Random California

A few little adventures in between recent "normal" life activities...

One way to spend an evening when you have a relative who works at Google - giant Scrabble!

Magnetic tiles, comfy chairs, and everyone can see the board rightside-up.  Very cool.

Happened to notice the name of one of the Google conference rooms - memories from last summer:

Kip pointed out one of the new Street View cars with upgraded cameras for improved images:

Marcy on the roof!  I've done a couple volunteer builds with Grid Alternatives, fun and great for learning more about solar:

Salt ponds in the east bay, a view from Coyote Hills:

John's second hill training outing, this one on a windy and slightly chilly day:

Roaming up and down the little Coyote Hills:

At the top!  We didn't linger...

Oodles of turkeys ambling across the hillside:

Hill day #3 at San Bruno park:

We always enjoy this trail up to the ridge:

Especially for the views from the top:

500 feet up, and the new hip is doing well:

Kip gave us a tour of the new building where he'll soon be working, and we happened to notice this whiteboard next to the gym:

In case you can't read it...

"If you are in need of life advice, don't get it from a gym whiteboard"
"I'm not taking your advice then"
"It's a paradox!  By not doing it, you're doing it!"
"The opposite is also a paradox"
"Your face is a paradox"

And because that made us giggle, we've started using the retort "Your face is a _____" for any possible non sequitur.  Try it, it's fun  :)

Next weekend, next hill climb - exploring Alum Rock Park for the first time:

Kip asked if I was going to take a picture of the giant bird for my blog - only if y'all would help with a goofy pose, I replied.  Challenge accepted!

A lovely view of the San Jose valley.  Oh, and we saw a bobcat!  It was gone before I could snap a photo.  That was neat.

Checking out the view:

A pretty creek through the next valley:

Testing out our new expedition pack:

There's some lovely foliage around here right now:

An outside cave - ?

Yay for more hill training with Kip and John!

Next up - a special guest visits us in California!