one of the best first dances i’ve seen!  hilarious!

pat showed me this website today….

Geologist – Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia

this is AWESOME…. some of my favorites…a lot of these remind me of undergrad…

• ‘Geologists and Breeding’ category…ummm.. yeah…
  
• ‘How to spot a Geologist’
• Hand-lens, compass, pen-knife, handcuffs etc. tied round neck with string.
• Overenthusiasm on the subject of dinosaurs. i dinosaurs
• Takes photos, includes people only for scale, and has more pictures of rock hammer and lens cap than of his family. i would develop my pictures and show them to my non-geology friends… they would always ask me… “where are the people?” and pretty much this sums it up.. .haha..
• Often has hair in a pony-tail (this applies to male or female geologists).
• Someone who will willingly cross an eight-lane interstate on foot to determine if the outcrops are the same on both sides. definitely remember running across hwys!
• Almost crashes his/her car looking at road cuts while driving. pat does this a lot STILL.. even when we go camping… (esp since he does most of the driving)
• They’re all so gneiss. yes…yes we are!

what are your favorites???

been a bit MIA… last month was pretty busy…

• pat’s parents visited for a few days… dinner and hung out with them and then took them to the airport
• lil sister’s graduation…drove up to davis at the butt crack of dawn… lunch with the family in old sac…congrats amy!

• last minute camping at mount tam….
• hiked from our campground to stinson beach (the steep ravine trail)…

• and then back another way (matt davis trail)…
  

• and sunday short hike to tennessee valley… played with the sand/rocks

• drove up to elk grove…
• hung out with margaret and robert…and went on a short hike in the consumme river perserve… or something like that.. and this really yummy frozen yogurt that they had piled high… mmmm..

• then went to sacramento later that day to go to a wedding reception with pat’s parents…
• ended up staying in elk grove with his parents and hung out with their family friends…

so that was my june in a nutshell!  hope you all have/had a happy 4th! (and my cat’s birthday… he’s 13 years old!!! getting up there…oh yeah.. and he moved back to my parents’ house… so we miss him )

decided to go camping with sheila a few weeks ago but really hadn’t planned much…. but last minute decide the eastern sierras was the best and we’d meet sat at noon at tom’s place….

pat and i woke up at 5ish… actually more like 530ish and packed my car up and headed out by 6ish… drove through yosemite and ran into a little traffic going in…but after that it was smooth sailing…the cool thing is we actually made it to tom’s place around noon! hung out a bit there and soon enough sheila, guadalupe and the doggies showed up…

drove up and find a really nice campsite AWAY from everyone else…the cool thing about the campsite had a HUGE bear box! we fit all our stuff in there and had room!  only pitfall of the site were the mosquitos…but we were all covered up… except they got our hands and faces… haha… i tried the dogs’ insect repellent… it smelled good but didn’t work that well… oh well…

afterwards we all crashed and woke up to make some yummy din din………and then crashed again…

Ruby Lake
the next morning we drove up to the trailhead for little lakes
valley… and headed up to our hike to ruby lake…and AWESOME views of
the valley lakes…

break time!

made it to a small pond… and then hiked up some more to ruby lake!

it was pretty awesome to see the lake with the snow and ice on it… we definitely were there for awhile… lunch… then just hanging out by the lake… and ummm… some of us fell asleep…..

had a nice hike back down as well… more pretty views of little lakes valley….

taking a break and trying to get comfortable…

lake near our campsite…i think it was rock creek lake…

really cute doggies in tent pix

for dinner we had the costco marinated steak, corn on the cob, salad, and garlic bread…. YUM!   oh yeah… and then red vines (NOT twizzlers) for dessert!

grub time! and warm fire…mmmm

Devils Postpile and Rainbow Falls
Thanks to the book Sheila got us…we decided to head north to check out devils postpile and rainbow falls nearby…. we drove through mammoth… and today was the last day of the ski season… as you can see.. not much…but people going boarding in shorts and stuff…

we finally made it to the entrance of the national monument, but there was a traffic jam… we had to wait for two tourist buses headed on their way back up…. that was about a 20 minute wait so it was a good banana bread break…finally drove down… parked and made our way to devils postpile…

what the top of the postpile looks like… and what we were staring at during lunch time…

continued on our hike to rainbow falls…..

sheila crossing a creek with patch… who actually WENT in the water!

   
the san joaquin river…what’s left of the forest from a fire…pat and the backside of mammoth mountain

and FINALLY… RAINBOW FALLS….

decided to check out the lower part… walked down some pretty steep stairs and steep stepped trail after… but made it!

a different view of the postpile coming back…

the minarets

then continued the drive home….. through yosemite…

lembert dome and toulumne meadows

tenaya lake and half dome from olmsted point

didn’t make it home until 1130ish… but it was well worth it… two super awesome hikes for the nice long weekend! hooray for the eastern sierras!

so i was eating my togo’s sandwich… and buzz comes along… i get him to stay away from my food…afterwards… i crumpled up my paper and put it in the bag…. next thing i know buzz’s head is in the bag… and then he has it ove r his head! hahaha… he does this several times… i grabbed my camera and took some pix… was gonna take a video but forgot to record! DOH… anyway… here are the funny “buzz in a bag” pix… silly kitty…

Cherish the Old, Know the New: Onko Chishin: Kimono no Saisei – A Kimono Renaissance Thursday, April 19 2:00 pm & 7:00 pm Samsung Hall $7 members, $19 general (includes museum admission) Tickets available beginning March 19: online or in person at the Admission Desk Artistand designer Nobuaki Tomita is one of Japan’s most influential kimonoproducers and stylists. Tomita moves in a fast paced world ofcontemporary fashion and Japanese movie stars. His work is dedicated torecreating traditional Japanese costume for period dramas anddeveloping new fashions using traditional textiles to support the workof endangered artisans. In this presentation, Tomita will displayseveral ensembles authentically representing different periods ofJapanese fashion, from the days of Prince Genji more than 1000 yearsago, to the high style of Geisha, to the dress of contemporary women,as represented by characters in Japanese NHK television serial morning”dramas.” Tomita will speak in Japanese and english interpretation willbe provided. This program is presented in celebration of the 40thanniversary of San Francisco Japantown’s Cherry Blossom Festival.

so almost 2 years ago was our wedding… and i wore a kimono druing the reception that was a gift from my father’s cousin (we visit them every year we go to japan)… during the wedding, so many people came up to him and complimented him on the kimono…and that’s when he realized not just japanese people liked kimono..and got him excited about showing people how kimono is worn and made, etc….anyway…today was the above mentioned shows…my dad’s cousin brought over all these people from japan to show how kimono’s are worn, and just about all sorts of things… and answered lots of questions at both shows… at the same time… since they had a special kimono dresser and hair stylist… he wanted to dress me in my kimono again!

getting hair done by the hair stylist….and kimono dresser putting on the finishing touches…

i now know how my kimono was made!  the lower portion was woven with this special threads that resisted the blue dye…and then the patterns on the “sleeves” were painted/stenciled on….

the show was awesome..so many different kimonos… it was pretty long but it went by pretty quickly… i’ll just go over some highlights..

in the beginning he showed this piece of cloth… and then he gave it to this seamstress to do…. and in about an hour or so she completed a rough version of a kimono

  
women dressing themselves on the sides as geisha… and the middle is a woman getting dressed by the professional in maiko (geisha-in-training) kimono

my dad’s cousin (“uncle”) and i… and the large group of everyone outside of the hall at the asian art museum

it was definitely a fun experience… wearing my kimono again….meeting new people from japan and other places… FINALLY getting to go to the asian art museum and seeing the bamboo basket exhibit…etc.! 

Whistler to Vancouver
Britannia Beach

woke up early saturday morning and said our goodbyes… and we were off to the BC mining museum! it’s on the way driving from whistler to vancouver…there’s a HUGE dumptruck you just can’t miss!  the steay rain continued throughout most of our trip so we were used to it by now… and going to the mining museum… forget about complaining!!!

before we went all around…they had a whole wall of different shows and movies that had filmed there…course had to take one of ‘the x-files’

first thing we did was go straight to the HUGE dump truck… apparently they had to take it apart to bring it over there!  anyway.. it’s HUGE!

birthday boy standing in front of one of the wheels… and the whole thing… with pat for scale…

next we proceeded to head over to the mine tour… which they just so happened to have that weekend!  we totally lucked out… had to put on our hard hats…and we were off….

 

inside the mine… where the geologist marks an area for miners to drill….looking out

the guide showed us some of the really cool tools they used… unfortunately there was a litttle kid so he didn’t turn on one of the drills.. but oh well… the other stuff was really cool… and then we walked out….

outside the mine…and the MILL

inside the mill… it’s just HUGE!  and i think it’d be kinda creepy at night…

panning for gold… we found one! (our hands were freeeeeeeezing!)

more cool exhibits

one last picture of the MONSTER dump truck!

we were STAAAAAAAAAARVING… so we drove back up to squamish realizing we def could not make it to vancouver without food

 blurry squamish sign b/c of RAIN!  whitespot for lunch….mmmm

drove into vancouver, watched the ucla game, and went out to a pretty good thai restaurant…but SLOOOOOW service…

the next day packed up everything, and went in search of food… saw this japanese ramen place, but when we went there we found out they didn’t open till 12…decided to wait till they opened… we were the first ones in…and by 1210 the place was packed and a line already out the door!  so we were def happy with our choice!  and it was definitely YUMMY ramen…

afterwards we headed to stanley park one last time before heading to the airport… FINALLY got to take pictures of the totem poles….

and took pictures of the fallen trees from the really big winter storm… it was definitely crazy seeing these huge trees just broken in half! 

 

it was a definitely a fun trip… at least i finally finished writing it up.. .like a month later! anyway… nothing really too exciting to report… but LOTS of SPRING CLEANING!!

Whister (wed)

wed morning i felt like crap….i
dunno why but i was just not feeling at all great… anyway decided
suck it up and go out…. however the gondola ride DEFINITELY did NOT
help my feeling crappy… it made it worse… one thing i HATE about
the whistler side is that they decide to pack a gazillion people in the
gondola…and it’s a LOOOOOOOOONG ride up…. luckily the people we
were with were somewhat entertaining but i was trying to concentrate
sooooooooo hard not to feel bad… but it was like really bad motion
sickness….even thinking about it makes me all dizzy and crap…
anyway…i spent most of the day hanging out… and just sitting still
and enjoying all the space and warmth i had at the table i
chose…outside seemed like it was pretty windy and snowy so i felt
better that i was resting and inside…. i didn’t have to spend it
alone b/c one of the gf’s of pat’s friend’s friend was feeling
frustrated…had seen pat and told her i was inside… which definitely
worked out…. she had never done sudoku before, so i showed her how to
do it… and the time just passed and i felt soooooooo much better… after lunch i was finally able to go out…but it was nice b/c pat got to go out to different places….  since the weather was so nice they had opened up the peak chair and that was AWESOME… the snowfall from the night before was great!  super light powder that i didn’t get stuck in!  despite feeling crappy the 2nd part of the day was GREAT!

Blackcomb (thurs)

icicles… pat on telemark skis….

thursday was similar to tuesdays conditions…pat decided to try telemarking… and got the hang out it… spent most of our time on the otherside of blackcomb… which was lots of fun… especially since conditions were pretty clear…

that night we had an awesome dinner at pat’s friends’ place… they made this lamb that was absolutely to die for!  i usually dislike lamb.. but this was sooooooooooo yummy!  it was stuffed with garlic and rubbed with rosemary and mustard seeds… and then they bbqed it… sooooooo  soooo yummy!  and with it was chicken, salad, etc… EVERYTHING was sooooooooooo good!  unfortunately i didn’t take any pix…. 

Blackcomb (fri)

the next day we weren’t sure if we were going to go…but decided to anyway…. it was g ood early in the morning, but raining later… so we just stopped…
 

      

we decided to go down to the village and walk around a bit… came across the vancouver 2010 olympic info booth… it was really neat… showed the different venues, planned venues, etc…

the last dinner with everyone was held at sushi village… and we ate a whole bunch of different foods… soooooooooo yummy… and celebrated pat’s birthday a little early…yummy green tea ice cream!

   

Whistler (sun)
arrived in at whistler in the morning after waking up at the butt crack off dawn and daylight savings… bleh…hung out with pat’s friends a bit before settling down in the house… and deciding to get a half day pass…despite it raining like crazy…

took the gondola up to whistler …the weather was pretty bad so they had everything above roundhouse was closed…anyway, i was STARVING for lunch so i ate lunch early while pat did a few runs with his friend…ate and then i did 2 or 3 runs before deciding we should head back.. didn’t take too many pictures that day… these are it… bundling up in roundhouse before heading out….

had dinner at hy’s steakhouse… got filet mignon and pat got …i forgot…but it’s below… and the whole group of us shared a bunch of YUMMY side dishes….mmmmmmmmm steak…

Blackcomb (mon)
we headed up to blackcomb on monday…and boy was it ICY! went up glacier and the upper portion was awesome… then got crusty and back to icy… it took a few hard falls to remind myself i REALLY disliked icy conditions….  but going up high was DEFINITELY worth it… although not much visibility…but still fun!  and then a few times the sun decided to poke out… and many times it was like one of those “aaaaaaahhhh” moments….

at night we all had dinner at mountain club…. i had the chicken and pat had the mac and cheese with ribs… but the funny thing was, was that the menu had MAC & CHEESE as the main part…. just a LITTLE deceiving…  and you had to PAY for bread… which i suggest NOT ordering… b/c it’s like three slices and dip/spreads no one liked at the table…

Whistler (tues)
there was just crazy snow and wind  in the morning so much so it felt like it was moving you…. anyway in the afternoon all that lifted
just as i we went out for a few runs at the end of the day…. which was AWESOME!  they were the best conditions we had had so far that trip!

after lunch….sunny…. takin’ a break

olympic torch sculpture (got a bit windy for a bit)…then back to CLEAR and NICE

boarded back down to meet up with everyone…but not before trying my first beavertail… i had NO clue what the heck it was… but it’s like a dessert sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar… yummy… anyway while waiting for it the guy asked if we wanted this extra hot dog with cheese and pizza sauce lying around…hey FREE FOOD, of course!  especially we were hungry after…

for dinner we drove over to the rim rock cafe…out of whistler village… and boy was that place YUMMY!  i had a salmon with lobster mashed potatoes…and pat had a sea bass…and since everything was soooooo good we decided to try their dessert…. we had an assortment of fruit sorbet…. soooooooo yummy!

UCLA v. Pitt

so today was the ucla game…we had looked in to getting tix earlier in the week, but were like $350+ EACH…. last year was awesome…but figured we’d just watch it on tv tonight… well…that’s where the magical tix come in…

i was at work and around 2 something pat called me… asking what i was going to do tonight… and the answer was to just watch the ucla game on tv…. and then he tells me about these magical tix that just happened to fall into his lap… MAGICAL TIX!!!!  okay… well now pat says he said ‘that these tickets magically fell into his lap….but to me they’re magical!  first off i was SUUUUUUPPPPPPPEEEEEEEER excited we were just going to go to the game!  and THEN he tells me they’re penthouse tix!  AWESOME!!!!!  anyway… it just so happened some people bailed on the people who owned the box and gave them to pat’s company…and so they asst. asked the boss who might like them…and of course the BIGGEST ucla fan in the company is pat….so they gave them to him… i got to go too!  WOOHOO! 

oh yeah forgot… we got there in time to watch the LAST 5 minutes of the Kansas v. SIU game… very close! and exciting as well…. but more importantly……

 
a note on these pix… depending on how well you can see it… just below and a little to the right of the ‘Y’ in SONY you can see a blue blob and that’s bill walton… i just realized it after looking through the pix…

the game was awesome of course!



as we were walking out… we saw some people waiting and a sign that said ‘ucla’ so we thought it might be the locker room or something… so we walked over… and it was a bunch of bruin fans watching the rest of the tenn v. osu game… and then we see former bruin b-ball stars… baron davis, matt barnes, and rico hines… i couldn’t take a pix… but here’s a video kinda..

then after people watched the game… the groupies started walking
out…so we followed… and i mustered enough courage to ask baron
davis for his autograph….. i was the last person to get an autograph
before he left… i think he only signed for like 3 people…. LUCKY ME!
 
GO BRUINS!