Rob and the California George Family

The process of updating this blog has obviously been tough for me lately. I have so many other things drawing my attention that it's tough to get over here and post an update. I know that there are ways to get it done, but I don't want it to feel like work.

I got online today to check out my neighbor's blog. He retired recently and is heading out on a cross-country ride on his Harley. I saw him off this morning with his SUV and trailer with his two bikes. He will cross the country to his brother's house in Virginia and then start the motorcycle riding part of the trip. If anyone is interested, he plans to blog his trip at:
http://GonzoCrossUSA.blogspot.com
(If I am less lazy later, I will turn that into a hyperlink.)

On the personal front, things are well. I still have the same job. I am about to transition from one customer project in Canada to another customer project in Canada. That will carry me through at least the end of the year at which point I will have been working exclusively on international projects for 4 straight years (starting with my New Zealand and Sweden trips in Dec 2007)!

Bethany turns 18 years old today!!!! She is very excited about starting at San Diego State University at the end of this month. She will be living on campus, although we still have a few details to learn about that.

Hayley had to make up her 2nd semester of Geometry with a summer school class to improve her grade. From what she is telling us, she is doing a great job! She has her final tomorrow and it sounds like she is on track to get an A this time.

Honestly, I am not sure what all Andrew is up to lately. He still lives with my mom in Costa Mesa and spends a lot of time on his passion: music. He is doing some sort of self-employed web site design work now too, but I don't know many details around that. I think he is just finishing his first project now.

Thanks for letting me share again, even if it has been a while. Even if no one has time to read it, at least I got a little writing practice again!

Labels: Andrew, Bethany, Hayley, School, Work

Things have been very busy for me since the cruise. The week after the cruise I was in Montreal visiting my current customer. This was followed by a week of preparing for another prototype review for that customer. This week, I am in the Toronto area at another office for the same customer. However, I hope to find more time for blogging again.

Since it has been a while, this post will cover a lot of ground.

Andrew has been playing with a couple of bands and starting to make some money here and there. He is a lead singer and plays guitar and bass guitar. His band has had a couple of out-of-town trips with the most recent to Arizona where they played at a bar and Utah where they played at a wedding. Celeste had a chance to see him play at a local bar/restaurant near home while I stayed home with the girls.

Bethany has started the SAT/ACT testing process. You can definitely tell a motivated teenager when they are willing to PAY to get up early on a weekend and take a grueling test! She is especially looking forward to getting out of school. The day after her last final, Beth is off to Norway to visit Ina and her family for three weeks!

Hayley has continued playing volleyball. She moved up a level and has real coaching instead of just me now. Her skills have definitely improved with her specialties being serving and setting. Hayley is about to graduate from 8th grade and become a freshman at the high school.

Hayley and I went to see the latest Shrek movie last weekend while Bethany was taking her SAT Subject Tests. It was fair, but not as good as the first one IMHO.

Hayley continues to be my last hope for playing my board games. Bethany is not into them at all, Andrew will play some when he is around, and Celeste will only play a few. Hayley has really enjoyed quite a few of them and occasionally I pull out an old classic. The most recent classic was Battle Masters. This is close to minatures, but still on a game board. Granted the game board is around 4' by 5' and with lots of cool plastic pieces to move around (knights, orcs, archers, beastmen, etc.). We pulled aside the dining room table to have room to play and kept it around for the weekend. Lots of fun pulling out the old stuff!

As I write this, I am in the Toronto area for work. I am outside of town without a car since my hotel is across the parking lot from my customer. I can see downtown Toronto in the distance from my hotel room, but no time on this trip to visit. I've posted some pictures from there. Also, when I checked in they were out of regular non-smoking rooms. Rather than moving me to smoking (Yuck!), they upgraded me to a suite with a Jacuzzi and Sauna. Despite all of my trips to Finland, I have never tried a sauna. I did try out the Jacuzzi, so maybe I have to give the Sauna a try tonight. Maybe. I posted some pictures of that too.

I did take a nice walk last night and found a local geocache. I was disappointed to see the the geocoins that were supposed to be there were not. However, when I read the log today I see that a new geocoin was dropped off. If the rain stays away, I may go get that one.

My hotel is very near Pearson International Airport, so I can see planes in the final approach to landing from my room. The hotel is soundproofed nicely, so it is cool to watch. This is obviously a very international destination. Here are some of the airlines that I can remember seeing from my hotel this week:

* Air Canada
* Jazz
* Continental
* United
* American
* Korean Air
* LOT (Polish Flag Air Carrier)
* AlItalia
* Lufthansa

OK, that is enough for now. I'll try to post shorter blurbs more often for a while!

Here is the Toronto skyline as seen from my hotel window:

This is the jacuzzi and sauna in my hotel room:

Here is the jacuzzi in my room when I prepared it for use:

I found a geocache in that small tree behind me:

Labels: Andrew, Bethany, Blogging, Family, Games, Geocaching, GPS, Hayley, Ina, Movies, Rob, School, Travel, Volleyball, Work

We got home from vacation which went very well. I'll have to post more about that another time.

Back at home, work is very busy. My customer in Sweden is in the process of going live on our software. That means very long work hours at unusual times right now. However, it should be behind me by the middle of next week.

I'm still finding time for family even with the work. Last night I took Andrew, Ina, and Hayley to an Angels Baseball game. The Angels lost, but it was still an exciting game. Lots of hits and the score kept going back and forth. Unfortunately, the Angels were on the "back" side at the end of the game.

Tomorrow we are taking Bethany and her Girl Scout troop on another college visit (have I written about that? Need to check.). We are driving up to UC Santa Barbara. Between the drive and the on-campus time it will be a very long day. The girls need lots of hours to apply to their Gold Awards, so that is a good thing. However, it also means a Friday away from my projects so I have to figure out how to keep everyone busy when I have very little way to communicate with them.

Volleyball season started last week. Hayley is doing it, but Bethany has gotten to old for the league. I am coaching Hayley's team again. They picked their team name: Fergilicious (need to confirm that spelling). I told them that it could not be a dull name and it had to be family-friendly. Beyond that, it was a team vote. The name Caliente Loco (Crazy Hot) came in a close second.

I'll close with a couple of pictures of Hayley from the end of our vacation. We are at my aunt's house. The house is by a private runway and has a hangar attached to it. For car fans, you can appreciate this. My aunt has owned a Shelby Cobra since 1972. It is in great shape and is often taken to car shows. For those that are not car fans, this is a very expensive car by a renowned designer and is personally signed by that designer (see the "glove compartment" area in the photo showing the dash). The girls had fun taking photos in the car and in the (not seen in this photo) airplane that is also in this hangar.




(by request) ... and now you're all caught up!

Labels: Andrew, Bethany, Hayley, Ina, School, Scouts, Vacation, Volleyball, Work

Bethany and Hayley both have important tests going on today.

For Bethany, she (and the rest of the 10th grade) is taking the CAHSEE (California High School Exit Exam) today. This is a test that all students must pass to get a diploma. From what I hear, it is a very low bar to leap. However, it is intended to avoid the embarrassment of my generation where there were jokes about students that could not read the diplomas that they received.

Hayley has a more intense situation. She was home sick with the flu all last week. Last Thursday and Friday were Trimester finals for her. She missed those. We have been helping her prepare for the 4 tests that she has to make up. She took History and Math tests yesterday. She has to complete Math today and take her English final. She may take her Science final today or it may push to tomorrow. In any case, she has to do this on top of keeping up with her regular work. I have re-learned a LOT about History, Science, Math, and English over the past week or so. We were even studying over the weekend while we were out selling Girl Scout cookies at the grocery store.

Good luck to the test takers.

Labels: Bethany, Hayley, Health, School

Our local elementary school sends the sixth graders to the mountains for a week of science camp (well, four days this year to save money). The camp is somewhere in the Arrowhead / Big Bear area. It is always in the Winter so that they get some snow time.

Today is the departure day for Hayley to head to Science Camp. We have a week of rain in the forecast in SoCal this week. The camp is high enough that this means SNOW! That is a rare thing for our SoCal kids, so they are excited. The forecast calls for up to 2 feet tomorrow. Hayley is excited.

The weather picture looks almost perfect. There may be some flurries today, but nothing likely to cause driving problems. It will dump over the next two days and then probably be back to flurries for the drive down on Friday.

Labels: Hayley, School

At our kids' elementary school, they have a "buddy" system that is really cool. I never experienced anything like this when I was in school. Basically, the younger grades (K, 1st, and I think 2nd) are teamed up with older kids (4th, 5th, and 6th grades) to get together periodically to work on projects. This makes the younger kids feel special by having an older friend and the older kids get a great sense of responsibility and the opportunity to know what it is like to tutor/teach.

Hayley has a Kindergarten buddy named "Chloe" this year. Hayley's comment is that "she's so cute!" Hayley still has fond memories of her older buddy from when she was in Kindergarten. It's fun to see her on the other side of the relationship now. Andrew and Bethany went through this program too and had great experiences.

Labels: School

Today is the first day of school for our girls. The boy started his 2nd year of college a couple of weeks ago.

Bethany starts High School. Hayley is in her "rule the school" 6th grade mode (i.e., last year of elementary school). They both seem excited to some degree about school starting.

Anyway, not a bad way to start. 2 days of school and then the weekend. I don't remember ever getting a break like that.

Labels: Bethany, Hayley, School

Hayley is spending the night, as part of a 5th grade school program, on the
Brig Pilgrim in Dana Point Harbor. To prepare for this trip, the class reads Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana. The book describes Dana's experience as a sailor on the Pilgrim as it sailed from Boston to California and back.

The kids get to experience life as members of the crew. They are split into groups that have to do a job ranging from line handlers to hide gatherers to galley crew. There were no women, so they are all "men" for this trip. One member of each group is a "mate" and is addressed as "Mr. xxx" (substituting their last name for xxx). Other sailors are just addressed by their last name.

The officers include the Captain and the First Mate. There is also a cook on board. As in historical times, the Captain is stern and quick to give out punishments as needed (no beatings, but swabbing the deck, eating an onion, stuff like that). Each group is assigned a 2 hour shift of standing watch on deck during the night too. They will be very tired tomorrow and, fortunately, don't have to go to school!

Andrew and Bethany both did the Pilgrim overnight trip when they were in 5th grade and had a very memorable time. I tried to sign up as an adult participant this time, but my name was not picked. Celeste got to do it with Drew. Adults are the "tall sailors" and also get chores, punishments as needed, etc. Lots of funny stories come back from this trip.

Labels: Hayley, Photo, Pilgrim, School

Last Friday night I helped work Grad Night at El Toro High School. The school holds this event on-campus for Seniors on the last day of each school year. Andrew attended (although he has another 3 weeks of summer school before he actually graduates). I worked Security. Basically our job was to make sure that everyone that was in stayed and no one came in that didn't belong. We also did any "odd jobs" that were needed during the night.

The event was setup within the gym and a fenced off area in front of the gym. There was a carnival with various games, a dance floor, a "gambling" area (where they won raffle tickets), a lip sync, video games, a remote control race track, a rock climbing wall, a digital photo area, a "make a video" area, and more that I can't remember. There was lots of free food and drink available. There were also hundreds of prizes (won with the tickets from the carnival and gambling area) and a goody bag that all of the participants received.

The students all had a great time. There was a lot of parent support. There were around 550 students and probably 300 parents working it. I worked from 9pm to 6am and was surprisingly less tired than I expected in the morning.

It was a really profitable night for Andrew. He won the "grand prize" of a new laptop computer. He has been having lots of fun getting that setup. Hopefully he will use it for something other than gaming when he is in college next year!

Labels: Andrew, Rob, School

Hayley has had a number of memorable events lately, so I am summarizing them into this single post. I may be forgetting some, but these are the recent highlights that I can remember.

1. Hula Hoop Champion!
During our Memorial Day camping trip (see entry "Camping Memorial Day Weekend"), the campground held a number of events on Saturday. One was a Hula Hoop contest. Hayley entered and tied for 1st place out of probably 50 contestants.

She picked it up after a contest at a company picnic around 7 years ago and she is very good now at Hula Hooping. She has a Girl Scout meeting today and this is the talent she will show. She can do multiple hoops, walk and jump while hooping, and much more.

2. School Choir
Hayley has been part of the school choir for the first time this year. Last week they had their end of year concert with songs from a number of Broadway shows. The shows were great (not just this parent's opinion)! Hayley did an excellent job of practicing her songs, learning the moves, and getting up early one day every week to get to school for choir practice. The performance included songs from Fiddler on the Roof, Grease, Oliver, The Wiz, Lion King, and more.

3. Student of the Month
Today we were invited to school for an awards assembly. They give out 3 "Student of the Month" awards per class each month. At today's assembly they covered May and June. Hayley won one of the awards. She was really beaming up there at winning the award and having her parents there to see her get it. Today was a perfect example of why I have a job with the flexibility in my schedule to attend events like this. I have to work long hours sometimes, but I make up for it with days like today.

Labels: Camping, Hayley, School

Bethany was studying for a test and trying to remember the formula for the circumference of a circle. She had the area formula down just fine (Pi x radius squared). However, she couldn't remember the circumference (i.e., length of the outside edge).

The formula is the 2 x Pi x radius (represented as the letter r).

She has worked well with remembering things through silly associations before. Based on this, we came up with one for this.

A good friend of hers is Rachael. I told her to think about Rachael holding two pies and nibbling around the edges of them.

Labels: Bethany, School

In 4th grade, our school has the students do a "California Landmark Report". When Bethany did this, she chose Catalina Island. It was a decision made with family input. One of the options for the report is to visit the landmark and write about the visit. This made a nice family day trip to Catalina which coincided with Mothers Day. We took a couple of tours, did some shopping, visited the Catalina Island museum, and walked around the city of Avalon.

Anyway, Hayley got input from the family and chose Hollywood. I have lived in California all my life and never visited the tourist sites of Hollywood. It had to happen sometime.

Not too many years ago, I understand that Hollywood was not a great place to visit. However, they have done a lot of revitalization of the area and it was a fun family day.

Highlights:
* Movie at Disney's El Capitan Theater
This is designed to be a movie experience like in the "old days" of movie going. The movie we went to see was The Wild. It started with an awesome organist playing a medley of Disney tunes while we were settling in. We chose to sit in the balcony since the family has never done that before. The curtains opened (multiple curtains of various sorts -- cool effect) and they showed previews of upcoming movies. The curtains then closed and the Los Angeles Zoo had representatives there to give a "wild" bird show. The theater is large and has lots of room for the birds to fly around and show off.

* Hollywood Visitors Center
There is a large shopping/entertainment complex at Hollywood and Highland. This includes the Kodak Theater where the Academy Awards are held. The Hollywood Visitors center is buried in this complex (they are building a new place for them at the front, but they are pretty hard to find right now). A lady at the Hollywood Visitors Center, who grew up in Hollywood, gave Hayley a lot of good info for her report and also gave us brochures with discounts for various tours, museums, etc.

* Hollywood Blvd.
The "Walk of Fame" with stars names on the sidewalk runs along Hollywood Blvd and along Vine. We were not close to Vine, but saw many recognizable stars where we were as we walked around the area.

Another interesting part of this street is lots of people come out in costume to let tourists pay them for photos (seems like $1 per photo was typical). Some were kind of cheesy, but some were really good. The guys dressed as Batman and Superman stand out. Also, there was a good Darth Vader and Storm Trooper (and one really cheesy Darth Vader further down the street). The crowd was well behaved, but it was a crowd to deal with when walking anywhere.

* Graumans Chinese Theater (owned by Manns Theaters now)
Saw the famous walkway with stars hand prints, foot prints, etc. That was pretty cool, but a smaller area than I expected. We had Hayley make a handprint souvenir that she can use as part of her report.

* Hollywood Landmark Tour
We took a 1 hour driving tour to see the Hollywood highlights. Celeste didn't like it much and Hayley was kind of bored. I enjoyed the information. Bethany was about 50% happy with it. Andrew liked how the driver used many voices and impersonations to tell corny jokes and give information along the way. However, it did take us to a great location for a photo of the Hollywood Sign behind Hayley (it is pretty distant for photos while down in Hollywood itself).

I also learned that the original Hollywoodland Realty that built the original sign still exists. We drove through the area a little bit.

* Disney Soda Fountain / Studio Store
We returned to the area next to the Disney El Capitan Theater to visit the Soda Fountain. The store was basically like any other Disney retail store. However, on one side they had a soda fountain with some food and lots of old fashioned ice cream treats. The family sat at a counter and enjoyed a nice mid-afternoon treat.

* Hollywood Entertainment Museum
We had a choice of two main museums with Hollywood history and memorabilia. The one we chose sounded more interactive. I'm not sure that we made the right choice since a lot of the "interactive" exhibits were not turned on. They had a lot of costumes and props that were mildly interesting. The highlight was when we got to visit 3 sets that they have on site: Cheers Bar, X-Files / Mulder's Office, Bridge and Transporter Room of USS Enterprise-D (Star Trek TNG). That part was really cool. We were able to sit and interact with the Cheers and Star Trek sets for photos (no video though). We were only able to look at Mulder's Office and take photos from the edge.

Labels: Day Trip, Family, School

Not much time, so here are some highlights from the 4th grade trip to Sacramento:

1. Waking Up
Planned to get up at 4:00am on Thursday to get ready to go. Worried about getting Hayley up that early. Hayley woke me up at 3:30am concerned about getting there on time.

2. Flooding
The Sacramento area is at the meeting point of the American and Sacramento rivers. There has been a lot of rain (an understatement) and there is a lot of localized flooding around Sacramento. That was something you don't see much of in SoCal.

3. Weather
The weather was sunny and nice the two days we were there. It rained the day before and then started raining literally as we arrived at the airport to leave. Good weather.

4. Fun
Overall, the trip was a lot of fun. The trip 3 years ago was fun -- this was better.

Labels: Hayley, Rob, School, Vacation

In two weeks, I will be in Sacramento with Hayley and her 4th grade class. The trip should be fun. I went with Bethany and her 4th grade class 3 years ago and had a good time. The trip is similar, but different enough to be interesting. It is an overnight trip on Thursday / Friday. They are two long days with a flight up and back included. However, the trip is a lot of fun.

The funny thing 3 years ago was what the highlight of the trip turned out to be. When we visited the capitol building, we had a chance to meet our state senator and state assemblyman. The state senator visit was ok. The thing I remember the most was a kid asking if he had met Gray Davis (governor at the time). After an affirmative answer, the next question was if they were friends. Gray Davis is a Democrat and our state senator is a Republican, so I was very curious how he would answer this to a group of 4th graders. The answer: "He's not a very warm and fuzzy guy." Pretty good.

Anyway, on to the highlight (for the kids anyway). Instead of our state assemblyman coming down, he sent his Chief of Staff. Why? Because the Chief of Staff attended the elementary school that we were coming from. The kids loved that! They had a ton of questions about the teachers that he had (3 of them are still there), the sports he played, where he lived, etc.

For me, the most fun was panning for gold in the American River on day two. We didn't get much, but there was definitely a visible amount in our little bottles. I didn't get to keep mine though. One of the kids dropped and broke her little bottle of gold on the rocks as we were leaving. I gave her mine. Anyway, it was really cool to me to have this chance to do some "real" panning for gold in an open river without paying someone for the privilege.

This time, we don't get to pan for gold in the river. However, I still think that the trip looks better overall. Some of the boring stuff has been replaced with more interesting items.

Some highlights:
* Paddle Wheel Riverboat Tour of Sacramento
* California State Railroad Museum
* Gold Country Underground Mine Tour
* State Capitol Tour (see how it is different with our new governor)
* Old Town free time (Bethany and I rode a horse and buggy -- Hayley wants to do the same)

Labels: Bethany, Hayley, Rob, School, Vacation