Olympic Surprises

I really can't believe all that's gone "wrong" in the Olympics up to this point:  Jordyn Weiber not qualifying for all-around finals, Michael Phelps not winning races, the USA men's gymnastics team royally imploding in team finals...it's crazy!!  I was a bit nervous to watch the women's team finals this morning because I was afraid the trend would continue, but they came through and won the first gymnastics team gold medal for our country since 1996!  It was an amazing performance and every member of the team did their job which was great to see.  Cale and Alex came over and we all set up our computers so that we had three different feeds coming through, each concentrated on a different event.  It worked out well for us and in the end we celebrated as our national anthem was played :)  Quite different than yesterday when I just wanted to turn off the TV...my theory is that the selection committee made the mistake of placing too much youth on the team.  The two men who did their job (Dalton and Horton) are older and have gone through the college thing.  They've learned how to compete and how to deal with the "this counts for the team" mentality.  The other guys just haven't had that experience and it really showed; it's unfortunate for USAG and for the alternates and other guys that were prepared and ready to go.  On the other hand, I don't think anyone would have predicted this to happen; hindsight is 20/20.

Let's hope that from here on out things are clean and that everyone can put their best foot forward.  I still love the Olympics and am soaking up every minute of it that I can.

Cable And Internet

Last week while I was home in Sacramento we had a bit of an internet crisis in the bay that resulted in us not having any connection for the last week.  This turned out to be a good thing for us because it forced us to dump AT&T (which hasn't been very good) and do some research on who we wanted to go with next.  We knew we also wanted to think about getting cable (mostly so we'd be able to watch the Olympics) so we found a deal with Comcast.  We had to order the router and everything so for this past week we've had to get up and find a coffee shop with wifi if we wanted to use our computers.  It was actually nice to get out of the house and we made some friends in the process; apparently lots of people spend their mornings using free wifi around town.

This morning Comcast came out to our house and I'm excited to say that both Megan and I are plopped in front of the TV watching various swimming events and will probably be here for the rest of the day and into the night.  This whole fiasco also forced us to get rid of our old TV stand to make room for our new TV (bought at the beginning of June from someone at Stanford graduating and moving out).  Our house is just changing by the minute and it's awesome!  We're so happy with the way things are looking now and it's nice to finally have digital cable and really fast internet connection.  Woohoo!  :)

Weekend At Home

What a great weekend it's been, but let me tell you...my Bay Area blood is no longer used to the heat of the valley!!  I was pretty much boiling as I waited for my dad outside of the train station, but luckily his car has great air-conditioning so I was able to cool off quickly.  As we pulled out of the station we talked about baseball and decided to turn around and head to the Raley Field to catch the Rivercats against Tuscon.  We found a great parking spot and then were in line for tickets when someone came up and gave us two free ones!  He said that the starting pitcher was staying with him so he had comp tickets anyways and wasn't using them all; we lucked out!  The seats were right along the third baseline, right where we'd usually sit anyways (in the shade!).

The first thing we did was split a cold icee and since we were there early we were able to watch the teams warm-up.  The game started off well for us and we took an early lead but over the course of a couple of innings it turned around and we found ourselves in a hole.  My dad and I both enjoyed some ballpark food for dinner (tri-tip sandwiches and brisket, yum!) and unfortunately watched the team crumble.  It was still fun it was a beautiful night to be outside.  We came home and watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban with my mom and then went to bed.

I slept in this morning and them my mom and I went out together to run some errands.  After successfully completing everything we wanted to we came home and went up to Cameron Park for a sushi dinner, topped it off with froyo and then came home where we're currently watching the fourth installment of Harry Potter.  Tomorrow morning I'll be on the train nice and early, will pick up my car from Berkeley and then head to work.  Another week...only two more until the Twisters intrasquad!

Gravity Wine Bar

I will admit that I'm not very good at wandering off University Ave and eating at other places in downtown PA.  However, last night I did manage to do just that and let me tell you, the place was great!  Despite it's name, Gravity is not only a wine bar but also has a wide variety of other drinks as well as a very tasty looking menu.  It is all a bit more on the high end price-wise, but I enjoyed every mouthful of food and would go back again to sample the other yummy things they have to offer.

Right now I'm on the train up to Sacramento.  It's been a long time since I've taken Amtrak and the last time I was on a train was actually in Europe.  Amtrak has upgraded and now there's WiFi on-board, which is totally awesome.  It would have been nice to have that when T and I would take the train home for the holidays and had work to do, but oh well; we obviously survived without it.  I'm going to spend the rest of the day as well as tomorrow up in what is going to be a very warm Sacramento and then I'll be returning to the bay just before work on Monday.  I actually almost missed the train because I couldn't find a place to leave my car in Berkeley...just another reason why I hate the town.  I don't know if where I ended up leaving my car is exactly legal (for overnight) and I'm actually anticipating a ticket on my windshield upon my return, but I didn't know what else to do and in the crunch I parked and ran.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Napa Valley

Dani and I went out on a whim and decided to drive up to Napa this morning.  This is after Alex and Cale decided to go for July 4th so in a way we copied them :)  I went upstairs last night and told Dani that I was looking for things to do today and it kind of just came up.  We looked at beer tasting in SF but the tour we wanted to do was sold out so we turned to wine tasting in Napa.  We got up early this morning and were out the door by 9:15am.  It was a nice, easy drive and became very beautiful once we entered the wine country.

We decided to go to Sterling Vineyards because they had a great deal:  $25 for four tastings, a tour, and an aerial tram ride.  It was a great day to be outside and we loved the winery.  It was fun to learn a little bit and see how they go about storing and aging the different types of wine.  We lingered for awhile and then Dani bought a bottle of one of the samples.  It was time for lunch at that point and Yelp pointed us in the direction of an amazing hole-in-the-wall BBQ place.  We both enjoyed tri-tip sandwiches before winding our way back through the wineries and into downtown Napa.

We stopped at the Napa Valley Outlets and did some shopping before going home.  We were both successful in our endeavors and came out with a few things; Dani was really excited to find a white blazer while I settled on a couple of shirts and a necklace.  I don't really get the opportunity to spend time with Dani like that, so it made for a very nice day.

When I got home I psyched myself up and went for a run before dinner and heading over to Alex's to play games.  I started off so well in Phase 10 but then Alex swooped in for the win at the end.  We also played Bananagrams which I had a bit more trouble with (I lost the first round on a technicality, dang it!).

I'm not sure what tomorrow will hold and it will be weird to not have work in the morning on Monday. I guess I didn't mention it before but for now my time with Intuitive is up.  It went by quickly and while it's possible that I'll be back there soon in a different capacity, right now I'll just be coaching in the mid-afternoons.  It will be nice because the latest I'll be done with work these days is 6pm so I'll have the evenings free.  Hopefully I hear back from the company soon regarding another, bigger internship but it's a waiting game at this point.

Lastly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!  Even though today was the actual day, I know you'll be celebrating all month and perhaps even all season long.  I hope you had a fabulous day and I can't wait to hear all about it :)  I love you!!!

Giants Game

I've tried to post about the final day of trials, but the emotions cut too deep and I just can't seem to get through it.  I decided to skip it, possibly return to it later, and move on to other a different event that happened on Sunday.

My parents came down with my brother and Amanda to take me to a Giants game for my birthday.  It's the first MLB game I've ever been to even though I'm quite a baseball fan.  After a rough morning I met them at my apartment.  We walked together to the Palo Alto Caltrain station and got on a train to SF.  It was a nice ride, about an hour long, and soon we were getting off and walking to the park.  We were a little bit late so we took big strides and got in without a hitch.  It turns out that my mom had purchased an extra ticket and she sold it for $10 on the way to the game.  Once in we found our seats...right behind home plate!!  We also found food which was good because I was starving.  I love game food but I've never enjoyed clam chowder in a bread bowl at a game...only in SF I guess.  The game was rather exciting and it all came down to the last pitch!  The Giants won (they obviously knew I was there for my birthday) and the crowd went wild.  The whole time I was wearing the new SF shirt my parents got for me so I felt like a true fan.  It was so much fun, the park was beautiful, and I can't wait to go back.

After the game I rushed everyone back onto the train because I wanted to be sure to catch the express on that would get us home quickly.  It was another nice ride and soon we were in Menlo Park.  I went and got the car and my parents took me to the Giants store on University and bought me a hat to complete my outfit.  It was really fun to have them there and to share my first ever game with them.  It was really the perfect birthday present!

Olympic Trials, Day 3

Men's Finals...what an experience.  I remember attending trials with my mom in 2004 but to actually know and care so much about someone participating just takes the experience to an entirely new level.  I had some trouble falling asleep last night, woke up this morning and didn't eat breakfast, had a mini-crying session in the car on the way to San Jose, and couldn't even find any music to calm my nerves.

Even with all the hysterics I made it to the arena and met up with Ashley and the gang.  It's nice because we have a little routine now with where we sit, who has the baby, etc., so everything is really smooth.  Cale was able to pawn off his campers yet again so he came over to join us.  The whole competition was a little surreal, as is the fact that it's all over and we have to wait until 10am to find anything out.  Alex started on vault where he warmed up a half-on-randi (and almost landed it!) but wasn't able to do it in competition.  A frustrating/unexpected way to start, but he really rallied and had a great competition from that point on.  Pbars was pretty much the best I've seen and high bar was amazing as usual; they stopped the rest of the competitors and brought all the cameras over so that his routine would be broadcasted live on television.  Floor went much better than Thursday and then pommels and rings rounded out the competition.  At the conclusion of the meet two people were officially named to the olympic team, but everyone else has to wait.

After Alex finished interviews we met up with him and took him out for a Mexican dinner.  He had a HUGE burrito which looked amazing while I had a salad that took forever to come out and was a bit underwhelming.  Oh well, this weekend was not about me anyways.  Once again the meal took awhile (what's up with the restaurant service, San Jose?) but we finally made our way out and I played chauffeur and drove back and forth a couple of times to get everyone up to Palo Alto.  We spent the evening in the backyard of Alex's house, enjoying watermelon, cookies, and a little bit of alcohol.  We had a nice heater running and we laid out on the grass picnic-style until about 11pm.  It was great to get the chance to talk with all these people I've gotten to know and really love being around.  Finally it was time to get Alex back to the hotel and so we said our goodbyes and that was that.  The midwesterners are heading home tomorrow morning so unfortunately I won't be seeing them for awhile, unless I take a trip out there :)

Big day tomorrow, but no matter what the outcome, this was one awesome experience.  The love and support I felt all around me this weekend was amazing and I can't stress how lucky I feel to be part of it.  Of course I'm crossing my fingers and praying with all my might, but it's out of our hands now...Alex did his job and it's up to the committee to decide.  10am really can't come soon enough.