Our Trip to Old England

Celeste and I took a little trip yesterday to Old England. We packed a few snacks and our dancing shoes, then drove up to the Cow Palace in San Francisco. After picking up our tickets at will call, we walked through the gate -- out of California and into Old England. Thus began our adventure at the Charles Dickens Fair.

As we walked along the streets of London, we came to a cozy inn where a dining table was being prepared to welcome Charles Dickens. We were invited to sit down, just as Mr. Dickens walked through the door. He placed his top hat and coat on the rack, and then took his place at the head of the table. We engaged in some small talk, after which Mr. Dickens read from his story, A Christmas Carol. Now, I've read A Christmas Carol several times, watched many movie renditions of the story, and seen the play at the Hale Center Theater in Orem, but listening to Mr. Dickens read the story was just as good, if not better, than any version I had yet experienced. In addition to the words, Mr. Dickens' expressions added further meaning to the story. At the appropriate times, he would whisper or yell, make facial expressions of anger or horror or glee, and gesture to and fro with his arms.

During our first sitting, we learned of Ebeneezer Scrooge's disdain for Christmas and followed him until the end of his conversation with the ghost of Jacob Marley. So wonderful was our time with Mr. Dickens that we returned twice more to listen to the story as Scrooge met with the Ghost of Christmas Past and the Ghost of Christmas Future. Unfortunately, we were unable to return for the third sitting with the Ghost of Christmas Present. But we deeply enjoyed listening to and were touched by the story. I can see why President Monson makes it a point to read A Christmas Carol each Christmas season, for Scrooge helps us better understand the true meaning of Christmas. "It was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!"


After listening to the first part of A Christmas Carol, we continued our tour of London with a stop at the docks for a sing-along with some shipmates. Then it was to the Adventurer's Club to learn about some of the techniques of British naval warfare. Then we walked through the shops filled with jewelry, fine clothing, puzzle rings, and toys. Of course, our main attraction was the food. Before the second sitting with Charles Dickens, we grabbed a gingerbread boy.

Next, we hurried off down the street, and guess who we ran into -- Ebeneezer Scrooge himself conversing with the Ghost of Christmas Present. We had enough time to snap a picture, before continuing on to the Punch and Judy Show.


The Punch and Judy Puppet Show was fun to watch. It had a good moral to the ending -- "It is nice to be important, but it is more important to be nice."


And, in fact, while we were watching the show, who else were to pass but the Queen of England herself with the royal guard. Next, we went to watch a live production of the Pirates of Penzance. This was our third opportunity to watch a live production of this comic opera, and the storyline and dialogue gets funnier every time. Wikipedia gives a good rundown of the synopsis, which I encourage you to read. The opera also has a good moral, which is that we should act out of a sense of duty, even when there is nothing else binding us to a promise but our word alone.

Somewhere in our hustle and bustle, we enjoyed a nice meal of shepherd's pie and steak and mushroom pie. We also stopped by Fezziwig's dance party several times for waltzes, polkas, and the Sir Roger de Coverley (although we probably didn't dance it as well as Old Fezziwig himself). Overall, it was a lovely trip to Old London, and we were sad to return to California.

Some New Toys

Each of us received a new toy this week. Celeste got hers rather unexpectedly and mine I ordered the week before. On Monday, Celeste called me at work and said that the bike shop had her bike all assembled and ready to pick up. This confused us a little because they originally told us that the 2009 models wouldn't be out until December. Here's the story.

We started seriously looking for bikes back in July. I got my bike in August. Celeste decided that she wanted the female version of a bike we tried, but nobody seemed to have the female version in stock -- the Specialized Vita Elite. After calling about 10 different bicycle shops, we found one about 15 miles away with the bike in stock. We went there so that Celeste could test ride the bike, and she really liked it. The only thing that she wasn't sure about was the size. They had two different models of the same bike (one with carbon fork and seat stay, and the other with basic aluminum), one in each of the sizes that she would potentially want. After trying out each bike, she determined she liked the carbon fork and seat stay. But, as luck would have it, she also decided that the full aluminum frame was the better size. We asked them what our options were, and they said that they could order the correct size bike with carbon fork and seat stay. However, after looking at the computer, it turned out that there were none left of the 2008 model. So they ordered the 2009 model. We put a $50 deposit and left with the hope that Celeste would have a bike within a week.

Well, a few days transpire, and they called us to say that the 2009 model wouldn't come in until December. That put a little damper into our plans. We talked through it and determined that the best option would be to cancel the order and just wait until next season. Celeste called up the bike shop, but the manager wasn't there in order to cancel the order. A week passes, and we rearrange our budget to project the purchase of the bike in April or May. Then, what do you know, the next day is when they called up to say that Celeste's bike was ready. Surprised by this great news, we went to pick it up. That was Monday, and we were finally able to go on our first ride on Friday. It's a nice bike! Now we just need to rearrange the budget again...

Now for my new toy. While still a student, I decided to take up golf in anticipation of business meetings on the golf course. Well, after a year with KPMG, I finally got the chance to go with our client for a couple rounds of golf. It went okay. But I decided that if I wanted to make a better impression, I would need some new equipment. In looking at my options, I just couldn't bring myself to spending hundreds of dollars, especially for a sport that would cost hundreds of dollars just to play. Luckily, though, I have a friend who taught me how to golf on a budget -- play the less expensive courses, find the cheaper times, etc. One other thing he pointed out is that not all golf clubs cost a ton of money. Actually, while looking around on the Internet, he found a great deal on some irons that basically ranked number two in Golf Digest's 2007 hot list -- the Adams A2. Adams is a brand that doesn't spend millions of dollars on endorsements (think Nike and Callaway), so they don't have to charge as much to make a profit. In reading reviews on the clubs, I couldn't find anything that people didn't like about the irons. Then, I watched the clubs over two weeks as the price dropped by about 25 percent. I finally decided to take the plunge. They arrived this week, and boy do they look great. Haven't had a chance to use them though. That will be this week. :)

New York City: Our Second Honeymoon

Well, I guess you can't really describe it as our second honeymoon, since we shared a hotel room with Celeste's parents. But it was certainly fun. After getting dropped off in New York City (see Our Great Adventure Driving to NYC), we had a bit of time to kill before going to see Wicked on Broadway. We got to the city with sufficient time to completely plan our subway/train ride out to Long Island. The public transit in New York is amazing, but we wanted to make sure we got the 11:16 PM train and not the 1:02 AM train. We planned everything out, bought our tickets, and then looked for a restaurant. We ended up eating at Applebee's. Now I know what you're thinking -- "You're in New York City! You can do better than Applebee's!" This is very true. But it was raining and one thing us Californians aren't used to is rain. So we chose what was convenient, and Applebee's was close to the theater. One thing I'd like to point out at this time is that NYC has a law that restaurants must publish nutritional facts in their menus. Long story short: Knowing that a dish has 2,000 calories in it just takes all the fun out of eating -- so I sprung for the 750 calorie dish, and didn't feel bad about dessert.

Wicked was amazing. I really didn't expect much in going to the show, except that it had received great reviews. It definitely puts a different perspective on the Wizard of Oz, which I'd like to watch next time that I have a chance. We're very glad that we went to the show! We also made our train with plenty of time -- enough time, in fact, for a second dessert.

We stayed with Celeste's parents at the Glen Cove Mansion. It was a fun hotel with plenty of activity (there was a wedding and/or party each of the nights we were there). Actually, I think it is one of the only hotels in Glen Cove, NY. (As a side note, Celeste's parents were out there for Doug's 51 year class reunion.) On Saturday, we met with some of Doug's cousins. First, we met with the Bell cousins. We had a nice conversation and Celeste loved looking through the family pictures. It's funny because you could definitely see the family resemblance in some of the pictures. After that, we met with Jane Hollister at her home for a fantastic meal of poached salmon and fresh vegetables for her garden. One of the things I realized from spending time there is how quickly life seems to go. We were able to sit down and really talk for a couple hours. We ate, but we weren't rushed at all. Time just passed by. We talked about everything from family history to gardens to boating to current events. It was great!

That night, we took the train back into Manhattan so that we could go to Swing 46, our favorite restaurant from our honeymoon. It is a little spendy there, but you sure have a fun time. We had a great meal of coconut shrimp, steak, and salad. Then the live music started and we were able to dance the night away. It was our first time dancing since Celeste's injury back in June, so we took it easy a little bit. But overall, it was very fun. We forgot our camera, so I figured it would be fun to post a picture from when we went there for our honeymoon.



The next day, we took it easy. We went with Doug and Sandra to a brunch as part of Doug's class reunion. I think it is safe to assume that we were the youngest people there. We also did a tour of some of the places Doug remembers from growing up. It was a relaxing day.

The next day, we packed up and then home we went. Already looking forward to our next vacation...

Our Great Adventure Driving to NYC

The car ride getting from Baltimore to New York City was interesting. We thought we were pretty clever to use my computer as a navigation system (my Sprint aircard is a wonderful invention). However, we still managed to miss a few turns. This was very convenient, though, and some might say intentional. :) As posted earlier in My Geocaching Quest, I'm trying to find geocaches in all fifty states. Our route from Baltimore would go through Delaware (where I hadn't found a geocache yet) but just miss Pennsylvania (where I hadn't gotten a geocache, because I was just getting over a cold during my first and only trip to Pennsylvania). After finding a geocache in Delaware, I jokingly suggested that we should make a detour and go through Philadelphia. As we got back onto the highway, there was a bit of confusion with the signs and next thing I know, we missed our exit. In looking at the map, we could still get to NYC going this way, which also happened to take us through Philadelphia. Very convenient! :) We ended up getting a geocache right near the Philadelphia Phillies stadium. That's state number 17!

Our next stop would be Manhattan. Celeste's parents were going to drop us off and then continue on to Long Island. It seemed pretty straight forward in looking at the map -- take the Lincoln tunnel, across on 34th Street (drop us off at Penn Station), and then continue out on Queens Midtown Tunnel. But actually driving through Manhattan is a different story. For some reason, a cop wouldn't let us turn onto 34th, so we got a street level view of Manhattan during rush hour (I say rush hour, which I think is ALL the time for Manhattan). So what we thought would take only ten minutes ended up taking about an hour. But it worked out in the end. Thank you so much Doug and Sandra for your patience in driving us to Manhattan. For future reference, I will never suggest driving in Manhattan again, unless it is by taxi.

Going to Miss the Summer

It's been a great summer filled with lots of fun. We're definitely going to miss it, but we made the most of it. A few weeks ago, we took a trip to the East Coast with Celeste's parents to visit Celeste's sister's family (Heather and Julio). We had a wonderful time, although we only spent about a day with Heather and Julio. I actually arrived a day earlier, since I was out there on business as well. I was very excited to see my nephews, and it seems like Paul was excited to see me, too. He decided that we should sleep in the same room. Since I didn't really feel like blowing up the air mattress, I decided to sleep on the ground in his room. Of course, since I was going to sleep on the ground, he thought that must be the cool thing to do. So, he decided to sleep on the ground, too, which left his bed free. There's no use in leaving a bed empty, so I decided to sleep there instead. :) A pretty good trick if you ask me.

Wednesday, I worked until Celeste and her parents flew in. We had dinner at Chevy's (where, coincidentally, I had eaten a few months before during another business trip).

Thursday, I helped Julio install a new light fixture in their kitchen. Oh the joys of home-ownership... But it felt rewarding once we got everything in its place and working. Next, we went to the park to play. Julio, Celeste, and I played tennis and later joined everyone else to play on the toys. I forgot how much I enjoy tennis. It's great exercise and very fun. For dinner, we split assignments for a barbecue. The assignments for our fantastic meal were as follows: Julio - barbecued steak, Celeste - salad, me - twice-baked potatoes, and Doug - store-bought rolls. ;) It was a great meal. That night, we said our goodbyes since on Friday morning we left for NYC. A very short trip to visit our favorite nephews...


Matt with his nephews


Matt with his nephews again (I guess only one is allowed to look at the camera at a time)

Friend's Singing Contest

Our friend entered a singing contest and she is really good. Here is the video of her singing:



To vote for her, email LikenContest@gmail.com with the subject line as "Brenda L (Los Gatos, CA)". One vote per email address. All voting should be sent in by September 24.

Enjoy the video!

Android Developer Challenge Gallery

Google is in the process of developing a cell phone operating system called Android. Google hosted a competition to see who could build the best/most useful application for the phone, and the results are very impressive. CompareEverywhere is an application in which you use the built in camera on the phone to scan a barcode, which it automatically looks up to compare prices, find reviews, and connect with local stores. Another is called Locale, which automatically detects where you are and sets your phone settings accordingly (e.g., if you are at work, you can have it set to turn to vibrate). One more application is called PicSay, which is a basic photo editing program for your cell phone. You can take a look at the other finalists at the Android Developer Challenge Gallery.

I'm still waiting for my cell phone contract to expire, which is why I haven't bought an iPhone, yet. However, if Android phones go on sale before my contract expires, I might be very tempted to purchase an Android phone instead. The user interface looks like it will be very slick and the platform will be more open than the iPhone. Plus, it may have a lower price tag for its service. I guess we'll see all the details when we get a working model. I, for one, am looking forward to it.

Four Day Work Week For Utah State Workers

I just came across an interesting article that in Utah, they are moving to a four day work week for State employees. The rationale for this (among others) is that the State can turn off the power in buildings, which will in turn save on energy expenses. Personally, I think that it is a fantastic idea. I'd be willing to work 10 hours a day to get an extra day for the weekend. I sometimes feel like I'm working ten hours a day anyway.

And if not ten hours a day, then why not have a day or two a week where we can telecommute? My firm just gave out Sprint wireless cards to employees that travel a lot (you might be able to guess why I got one...). Now, I can virtually work from anywhere that I can get cell phone reception. And, not only does technology make it easier to work remotely, it also follows the new "green initiatives" that corporate America is starting to foster. Imagine how much less gas you would use if you only drove to work four times a week instead of five. Think how much less traffic there would be on the roads, especially if companies staggered the four days that their employees worked. Seems like a pretty good way of saving gas and lowering emissions. Or, I guess we could always just force every American to check the pressure in his/her tires...

Company Soccer Team

One of the fun things about living in Silicon Valley is that I work with companies that most people only see as websites or technology products. For example, I've visited Google's campus, which is very impressive (and has pretty good free food for employees). Recently, this connection has extended to my company soccer team. We've had soccer games against MySpace (tied) and Facebook (won). I wonder how the game went between MySpace and Facebook -- that's probably the best way to choose which website to support. :) I personally prefer Facebook (I ended up cancelling my MySpace account because of all inappropriate advertisements), although I tend to stay with email, blogging, and Google Talk as my usual methods of communication. But if you're ever looking for me in the social networking arena, I'm on Facebook.

San Diego Anniversary - Part 2

For the last few days of our anniversary/vacation, we relaxed with Mitch and Mandy in the San Diego area. On Sunday, we went for a nice walk to the local park and enjoyed the nice weather. We also got some really fun pictures. Since Fay only holds a smile for a few seconds at a time when taking pictures (she otherwise loves to smile all of the time), it took a few snapshots before getting just the right face.


Fay, Celeste, and Mandy


Fay, Celeste, and Matt


Fay's personal gymnastics coach
After getting back from the park, Celeste and Fay decided to sit down and read for a little bit. Fay started to read the usual picture book, but decided that Celeste's book looked far more interesting. Celeste obliged to trading books. Maybe Celeste's book was a little too grown up for Fay... or maybe Fay's growing up a little too fast.

Bride's Maid Dress

My sister is getting married in a couple weeks. Celeste just got the bride's maid dress in the mail a few days ago. In my unbiased opinion as her husband, I think that she looks fantastic. I took a couple snap shots of her in front of our apartment. Enjoy!

San Diego Anniversary

We've been having some fun in San Diego for our fourth anniversary. We stayed on Coronado Island just across the bay from San Diego. The Marriott resort we stayed at was very nice -- it had pools, fountains, and (Celeste's favorite) an aviary. We mostly just bummed around on the beach, walked along the water, and generally just enjoyed being together. We also had a chance to go to the San Diego temple. From the outside it is gorgeous, but the inside is even more gorgeous (if that is possible). Whenever you have a chance to go to the San Diego temple, we highly recommend it.



After spending a few days at Coronado, we met up with some friends who used to live by us in California (they recently moved to the San Diego area). We enjoyed the evening in Old Town. Then today we packed up everyone for a trip to the San Diego Zoo. To save a few bucks, we split the cost of an annual pass for Mitch and Mandy. It was only $79 and Mitch and Mandy will be able to go as many times as they want for the rest of the year. Plus, they got two free guest passes (can you guess who the guests were?) and a whole bunch of other discounts. It ended up being cheaper than paying separately. At the zoo, we enjoyed the koalas, kangaroos, gorillas, elephants, and giraffes.



But our favorite by far were the giant pandas.



You may have noticed from our pictures that Celeste got the cast off of her leg. She got it off Tuesday right before we left for San Diego. She's been gradually building up strength, but decided that it would probably be best to use a wheelchair to get around the zoo. I had a lot of fun (and exercise) pushing her up and down the hills. For more pictures, check out our web album.

Looks like gas prices...

Looks like gas prices are going down. On my way to work today, I saw that the local gas station was $4.69 as opposed to $4.73, so, thats good. listen

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Celeste's Cool New Shoe

Ever since we played on a BYU intramural soccer team, Celeste and I have loved playing soccer. It's a fun sport and you get a TON of exercise. I still attribute soccer to taking away the extra pounds I acquired during my KPMG internship (I felt that all I did was sit and eat). Since we've moved to California, we've started to play on the KPMG co-ed soccer team. It's pretty fun, and there are some other company teams you might recognize (such as MySpace and Facebook). Anyway, while playing in a game a few weeks ago, Celeste was in the middle of the action when suddenly she collapsed. It turns out she got her legs tangled with one of the other guys and rolled her ankle. We rushed her home to get some ice on the injury, then took her to the minor injuries clinic at Kaiser Permanente the next day. After taking some X-rays, the doctor's assessment seemed promising -- she would be walking normal in a few days. They wrapped up her ankle, gave her some crutches, and we were on our way.

After a few days went by, things didn't get better. In fact, they got worse. With hope on our side, though, we decided to wait a few more days (the doctor said she should be walking just fine after a few days -- maybe it was a few days longer than his assessment). But alas, it didn't get better.

More than a week after the injury, we went to Celeste's regular doctor for a second opinion. Her opinion: "I don't know why the first doctor said she would be walking after a few days. You should see a specialist."

 So we set up an appointment with a specialist for the next week (for two weeks exactly from the date of Celeste's injury). We meet with the specialist, he looked at the X-ray, and his immediate assessment was: "Looks like the injury is 80% sprain, 20% broken bone." So they put a cast on her -- she chose the florescent green with sparkles (it looks pretty cool if I do say so myself). It was also the first time I'd ever seen someone get a cast before -- very interesting.

Now Celeste is able to get around a lot better than before. Plus, I don't have to worry about accidentally hitting her sprained foot while we sleep. I'm actually the one dodging her leg! Casts are really hard. They say that the cast comes off right before our anniversary. Perfect timing so that we can enjoy the beach.

Bike to Work: Good for the Heart, Good for the Wallet

I posted a link last week of ways of saving gas. Celeste and I are certainly conscious of the rising price of gas, especially since we live in one of the states with the highest price of gasoline (the closet gas station to us is selling regular unleaded at $4.73!). One thing that we're trying to do is ride our bikes as often as time will permit. Now that we've moved to Mountain View, my commute to work is less than three miles. So, I've been trying to ride my bike to work about four times per week. It's a great way to start the day -- gets the heart pumping and the mind thinking. At first, I was lugging all of my stuff on my back (not too comfortable when you've got a laptop in the bag). However, we recently went to the REI used gear sale and I got a rack for the back of the bike. It's funny because growing up, I used to think that kind of stuff was for geeks. Now I think it's kind of cool. :) Of course, I may have just turned into a geek. ;)

The bike I've been riding to work is actually Celeste's bike (I've claimed as my own in the paragraph above) . I got a bike a few months back for $25 which is too small for me (we mostly just got the bike to see whether I'd enjoy riding, which I've learned that I like tremendously). I've since learned a little about bikes including sizing, etc. So now I realize that I need a new bike, but I'm not sure whether I should opt for a mountain bike or a road bike. I think it is fun to go off-road, but my main purpose for the bike is commuting to and from work. In a perfect world, I'd get two bikes (a road and a mountain bike). Any suggestions?

Ways of Saving Gas

Here is an interesting link with tips on saving money on gas. There are some pretty good ideas. Hope it helps in saving gas during these high gas times. By the way, at the gas station right near us, the cheapest gas is currently selling for $4.73. When I was in Dallas, I thought it was a steal selling for $3.99.

Update on our Garden

It’s been fun to watch our garden grow over the last couple of weeks. I can definitely tell that they have grown, although Celeste could give you a day-by-day of how many new flowers and how many new vegetables have sprouted. She really enjoys spending time in the garden, especially now that her office has moved to our apartment and the garden is right outside. We made a bet on what vegetable would be ready first -- we both guessed cucumber. But the first vegetable was actually a green pepper. It was very tasty. That was about two weeks ago, and a week ago, the first cucumber was picked. I wasn’t there for the honors since I had a short trip to Dallas (by short, I flew in at 12:30 am and left the same day at 8:00 pm). So I enjoyed the cucumber through Celeste’s description. She said that it was very good. We've since picked a few more cucumbers and green peppers, and they have all been wonderful.

There are some fun things we’ve learned from our garden. First of all, squirrels apparently like strawberries, since strawberries keep disappearing before fully ripe. Celeste keeps thinking that it is me. It isn’t, though. We have a family of squirrels living in the tree on our patio. We haven’t caught them in the act, yet, but we think it’s them.

Herbs straight from the garden are wonderful! Fresh parsley is wonderful! Fresh basil is wonderful! Fresh cilantro is wonderful! You might be interested to see what cilantro looks like when you let it grow past its edible stage (you know, the fresh cilantro bunches you buy in the store). Once cilantro gets to a certain point, it grows flowers and seeds and loses the “cilantro” flavor. It actually looks like a giant weed. That isn’t a weed, though. We’ve been keeping our garden weed-free. We’ll probably plant it in a separate container next time, but for now, it towers over the green onions. One other interesting thing is that the seeds that grow on the cilantro plant are called coriander. Who knew? I guess the bigger question, though – who knows what coriander is? I didn’t even know it existed until Celeste told me.

The last fun thing about our garden is our new drip irrigation system. When we went to Monterey for the three-day Memorial Day weekend, we weren’t sure who to get to water our garden. So, we installed a drip irrigation system and a timer. Now, we don’t have to worry at all about watering, because it self waters everyday at the same specified timed. It’s great. Low maintenance gardening.

An example of the hose that connects all our plants.


The water timer for auto-watering convenience.
For more pictures, go to our Picture Album.

My Geocaching Quest

Since my travels have been taking me all over the U.S., I decided to try to find a geocache in every state. (If you don’t know what geocaching is, read about it at geocaching.com). When I get to a new state, I try to have the coordinates for a geocache close to my hotel. Sometimes, it’s really close to the hotel (such as a geocache I found on Time’s Square in New York City -- see picture below). Other times, I have to take quite the hike (such as in Dallas walking 3.5 miles in muggy heat).


The thing I like most about geocaching is that it usually leads to fun parks and interesting landmarks that only locals usually know about. For example, I found this running trail in New Jersey. As I was jogging back to the car, I literally almost ran into a deer on the trail. I’m not sure who was spooked more, me or the deer.

It’s been fun adding a geocache or two to each of my trips. It gives me a bit of exercise, too. I’ve been making decent progress on hitting the list of states. I’m tracking it on a map in my geocaching.com profile (I copied the most recent map below). It’s a pretty long process to get all 50 states, but it’s been taking me to fun little places. This month, I added Massachusetts and Texas to my list of states. That brings me up to 15 states.

Our First Garden in California

Since we moved a few weeks ago, we now have our own private patio. It's a pretty big area, too, and we realized that it gets enough direct sunlight that it would be perfect for a garden. So what did we do? We planted a garden last week. We've got peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries, cilantro, basil, green onions, and parsley. Over the last week, we had quite the heat wave. Temperatures exceeded 100 degrees. It wasn't exactly the best weather to be outside, or inside if you didn't have A/C. But the plants sure loved it. When we planted the tomatoes last week, only one of the plants was (barely) above the first horizontal wire in the tomato cage. Now, all of them are almost up to the second wire. I guess the heat was good for them. We love our garden! And what is especially nice is that we have our own hose. That sure makes watering a lot easier (we used to use a watering can -- took a lot longer).

Our Garden - One Week Ago
Click on the pictures to see the difference a week will make

Our Garden - Today

Snowboarding At Tahoe

Celeste and I tried out snowboarding for the first time last weekend. My company paid for us to go to North Star at Lake Tahoe. We met at 4am at my office so that we could get to the resort by 8am. We took lessons in the morning and went up the mountain after lunch. It was a ton of fun! We decided that snowboarding is more fun than skiing, mostly because you can do more in snowboarding. Of course, we did fall a lot and ended up with sore knees and bums. But it was worth it. And at the end of the day, we were still smiling (And I had a nice sunburn across my forehead since I had my hat on while applying sunscreen -- it made for a funny tan line). :) Can't wait 'til the company trip next year!

Salsa Routine

Celeste and I had fun choreographing a salsa routine for a church activity. Hope you enjoy it!