a wet/dry shirt and my jacket. That's spring skiing.

We also linked up some other friends that were also at the resort. Brad & Lindi (and their kids), and Scott & Robyn (and their kids) who we know from Ry's pre-school. The kids are quickly getting to the level where they're about to pass us in skiing ability. Getting old sucks.

Here is a video I compiled of the trip:

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Here is a [Slideshow] and the individual [Photos]

Great trip!

Happy New Year

2009-01-04T23:24:00.000-08:00

Oh man, I can’t believe the holidays are OVER. December seemed to fly by this year for some reason. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that I worked up until Christmas Eve this year, then spent Christmas with Sonya hosting friends and family for dinner. We wrapped up the year like we have the past 4 or 5, up in Lake Tahoe with our friends the Sherrards and the Tsuchiyamas.

Tahoe was great. Our friends Roger and Joanne have a place right on the lake in Tahoe City, which comfortably sleeps all 6 adults and 7 kids that make the annual trip. There’s lots of food, drink, more drink, snow, card games and just plain relaxation.

That last part is the key. Just decompressing after another crazy year is the key to why that trip is just so great. The kids get to go sledding at a really nice sled hill 200 yards from the cabin. There was also plenty of snow, contrary to what you may have seen on the weather reports.

The adults play poker, drink lots of wine and just chill.

Roger has also made it a custom to make a great prime rib every New Year’s Eve, so we also eat like kings while we’re there.

As the kids get older, their bed times get later and later while we’re up there. I went to bed at around 2am on Friday night, and Karsyn was chatting it up with the girls in their room when I turned in.

The only bummer we had to deal with was the 4Runner’s starter died on us, so we were forced to pop-start the truck in order to get home on Saturday night. Once we got the engine fired, it was a straight shot home…no stops! We made it, but now I get to sink some more money into the truck.

In any case, it still beats work any way you put it.

Happy New Year everyone. This is going to be a GREAT year.

Here are [Photos of the Trip]

2008 Xmas Card is Done

2008-12-18T14:37:00.000-08:00

I dropped 100+ Christmas cards in the mail on Wednesday afternoon. The tradition lives! This one leans more heavily on Photoshop than in years past.

You may recall last year's card:

And here is the story of how it all got started: A Christmas Tradition

If you don't receive your card in teh next week, it's because:

1) I don't have your new address
2) I don't like you
3) I have no idea who you are

If it's #1, send me an email with your mailing address. :)

Yahoo's Last Great Holiday Party?

2008-12-09T08:14:00.000-08:00

Sonya and I attended what may have been Yahoo’s last great Year End Party, at least for the time being. In my 7 years with the company they’ve always had great parties to end the year and celebrate our accomplishments.

With the economy as sour as it is, and with all the acquisition talk that’s been going on, everyone is wondering if there will ever be another YEP, at least on the scale that we’ve grown accustomed.

Many asked why Yahoo sank so much money into a party, especially given the rumors that a layoff is about to happen. Why not use that money to save a few jobs? The response was that the company booked (and paid) for the facilities months ago, long before there were any inklings of a layoff. Sounds reasonable to me.

This year’s themes was “Las Vegas”. Two large halls at the San Mateo Expo Center were decorated with Las Vegas hotel themes. There was Treasure Island, Ceasar’s Palace, Luxor and one other I can’t remember.

There was also a wedding chapel, where Elvis was there to marry and willing souls.

The Spasmatics played a great set that included lots of 80’s tunes. It was good to have a chance to celebrate all the hard work that’s been put into making Yahoo a leader in the industry. Times are tough, but it’s still one of the greatest places in the world to work.

I just hope there will be another YEP to celebrate in the future.

Strike up the band

2008-12-09T08:07:00.001-08:00

Karsyn’s musical endeavor as a classical flutist kicked off on Wednesday evening with her school’s Winter Concert. The 30 to 40 kids that make up Beginning Band played a brief set of music before a packed auditorium. The band belted out classic standards like “Hot Cross Buns” and holiday favorites like “Jingle Bells”.

Early reviews came back favorably.

“A cacophonous treat for the ears,” said one music critic in attendance.

Two songs into the performance, another critic shared his positive feedback.

“Can we go now?” said Ryan. Loosely translated, he meant to say, “Man this band is really good!”

Karsyn sat with her fellow flutists in the front row. In addition to the flutes, the band is comprised of clarinets, trumpets, saxophones and trombones.

Put that all together and you get music. Or at least the early stages of it.

It just goes to show that if you give a kid an instrument, they’ll make something come out of it. BRAVO!

We Been There Dad!

2008-11-24T19:54:00.000-08:00

From the “kids say the damndest things” file…

We’re driving down University Avenue in Palo Alto on Saturday afternoon, and hang a left onto El Camino Real, right in front of the front gate to Stanford University.

“The one dream I have in life is to have my children go to Stanford someday,” I say as I drive past the twin columns that guard the front of the school.

“We been there dad!” bellows Ryan innocently.

Sonya starts laughing, turns to me and says, “dream fulfilled!”

Nothing. Absolutely Nothing

2008-11-20T20:04:00.000-08:00

It’s pretty customary for me to ask the kids how they’re day went while we’re all eating dinner. On school days, I’ll also ask how school was. Last week, I run the question by Ryan.

“How was school?” I ask.

“Fine,” Ryan responds.

“What did you do today?”

“Well, we made…”, he begins to respond before throwing his hand over his mouth in a clear demonstration that he almost spilled the beans on something important. His eyes are as big as saucers, thinking he's already said too much. From the sound of it, perhaps a Christmas present for mom & dad?

“Why are you covering your mouth?” I ask.

“Cough, cough, cough,” is his reply. “I have a cough.”

Sonya and I look at each other in amusement. I’m more amazed that he was able to conjure up the coughing excuse as quickly as he did.

“What was that you said you did at school today?” I probe.

“Nothing,” he says with unconvincing conviction. “Absolutely nothing. We did nothing at school today.”

“Oh,” I respond. “OK.

Halloween 2008

2008-11-01T22:00:00.000-07:00

Haven't had much time to post lately. Work is nuts, kids activities are nuttier. I'm working a lot and trying to balance family life. Halloween was great...my unofficial kickoff to the holidays starts on October 31st!

Here are some [pictures]

Soccer!

2008-09-07T23:55:00.000-07:00

Soccer season hasn't really ended with Sonya coaching Karsyn's competetive U10 Girls team, but things officially kicked off this weekend. Karsyn's Fall league season started as did Ry Ry's foray into the game.

He started U6 soccer, which is played by both boys & girls. Sonya loves coaching Karsyn so much that she's taken on Ry Ry's team as well.

We started Saturday by running over to the newly re-opened Sunnyvale Soccer Complex to catch the U9 Girls Comp Team play. A couple of Karsyn's school mates play on that team, and is actually the age group that she should be playing in, but we have her playing up. The game started at 9 am, and it was already a toasty 80+ degress at the opening whistle.

After that, we trekked over to Serra Park for Ryan's first official soccer game. This is "swarm of bees" soccer at its finest. They play 3-on-3 with no goalie, so most of the time the ball is simply moving from one end of the field to another. Ryan scored two goals in the game. After his first goal, he ran over to mom (er coach), and lept into her arms to celebrate. It was so him.

He likes to, let's say, celebrate after he or his team scores. With both fists pumping over his head, he lets out a "YEAH!" every time the goal hits the back of the net. On one play, a little girl from the opposing team accidentally knocked teh ball into her own goal. Ryan pointed this out to her (innocently I'm sure), but she didn't take kindly to his stating of the obvious. She grabbed him by the arm and started to dig her nails into him, before the referee intervened.

His look was like, "hey, thanks for scoring that goal for us!", even though she was digging her talons into him. There is no score keeping at this level, so nobody wins or loses, but it was fun to be there to see Ry play competetive sports for the first time.

The most amusing part of the game, was teh post game handshake. The coaches had all teh kids lined up facing each other in two lines. Typically, the kids start walking toward each other, so that they can high-5 each other as they pass in opposing directions. The kids however had no idea they were supposed to do this, so they ended up having the worlds largest group handshake as they all crashed into each other. Good stuff.

Photos | Slideshow available here

Three hours later, we were back at the Sunnyvale Soccer Complex for Karsyn's first game of the season. K's team, the SASC Devils 98, would win 5-2 starting the season on a high note. This is a set team that keeps their roster consistent over the life of the club. They were formed last February, and are starting their 2nd season together. The roster is assembled by the coaching staff after a series of tryouts were held last Winter.

I maintain the Devils Team blog, so you can read a recap of that game here.

Aloha from Hawaii

2008-08-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

We decided to spend part of our summer vacation with a trip to Hawaii this summer. It was Ryan's first time visiting the islands, and Karsyn's third trip. We spent 10 days in O'ahu, basking in the sun and surf.

You can view a full screen version of the video above here

I've also posted photos of or trip, which can be viewed individually or as a slideshow

Squeeze the Buttocks!

2008-07-19T11:35:00.000-07:00

Ryan has taken up pilates. He's apparently focusing on one part of his anatomy...

My Cough

2008-05-23T07:38:00.000-07:00

So I come down with this cough that lasts a few days. We're sitting at the dinner table the other night and RyRy starts coughing.

"Oh, I see you've caught my cough," I ask him.

"No," he replies. "It's my cough!"

Kids.

Bear Valley 2008

2008-03-02T00:00:00.000-08:00

Microshaft? No

2008-02-19T21:04:00.001-08:00

Yes, I am still employed. Thanks to all of you who have expressed concern over my situation. Yahoo is still an independent company as of this post. That could change any second, but for the time being, I’m still a Yahoo.

This whole Microsoft acquisition thing is a bummer. While Yahoo has had a few rough quarters, the company was fundamentally headed in the right direction after Jerry Yang took the reigns as CEO.

Have we made mistakes? Certainly. Is it all doom & gloom at the company? No, it’s not, but there is lots of concern with the potential of having a company like Microsoft acquire us. I’d be more disappointed then scared. The thing is, there are some incredibly talented people that work at Yahoo. So talented, that I’d say that a majority would have no problem finding work elsewhere.

I’d be disappointed, because many of those talented people would voluntarily leave to work elsewhere. I suspect that a large majority of Yahoos have no interest in working for Microsoft. The place would be decimated by self inflicted departures. That means, Microsoft would be buying a technology, but losing the talent that devised developed and deployed it.

So they’re going to pay $41 billion for some software and a few customers who want nothing to do with Microsoft either? What were they thinking when they decided to tender their public offer?

MS has a history of trying to solve problems by throwing cash at it, yet, many of those problems go unresolved. Can they risk $41 billion on the chance that they might become competitive in the search space? I doubt it.

We’re working on some really cool things. I just hope we have the opportunity to deliver on some of those things. Yahoo is a great place to work. I’ve had plenty of offers to leave, but there never was a reason. I love the culture, the people and the location. A Microsoft acquisition would likely change all of that.

He's Back!

2008-02-15T00:43:00.000-08:00

Watch the Trailer on Yahoo! Movies

May the Force Be With You

2008-02-04T22:54:00.000-08:00

One of the things that the family has been doing more of lately is having family movie night. We pick a flick that we think everyone will enjoy, which is no easy task when you’re talking about serving the taste of two kids under 10. The odd thing is, it’s been pretty fun trying to come up with movies the kids will enjoy (and find something that’s suitable for kids).

Some of the early winners have been Sand Lot, The Goonies, and Gremlins. These are all favorites of mine because they remind me so much of my youth. Sand Lot may as well have been the story of my youth. Boy spends the summer playing baseball with his buddies, turning simple events into childhood adventures.

Gremlins, or “Grmeb-a-lins” as Ry Ry says, is still a riot. If you haven’t seen it in a while, I highly recommend it. How can you go wrong with mischievous mini-monsters who take over a small town and reek havoc on Phoebe Cates (yes, the Phoebe Cates of the high school classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High).

Last weekend, I decided it was time to unveil the greatest movie series of all time…In a galaxy far far away….

Yes, Star Wars.

“Which one are we watching first?” Karsyn asks.

“The 4th episode, A New Beginning,” I said

“Why don’t we watch the first episode?”

“Because, the 4th episode was the first movie.”

“Huh? Why isn’t the first episode, the first movie?”

“Well, that’s how they released them…and that’s how we’re going to watch them. Because that’s how we watched them.”

She looked at me like I was an idiot. Reminds me of that look I often get from her mother. But I digress.

We decided to start it after 8pm on Saturday night, which was a mistake. Ry fell asleep 5 minutes into the movie. Karsyn found it so-so. I question her loyalty to the family. How could she openly criticize one of my favorite movies. She’s been on a Harry Potter kick and found it less interesting than the Potter movies. What does she know.

Ry wanted a second crack at it, so he watched it on Sunday. It was a huge success with him.

It was a film tailor made for a 3 year-old boy however. Lasers, sword (light saber) fights, space creatures, space ships, heroes and villains. What else could you ask for? Oh, I know. Explosions!

Ry was talking about JaJas (Jawas) and Luke Skywalker for hours after watching the movie. I let him on the fact that there are 5 more movies in the series, and his eyes lit up.

“Can we watch them now?” he says.

“Uh, no. We’ll watch the next movie during the next family movie night,” I replied.

“But, can we watch it now?”

“No buddy, sorry. You can’t ruin it by watching them all at once,” I weakly countered. I knew how he felt though. It’s one of those things that you just can’t get enough of.

Something Fishy's Going On

2008-01-23T23:52:00.001-08:00

We decided not to completely waste the three day weekend by sitting around the house, so I gave my sister a call to see if she wanted to get together with the kids. She and her husband Chris have a family pass to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which comes with comp passes. She was able to borrow a couple of additional passes from some friends, and treated us to a day at the aquarium.

I hadn't been there in a few years, so it was cool to go back and see what they've done with the place. I was surprised at how few actual fish exhibits there were. They do have the Outer Bay tank, which has two massive sun fish, a couple of Hammerhead sharks, and a juvenile Great White shark. There was a lot of construction going on in the main pavilion where many of the primary exhibits are, so a lot was unavailable for most visitors. It wasn't bad, I guess I was expecting more.

The kids had a blast. They got to hang out with their cousins and be kids. They all loved the otters and bat rays. An exhibit that allows the kids to touch starfish, seaweed and crabs was also a big hit.

After a few hours at the acquarium, we all joined my dad and Mrs. Kim for dinner at the Chart House right on Cannery Row. This is a nice restaurant with a great view overlooking the Monterey Bay. We didn't realize it, but it was their 20th anniversary, so dinner turned into a celebration of sorts. It's hard to believe that they've been together that long. Time seems to be zipping by.

Dinner was great, but the day came to a close, because the kids had school the next day and we had a long trip back home. We took Hwy 1 north to Hwy 17, where a slushy sleet was falling. They would get up to a foot of snow that night. We got lucky, missing it before it got heavy up there.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-04T01:34:00.001-08:00

The new year is here, which means the holidays are over. Bummer. Well, at least we ended 2007 on a high note. We did the usual Christmas Eve festivities at our house, followed by a trip to San Ramon to spend Christmas Day with Sonya's broader family. We capped it all with a trip up to Tahoe to spend the a few days with our friends Roger & Joanne at their cabin. Our friends Robert and Sherri also made the trek up to Tahoe. In all, there were 6 adults and 7 kids.

Sonya and I love the trip up there. It's relaxing as anything and we love hanging out with those guys. Lot's of entertaining conversation, games, food, drink, lounging, eating, drinking, did I mention lounging...and more drinking. We have what's now become our annual trumps game. I am the amatuer, teamed up with my wife, versus Robert and Roger...I'm not good, but I go on the offensive...blaming my wife for our poor team play :)

Roger has prepared this great prime rib for us the last couple of years, and this year was no exception. The kids get to play in the snow all day, so they have a blast. There's a sledding hill a short walk from their cabin, so the kids get plenty of sledding action in. We spent 4 days and 3 nights this year, which is just perfect. We high tailed it out of dodge right before this mammoth storm rolled into town. They're predicting 10 feet of snow in Thoe this weekend, so we timed this year's trip perfectly. I can't wait until next year.

Here are some [photos from the trip]

Happy Holidays

2007-12-25T00:31:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays everyone. I decided to publish the family Xmas card here. If you're reading this, chances are you've already seen the card. I wanted to also show the original.

Here is the card:

and here is the original photo:

Did all of this using PhotoShop. Yes, everyone is posed.

Here are the original photos:

Ry Ry Learns to Read

2007-12-18T07:59:00.000-08:00

So my dad sends the kids a thank you card for the birthday present they got him earlier this month (some glof shirts and golf balls). This is Ryan "reading" the card to me. His sister read it to us first, so he decided to take a crack at it.

"Harabugi" is Korean for grandfather. It's what the kids call him. "Halmoni" is grandmother. Apparently we also got him some "golf sticks" and a "golf bag"...the airport reference has to do with the fact that we were taking him and Halmoni to the airport the next morning. That also appears to have magically found its way into the card. Must be in special secret invisible Harabugi ink, that only Ryan can read.

Another Magic Kingdom Run

2007-12-10T08:16:00.000-08:00

The family went down to Southern California this past week to spend three days at Dineyland. The kids love it, I'm starting to grow more tired of it. I think I have Disney fatigue.

We went from temps in the high 70's on day 1 to wet and mid 50's by day 3. We decided to go midweek to beat the crowds, but the lines were actually worse on Wednesday. By Friday, they were manageable, but the rain overnight probably had something to do with that.

We hooked up with our friends the Holdens, who were also down there for the week.

Here is a video I shot of Ry on the Tower of Terror ride. This is a simulated elevator that shoots up 10 stories, than bounces from floor to floor. No need to correct you monitor...the first few seconds are dark, because we're in a pitch black elevator shaft. Best viewed with sound. When the light shines on his face, we're at the 9th or 10th floor, where a door opens, looking over the entire resort. I think that's when he realizes how high he is...

Here are some of the [photos from the trip]

The Holidays Officially Begin

2007-11-25T20:47:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving has come and gone. We did the family tour, having dinner at Sonya's parent's house, then at my dad's house. I tried to be good, limiting myself to reasonable helpings at each stop :)

We actually got off out butts and did something productive with the kids on Saturday, trekking into San Francisco to checkout Union Square. We took BART, which was Ry & Karsyn's first time taking the train into the city. I think Ry enjoyed it more. It was a train after all.

Checkout the video:

Hockey Time

2007-11-18T19:23:00.000-08:00

Took Ryan to the hockey game on Saturday night. He's become my hockey buddy, since Karsyn seems to have lost interest in attending games, and Sonya would rather spend her free time anywhere except a hockey rink. He's actually a pretty good person to take to the games, since:

a) I can keep him occupied with a simplecotton candy

and

b) he actually watches the game (unlike his sister, who spent most of the game tracking down the cotton candy vendor).

His favorite players are "Joe Forton & Jonafan Cheechoo". We had hoofed it up to our seats on Saturday night (last row in teh upeer deck), when a guy in one of the luxury boxes behind our seats flagged me down. He had apair of tickets in the lower bowl at the blueline that he wasn't using and asked me if I'd like to have them.

He obviously picked me out of the crowd because I had a little kid with me, but I thought the gesture was very nice. I accepted them , so Ry and I spent the entire game sitting in the lower bowl in great seats. The Sharks lost in the shootout, but it was still cool to catch a game so close to teh action.

Belated Halloween

2007-11-18T19:12:00.000-08:00

These are a couple of weeks late, but here are some of the Halloween photos from this year. Karsyn was Hermione Granger (from Harry Potter) and Ry was a fireman.

My back was a mess that night, so I stayed home and passed out candy, while Sonya took the kids out with our friend Jessica. Sonya even took over pumpkin carving duties this year.

Nutcracker Time

2007-10-28T21:13:00.000-07:00

Karsyn auditioned for the Nutcracker on Friday, and once again landed a part in the holiday ballet. She will be performing with the Moscow Ballet at the Flint Center in Cupertino on December 23rd. There are two performances (3:00pm and 7:30pm).

You can order tickets online at Ticketmaster via the following links:

3:00pm performance

7:30pm performance

Sonya will be buying tickets on Monday night, so if you'd like to sit with us, send her an email ASAP. Here is my post after she earned her first role and from last January after her first perforance.

More info at: http://www.nutcracker.com/

Back Update

2007-10-16T22:59:00.000-07:00

Had my Cortisone epidural this morning. The procedure went pretty smoothly, but the after affects have been a bit of a pain. Well, that’s not entirely true. When the doctor first injected the needle, I think it brushed up (or pricked) my nerve, because a jolt shot down my leg, which felt like I was getting electrocuted. Other than that, it went fine .

I was down for the count most of the day. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that my back is sore, after having a needle stuck into my spine. I couldn’t really move around too much, so I parked it on my back for most of the day.

Here's are a couple of the issues I'm dealing with:
- Herniated Lumbar Disk
- Lumbar Spine Stenosis

Around 5pm my right arm started to go numb, and I started to get a little nauseous. I tried to sleep it off, but the numbness really started to freak me out. The information sheet that the hospital sent home with me indicated that there was the chance that these side effects would occur. I’ll try to sleep it off tonight and see how I feel in the morning.

Sonya has been a trooper, taking care of me. I’m essentially a blob, but she puts up with me.

Thanks to all of you who passed on your best wishes or called.

The War

2007-09-25T20:44:00.000-07:00

Since my back has limited me to doing nothing, I've been spending lots of time flat on my back watching TV. A co-worker mentioned that the new Ken Burns documentary on World War II called The War was airing on PBS starting on Sunday night. I'm actually watching the Part III as I sit typing this up.

The quality of the film is outstanding. Typical Ken Burns. Good stuff, unique perspective. It's a 4 part film, with each part running about 2 hours each. It tells the story from the perspective of four different U.S communities, one of those being Sacramento, California.

The photographs are many I've seen before, including many famous images, but it also includes some fantastic battle footage taken during the war. Battle scenes from the south pacific, air battles over Europe, tank battles from North Africa. All fascinating. The film focuses on the stories that people from these communities lived through.

This is not a sugar coated pro-American glory film. The tone is somber, the images graphic in many cases. It tries to show the war for what it was.

Not sure if PBS is planning on re-airing the documentary, but I highly recommend it.

More info can be found at: http://www.pbs.org/thewar/?campaign=pbshomefeatures_1_thewarbrakenburnsfilm_2007-09-25

Its back breaking being me

2007-09-20T21:47:00.000-07:00

Not only am I old, now I’m decrepit. I started having back issues about a year ago, so I decided to see a doctor. After some basic treatment (which didn’t work) I had an MRI done, which revealed that I have a severely herniated disk in my lower back (between my L4 and L5 vertebra). The pain in my back was annoying, but not debilitating, so I decided to manage it with stretching and ibuprofen whenever it got really bad.

About 4 weeks ago, I got up one morning and something had changed. The pain was different, and it started to actually hurt. Over the course of the next day or two, the pain got to the point where it was interfering my ability to focus on anything. I went back to the doctor, who added little, other than a reminder that I have a herniated disk and that there are still a couple of options that I have available.

1) start physical therapy
2) have a cortisone epidural in my spine
3) go under the knife to correct the problem

Given my affinity for puncture free skin, I opted for physical therapy. I’ve been to two sessions so far and am scheduled to attend six more over the next three weeks.

Its lots of stretching and ice, but today I got a real treat. Traction! That word just sounds so medieval. They strap me down with onto a table with these huge Velcro jobs at the waist and chest. The lower strap is attached to some mechanism which pulls my hips toward my feet, while my chest is kept in a stationary position.

Remarkably, the whole deal made my back feel better…for about an hour. Then I got home, sat down, and the pain came right back.

What I’ve found to be the most interesting thing about this whole ordeal, is that it seems like every tenth person that I talk to has gone through the same problem. Some have had surgery, and some have resolved the issue by simply laying flat on their back from anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks. Not sure I have the luxury of laying flat on my back fro 6 weeks, but I am considering the shorter duration.

Who knew so many other people were as decrepit as I am.

Sonya keeps telling me to be patient, but it’s been tough. I never realized how many things a bad back prevents you from doing.

You dropped the bomb on me, baby!

2007-09-05T13:58:00.000-07:00

The new school year has started, and we’re starting to get back into it all. New grade, teacher, and new things to learn. It’s all good. Well, not all good. Depending on the things your children are learning, you have to understand that the teacher isn’t the only thing giving lessons.

Case in point. Karsyn is talking to Sonya the other day in the garage while I’m sitting in the kitchen. I don’t hear the question, but I do hear Sonya suggesting that Karsyn ask me. My inquisitive 7-year old proceeds to pop into the kitchen with a smile on her face, then drop the bomb on me.

“Dad, what does f**k mean?”

After almost swallowing my tongue, I glance at her mother, who decided to share in the fun by diverting the question over to me.

“Where did you hear that?” I asked.

“From < not-to-be-named-but-now considered-trashy-classmate >. She told me at school.”

Then there was some convoluted explanation about how this unnamed classmate “broke up” with her boyfriend because he said it, or something to that affect. I don’t really care why she said. I just care that this stuff is already making the rounds in the 3rd grade. The 3rd grade!!!!

I don’t really remember when I learned that word, but I seemed to recall that it generated the same type of response from my parents. I’m sure Karsyn noticed my eyes popping out of my head. I’m not even sure what my response was!

Something to the affect of, “that’s not a word you should be using, and if you do, people will think less of you.” I think Sonya were on the same page, with the approach that not making a big deal about it is the best way to not sensationalize the whole thing. If we had freaked out, then it just goes into the memory bank as something to get a rise out of down the road. What’s a parent to do?

Good God, is “the talk” just around the corner? Her mother will have fun with that one! It’s sad kids can’t just be kids for a while.

Back to the Bump & Grind

2007-08-28T22:44:00.000-07:00

Labor Day is fast approaching and summer is winding down, so that means “Back to School!” Karsyn started the 3rd grade at West Valley, joining Mrs. Swanson’s class. She’s pretty happy, because a group of her friends are also in the same class. She’s excited about moving up to a new grade.

I really enjoy blogging about the start of school, because it was Karsyn’s first day of Kindergarten that motivated me to start a blog in the first place. That means I’ve been writing about the daily goings on of our family for three years now! The posts have been few and far between this summer, but a lot has been going on. Hopefully I’ll find more time and energy to devote to the blog.

One point of interest is the fact that Ry Ry has officially started preschool. He spent a couple of days a week in a preschool program last year, but the 3-year-olds get a little more structure in their class. He’s joined by three other boys that he knows from last year’s class, so it’ll be interesting for the teachers.

Four little boys that work as a team will be entertaining if nothing else. Sonya and I dropped Ry off at class and he seemed to take it all in stride. He dealt with the whole separation (from mom) anxiety thing last year, so going to class was no big deal.

He was pretty amused when he learned that his big sister had been in the same class only 4 years earlier. When I talked to him about his first day, he was most eager to tell me about all the cool toys that his classroom calls home. Such is the life of a 3-year-old boy.

The fall will be as busy as ever. Sonya is now coaching Karsyn’s soccer team, which makes me really happy. I couldn’t think of a better person to coach a girls soccer team. Sonya knows the game, and can relate really well with the girls. She has some kids that are natural soccer players, so it’ll be interesting to see how it all turns out.

My big objective before the midway point of the soccer season is to buy myself my big birthday present…a digital SLR camera. I love shooting the kids sporting events, and the only thing I’ve been coveting for the last couple of years is a nice camera. I’ve been talking to my sister about which equipment to buy, but that only makes we more confused. Hopefully I can pull it off in the next two months. Yes, I am a procrastinator.

Check back often, I promise to post more often.

More pictures from the [1st Day of School]

Holy Crap, I'm Old!

2007-07-19T22:14:00.001-07:00

I celebrated a milestone birthday last week, so I believe I am no officially old as dirt. I don’t feel old. Well, OK that’s not entirely true. My back is always sore, my vision is going to pot, and I don’t relate to music like I used to. So I guess I do feel old.

But then again, I still participate in all the active things that I’ve loved to participate in. I can’t imagine doing an Iron Man length triathlon or competing in water polo anymore, but I still play softball twice a week and I’d play hockey if I could find the time. The annual Thanksgiving flag football game is still on the docket, so I’m not THAT old, am I?

Sonya threw me this fantastic party to celebrate at Manresa Beach over the weekend. It was attended by about 60 people, which really made the day special. We boogie boarded, played in the sand, and ate & drank. Then we ate & drank some more.

I have to say that spending time with my friends is one of those things that I really enjoy more and more as time goes by. Losing Lars last month really struck a chord. Without family & friends, life is pretty hollow. Spending more time with everyone needs to become more of a priority in my life.

I realized how lucky I am, to have as many friends as I do. I can sincerely say that I could not have thought of a better way to chalk up another year.

Not sure if people were saying this to be polite, but it seemed that most folks enjoyed the locale. It’s been our “secret” for a few years, so it was cool to be able to introduce it to so many good friends. I hope they all pay a visit on their own, because it really is a special place.

We love the beach so much, we’re spending three days there again. This time, we’re camping with a few friends a few miles down from Manresa at Sunset State Beach. The kids love camping, so combining that with sun & surf, and you may just have the perfect summer trip. Sunset is less than an hour from Sunnyvale as well, so we don’t have to drive a million miles just to camp.

Pince Crest Lake in Sonora is awesome, but it’s a 3 hour drive. Sunset is only 45 minutes away. Can’t beat that when you’re trekking little kids with you. Ooh, it that me sounding old and crotchety?

Here are some [Photos from the party]

I Love July

2007-07-09T20:31:00.000-07:00

I love July. It's my favorite month of the year. Yes, my birthday falls in July, but that's not the reason I love it. July to me means spending time with the family and friends, being outside, warm sunny days, the beach, baseball games, and vacations.

The 4th of July is my favorite holiday. It reminds me of being a kid. I love fireworks. Fireworks remind me of my childhood, lighting them off in the street with all the neighbors kids. The 4th of July means the Redwwod City Parade, which I love, no matter how grumpy it makes Sonya.

July means cherries, which means cherry pie...my favorite dessert. July means the San Jose Grand Prix...a big time race in my own backyard!

July means going to places like Pine Crest Lake, one of my favorite camping places in the world. We spent a few days there the year before last with our friends and all the kids. This year, we're going to Sunset Beach to camp for three days...in July.

July means I can wear shorts and not get funny looks from people (like I do when I wear shorts in December). July means flip flops, which I have recently been reintroduced to.

July means the baseball and the All Star Game. I used to think they were playing the All Star Game in honor of my birthday whan I was a kid. At least, I used to tell people that. My birthday typically falls within a week of the all Star Game, so there must be a connection!

July means fun in the sun. There's always something to do in July.

I love July.

[More 4th of July Photos]

Time to Flickr-ize

2007-06-26T22:52:00.000-07:00

Yahoo announced that they will be shutting down Yahoo Photos in September, which makes perfect sense given the acquisition of Flickr two years ago. As part of the shuttering, they're allowing users to auto transfer photos to Flickr or three other non-Yahoo photo services.

I transferred all my photos on Sunday, and the process was pretty easy. Photos are tagged as private, so there is the extra step of marking the pics as public if you want the world to see your photos.

Flickr is an amazing service. If you're dabbling in the whole digital photos thing, give it a try. It's easy enough for novices to pickup easily, and powerful enough to offer some pretty cool features if you're a power user.

You can checkout all 4,594 photos I currently have stored there by checking out my public photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thefeeder/

My favorite feature is the bulk management functionalty, being able to present groups of photos in sets, and geo-tagging photos via Yahoo maps.

If you have any photos stored at Yahoo! Photos, make sure you migrate them soon.

Continuing the Legacy

2007-06-23T19:39:00.000-07:00

We have a new fish in the house. Her name is Karsyn. Continuing the fine legacy of Lee swimmers, Karsyn joined the Sunnyvale Swim Club summer league team last week. They held two practices them threw the kids into the fire by having them compete in a dual meet versus St Lawrence Swim Club.

For those of you that don’t know, I swam competitively for 10 years, so it was kind of cool to be back in the element. I was 9 when I competed for the first time. It was a “full meet” in Palo Alto at Palo Alto High School. Full meets are comprised of many teams that congregate, like a track meet.

Dual meets peg two teams against each other. These are great starter meets for kids just getting their feet wet (sorry, couldn’t resist). Since Karsyn is competing in the 8 & under age group, the distances are limited to 25 yard sprints.

I set her up with a pair of goggles that I used to use when I swam back in the day. Sonya was talking to the head coach (I high school rival of mine), who she knew from her days when she ran the city aquatic program, and pointed out that Karsyn was giving the whole swimming thing a try. He noticed the goggles and made some comment about not seeing that type in a few years.

In her very first event, she swam 25 yard backstroke and took 3rd in her heat. She would then follow things up with a 25 yard freestyle race, where she finished 2nd in her heat. The most amusing part of the race was the start, where the kids dove from regulation starting blocks that are mounted on the side of the pool.

Karsyn had never started a race from blocks before, so she ad-libbed by holding her hands in front of her when the starter instructed the swimmers to “take their marks”. Given that nobody actually instructed the girls what to do, I was pretty proud of her.

There’s a girl in her class that’s apparently a little know-it- all, so Karsyn’s only goal was to beat her. She smoked her in both events and got the swimming bug. I think it was the goggles.

Click here for [Event Photos]

My Father's Day

2007-06-19T10:45:00.001-07:00

Spent the day at Manressa Beach, south of Santa Cruz. Did a little boogie boarding and lounging with our friends Steve & Tracy and the kids. Good times.

Goodbye Lars

2007-06-14T00:37:00.000-07:00

I’m sitting in my office trying to think of how I want to phrase this post, because it’s one of those important times when eloquence means something. I got home last night after spending the last five days in Columbus, Ohio, where I had intended on spending a few days with my friend Lars.

As many of you already know, Lars has been battling Leukemia for the past several months and was most recently in Houston, Texas at a cancer research facility that was affiliated to the University of Texas. Lars and his wife Monica received news the weekend before last that the hospital has exhausted all medical options available to fight the Leukemia.

They decided to return to their home in Columbus, where they could be near family and friends. I spoke to his brother Nels on Wednesday to try and figure out how much time he had left, but there was no way to tell. I phoned a few friends to let them know that Lars’ condition had deteriorated, so we agreed to book flights out to Ohio to pay one last visit.

Monica chartered a medical transport plane that could accommodate Lars and his needs on the long flight back to Ohio. In transit, the plane ran out of the oxygen that Lars needed, so they were forced to make an emergency landing along the way. After continuing their trip home, the place ran out of fuel and had to make another unscheduled stop.

They arrived in Columbus in the early hours of June 6th and made their way to the local hospital in Columbus, where Lars would be until Thursday. Nels and his sister Sena made the trek to Ohio on Thursday, and relayed the news that they were moving him home later that day.

I got the call from Nels that we all hoped would never come on Thursday night around 8pm Pacific time. Lars’ fight had ended peacefully at his home with Monica, Nels, Sena, and Monica’s parents by his bed side.

Our mutual friends Andy Anderson and Mike Woodward had joined me in booking flights out to Ohio, so after a brief consultation with them all agreed that we all needed to be there. We flew out on Friday and stopped by Lars & Monica house to say hi and see how she was doing. For me, what started as a show of support, turned into an opportunity for me to bring some closure to Lars’ illness. I got to see the place he and Monica called home, complete with his own subtle touches (albeit mostly in the basement!). Andy was able to get in touch with another friend of ours, Anthony Rivera, who joined us on Saturday.

I got the sense that his house was truly his home, and that it was the place that he found the most comfort in his life. I suspect that Monica’s family had a lot to do with that as well. There was stability and sense of family. It was something that he longed for in his life, and he had finally found it.

Why he chose to live in a place like Ohio, rather than California always confused me. It didn’t dawn on me until this trip that it wasn’t the place that lured him, but rather the people. I should have known better. Through all the time I knew him, he was never about “things”.

Over the course of the next five days, we spent time with Monica and her family, while trying not to be too big a burden. She’s a remarkable woman, who has dedicated the past two years of her life fighting Lars first bout with cancer and finally the Leukemia. Through all of it, I never heard her utter a single complaint.

When I visited him in Houston back in March, I told him that he was a lucky man to have such unconditional support from his wife. He simply responded “I know”, then began to cry. Through all the raw deals he endured in his life, that mention of his wife was the only time I had ever seen him cry in the 23 years that I knew him.

She asked that Me, Nels, Woody, Andy or Anthony speak at the viewing on Monday night, to which we all cringed. We all had the same fear. It wasn’t that we didn’t have anything to say, we all feared breaking down while trying to present the message. She remedied that in a way that would have made Lars proud.

“If I have to get up there and speak at my own husband’s funeral because you guys didn’t want to speak, I’ll be sure to point out that you were the five assholes that forced me to do it because you didn’t have the guts to!,” she volleyed in grand Larsen style.

Simple, yet effective.

We all laughed and promised her that we would figure out something. That something would be Nels, me and Anthony all saying something briefly on Monday night in front of a packed funeral home. Nels read from a eulogy he prepared the night before. I followed him and promptly botched it all up by choking up in the middle of a story about our days in college and “not sweating the little things”. Anthony finished strong with two stories from his high school days with Lars, which included 2 tons of sand and Lars in the middle of it all.

Monica would tell me later that my choke job was “well timed and that it really got the crowd going”. Another playful jab, that her husband would have been proud of.

After a Catholic mass at St Patrick Church on Wednesday morning, we made the long procession to the cemetery where Lars would finally be laid to rest. We said goodbye with the sun shining on us like so many of those California summer days that we shared in our youth. He was home.

Kick Back Weekend

2007-06-03T21:09:00.000-07:00

Had a nice relaxing weekend, starting with a soccer game on Saturday morning, dinner with our friends Gary & Shelly on Saturday night and then wrapping things up with the Sunnyvale Art & Wine Festival downtown on Sunday afternoon.

We were up pretty late on Saturday night, playing poker with Gary & Shelly, and Gary's brother Danny and his gilfriend Renee. We played low stakes, and after a few hours of grind it out Hold'Em, I think the Lee's walked away up $1. It wasn't big money, but the evening was more about lots of fun talking and throwing back a few Margaritas.

The kids enjoyed the Art & Wine Festiaval. It was your typical culmination of vendors and the occassional tech company pitching their message. Yahoo had a booth, that was promoting green.yahoo.com and there were several employees demonstrating how to use Yahoo's new mobile OneTouch smart search technology via your mobile phone.

The kids enjoyed the performance by Karsyn's dance studio. I love weekends like this. Just hanging out with the kids and friends is alwasys at the top of my list.

Survivors

2007-05-22T22:23:00.000-07:00

May is Asian-American Heritage Month, so Yahoo had a guest speaker come in today. The speaker was Yul Kwon, the Korean who won the Survivor – Cook Islands reality show last year. Kwon spoke about two causes:

1) First, he spoke about his movement to provide Asian-American kids with a role models who go beyond the stereotypes that Asians have endured in this country. He spoke of his youth on the east coast, and how he realized that there were few people on TV that “looked like him”, and for the few that did, they were only portrayed as Kung Fu experts or some role where they couldn’t speak English. H spoke about the disparity in corporate America between leadership and Asian representation.

He went on to speak about how he used Survivor as a platform to represent Asians in a positive light. For those of you that didn’t watch that show, he certainly demonstrated that there is more to Asians than Kung Fu and bad English.

I was amused by his comments about the expectations that Asian parents have on their children and how the culture frowns on those that call attention to themselves. I heard many things that reminded me of my upbringing, but those things resonated.

He also spoke about while Asians are quick to distribute recognition for their successes, they are just as quick to assume responsibility for the failures of a greater team. All of these things struck a chord in my professional life. I “grew up” professionally early in my career in an environment that promoted “team” successes. I still think there are benefits of this approach, but I’ve also seen how self promotion can benefit the individual.

His point was that some of these cultural approaches have not served Asians well in American business culture. These are things that today’s Asian-American professional must work to balance professionally. It’s not to say that either approach is right or wrong, but that there must be some balance in how they are applied.

2) The second cause he spoke about was actually pretty timely (at least for me). His second cause was to get more minorities to register for the National Bone Marrow Registry. He told a story of how his childhood friend died of Leukemia when they college roommates at Stanford.

While Caucasians have a 70% chance of finding a suitable marrow donor in the United States, minorities have a significantly lower match rate. Because of his notoriety from Survivor, he serves as a spokesman for the fight to get minorities registered.

This was timely because of the fight my friend Lars is going through right now. I’ve documented Lars’ fight several times here, but it’s really hit a head this week.

Lars contracted a fungal infection in his sinuses a couple of weeks ago, so he was forced to undergo surgery on Friday to remove the infection, because his immune system has been ravaged by the Leukemia.

For more information on Lars’ situation, please read http://marrowdonor.blogspot.com/ We are actively trying to find blood donors in the Houston area, so that the hospital he’s at can process the blood for white blood cells. Lars needs these to fend off the infection. His situation is dire.

It was difficult to hear the story of Yul’s childhood friend, so we rally around our friend Lars in an attempt to help him win his battle. I got to listen to one Survivor talk about a fight that we all want Lars to win, so that he to may also be a survivor.

It's my birthday, got my car fixed...

2007-04-10T00:18:00.000-07:00

Ry Ry is officially a 3 year old. The big guy celebrated his birthday with a multi-day extravaganza, which included a trip to Pump-it-Up with some buddies, a barbeque with family, multiple Easter Egg hunts and finally dinner with more family. He had people sing “Happy Birthday” to him a minimum of 4 times that I know of. There may have been a few others in there as well.

Through it all, the kid loves being serenaded. You should see the grin on him when those candles are glowing on a cake, cupcake, pie, whatever. He’s either a fledgling pyromaniac or narcissist, I haven’t quite figured it out.

One of the things we decided to do for him this year, was to allow him to decide where we had dinner. He selected Benihana, the Japanese “teppanyaki” restaurant. He selected this place because “they sing to me,” he says.

Rather, they have two or three of the wait staff rattle off a moving rendition of “Happy Birthday”, accompanied by a tambourine. The food tastes like a marinated tambourine, just cut up into bite size pieces.

You may $25 to $40 for them to cut your food for you essentially. All of this is done while a knife-wielding “chef” flings his cutlery in the air. If you’re lucky, he doesn’t drop anything. Our chef’s nametag proudly proclaimed that “Sergio” would be preparing our dinner for Ry’s special meal.

I’ll go out on a limb and say that I suspect that Sergio does not hail from the land of the rising sun. He proved to be a worthy showman, dazzling the kids with his dexterity with knife and spatula. We’ve seen the show a couple of times before for Karsyn’s birthday (we think she may have influenced Ry’s dinner location decision), so we knew what to expect.

The fact that we knew what was coming should tell you a thing or two about our dining out habits.

In any case, the egg yolk rooster, shrimp tail flip into the hat and onion volcano were old hat even for a tepanyaki veteran like Ryan, but they still giggle every time they see it. So that makes up for the insane bill. Well, at least until the Visa bill arrives.

I hope this is one of those things that he remembers when he grows up to be old and crotchety. “My parents used to take us to this Japanese place, where they flung knives and made onion volcanoes…it was pretty cool!” Bad food aside, it was pretty cool.

Last Day in Houston

2007-03-25T13:00:00.000-07:00

Today is my last full day in Houston. I’m catching the first flight out on Monday morning, after spending the last week here. It’s been an eye opening experience, let me tell you. Living with someone who is undergoing chemotherapy is a tough thing to experience. Going through the treatment is an awful thing.

Lars is constantly fatigued. He has a tough time just walking from the apartment to the car. One of the drugs that he’s taking is causing a nasty rash, which has now spread across his entire body. He vomits constantly.

And through it all, he manages to maintain his sense of humor. It’s good to see him laugh, because there isn’t much to laugh about these days for him. Cancer is a horrible thing. Everyone has heard it, but to see its effects in action is just awful. It’s certainly changed his life.

Houston is also a pretty boring place. We went to see the Battle of San Jacinto monument a couple of days ago, but other than that, there isn’t much to do in Houston. Lots of refineries and dreary weather. Not the best place to motivate you while you’re sick.

Monica’s mom and sister flew the kids down on Friday night, which has provided a little boost for both of them. They are very cute kids who have had their lives turned upside down as well. This is something the whole family is battling.

He got some good news on Saturday night, when the hospital called to tell him that his white counts are down. So there are signs that the drugs may be doing what they’re supposed to do. He’ll know more on Monday. Think positive.

Greetings from Houston

2007-03-23T16:42:00.000-07:00

It's Friday, but this is the first day I've bothered to check into the blog. I'm here in Houston visiting my friend Lars, who's battling Leukemia. He's part of a clinical trial to see if an experimental drug will move him into remission so that he can have a bone marrow transplant. He's been down here since early February and is getting a bit frustrated.

The last batch of treatment didn't get the job done, so he's now working with the folks at the University of Texas - M. C. Anderson Cancer Center. If they can get his white cell count down to a certain level, he can have the translplant. THey've had a donor lined up for a couple months, so it's just a matter of getting his counts down.

Since I arrived on Monday, his schedule has consisted of:

Monday: clinical checkup
Tuesday: Took 2 units of blood and 1 unit of platelets (7 hours to complete)
Wednesday: day off from the hospital
Thursday: clinical checkup + 1 unit of platelets
Friday: day off

We (Lars, his wife Monica and I) drove down the to the gulf and spent an hour at the Battle of Jacinto memorial, which is the place where Sam Houston defeated Santa Ana in the 1800's. There is an obelisk that's taller than the Washington Monument in D.C. there.

Lars has had a rough go of it. He is easily fatigued during this latest round of treatment, so got him back to his apartment after our field trip. He's a thousand miles from home, away from his children, in a strange place. It's something I couldn't wish on my worst enemy, but it's something one of my best friends is enduring.

Monica's mom and sister are flying their two kids down tonight, so they'll hopefully provide some change of pace for the two of them.

I'm flying home on Monday morning, so I have a couple of days to lend a little more moral support.

Off to Houston

2007-03-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted last. Busy busy busy. That's all I can say about the past few weeks. I'll be busier starting March 19th, as I'll be headed to Houston to spend some time with Lars. He's in Texas to see a specialist for his Leukemia. Seems the doctors in Ohio either weren't equipped to deal with his form of Leukemia or they needed to send him to a doctor with more advanced skills in treating the disease.

It's not clear. I've tried nt to prod, so I have bits and pieces of the story.

I just hope I'll be able to bring a little distraction to his fight. I can't imagine what he's going through, but I suspect it's wearing on him. He's been sick for so long now. When I spoke to him earlier tonight, he was putting on a good face, but he's getting frustrated.

I know he just wants to get on with his life. So I'll try to catch up with him. I haven't done much of that since he left California. More to come from Texas.

Skiing - Sierra at Tahoe

2007-02-21T21:35:00.000-08:00

The family headed up to Lake Tahoe for a couple days of skiing while Karsyn is out for ski week. I shot some vide with my Canon Power Shot and converted the video using JumpCut. Check it out:

A jock's weekend

2007-02-04T20:48:00.000-08:00

It was a sports oriented weekend for the Lee’s. Saturday started with Karsyn’s third basketball game of the season. It was also the first win of the year after three tries. The girls looked great, pounding the ball inside for a 22-4 victory. The score would have been much worse, but I told our two best players they had to pass the ball rather than shoot.

Even after that, we still scored at will. It was nice to get over the victory hump, but it was also important for the kids to learn how to win with some class. They did what they were told, so we got to work on spreading the ball around the floor and running an offense. It was very cool.

Super Bowl Sunday began with a trip to the ice rink. Sonya took the kids last Monday and Ryan was immediately hooked. He loves hockey already, and the roller blades he received for Christmas are probably his favorite possession.

I wasn’t expecting much. How much could a 2-year-old kid do with two metal blades strapped to his feet. To my surprise, he could move pretty good on skates. He puttered around the rink at a constant 2 mph, with a movement that looks a lot like he’s running in place.

The one annoying thing that has come with this new passion, is a love to dive on the ice. He’ll skate for about 1 feet, then intentionally skid across the ice. I tried telling him that diving in hockey is a penalty (it actually is), but that didn’t sway him. We know he can skate, because we challenged him to a time-trial from one end of the rink to the other. He can make it dive free if he chooses.

He wore his favorite Sharks jersey to the rink, so it dawned on me as we were leaving that if he kept up his pension for head first swan dives across the ice, he was going to ruin his jersey. I told him this as I was strapping him into his car seat for the ride home, so I’m not exactly sure if it hit home or not.

I guess we’ll see the next time we hit the ice. Karsyn is getting the figure skating bug. She spent the better part of the skating session in the middle of the rink with all the other figure skaters (these people are the devil to anyone who plays hockey…toe-picks leave craters in the ice).

Sonya tried to show me her “one figure skating move”, which ended in a nice case of whiplash and my wife’s butt planted on the ice. I pointed out that she had “no figure skating moves” at this point, to which I received a nod.

Oh, and the rest of the afternoon was spent parked in front of the tube, watching the Super Bowl. I said it was a sports oriented weekend, not a completely active one!

Here's a video of me teaching Ry some hockey fundamentals...

Ballerina

2007-01-22T23:35:00.000-08:00

I never got around to writing up something about Karsyn’s performance in the Nutcracker, so I wanted to set the record straight. I wrote about how she was preparing for her performance with the Moscow Ballet’s traveling group back in October after she earned a part through tryouts.

After three months of rehearsals, she finally got to dance on December 30th. I have to say that I was floored by the whole thing. No, I’m not filling out her application to Juliard quite yet, but I have to say that I was one proud papa that night.

She danced in three or four sequences, which included a costume change between sequence 2 and 3. She played one of the children in the opening party scene, and then served as an angel in the latter parts of the performance.

The fact that she had to remember so many parts of the performance was the part that really impressed me. This wasn’t a 30 second routine mind you. I video taped every second of her on the stage, which amounted to about 17 minutes of footage. Some of it included the end of the performance, where all the performers come out on stage and take a bow, but the majority of the tape consists of Karsyn actually dancing out there.

She was required to be there at 9 in the morning, in preparation for a 3pm and 7pm performance at the Flint Center in Cupertino. Seating capacity is about 1200-1500 if you include the balconies and mezzanine levels. I attended the 3pm performance, which was close to sold out.

Just knowing that she was up there in front of all those people, with a cast of about 30 professional dancers was something I just didn’t fully grasp until I was there to see it. She loved being up on stage, which is something she must get from her mother, because I couldn’t do something like that.

All in all, it was something I’ll never forget. My little girl wasn’t so little for an evening. She was a dancer.

If you’re ever over the house, ask to see the video. It’s awesome.

Hoop Daddy

2007-01-16T23:55:00.000-08:00

So I've decided to step up to the plate and coach Karsyn’s youth basketball team. Her first game is this Saturday. We’ve had one practice, which went fairly well, but I have no idea how well they’ll do when faced with real competition.

I’m actually quite surprised that Sonya let me coach. Back in the 90’s I coached water polo at Fremont High School for three years. Two years as JV coach and one as the varsity coach. My last year there was a trying one, because I had a team full of players who couldn’t swim.

Oh, and I swore like a drunken sailor at games. Apparently this is not a good thing to do when trying to mold young athletes. The thing is, that’s all I was ever exposed to when I played in high school and college. Coaches were made of piss & vinegar, so I tried the same approach.

Actually, I also had a team of kids that were resigned to the fact that they were going to get their asse…oop…butts handed to them during every game. They did, but I couldn’t accept the attitude that losing was acceptable. I came from programs where athleticism was typically even, and it came down to who wanted to win more. Who would make that extra effort to win.

Using a touchy, feely, psycho-babble approach to coaching high school kids that were defeatists just wouldn’t work. So during my JV stint, I actually turned out a couple of decent teams. But by the time those kids graduated up to varsity, they were so overmatched by kids that could swim circles around them, that they didn’t have a chance.

It’s funny that all these years later, one of the kids I coached is now running that program. He says I was the best coach he ever had. At least that’s what he says to my face!

So here I am, ten years removed from my high school coaching days, about to lead a group of 1st & 2nd grade girls in basketball. I’ve vowed to keep the swearing limited to the “F-word” and a couple of “god damn its” (ha, just kidding Sonya!). I’ve already been warned with great bodily harm to watch the language.

What do I know about basketball you ask? Aside from hours of pick up in college, absolutely nothing. Will these kids learn anything? I hope so. I found some cool coaching plans that the NBA provides for youth development. Some great training concepts in there. Who would have thought to go over the basics…like dribbling.

Besides, you should have seen the look on these kids faces when I tried to explain what rebounding was. It was priceless. Shear terror in their eyes, but priceless.

He Shoots, He Scores!

2007-01-06T13:02:00.000-08:00

Ry Ry on his new roller blades (Christmas present)...

Tracking Santa online via NORAD

2007-01-03T16:32:00.001-08:00

DSC_0153
Originally uploaded by mghione.

The kids were very interested in seeing where Santa was on Christmas Eve.

Our Bama

2006-12-27T23:17:00.000-08:00

BoBo, BoBo Bear, Bams, Bamers, Bamie, FoFo, Bobies. Those were all our nicknames for our dog Bama. After 14 fantastic years, his run as the greatest dog on the planet came to a somber end today. This is one of those things that will be really tough for Sonya and I to talk about, so I’ll try explaining as much as I can here, so you won’t have to ask us about it when you see us.

If you ever met him, you knew he was special. One of those pets that, if lucky, you get to experience once in your lifetime. We were lucky enough to find him at the ripe old age of 10 weeks. I bought him for Sonya as a Christmas present back in 1992. We weren’t married, didn’t own a home, but for some strange reason I thought it was a good idea at the time.

In retrospect it was something that was totally out of character for me. It was one of those irrational, spontaneous things that I didn’t do. After a conversation with Sonya a few weeks before, we got into this debate over the type of dog we would get someday. She wanted a Boxer because they were handsome, sleek, energetic dogs that you could actually run around with. I wanted a Bull dog, because well, I had one as a kid and I thought they were cool looking. Not surprisingly, Sonya turned out to be right.

When I was shopping for a present, we had also started talking about buying a house together. Perhaps I thought that by getting her a dog, it would motivate her to go the whole 9-yards with buying the house. I don’t really know what I was thinking, other than, she wanted a Boxer, so I got her a Boxer.

My mom watched him for a week until Christmas, then brought him over to my dad’s place on Christmas Eve. I’ll never forget the look on Sonya’s face. She had this adorable puppy that was all in favor of checking out his new home. That first night, we let him sleep in his crate downstairs. He howled like, well, a puppy that was away from its mother for the first time. We eventually brought him up stairs to shut him up. The second we set him on a pillow on the floor, he never uttered another peep…for 14 years.

We had to go back to work a couple of days later, which is when our first adventure happened. We put him on the side of the house during the day while we went off to work. My sister had the presence of mind to suggest putting her cat’s tag on his collar until we were able to get one. Low and behold, he jumped the fence that day and went touring the neighborhood. Some kids down the street found him and called to tell us that they had our dog “Lucy”.

Over the years, we learned that Bama 1) couldn’t swim, 2) hated to have his paws touched, 3) farted like a buzz saw, 4) loved any human that would give him the time of day, 5) had a natural talent for modeling, 6) was incapable of passing a large rubber ball, 7) loved to dance, 8) hated squirrels, 9) tolerated small children better than any dog on the planet, 10) would park himself on any lap that made itself available and 11) was faithful to the very end.

Time eventually caught up with him, but not before living almost twice the life expectancy for his breed. Part of that probably had to do with the fact that he was an indoor dog that spent most of his final days guarding our bedroom from squirrels.

The kids are a little sad, but it’s been particularly hard on Sonya and I. Bam was our first child. He will forever be that dog once-in-a-lifetime dog that made our lives better. And for that we’re grateful to have known him.

More [Photos of Bama]

Christmas Photos

2006-12-26T16:59:00.000-08:00

The Boys

2006-12-20T19:51:00.000-08:00

Well here's something I never thought I'd see. Is that Scott actually playing the role of daddy? I think I saw a pig flying outside my window.

Baby Adam is now officially 13 days old and I have to pay a visit. Yes, I feel guilty, but Scott lives in outer Mongolia, so I guess I don't feel that guilty. Why'd he have to move so far away. Perhaps we'll stop by sometime next week.

Cousins

2006-12-20T19:32:00.000-08:00

Sonya has a couple of cousins that we see on a semi-regular basis here in the Bay Area. One of the nice little traditions that the girls all started a few years ago is to get together for dinner during the holidays. We continued that tradition by meeting up in Palo Alto last weekend.

We all had dinner at Buca di Beppo, then had gelato at a cremery dowtown. Dinner was a lot of fun, although it was pointed out that we all used the night away from the kids to talk about, you guessed it, the kids.

Sonya's cousin Julie and her husband Matt have a one year-old, and her other cousin Laura (and husband Mike) has a bambino on the way. Her other cousin Jeremy and his wife Heather, who were married last summer, were probably bored to tears with all the kid banter.

We wrapped things up with coctails and a few rounds of billiards at the Blue Chalk. Good times.

2006 In Review

2006-12-17T23:42:00.000-08:00

In case you were asleep for the past 365 days, here's a recap of the year...

The Card

2006-12-15T23:16:00.000-08:00

The Card - Circa 2005

Ok, this year's Xmas card is finally out the door. We got off our butts and produced it earlier this year. For those of you who've received it, you'll notice the theme is tied in to another post on this blog. If you haven't figured it out, you'll just have to go back a few posts and read up.

If you haven't received one, it means one of the following:

1) You've moved and haven't given us your new address
2) We've lost your address
3) You've pissed me off in some way, shape or form this year...ok, not really.
4) I have no idea who you are (and you're starting to creep me out).

Tell us what you think of this year's card here by posting a comment.

Naughty or Nice?

2006-12-13T21:08:00.000-08:00

"No seriously, I'd prefer the cash!"

Santa needs to wash his beard!

Ry at Xmas in the Park

Xmas Nights

2006-12-12T01:09:00.000-08:00

If you have nothing better to do at night and you're cruising the streets of Sunnyvale, be sure to checkout the Christmas light exhibit at 1168 Tangerine Way [MAP] in Svale. Two familes have teamed up to put together one of the coolest holiday light displays I've ever seen. They've incorporated over 55,000 lights that are synchronized to music.

They even broadcast music on an FM frequency (104.1), so you can watch from the comfort of your car. They run a play list of about 100 songs that runs from 5:30pm to 11:00pm nightly. If you do go, be sure to bring canned food or some cash to donate. They have food bins and a cash box for charity.

Christmas Carolers will be singing at the display on Sunday, Dec. 17th at 7:00 pm.

Checkout their website.

Some stats on the display:

54,408 lights
184 Amps (all lights on)
21,200 Watts (all lights on)
514 bulbs replaced before Opening Night
131 individual computer controlled lighting elements
30 unique animated songs
21 additional "static" (All On) songs

Yahoo's Next Big Challenge

2006-12-06T22:16:00.000-08:00

Yahoo announced a major restructuring late Tuesday evening (here's the press release), followed by a company-wide all-hands meeting led by CEO Terry Semel. The message was pretty clear. We need to consolidate our business and focus on key areas in order to compete with our competitors. Part of this includes positioning several senior level managers in new roles. Most notably, our CFO Sue Decker takes the helm of one of three newly formed divisions. Current CTO Zod Nazem will assume the helm of another, while a search goes on to control the third.

Semel made it clear in the company meeting today that the rumored 10-15% layoffs suggested in Brad Garlinghouse’s Peanut Butter Manifesto are bunk and that employees need not worry about such rumors. The biggest result of the shakeup is that current COO Dan Rosensweig will be leaving Yahoo in March.

Am I worried?

No, not worried. I’ve been working in the industry long enough to realize that change is inevitable. Especially in the fast paced internet industry. If you let stuff like that worry you, then you’ll go nuts in this business.

I’m happy to see the company take action rather than offer up lip service to the market after the street made it clear that revenues must keep pace with what our competitors are doing.

Have we lost our touch?

We’ve certainly made some mistakes, but at least we’re smart enough to recognize that they were mistakes and take action to rectify them. I’ve seen what happens when you have senior managers at the helm that have no clue. Yahoo isn’t in that position. There are some insanely smart people working for this company. I just hope there is enough motivation among the rank & file to stick through the tough times ahead.

We have a long way to go, but we one thing no other company in the world has. Millions of users. More millions than anyone else on the planet. It’s our job to motivate those folks to stick around and to attract the ones that don’t back to the great products that we offer.

Semel blogged about the road that lays ahead, which includes some pretty poignant remarks. How many other CEOs blog? Much less lay out the roadmap for an industry leading company for the world to see?

This is just another challenge for this company, and in the five years that I’ve been an employee, I’ve seen us tackle challenges head on.

I can’t wait for the opportunity to solve new problems, and play a part in building the next phase in Yahoo’s evolution. It’s been a blast for the last five years, and I’m looking forward to the next five.

Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

2006-12-02T22:28:00.000-08:00

We found our tree

The family trekked up to the Santa Cruz Mountains on Saturday afternoon for the annual Christmas tree haul. We hit the usual area (Bear Creek Rd just past Lexington Reservoir), but we tried a new tree farm this year.

It seems that the pickings get slimmer and slimmer each year. Perhaps another indication of overcrowding in the Bay Area? We tried a different side road, and found a place called Faty’s Tree Farm. No untruth’s in advertising here. It took us all of 15 minutes to find a nice fat Douglas Fir that stood about 9.5 feet at the peak.

The view from Faty’s was absolutely incredible. You could see Monterey from the summit. Unbelievable weather for a December day. I wore shorts, t-shirt and a light fleece sweater and I was fine. Gotta love California weather.

After cutting the tree down, we hauled it back to the truck and tied it down on the roof. I think we were door to door in less than an hour and a half. I don’t think I could have plucked a tree from the Home Depot down the street any faster.

This is serious stuff

I must admit that I was seriously considering the Depot this year. It’s a lot of work to lug the kids up to the hills, and it typically consumes an entire day. Sonya reminded me that Ryan always gets the shaft when it comes to doing stuff like this, because we peeter out after having been there / done that with Karsyn.

She was right. He deserves to experience these events, so Home Depot gets to wait another few years before we go that route.

The 9.5 foot tree we brought home had to be trimmed a bit, because we only have 8-foot ceilings, so I lopped off a bit of the base and the top. Dragged it into the living room and set it in the stand.

Low and behold, we picked a winner. It is indeed a fatty. Nice and healthy…at least for the next 30 days.

The decorating crew

Sonya strung the lights on the tree, while I hung our exterior lights on the perimeter of the house. I have to say that there’s nothing more irritating than a strand of lights that is half dead. These things are cheap enough these days that it’s not worth the time to try and find that one damn bulb that’s burned out, so we have a dead patch for a day or two (until I can get down to Thrifty’s and buy a new strand.

After the lights were all up, the kids went to town on putting ornaments on the tree. Ry really had fun. He’s a bit of a non-conformist, insisting that his ornaments be hung on the bottom 2 feet of the tree. Of course it doesn’t help that he’s under three feet tall himself, so we’ll live with the bunching!

After all was said and done, we ended up with a pretty darn nice Christmas tree. I can’t remind myself enough how lucky I am to have such a great tree trimming crew. They did a wonderful job.

Our Tree!

The Blogosphere Grows Again

2006-12-02T01:20:00.000-08:00

The blogosphere grew by one blog this week, when my bud Scott started his very own message to the world. He's still not sure if he's going to keep things isolated, but he's doing it because he's going to be a pappy.

Checkout Christine & Scott's Blog

I figure if it's free for the world to see right now, then he won't mind me pointing folks that read this blog to it.

12/2 UPDATE: We're still all waiting for Scott to tell us something. What up dude? Is that kid here yet or not?

He's checking his list...

2006-11-29T23:42:00.000-08:00

I was talking to Karsyn the other day about something I can't quite remember, but the conversation turned toward something I mentioned that I really liked. It was something at a store or something I had seen on the street. I don't recall which.

Anyway, she turns to me and tells me that I should “ask Santa for it.” It is that tie of the year after all.

“Well, I haven’t asked Santa for anything in a very long time,” I replied. “I’m not even sure I’d qualify, since I’m not a kid.”

It was at that point that realized my mistake.

“You can only ask Santa for stuff if you’re a kid?” asked the inquisitor.

“Um…well, I’m not quite sure, but I’ve never thought about it. There just came a time when I stopped asking him for stuff,” I mustered weakly. “I guess I could ask him for it.”

Then out of the blue, the logic started to roll.

“Why don’t you ask him for your Porsche?” she asked.

“Well, I guess I could ask him for the Porsche that I’ve been waiting for all my life,” I responded with a matter-of-factness that only a 7 year-old would dare.

Had there actually been a Santa Claus nearby, I probably would have plopped my big butt on his lap and laid it all out. “Can I have a 911 Santa? A midnight blue one?”

I think I’m going to ask him the next chance I get. That would of course require for me to actually set foot in a mall, which as my wife will attest, is something I would choose after a root canal if given a preference.

The point of all of this is that I had forgotten when it was like to experience that fantastic time in your life when guys like Santa Claus still existed. It’s only a matter of time before some punk kid at school ruins the whole thing for her. That will then be quickly passed on to spoil her little brother’s idea of that Santa guy.

So with that, I’m going out on a limb and am formally publishing my Christmas with list for 2006:

My baby

– Midnight Blue Porsche 911 Carrera 4 (any year will do…I’m not picky!)

– 2 year subscription to Vintage Motorsport Magazine

- $15 climb in Yahoo stock price by May 1st

- A speedy recovery for my dad

- Health and prosperity for all my family and friends

- Peace on earth (ok, who am I kidding)

- A Stanley Cup in June

That’s it…I know it’s a short list, but I’m not a greedy.

One tough son-of-a-gun

2006-11-19T21:40:00.000-08:00

My dad has cancer. Words I never thought I’d say. When I think of my dad, I think of this being immune from the reality of things as nasty as cancer. He’s the one constant in my life which has never changed. My mentor and consigliare, always available for advice and counsel.

He had surgery last Wednesday to remove his prostate. And as I’ve always known him, he’s been a rock through the whole ordeal. He never whined about having to faceoff with his ailment. Not once has he uttered a word about being scared or worried. He’s a rock you see.

He’s always been like that. I can’t think of one time in my life when I’ve ever seen him to be scared of anything. He’s been pretty matter of fact with this latest test, which scares me. I’ve lost loved ones before who didn’t seem to openly fret about their illnesses, even though they would eventually succumb to the diseases that seemingly snuck up on them.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying he’s being cavalier about his illness. In fact it’s exactly the opposite. My dad doesn’t take anything lightly. It’s just that he has this attitude that he will get past this and he get on with his life.

For that attitude, I’m eternally optimistic. It’s hard not to be when the person in the middle of the fight is that strong. He can’t wait to get the clear from his doctor, so he can spend Christmas in Hawaii, like he’s done every year for the past 15 years.

He’s a tough son-of-a-gun. It’s a trait I wish I had inherited more of. Perhaps it’s the way he’s carried himself over the years. When I was a kid, he smashed his thumb while he was assembling a drafting table in our old house. Rather than writhing in pain (like I would have been doing), I found him laying on his back with his mangled thumb stretched out over his head.

“It won’t bleed as much if I keep it elevated over my heart,” he said to me. “Do me a favor and go get Lilliana (our neighbor who lived across the street) and see if she can drive me to the hospital…I don’t think I can drive.”

To this day, I still can’t believe he didn’t scream when that spring loaded table arm nearly severed that thumb off. Did I mention that he’s one tough son-of-a-gun?

When we checked into the hospital last week, he was just as matter of fact. He’s made it very clear that Thanksgiving dinner at his house will go on as planned and nothing will change. Six days after having major surgery, he’s more concerned that the cranberry sauce is the same as it’s always been.

I can’t wait to look back on this in a few years and reminisce with him about the time he reminded me of just how damn tough he is.

Marrow Donor

2006-11-08T01:43:00.000-08:00

If you haven't received my email yet, Sonya and I have taken up a cause to help a dear friend of ours. His name is Lars, I've blogged about one of his pervious battles before. He has a new fight on his hands. It's called Leukemia.

He won't fight this one alone.

Find out more at: Marrow Donor

Help Us Help Lars

Boo!

2006-11-06T23:58:00.000-08:00

One of our pumpkins

OK, I know I'm lame for taking a week to post this, but here's my 2006 Halloween report. It's been a busy October, and things are just destined to get nuttier with the Holidays and all.

We had a good Ole Hallows Eve. The day started with a costume parade at Karsyn’s school, which was followed by a day or work at the office for me (frightening stuff actually), and finally wrapped up with some trick-or-treating. Actually Sonya took the kids out, while I manned the candy bowl at home.

As usual, out neighborhood is lame. We had maybe 30 kids come by all night. I remember when I was a kid, we’d hit every house within a 5 mile radius of home. We trick-or-treated until we had homes burned in our shoes. These kids today are just plain lazy I tell you. No wonder they’re all obese!

Shirly Temple, Jack
Sparrow and Belle

I remember this trick I had as a kid. I’d always make sure I had a mask incorporated into my costume, because I could double up on houses. I’d hit a house up for some candy with the mask on, walk around the side of the house, remove the mask, then hit the same house again. I have to say that I was quite brilliant as a 9-year-old.

OK, I was a little punk, but I’d collect twice the candy in half the time. It’s not my fault you were dumb and took twice as long as me to score your loot. That’s resourceful if you ask me.

And they wonder where Ry gets it from?!?!?

Anyhow, it was a pretty quite evening. We had one loon come by. He was 13, maybe 14 years old, about 6 feet tall, dressed as a pumpkin. Yes, a 6-foot tall pumpkin. Glasses, disheveled hair, the whole nine yards.

West Valley Costume Parade

Anyway, I give him a piece of candy, but he doesn’t like it. Only he stands there for about 30 seconds silent. He then tells me he doesn’t like the type of candy I’ve selected for him and proceeds to attempt to grab something else out of my bowl.

Fortunately, my guard is already up, because the kid just looks weird. So I pull the bowl back and tell him to keep his mits out of my candy bowl. And yes, I locked the door after closing it, and yes, it did cross my mind that the kid would return with a cleaver an hour later.

Thankfully, he did not.

And she danced...

2006-10-29T23:40:00.000-08:00

The Nutcracker

Some of you may know that Karsyn has been involved in dance for a year or so now. Actually, she’s started taking ballet as a pip-squeak a couple of years ago, but has been involved in a little more than a year. I’ve not been a huge fan of the whole thing, because of a bad experience I had with her first formal performance. I’m not enamored by the way the studio seems to siphon money out of the parents for every little detail.

Anyway, she enjoys it, and I haven’t pushed back on it, so it is what it is. Anyway, her studio somehow is involved with an upcoming performance of the Nutcracker by the Moscow Ballet. They held open auditions for the children’s parts last Friday, and low and behold, Karsyn made the cut.

I’m not sure there really was a cut, but I do know that she will be spending many weekends until the end of December rehearsing for this performance. Now, I can’t tell you how renowned the Moscow Ballet is, but it sounds impressive doesn’t it? They at least own the url: http://www.nutcracker.com/ I have to think that there’s got to be some pull there.

This isn’t the Bolshoi Ballet, but it is the touring company that is best known for it’s rendition of the Nutcracker.

In any case, there is a real live Russian instructor teaching the kids. His name is Boris Baskarov, but “Boris Badanov” seems easier, so that’s what I’ve going to refer to him as over the next few months.

I dropped K off at her rehearsal on Saturday and got to see them in action. There’s certainly a divide between her and the kids that have received more formal ballet training. But, I have to say that I’m pretty impressed with this seven year-old kid trying to play the part of a ballerina. She seems to be very focused (wish we could channel that to some other areas!), and she’s having a good time.

At the S.F. Ballet

The history here is that Sonya has taken her to see the Nutcracker every year for as long as I can remember. Seriously, I can’t think of the last time she hasn’t seen the performance come holiday time. Karsyn also use to go to sleep listening to the music of Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet every night for years. Needless to say, she dug up the CD and is once again counting sugar plum fairies jumping over her bed each night.

So, kind of ironic that she’ll be the one out on the stage this year. She will be dancing in two different scenes. The first is the party scene in Act I. She’ll also be appearing as an angel in one of the latter acts.

For those who need a refresher on the story line, checkout Wikipedia

Kids & Pumpkins

2006-10-28T14:45:00.000-07:00

The Pumpkin Dance

Made our annual trek to Half Moon Bay to pick up some pumkins for Halloween. It's a 40 minute drive, and yes we could pick up pumkins from the supermarket, but it's really the experience. Too many things have been simplified in our lives, that it's nice to get out and experience some things every once in a while.

The kids love it. I love it. We let Ry pick out his own pumpkin this year, and as things turned out, he's a very selective pumpkin picker. He had to trek to the farthest side of the patch before selecting something that he thought was adequate.

Only three days to Halloween, do you have your pumpkin?

[More Pumpkin Pics]

Gickr

2006-10-15T21:12:00.000-07:00

Found this cool site that will build animated gifs for you called Gickr. Checkout the quick imiage animation I put together in 8 clicks:

Game On!

2006-10-02T22:48:00.000-07:00

Ry getting chomped

This Thursday night, all things will be right in the world. Hockey season starts and my butt will be planted firmly in my seat at HP Pavilion to watch the Sharks attempt to bring home their first Stanley Cup.

Ry Ry is evolving into quite the fan himself. He loves going to the game, and will actually sit through an entire contest. Granted, he will spot the cotton candy vendor from 400 yards, but he's pretty good.

He is slowly mastering the chomp (he knows to do it when the Jaws music starts), and when to say "Hey" and pump his fist after the Sharks score a goal. It's very impressive for a two-year-old.

Watching from the glass

He's probably going with me on Thursday night, since his big sister has school on Friday morning. No hockey on school nights. He has a hand-me-dwon jersey (courtesy of his sister) and a real affinity for the home team. Sharkie, the team mascot, scares the hell out of him, but I guess if a shark that was 8 times my size nuzzled up to me when I was that age, I'd probably freak out myself.

I can't wait for Thursday night. Hockey is back!!!

Toof-less

Karsyn decided to get into the act by losing a tooth just in time for the drop of the first puck. I snapped this photo of her shortly after it popped out. She'll probably be ready to drop the gloves with her brother when she finds out that he's going to opening night, and sh's staying home with mom.

Maybe I'll make them shoot for it in the backyard. We have a hockey net back there. Best of 10 shots from 25 feet perhaps. Ry has a wicked slapshot from that range, so he'd probably take it anyway.

The New Stanford Stadium

2006-09-17T21:55:00.000-07:00

Ry at the new Stanford Stadium

Stanford University unveiled its new stadium on Saturday in Palo Alto, so I decided to take Ry to the game so he could be part of the history. This was supposed to include Karsyn as well, but she bailed at the last minute. Apparently college football just doesn’t have the allure with the 6-year old girl demographic that it once did.

The university had a pre-game ceremony that we missed as we tried to score a cheap ticket outside the gates. I was lucky enough to land a freebie and kids two & under are free, so we get in for the bargain price of nothing.

My first impression was that the developers did a great job with the new design. For those of you familiar with the old Stanford Stadium, you may recall the huge staircases that you had to ascend to get to the mineshaft entrances around the old bowl. Those have been replaced with tunnels which lead to an inner concourse that has concessions circling the entire stadium.

Go figure that it would take a university which is home to one of the top 5 business schools in the country, all this time to figure out that you can actually make a buck by selling $6 beers and $5 hot dogs.

Opening Kickoff

As Ry and got to our seats, two Navy F-18 Hornets go thundering overhead as a round of fireworks go off inside the stadium to christen the new joint at the completion of the national anthem. This scares the living daylights out of Ry, who immediately puckers up and begins to cry. It takes several minutes for me to calm him down, but we managed to get things under control by the time the opening kickoff.

Navy altered the happy home-opening script for the Cardinal by laying a military grade whooping during the game. Ry was ready to leave by the end of the 3rd quarter, but then a sports miracle happened.

As it turns out, the stadium had taped colored cards to the backs of each chair for one of those stadium card stunts. That typically works, when you have a capacity crowd in the stadium attempting the stunt. Stanford’s new digs had plenty of empty seats to that whole thing fizzled.

Those that did attend decided to do their aeronautical engineering homework by using those cards to design, develop and test fly giant paper airplanes. With Navy firmly in front of the Cardinal, the paper airplanes began to rain from the new upper deck.

Ryan found this to be the most interesting part of the evening and decided to join in by heaving every airplane that landed within 20 feet of us. The stands around us had cleared out, so he was free to run up and down the aisles, grabbing all the airplanes he could hold.

Future test pilot

With a mighty two-year old heave, those planes found themselves airborne once again.

When he ran out, two women decked out in their finest Stanford garb would point to a discarded plane for him to reintroduce to the atmosphere. There was one sitting right in front of him, but he failed to see it. They were pointing and urging him to look at his feet, but it just didn’t register.

“He’s Cal material”, I bellowed.

To which there was a roar from the gallery. It was the only thing these Cardinal faithful could laugh at all night.

[More Picture of the new Stadium]

[Video of the first points in stadium history]

911

2006-09-11T22:04:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe it’s been five years. I remember getting that phone call from my mom on that September morning and instantly recognizing the urgency in her voice. “Turn on the television set…a plane crashed into the World Trade Center.” Her call woke me, so I was still in a fog. What I would see on the television moments later cleared the haze instantly. It’s eerie how vividly the images still are, all these years later.

I glued myself to the front of our T.V. for 18 hours that day. I, like just about everyone in this country, couldn’t believe it had happened. We would learn that our attackers were simply a weak band of animals who fought their battles like cowards under the cloak of terrorism.

Sonya and I had begun planning the expansion of our family, but I remember pondering the events of that day in a conversation with her about the type of world we would be bringing a child into. The world had become a pit of venom in a few hours. Rather, our red, white and blue sanctuary had allowed a little bit of evil to finally hit home.

We would obviously go on to have a second child, but not without the additional worry of having to raise children in a very different world than the one we knew as children. Will my children ever get to see the world, for fear of being blown up on a plane or murdered by extremists outside the confines of their own home?

The only way my children will be able to experience the wonders of the world is to eradicate this honorless threat. So I support it’s eradication. Do what we must to get the job done. The rules were broken on that September morning, so we need to redefine the rules. Do what we must.

I got up this morning, and flipped through a few channels as I got ready for work, skipping past all the coverage of the memorial services being held around the country. I finally landed on MSNBC, which decided to air NBC’s coverage of that black day. As I sat there buttoning my shirt, the hair stood up on the back of my neck as I watched the first tower fall for the second straight time.

We flew our flag today, in honor of those that gave their lives five years ago. We also flew in honor of a way of life that we do not take for granted. It is something that we must protect at whatever costs. The rules have changed, so we must to.

2nd Grader in the House!

2006-08-29T22:49:00.000-07:00

Our 2nd Grader

Karsyn started 2nd grade on Thursday. What a difference a year makes. She got the teacher she wanted, and her attitude is just incredible. It's like night and day compared to last year, when she ended up with a teacher she didn't know and none of her friends in her class.

This year, Karsyn was hoping to get Miss B (which is short for some long name that I can't spell), but she ended up with Mrs. P, who as is turns out, is the former Miss B. Apparently Miss B, got married over the summer, so she's now Mrs. P. Confused? 2nd grade soap operas are actually quite challenging to understand at first, but you figure them out after having them explained to you by an excited 6 year-old a million times.

Meeting Mrs. P

Actually, even I could tell the difference from the second the bell rang for teh first time on the first day of class. Mrs. P welcomed everyone at teh door with a hug and a huge smile. There were apples waiting for all the kids on the their desks, along with a nice note to parents explaining how this year was going to be fantastic.

Is Mrs. P still on that post matrimonial high? Perhaps, but if it equates to a great 2nd grade experience, I'm all for it.

Karsyn is happy, Sonya is happy, which means Ryan and I are happy. Here's to a great school year...

Dumb Policies "R Us

2006-08-01T21:46:00.000-07:00

Sonya and I went to Toys ‘R Us tonight to see if we could find a couple of diecast Lightning McQueen cars for Ry Ry. If you haven’t already seen the Disney/Pixar movie “Cars”, then you probably have no idea who Lightning McQueen is. This would be the “star” of the animated film.

We search the entire store without any luck, then decide to ask a clerk if they have any of the elusive toys. He tells us that they keep them locked up at the front counter because the “collectors” (translation: Ebay jipsters) hoard them all, leaving none for the kids.

So we walk up to the front counter and ask if they have any of these cars available. The store manager tells us that they have a few other characters, but no Lightning. She proceeds to tell us that we’re limited to two per customer.

So I ask for four of the cars, since both Sonya and I are there (with Ry Ry in tow by the way). She proceeds to tell us that we equal one customer, therefore we are only allowed to purchase two in total.

While I might physically resemble two people fused together, I find it hard to understand how we’re considered a single entity when it comes to buying toy cars. We’re obviously there with our child and from our questions it should have been obvious that we weren’t collectors, but no dice.

“Two per merged customer, its store policy!” claims the store manager.

“That’s not what any of the stores are doing,” Sonya replies.

“Well, each store has its own policy,” retorts the toy Nazi.

Now I’m getting annoyed, but also a little proud that my wife is pushing the toy Nazi on her bogus policy. If anything, we Lee’s love to contest phantom rules that are devised on the fly. It’s a sort of sport with us. Of course debating a Toys ‘R Us store clerk is like beating up on a blind-folded invalid.

So we leave it at that. Well, I take one last shot at the assistant toy Nazi who reveals that the store gets its shipments on Monday nights and has the items on the shelves when the store opens on Tuesday mornings.

“Wow, are you sure you should be revealing that top secret information,” I chortle with a touch of disdain.

The assistant toy Nazi didn’t have an answer for my rhetorical pot-shot. Make that the assistant blindfolded invalid.

I left wondering what the brass at Toys ’R Us headquarters would think if they found out that there night manager was essentially keeping customers from purchasing store merchandise. Considering the number of times Toys ‘R Us has filed for Chapter 11 protection over the last 10 years, they’d probably have no response either. Senior Vice President blindfolded invalids I suppose.

Black Tuesday

2006-07-25T22:55:00.000-07:00

On the Strip

Reporting back on our trip to Vegas. The time away from work and the kids was VERY relaxing. We spent plenty of time at the pool and checking out the sites. We arrived at the Mirage about 11am and were unpacked and ready to go by noon. First thing we did was checkout the Venitian and the Wynn hotels.

We decided to catch a show the first night we were there, so we bought half price tickets for Le Reve at the Wynn. We headed back to our hotel to lay out by the pool and have a few drinks. I ordered this frozen monstrosity that took me about 30 minutes to finish while we soaked in the huge oasis of a pool at the hotel.

Big mistake.

It was hot, I was already dehydrated and the booze knocked me on my butt. We all decided to grab dinner at the Wynn before the show that night, but I was sick to my stomach so I spent the majority of dinner trying to recover. I was able to suck it up and actually enjoyed the 10:30 show.

It was an hour and a half of Cirque du Soleil type acrobatics, all within the confines of a theater that consisted of a huge swimming pool with a retractable stage and all kinds of trapeze type things that would emerge from the 40-foot high domed ceiling. It was quite impressive, considering the action and the fact that all the performers were sopping wet during the show.

At the World Series of Poker

On Monday we did more pool lounging, albeit without any booze for me. We went to the Rio hotel that night, where the World Series of Poker was being held. I saw several pros, including Greg Raymer, the 2004 WSOP Champion. He was gracious enough to autograph a $20 bill for me while walking back to his table during a break from the Pot Limit Omaha event that was going on that night.

After having dinner at the Rio, we decided to head back to our hotel, but there was an amazing lightning storm which was circling the strip. We took a shuttle back to the Paris Hotel and scampered through the rain over to Ceasar’s Palace where we watched the lightning show for about 30 minutes.

By the time we got back our hotel that night, the girls were pretty tired and I wanted to do a little gambling, so I decided to show Scott how to play craps.

Second big mistake.

Sonya & Simon Cowell

I burned through 75% of my bankroll in about 30 minutes, so I switched over the blackjack. I would lose my remaining 25% in another 15 minutes, so my attempts to beat the house came to a sputtering end in less than an hour. Thankfully, I am disciplined enough to set a loss limit and stick to it. Little did I know that my losing streak had just started.

My “black Tuesday” would continue the next morning when Yahoo stock took a kick in the pants by losing 20%. This would be followed by blackout in Los Angeles on Tuesday night, which knocked out all air traffic control in the south western U.S. This would ground our 7:30 flight in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Power was restored and we managed to leave Lost Wages at about midnight, which got us into San Jose at 1:30 Wednesday morning.

Today is Your Birthday...

2006-07-15T13:26:00.000-07:00

Today, unlike any other day, the sun rose in the east, and will more than likely set in the west. And like sands through the hourglass, I am another year older. Yikes. These birthdays just seem to fly by now. Sonya and I are taking a break from the kids for a couple of days and will be headed to Vegas for a couple days of well deserved R&R.

I’ve been brushing up on my craps strategies and am even tempted to take my chances at one of the power tables at the hotel we’re staying at. I’ve been told that Vegas isn’t the place to get involved in a chance game of poker because there are vermin that make a living by hustling weekend warrior poker novices at the casinos.

Still I’m tempted. I think I can play a decent game, and surely there’s got to be one or two drunken schmucks there who will be more than willing to throw their money away. So maybe I’ll give it a shot. More to come on that.

I know I’ll feel a lot more comfortable at a craps table, because I know the game, and the only vermin I need to worry about add up to 7. It's the only game in town that pays true odds, which is the reason I play. I have a 49.2929% chance of winning on a pass roll and a 66.6667% chance to win on a 4 or 10 off a Don't Pass bet.

We’re meeting our friends Scott & Christine and will be soaking up plenty of sun at the pool and great eats at a few of the local haunts. They’re expecting their first child in December, so this is a “last hurrah” for them before embarking on that insanity called “parenthood.” Fools. Giving up a life of sleeping in as late as you want on the weekends, traveling whenever you feel like it, and not having to behave like an adult (Sonya would probably debate that I don’t actually abide by the first and last point here). The grass is always greener I suppose.

We all decided to punt on the $150 Cirqe du Soleil tickets while we’re there. There are just so many more useful things you can do with 600 bones.

I’m budgeting my bank roll, so I’ll report back on if it grew or shrank when I get back. I’m betting on shrank.

4th of July

2006-07-05T23:27:00.000-07:00

Karsyn Kan Opener

Had a great 4th of July holiday. I had Monday off, so I got enjoy a nice long four day weekend. On Saturday, Sonya and I started to clean out the garage and found a few things we could list on Craigslist. We posted the baby backpack that we no longer need, along with three of the dog crates we’ve had over the years. They’re all in great shape, so we sold the backpack and one of the kennels in the first couple of days they were listed.

If anyone is interested in a 6’ x 12’ steel dog kennel, let me now. We’re selling ours to free up some space on the side of the house. We’re planning on having a garage sale this weekend to get rid of more junk from the house. It’s time to start shedding some of the accumulation while we prepare to kick off the house remodel.

I Believe I Can Fly

I worked an SCCA race on Sunday up at Infineon in Sonoma. It was a regional race consisting of local race drivers. I can never get enough auto racing, so it was a blast.

We took the kids to the San Francisco Zoo on Monday. It was ~70 degrees in Sunnyvale when we left the house, and blustery 50 or so at the zoo. I wore shorts of course and ended p freezing my butt off. They’ve done a bit of remodeling at the zoo since my last visit, so there are some pretty nice facilities there.

Zoo Train

We ran into a couple of people from Yahoo, who like us, were there with their kids. Ry and Karsyn got to ride the train (which is a bigger deal for Ry), and we got to see them feeding the River Otters. Aside from the cold, it was fun to get out of the house and do something with Sonya and the kids.

Finally, our 4th of July was spent at the Redwood City 4th of July Parade in the morning, lunch at Sonya’s parents house in the afternoon, then swimming & barbecue at Roger & Joanne’s great house in Woodside.

The parade was a bit shorter than usual, but that worked out well. We had great seats on Main Street, and got plenty of sun. We got a chance to see Grandpa Karl and Grandma Marion for lunch. Mrs Haygood also joined us for a nice holiday bite.

Our friends Roger & Joanne hosted their annual 4th get together, which is always a blast. The kids swim all day, while the parents get to catch up with each other. There’s always great food & drink and plenty of great company.

We capped off the day with a series of fireworks in the driveway. The kids (including us big ones) always get a kick out of the fireworks. It took Ryan sometime to warm up to them, but he was clapping with the rest of by the end of the evening.

More [Zoo Photos]

More [4th of July Photos]

Quick Hits

2006-06-19T21:01:00.000-07:00

Seeing that I've had little time to post anything, I thought I'd post a few pictures with short blurbs on each. OK, here we go...

Annkathrin & Andrea at Yahoo

Here is Annkathrin and Andrea visiting Yahoo! on their way to the airport. They didn't have a chance to visit in the first two weeks of their trip because of the hectic schedule that they had. On their last day in town, my mom brought them by so we could go on a tour of the Sunnyvale campus. They enjoyed it...I think.

Last Day of School!!!

Karsyn wrapped up 1st grade with a great report card. It's incredible how quickly the school year has flown by, but we now have a 2nd grader enjoying her summer vacation. This is the marquee in front of Karsyn's school.

2nd Graders Get a Treat

Sonya and a few of the moms at K's school took the girls out to lunch after school got out and they were also treated to a pedicure at the local nail salon. Karsyn got her nails painted pink (what else) with a daisy flower added to her big toe. I must say I'm quite impressed with the things thos epedicurists can do with a paint brush.

Ry Ry Raises the Cup

Finally, I watched Game 7 of the Stanley Cup on Monday night. It was dissapointing not to see the Sharks hoisting the Cup after getting bounced by the Oilers in the 2nd round of the playoffs this season. The Sharks had the team to do it all, but they ran into some bad luck. Ry Ry made the best of a bad situation by raising his own Stanley Cup while the Carolina Hurricanes skated around the ice with the real thing. Hopefully we'll get to see the real thing in San Jose next season.

Andrea & Annkathrin

2006-06-12T23:00:00.000-07:00

My cousin Andrea and her daughter Annkathrin spent two weeks vacationing in California recently, so we got to spend some time together. Andrea is a doctor in Germany, living in a small town not far from where my mom grew up.

Sonya played tour guide and took the two of them and Karsyn down to Southern California to do the Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Disneyland thing. This was Karsyn’s fourth trip to Dland in the past two years. Not bad when you’re six I suppose.

Sand Crabbin

Annkathrin is on the verge of becoming a teenager, so she wanted to go to Hollywood to see if she’d run into Johnny Depp on the street. Unfortunately for her that commie pinko lives in France (lucky for all of us), so she’s actually been closer to him than we have this whole time. She did get to take a picture in front of his hand & foot prints at Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

When the foursome returned, we spent some time at the beach. We did Manressa in the morning, did lunch in downtown Santa Cruz, then took the kids to the Boardwalk to end the day.

I couldn’t believe how nasty the Boardwalk had become. It was filthy. The people all looked like they were on weekend leave from Folsom. It wasn’t the same Boardwalk that I knew as a kid.

Hang Ten Dude!

The kids all seemed to enjoy it though. They rode a few rides and soaked in the carnival atmosphere.

I heard that Andrea and Annkathrin went back for more later in the week with my mom and sister. It was a busy couple of weeks for them, visiting a number of relatives and seeing the sites. Their stay seemed to fly by, ending far too soon. We’ll just have to take a vacation to Germany as soon as the house is in order.

Memorial Day Fireworks

2006-05-30T23:58:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day weekend has come and gone, so summer has officially kicked off. I can’t believe it’s June already (although officially, it’s not June for another 24.5 hours). My cousin Andrea is visiting from Germany with her 12 year-old daughter Annkathrin. They both wanted to go to Disneyland and were prepared to drive down to LA by themselves before Sonya and Karsyn graciously volunteered to go with them and play host.

Sounds like they hit Hollywood, complete with a visit to the Hollywood Walk-of-Fame and Mann’s Chinese Theater, Disneyland and Universal Studios. We didn’t have a car big enough to accommodate six people so Ryan and I got to stay behind.

We did a little lounging on Sunday and watched racing all day. The Indy 500 in the morning and the Pepsi 600 in the afternoon. Yes, we watched all 1100 miles. We did a little grocery shopping and a load of laundry just to make it feel like we accomplished something!

"Oakland COliseum"

By Monday, I was convinced that I had wasted a perfectly good three-day weekend without doing anything fun (although yes, I do consider watching cars racing each other fun), so I decided to take Ryan to the A’s game.

I tried calling a few people to see if they wanted to tag along, but everyone was busy. My sister didn’t even bother to return my calls, which drives me absolutely ape shit, but what could I do.

The A’s were also putting on a fireworks display after the game, so I figured Ryan would enjoy it.

So, we left the house at 4pm for the 6pm start with hopes of landing a decent pair of tickets from a scalper. If dogs are “chick magnets” then two-year-olds are great ticket magnets. I was walking around the parking lot at the Coliseum for 5 minutes with Ryan in tow when I came upon a family that was about to walk into the ballpark. I asked if they had a pair of extra tickets that they were selling. Low and behold, a single seat right behind home plate in the lower deck for $20.

"Oakland COliseum"

We were early enough to checkout batting practice, so Ryan got to see that for the first time. He was impressed, let me tell you. The uncanny thing about Ryan is that he can sit through an entire 3 hour sporting event and not give me any grief. It’s incredible. He sat and enjoyed the game, gabbing the whole time.

I had told him about the fireworks, so every third questions was, “where fireworks coming?”, as he pointed above the outfield bleachers. “Right there,” I would say. This was usually followed by an “Oh!”, as if I was telling him for the first time.

Either this kid is really excited about fireworks, or he has the short term memory of a turnip.

Anyhow, the A’s stank it up and lost 6-4 to the lowly Kansas City Royals, but we still had the pyrotechnic show in store. After waiting 40 minutes for the Coliseum staff t clear out the bleachers and get some folks down on the field, the show began.

"Oakland COliseum"

With the little guy sitting on my lap for the show, the first set of blasts went off. I could fell him wriggling with discomfort as the shockwaves of the initial blasts caught him a bit off guard. By the time the fifth or sixth firework had detonated, he was a blabbering mess. Loud fireworks scare the crap out of two year olds. I learned this lesson with Karsyn, but apparently I have the long term memory of a turnip.

Within three minutes, we were scrambling for the exits, Ryan crying all the way to the main gate. By the time we made it to the car and got buckled in, the show was over. He seemed to enjoy the last few shots from a distance, but it was late and we had a jump on the 30,000 people that stayed for the show.

Headed for home and he was fast asleep by the time we got to the San Mateo Bridge.

The one firework I was
able to photograph

I'm still here

2006-05-23T22:31:00.000-07:00

Holy crap! It's been almost a month since my last post. I just have too many things going on right now. Work is super busy and the social schedule is in full swing with summer just around the corner.

I took a few photos that I wanted to share:

1) Karsyn's latest soccer game. She played goaltender last weekend and made several awesome saves.

[More photos of the game]

2) Jeremy & Heather's Wedding. We went to Sonya's cousin Jeremy's wedding last Saturday. Jeremy got hitched to Heather. It was a lovely ceremony, with lot's of family in attendance. It just may be the last wedding that we need to go to in a while.

[More photos of the wedding]

Easter Photo Share

2006-04-20T01:23:00.000-07:00

[Click Here for More Easter Photos]

Ry Ry turns the big 2

2006-04-20T01:09:00.000-07:00

Holy smokes, I can’t believe it’s been almost a month since I last posted anything on this blog. A lot has happened over the last few weeks. Most notably, Ry Ry turned 2! The big guy has officially crossed over into the not-so-terrible-twos. I say that because he’s a pretty good little kid.

Granted, he has his moments, but he’s such an easy going kid that you can’t really say that’s he’s a grumpy two-year-old. I took him to a Sharks game with my dad last week and he was great. He sat in his seat for most of the game, cheered like every other fan, and learned to do the “Chomp”!

It was nice to get in a little father-son time. It was even better to get in some father-son-grandfather time. We had a great time…d the Sharks clinched a playoff spot.

We celebrated his party with a few friends and their kids at Off the Wall, the indoor soccer complex in Santa Clara. We reserved the kids mini-soccer field, so the kids could go nuts. The party was originally supposed to be outside at one of the parks near our house, but we’ve received so much rain (and there was rain in the forecast on his birthday) that we decided to move it indoors to be safe.

Sonya staged an egg hunt on the soccer field (this is an astro-turf field enclosed by hockey-style boards). We hid the egg behind 15 or so soccer balls, in the goals, and on the tops of the boards. It turned into a sprint for all the exposed eggs!

The party was also race car themed, so we had a race-car-soccer-Easter-egg-hunt-birthday party. You can’t say we’re not creative parents.

[More Party Photos]

Big Boy Bed

2006-03-27T21:36:00.000-08:00

Ry Ry isn’t a baby anymore. He’s officially a little kid, now complete with his very own big boy bed. After scaling his crib a couple weeks ago, we decided to upgrade to a bed so he won’t break his neck falling out of his crib. So after scouring Craigslist for a week or so, we found the perfect bed for him.

It’s a little blue racing car job that is the perfect fit for him. He has fallen out of it a couple of times in the middle of the night, but he digs it nonetheless. It is his “racecardbed!”

Sonya is dealing with it better than I expected. Tearing down the crib is going to be tough on both of us, because it’s the last time we’ll have a baby in the family. We haven’t removed the crib from his room yet, mainly because we have no place to put it, but there’s still no rush.

As for the new blue race car, I’d love to paint it like Mark Martin’s #6, complete with sponsorship logos, but Sonya won’t let me.

“My son is not going to have ‘Viagra’ painted on the side of his bed,” she said emphatically to me.

What’s wrong with a Viagra sponsorship? It’s a cool paint scheme. We’ll just have to work on her a bit. I’m sure she’ll warm up to the idea sooner or later.

Tom Cruise visits Yahoo

2006-03-22T01:27:00.000-08:00

Yahoo continued it's "Influential Speaker's Series" on Tuesday with a guest appearance by Tom Cruise. Cruise is an old pal of Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, so he stopped by the Sunnyvale campus to share some thoughts on his career in the movie industry. Cruise was 45 late, because he decided to fly his vintage WWII P51 Mustang up to the Bay Area from Southern California, and the weather didn't agree with his flight plans.

After arriving at SJ Airport, he jumped in a limo and trekked over to the Y! Campus with girlfriend Katie Holmes in tow. Cruise talked about some of his experiences with Semel, and answered a few questions about his career. He also jumped up on his chair to proclaim that he and Hlmes will be parents in a couple of weeks (if you haven't been in a supermarket in the past 6 months to see any tabloids, she is indeed prego).

Cruise also talked about stunt work on Hollywood sets, and brought a couple clips of his upcoming Mission Impossible III release. The action scenes weren't bad, but seeing that I haven't set foot in a movie theater in about a year (not counting a group outing to see King Kong), I'll probably have to wait until MI3 comes out on DVD.

When asked about his thoughts on movies translating to mobile devices, he said that he personally enjoyed seeing movies in a theater, but that technology was something that was inevitible and that everyone in the movie business had better embrace it if they wanted to survive. The only other relevant thing he had to share was his experience working with Stanley Kubrick on Eyes Wide Shut. The film took two years to make, but it was one of the "best things" he had the chance to do in his career.

The wild thing was watching a video montage of all of Cruise's movies while we waited for him. It wa pretty incredible to see the long list of movies that this guys has pumped out over the last 20 years. His first was a bit part in Endless Love and his first supporting role was in Taps. I still remember seeing Top Gun for the first time back in 1986. Time sure does indeed fly.

There are TONS of photos of Cruise's visit to the Y! campus on Flickr.

Jabber Jaw

2006-03-07T23:43:00.000-08:00

If you haven’t seen Ryan in a while, one of the first things you notice about him is that his speaking skills are beginning to hone themselves. The little guy has inherited his sister’s gift of gab. He’s not as far along developmentally as Karsyn was at this age, but it’s still pretty amazing to see how his speech is developing.

He is however still only 22 months old, so you also have to get used to his versions of words. I’ve decided to dedicate this post to defining some of the more frequently used word in his repertoire (and by used, this typically means repeating the word 50 times until you acknowledge him).

The Ry Ry Phrase : The Actual Phrase

“kiki” : “blanket” (he’s starting to attach himself at the hip to this dang thing)

“chet-chup” : “ketchup” (most lunch and dinner items must be submerged in chet-chup)

“Sarsyn” : “Karsyn” (as in big sis)

“A doing” : “what are you doing?” (a doing momma? A doing momma?...repeat 50 times)

“welcome” : “you’re welcome”

“hockey stick” : “golf club” (anything long a weapon-like is a hockey stick)

“baff” : “bath” (as in “what are you waiting for, draw my baff now!”)

“ok?” : “are you ok?” (typically asked after he rams into your shins or wakes you up with a pile driver)

“sawie” : “sorry” (typically preceded by “ok?”)

“copter” : “helicopter”

“prane” : “airplane”

“habi” : “haraboji (or “grandfather” in Korean)

More to come…

Ski Week

2006-02-23T22:55:00.000-08:00

Karsyn was out of school all week, and I’m maxed out on vacation, so I decided to take the week off (or so I thought). Sonya and I rented a cabin with our friends Steve & Tracy (and their son Matthew) up in Dorrington near Bear Valley. The snow they received last weekend was well timed. We had 60 degree days up there.

The cabin we rented was fantastic. It was a two story deal with three bedrooms (one complete with two sets of bunk beds for the kinds), kitchen, dining area and cozy living room. The kids had a blast, although only Ryan seemed to appreciate the sledding course that Steve and I setup for the kids outside.

We got in two days of skiing at Bear. The weather was great, and the snow had a fresh dusting, so it was another great ski day. Sonya and I traded off skiing while one watched Ryan. He was chomping at the bit to try out the skiing thing, so Sonya rented the little guy some skis at the resort.

To our surprise, he took to the whole thing like a mad man. Turning be damned, just point his tips down hill and let’er rip! I couldn’t believe it. He’s 22-months old, and skiing for crying out loud! And he digs it! We didn’t force him into lessons or anything.

So now we have two little shredders in the family. Karsyn continues to get better and better on skis. I was racing her by the end of the second day. We skied several black diamond runs over the course of the two days, including a run down Bear’s terrain park. That girl is fearless.

We ran into several folks on the slopes, including Brad & Lindi (and kids Erin and JT), Chris S and her son Mathew, and one of Karsyn’s former pre-school classmates. I was surprised at how empty the resort was. Can’t complain however, because it meant zero wait time on the slopes.

[Photo Album]

Video: Ryan Shredding

Video: Ryan's Ski Run

Video: Karsyn Sizing Up a Jump

Video: Chasing Karsyn Down the Hill

Happy Anniversary

2006-02-14T21:20:00.000-08:00

Sonya and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary last weekend up in the Sierras, complete with a perfect day of skiing at Squaw Valley. More importantly, we got to spend the weekend together sans children. I think this was really more of a treat for Sonya, seeing that she spends all day with them. I can’t say that it was torture being away from them, but I missed them nonetheless.

The weather gods and the ski gods converged to help us celebrate with what was one of the best skiing days I’ve ever had. It was sunny, with temps in the 50’s, but more importantly, there were no people at Squaw. This is almost unheard of. No lift lines and perfect weather? It was heaven!

We spent a good six hours of constant skiing (with the exception of a short break for lunch). The only downside to the day was that because we spent so much time on the hill, we paid for it in the overworked muscle department. My quads were cramping by the end of the day, because I just don’t use my quads the way I used to. It was pretty pathetic. But did I mention that it was the best skiing day ever?

Sonya spent the week prior to our trip struggling over finding hotel accommodations. She booked us at a brand new hotel in Truckee that turned out to be awesome. Brand new rooms, nice facility, and a brand new hot tub (refer to mention of cramped quads above).

We spent our 2nd anniversary at Incline seven years ago, and had dinner at this cool little Mexican restaurant in Incline, so we decided to revisit it. Really, we procrastinated on making reservations at the place that we really wanted to eat (The Lone Eagle Grille).

A friend also mentioned a place called Le Bistro, but after a day of skiing, we decided to keep it simple. Made it back to the hotel and crashed. I don’t think I’ve ever been so tired in my life.

It was a perfect weekend. I almost forgot what it was like to spend time alone with Sonya. Her sense of humor is second to none, she tolerates all my weirdness and she gets more and more beautiful every year. What more could a man ask for?

I had a great time. Looking forward to the big 10th next year.

The New Wolverine

2006-02-09T22:31:00.000-08:00

So I took this picture of Ry Ry the other day and couldn't help but think that he looks like a little Wolverine with that crazy hair he's got going on. Except for the fact that Ry is this cute little guy that runs around the house pounding everything in sight with his plastic golf club, he's pretty harmless. He's no real Wolverine. At least the real comic book kind of Wolverine.

Well, except for the crazy hair do.

Here's another picture of the next defender of the universe running around the living room with a bucket on his head and no pants on. Evil doers beware, we have a super hero in training right here in Sunnyvale!

Hoop Dreams

2006-01-29T11:58:00.000-08:00

2006 has already proven to be a busy year for us. Lots going on and little time for much else. Karsyn’s basketball league started last week and her team the Tigers has already played two games. They tied their first game 10-10, then recorded their first win this past Saturday with a 16-10 triumph. Karsyn had never touched a basketball before this season, so it’s definitely been a learning experience for her.

Her coach has been working on positional play with the girls (mind you this is 6-8 year olds) and has started focusing on the transition game (switching from offense to defense and vice versa). It’s been a little challenge for Karsyn, but her soccer experience is coming into play. She understands the concept of offense vs. defense and what scoring is all about, but her game motor skills need a bit of honing.

In any case, it’s pretty amusing to see how aggressive these little girls are on the court. They scowl at each other and there’s even some trash talking already. Publicly that stuff is not condoned, but the trash talker in me finds it rather amusing.

The Wedding Banquet

Sonya and I recently attended the wedding of Jay T., a friend and former employee of mine. Jay and his new bride Ying are both Chinese, so they hosted a traditional Chinese banquet following their wedding ceremony. The ceremony was on Treasure Island, but they held the banquet at Koi Palace (supposedly one of the best restaurants for authentic Chinese food in the Bay Area).

The reception was essentially a 10 course meal that lasted about four hours. Nobody will ever be able to say that they left Jay & Ying’s wedding hungry. This was ten courses of extravagant Chinese cuisine, from Abalone to “Succulent Roast Pig” to Sharks fin Soup to this fantastic lobster. My favorite dish was a scallop the size of a tennis ball, wrapped in what I think was crab meat. This was then steamed or pan fried in some delectable sauce.

So much for the diet. It was quite the feast. Oh yeah, the wedding was nice too. I got to see a number of folks that I worked with at BigVine back during the gold rush of ’99.

Lars Update

Got an email from Monica yesterday indicating that Lars had just completed his 6th round (of 8) of chemo. She says a CT scan revealed that his tumor has been reduced by 90% since it was originally identified. His spirits are up, but his journey has a ways to go before he can say that’s he whipped his disease.

Take it to the hole!

2006-01-17T00:24:00.000-08:00

Not a lot going on around these parts now that the holidays have passed. This was another 3-day weekend for me, because my company decided to shift one of our holidays to the MLK holiday.I would have preferred that it be used some other time, because having just taken several days during Xmas and New Years, I was well rested.

In any case, we’re bucking up for 2006. Karsyn has been practicing on her youth basketball team (yes, now it’s basketball). She’s on the Pink Tigers, and looks to be quite lost out on the court. Her coach is actually very good. Some might say he’s a bit too hardcore for kids this age, but hey, I’m all for having them learn the game.

Her games start in two weeks, but the team has already had 7 or 8 practices. Sonya and I took Karsyn down to the school to work on her shot, but the local elementary school doesn’t have 6 foot rims (the height that they use at this level). We’ll need to track one down.

Sonya was peeved at me, because the first thing I covered with Karsyn was how to talk proper smack on the court. I taught her to say “Get that mess outta here”, when she blocks a shot, and “Not in my house” when on defense.

This of course is simply me trying to get under my wife’s skin, because no 6-year-old should be saying those things on the court (although it would be pretty funny).

Ryan has converted a play golf club into his very own hockey stick. I watch so much hockey on TV, he was bound to do this sooner or later. He’s actually become quite good at stick-handling a tennis ball up and down the hall. Unfortunately he has also learned how to slash his father’s feet when they are propped up on the couch. I’m sure his mother taught him this.

I get a kick out of him, when he gets real serious and decides to take his “puck” coast to coast from our bedroom to the TV in the family room. He ends his jaunt with a very serious blurting of the word “hockey!” Game on Garth!

For your viewing pleasure

2006-01-06T20:49:00.000-08:00

So I was reading a review of all the best television shows on cable and the airwaves. As I was reading, it dawned on me that I knew half of them. The net net is, I watch too much television. So I figured, ah what the heck, write my own review of my favorite shows. It will undoubtedly reveal just how shallow I am.

How do I (and Sonya) watch all of this TV with two kids? Tivo. It’s a good thing. Sorry Martha, that’s as close as you come to my favorites.

So without further adieu, I bring you my Top 10 Boob Tube Programs:

1) Rescue Me (FX) – I never was a Dennis Leary fan until I started watching this FX show about a New York City firefighter. He’s a drunk, a hot head, and everything you’d expect from a NY firefighter I guess. The humor is raw, the dialogue is crass, but I can’t get enough of it. The season

2) Over There (FX) – I was hesitant to watch a television show about U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq, because I figured it would be some propaganda piece for or against the war. Turns out it’s neither. Simply put, it tells the tale of squad fighting to stay alive, while fighting an enemy they can’t always see.

3) Lost (ABC) – If you haven’t been watching this show since it debuted two years ago, you may be lost. Pick up the DVD of the first season and catch up to this freaky mind game playing tale of a bunch of castaways stranded on a mysterious tropical island. And Evangeline Lily is hot, so that helps.

4) 24 (Fox) – Jack Bauer is one kick ass dude, and 24 is one of those shows that captures your attention because the plot is predictably unpredictable. Nuclear threats, biohazards, and lots of gun play. What else could you want?

5) Desperate Housewives (ABC) – Nothing unmanly about watching a bunch of hot housewives trying to lives their lives on one of the most dysfunctional streets in American suburbia. Checkout the ladies of Wysteria Lane on Sundays at 9pm

6) Inked (A&E) – This a reality series about a tattoo parlor located in the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas. The shop is owned by extreme motocross rider Cary Hart, but the show centers around shop manager Thomas Pendelton, a tortured soul who makes his living as a tattoo artist (and partial owner of the shop). Thomas’ artist drama life is a train wreck, which is tough to not watch as we all know.

7) Roller Girls (A&E) – This is a brand new reality series which chronicles the life of a group of women who compete in the Lonestar Rollergirl League. Check out the five-team, all-girl league of tough and sexy young athletes who pay to skate and play to win. Their raucous bouts combine fierce competition with jaw-dropping outfits and crowd-pleasing personalities. It’s T&A on wheels!

8) It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX) – This cutting edge comedy touches on the untouchable, which is why many critics are saying that FX is what HBO was five years ago. IASIP is not your typical show, which is why it’s a critics favorite.

9) Survivor (CBS) – Still one of my favorites, even though the game is essentially the same season after season. What makes Survivor appealing is the cast of jokers they roll out each season.

10) The Apprentice (NBC) – The Donald is a dork, but his show is cool. I’ve figured out the ultimate business model from this show. Simply collect a nickel every time someone utters “I’m more qualified than these idiots, I should be the Apprentice”. It seems as if half the candidates are guaranteed to be buffoons, which makes for entertaining television I guess. I’m hooked.

Honrable Mention:

- Any show that risks peoples lives while trying to catch crab
- Any WWII rerun during Memorial Day
- Anything on the Food Network
- Any sporting event (exluding pro basketball)...that even includes highlights that I saw six hours earlier.

Ringing in 2006 Tahoe Style

2006-01-03T23:26:00.000-08:00

The whole family rang in 2006 up in Lake Tahoe over a long four day weekend, courtesy of our friends Roger & Joanne. They own a cabin up in Tahoe City, so we trekked up to the Sierras for the second consecutive year. The cabin is right on Lake Tahoe, with an awesome view of the lake from their living room.

It took us about 4.5 hours to drive up on Thursday night. We managed to beat the beat the storm that pounded most of California on our drive, but would experience it once we reached our destination. It rained all day Friday, so even though we were at 6200 feet above sea level, we saw lots of water and little snow.

This was a bit of a drag because there were seven kids to go along with six adults. Everyone started to get a little cabin fever because of the rain. On Saturday we heard that highway 80 was closed because of rock slides just north of where we were located. The rain continued to fall, and at noon the power went out in the cabin.

It finally started to snow on Saturday afternoon, so the kids got to play in the white stuff later that day. There was a small hill in the complex we were staying, so everyone did a little sledding. Ryan and Karsyn loved it.

We had gone grocery shopping the day before and decided to simplify things by buying a couple of frozen lasagna’s. Without any power, we were in a bit of a quandary, because the cabin was equipped with an electric oven. We improvised and used the propane BBQ on the patio and grilled up those lasagna’s. To be honest with you, they came out quite nicely.

So on New Year’s Eve, we enjoyed BBQ’d lasagna, Sonya’s patented Pecan and Cranberry Salad, real garlic bread and a few bottles of some great wine that Roger brought up. All of this by candle light. It was also Sonya's 29th birthday (again!), so she celebrated by knocking me out of two no-limit poker games.

Given the absence of power, we were actually forced to communicate with each other, rather than watch TV all day. It turned out to be one of the nicer New Year’s Eve celebrations that I’ve participated in. Relaxing to say the least.

It snowed over night, so we woke up on New Year’s Day to about 8 inches of new snow. Ryan unfortunately had a bought with some bad milk (we think) and he ended up barfing all over one of the beds in our room. So spent the first morning of the new year, stripping the beds and rinsing sheets. Still had no power, so we couldn’t run the washing machine to clean them up there.

By the time we left (about 1pm on Jan 1), there was no power throughout all of Tahoe City and the snow was falling again. We actually high tailed it out of town a little early for fear of getting stuck on the highway because the next big storm was rolling in.

So, we piled up the car and headed back to the Bay Area. The roads were slick, the traffic was heavy and the wind was howling. Took us about 7.5 hours to get home. A long drive, but well worth it.

Happy Holidays

2005-12-27T23:01:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a good Christmas. We did the usual. Hosted dinner on Christmas Eve for all our immediate family, then trekked up to Danville on Christmas day to spend the day with Sonya’s aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. The kids made out like bandits once again. They are the most spoiled children on the planet, and I am grateful for that. I know there are a ton of people that love them, and that’s all I could hope for each year.

I got spend four consecutive days with the family, which is always nice. Having made our trip to Disneyland earlier this month, and then having another four day weekend meant I got to spend more time with the kids and Sonya. She’s the greatest mom on the planet, and I got to experience more why this is true first hand.

Christmas is getting more and more fun each year, now that the kids are starting to understand more about Santa Claus and the whole deal. Karsyn left Santa a note this year, asking how many elves helped him out up in the North Pole. Santa was happy to answer her question with a written response on Christmas Eve. There are 1,063 elves apparently. Sounds like the job market is good in just about ever place these days.

The Sharks hosted a holiday skate at the HP Pavilion tonight, so we took Karsyn ice skating for the very first time. She, like all little girls, loved it. I’m sure we’ll be getting a request for new skates any day now. She’s pretty athletic for a 6-year-old, so she was able to pick it up pretty quickly. I shot some video with my digital camera. Checkout this not so elegant [clip of her flopping down the ice].

We’re headed up to Tahoe on Thursday to spend New Years Eve with our friends Roger, Joanne, Robert & Sherri (and all their kids). I’m worried that the snowfall has been too light to produce anything worth playing in up there. Hopefully the storms we’re supposed to get the remainder of this week will drop a few inches before we get up there.

We were spoiled last year with record snowfall. Our trip last New Year’s eve was a blast for the kids. Cross your fingers for us.

And have a Happy New Year.