Goooooo . . . BEARS!!

Cal opened its 2008 season against Michigan State. There is a bit of a quarterback controversy this year, Coach Tedford has named sophomore Kevin Riley the starter over senior Nate Longshore. Longhore was great at times last year, but inconsistent, Riley had some great games but then made that horrible play at the end of the Oregon game that started Cal's downfall last year. Riley started the opening game, he looked ok in the first quarter. Longshore came in the 2nd quarter, which was planned, threw a 50 yard completion, but then promptly threw two interceptions, one returned for a touchdown. Riley played the rest of the game and looked pretty impressive. Running back and receiver Javed Best (no 4) looked great. Clips are attached. Note the new uniforms, with no names on the back. It's going to be a long season for the Bears. Goooooooo BEARS!

Simone in London

Simone is in London, on the UC exchange program for the fall semester. You can check her full story and experince at her blog http://www.withlovefromlondon-simone.blogspot.com/ . Here are some pictures she has sent, she sounds like she really loves it there. The apartment UC provides is nice, her roomate is from UCLA and is very nice, and she loves the class she has, they study London drama, then go see plays. Most of all, Simone says its all great because she is not in smelly, dirty and foggy Berkeley, she is in foggy, cold London. I'm thinking Simone is getting a bit burned out at Cal . . .

Annica and Dad Tour Colleges

Annica, supergirl ace, is a high school senior this year, and that means she will be applying to colleges this winter. So, we took our big college campus tour, starting with a flight to San Diego to tour UC San Diego, San Diego State, then up to LA to tour USC (just for fun), then drove up the coast for a tour at UC Santa Barbara, a drive around Cal Poly, then UC Santa Cruz and finally Stanford. Of all these schools, I think Annica likes UC San Diego best. There are other schools Annica will apply to, including UC Berkeley and others, but UC San Diego seems to peak the most interest. Pictured here, we made stops at Tommy's, famous for their chili cheese burgers, and of course Anderson's where we had of course, Split Pea Soup. I nice lady took the picture of us at Andersons (she could see we really wanted a picture of Papa and Split Pea. Oh, the picture of me here is from our stop in Woodland Hills, that's the house on Larkwood Avenue, across from Calabash Elementary School where I grew up.

bikes and weddings

This summer 2008 saw my best friend Brian getting married, to Cyntia, they had a beautiful wedding in the Palo Alto hills at his sister's home. The highlight, was the release of butterflies, you tell them a wish, then they open their wings and fly away . . . your wish is forever safe because they cannot tell anyone. Brian's brother Darryl put on a "Last Tri for Bri" ride, photos attached. This was a good summer for riding, met some new riders, had a good mix of rides with after work rides with Larry and Peter, weekend rides with Peter, Larry, Nick, Kelly and Beth, and others that would join, and even did a few crazed rides with psycho triathelete Fred (including a 75 miler, with Fred's friend Jim)(Fred went out on a 3 hour run the next day).

bikes, marathons and surfing

Summer 2008. Kind of an interesting summer, no golf this year, things got off to a different flavor by training and doing the Avenue of the Giants marathon in May, did a personal best 3 hours, 48 minutes, so I sort of stuck with the i'm an athelete theme, continuing with running and then picking up the cycling. Bought a commuter bike, as I've decided to commit to a no driving commute to work. The commute bike has full fenders, its a single gear for simplicity . . . well, I guess for coolness. Took the fenders off for summer, but will put them back on when the rainy season comes. Riding with a fixed gear was challenging at first, but I am getting the hang of it. Last summer we did lots of water skiing, not as much this summer, but some. No golf, did I say that already. I miss golf, its so fun, but just no time this summer. We did surfing behind a wakeboard boat this summer, with Pam's cool friends Dennis and L (is that Elle?), I'll post a video of that, if I can. Well, that's it for now, bye now.