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Well, Ryan's bored, so I guess I'd better update the blog now that I'm back at work.

We had a good week off and packed in plenty of stuff to do as well as plenty of rest! Saturday, we dropped off the Pip at his grandfolks' and headed north up to Foster City, which is 1/2 hour south of San Francisco. We stayed at Ric's cousin Kelley's house, which is right off the water. Her family was on vacation, so we got a cool townhouse to ourselves! We relaxed the night away watching some Office season 3 on DVD while we got Ric's new work laptop set up so he could get some database stuff done (he calls that relaxing) and I could check blogs and emails.

Sunday we slept in and then drove to the Legion of Honor Museum in SF. We got lunch in the museum cafe, which was incredibly expensive for little (but good) food. Surprise, surprise - the cafe food was served up by Bon Apetit! I swear, the university follows us wherever we go. We planned to meet my older sister and youngest nephew there, and were pleasantly surprised when she brought along her husband and two additional nephews! We all wandered through the painting and sculpture sections of the museum. I could have stayed there for a while, but spared everyone else and we kept it down to about an hour an a half. After that we took advantage of the awesome view from the museum (it's up high like Griffith Observatory) and took a lot of photos of the bay and the Golden Gate bridge. We headed out to the north shore and had a great dinner at an Italian place (which had steak for Ric) and then spent the evening wandering the wharf and piers. We went into one place that had a massive collection of old arcades. When I say old, I mean most of them were about sticking in a nickel or quarter to watch some figurines move around. The weirdest included an opium den and an execution by hanging. I got to play some skiball, and then I felt old when I noticed that they had Moon Patrol and Pole Position in the arcade. It was good to see the fam and to catch up with them a bit. We watched another disc of Jericho episodes together that night.

Monday, we slept in a bit, ate a meal at Denny's for the first time in years, and then drove north of SF to the Muir Woods (think Vertigo, where the chick looks at a slice of a redwood and points out, "Here I was born, and there I died" - yes, I took a picture in front of that slice). We decided to be ambitious in our hike around the redwoods, so we took the Ocean View trail, which lasts only a little over a mile, but felt like a lifetime. Poor Ric almost suffered from heat exhaustion - the trail was steep most of the time, and the higher we went, the hotter it got. At the top, we were underwhelmed by the "ocean view" (a peep of ocean in between some mountains), and were glad to head back down. We returned back to the townhouse for some rest, then caught a great dinner out at a restaurant in San Mateo called King Fish, where Ric had jambalaya and I had halibut. I highly recommend it if you ever happen, somehow, to end up in that area. Expensive, though. Ric worked on databases while I watched TV later that night.

Tuesday, we packed up and crossed over the San Mateo bridge to head to Castro Valley. We got to Ric's uncle and aunt's house and hung out with them for a couple of hours, then headed down the street to visit his grandma in her home. We caught up with the grandparents there, then went out to eat at a steakhouse with a couple sets of aunts and uncles, and several cousins too. It was great to see everyone, although it was a short time together! We even got to meet the newest baby in the family, George, who we think looks a lot like Ric's grandpa. After dinner we went out to coffee with cousin Emily, who is closer to Ric's age. We got caught up with a lot of family news and had a good time just hanging out. I got to sleep on a sleep number bed that night. Um, I guess I can't find my number, since I was tossing and turning and adjusting the firmness of the mattress all night.

The next morning we hung out with Grandma one more time, then went out to eat with Bruce, Linda, and Grandpa. We headed towards home after lunch, which was later than we had originally planned, and on a different freeway than planned because of the fires, so we had to skip our plans to visit Hearst Castle on the way home. Next time! Ric got hit by the food poisoning bug on the way home, but luckily I carry medicine on every trip, so we made it back in one piece. I'm a terrible driving companion, though. I slept for half the trip.

Thursday was relaxation day. I made it out of the house to see Gone Baby Gone (review to come). I spent a lot of time catching up with tv that day.

Friday, we slept in and hung out at home for a while, then went to Anaheim for the evening. We had dinner at the Jazz Kitchen take out area, which had the longest line I've ever seen there, then we went into Disneyland and stood in line for an hour to go on the Nightmare Before Christmas Haunted Mansion. The park was so full it was like Christmas vacation, so we had our fill of people pretty quickly. We ended up going to a nearby theatre to watch The Darjeeling Limited (rtc).

Saturday, we slept in again, then went to the Norwalk Ice Arena. Ric has decided to pick up skating and try to learn well enough to eventually join a local hockey team. I had never been ice skating before, so I spent most of my time along the boards, along with all the five-year-olds. I could possibly get better, but I don't think I would ever feel comfortable out there. I'm too afraid of falling and hurting my back more. After that I did laundry at my folks', then joined Ric and his parents and drove out to see the Kings play against the Edmonton Oilers. Awesome game, awesome time! When we got home I had really bad allergies, but we hung out with our neighbor on his porch for a bit, watching all the people walking up and down the street in costumes, since there was a party up the street. We watched more Jericho episodes, then I conked out.

Allergies were so bad that I skipped church on Sunday and slept in late. I mosied around the house a bunch, then followed Ric to his parents' place since he was doing laundry there. I watched tv all night and spent a while feeling sorry for myself because I've been missing the ability to just call friends and go do something spontaneously like we used to do in college. These days we plan every hang out, because everyone's always so busy. So when I found myself with nothing to do, I got depressed. Of course, there was always housework, but who wants to do that? I think I was sad about getting back to work, too. But you know, I like the people I work with, so I'm really not that sad to be back now that I'm here. It's a weird time in life, though. Most of my friends are at work, but we don't do a lot together outside of work, and whether friends are from work or not, we all have to check calendars before we can hang out. Boooo for growing older!

Anyway. Back to normal life!