BerkeleyBlvd

Olivia FINALLY had an opportunity to go fishing with my Uncle Kenny on Chain Lake in Northern Wisconsin. Not one to be intimidated by the fancy, high-tech Crappie Hunter rod and reel combo, Olivia accepted the challenge of this 9 foot graphite rod attached to a state-of-the-art spinning reel. Initially she decided that the wax worms (bee larvae) would be the bait of choice. But soon after Kenny caught the first fish she quickly moved the fish-enticing, seal skin. This must have been super special bait the was concealed in a tiny blue, sealed plastic container held inside a pocket. When you opened this container you just knew you were going to catch fish. Olivia started with a quick overview of the processes one needed to perform in order to successfully cast out into the lake with this type of reel. She quickly broke it down into three steps grab-it, flip-it and cast-it. Soon she mastered her technique and refused assistance from anyone who offered criticism of her style. After about her sixth cast she had a bite, and with a quick jerk of the rod, she had it hooked and she reeled in her first solo fish on a real fishing rod. After I removed it from the hook I insisted that every new fisherman needs to kiss the first fish that he or she catches prior to releasing. She reluctantly obliged and we set him free. She continued to perfect her casting technique and proceeded to catch 5 more. Throughout the morning we saw whooping cranes, bald eagles, loons that were so close you could touch them and a variety of turtles it was a nice way to spend a morning in the Northwoods of Wisconsin.

Thanks Uncle Kenny.

Here is a picture of Barbara riding her bike to the staging area to start the Trek Women’s Triathlon at 5:00AM on Sunday morning.  She’s been training for several months preparing for this day. Her results below prove that she was pushing herself through the entire race beating her individual time in each category.

Way to go!

Olivia has already had an eventful summer “vacation” with all the extra-curricular activities. Her first week off from school we went to the East Coast for a family vacation which included several Washington D.C. museums and landmarks and our photo in the, yet-unreleased Google store view camera,  an encounter with President Obama followed by a day trip in the whitewater.

Next, she had a week at the Silverbrook Girl Scout Camp. Then she started tennis coaching followed by Play Ground Activities for the entire day.

Now she starts UW-Milwaukee College for Kids where she will take a variety of creativity classes. The exciting thing for us is that she will be on her own throughout the day and that requires her to be responsible for notifying us during key moments in her day. So far she has been wonderful about calling to check in with us. In fact, her phone calls are the highlights of my day. Ah, they grow up so fast!

Supercross is alive and well at the house!

If for no other reason it is certainly VERY entertaining to watch everyone comment on this late-night debacle. But for me, I’m with Coco!

Olivia rocks the LittleBigPlanet! What an amazing game, everything about it is amazing!

The YBCA has been book for several days starting January 26th, trademark and domain names have been secured, global media alliances have been completed and the server farm has been built does this all mean that we will finally see the release of another Apple game changer? Could it be this:

Hope so!

Last night as we passed Pixels house we noticed that the food that we placed inside was still there. Normally he would quickly grab it and store all of it in his cheeks, so we were concerned. Barbara lifted out his house and we realized that our little friend was gone. Pixel was Olivia’s first pet of her own. He was a lot of fun to play with and even Comet enjoyed chasing him around. We will miss the little guy and he now has passed on to the little hamster wheel in the sky. Good little friend.

I packed up the kid and the dog and headed out to the ski hill to do some hiking. I was going to take Comet biking but rain this weeked killed that plan. The weather over the weekend, however, was amazing unseasonally warm and sunny, so I felt had to do something outside. We loaded up the VW and after rebuilding my entire front suspension, replacing the SAIP, Combi Valves, vacuum hoses and Flex Pipe the car is like new again. I would love to get a couple more years out of her before she gets retired. The trouble is that, when it is running, it is a GREAT car to drive…fast. Once we got to the ski hill we turned Comet loose and she literally flew down the hill, all the way to the bottom and after a pit-stop in the middle of the trail, which I’m sure some unsuspecting mountain biker will appreciate, she bolted all the way back up. Olivia and I walked to the bottom of the hill and started hiking through the woods. Comet decided the the woods would look better at 100mph, and Olivia was ready to chase. Comet is great fun out in the woods, she runs off ahead, gets scared by the wind and runs back to make sure we’re coming. When we reached the top of one of the hills we saw some people walking across the bottom. I put Comet in a sit/stay and she watched while they made their way. At least until Comet let out one bark and the Rottweiler that was with them decided he needed to lumber up all the way up the hill, not responding to his owners frantic objections. When he reached the halfway point I released Comet and let fate take over. They greeted each other, performed the required sniffing routine and then ran all over the hill. Once we caught up with the gang of 3 dogs (they were joined by a boarder collie) Olivia and decided to make our own path through the swamp and eventually got lost. I felt like Olivia was leading us around in circles and Comet’s attempts and summoning her inner hound dog failed us. I had to take over and use the sun to eventually lead us to safety. Unfortunately, I could see the top of the hill where we needed to be several miles away. Once we got back on the trail we picked up the pace and managed to make it back to the car. We ate our snacks and headed home. Comet curled up with Olivia and fell asleep within a few minutes. Olivia thanked me and told me it was the best day ever.

I have hacked Snow Leopard onto my own hardware and I am running a VMWare Fusion install of the official product release of Windows 7 Enterprise which is running Virtual XP mode. Too many virtual machines on hardware that wasn’t designed to run any of it.