Dessert 2

Originally uploaded by shutterjunky

Here’s a shot of Lucy enjoying dessert after Christmas dinner. We had a fun holiday staying home in Alameda and making the short trek to Los Altos for Christmas Day.  Happy New Year everyone!

 P.S.  A lot of new photos from December are up on flickr, and you can see them on the photo page in the 2008 family snapshots set.

First Flight (Photo by iFLY),
originally uploaded by shutterjunky.

Sharon got me, as a birthday gift, a indoor skydiving session, and Jay was so excited about the idea that she got him one too. So we all went down to iFLY in Union City yesterday and all of us flew. In fact, Jay did it once, thought about it some, and then begged to it again! Then he talked about it for hours. It was an amazingly fun experience for all of us!

Here’s the site: www.iflysfbay.com. The wind tunnel is amazing. When they crank it up all the way, the wind reaches speeds of 170-180 miles per hour, which is enough for an experienced flyer to “sit” on. For our beginner flights, it was more like 115 for me, and 105 for Sharon. You understand from experiencing this just how powerful >110 mile-per-hour winds are.

Soft Focus,
originally uploaded by shutterjunky.

For my dad’s birthday in early April, we went to the UCB Botanical Gardens in the Berkeley Hills. The clouds and wind made it a bit chilly (seems like that’s been the case all Spring this year), but we had a great time anyway. Here’s Lucy in her parka enjoying the scene; it’s a bit out of focus, notwithstanding my effort to sharpen her eyes, but I think it’s a great shot of her otherwise.  For more pictures (including of the gardens themselves), check out the Photo Page.

The day started at 9:00 a.m. at Jay’s preschool.  We dropped Jay off in his costume and the whole preschool class did a mini-parade around the school grounds.  Then they did a little Halloween singing performance.  It was something watching 20 preschoolers singing the “Bones Song” (a variation on ‘Dem Bones, but covering the scientific names of virtually every bone in the human body!), and most of them (including Jay) knowing almost all the words.  Yes even the phalanges were covered, and I’m not even sure how to spell that one!

Later in the day, Jay went to his first capoeira class at a local performing arts studio.  Apparently he’s a natural … was able to mimic the movements of his teacher nearly perfectly!  Lucy stayed with me and I finished carving jack-o-lanterns while she ate Cheerios and attempted to eat a book.

When Sharon and Jay returned, we quickly got the kids in their costumes (Jay a wizard and Lucy a giraffe that some of you may recognize from when Jay was 8 months old) and headed to the corner of Versailles and Lincoln Aves., where tons of the local preschoolers meet for an early trick-or-treat run, also known as the “Versailles parade.”  The candy haul from that expedition alone was outrageous!

Then we all headed home and Sharon and I got in our costumes (witch and pirate!), and I set up the outside decorations. We did a “tiki” Halloween this year, including an inflatable palm tree, some crabs in nets, tiki torches and a skeleton with a grass skirt.  Sharon had carved a tiki mask into one of the jack-o-lanterns to complete the effect.  We also had a few random scary things from prior Halloweens (tombstones, fog machine, bat, spiders, etc.)  Our friends, Harry and Natasha, and their 2.5 kids (Owen, Preston and the-one-on-the-way), came over, and so did Granny Pam, Grandpa Sam, and Grandma Becky.  Grandpa Dean had to stay home and defend his home from the hordes of kids on the West End of Alameda!

After a quick dinner supplied by Granny Pam, the trick-or-treating party left to scour Johnson Avenue.  Jay, Lucy and Owen were joined by Sharon, Grandma Becky, Grandpa Sam and Natasha and came away with an even bigger haul of candy.  Many neighgors gave Jay extra because of Lucy … just what we wanted!  Harry and I attempted to scare children with fog blasts, and hung out with Granny Pam and Preston.

Then we all fell down in an exhausted heap and looked through the spoils of the evening.  I did have one little adventure later on when I scared some teenagers away from the house as they approached and tried to steal our skeleton … grrr!

Another update coming soon!