Summer Vacation - San Diego (part 3)

Are you getting tired of how I open these vacation posts? Well I am. Okay, I'll try something different. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away . . .

Well that's what it seems like. I know it was just last month (July, just in case you don't have a calendar handy), but it seems like a really long time ago. Since we've had - and continue to have - so many things to do with such little free time, it's no wonder I'm just getting around to posting our family vacation pictures. This was the only overnight trip that all four of us took.

So if you remember, we were in San Diego for a weekend trip to SeaWorld and Legoland. We went to SeaWorld first (on Saturday) and then Legoland second (on Sunday). One of the biggest thrills we had at SeaWorld was riding Atlantis. In case you're not familiar with it, it's a water ride with a 60 foot drop, then an elevator ride up, then a roller coaster ride back down, ending in another small drop. You get wet - really wet, especially at the beginning and again at the very end.

The reason I'm telling you all of this info is to set the tone for our day at Legoland. You see, Nina was petrified after riding Atlantis. It scared her so badly, that we couldn't get her to go on anything at Legoland. Well, nearly anything. In contrast, Brady went on every roller coaster twice. There was one coaster that I wanted to go on, but couldn't because I stayed back with Nina.

This first one, Brady had to go on before we did anything else. So here he is with his hands in the air, and Mom holding on for dear life:

Sorry I don't have a telephoto lens. I don't have a digital camera either, thus the quality of my pictures.

This is the most exciting ride Nina went on all day long. I'm telling you, she really got scared from Atlantis. This horse was so slow, I could have walked faster around the track. But as you can see, she enjoyed it:


Legoland has all sorts of things like this throughout the park. Cartoon characters, or even real life characters replicated in Lego design. Here's one of a blacksmith that kind of looks like Shrek with Nina and Laura:


Two hearts beat as one:






This was a popular place to take a picture. Every parent seemed to be taking a picture of their kid inside the mouth of a shark. How could we resist taking Brady's and Nina's pictures.













I have a few more pictures that I will post next time around. So long for now.

Dave Matthews Band Concert

Tonight, my wife Laura and I will be going to the Dave Matthews Band concert at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater. We really enjoy Dave’s music, and tonight should be a great time. This will be our sixth DMB concert together, and the 3rd in a row that Laura’s parents, Tina and Ed, will join us.

If you asked me 10 years ago who Dave Matthews is, I probably couldn’t tell you for sure, but would have recognized his name associated with music. I was familiar (at that time) with the Dave Matthews songs called Too Much and Crash Into Me.

I have to thank Laura for expanding my knowledge and appreciation of the music of Dave Matthews. When Laura and I first met I found out what a big Dave Matthews fan she was (is). In fact, one of our early dates was to the DMB concert at the Forum in October of 1998. Laura’s grandparents gave her the tickets for her birthday. Well that started a tradition that continues to this day (literally). Of course at the time, we didn’t know we would be married some day. I thank God for bringing us together. By the way, the song we danced to at our wedding reception was a DMB song. The title is actually a number: #34. There are no words, it’s an instrumental.

So tonight we go again. Below are a few CD covers with some of my favorite selections.


Under The Table And Dreaming
My favorite songs are What Would You Say, Typical Situation, Dancing Nancies, Ants Marching, Jimi Thing, and #34


Crash
My favorite songs are So Much To Say, Crash Into Me, Too Much, and #41


Before These Crowded Streets
My favorite songs are Rapunzel, and The Stone


Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds
Live at Luther College
Without a question, this is my most favorite DMB CD. Every song is a favorite of mine, but three in particular are #41, Dancing Nancies, and Typical Situation


Everyday
My favorite songs are The Space Between and Everyday

Summer Vacation - San Diego (part 2)

Continuing my Summer Vacation series of posts - here's part two of our family trip to the San Diego area in early July. I'm still sharing our SeaWorld visit on Saturday of that weekend. One of the many enjoyable shows we saw at SeaWorld didn't have any sea animals at all. It did have several human animals, they were all in costume, and none of them spoke. This show was called Cirq de la Mer. There was a segment where several of the performers climed poles and hung on high above the ground / water as they did various tricks. It was amazing. We shot video of it as well, but I'm not even going to try and figure out how to load that on this blob. Here's a still shot:


Here's Brady and Nina with the colorful Cirq de la Mer stage in the background:


It was a humid day, and the temperature jumped up when the clouds burned off. As we waited in the heat for the Cirq show to start, I took this picture of Laura with Nina and Brady:


Brady and Nina wanted to play in the area for kids where there was a huge jungle gym. They were able to climb and slide and jump. Here's Nina inside one of the large jumpers for the smaller kids:


And here's Brady with a big prize he won at the arcade. This thing was too big to carry around with us, so I took it out to the car.


Next it was time for lunch. On my first post about SeaWorld I talked about Dining with Shamu. These next two pictures were taken at our table while we waited for Shamu to join us for lunch.




The animals need lunch too you know. Well, they do swim a lot after all. Here's Nina feeding a sardine to a dolphin:


And finally, here's our stadium view of the pool where the Dolphin Discovery show was held. As you can clearly tell by my award-wining photography, I timed it so the dolphin was at the top of the pole grabbing a fish. Oh, did that not come out. Oh well, you get the idea.


It's on to Legoland now!

In Loving Memory of Carlos Aguirre

Today at 5:00 p.m. at Holy Family Catholic Church in Artesia, CA, a mass will be said to honor the memory of Carlos Aguirre. My father, affectionately known to many as Papa Kirk, left our world for a better place six years ago today. We all miss you and love you.

Summer Vacation - San Diego (part 1)

Continuing my Summer Vacation series of posts - next is our family trip to the San Diego area in early July. My wife and I planned a two-day / two-night weekend trip to SeaWorld and Legoland. Laura checked out all kinds of hotels online until she found one that was affordable, close enough to both destinations, and available. The one we booked was actually a golf and tennis resort, so she and I will return someday to play golf.

The plan for this mini vacation was this: after both of us finish work on Friday, we would take the kids and drive down to the resort and check in. Then go to SeaWorld on Saturday, followed by Legoland on Sunday. Obviously staying over on Saturday night - saving us the drive back home and the return drive to the San Diego area. We would then return home Sunday evening.

Well we were very happy with the results. The kids had a great time, and we so did we! I took a lot of pictures, which I will now share with you. Let's start at SeaWorld. Did you know they had an area called Wild Artic complete with a Polar Bear attraction? Well they do. See for yourself:


Here is a Beluga Whale - also found in the Wild Artic area:


Our next stop is the seal pool where there were almost as many people as there were sea gulls. The people were throwing fish to the seals, and the gulls were trying to intercept it. I tried to get a picture of a seal sitting on a rock by itself. It kept its mouth open to catch fish, and kept barking at the people to keep throwing. The pic I took didn’t turn out so good, so you’re stuck with my 2nd choice – a gull / seal combo:


Its lunchtime now and we got a table next to Shamu. Have you ever heard of “Dining with Shamu”? It’s a cool attraction that takes a reservation, and you attend a buffet luncheon. Staff members lecture you about Shamu and other Orca, as they swim by. It’s so cool. We took a bunch of pictures, and here’s one just for you:


Now on to the dolphin pool where we stood in line to feed the friendly creatures yummy sardines. (blah – no thank you) Well this was another popular place with lots of people taking pictures. I like this pool because you can see above and below the waterline all the way around. I was ready to take the picture of this beast when it turned left. So I got a side shot instead of the front of its smiling face:


Thats it for now. I'll be back with pictures of the kids (and us parents).

Summer Vacation - Fourth of July Celebration

I've always enjoyed the Fourth of July. Always - even way back when I was a kid and every city allowed fireworks (the safe and sane kind). Now I can't even share the same fun I had with my kids because the city we live in doesn't allow any fireworks. Neither does the city where I lived as a child. At least I can have a BBQ, swim in the pool, and get paid to stay home. So here is our one day vacation to celebrate Independence Day.

Brady spent most of the day at his friend's house doing the same thing we did at our house. That didn't stop him from going in our pool first with Nina:


And here's Nina and Laura before Nina goes back in the pool:


And here's Nina in the pool. Just last summer she was not able to touch the bottom of the pool. She's growing up fast!


Our favorite neighbors came over to join us. You've met them before - Bertha and Gil, Laura's grandparents:


This is my attempt at trying to capture the theme of the day. Laura loves to decorate "in theme" with whatever we are celebrating. Not pictured are the dishes, tablecloth, napkins, and tabletop decorations with the Fourth of July theme. Pictured is a planter in our backyard in desperate need of vegetation, but with cute little red, white, and blue decorations; decorative lamps that burn insect repellant; and my Chimenea. The backdrop is our hedge, which you can see in every picture of this post. The hedge ribbons around the entire backyard; is about 150 feet in length, 12 feet high at its highest point (under which is an arch-way leading to another part of the backyard), 4 feet high at its lowest point, 3 to 4 feet deep at its thickest point, and a pain in the ass to trim. Please enjoy.

Still Here

Yes, I’m still here. You haven’t gotten rid of me yet. Just because I haven’t posted anything for over a week doesn’t mean I’ve quit. The thing is I’m busy. Really, really busy. No, really. I’ve got this job that is so time-consuming; I can’t finish it by the end of my 9-hour workday. I often bring it home and do a little work each night, and if I actually do it, it only helps me get caught up for that day’s work. It doesn’t catch me up from previous days’ work.

Balancing work and home life is challenging. I’m still working at it. Too much work at home takes away from three of the most important people in my life: my wife and my two kids. Not enough work at home makes for a much harder job. Too much home life brought to work makes for a much harder job. Bringing home life to work is often a necessity.

Finding time to post on this blog weekly has been nearly impossible lately. Sure I can sit and type a few words every now and again. But I want to post pictures and links. I want to finish my “vacation” series I started awhile back. Baseball season is getting better. Football season is around the corner. I’ll be going to a couple of concerts soon. There’s material for my blog, I just need to materialize it. Stay tuned.

Did Somebody Say Football?

Just in case you didn’t notice, I’ve added a link to the Oakland Raiders on my blog. Did you think I was a fan of a different team? Well, you would have been right if this was 1994 when the Los Angeles Rams were still in town. So why am I a fan of the former Oakland-, former Los Angeles-, and current Oakland Raiders? Because I’m still mad at Georgia Frontiere.

See, the thing is, I’ve loved football for as long as I can remember. And I love the home team. My problem is that I don’t have a home team. The Rams were my first team; my dad took me to a Rams home game back in the 60’s at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. I liked the Rams then, and I liked the Rams when they moved to Anaheim. I was a fan of the Rams and continued to be up to the time Georgia and Company bailed on us. I was a season ticket holder the last two years the team was in Anaheim, but had attended home games on occasion before that.

During the time the Raiders were in Los Angeles, I became a fan of their team too. I attended at least one home game each of the last few seasons they were in L.A, including the two years I was a Rams season ticket holder. I even went to a couple of Raiders’ away games at San Diego (when it was still Jack Murphy Stadium) against the Chargers. At that time, I still favored the Rams, but more importantly, I was a huge football fan.

There were Sundays in the late 80’s and early 90’s that my whole world revolved around the pro football season. To make matters better, I also held UCLA Bruin football season tickets for a couple of years in a row. (And saw three consecutive wins over USC: ’93, ’94, & ‘95)

After the Rams announced their planned departure I was ready to shift my spending money to the Raiders season ticket program. Surprise! They moved too. So I’ve been without “live” home pro football for several years now. Every time there’s talk about L. A. getting its own pro football team my hopes get up. What really hurt is when Houston Texas got an expansion team. Houston Texas? Didn’t the Oilers leave that city and move to Nashville? How does the NFL give Houston another team (the Texans) before Los Angeles?

Anyway I continued to like the Rams and the Raiders after both teams left town, but in my heart I couldn’t call either one “my team”. They say time heals all wounds. Well, I don’t blame the Rams players’, but I still don’t like Georgia for what she did. (I don’t necessarily like Al Davis for what he did either, but then I wasn’t as big a Raiders fan as I was a Rams fan). So, all that to say sometime during the past couple of seasons I decided I would back the team that is still located in California. The team I can still see live should I have the desire to. (That is when I feel like spending that much time and money on a trip to San Diego – I’m not going to Oakland.)

So join me in welcoming the 2006 NFL season with the pre-season game: the Hall of Fame game. And let’s congratulate former Raiders coach John Madden for being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame today.

Addendum to Post: Raiders - 16, Eagles - 10

The 2006 D.O.M. Annual - Final Results

Well it's been more than two months since the Annual, and we finally got our newsletter in the mail. But I don't want that to sound like criticism. I know first-hand how difficult it is to run the D.O.M. club, having done it for two years in a row. I guess it might sound better this way: I can't believe it's been two months since Memorial Day Weekend, where has all the time gone?

Anyway, as I promised on an earlier post, here are the results of the 2006 D.O.M. Annual field events. This is the unofficial blog of the D.O.M., and I don't know of any other online or web-based source for information regarding the Dirty Old Men club. For anyone interested in information about this great family-orientated club, feel free to contact me at domdan@verizon.net.

Before I list all the names of the winners, events, and classes, I wanted to offer readers an opportunity to get some background information. The following links to previous posts might be helpful: For a lengthly description of the various races and classes, see this post from 5-13-06. For a lengthly description of the awards ceremony portion of the Annual, see this post from 5-16-06. For a brief description of this year's actual awards ceremony, see this post. There is actually an entire seires of posts (11 in all) beginning on 5-31-06 and continuing through 6-10-06 regarding this year's D.O.M. Annual, complete with pictures of people, races, and other club activities. Please enjoy.

Here are the results of the 2006 races:

Pee Wees, Brats, Boys, Girls, Womens Classes

Pee Wee Class
Slalom Race
1st - C. Hauptman
2nd - T. Tripp
3rd - T. Eisele

Barrel Race
1st - T. Tripp
2nd - C. Hauptman
3rd - T. Wier

Blow & Go Race
1st - C. Hauptman
2nd - T. Tripp
3rd - T. Eisele

Scrambles Race
1st - T. Tripp
2nd - C.Hauptman
3rd - T. Wier

High Points
1st - C. Hauptman
2nd - T. Tripp
3rd - T. Wier

Brats Class
Slalom Race
1st - K. Ingram
2nd - D. Marinelli
3rd - A. See

Barrel Race
1st - D. Weaver
2nd - D. Marinelli
3rd - K. Ingram

Blow & Go Race
1st - D. Marinelli
2nd - D. Weaver
3rd - B. Eisele

Scrambles Race
1st - K. Ingram
2nd - A. See
3rd - D. Marinelli

High Points
1st - D. Marinelli
2nd - K. Ingram
3rd - D. Weaver

Boys Class
Slalom Race
1st - S. Disario
2nd - S. Keller
3rd - C. Eisele

Barrel Race
1st - C. Eisele
2nd - S. Keller
3rd - S. Disario

Blow & Go Race
1st - J. Arratia
2nd - S. Disario
3rd - C. Eisele

Scrambles Race
1st - S. Disario
2nd - S. Keller
3rd - J. Arratia

High Points
1st - S. Disario
2nd - S. Keller
3rd - J. Arratia

Girls Class
Slalom Race
1st - N. Ingram
2nd - N. Perez
3rd - J. Guevara

Barrel Race
1st - N. Ingram
2nd - A. Weaver
3rd - N. Perez

Blow & Go Race
1st - N. Ingram
2nd - A. Weaver
3rd - N. Perez

Scrambles Race
1st - N. Ingram
2nd - N. Perez
3rd - J. Guevara

High Points
1st - N. Ingram
2nd - N. Perez
3rd - A. Weaver

Womens Class
Slalom Race
1st - C. Ingram
2nd - S. Hauptman
3rd - L. McGhee

Barrel Race
1st - C. Ingram
2nd - S. Hauptman
3rd - L. Keller

Blow & Go Race
1st - S. Hauptman
2nd - L. Keller
3rd - C. Ingram

Scrambles Race
1st - C. Ingram
2nd - L. Ingram
3rd - S. Hauptman

High Points
1st - C. Ingram
2nd - S. Hauptman
3rd - L. Ingram

Mens Quad, Boys Quad, "B", "A", "AA" Classes

Mens Quad Class
Slalom Race
1st - C. Tripp
2nd - E. Weir
3rd - D. Gallego

Barrel Race
1st - D. Weir
2nd - I. Aten
3rd - C. Hauptman

Blow & Go Race
1st - D. Gallego
2nd - C. Tripp
3rd - C. Hauptman

Scrambles Race
1st - K. Ingram
2nd - D. Weir
3rd - D. Kristy

High Points
1st - D.Weir
2nd - C. Tripp
3rd - K. Ingram

Boys Quad Class
Slalom Race
1st - S. Keller
2nd - Brady Aguirre
3rd - K. Keller

Barrel Race
1st - K. Keller
2nd - J. Arratia
3rd - Brady Aguirre

Blow & Go Race
1st - J. Arratia
2nd - K. Keller
3rd - S. Keller

Scrambles Race
1st - Brady Aguirre
2nd - S. Keller
3rd - K. Keller

High Points
1st - K. Keller
2nd - Brady Aguirre
3rd - S. Keller

B Class
Slalom Race
1st - Du. Marinelli
2nd - De. Marinelli
3rd - D. Perez

Barrel Race
1st - D. Perez
2nd - Du. Marinelli
3rd - De. Marinelli

Blow & Go Race
1st - De. Marinelli
2nd - D. Perez
3rd - Du. Marinelli

Scrambles Race
1st - D. Perez
2nd - Du. Marinelli
3rd - De. Marinelli

High Points
1st - D. Perez
2nd - Du. Marinelli
3rd - De. Marinelli

A Class
Slalom Race
1st - B. Murray
2nd - K. Ingram
3rd - J. Guy

Barrel Race
1st - B. Murray
2nd - J. Guy
3rd - K. Ingram

Blow & Go Race
1st - J. Guy
2nd - B. Murray
3rd - K. Ingram

Scrambles Race
1st - B. Murray
2nd - J. Guy
3rd - n/a (only two participants)

High Points
1st - B. Murray
2nd - J. Guy
3rd - K. Ingram

AA Class
Slalom Race
1st - M. See
2nd - D. Weir
3rd - T. Weir

Barrel Race
1st - T. Weir
2nd - M. See
3rd - I. Aten

Blow & Go Race
1st - M. See
2nd - I. Aten
3rd - T. Weir

Scrambles Race
1st - T. Weir
2nd - D. Weir
3rd - C. Osborn

High Points
1st - T. Weir
2nd - M. See
3rd - D. Weir

Perpetual Trophies and Other Awards

Blind Man Race
1st - C. Tripp and S. Alder
2nd & 3rd places not published in the newsletter

Go-Cart Race
1st - K. Ingram
2nd - N. Ingram
3rd - K. Haney

Stein Award (for club support)
Cole & Rene Woldridge

Old-Timers Award (for high points, participant over 40 years old)
Kenny Ingram

Harry Essers Award (for overall high points)
Brandin Murray

Dirk Harbor Award (for high points in the Boys Class)
Steven Disario