Dick's Birthday on the Bay!

Dick's (Big) Birthday was Friday. To celebrate, we took a great Catamaran out on the Bay with a great bunch of friends!

It was such a fun time. The weather was certainly chilly, but it was pretty clear. We even saw a rainbow up high in the sky! We also saw some dolphins (or "gay sharks" as Miguel called them!) swimming nearby! What a treat!

Thanks to everyone who were able to come and help us celebrate today. We really enjoyed spending the day with all of you.

I didn't think I took many photos, but apparently, I did! Here are some of the highlights:


Manly men, Blane, Dean and Jose helping to unfurl the sail


Blane, practicing yoga, while securing the sail


Dean, Jose, Blane and Dick, with Alcatraz in the background


Bro and David


pretty view of the SF skyline


group shot outside




Beautiful rainbow that magically appeared! thanks to Shoko for this photo!


The Golden Gate Bride, as it can only be seen from the Bay


Sailing underneath the Golden Gate Bridge


on the other side of the bridge


gorgeous shot by Blane!


Dick, steering the boat!


Thanks to Miguel, for this great close-up of Dick!


Aditya, Steve and Dick

update

Miguel took a whole bunch of fantastic photos today. Here are a couple of my favorites. Thanks, Miguel!!

Shattered iPhone

Okay, let me start this post by saying that I had made the decision earlier this week that I was *not* going to buy a new iPhone 5 immediately. I decided that I would wait a few weeks, talk with my friends who were getting them, read the reviews, etc., I have a iPhone 4, which I've had for over two years and it's still working pretty well. The only issues I'm having with it is the battery life (pretty major, I know, but it usually gets me through the day) and that my home button doesn't always work well. It usually takes a few times of pressing it before it recognizes how it should work.

So, yeah - wasn't it a huge rush. In fact, I was a little proud of myself for not being such an Apple Fanboy that I didn't feel the need to pre-order, or run out to the store on the first day.

So, now that I've prefaced the story, here's what happened yesterday:

I had just finished my 12-mile training walk around noon, and was fishing my car keys out of my backpack. I was balancing my iPhone on my backpack, and it fell flat on ground in the parking lot. When I picked it up, I cut my fingers on the shattered glass of the backside of the phone. Bummer. I should add here that I drop my phone a lot, and have always been mildly surprised that it never broke. Until now.

Here's what was running through my head at this point: dilemma! What to do? I use my phone every day (more than I'd like to admit) and couldn't wait a couple of weeks to replace it with a new iPhone 5. Plus, the pre-sales were already sold out, and who knows how long I'd have to wait in line for them. (I actually thought the release date for the iPhone 5 was Friday, Sept 28th, which is the first day of my walking event, but now that I look it up, I see that it is this Friday, Sept 21st - which makes a difference!) Anyhow, to wait until the new phone comes out, and do without a phone, or go out and buy a iPhone 4S, which would essentially be "old tech".

These are the very specific champagne problems I have. :)

Once I was in my car, I was surprised to see that the phone still worked. There were just shards of glass covering the back now.

So now, I thought I should go to some phone store and buy a new case that covers the back. That should work for a couple of weeks, right?

Well, lucky for me, my husband had a better idea: let's fix it with Duct Tape!

Yep, that's my husband - Mac Gyver Dick!

So, that's what we did. Dick masterfully took two pieces of Duct Tape, and fixed my phone right up! He even made sure to leave a little opening for the camera lens and flash. :)

I was quite pleased with the final product, and I think it'll hold me over for several weeks now. I told Dick that it even looks kind of "artsy"! :)

On that note, while we were out with some friends today, a few of them noticed the back of my phone. I explained to them what had happened, and they said that before, they just thought I had some kind of cool case on it. :)

Dork that I am, I asked Dick to take a photo of my camera with his camera so that I could document this. I know - totally geeky.

Here we have the before:

Shattered back of my iPhone

...and the after:

Duct Tape fix-all! MacGyver strikes again!

Saturday's 12-mile training walk

Saturday's 12-mile route

Since we have been on vacation for the last two weeks, it had been three weeks since my last training walk. Although we did a fair amount of walking while we were in New York and Boston, it sure felt good to hit the hills and streets of San Francisco again!

The route that we walked is one of my favorites, which we fondly call "The Divisadero Butt Burner". Divisadero Street runs from the North part of the city down about half way through San Francisco. It eventually becomes Castro street, which is right in my neighborhood. We take Castro all the way to 24th street in Noe Valley, then loop back (this time, via Church Street to Steiner, and eventually back to Divisadero.

The route worked out particularly well for me yesterday. Dick had considered coming out for the walk the day before, but when I tried to wake him up at 6:00 Saturday morning, he decided that he wanted more sleep. Once I met my team at the Warming Hut at 7:00 and saw the map route, I realized it would be perfect for Dick to meet up with us at our halfway lunch point (the Whole Foods on 24th Street) since it is only a few blocks from our home. I called Dick along the way, told him the plan and route, and he was able to meet us at Whole Foods at 9:30 and walk the 2nd half of the walk with us! Yay!

For some reason, I didn't take any photos from the walk yesterday. I'm on some odd kick of not taking many photos these days. Strange.

It was GREAT to be back with the team and out walking again!

I missed today's walk (Sunday) with the team, as we celebrated Dick's birthday with a bunch of friends out on the Bay today. (more on that soon!)


Saturday's Stats


Saturday's elevation graph!

Walking the Freedom Trail in Boston

Dick and I spent the day walking around Boston, following The Freedom Trail! I had never done it before, and Dick may have walked it when he was very young, so it had been a long time.

We both really enjoyed it! It was a GREAT way to see Boston, and all of the historical sites were so interesting. There is (obviously) so much more history in Boston than there is anywhere else in our country. I loved that we just kept following 'the red line" for several hours. I think every City should have a red line to follow for a historic walk around the city! :)

We did most of the walk today, and will do a little bit (the Charlestown section). The weather was really nice and cool today (high 60s) so it felt great to be outside, walking around all day.


Follow the Red Line for the Freedom Trail!


The Massachusetts State House


The Old State House and site of the Boston Massacre


Dick, following the red line


The North Church

Out train ride from NYC to Boston and dinner with friends

Yesterday early afternoon, we took a train from NYC to Boston. I think it was the first time I've ever taken Amtrack. (Although, now that I think about it, my sister and I may have taken it from Fresno to Stockton to visit our Grandparents when we were kids.)

The ride was great. It was about 3-1/2 hours, and was SO much easier than flying. We really enjoyed the scenery as we rode. We were served a nice lunch as well.

Bonus: our hotel in Boston was an easy-to-walk few blocks away from the train station.

We had dinner last night at our friends, Doug & Helga's house who live just outside Boston. Doug and Helga are friends of Dick's from Grad School. We hadn't seen Helga and their kids since our wedding (which was nearly 7 years ago). Their daughter is now 16 and their son is 12. Hard to believe, since we hadn't seen them in such a long time.

Both kids are really into playing music. Dick had a great time playing some jazz with 12 year old Dylan. :)

Thank you, Doug and Helga (and your kids!) for such a wonderful evening. It was so great to see all of you again! xo


Dick, enjoying the train ride


the woman sitting across the isle from me on the train. She kept three pairs of glasses on then entire time


Dick and Dylan playing jazz together at home

Sing us a song, you're the Piano Man...

Tonight is our last night in NYC, and we went to a Gay Piano Bar for our last hurrah. And yes, he sang! As he said, "We're in New York! You have to sing show tunes at the gay Piano Bar!" And he was great.

All the gay men applauded him - it was a full house! The pianist (who was fantastic) introduced him as "The Hetero Dick from San Francisco" :)

For the record, he sang "After you've gone" from "All that Jazz". (An old Judy Garland tune)

Seriously, I love my husband.

"Chaplin" on Broadway

We just saw "Chaplin" tonight, which is still in previews on Broadway. Opening night is Monday.

Hands down, this is one of the best shows I've ever seen. I loved everything about it. I know I just said the same about "Book of Mormon". They were both very good, but so different from each other.

"Chaplin" was amazing, and the actor in the title role, Rob McClure, was phenomenal. I feel like we watched a star being born on stage tonight. He was that amazing. He could do it all - act, sing, and dance - but he was so exceptional in each and truly embodied Charlie Chaplin. It's hard to imagine anyone else in that roll.

The staging, the sets, the "look" of the show was amazing. The use of the grayscale palette was utilized so perfectly. The music was great, and I loved the choreography. What a talented cast!

There wasn't a dry eye in the audience at the end of the show. Seriously. I've never cried during any show before, and I had tears streaming down my face during the entire final number. You could hear people weeping all around us.

Clearly, I loved this show. I'll be gushing about it for a good long while.

If you have the opportunity to see this show, I highly recommend it! Go see it. :) (that's you, Mom and Dad!)

The Empire State Building Observation Deck

Late last night, as Dick and I were walking back to our hotel after a show and dinner, we walked past Bryant Park and noticed how close we were to the Empire State Building. We also noted that it was an unbelievably gorgeous and clear night.

I had never been to the top of the Empire State Building before. Dick had been several years back, but he thinks it was during the day.

We decided we'd never have a better evening to experience the observation level of the Empire State Building and made our way over around 11:30pm. (they are open until 2:00am each morning)

We waited in a fairly short line (maybe 15 minutes) to get through security, but after that, it was smooth sailing, and no lines at all.

The view and experience from the top was simply magical. The weather was perfect - low 70s, perfectly clear, no wind at all. Just beautiful. We even got a view of a lightening storm lighting up the skies miles away over New Jersey.

I'm so glad we had a chance to experience a perfect night on top of the Empire State Building. I really can't imagine the conditions being any better than they were - a perfect evening, with the man I love. :)


our view of the Empire State Building from Bryant Park


Our ride (by ourselves!) in the elevator going up the Empire State Building


the view from the top!

Book of Mormon on Broadway!

What an amazing evening! Pete and Richard were able to get us all tickets to see "Book of Morman" on Broadway several months ago when we were in the early stages of planning our trip. We had amazing seats, and thoroughly enjoyed the show!

I had pretty high expectations of this show going in. I'm so happy that all of my expectations were exceeded - I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a show this much! Everything about it - the story, the music, the staging and choreography were just fantastic, and all very memorable!!

Thank you, Pete and Richard! What a great evening at the theater!

Fun while shopping in NYC

I haven't taken any of the typical photos during our trip to New York this week so far. Not sure why - it is probably because we've been a couple of times already, and I'm just enjoying strolling around.

These are funny, though.

Dick, Pete and Richard did some shopping today at Barneys. I had fun taking photos of them with the mannequins. :)

Our room at The Library Hotel

Greetings from NYC! We just checked in to our fabulous hotel called "The Library". It's an amazing location, on Madison Ave and 41st.

Each room in this hotel has a "theme". Ironically, we are staying in the "New Media Room". How apropos!!

I just noticed my favorite little touch about the room. Above our bed are three frames photos. The two on either side are of integrated circuits (as Dick calls them - I just called the "chip designs"). The photo in the center is of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates! Again - how appropriate, right?

Some people have Jesus on a cross over their bed - we have Bill and Steve! :)

Congratulations, Adrianne & Ricky!!

Our beautiful niece married her new husband this evening. Congratulations, Ricky & Adrianne! May you have a lifetime of love and happiness together. We love you! xo