Papa Bear's Visit

So this weekend Papa bear came to visit. Kind of fortunately he wasn't interested in the grand tour of things on the scale that Mama Bear wanted, which meant that I did not have to plan things quite so rigorously, i.e. plans were made an hour after he arrived on Friday night hehe :) Which was different to the weeks of planning ahead for mother..

Anyway Saturday was spent doing some shopping (as is obligatory) and then an evening with Dad's friend he hadn't seen in like thirty-eight years! The dinner was nice, as was their dog :)

Sunday was started relaxingly with Church and then lunch at a bakery/café. Then it was off to see some coastal redwoods at the relatively close Henry Cowell State park. The trees indeed weren't as big as the gigantic variety as I saw earlier on, however they seemed just as tall - we tried to copy them too hehe.. The walk was neat, with one tree somehow being hollow, yet still being alive, in which you could crawl in and stand up.

Next it was a drive and walk around Santa Cruz beach, as it was fairly close :) Finishing up with some good Mexican back in San Jose :D

San Francisco & Pablo Francisco

So on Saturday, I spent the day in San Francisco with Ms H and some of her family. I accompanied them shop for a graduation gift (a sister was graduating), and some clothes in general.

In the evening we all went out to see some comedy, namely a comedian called Pablo Francisco. Pablo Francisco has some regular TV appearances and is known for his ability to make voice impersonations. So yea of course he was the main act, so before hand there was the MC to liven up the crowd. He wasn't bad and actually had some good stories/jokes :D The next guy after him was pretty good too. Like I mean sure he was African American and he did have several jokes about them, but he did have some other more original content :)

Pablo Francisco had obviously gained weight since the youtube videos I saw of him. But yea his Arnold voice, and movie guy voice were pretty good. He does a good Indian impersonation as well.. hehe.. anyway yea it was a good show I thought, as I had a good laugh - even though it was my first comedy show :)

Victim of Fraud >:'(

So today checking my emails I realise that I have an alert saying there is unusual activity going on with my check card (my eftpos card with a visa thingy..). The message was to check my account and then ring this number straight away.. So I'm thinking that this is probably some internet transaction that they have picked up and classified wrongly..

So upon checking my account, I do indeed see that someone has made some sort of transaction to some family genealogy thing for like $400! So I hop on the phone and ring the bank, the guy verifies me, I explain the transaction isn't mine, etc. So he says that it looks like someone has gotten hold of my number.. :O :O :O D: Now I have to check to make sure that no other transactions come through, and ring them if anything does..

So now I'm getting issued a new card, but luckily I have my NZ credit card with which I can still make purchases with, as I practically carry no cash on me, and I think I have to fill up the car soon... >_< Not sure how it happened, but I'm thinking it was this one internet site where I bought my Spanish mp3 course from -Grrrr.

Baseball

On Sunday I went to see the local derby between San Francisco and Oakland at San Francisco with the NZ crew. This was at Candle Stick Park, supposedly one of the nicest baseball stadiums around, and indeed it was :]

So upon entering the stadium it meant we had to climb a few stories to reach where we were sitting. The sides actually turn out to be pretty steep, with the seats all pretty jammed in there. This has meant that I can now understand why they have stadium people selling food (as the cliché image has them) because it's hard to move in and out of your seats - however you pay for this convenience with ridiculous prices..

The game atmosphere was pretty good and I wasn't finding myself getting bored at all. Like they managed to have something going on when the teams were changing over. Whether it was fan trivia on the big screen, or everybody getting up in the 7th innings stretch to loosen and sing..

In the end it was a pretty tight game, with Oakland winning 2-0, as it was 0-0 until the 8th inning. Barry Bonds could have tied the game had he hit a home run on his last bat (the chants and pressure were really on him hehe..), but he failed and was struck out I think.

Swimming Meet

So today I drove 2 hours (each way) to a swim meet. It was just north of Sacramento in a place called Roseville. This was an invitational meet, i.e. no age groups, and the competition seemed to be at about the level of a Wellington Open meet.

The day was really nice, and the pool was great. Lots of space to relax, not a huge number of people, and it was warm - around 30C I'd say. My swimming went better than the last time I raced, as I wasn't as far off my best times. So I finaled in all my events, so I got to swim them twice :)

Before the finals session started, they had the opening ceremony. As usual this includes the American anthem. But this time they had these girls with fins, kickboards and American flags swimming down the pool to it. It was timed so that it would take them the whole anthem to reach the end..

So as for my results, I was 6th in the 100BK I think. I won the 50FR (so a few guys scratched, but I'll take it :D) where I actually was pretty close to my PB, and I came 4th in the 200BRST with a time better than the last time I swam it..

Mama Mia..

So this weekend my mother came to visit. There was a lot to do and see, so actually I'm still a bit tired from it, hehe (hence more pictures than words..)

On the Friday we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant - El Jerezano. A nice place, mmmm.

Saturday was a day with the Jones' out Sacramento way. Specifically we went wine tasting at the nearby Amadaor Wine Country. The interesting thing about this region is that wine tasting is free, and that it produces some reds I've never heard of - like Zinfindale.. Anyway this was my first time wine tasting, which I have to say I enjoyed.

Sunday was San Francisco.. Not very nice weather..

Monday was more shopping and Santa Cruz..

Tuesday was Santana Row (big flash area with Gucci stores, etc) and Valley Fair Mall (it's huge..), as well as a quick stroll through the centre of downtown..