Labor Day Weekend

Well I hope everyone has a great Labor Day Weekend. We are going camping with a group of the Kings friends an hour down the coast. Still have not decided if I want to drive home on Saturday to watch the OU game. What would here friends say or think? It's only an hour away. I should probably stay there and watch it when I get home. Seems like the right thing to do. Well whatever you have planned I hope it's nice and safe!

15 Seconds

They say everyone get's 15 minutes of fame. Well this past weekend I had my 15 seconds, which is really all that I need. The local ABC station out here did a piece on volunteer work. My company is the largest volunteer company in Northern California. While we were at the local Food Bank volunteering, ABC was there filming for the episode. They say the camera adds about 10 pounds to you. Well they must have had about 10 cameras on me, and the glare from my head was blinding. They tried to interview me but I was to quick and had moved on before they could catch me. Please, no autographs!

After the Garage Sale

Well we had our garage sale this past weekend and got rid of some stuff. Not nearly as much as I would have liked but a very good start. I will give the rest to Goodwill and haul of the rest to the dump. We cleared around $700 for the 2 days. The King & Crysta made very good sales ladies, as they worked the crowd. I remember what Jeanne said about the people. We did have a few strange folks come by. There was the guy who had to have everything shown to him about how it works. We wanted him to leave, but the King just kept showing him stuff. Then there was the lady who was a little confused. She would come by and by some of the kids Pokemon cards. Just grab some and random, pay and then leave. An hour later she would be back after changing her clothes and get some more. She came back a few more times, each time in different clothes where she started buying golf balls a few at a time. Somewhere she is sitting with some really bad Pokemon cards and about 5 golf balls. It was also a really great way to meet the neighbors who came by. You always see them and wave, but now we actually know their names and their kids. I gave all of my old clothes to our day janitor at the office. She takes them and gives them to the people in Mexico. Next time I'm in Mexico I will probably recognize everyone or at least their clothes. I 'm getting closer to my dream of a house without unneeded things!!!

Garage Sale

We spent Sunday pulling stuff out to have a garage sale next weekend. It is amazing how much crap you can accumulate over time. We were able to empty out a room with so much stuff to get rid of. I know we won't get rid of enough to make me happy. The King seems to hang on to everything she has ever had. I am willing to part with a lot of my stuff. Only keeping things that have sentimental value, of which I have about 4 boxes and she has about 40 boxes. Hopefully the sale will go through and be a big success.

Back To Chinatown

It has been almost 3 months since we were in the SF Chinatown. We went sometime in May before we left for China and have not been since we got back. The King had not cooked Chinese food since we got back. I think that was because all we had on the trip was Chinese and she was paying us back. We went to Chinatown on Saturday to buy some groceries to get back to our old routine of eating Chinese food. I had begun to miss Chinatown, but quickly realized once we got there that I hadn't. It's funny, I really miss the China that we visited. Everyone here is pushy, rude and spits all over the place, plus it's just dirty. To me, it was just the opposite in China. None of that stuff went on like it does here, it probably has a lot to do with the consequences they face in China. Spitting will get you 2 years in prison over there. So I have decide that the Chinese that come to the states are like the kids from divorced families, they go live with the parent who will let them get away with stuff. All of the Chinese that don't want to follow the rules or deal with the consequences of their actions move to the states. I know things are tough in China with little or no freedom, but I'm having trouble finding fault with that. We might have a little too much freedom. Ride a bus or the subway in China then ride one here. I would pick theirs every time. No one eats or drinks or plays loud music over there. You want to kill half the people here for being a**holes. Enough of my rant, that's just how I felt after going back to our Chinatown.

Week In Review

Nothing very exciting happening out here. The weather has been very nice in the city, usually around 68 during the day. Elijah has joined a Dragon Boat team and has been practicing. For those who do not know what Dragon Boat racing is, please check out this site http://www.cdba.org/aboutdragonboat.shtml. He really seems excited about it and they practice 3 times a week for 3 hours. Did a little back to school shopping this weekend and then went to dinner with the King's parents and her brother Wing's family. After dinner their two kids came over and are staying at our house until they get bored or 4 kids is just too much for us. They have been no problem and they all seemed to be getting along and having a good time. Yesterday we went and bought a new bed for Elijah and that just got me started on cleaning up the place. We did a lot of cleaning with so much more to do. We are planning on having a garage sale the weekend of the 26th. Looking to unload a bunch of stuff. I smoked some ribs for dinner (I'm getting much better at it) and we ate. All in all not much excitement but life in general. Later!

Candy Dulfer Concert

Well this weekend we went to the Rodney Strong Winery in Healsdburg to see Candy Dulfer in concert. Not sure if you all know who she is, but she is a terrific jazz saxophone player who plays with people like Prince and Van Morrison when she is not touring on her own. She lives in The Netherlands and rarely tours in the States. So suffice it to say that I was very excited she was playing a show out here. We had really great seats and enjoyed a VIP wine and food tasting before the show. There was a group called Brain Culberson and Eric Darius that opened the show and they were both very good. Candy played after them and she was great. After the show we were able to get everyone's autograph. It was a good day!

Silver Oak Winery

The King and I went up to the Sonoma Wine country this weekend to see a concert. We stopped off at the Silver Oak winery where they were having their Summer Release Party. The winery only makes Cabernet and they were releasing the 2002 Cabernet. It was a huge party with a lot of good food and some great wine. We really had a good time.

Happy Birthday's!

Happy birthday to both Mike and Terri! Hope you both have a great day! Not too much going on here except the heat. I know it's not anywhere what you are having in Oklahoma, but it's pretty warm. Especially when you don't have air conditioning. We went to a Giants game last Saturday and saw them win. Sunday I fired up my new grill for the first time. We got some shark steaks at the store and grilled them. They were very good! I was on Jury Duty most of this week, but have done my civic duty for at least another year. Last night we went out to dinner with two of the families that were on the China tour that live near us. It was really good to see them again. It brought back some nice memories the first time the kids went "ewww" This Saturday the King and I will head up into the wine country to see a concert at the Rodney Strong Winery. We are going to see Candy Dulfer who is a jazz saxophonist that I have liked for a long time. Mike may know here as the girl who plays on Princes' albums. Glad to hear everyone is doing well and UK made it back safely from Guam. Till next time, Later!

Where's Your Mom?

Keeping track of Mom to make sure she didn't wonder off and avoid getting those calls from the front desk.

The King Says Hello To A Local

Our Tour Group

Update

Well it's been tough having to work a whole week. Sure do miss the days in China where you didn't even think about work. Not much going on here, kids are just hanging around the house while the King and I work. Bought me a new grill the other night, so I will probably test it out this weekend. For those of you waiting to see the pictures, be patient. I have been working on them this whole week when I could and I have about a third of them cleaned up and labeled. I would like to thank UK for putting up with us and for being a top notch tour guide, it was really great to see him. I find that I really miss having someone salute me when I walk by, oh well I got to enjoy it for a little while. Later!

For Mom this year, her birthday fell while we were in Hong Kong. We went to Macau that morning, taking a 1 hour boat ride over to the island. We then spent the day seeing the sights in Macau and then took the ferry back to Hong Kong. My mission was to get Mom some American food for the evening. We had some wonderful Chinese food the whole trip, but every once in a while you need something different. Truth be told, we were looking for a KFC when we stumbled across the Hong Kong Hard Rock. We went inside and proceeded to have some of the best nacho's we had ever had. Not really, but they were the best at that moment. We then scarfed down some cheeseburgers. They started playing the Beatles "Today is your Birthday" on the sound system, and then they put on the monitors "Happy Rockin Birthday to Layanda!" Mom wondered who Layanda was until she turned around and all of the staff from the Hard Rock was right behind her. They asked her to stand on the chair, which she politely refused, and the whole place sang Happy Birthday to Layanda. It was pretty cool!

Hanging in the Forbidden City

On the Great Wall

Mom eating eels in Nanjing

We Are Out of Here

Well the day has finally arrived and I can't wait for it to be over. I am not looking forward to the 12 hour flight to Beijing. Last night Crysta graduated from Middle School and then a party after with her friends. I have had 4 hours sleep but seem surprisingly awake. Hope I go comatose on the plane. Well we probably won't be able to update until we get to UK. We will let you all know how we are doing as soon as we can. Maybe we will find an Internet Cafe in Beijing. Later!!

Weekend Recap

Well, I hope that everyone had a nice and safe Memorial Day weekend. We spent some time on Saturday morning at carnival Street Fair in the Mission District. From there we went to the East Bay for the King to do a little shopping. Later that evening we went to see the new "X-Men" movie, which was pretty good. Sunday we got up and went to see the Giants play the Colorado Rockies and to see Barry Bonds hit his 715 homerun. It was really cool to be there and see something like that in front of a home crowd. It was wild! Yesterday the King got her haircut and so did Elijah in preparation for our trip to China. It's getting closer and I guess it's about time to start getting ready for it.

Our Champions

This past weekend Crysta and her basketball team played in the Championship for her league. It was a very exciting game, but the girls fell just a little short losing by 2 points at the buzzer. The girls were very disappointed but played their hearts out and that is all that matters. We were very proud of Crysta. After the game the parents decided to take the girls out to Chevy's a local Mexican chain to celebrate. This was the last game the girls would play together after 4 years. They will all move on to different high schools next year. They all quickly got over the disappointment and had a great time. They sat at one table raising hell and the parents sat at the other one drinking margaritas. It was good to see them really enjoying themselves.