Brian and I went down to California to visit family and attend my grandmother's 95th birthday party this past weekend. Becca and Adam had huge airline problems on Wednesday afternoon/evening and I tried to help but didn't manage to do anything. We, on the other hand, arrived at the airport an hour and a half early for our Thursday-morning flight and had no problems at all. There's one direct Alaska Air flight from Seattle to Santa Barbara per day, and it's completely worth the slightly higher price, in my opinion. Two and a half hours is hardly any time at all.
There was a dessert reception Thursday night, as I mentioned in my last entry. I was most excited to see Connie, Madelyn, and Keith. (Oh, Keith, I know I wanted to send you some info. This is the practice test site I used when studying for the CISSP. Some of the "pro" level questions are more than you need to study, in my opinion, but the rule of thumb that I've heard is that if you can get 70% or so on each domain, you'll probably pass the test. They do get a little repetitive after a while. I can't remember what other links I wanted to send you now.)
On Friday, Brian went golfing at an Air Force golf course, Marshallia, while I went wine tasting with the rest of the family. That was nice, although I normally just took sips of my father's wine - I don't drink enough to really make it worth the tasting fee when it's anything other than free. My father grilled some steaks and asparagus for dinner (we especially liked the garlicky bread).
On Saturday, Becca and I went to a yoga class at Santa Barbara Yoga Center (that schedule is created by the company I used to work for, btw). The teacher did start out saying "om" a couple times, but I really liked the class. There were a couple poses that I just couldn't hold at all, and Becca held them the whole time! I'm thinking of getting a video so I can practice a little at home. Afterwards, we went to Carlito's with the family - I convinced Brian to share carne asada with me, which I really like. It was HUGE - we probably could have shared with two more people. Afterwards, the rest of the family went wine tasting. Brian and I originally wanted to go to the beach, but by the time we wandered around town for an hour looking for a Radio Shack (wanted to pick up a cable for my father) and went home to get sunscreen, we decided it was too hot to go to the beach. We went over to the mission instead. (Where the heck was google maps trying to take us? There is no mission there, as far as I know.
On Saturday night, we went out to dinner at... some place on the waterfront. It was pretty good, but we got so many appetizers that I was stuffed by the time my dinner salad arrived - I actually wish I hadn't bothered to get a meal.
We all drove up to Santa Maria in two cars on Sunday to attend the party. Here's a picture:
Mom, grandma, and my father are sitting in the front row. The guy at the far right is Chef Rick, the owner of the restaurant.
The party was very nice. There was a delicious wild mushroom and asparagus pizza, and I also really liked the gorgonzola and chive crostini that topped the salad.
After the party, Brian and I took my father's car to Carrie's house to visit with her and her husband, Casey. We went out to dinner (at Hang Out, a thai restaurant in the same shopping center as Chef Rick's) - I thought it was pretty good, but I like our regular thai place up here better. We watched a couple of episodes of Arrested Development after we got to their place (Casey insists it's the best show ever), and it was pretty funny. We'll probably Netflix it, especially since it's only three seasons.
We sort of had breakfast with Carrie on Monday morning before she left for work, and then we went up north. My original plan involved hiking at Montana de Oro, but I was too lazy to drive all the way up there (plus, it was pretty overcast), so we walked around at Pismo/Oceano instead. I even wore my sweater, so I didn't get sunburned. Afterwards, we drove up to San Luis (where I went to college) and walked around a little bit before picking up Justin for lunch. As we were walking out of Firestone's to find a table, I saw three old coworkers (Steve, actually an old friend of mine from high school, and Blake and Chet) standing in line. They seemed suspiciously not surprised to see us. I figured out what had happened when, a few minutes later, Brad and his fiance, Alexis, walked up. It turns out that Brad happened to see my last post (I said what time and restaurant in a comment) and so they decided to surprise me. I was pretty excited about that, because I'd wanted to stop by the office but didn't even know where the new office was. We sat outside and chatted for a while and I got a pretty bad sunburn on my whole left half (my right half is tan but not sunburned). Afterwards, Brian and I walked around some more downtown and then went over to the office to talk to my old boss. Their new office is LEED certified and uses all kinds of environmentally friendly products, including carpet made from recycled plastic bottles. (My boss says it costs less to heat and cool than our old office, which was less than half the size!)
We drove down to Santa Barbara in time for dinner at Woody's BBQ. (Also in time to get a comment from Andrea that I could have stopped by while we were near Cal Poly. Sorry I didn't get that earlier - I'll make plans farther in advance next time!)
Becca and Adam left at some point in the early morning on Tuesday, so Brian and I went over to the Nissan dealership to look at the Altima hybrid. It's a really nice car - we have no picky problems with it as we do with most of the other cars we've test-driven. We're still waiting to get more details on the Chevy Volt, but the hybrid Altima is definitely on the top of my list if we need to buy a new car in the near future.
We packed up our stuff, including four tomato seedlings that my mother convinced me to take to replace the ones I killed while we were visiting Becca and Adam. Our flight was successful, and I actually managed to plant the seedlings before we went to bed. They look pretty happy already, so I'm really glad that we'll have another chance to try tomatoes (if we planted seeds now, they probably wouldn't be big enough to fruit during summer). We had a good time visiting, although I would have liked to spend more time with my grandmother.
I woke up on Wednesday and began getting ready - I normally leave around 8 am to get to work in time for our 8:30 am daily meeting. I got a call at 7:30, asking me if I remembered that I had an all-day meeting starting at 8 at a different site (farther away than my normal workplace). Obviously, I did not, so I had to get ready quickly. I was late to the meeting, but I only missed the agenda and org charts, so it could have been worse. I'm in the same meeting today, but at least I knew about it in advance and brought my laptop.
And now, I should pay more attention.
There was a dessert reception Thursday night, as I mentioned in my last entry. I was most excited to see Connie, Madelyn, and Keith. (Oh, Keith, I know I wanted to send you some info. This is the practice test site I used when studying for the CISSP. Some of the "pro" level questions are more than you need to study, in my opinion, but the rule of thumb that I've heard is that if you can get 70% or so on each domain, you'll probably pass the test. They do get a little repetitive after a while. I can't remember what other links I wanted to send you now.)
On Friday, Brian went golfing at an Air Force golf course, Marshallia, while I went wine tasting with the rest of the family. That was nice, although I normally just took sips of my father's wine - I don't drink enough to really make it worth the tasting fee when it's anything other than free. My father grilled some steaks and asparagus for dinner (we especially liked the garlicky bread).
On Saturday, Becca and I went to a yoga class at Santa Barbara Yoga Center (that schedule is created by the company I used to work for, btw). The teacher did start out saying "om" a couple times, but I really liked the class. There were a couple poses that I just couldn't hold at all, and Becca held them the whole time! I'm thinking of getting a video so I can practice a little at home. Afterwards, we went to Carlito's with the family - I convinced Brian to share carne asada with me, which I really like. It was HUGE - we probably could have shared with two more people. Afterwards, the rest of the family went wine tasting. Brian and I originally wanted to go to the beach, but by the time we wandered around town for an hour looking for a Radio Shack (wanted to pick up a cable for my father) and went home to get sunscreen, we decided it was too hot to go to the beach. We went over to the mission instead. (Where the heck was google maps trying to take us? There is no mission there, as far as I know.
On Saturday night, we went out to dinner at... some place on the waterfront. It was pretty good, but we got so many appetizers that I was stuffed by the time my dinner salad arrived - I actually wish I hadn't bothered to get a meal.
We all drove up to Santa Maria in two cars on Sunday to attend the party. Here's a picture:
Mom, grandma, and my father are sitting in the front row. The guy at the far right is Chef Rick, the owner of the restaurant.
The party was very nice. There was a delicious wild mushroom and asparagus pizza, and I also really liked the gorgonzola and chive crostini that topped the salad.
After the party, Brian and I took my father's car to Carrie's house to visit with her and her husband, Casey. We went out to dinner (at Hang Out, a thai restaurant in the same shopping center as Chef Rick's) - I thought it was pretty good, but I like our regular thai place up here better. We watched a couple of episodes of Arrested Development after we got to their place (Casey insists it's the best show ever), and it was pretty funny. We'll probably Netflix it, especially since it's only three seasons.
We sort of had breakfast with Carrie on Monday morning before she left for work, and then we went up north. My original plan involved hiking at Montana de Oro, but I was too lazy to drive all the way up there (plus, it was pretty overcast), so we walked around at Pismo/Oceano instead. I even wore my sweater, so I didn't get sunburned. Afterwards, we drove up to San Luis (where I went to college) and walked around a little bit before picking up Justin for lunch. As we were walking out of Firestone's to find a table, I saw three old coworkers (Steve, actually an old friend of mine from high school, and Blake and Chet) standing in line. They seemed suspiciously not surprised to see us. I figured out what had happened when, a few minutes later, Brad and his fiance, Alexis, walked up. It turns out that Brad happened to see my last post (I said what time and restaurant in a comment) and so they decided to surprise me. I was pretty excited about that, because I'd wanted to stop by the office but didn't even know where the new office was. We sat outside and chatted for a while and I got a pretty bad sunburn on my whole left half (my right half is tan but not sunburned). Afterwards, Brian and I walked around some more downtown and then went over to the office to talk to my old boss. Their new office is LEED certified and uses all kinds of environmentally friendly products, including carpet made from recycled plastic bottles. (My boss says it costs less to heat and cool than our old office, which was less than half the size!)
We drove down to Santa Barbara in time for dinner at Woody's BBQ. (Also in time to get a comment from Andrea that I could have stopped by while we were near Cal Poly. Sorry I didn't get that earlier - I'll make plans farther in advance next time!)
Becca and Adam left at some point in the early morning on Tuesday, so Brian and I went over to the Nissan dealership to look at the Altima hybrid. It's a really nice car - we have no picky problems with it as we do with most of the other cars we've test-driven. We're still waiting to get more details on the Chevy Volt, but the hybrid Altima is definitely on the top of my list if we need to buy a new car in the near future.
We packed up our stuff, including four tomato seedlings that my mother convinced me to take to replace the ones I killed while we were visiting Becca and Adam. Our flight was successful, and I actually managed to plant the seedlings before we went to bed. They look pretty happy already, so I'm really glad that we'll have another chance to try tomatoes (if we planted seeds now, they probably wouldn't be big enough to fruit during summer). We had a good time visiting, although I would have liked to spend more time with my grandmother.
I woke up on Wednesday and began getting ready - I normally leave around 8 am to get to work in time for our 8:30 am daily meeting. I got a call at 7:30, asking me if I remembered that I had an all-day meeting starting at 8 at a different site (farther away than my normal workplace). Obviously, I did not, so I had to get ready quickly. I was late to the meeting, but I only missed the agenda and org charts, so it could have been worse. I'm in the same meeting today, but at least I knew about it in advance and brought my laptop.
And now, I should pay more attention.
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