alcatraz & fleet week = BIG goosebumps

As I said on my last post, Blake Amon (graduated with him) and his girlfriend Kara made a trip out from ND for a visit.  It was a relaxing 5-day weekend, where they only watched us have two minor newlywed snags - Andrew used my towel twice and I wouldn't let him drive Janice after giving me attitude :)  Like I said: minor.

     *On a side note: One of the recent articles that I've read mentioned some steps to take to maintain my     

      independence and upkeep a "level playing field" in our new marriage.  One step was not allowing 

     him to drive everywhere we go, which in their mind-set meant that I was letting him decide when I

     come and go.  I disagree with this, but at the same time it has some advantages with my struggles with

     motion sickness.  Thus, I drive Janice (the CRV) and he drives Beyonce (the car).

Anyways, here are some photos from the major trip that we took: Alcatraz.  The first construction on the island took place right before the Civil War and was designed as a Fort, complete with canons, that monitored the entrance to the Bay.  Next came the most widely known use for "The Rock" as a prison.  With famous prisoners, such as Al Capone, "Creepy" Karpis, and Robert Stroud, it was a maximum-security facility that had some interesting and deadly escape attempts in its history.  After the prison closed due to cost issues, it was selected for activists to make national awareness of Native American issues.  After this was all resolved, the government began bulldozing a number of the buildings (starting with the former correctional officers' residential apartments), until Congress created the Golden Gate National Recreation Area - making it a National Park.  

Hope you enjoyed a brief outline by yours truly - bring on the pictures!  Mostly it was a chance for me to try be artsy fartsy with the camera, and overuse the black/white effect - it was a prison after all!  Enjoy.

The tour boats flag, which also includes a live seagull that pooped on this poor women...Blake almost fell victim when it struck again...

Pulling into "Sally Port" (no joke!) and getting our first up-close glimpses of The Rock:

I was intrigued with some of these little doors.  What could possibly be behind them?

Blake, Kara, and Andrew making it up the hill to the main building:

One of the watch towers:

A random building.  I fell in love with the detail of the architecture on some.  I mean it was a Fort and a high-security prison!  Some of the families of the correctional officers lived on the island, so perhaps some were houses?

This was noted as one of the correctional officers apartments half-torn down:

The showers used by the prisoners:

Out in the activities yard for the prisoners:

 Kara enjoying the soothing voice of one of the correctional officers on the audio tour:

One of the basic cells:

The "gun rack key," which hung up by the hallways on the second and third levels.  None of the officers walked with guns on the main level down by the cell blocks, but instead were only carried on the second and third levels.  This was key during the deadliest escape attempts in the prisons history - google it to find out more :)

Back out to the activities yard:

I can't imagine being imprisoned in this yard and having to look across and see the Golden Gate every day...

Andrew being intrigued with another description of a deadly escape attempt:

Known as a "black hole cell" - the really naughty and unstable prisoners had to go here for hours or days until they were transported back to a regular cell.  One of the prisoners that is still alive described the feeling on audio, and said that he used to tear a button off his overalls and throw it up in the air, spin himself around, and then try and find it.  He would continue this for hours/days -- of course, they always lost track of time in the darkness.

Another view of the old correctional officer apartment buildings with the GG Bridge in the distance:

Me going to check out the view:

San Francisco off in the distance:

It was Fleet Week 2010 in the Bay, so there were hundreds of boats on the water!  There were 8 million spectators last year, and it said that it was bigger this year.  Traffic was RIDICULOUS going into the city when we left - suckers.

Blake and Kara - I included two pictures to show of the professional I'm becoming.  HA!

The main building entrance.  You can't see it, but the red/white stripes under the eagle were changed to the word "FREE" when the Native Indian protesters inhabited the island.

Andrew checking out the kitchen set up:

The eating hall:

Completely unrelated photo.  I just liked it...

On the boat ride back, I LOVED this pirate-like boat surrounded by speed/sail boats!

We took Blake and Kara over the GG, and we couldn't stop talking about the amount of boats on the water!  It was fascinating!

As you can see they all started to migrate around Alcatraz, which explains why the tour boat schedule was all jacked up...

Sacramento Trip #2

I have a little extra time, so I thought I would give you a Sunday morning treat.  Of course, I had a lovely visit to visit the Onur clan and experienced a blink of what it would be like if I was able to come once a week every week: Jess and I went to go pick up the angels from Shalom school once I rolled into town, and we saw one of the teachers twirling and swinging some tots, including Ella, by the arms (AHHH! We warned the instructor of the dangers that can come from this, no worries.)  Ella caught a glimpse of her Aunty Sally and RAN INTO MY ARMS!!  For a girl that is often scared to even make eye contact with me for a full 4-6 hours after being reintroduced to me, it was amazing to have her feel so comfortable with me right off the bat!

Anyways, here's what will hopefully keep a bright smile on your face for the rest of your weekend:

Being Dr. Evans and checking Molly and Bear's ears:

At a few moments of distress when bubble-juice was being flicked in my direction, I did threaten to take away the prized bottles, but it was interesting to judge whether anything was being produced in their efforts...

Chicken wraps. Delicious!

Zucchini muffins (with the treasured chocolate chips on top!):

As you can see, Sophia is still wearing around the glow-gem ring I brought last weekend, so spoiling does pay off :)  Let the games begin...

Sac visit, job updates, and visitors - oh my!

Obviously, it's incredibly easy to avoid updating...oops.  Not a whole lot has been going on around here, but we've somehow been keeping busy.  Last week I made a trip to Sacramento to see the Onur clan in action, which was entertaining.  Here's some proof:

Reading...or just listening to Grandma & Grandpa Sautner and look at the pictures in a new way.

Experimenting with my camera.  I realize that it focused in on her knee, but it was starting to run low on juice, so I excepted the picture and moved on.

Puzzles!  Again, a gift from Grandma & Grandpa Sautner - Sophia is addicted.

 Ella-pie doing her own creation or maybe just watching Jess...hard to say.

Next came Halloween treats!  Thank you Target dollar aisle - couldn't have done it without you!  Window clings, headbands, and tattoos.  Glorious.

 

Last (before the camera died), we had to take a lunch break for the bears.  :)

On the job front:
    Andrew is a busy bee!  He has booked a few demos for the upcoming weeks; stopping into multiple clinics on a daily basis to introduce himself, talk machines and hopefully book demos; having lunch meetings to talk to clinic heads and a variety of VIPS; and some other stuff...I may sound like I know what he does, but I don't...  I've been talking to him about doing a post on here to talk about all this, but no commitment thus far.
    I  did interview for the instructor position at the Palo Alto Jr. Museum and Zoo on Monday and got asked to come in and do a 10 minute bit on this upcoming Monday.  They also attached another class on to the position (instead of just the once-a-week bit), so that tacks on some more classroom time, which is a plus!  Hopefully I'll be able to start at the Y in the next couple weeks as well, but no definite date set yet.

Finally, we have some visitors again!  Blake Amon and his girlfriend Kara are in the house!  Andrew still have to work, so they're having "a day in the life of Sally" experience.  This means waking up later, drinking coffee for an hour+, watching the news and Sportscenter (okay, this was just Blake), and taking our time getting ready.  It's only in the mid-70's this week, so they're not getting the California treatment, but it's beautiful out!  We have lunch plans at a pizza place in downtown Pleasanton, and then they're getting dropped off at our local mall so I can peace out to Sacramento again.  Jess is a single mom for a long weekend, so I'm taking advantage of getting some quality time with the girls and my sis (no offense to Esen).  The camera is getting juiced up as we speak, so look forward to some attempts to capture the little ladies in action!

4,000 options...apparently.

As I've said in a past post, I'm not complaining!  But for some reason I've been considering a lot of different options to better my career path and hopefully not waste my time.

• Choice #1: Stick with the Y and try and get full-time hours.  Not that I would mind hanging out at the pool all the time, in fact it's the option that I'm the most comfortable with, since it's what I know.
• Choice #2: Go back to school.  I've already taken the first step on this one and signed up to take the GRE at the end of the month and bought a book to study from.  I've done some sifting through on the Stanford website and am really liking what I see (People that I've talked to about this have said that it was the best for education - and by people, I mean randoms I saw wearing Stanford wear at Target.)  I'm going to do a little more research on this and look at some of the professors, and decide whether I would want to do a Special Education certification or go for a Masters in Administration.  Who knows...I'm just playing with the idea.
• Choice #3: Start up some interviews and look for something more education related.  I've applied for so many teaching positions, but I recently signed up for a instructor/curriculum writer for the Palo Alto Jr. Museum and Zoo.  It required experience teaching and such, so it's right up my alley after this last summer.  I was also chatting with a Target customer and she handed me her card for assisting in gymnastics and a preschool...random.  It sprang from her casually mentioning that she was from MN, so I had to have more than small talk with her!  

Pleasanton (our current city) has closed all substitute teacher applications and there are no teaching positions in my field available in the area, so I'm doing all that I can to get back in the game!  Stay tuned to see what actually comes from all this decision making!  :)


On a different note, Andrew is finally home for more than 48 hours as I mentioned, which means I can't have just sandwiches or cereal for dinner!  We've been grilling machines and recently experimented with the crock pot.  Yesterday we actually threw in some ingredients for some yummy pulled pork sandwiches (a recipe that I got from a college friend), and they turned out amazing!  I have Andrew to back me up on that one :)  They have a nice spicy tang to them (Andrew does the Home Improvement grunts with them), which isn't too strong and we combine that with a splash of BBQ sauce on a bun to complete the delicacy.  Here's the recipe if you'd like to give 'em a try:

Ingredient

• 3 pounds Top Roast (or any type of roast -- I used a pork shoulder roast)
• 2 whole Onions
• 3 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
• 8 cloves Minced Garlic
• 1 Tablespoon Cumin
• 1-½ Tablespoon Oregano
• 1 can Small Can Of Chipotle In Adobo Sauce
• 1 cup Chicken Broth
• 1 cup Water
• 1 Tablespoon Bay Leaves
• 2 Tablespoons White Or Rice Vinegar

Preparation Instructions

Take everything but the roast and put it in a blender. Blend until onion is all ground up.

Add some of the sauce to bottom of crock pot. Place roast in crock pot and pour the rest of the sauce over meat.

Slow cook for 8-10 hours on low.

Use fork or tongs to shred the meat once cooked.

Some Pictures

Pre-race getting my nervous on:

My age group getting ready to go (the smallest by far):

End of the bike leg:

I think this is after the bike portion, trying to get ready for running.  Obviously there are hundreds of bikes and this is only a snapshot of my row!  There were 7 waves (heats) of participants and I was in the 7th (last to start), so that's my excuse for half of the bikes already back to their starting positions! :)

Starting my run:

After the finish!  The event was called "See Jane Run" and this was the character:

Here are a few pictures of our new apartment, and again we are just getting everything settled.  Here's one side of the bedroom.  It's not humongous, but it was designed to enable a walk-in-closet:

The bathroom, which is MUCH larger than our past apt:

The transition from the bedroom to bathroom, which holds a washer/dryer behind those closed doors:

One side of the living/dining room:

The living room/Andrew attempting to organize his work materials.  We are looking forward to getting our new couch (*cross your fingers*) next week, so we can put the lawn chair on the deck.  We'll show it off once it makes it's way home!

Pistol Whip and Grant making an appearance!  I promise I'll keep it to this one photo - I don't want to be the creepy person obsessed with photographing her pets, especially because they are fish...

The AMAZING kitchen:

That's all - hope you enjoyed! :)

Mission accomplished.

Yesterday I did my first sprint triathlon (not so much "sprint," but more-so shorter).  It consisted of a 1/4 mile swim, 11 mile bike ride, and then a 5K.  I knew that the swim part was the only part that I was fully confident in (and I took first in my age group on that leg!), and I basically survived the rest!  It was only open to women, so it was fun being able to cheer people on as they sprinted past me on the biking and running legs - you know, "keep it up!," "woot woot!," "I like your bright pink shorts!," and the like.  Sounds lame, but it was nice knowing that a 50 year old man wasn't on my tail the whole time (like the 5K I did about a month ago).  Since it was my first, I didn't set a goal time or place - no pressure - so I had a great time!  ;)

We stayed in for the most part this weekend, since it was the first weekend Andrew's been home long enough to enjoy the new apartment.  Right now we're finishing up a serious cleaning spree and trying to find places for all of Andrew's equipment, assorted office stock, reading material, and marketing papers.  At this point I'm wondering why Abaxis isn't offering to pay for part of our rent, since it's basically a warehouse around here.  The bronze Honda has officially been taken over by equipment, which means Abaxis has claimed about 70% of our living space.  I'm okay with it for now...I'm just waiting for the banner and neon sign to make it's appearance...

Last update: Pistol Whip and Grant (our fish) are still alive.  They can thank me later for turning on the air conditioning for them this weekend - it's been in the triple digits for a few days.

Hope you're enjoying your weekend!