Browse Author: beakatude

EuroTrip!!!

We’re on the plane waiting for our plane to take off. They’re making us sit here on the plane while their doing some “minor maintenance”. Seriously??! So now we are about 40 mins (and counting) behind and I’m now appreciative of our scheduled 4-hr layover in Detroit. Should be enough time for us to get there.

In the meantime, I’ll share our itinerary:
Rome 2 nights
Florence 3 nights
Cinque Terre 2 nights
Milan 2 nights

We’ll be back late on Sat. Sept 12th.

Jes wants everyone to know that he got stuck in the middle seat. Again.

Morning Run; Afternoon Fun

I'm ready to go!

This morning Jes and I ran the Plate to Plate 5K, which is a really easy/flat course that follows the same route that I run almost everyday.  The bonus is that just before the 3-mile mark, you turn into the baseball stadium, run along the outfield wall, cross third base, run across Home Plate, run across 1st base, and then finish the run across the bridge where we started.

t-shirt

It was a pretty fun run considering it had a pretty late start time of 9 am, was located right outside of my house, and comes with a free ticket to the Giants game the same day.  I also managed to squeak out a 5K Personal Record of 27:41 (unofficial, from my watch).  Yipee!

Giants Dog

In the afternoon, we went back across the street to enjoy an afternoon at AT&T Park.  The game started at 1:05 pm so we had lunch there: Giants Dog with all the fixins, Gilroy Garlic Fries, and Chicken Tenders.

juice box

I also snuck in my “juice boxes” and the cup I got from the last game for two “free” beverages to compliment my lunch.  The morning started out rather gray and cold but the clouds blew away and we were left with a gorgeous day at the park.

view from our seats

Our nosebleed seats had an awesome view of the field below, the harbor right behind, and the Bay Bridge in the distance.  We also wandered the different levels and watched the sailboats and kayaks in the bay.  I have no idea if the Giants beat the Rockies or not but it was still fun to watch and hang out.  This might be a run that’s worth repeating year after year.

Here are more photos from today.

Beak-Proof

Auntie Beak and Jack

This evening I went to the Sokol-Juns’ to babysit Jack for a couple hours.  When I arrived, Jack was seated on the couch watching a Sesame Street DVD.  So, I plopped myself down next to him, opened my bag of McDonald’s, and offered him a french fry.  The parents left for their dinner and the two of us continued to share a small bag of fries, watched Cookie Monster and his friends dance around, and were as happy as could be.  He went to bed surprisingly easy tonight without a squeak out of him and I spent the remainder of the evening watching TV and surfing on my laptop.  Unfortunately, their house has some super duper baby-proof outlet covers that even stumped me.  My Facebook status might as well have been:

Bee-Too-Bee (how Jack says ‘Auntie Beak’) was too weak/lazy to get the cover off so the laptop ran out of juice and she took a nap until the parents came home.  *sigh*

I’ve taken the covers off before but for some reason I couldn’t manage this time.  Oh well.

See You Soon

Ranee's Exit

My dear friend and co-worker Ranee is moving to NYC next week and I had a week of denial.  Yes, she won’t be back on Monday and she’ll be clear across the country but I was determined not to cry.

Team Tiger

dinosaur

To keep things light, the girls and I just got really silly at work and took lots of photos.  On Friday afternoon, we all wore dinosaur stickers and danced around the office once we were all done for the day.

The Girls

On Friday afternoon, we had a goodbye party for her on the front patio of Park Avenue.  We had a good turnout, which made for a nice group photo.

Group Photo

We gave her a few gifts to take to NYC with her including a t-shirt that said “I hella heart Oakland” and a wad of cash labeled as “Cab Fare”. We’re hoping she’ll wear it to a Yankees game one day.  Haha.

t-shirt

The gift that she was most touched by was a photo book that I put together online for her.  It had a glossy hard cover like a yearbook and I spent all week having everyone in the office sign it.  It was tempting to write “K.I.T.” and “Have a cool summer.”

Gordo

Afterward, a few of us went to Gordo Tacqueria and I gave her a NYC Zagat guide in return for the SF Zagat that she gave me for my last birthday.  I also sent her away with a NYC Moleskine so that her monkey-butt would have a map of New York without making her look like a dorky tourist.  My burrito really hit the spot after a drawn out Happy Hour and crazy day of work.

Ranee…I’ll see you soon in New York.  In the meantime, have a cool summer.

Here are photos from this past week.

Dirty Dirty Dirty

riding in the car

We just got back from our annual camping trip on Sunday afternoon and this year it was in Tahoe at Emerald Bay State Park.  We brought Koa along and the Sokol-Juns had Jack so it was a little different from past trips but just as fun.

emerald bay

It was a gorgeous weekend with warm, sunny days and cool nights.  I came home without a single mosquito bite but there were plenty of huge ants and pesky bees.  The lake was a sparkly blue and there were chipmunks everywhere.

lookout rock

Koa seemed to enjoy the great outdoors and even found himself a rock to sit on.  He got pretty comfy at the campsite and greeted each person as they entered by frantically searching for Fabian and bringing him to them.  I guess he’s made himself at home.  He also got to dig in the dirt, slept in the dirt, and was filthy.  I made sure to take him straight to the bathhouse on our way home.

jack in the dirt

jack and his lamp

Jack also made himself at home by plopping himself down on the dirt and playing with his trucks.  We even made him a garage for the trucks out of an empty Coors Light box.  For some reason I felt like the campground was extra dusty and dirty this year.  I couldn’t seem to keep my hands clean and came home with raw fingers and soot under my nails.

breakfast

As usual, each couple was in charge of taking care of one meal and we ate very well this past weekend.  Check out this breakfast burrito just prior to folding.  Unfortunately for us, the bees were also interested in our food and we we often chased over to the campfire for shelter from them.  Jes and I prepared corned beef hash and eggs on the final morning accompanied by the leftover veggies and pastries from the day before.

dishes

We also took turns cleaning up the pots and utensils.  Luckily we had a very good helper with the water faucet.  It doesn’t stay on so I usually had to hold the water on with one hand while attempting to wash and scrub with the other.  With Jack helping out, it made the chore less difficult.  He loved the water and we were getting the dishes done faster.

vyl on a rock

On Saturday afternoon we all walked down to the beach for a little rinse off of the feet in the ice cold water.  Vyl wished she had brought her swimsuit and decided to take a short nap on a rock.  Most of the boys actually jumped in and had a brief swim in the water.

beach

We snuck Koa down the trail and had him close-by on the beach.  At one point a 5-year-old girl came by to take away Jack’s pail and Koa went nutty.  The barking made Jack scowl but it made the girl go away.  Hah!

group photo

It was another fun camping trip for us and it looked like the boy and dog also had a good time.  Thanks for planning, Ryan!  Where are we going next year?!

Here are the photos: Day One |  Day Two |  Day Three

My Favorite Yoon

yoon and jes

On Thursday night we met up with my favorite Yoon for Happy Hour at Zebulon.  She was in town for a wedding this past weekend and this was the only night we’d be in town to see her.  She was staying all the way in the Sunset District with a friend but we insisted that she stay at our house while we were away.  She’d be close to the Masayas and it would be more convenient for her to get around.  Unfortunately, we gave her the keys but forgot to tell her which unit we lived in.  Oops.  So she called Susie and she got to the information.  Once she got to the unit, she had trouble opening the door with the key.  So, Susie had to come over to help her out.  Thanks for helping her out, Susie!  And Yoon – It was so nice to see you again.  We will have to make plans for another trip to Hawaii soon.