Sold our car

We sold our first Prius that has come all the way from Ohio with us. It's name was Ervin, and it clocked up many miles between Cleveland and Pittsburgh. We will miss it but we think it has gone to a good home!

Running Like a Girl

In a fit of madness perhaps induced by too much California sun, I signed up to run in the Nike Women's Marathon in October. I have joined a training team that raises funds for Leukemia and Lymphoma research, called Team in Training (acronym is TNT, not TIT, btw). It is going to be a pretty tough training schedule particularly for someone like me who thinks running for a bus as a workout.....but I'm hoping that I'll get there with the support of the team, friends and family.

Of course the rub is that I have to raise $2,400 but it is for a great cause and the dollar is weak against the pound so I'm hoping it won't be too hard! They have set me up with all sorts of clever things like a website where people can donate using their credit cards. So all I need to do is get my running shoes on.......I'll keep you posted.....

Wine Country

My Mum was visiting from the UK and we took her on the Napa Valley wine train. Yummy food, great wine, fabulous service....what more do you need!

Nashville again

Popped down for a weekend of celebrations -- Katherine's 21st birthday, and Ajay and Britta's wedding.
We ate some great food, drank some great beer with Katherine and then celebrated with Ajay and Britta. Their ceremony was a beautiful Hindu ceremony followed by fabulous Indian food, and great conversation with Kellogg folks.

San Francisco dreaming

Another busy weekend in San Francisco....

My Aunt and Uncle were visiting for the weekend on the return leg of a trip to Australia and Chris' business school friend, also called Chris, was marrying the beautiful Bea.

The wedding was wonderful with much dancing and merry-making. The reception was on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay with stunning views of the City. Here are all the business school folks in a reunion picture.

Powder Day!

The ski season finally got going with a couple of metres of snow at the end of February. We loaded up our friend's bug and headed out to Kirkwood, near to Lake Tahoe for a day skiing.

It was a perfect day for skiing -- clear skies and sunshine. Here are Owen and Chris chowing down on a burger after a busy afternoon on the slopes

Down to LA

A flying visit to catch up with new parents Barbara & Simon who were vacationing with family outside of LA....

Nashville, Baby!

Back in February, 5 girlfriends headed on down to Nashville.....there was some culture visiting the World's only replica of the Parthenon, complete with Athena....

....there were pictures with the General Lee....
....a trip to the Grand Ol'Opry....

....some dancing at the Wildhorse Saloon....

....and plenty of drinking!

Ah, so that is why I moved to California

A severe, city-burying storm has moved across the mid-west and northeast today. This is the weather for the next few days in Pittsburgh....
And this is the weather for Sacramento.....
And those are Celsius temperatures....I think I may need to put on the sprinklers in the garden....

My famous question

Slate is part of my morning coffee drinking ritual. The have a great section called "Ask the Explainer" that explains how to do things that are in the current news.

I asked the question that got answered today. It makes me more excited than it should really. You can read it here and even see my name in print. So now we all know how to get to Gitmo!

Christmas with the turkeys

As neither of us had much vacation, we spent Christmas in Sacramento. We did head out for a couple of cold nights camping in Pinnacles National Monument about 3 hrs south of Sacto. The park was beautiful and we did a great hike through the pinnacles and ended up in some caves full of bats. All very cool. We were also woken on Christmas morning by a chorus of wild turkeys celebrating the passing of another festive season.


In case you were wondering, a National Monument is declared by a President vs a National Park that is declared by act of Congress.