October 11, 2010

• Two very busy weeks have gone by! I kicked off the first Friday in October with Mahjong night at Melissa's house. We started the night playing Mahjong, but then Melissa showed us dress candidates for her upcoming showcase. The rest of the night shall be named "underwear intervention." It provided good laughs, mostly at Melissa's expense (note: I only jest because I can totally relate), and I didn't get home until past 2am! Good times with great friends. The next day, we had our usually activities ... Calie's gymnastics class, followed by building a fireboat at Home Depot, and then cheering at Zach's soccer game. Another win! Post game, a few teammates and their families went to Red Robin for lunch. It was Tryston's birthday, so his mom brought cupcakes. Happy 7th Birthday Tryston!

  

  

  

  After lunch, we drove to Sebastapol for James' 20th High School reunion.The kids had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa G. Since Calie cried the last few times we got a babysitter, we were apprehensive about how she'd react. We had nothing to worry about - both kids waved goodbye and had so much fun, they didn't even miss us. Thank you to Mom and Dad G for watching the kids and entertaining them with so many fun activities! The reunion was at a hotel ballroom. I didn't know anyone (and I don't like small talk), so I was glad when Rad and Danielle showed up for real conversation. It was great to get to know them even better.

  

   

  Sunday, we went to Six Flags ... it was on the way back home and our workplace sold $10 admission tickets, which included free parking. How could I resist? What a great day to go! It was pretty empty, which surprised me since it was a weekend. We might have had to wait for a turn on a few rides, but most times, we could walk right on. The weather was excellent too - not too hot, almost a bit too chilly in the evening.

   

  Since it was Halloween season, there were characters handing out candy throughout the park. The only downside for the day was the height restrictions. The cutoff for riding alone on a kiddie ride was 36", which meant Calie couldn't get on some rides. And the cutoff for the thrill rides was 48", which meant Zachary was limited to the kiddie rides. After Space Mountain and Tower of Terror, I'm pretty sure Bertie the Bus was a letdown. I don't think it makes sense to go back until our kids hit those height milestones.

  

  

  Thursday, my manager treated my team to lunch at Tahoe Joe's to celebrate the release of a major work project. My team worked evenings and weekends to make the launch happen, so it was nice to be acknowledged for our efforts. I had a salad (okay, with fried shrimp) because I had evenings plans with my girlfriends. Sandy, Melissa, Karen, Rachel and I met up in midtown for dinner at Crepeville followed by a Broadway show. We saw 'Burn the Floor', and I was very impressed by the choreography and execution.

  Friday night, I played (and lost) Mahjong again. My strategy is to play fast and make as few mistakes as possible. As my dad advised me, it's better to make quick decisions and lose ... and get invited back so that I can practice and eventually win, than to fall into analysis paralysis and not get invited back. Of course, I think there is a fine balance, because if I continue to be a horrible player, I'm not fun to compete with either!

  

  Saturday was extremely busy. I started the day with a short morning jog, and James took both kids to Calie's gymnastics class (Zach waited and played iPhone games) while I had an eye exam. Then it was off to Zach's soccer game - where they won, but I was not impressed by Zachary's sportsmanship. He broke down in tears because he was knocked over by the other team, while unsuccessfully blocking a goal. He kept arguing that the goal should not count. Sigh ... a life lesson on flexibility and not taking things too personally.  After soccer, we drove to Alameda for a coworker's wedding.

  

  Congratulations Xin and May! They had a nice church wedding followed by a Chinese banquet dinner for over 250 people. Their church groups put together a slide show and sang fun, personalized songs. Since two couples from our table did not show, we ended up with a lot of extra food to package up and take home. Hurrah for not having to cook - and bonus that it's authentic Chinese food.

    

  

  The next morning, we went to Bishop's Pumpkin Farm. Since we had a birthday party to go to later that day (didn't have much time to stand in the long lines), we opted to skip the ticketed activities. Zachary bounced on the hay a few times to let me try out a feature on my new(ish)camera. Calie didn't want to jump on the hay after falling twice, and mostly liked watching animals from a distance. Then it was off to a playstructure, followed by pig races, and a hayride out to the pumpkin patch. We did meet up with Melissa, but had to leave before spending time with Sandy and Ivette.

   

  After Zachary observed the cost structure of the pumpkins at checkout, he told me that,"Next year I'm going to get a tall thin one because it's by how wide it is." Hmmm. Is cheapness nature or nurture? Of course, after 2 weeks of no accidents, Calie fails to make it to the port-a-potties in the parking lot. Hence it was off to the party, in mismatched clothes.

   

  

  We had a fun time celebrating Zayan's first birthday at Little Gym. I was impressed by how many people came - it spoke volumes to Reshma's ability to build friendships for both herself and her little ones. Happy 1st Birthday Zayan!

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