Always Overwhelmed

13th Anniversary Lunch

2011-07-23T14:55:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted in a long time, but thought I'd drop in some quick pictures from our anniversary day out. We snuck out to Pebble Beach for the day and had lunch at Roy's at Spanish Bay.

Not the type of food Faith normally likes, but I talked her into it and she ended up having a really good meal. She has surf-and-turf with filet mignon and mahi mahi over potatoes, rice and vegetables. I had the bento box with butterfish, salmon sashimi, california rolls, and ahi tempura. Especially nice were the customized menus they had for our anniversary. Definitely worth calling ahead for, and a wonderful way to celebrate 13 years together.

After lunch we had a little dessert at the main inn at Pebble Beach and drove around 17 Mile Drive enjoying the views of the Pacific.

We finished off the rest of the evening in Monterey with a lighter dinner and some shopping (Faith's favorite) before heading home to see the little ones.

HP Discounts

2009-06-17T09:12:00.000-07:00

If you need a discount on HP gear, feel free to check out this link. It appears to be the same discount we get as employees.

Spring Break

2009-05-01T20:48:00.000-07:00

Just a short note about Spring Break. The kids had the week off from school, and HP 'highly encouraged' everyone in software to take a week off this quarter, so we had a fun family week. For Easter, my folks came over for the standard egg hunts, etc. Then during the week we did some fun activities like bowling and miniature golf, and the kids had a blast. Then to end the week we went over to Atwater to visit my parents again and do a trip up to Jamestown, which is a cool little old gold rush town in the foothills. It's main draw is that they have a railroad museum, and a we rode the old steam engine on a trip through the hills, which the kids thought was cool. Finally, to finish out the time, we visited my cousins who bought a vacation/retirement home in Cooperopolis, which is about 15 mins from Jamestown. It's a beautiful place on a golf course, and reminds me of the Grand Californian hotel at Disneyland. Sadly we were having so much fun there, we forgot to take pictures, but some of the other pictures are here.

Christmas 2008 Recap

2009-01-03T22:23:00.000-08:00

Well, as the Christmas vacation time comes to a close, and the inevitable return to work/school creeps ever closer, I thought I'd post a quick recap in an attempt to hold on a little longer. It was a blessed time for our family, and we were able to do a lot and spend a lot of time together, so for that I'm very grateful.

We kicked off the season with 3 performances in a row. Iain and Allison had their school Christmas performances on back-to-back nights, and then Allison and Amber had their winter dance recital on the following day. If you're wondering, yes, that's too many performances in a row.

Like many companies, HP had a mandatory shutdown for the two weeks around the holidays, so before Christmas, we took the kids out for their first ice skating experience. While they spent a good amount of time on their bottoms, Iain, Allison, and Amber all were able to skate around unassisted by the end.

I also had a first, by attempting my hand at homemade pizza. Sadly, it took a burned arm and 2 bad attempts before we got something that was pretty good. Definitely not my last attempt.

The holiday was a wonderful time, as we were able to spend it with both Faith's and my parents, so the kids had an unending supply of grandparents to perform for. As usual, the women made enough food to feed an army, and the men were happy to oblige by eating enough for an army as well.

After things settled down a little bit, I was able to take Iain out with Faith's dad to do a little target shooting down at Clear Creek. It was a long drive for not a lot of shooting, but it was worth it to get out of the house, and Iain was able to fire Faith's dad's .45 automatic for the first time, which he thought was pretty cool.

We just finished 'un-making' Christmas around the house and packing all the decorations away, but it was blessed and joyous time we're not soon to forget. I hope all our friends and family had a wonderful Christmas and that we'll see a prosperous new year in 2009. (ok, ok 2008 didn't set too high of a bar, I know)

I did my best to capture some snippets of this in our Christmas 2008 web album.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-04T20:56:00.000-08:00

We spent Thanksgiving with Faith's mom and dad, and had a really good time. Her dad smoked a turkey as always and it was excellent. The kids dressed up as pilgrims... well, except for Iain who thought indians were way cooler. All in all it was a good day. I put some pictures in a Thanksgiving 2008 web album.

Disneyland Trip

2008-11-28T11:26:00.000-08:00

I'm a little late posting, but better late than never. At the end of Oct, I took a week off of work because Iain and Allison had the better part of the week off from school, so it sounded like a perfect opportunity for a vacation. After much debate, we settled on a trip down to Disneyland so we could see the Magic Kingdom and California Adventure.

We had taken Iain and Allison about 4 years ago, but it was the first time we had the whole family. Needless to say it was a lot of fun. Each of the kids got to meet their favorite Disney characters, and ride all the cool rides. I put together a web album of some of the better pictures so we have documented proof that they had fun. ;-)

Now we just need a vacation to rest up from our vacation!

Beach Trip

2008-07-26T13:02:00.000-07:00

So in what Faith would call an 'unprecedented move', I took a day off of work and we went on a day trip to the beach over near Santa Cruz.

We almost had a family portrait at the beach, but we couldn't tear Iain away from fishing with his grandpa. The fish weren't biting too well, but he did get a few little bullhead which at least gave him a sense of accomplishment even if it wasn't dinner.

For more pictures, check out the Web Album of our Trip to the Beach.

Allison's Kinder Graduation

2008-06-14T11:54:00.000-07:00

Well we made it through another kindergarten graduation. Two down and two to go.

This year seems to have flown by and it's hard to believe that our little girl will be getting ready for first grade in a few months, and then in another year Amber will be starting school too.

After graduation was over we a went out for a special lunch at Rosy's at the Beach, which is Allison's favorite restaurant. I couldn't understand why, because she always gets plain buttered noodles which you can get anywhere, so I asked. Her reason: You can draw on the tables! I should've known it was something like that.

Sharks - Game 7

2008-04-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

So for the second time this year, I won HP's lottery for tickets to the Sharks game, but this time around it was WAY better. I was notified on Monday morning that I had won 2 tickets to Tuesday night's game 7 of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. I had a bunch of people emailing me to see if I was going to go to the game, and :cough, cough: if I'd give them the tickets if I wasn't. Needless to say that was a silly question, so I grabbed Iain and headed to the game.

Because I had to work that day, we were a little late getting there, and the line was the longest I'd ever seen at 'The Tank', but it worked out well and we took our seat just in time to see the puck drop. The first and second periods we're really close and exciting, but by the 3rd period the Sharks had pretty well put it away.

I have to say that even though I'm not a Sharks fan, even I got caught up in the moment rooting them on. (That and the fact that they had to win if I wanted any hope of seeing the Avs play in San Jose this May) The noise level inside was just crazy by the end, and I heard that people stayed around to celebrate for close to an hour after the game ended. Iain had school the next morning, so we hurried out to get him home, and he was so tired he slept in the car on the way home, but I think we both had a really exciting night. Oh yeah, I think the Sharks liked it too.

New Flooring

2008-04-07T23:46:00.000-07:00

The carpet has finally had it, or to be more correct we've finally had it with the carpet. When we moved into our house back in 2003, we had all the rooms painted, and we laid new carpet throughout the house. Sadly, a few things conspired together to make the carpet only last for 5 years.

1) Because of the layout of our house, the dining area was on carpet. If you've ever had kids, you know that's a recipe for disaster, and I think it may be part of why Faith is always overwhelmed.

2) I love our Dyson vacuum cleaner, but I think it may be a little too good. In the commercials, they say it's the only vacuum not to lose suction, and I think they're right. In our case the suction was so great that the carpet began to ripple wherever there was a seam.

3) My allergies weren't great, and they've only gotten worse since we moved to Morgan Hill. One of the problems is likely the residual dusts and pollens that are trapped in the fibers of the carpet.

So all of these factors have led to us ripping out the carpet and laying in wood floor. We did some shopping around, and actually found that Builders Flooring in Merced were willing to come over and install here, and since the market for new home construction has ground to a halt they were able to start almost immediately.

We also found a really great product which is a laminated flooring, but it comes in variable widths, and the edges of the planks are beveled like traditional engineered hardwood. The color we chose is something called "Salted Lapacho", which I'd characterize as somewhere between a cherry and a walnut finish. Oddly enough, now that it's down I think it looks more like a hardwood floor than our living room floor which actually is hardwood.

The family room was completed last Friday (the before and after pictures to the right) and the installer is coming back on Wed-Fri to do the same to entire back of the house including all the bedrooms and hallways. We get the privilege of camping out in our family room for those days, which I'm sure everyone will thoroughly enjoy. (yes, that was sarcasm in case you missed it)

When it's done we'll have nothing but wood and tile throughout the house (except for the laundry room, but I don't count that) and hopefully my allergies will be much the better for it.

Better Than a Milk Carton

2008-02-04T08:25:00.000-08:00

On a recent trip to Nob Hill we grabbed a grocery basket and had a nice surprise. The advertising display in a bunch of the baskets now have a picture of Allison and Amber dressed in their dance clothes and advertising for Starliners Dance Studio. The rest of the trip as we walked through the grocery store I got to hear, "There we are, over there" and "Hey, there we are again". Needless to say, the other patrons in the store thought we were a little odd, but my only thought was "I'd rather have their pictures on the basket than on the milk cartons in the basket." Next month they'll probably be replaced by some other advertisement, but hopefully, this won't eat too far into their '15 minutes of fame'.

Hockey!

2008-01-18T09:52:00.000-08:00

Well, maybe this whole 'working for HP' thing is going to work out, because we just enjoyed one of the perks. HP sets aside 72 tickets for every Sharks home game in the HP Pavilion, and they have a lottery on their intranet where every employee can enter. I guess not everyone knows about it, because after less than a month of entering, I got 4 free tickets to the Dallas Stars v. San Jose Sharks game.

The timing worked out really well, because it's Iain's birthday this week too, so it was kind of an extended present for him. Since we had 4 tickets we invited his friend Johnny and Johnny's dad Mark.

It was a pretty exciting game, and they kept it close until the 3rd period. We even got to see a small fight. What's the old addage... "I went to a fight, and a hockey game broke out"?

Sadly the Sharks couldn't pull out a victory, and gave it up to the Stars in a 4-2 loss. I was kind of bummed since I'm almost never there to cheer on the Sharks (If you don't know, I'm a HUGE Colorado Avalanche fan), and the one time I want to see the Sharks win... well, that's just the way it goes. We had a good time anyway, and hopefully this won't be the last time I win the hockey lottery.

But I HAD to do it!

2008-01-12T13:42:00.000-08:00

Well, here in sunny California, the leaves on our maple don't drop until sometime in December, and with the hectic schedule of the holidays any cleanup of the leaves gets postponed until after Christmas is over.

This year Iain asked if he could help rake up all the leaves while I was taking down the Christmas lights from the house. In the time it took for me to remove and rebox 8 strands of lights, he'd done an awesome job of raking all the leaves into a pile, and I congratulated him on his hard work. I even offered to get the camera so I could take a picture of him next to the pile, so we could show everyone what a hard worker he was.

Well, as soon as I got the first couple of pictures of him with the pile, he decided he had to perform a right of passage -- jumping into a pile of leaves. He said he just HAD to do it. Needless to say, I said 'sure',and he had a good time with it, but after it was over we were digging leaves out of every pocket, every sock, etc., and he wasn't too thrilled with that part.

Christmas Mice on KSBW

2007-12-10T21:42:00.000-08:00

Every year around Christmas time, our local NBC affiliate (KSBW) puts on what they call a "Holiday of Sharing". What this essentially means is that they send around newscasters to the local Nob Hill Foods supermarkets and together with the Salvation Army try to raise money, food, clothing, etc. for local needy families. It's a good cause, and if you can, you should donate. That said, what's that got to do with us? Well, since KSBW televises the whole thing, they know that no one wants to sit around watching their newscasters try to makes up witty conversation on-the-fly, so they invite local organizations to come out and perform. For the second year, they've invited our girls dance studio to come out to the Nob Hill in Gilroy. Since it's during school hours, Allison couldn't participate, but we had a good turn out from all the 3 & 4 year olds in Amber's class.

The girls performed a routine they've been working on for their Christmas program called " The Christmas Mouse". It has something to do with a mouse eating too much candy and getting sick, but the fun of it really lies in seeing a bunch of cute little girls wearing little mouse-like dance costumes. (You can't see in the pictures, but each outfit has a little tail on the back.)

As with most things of this nature, it was a lot of hurrying, followed by a lot of waiting, followed by it being over very quickly, but when all was said and done the girls had a great time, and were really proud of themselves for performing on television. I think they were also happy when it was over so they could put their jackets back on. It was COLD!

I recorded the performance on tv since it was broadcast live, and as soon as I can figure out how to get it digitized and uploaded to YouTube I'll post it here.

PWCA Christmas Program

2007-12-06T21:17:00.000-08:00

Sorry, no pics, but I wanted to post that Iain and Allison had their Christmas program tonight. They were both narrators, so they obviously had speaking parts, and they both did a phenomenal job. I was actually surprised by how long some of the lines were, but all the kids did a great job and it was a lot of fun. (aside from the waiting in line in the rain to get a seat)

Weekend in Atwater

2007-10-01T00:12:00.000-07:00

So we just got back from an exciting weekend visiting my folks in Atwater. The premise for the weekend was a combination of things. My cousin Lindsey got married earlier this year with a small ceremony, but waited until now for the big celebratory shin-dig. Everything was beautiful, but it was unseasonably cold for Atwater in late September, so everyone broke out the jackets and still enjoyed the evening.

In addition to the wedding reception/shin-dig, we were also celebrating a couple of birthdays. My 35th birthday was last week (yes, I'm half way to 70 now), and my mom's birthday was on Saturday (I'm nice enough not to repeat her age). In deference to the party, we postponed birthdays until Sunday morning breakfast at Grannie's Pantry. Nothing quite says 'Happy Birthday' like a big platter of biscuits and gravy. Oh hold on, that's 'Heart Attack', not 'Happy Birthday'. But who cares, it was good stuff.

Well, anyways everyone had a good breakfast at Grannie's, and then it was time for my third purpose for the visit - tech support. Last year, I gave my mom one of my old desktop computers for the Atwater Historical Society to use down at the Bloss House. For some reason, it was powering on, but hanging before it finished booting.

I must've had a good touch, because instead of spending hours fighting with boot configurations and Windows installations, I turned on the computer and it immediately booted up. Ok, I guess immediate is subjective when you're talking about an old Pentium II 200MHz computer.

The good news is that left us some time to tour around the Bloss House and see all the renovations they've been doing. The kids really enjoyed the train room, that has model trains that recreate some the railways in Yosemite Valley.

Also, we ran across the street to the Atwater Rose Garden to look around a bit, and the kids decided to do some impromptu cleanup by picking up all the stray pine cones that had been dropping all over the place.

Since Iain's class has been studying plants recently, he's going to bring a bunch in for share day, so everyone can have their own pine cone to check out. I'm sure all the other parents are going to love us!

Back to School Time Again

2007-09-01T13:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't know where the summer went, but I guess it's officially over. It's back to school time for Iain, and it's the beginning of school for Allison, because as hard as it is to believe she's a kindergartner now. I have to say the kids are transitioning much better than we are. We truly enjoyed not having to wake up at the crack of dawn to get everyone out the door, but it could only last for so long.

Iain made the move to 2nd grade this year and was very happy with his class since most of his good friends are there. We liked both of the 2nd grade teachers a lot, so there were no worries there. Iain has Mrs. Barnes for his teacher, but he's hoping to get in a reading group with the other teacher, Mrs. Carmichael. I think he has a career in politics in the works, because he's always networking and looking to keep everyone happy.

Allison is starting out in Ms. Britton's class, and is doing exceedingly well. While she hasn't been a big talker to this point, she's now become quite the chatterbox about school. She comes home to tell us about all the friends she's made (even if she can't keep their names straight), and all the fun things they're doing in class. I found it quite funny that she got upset over the fact that she couldn't go to school on Saturday, and has to wait until Mondays to go back. Worse yet, this week is extra tortuous because the holiday means she doesn't go back until Tuesday. Oh the humanity of it all! I think she'll suffer through the weekend though.

Swim Lessons Are Back

2007-06-30T21:12:00.000-07:00

After about 7 months off, we've started swim lessons for the kids again, and now it's Amber's turn to join in the fun. They're back at Little Honu in Gilroy, and enjoying it thoroughly. Sadly, Iain had to miss the first lesson because he was still getting over a little bout of sickness, but that'll only keep him down for a week. I'm betting Aidan will want to join into the fun before the summer is out.

Aidan (Sans Curls)

2007-06-01T20:27:00.000-07:00

Presenting the new cleancut Aidan Keith Johnson. I can't believe we waited a year and a half to cut his hair.

Aidan's First Haircut

2007-06-01T20:24:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess we waited long enough. Look at those curls!

Bye bye curls.

Ok, I'm not liking it so much now.

Now the sad face. All my curls are gone.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-26T17:01:00.000-08:00

Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas for 2006 and happy new year in 2007!

Christmas Dance Recital

2006-12-19T21:49:00.000-08:00

Allison followed up her television debut with a full dance recital. Her class had 3 different dances to do, and each dance was different enough keep it interesting. They began with a fun and festive number set to "Let It Snow", which Allison now refers to as "her song". That was followed by a more traditional ballet style dance set to "Away in a Manger". (see picture) And lastly, they finished it up with the "Hard Knock Life" song from the broadway musical of Annie.

Allison (as well as the other girls) did a wonderful job throughout, and she seemed to really enjoy performing in front of a crowd. Amber was in attendance as well, and was definitely itching to get out on the dance floor too. Maybe next year.

Atwater Christmas Parade

2006-12-18T00:07:00.000-08:00

The town of Atwater selected Grandma Georgia to be the Grand Marshall for the Christmas parade, but the kids got the big treat of riding along with her in the convertible. Did I mention it was freezing? That didn't stop Allison from perfecting her 'princess wave'.

Restless Natives

2006-11-26T22:45:00.000-08:00

For this years Thanksgiving feast, the kids at Iain's school were encouraged to dress up as pilgrims or indians. (I know the politically correct term is 'Native American', but 'Indian' is what I grew up with. Plus, playing 'cowboys and native americans' just sounds dumb.) Iain and his buddy Jonathan dressed up like a couple of fighting braves. And surprise, surprise, but not a single boy in Iain's class wanted to dress up as a pilgrim. Iain said the indian costumes were cooler, so I guess shoes with buckles aren't the cool fashion trend for 2006.

Spirit Week

2006-11-24T21:30:00.000-08:00

Every year, Iain's school has 'spirit week', where the kids dress up to match various themes, and this year was no different.

Monday was 'class color' day, where each grade is assigned a color, and they have to display as much of it as they can. Iain's class did so well, they won the judges vote for most spirited.

Tuesday was 'explorer day', so Iain and his friend Jonathan were ready to go off on safari.

Wednesday was 'fiesta day', so there was a clear south-of-the-border atmosphere, and a lot of kids with hats from Chevy's.

Thursday was one of the more interesting themes. Since the school's motto for the year is "Family Matters", they went with a family theme - 'Grandparents day'. Kids could either dress up according to their grandparent's professions, or they could dress up to look like one of their grandparents. Iain chose the latter, and dressed up like Faith's dad. Pretty good likeness. ;-)

Men's Camp

2006-11-24T21:17:00.000-08:00

Once or twice a year, the men of our church get together and have an one-night campout up at Mount Madonna State Park (between Gilroy and Watsonville). The boys run wild in their camoflage gear, while the men sit around the campfire and talk. Then we eat way too much for dinner, and scare the kids with stories of digger-wolves and tunnel-spiders. Generally speaking a good time is had by all. (well, except the mom's when we drag all that dirt home with us)

Pumpkin Patch and Apple Farm

2006-11-24T21:15:00.000-08:00

Back in October, I took a couple of days off of work, because... well, I was tired, and I hadn't been spending enough time with the kids. To rectify that, we did a couple of outings.

Notably, we visited Uesugi Farms here in Morgan Hill, to see their pumpkins, and for the kids to ride around on their scaled train ride.

Following that, we headed over the hills to Watsonville to visit Gizdich Ranch, where they grow and harvest apples. They make an awesome dutch apple pie!

What Happened?

2006-11-24T18:50:00.000-08:00

So no posts in 2 months, what's the deal, right? Well, as with most things, the best of intentions isn't the same as action, and things have been busy. But now it's Thanksgiving, and presumably I have a little time to catch up on some of the highlights. Hopefully, from now on I'll be a little more regular in posting, but no promises.

Our Little Ballerina

2006-09-20T12:58:00.000-07:00

A short post, but I wanted to note that Allison began her ballet lessons today. Actually they're half ballet and half tap, but she was more excited by the ballet part. Oddly enough she seems to be picking up the tap rather quickly, so maybe she'll enjoy both.

Anyone Listening?

2006-09-03T23:07:00.000-07:00

So no one ever leaves comments, but I'm under the impression that a few people are out there reading this. For you 5, I just tried to make life a little easier by adding those two funny little buttons on the left for RSS Feed and Atom Feed. For those not in the know, these are links that can be 'watched' by a feed reader so you know when the site is updated. Personally, I use Mozilla Thunderbird to watch my RSS feeds so they get checked whenever I check my email, though there are a ton of other options as well.

Pizza and the Park

2006-08-20T22:21:00.000-07:00

So years ago, our friends the Delavigne's took us out for pizza. This was a big deal, because Ken is a conniseur of New York style pizza, having lived there for many years. He even went so far as to have someone ship him water from New York in an attempt to recreate his own recipe for pizza out here in California. So he's SERIOUS about his pizza. When he said they wanted to take Faith and I out to a restaurant he found, there was no doubt we were in for a treat. And the restaurant... Amici's East Coast Pizzeria in Redwood Shores. That was the bigging of many trips to Redwood Shores for a pizza fix, but when we moved to Morgan Hill, it became a very out-of-the-way trip that was really hard to justify. Thankfully, the clouds rolled back, the sky parted, and we were given an Amici's in downtown San Jose finally.

To initiate it, we took a quick trip with our friends the Qualls, to enjoy some pizza and then let the kids enjoy working off some energy at the Guadalupe Park nearby.

What was left of our large Hot Italian Sausage and Mushroom.

While we were waiting, Iain drew up his perfect pizza, which is funny because he's never even had anchovies.

Amber riding on one of the carousel horses at the park.

Allison and Alexis riding on the carousel, under Rick's careful supervision.

Napa Getaway - Day 2

2006-08-15T23:07:00.000-07:00

Day 2 of our getaway was actually day 3 of the trip, because Saturday was spent almost entirely devoted to Larissa's wedding. I do have to say the wedding was beautiful. It was held at a hillside home/inn in the hills above Calistoga. I don't think they hold weddings there normally, but use it more for corporate retreats. That's probably why they had the heli-pad, which made a nice place to have the actual ceremony, though the concrete pad radiated a lot of heat. You couldn't beat the view though, as it looked out over the valley.

Well, anyway our plan was to get an early start on Sunday to enjoy the day, but we were pretty tired from the night before, so we didn't get out of the hotel until checkout time at 11am. We jumped back on 29 and stopped in at V. Sattui vineyards first, which is a great place to visit for lunch, but we had a late breakfast so we just went for the tasting.

Our second stop was a bit of a risk, since I'd just found out about the place that morning, but Faith's really into the sweeter dessert wine, so I found that there was a place called Prager Port Works just up the road. It's a really small place tucked in behind Sutter Home winery, but we found that it's definitely worth seeking out. The building is really small, and you don't go for the ambiance (unless you like dollar bills as wallpaper), but the reason to go is obviously to try the ports. The tastings are $10 a piece and include a glass. Given that they were only tasting 4 wines, this could be considered a little steep, but once you taste them it becomes clear that it's a good deal. I'll have to admit I wasn't a big fan of the zinfandel, but that was followed by two ports and a late harvest reisling. Faith liked the reisling and I liked the white port, so we each picked up a bottle.

Since we were there, we stopped in at Sutter Home real quick, and Faith took the picture of me with the big bottle! Hmmm, I wonder if Prager's Port comes in a bottle that big...

After that we hopped over to the Silverado Trail and checked out a few places there, though I think the most impressive part was the view.

We were finally starting to get a little hungry, so we went looking for a place to eat, but were reminded that it was Sunday and it was too late for brunch, but too early for dinner. Eventually, we ended up in Yountville at the Napa Valley Grille, which I didn't know anything about, but seemed reasonable, since we were getting really hungry. Once we were seated we checked out the menu and started to worry. The menu included a lot of "healthy organic" faire, and I have nothing against eating things that are good for me, but I tend to find that "healthy and organic" is usually just another way of saying "tasteless and overpriced". But since we were hungry, we decided to tough it out. Faith ordered a pork chop dish, and I ordered something called Beef Steak Tomatoes, which sounded reasonably good from the menu description. When the food arrived we got really worried again, as neither of us are big fans of the "fancy presentation of very little food" culinary school.

After Faith and I gave each other the "Oh man, what did we get into here?" look, we decided to dig in. I'll admit that when I'm served not much food for the price of a very nice entree, I expect the food to be very good. And in this case... it was. Moreover, those that know me know I'm not a little guy, but I'll admit that this tiny little plate actually filled me up. In the end, I had no choice but to give the Napa Valley Grille a 'thumbs up'.

Following our lunch, we did a little shopping here and there, and then grudgingly accepted that our getaway was over, and headed back to Atwater to pick up the kids. But I have no doubt that we'll be back.

Napa Getaway - Day 1

2006-08-15T23:04:00.000-07:00

So Friday was the first of our two day getaway. Even though we were gone on Saturday too, that was pretty well taken up with wedding stuff, so I only count it as a two day getaway. We drove into Napa and had lunch at a downtown restaurant, and then got right on the road literally - Highway 29. Rather than work our way up the highway, we drove up to our first stop - Franciscan Winery - and then worked our way back down. I'm not too impressed with Franciscan's wine, but their grounds are beautiful, as evidenced by the picture of Faith in front of the fountain.

After that short stop, we headed back down into Rutherford for a stop at one of our favorite wineries - Grgich Hills. I've been a fan of their Chardonnay since 1996, when I took Faith on our first 'fancy date' to a restaurant called La Foret. It was there the waiter recommended the '94 Grgich Chardonnay, and I've been hooked ever since.

Well, this turned out to be a very special trip. We did the usual tasting ($10 per person and keep the glass) but that turned out to be a great deal. Our server, Hank, showed us the five wines they were tasting, but by the end I think we'd tried 10 or 12 different vintages. On top of that we got to meet the owner, Miljenko “Mike” Grgich, and get our picture with him. He told us a little about the winery, and gave us some pointers on how he chooses the wines he really likes. We decided to buy a couple bottles, which Mike was nice enough to sign for us as well. All in all, a pretty cool experience.

After Grgich Hills, we were pretty excited, so we decided to head down to another favorite winery - Niebaum/Coppola. I think their wine is good, but what we really wanted to see were the grounds. Faith thought they were beautiful when we were there last (6 or 7 years ago), and I wanted to look at the film history display they had in honor of Francis Ford Coppola.

I guess things change though. We first were greeted with the fact that the winery is now just called Rubicon Estate, and then we found that they're charging $25 per person for a "VIP experience". Well, it was late in the day, and Faith and I just wanted to take a quick look, not have an 'experience', so we skipped it an moved.

Our last wine stop of the day was at Mondavi, which also has beautiful grounds. (and they don't charge at the entrance) We got there just before closing (4:30?) so we just took a quick look around and Faith went through the gift shop. It seems they were setting up for a concert on Saturday, but it was no one we'd ever heard of and we had the wedding to go to anyway. The following weekend had a show scheduled with Dave Brubek, which might've made me skip the wedding.

After a busy day of tasting wine, we decided it was time to go check into our hotel - The River Terrace Inn, and then look for a place for dinner. Our hotel was a beautiful location right on the Napa River. Once we were checked in and settled, we started looking into places to eat dinner. Our first thought was to go to Mustard's Grill, but they didn't have an opening until 9:45pm, and my stomach wasn't going to wait that long. We read about a few other places, but in the end we decided to try out the cafe inside the hotel, or rather on the terrace of the hotel overlooking the river.

Well, that turned out to be a good decision. We sat outside next to the fire pit (yeah, it even gets cool at night in August) with a view overlooking the river. We had an appetizer of bruschetta, and laterFaith ordered a chicken breast stuffed with prosciutto and asiago cheese, and I ordered walnut glazed duck. All the food was fantastic.

All in all we had a fantastic first day, and we were looking forward to our next 'getaway day' following Larissa's wedding on Saturday.

Weekend Getaway

2006-08-15T14:14:00.000-07:00

So in an unprecedented move, Faith and I actually had a weekend getaway. One of the girls from our church that Faith has known forever got married on Saturday in Calistoga (north end of Napa Valley), so we dropped off the kids with my folks in Atwater for the weekend and headed up to Napa for a little R&R. Once I finish downloading the pictures from the camera, I'll post details to follow.

Glass Bottom Boat Tour of Monterey Bay

2006-07-31T00:44:00.000-07:00

Following our lunch at Domenico's we walked along the wharf and were talked into taking the whole family on a glass bottom boat tour of the bay. Now note that the day was still foggy at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and light conditions were less than optimal for viewing fish, but 'hey' how often do we get down to Monterey, and how often do we get to take the kids on their first boat ride on the bay?

Iain decided to be our intrepid fearless photographer and help me chronicle the voyage using a small digital camera I got for Christmas a couple years ago.

The girls however were far more interested in watching the kelp go by underneath us. Yeah, kelp was about all we saw, but that was good enough for them.

Aidan slept through most of the ride, but before it was over he decided to wake up and check out what all the commotion was about. Overall everyone enjoyed our quick trip around the bay, and while we didn't see too much in the way of fish, we got to check out a lot of sea lions, birds and kelp, and we learned a little bit about the local history from the boat's captain. All in all, a good time!

Update: I added all the day's pictures to a Web Album

Lunch at Domenico's

2006-07-31T00:29:00.000-07:00

So every year for the last... well let's just say for quite a while now, we've enjoyed the tradition of meeting up with my parents and Faith's parents in Monterey, and having lunch at a restaurant on the wharf. This usually occurs in the July timeframe, because then we can justify the cost of lunch by saying that we're celebrating Faith's mom's birthday (13th), my dad's birthday (14th), and our anniversary (18th). Invariably, we always eat at Domenico's, which is one of John Pisto's restaurants, and this year upheld the tradition. It's also become more of a circus every year, as we've continued to add kids to the mix, so we're now seating 10 of us, but in honor of our last addition, here are some shot's of Aidan gnawing on some fresh cibatta bread that they get from the Palermo bakery in Seaside.

Update: I added all the day's pictures to a Web Album

Take Me Out To The Ballgame!

2006-07-23T09:23:00.000-07:00

Iain got to attend his first major league baseball game on Sat. night. Actually it turned out to be a night full of firsts for him. It was his first time in San Francisco, his first time riding BART, his first time riding MUNI, and of course his first SF Giants game. He was very impressed with himself for getting to ride on two subways, and "you don't even need seatbelts".

The game was a great success. We met up with my friend Brian, and spoiled Iain royally - cotton candy, sunflower seeds, and ice cream. Plus Brian was even nice enough to buy Iain his first Giants cap, and a pin to go on it too!

The night was capped off by the Giants beating the Padres 4-3, and taking over 1st place in the division. Not much more we could've asked for in a game! I think Iain's decided that baseball games are pretty cool, since he asked if we're coming back tomorrow.

Now we've just got to figure out how to get tickets for next years All Star game!

Getting into the Swim of Things

2006-07-19T20:06:00.000-07:00

Iain and Allison made it through their second week of swim lessons. They're attending Little Honu Swim School in Gilroy. They were recommended to us by some of the parents in Iain's kindergarten class at PWCA, and while the price is a little high, we've been incredibly impressed with the results. After the kids first 1/2 hour lesson, they'd already jumped off the diving board into the deep end of the pool. Before we know it, Iain and Allison will be surpassing Faith and I (though that wouldn't take much).

And Not To Be Left Out...

2006-07-08T11:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, to appease Faith that there are pictures of all of us up, and to show that she too can take a good picture, here's the picture of Aidan and I that she took at the July 4th picnic.

What About Aidan?

2006-07-07T19:07:00.000-07:00

Faith complained that I left Aidan out of the pictures from the July 4th picnic, so to make up for it here's a picture of him with his mom.

Happy Independence Day!

2006-07-06T09:08:00.000-07:00

One has to love a country that celebrates its independence by encouraging people to take the day off of work and blow things up! ;-)

We were fortunate enough to have the big Morgan Hill fireworks show presented from the park next to Faith's parents house, so we just gathered together in their driveway to enjoy. Much easier than fighting traffic and having to lug a bunch of stuff to the park.

Waiting for Fireworks

2006-07-06T08:40:00.000-07:00

L to R; Jessica, Allison, Amber, and Abigail

Faith's friend Cindy brought her family over to watch the big fireworks show in Morgan Hill, so Allison and Amber were joined by Abigail and Jessica. Sadly, when the fireworks arrived, Amber fell asleep and Allison and Aidan got scared of the loud booms. At least Iain enjoyed the show.

Swimming and Showers

2006-07-06T08:34:00.000-07:00

The Nelsons have a swimming pool, which is a hot commodity during the summertime, and Iain was more than happy to put it to use. Actually, we had a hard time tearing him away from it for more than 5 minutes.

Iain and Allison start swim lessons next week, so this'll probably be the last time we see him in a swim vest for a while.

Want Some Watermelon?

2006-07-06T08:31:00.000-07:00

Nothing says 4th of July like a big wedge of watermelon, and Amber is happy to share hers. We celebrated the afternoon at a picnic in the backyard of our friends the Nelsons.

Georgia O'Keefe I'm Not

2006-06-23T23:21:00.000-07:00

Ok, I just had to post this picture I took of one of the lillies that Faith picked out for the backyard. I took pictures of every flower, but this is the only one that came out looking relatively cool. I think it has much more to do with the flower being cool looking rather than my artistic skill with the camera but I'll take what I can get.

The Backyard is Done Too... Mostly.

2006-06-23T19:35:00.000-07:00

Not to be left out, the backyard is in the final stretches as well. Faith went out yesterday and bought the remainder of the plants for the retaining wall planter, and those went in the ground this morning. Ken had his guys do some cleanup and even scrubbed down the blocks of the wall. Only thing left for him to do is connect the one sprinkler valve to the timer in the garage. But I think that's easier said than done. While the other valves out front already had wiring, this new one in the back doesn't, so we've got to run it either under the house, or through the attic to reach the garage.

Those of you who know me, know I'm not a little guy, and while I don't suffer from claustrophobia, there's no way on earth I'm going under our house, and I feel bad for anyone that does. I'll leave that up to our contractor Ken, or whoever he can talk into doing it. My job on the other hand is to finish up the restoration of the spa. I got the new filter in the mail the other day, so I'm got no more excuses. Hopefully I'll have that done in a week or two, so we can at least use it to cool down in our wonderful 100 degree heat!

Frontyard is Pretty Complete

2006-06-23T19:32:00.000-07:00

So it looks like the front yard is pretty well completed. All the concrete is laid, all the sod is in, all the bark is down, and now all the plants are in the ground. The only thing missing at this point is connecting up the 3 sprinkler valves to the timer in the garage. Should be easy, since they were connected before, and the wire is already laid.

My Tree

2006-06-22T10:51:00.000-07:00

I told Faith when we started this project that I don't really care about the plants, and she could have full reign over any decisions. My only caveat is that I wanted to pick the tree in the corner, which I did. I chose an Acer Rubrum or what's more commonly called a red maple. This particular one is called an October Glory, which means it turns a really bright red in late October, and then holds its leaves until around the beginning of December. Should be beautiful, and hopefully it'll provide a little more shade in the backyard to compensate for all that concrete.

The Gate

2006-06-22T10:43:00.000-07:00

Since we had the guy out to do the lattice, we also had him replace a section of the fence and the flimsy gate at the side of the house. Our contractor recommeded this guy Arne to do the work, and I have to compliment him on the quality. This thing is bomb-proof! Literally, if there's an earthquake, I'm not heading to a doorway. I'll be standing under this gate. Now we just have to paint it to match the neighbor's fence and we're in business.

The Lattice

2006-06-22T10:32:00.000-07:00

One of the main problems with our backyard has been the lack of any privacy. When the house was built behind us, the builders put the whole lot on about 12" of fill, which meant that our 6' fence was actually a 5' fence that anyone could look over. We'd considered putting up an entirely new fence, but because of the trouble and cost, we instead went with adding lattice to the top. My only regret with this is that we didn't hold out for the 3 panel privacy lattice, but it was just really difficult to find a source for here in the south county. Well, when the star jasmine vines get a bit bigger, they'll fill the gaps.

The Sod Goes In

2006-06-22T09:03:00.000-07:00

The surface of the moon has been replaced with nice lush sod. Woohoo! The downside is that it's getting hot around here (~90-100 degrees) so we've got to water the sod every 2 hours during the day. Sure glad we have the new sprinkler system in for this.

The Retaining Wall

2006-06-22T08:32:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick picture showing the retaining wall blocks that were delivered. Some poor guy had to schlep all of them into the back yard one-by-one using a wheelbarrow.

Also, in the near foreground you can see some of our newly poured concrete as well as my early steps at refinishing the spa in the background. Lots to do as always.

Pouring Concrete

2006-06-22T08:28:00.000-07:00

The next step was to pour concrete. Our backyard is pretty small, and while I would've loved to put in a bunch of grass, it was out of the question because of the concrete that was already in. So we went the other way and added more concrete, so we'd have more 'usable' space. Plus the kids can ride their bikes, without Faith having to stand out front to watch them.

Laying the Ground Work

2006-06-22T08:22:00.000-07:00

Once demolition was complete, they started laying the ground work for things such as the sprinkler system and the forms for a concrete path we wanted going out to the mailbox. What was cool, was the fact we were able to be very hands-on. For the shapes of the path, and the borders between where the sod and bark would be, our landscaper gave me a bunch of PVC pipe and some stakes, and said "show me where you want it." I tend to be pretty nit-picky, but our landscaper was prepared for that when I handed him a scaled drawing that I put together in Visio. Yeah, I can be kind of obsessive on some things.

The Demolition

2006-06-22T08:16:00.000-07:00

The first order of the day was to clear out all of the junk. Our landscaper, Ken Alfson, brought in a bunch of guys and they had it demolished before I knew it. While it left our yard looking like the surface of the moon, I was amazed at how much it opened up the house and made things look bigger. And I was really glad to see the junipers and roses go. You can see that the only things we saved out front were the beautiful japanese maple, and the little purple daisys that Faith had planted next to the garage.

The Before Picture

2006-06-22T08:09:00.000-07:00

So every big project needs a before picture, and this is ours. Our major undertaking right now is the relandscaping of our front (see above) and back yards. I don't think our house was the worst in any sense, but the people that owned the house before us had overplanted in a lot of areas so it became a jungle. Plus there were some plants that I just can't stand such as the junipers in the picture and our 14... yes 14 rose bushes in the back. Whenever the kids went out to play, they were taking their lives into their hands! Also in the picture you can see the dead patch of grass that I tried everything to save, but was beyond hope. Well, this is where it started.

First Post

2006-06-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

So this is the obligatory first post in any blog, but to make it semi-informative I'll tell you why it's called Always Overwhelmed. Faith and I have four beautiful children that we're incredibly proud of, but as you might guess they can be quite draining. One of Faith's most common descriptions for herself is "overwhelmed", and even though she says it, I feel it too.

So the name is both the reason we post - we're so overwhelmed with things going on, just look - and the reason that the blog may be empty - we're so overwhelmed we don't have time to post. So here's hoping for more of the former, less of the latter, and hopefully a break once in a while!