Scary Times

It has been quite the weekend to say the least. For those of you who haven't heard my FIL (father-in-law) Rick had emergency quadruple bypass surgery this morning. It started on Thursday when he passed out a couple times at work and has been a roller coaster ever since then. The good news is the surgery went well and he's on the path to recovery. We've gotten to see him a couple times since the surgery and he's looked better each time. Still in a lot of pain and pretty out of it, but doing well none the less. Tomorrow he should be more with it and getting stronger. Thanks for everyone's calls, emails, texts and concerns. I'll be coming back to the cities sometime tomorrow and will keep ya updated.

A bike ride in the bay

The last afternoon out here we decided to take a bike ride over the Golden Gate Bridge. It started by Fisherman's Wharf, followed the bay, went over the bridge, and ended in Sausalito. It was soo beautiful! There were many scenic overlooks that took your breath away. I took a million pictures and will get them all up soon but here's a couple of the best ones.









Heading home tomorrow (Friday). The trip has been great but I am very excited to see my hubby and puppy! And also sleep in my own bed. Gotta love all the comforts of home.

What a party!

Last night was Oracle Appreciation Night. It was AMAZING. It's so hard to describe the massiveness of this event and how everything they did they went all out for. It was held on Treasure Island. There were 2 huge stages for the bands, one outside and one inside under a tent. They also had tents filled with foods varying from sushi to dim sum to hog dogs, all the wine & beer you can drink, carnival rides, carny games, dance floors and tens of thousands of peoples. And all of it was free. My words really don't do it justice so maybe pictures will help.

The entrance.


The backside of the outdoor stage taken from top of the ferris wheel.


Looking down on the pier from the ferris wheel.


Inside one of the food tents.

More updates

Day 3 of conferences is complete. Those were my 3 big days and the next 2 will be lighter. My brain is glad!! I somehow manage to always pick the wrong places to sit in each session.

This morning I had the guy who could not sit still for more than 15 seconds right in front of me. He seemed to forget he was in the middle and kept putting his hands on his head blocking the view for everyone behind him. Thanks... This afternoon I had the guy who coughed every minute. That was pleasant too but the guy yesterday takes the cake. First, I am in this class that is 100% full. The speaker was one of the best presenters of the whole conference and his talks are always packed, so you think you should be able to stay awake through them right? oh no. Not this guy. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him nodding off a couple of times out. I silently laughed. A little bit later I feel him fall into me!! He had fallen asleep so hard that he did the head bob and body fall to the side...right onto me. He immediately woke up and started apologizing and telling me that I need to elbow him. I laughed and told him next time I will. I think he felt bad but he should! At least he woke up and didn't continue to sleep on my shoulder.

Couple pics from yesterday that I had to share during our sightseeing tour. We walked around China town up to Washington Square.

This one is for Lori, Justin, Kristen any other neighbor who reads my blog. Note the clothes hanging all over. Remind you of anything?


This was taken in Washington Square. It's a big green space and these people were on the side doing aerobics and chanting. Think if I showed them my fitpass I could join??

Observations of San Fran

The trip has been great so far. We had our first day of conferences today and yesterday we crammed as much touristy stuff in as possible. Here's what I have noticed so far...

1. Sooo many hot men here but they are all soooo gay. Still very fun to look at!
2. There are random shoes laying all over the city sidewalks. Scott thinks it has to do with that scene in the movie The Pursuit of Happiness. This morning we even found the left shoe that went with the right one saw before. I will try and get pictures of these before the week is over. :)
3. When you check in you are given a bunch of free gifts including a shirt or jacket. Oracle apparently thinks not enough women attend this conference to make it worth while to make shirts/jackets in anything smaller than a men's large which as one of the workers said, tends to run big. sidenote: I have seen a lot more women here than I thought but still there has yet to be a line in any of the women's bathrooms. Miracle!
4. My pants are not going to be fitting by the end of the week. First Oracle makes sure there is some kind of food sitting out between every session - and it's all really good stuff from pastries in the am to cookies in the afternoon. Second all of the restaurants we have eaten at have been incredible!! I love good food!
5. There is a starbucks on every block. no joke. Bonus: the conference serves starbucks coffee ALL DAY LONG for free. I am in heaven...and am highly caffeinated.
6. My favorite quote of the day: This older man was handing out a drawing slip as you entered one of the sessions. One woman asked what it was for and the man replied it was to win a Wii - expect instead of pronouncing it Wii he said it like Why. Oh we laughed so hard.

Here's a couple highlight pics from Pier 39.

Renee and I with Alcatraz in the background. yes, it was super windy hence me eating my hair.


I loved the Sea Lions!!!


I also love all the cable cars and wiring everywhere. This was taken close to where the conference is being held.

Heading Out

As I had said before, tomorrow I am heading to San Fran for Oracle Open World, which according to my manager is the biggest computer conference in the world with over 40,000 attending last year. aka the biggest GEEK fest in the world.

(not my dept but what I am expecting to see)


I can't wait to see what all the hype is out. As dumb as all these people will make me feel, I have a feeling my ego might rise a bit after being there for a week. :) I'll have my computer and camera with so I will do my best to blog as much as I can but we'll have to see what time allows for.

Have a great weekend and week!!

You know you are getting old when...

I'm heading to San Fran this weekend for a business work conference - Oracle Open World for anyone nerdy enough to know what that is. Another girl that I work with and I are planning on going out to a club the first night were are there before the conference start. As we're talking about what we're going to wear all I can worry about is how cold I am going to be getting there and if it's ok to wear a coat. REALLY? How old am I? It'll probably be between 50 and 60 degrees; not all that cold. In college I used to go out to house parties wearing the tiniest of all skirts and skimpiest tank tops in the middle of winter! We'd tromp across campus shivering and cuddling in groups all just to look good. My how things have changed...

I did feel a little better though as I was talking to Brent and Cran about what we're wearing to our high school reunion. Brent mentioned he'll probably wear a dressier shirt, jeans but still might wear his tennis shoes instead of nice brown ones because they are more comfortable and he'll probably be walking around and on his feet all night long. At least I'm not the only one thinking about comfort before fashion. :)

Football Rocks!!! The Vikings...Not So Much

First I gotta say a big thanks to Spalon Montage for giving us tickets to the Vikings game. Spalon does the hair/nails and all of that for the cheerleaders so they have 10 tickets to every game. We found out Friday that Justin's boss, who was supposed to go with us to the game, had a conflict of schedule so she was nice and gave us the 2 extra tickets. We quickly called up our favorite Vikings fans, the Eids and were set to go!

The day started out with some tailgating in the parking ramp.




Even though my Vikes lost, the game was still so much fun. Our seats were great - row 26 in the corner of the field. As we were standing and cheering I was thinking how much I love football and could get used to doing this every time they are at home.



A bonus: I found this setting on my camera called "Sports". It gave my camera super zoom!!!


And the reason we were there...Don't they look great? :)

This is getting ridiculous...

I have a confession to make...I am a TV junkie. I get so excited for all of my shows to return and to see my favorite characters. This year I have run into a dilemma. Between the new shows last fall, the shows aired during the writers strike and all of my old favorites I have too many to watch! This is pretty embarrassing but Justin and I had to make a spreadsheet of all of our shows so we know what to record on each tivo - yes we have 2 and there are some nights when all 4 recordings will be in use. We did come up with a really good idea that since there aren't any shows for most of the summer we would tivo ones we like now and save them until then. But for the rest I think I might have to give some up. How do I choose? I've watch Grey's and Desperate Housewives since they started so I feel like I'm too committed to that relationship to give it up. Then there's the Biggest Loser which I just LOVE. So do I really need to watch Dirty Sexy Money AND Lipstick Jungle too? How could I give up seeing Robert Buckley every week and his hot affair??



And then there's NCIS and Criminal Minds which I feel slightly stimulate my mind, at least more than all that other trash. And everyone at work talks about The Office so I need to watch that. Then there's Amazing Race which I swore off after last season but am getting tempted to try it again. This is starting to stress me out. I think I need to cancel my Netflix. And then get a life. :)

Kinda Famous!!

Earlier today I was at the rec stretching after my spin class. I remembered that a couple classes last semester got photographed so I scanned the posters for people I knew. I got to one and slowly started to recognize the hair cut, tank top and person in the background...It was my mom and me!! I'm the one up front and she's the one in back. Not only is this on the wall at the rec but it's also in all of their brochures. Whoo Hoo the back of our heads are famous!! I will gladly autograph anyones brochure. :)

Perfect Fall Weekend

A rare thing happened this weekend. Friday came and we had NO plans for the whole entire weekend. I think this might be the first time in 2007 this has happened. Sat Justin and I headed to the Renaissance Festival. We have been saying for years that we've wanted to check it out and we finally had the time! It was interesting...I didn't bring my camera but I swear those people pictured above were clones of ones that I saw. It definitely drew a different crowd. Not something I can ever see myself getting into but I did enjoy being called "My Lady" for the afternoon. We watched jousting, a fire eating show, and of course had to hit up the famous Puke & Snot (Jr now). And it wouldn't be any fair unless we ate our heart out so we indulged in a popover, Turkey drumstick, cheese curds, frozen chocolate covered banana, and a bore sandwich. Very glad that we checked it out but I don't think we'll be going back for many years.


The cool rainy weather Sunday morning set the stage for a great football watching day. We had the Eids over to kickoff the year. Since the Vikes weren't playing we watched Justin's team - the Jets play Miami. Mallory even got to antagonize Justin a bit by saying "Go Dolphins!"

And now everyone (yes Conner & Zoey included) in my house is taking their afternoon siesta. Such a great day. Maybe I should go join them...

Camping Part III

Usually camping once a year is more than enough for me but I had friends who really wanted to go. I'm a sucker for hanging out with all of them so I happily agreed. We headed up Friday afternoon to Camp Waub-O-Jeeg in Taylors Falls. The weather was perfect and a great way to spend the last weekend of summer. I did pretty good this time although still had one run in w/a spider that was even worse than last time. We were sitting around the fire and this gust of wind blows. I looked down and see the biggest black daddy long legs on my arm. I screamed like a little girl and jumped up flapping my arm. It gave me the willies... Of course lots of pictures taken. Here are a couple highlights:

Friday night hanging around the campfire.




Sat we went canoeing down the St. Croix.






There were definitely a few people we saw that required blog moments. The first was spotted as Justin and I were driving into Stillwater. We were stuck in traffic and on the side of the road, a guy on a bike slowly pedals by. And in his mouth...a pipe!! Apparently he couldn't wait to get to the top of the hill before he started his smoke. It was too quick for me to get a picture but I'm sure an image pops in your head.

The 2nd was this guy. We canoed by him and he seem to enjoy bending over and showing us his plumber crack. Click the link to see a larger picture if you really want to get the full effect!


My favorite has to be this guy. We were picnicking at a park near our campground and in drives this guy. He took a lap of the park and left. Maybe it's because we weren't so subtle trying to get a picture of him. :) Gotta love the milk crate on the back of the bike and a flannel when it's 80+ degrees out!