Colder weather in Sacramento

Sacramento has very hot summers. By comparison to places that get really cold on the east coast or in the midwest, we don't really get cold winters. But it is quite a bit colder than the bay area, where I lived for years, and as I am apparently a California Weather Wimp, I think it gets really cold.

Yesterday, Ashling and I went to Davis to do the annual "Turkey Trot" a 5K run just before Thanksgiving. We also planned to go to the Causeway Classic, the big football game between traditional local rivals, Sac State (the Hornets) and UC Davis (the Aggies).

For those who don't know the area, Davis is town about 20 miles west of Sacramento, home to UC Davis, a fine institution of learning. You get from Sac to Davis on I-80, and after you cross into Yolo county, the freeway is a causeway over the Yolo flats, hence the term "Causeway Classic" for the big football game. We left on Saturday at about 7 a.m. heading to Davis for the Turkey Trot, and man was it foggy! This Valley fog is way different to bay fog, much thicker and harder to drive in. I was just glad that there was so little traffic on I-80 as the visibility was very poor. In fact, when we crossed the Sacramento River, the fog was at its thickest and the river was not at all visible. But we got to Davis safely. But it was cold! Again, not by real winter standards, but by California wimp standards. I was glad to get running to warm up! And also to be around the crowds - there are about 5000 participants. It's a nice enough course through Davis, the best part being how flat it is. No hills! I clocked a time of about 30 minutes, Ashling, of course, was several minutes ahead of me.

After the race, we headed home so. Crossing the Yolo flats, we saw where the Davis fans had adorned the flats with the a rather large sign stating "Sac Iz Wac". I am guessing that spelling and grammar aren't a top priority for the Aggies. But it was cute, we giggled about it all the way home. Game started at 2:05, we headed over to Hornet stadium a little early and enjoyed the smell of the barbeque at all the tailgate parties on campus. Given that Sac State doesn't have a particularly prestigious football program, the stadium is smaller than, say, Memorial Stadium at Berkeley. However, I would say that Hercy the Hornet is a very cool mascot, partly because he has a stinger and partly because he can ride a unicycle. However, the first half of the game was filled with some of the sloppiest football I have ever seen, and I have sat through a large number of high school football games. That combined with the chilly weather led to us leaving at halftime, which unfortunately means that we missed one of the greatest comebacks in college sports history when the Hornets came back from a 14-3 deficit at halftime to win 31-28 with just 20 seconds to go! That's the price of being a California Weather Wimp and being unable to last a couple of hours in the shade when it's less than 60 degrees!

The new shed

The last of Gordon's big outdoor projects for this year is the new shed. When we moved in, the house had a shed. But, oh my god, what a mess!!! There was so much ivy in it. I think the ivy was holding it up. Not to mention all the nasty things left behind by critters that had been in there. Yuck! Anyhow, we have a two-car garage, but there is so much stuff in there, mostly tools and motorbikes, that I can't park my car in there. So I went through this summer parking my car in the driveway, and I really don't want to do that again. Honestly, some afternoons I'd get into my car after it had been sitting in the sun for a few hours, and I would get third degree burns on my fingers from touching the steering wheel. Not good! So the shed had to get built so that Gordon could put his stuff in it so that I could park my car in the garage.

The first major task was killing the ivy. That took a long time, because it was some large ivy. It was frustrating because he was working so hard but it didn't look like much was changing! Except for the big pile of roots that had to go out in the green bin that is. Once it was pretty much dead, and cleared from the concrete, then he could go to work on that. We used the concrete that had been poured for the old shed, but it need some serious patching and chipping. Then it was time to begin building the actual shed. Gordon actually bought a book "shed-building for dummies" I think it was, and just picked out a nice design and went from there. A picture is worth a thousand words, they say, so click here to see pictures of the shed in progress.

I think the most most stressful time was the day before our first big storms of the season. We knew there would be some serious rain and wind, so Gordon had to get the roof on that weekend, and then get something called housewrap around the shed. That was important because the windows and doors weren't in yet, and the housewrap covered that. Since we were storing all of his tools in the new shed, it was important to keep as much rain as possible out of there. The storm tore up some trees, even dumping some into the pool, and almost destroyed the sunshade, but the shed and the tools stood up well.

Keep checking the photos - it should be finished soon and I'll keep posting photos.

Summer in Sacramento

This week, there was a really good article about living in Sacramento in the Sac Bee. Click here to read it. The article, by a San Francisco native now living in Sacramento, talks about how the hot summers really define the lifestyle here. Now I've been really lucky - since I moved to Sacramento we've experienced one of the most delightful summers imaginable. But there have been a couple of hot weeks and I totally see what he means about how the weather defines life here. The cool active mornings, the slow midday and the lively evenings. I also think he's right on when he says we can look at day with a high of 92 (for my European readers, that's about 33 centigrade) and marvel at how cool it will be. It sort of reminds me, in an opposite type way of course, of how when I was growing up in Ireland, we would head to the beach if it got remotely close to 70. That was some hot beach weather then! On a personal level, it's pretty amazing how quickly I've gotten into the if-it's-not-100-it's-almost-chilly mentality. Also, how quickly I've grown to love the shade. It's way different in the shade! And the air conditioning. I believe in A/C!!

There are a couple of things I would also note about how Sacramentans deal with the heat. First is the use of water. When it's hot, I come home from work and get into the pool. I've gotten into the pool at 9 or 10 o'clock. Then you don't even have to worry about the sun. Pools are a big deal. And of course, there's the river. When I drive over the American River, I always glance to see how many people are out on the river. On the weekend, there are hundreds of people, either just hanging out or floating down the river in rafts. I've done it myself. It is so much cooler on the water. And even though you're in the river with crowds of people, it's cool, because, really, everyone is just so nice. I don't know if the heat contributes to it, but people are so friendly here, it rivals Ireland! The first day we went out on the river, we forgot to bring paddles for the raft (well, we were rookies) and someone just gave us one. I am not making this up! He had a spare, and he noticed that we needed it, so he just gave it to us. That would *never* happen in the bay area.

The other thing that the heat brings out is a totally different sense of style. It sort of makes sense, I suppose, it's hot so we dress skimpier. All of us. I'm a 48-year-old grandmother and it's completely acceptable for me to leave the house in short-shorts and a tank top. Admittedly, I'm in decent shape, but hey, other places in the world have rules about that sort of thing. Not here! And the skimpier clothing leads to more display of body art. There probably aren't actually more tattoos per capita here or anything, it just looks like it because they're all on display.

The article also talks about how we lean toward evening activities because of the heat. That's so true. I go listen to live music in the village near my house every Thursday night. I walk down by the river and it is simply full of people biking and walking their dogs, or kids. Restaurants in midtown serve food until the wee hours of the morning. If only we could get a siesta in mid-afternoon, life would be perfect! Maybe that's the way we should be furloughing - a two-hour nap each day.

I don't know how it's going to be in the winter. There may not be sun, there might even be rain! I might even get an early night. But I guess I'll just wait and see.

More progress on the house and yard

We've been in our house in Fair Oaks for almost a month now, and Gordon continues to make progress especially outside in the yard. Last week, he finished painting the pool. This week, after it sat for 7 days, we were able to fill it and then use it. It took 36 hours to fill it. We got it filled in time for a visit from Dara, Zach, Aidan and Zach's sisters, the twins Ciara and Cheyenne. So, along with Aisling, they spent two days in the pool having a great time. When Dara was pregnant, I bought a child's wetsuit with built in floatation device at a second hand shop. They all made fun of me at the time, questioning when a toddler might use it. But I guess I was right! Aidan wore it into the pool on Friday and Saturday and it worked beautifully. He came down the slide once, and just bounced up to the surface, so it feels very safe to have him in the pool with that on.

I got in the pool with Aisling on Sunday. I must say, it's very relaxing to float around on one of those air mattress loungers. Dara thought it had cupholders, but I didn't find anything that fit a wineglass. Oh well! It also seemed that Aisling enjoys shooting me with the watergun, both when I'm on the air mattress and on the side of the pool. Hmm.

The other major development is the shed. There was an old shed in the back yard. It really needs some serious work. Basically, I think the walls have to come down and be rebuilt. The foundation seems to be okay. Also, it was pretty overgrown with ivy and other trees and vines. So Gordon has been cutting back the growth over the last few days. As he cut back the ivy, he found that there was actually another shed buried under there, connected to the original shed. I would guess it has been buried under the ivy for years. That shed (on the right in the picture) probably needs new walls and a new roof. There were also things in there that had obviously been there for years, including an old crib and bike. However, there is also an old 55-gallon drum full of something, we're not sure what. We're contacting someone with the county's hazmat department before we do anything with it, just in case. But it'll be interesting to see what's in there!

Update from our new home

Well, we've been moved in for a couple of weeks now, and it's feeling like home! We've unpacked many many boxes. I admit, there are still a ton in the garage, but the house is almost box-free, and furniture is where it should be. I can find all my shoes, clothes and earrings. Not quite there in the kitchen yet, we keep finding things we haven't moved or unpacked, like a can opener, or cooking oil.

We've even had visitors, Nan, Dara, Zach and Aidan have all come up from the bay area, and Maureen and Nate have come over from my office. The cats are completely comfortable here now, Gordon put a new door in with a cat door and they come and go as they please. I'm pretty sure they like the big yard and the neighbor's dogs don't seem to bother them. Saki has always been a big killer and now he is finding more things to kill! Last week, he brought in something that looked like a huge worm to me, however, Gordon told me that it was a small garden snake. Yuck! There definitely are more creepy crawlies here, including the dreaded spiders, but I am choosing to ignore them.

The other major development is the pool. It was quite a mess when we bought the house. We talked to several pool contractors, and we thought we would get it completely refinished. However, the cost for that is pretty high - for the finish that we'd like, it'd probably be close to $10,000. So it sort of came down to a choice between the pool and the roof, so we are going with a new roof. We decided instead to have Gordon clean and paint the pool. What a process! First, it had to be cleaned with TSP, and then acid washed. After washing, it needs to sit for a few days. Then it can be patched in the damaged spots. Then it needs to sit for a few days. Then it needs to be washed with TSP and acid washed again! Then it needs to sit for a few days, and then it can be painted. After that, it needs to sit for a week before it can be filled.

So last week it was getting close to the painting time. I had a business meeting with Women in Technology International in Sacramento, and when I came home at about 9:30, Gordon was in the pool painting. I actually could smell the paint all the way out in the driveway! He thought it would take about three hours, and when I got home, he'd been painting for about an hour and a half and he looked like he was pretty close to halfway done. Boy was that wrong! He had mostly done shallow end, and the deep end is much bigger! He painted until about 5:30 in the morning! But it looks incredible, as you can see from the picture. We are looking forward to filling it up, starting this week. We actually have a pool going on how long it will take to fill up the pool! I have 60 hours.

Now that we're really in Sacramento, we are starting to explore a little more. Nan came up last week, so we took her to lunch at Rick's Dessert Diner. Yum!! We also have spent a lot of time in Fair Oaks with the chickens. And yesterday, we went rafting on the Sacramento River. Nate and Maureen have an inflatable dinghy from their sailboat and the five of us went out in it. We met up at one or so and sailed down the river for about 3 and a half hours. Our theory that people are friendlier in Sacramento was again proven when we realized that we had forgotten paddles, and someone who had a spare paddle just gave it to us. Which was good, because otherwise we would have been up the river without a paddle. Ha ha!!It was a very mild day by Sacramento standards (about 88) when we were out on the river, but it felt even cooler down by the water, so on a hot day, that's going to be fabulous. It is bright and sunny, so lots of sunscreen is the way to go. The journey itself is very relaxing, only one or two "rapids" and even they're pretty lightweight. Lots of people out on the river, all friendly and all in a really good mood, so all in all, a good time!

We're moved!

At last, after many months, we have moved from the bay area to Sacramento. We've been packing at our house in Hercules since April. Gordon has been working at our house in Fair Oaks since May. But the work that needed to be done before we could move in got completed a week or so ago. He installed new insulation, did some re-wiring, had a painter paint all the rooms (without wood), and had a contractor re-finish all the wood floors. Also, he did lots of out side cleanup and is continuing to work on the pool.

So the movers came to Hercules on Sunday. They arrived at 9 and got the truck all packed up about 4. We got almost all the furniture and boxes in the truck. Gordon packed up his truck and I packed a bunch of things in my car. Aisling and I took one cat and a turtle in my car and Gordon took the other cat in his truck. After we got to Sacramento, the movers were there until about 11 moving furniture and boxes into the house. My goal was to get our beds set up so we could sleep Sunday night, and also to get the big heavy pieces of furniture located. And we did manage to do that, so we could sleep in our beds on Sunday night!

I took off three days during the week and we unpacked and moved furniture around during that time. In addition, Gordon was continuing with some things that weren't quite done, like some light fixtures. The cats and the turtle have completely settled in. The cats love being outside and we haven't lost them yet. Dara, Zach and Aidan came up to visit over the weekend. Zach helped clear more stuff from the garden, and Dara helped unpack the kitchen. Aidan ran around and played with the cats.

So it's great to be all back together all the time. Aisling has started her summer program at Sac State. Gordon will need to finish stuff up at the Hercules house, as we have a new tenant moving in on August 1, which is great news!

ITLP Conference 2009

I just got back from Chicago where I attended the IT Leader's Program 2nd annual conference. I had a great time. I presented my leadership diary three times - mostly tongue-in-cheek presentations, recalling our various leadership concepts and gently poking fun at them. The third day was spent poking fun at the previous speakers sessions. However, the previous speakers were mostl very good, especially Professor Ronald Burt on Social Networks and how they create advantage and value; Professor Harry Davis on leadership as performance art (I know what you're thinking and you're wrong); and Clarke Stroud Vice President and Dean of Students from the University of Okalahoma on the role that students play in advancing technology. Clarke Stroud was almost (but not quite) as funny as I was and he also gave me tons of material for my final diary - just a lot to revisit and make fun of.

It was also good to reconnect with my ITLP colleagues from around the country. Many of us are dealing with similar issues obviously around budgets and crises caused by security issues. Many of us spent some quality time at a bowling alley in Chicago - great fun!

House update

It's been a while since I've posted to my blog; just busy I guess. We finally took possession of the house last week. Getting through closing was a really pain in the neck but it finally got done. Now we (and by we I mean Gordon) are spending a lot of time doing work to make it move in ready. Last week, he got a lot of electrical work done so now the house won't be a fire hazard. He also got some new drywall in the laundry room. And now he's focusing on doing some ceiling insulation. That'll take a couple of weeks and then we'll have it painted and have the floors repaired and refinished. In between that, we'll make the pool ready for swimming.

All of this while we pack and move and get our Hercules house ready to rent!

I am thrilled with the house, but I hadn't been there for several weeks until we got the keys last Thursday. There's been some rain in between those two times and the weeds in the very large garden are about five feet tall! That's a lower priority than the house interior, obviously, but it is a mess. We spent the night there Thursday sleeping on the floor. It was so quiet! On Friday the refrigerator and other appliances arrived.

So it's a work in progress. But it's exciting.

A new house!

So after several days of looking at homes in Sacramento, the offer we place on the first one we bid on was accepted yesterday! Woo-hoo! We have to get it inspected but assuming that it doesn't have some major strucutural issues, we'll close on the house in the beginning of May.

The house is in Fair Oaks, which is a suburb of Sacramento. It's about 15 miles from my office, so a bit of a commute, but the Fair Oaks location is great. It's only a mile from the American River and numerous trails for hiking and biking. It's also very close to Fair Oaks village, a cutesy little village with shops, restaurants etc. Because of the proximity to Fair Oaks village we're actually in walking distance to a pub! The house is on a half acre, so the yard is very big and includes a pool, two decks, and lots of trees. I honestly think there are camp sites out there! The garden does need work, but that doesn't have to be done before we move in. The house itself is very nice, four bedrooms and great living space. It sort of looks like a cabin. Also, even though it's close by stuff, the location feels pretty remote, so that adds to the cabin like feeling.

Once we close, Gordon is going to do a little internal work - mostly painting and new floors. Then we'll move in, do some cleanup on the house in Hercules and rent it. Once we're in, Gordon plans to work on the external stuff, making the garden a beautiful oasis and adding more sheds and workshops for himself.

We're really looking forward to it. It's a great house and garden and in a fabulous location!

House-hunting in Sacramento

So I am really getting settled in Sacramento and into a routine. I drive up Monday and back on Friday, go to the gym pretty much every day, and have taken some time to get to know the area. I almost know my way around! Sometimes I mess up my routine by going out of town to Southern California, or on vacation to Ireland, but mostly, I'm in a routine. However, being away from Gordon and Aisling during the week is getting old, so I'm looking forward to them moving up here. So it's time to get serious about buying a house. It should be easy, right? There are lots of houses for sale, and we have very stringent requirements - must have a pool, and must be within certain school boundaries. Not so easy!

So since we're serious about buying a house, a couple of weeks ago, Gordon and Aisling came up to Sacramento to spend the weekend. We went out looking at houses on Saturday with our real estate guy, Charles. We looked at lots of homes. A couple of interesting points. First, some houses were just trashed by the people who got foreclosed on. We saw some that had been covered in graffiti, on the inside, in every room! We saw others that had paint poured on the carpets in every single room. We've also seen every glass surface and toilet in the house just smashed up with a hammer.

But we did see a house that we loved, and we put a bid in on it. That was two weeks ago. The other thing we learned is that when there's a bank involved, it doesn't move too fast. One would think that the banks would be anxious to move the properties, but they don't seem to be too worried about responding fast. Oh well. So we went and looked at more homes this weekend. We might have to make two or three offers before we get a home! Stay tuned.

Trip to Ireland and France summary

Aisling and Helen in Dublin

Last month, we had a great vacation to Dublin, Ireland to visit my family, with a side trip to a town called Carcassonne in France. The photos are posted, of course, on flickr and can be seen here. We had a great time meeting with old friends from college and of course spending a lot of time with family. We also did a little sightseeing in Ireland and a lot of sightseeing in France. As a special bonus, we saw Oasis in concert in France - quite an experience. More detail is posted in my daily blogs below.

Trip to Ireland and France - Final day, Wednesday February 25th

Wednesday was our last day. We headed to Dublin airport, and caught the direct flight to San Francisco. It was a very smooth trip. The plane was an airbus, so we could select our own movies, which was great, so I watched four movies on the way back since I couldn't sleep, the best of which was probably W, just because Josh Brolin was so good as George W. Bush. We arrived in SFO on time, and then headed home. Dara, Zach and Aidan came over to see us, which was good because we missed them so much, and then I showered, and headed on Bart over to Oakland International airport for a business trip to LA. Another uneventful trip. The weather in LA was just so different to the weather in Ireland and France. I calculated that by the time I got to my hotel in LA, I had been awake for 23 hours. I think that might actually have helped me get over my jet lag! I spent Thursday in LA, flew back to Sacramento and then took Amtrak back to the bay area on Friday evening. Given that I used the bus and light rail to get from my condo to work on Friday, I believe I used every mode of mass transit in this timeframe!

Trip to Ireland and France - Day 13, Tuesday February 24th

Most of Tuesday was given over to packing for our flight home. However, Gordon and I went to lunch with a friend of mind, Lidia, with whom I worked when I lived in Germany. We drove into town and parked near the South Docks, which has changed so much over the years. In the past, it really wasn't that safe to be in that area, but now it has been heavily developed and is home to the Point, now renamed the O2, a major concert venue in Ireland. We enjoyed walking in that area to see some of the newer buildings. We had lunch with Lidia at Cafe En Seine, on Dawson Street. It's a lovely building. Neither Lidia nor I could remember what it was before we had the boom, when the economy could support restaurants like this! I must say, it had the best bathrooms in Dublin. Gordon wandered out and found an interesting Irish whiskey shop where I am pretty sure they let him taste many shots of whiskey. Lidia is now a PhD student at Trinity, an archaeologist working mostly on digs in Israel. In fact, she had just returned from Israel. She also told me a story about a mutual acquaintance, a German woman who worked with us for the US Army in Germany in the early 80s. Apparently 3 or 4 years after Lidia and I both left Germany, this woman was arrested as an East German spy! That combined with the harp-kidnapping guy would seem to show that I have met some interesting characters in my past!

That evening, we went over to visit even more college friends! It must have been the day for connecting with old friends. Also, all my sisters came over to my mother's house that evening to say goodbye. It was bedlam! There must have been 20 people in the house. But it was very good to see so many friends and family on the trip.

Trip to Ireland and France - Day 12, Monday February 23rd

Paula and Orla took Aisling out shopping and to a movie, so Gordon, Nan and I went to see some sights in Dublin. This is not Aisling's favorite activity, so it seemed like a good way to go. We decided to go see Dublin Castle. I don't remember ever going to see Dublin Castle when I lived in Ireland, although my Dad told me that he took me there when I was a little girl, I just don't remember. It is a functioning government building, however, and I do remember going here in the early 80s when I worked for IBM in Ireland to hand over a tax check that was due.

There's a lot of history about Dublin Castle. There was a Viking settlement in Dublin and then a Norman settlement later, with the castle being built in 1204 by King John. It apparently burnt down in 1684 in a big fire and was rebuilt then. It was home to the Viceroys of Ireland who represented the monarchs of England until 1922, when we gained our independence. This includes Cornwallis who was made Viceroy of Ireland after he lost a major battle in the American Revolutionary war. I assume it was a demotion. The tour of the castle was excellent and we got to walk through the state apartments, which were used by the viceroys and visiting monarchs and are now used by the Irish government for some state affairs. The most notable event held in the castle now is the swearing-in of the president of Ireland. Some of the major items of interest include: the James Connolly room, where Irish rebel James Connolly was treated for a gunshot by the British (who had turned the castle into a hospital) so that he could be executed for his part in the Easter Rising of 1916; a mirror from Versailles, one of two that were stolen following the French Revolution (the other one's in Munich) and somehow ended up as the headboard on the bed of some wealthy Irish farmer, before being sold from his estate to a collector for the princely sum of 5 pounds; a huge throne built for the very large King George the IV when he was visiting and which had six inches of it's legs sawed off by the very petite Queen Victoria when she had to use it; some of the original Norman and Viking walls which were re-discovered in 1986 when the River Poddle flooded, leading to the destruction of a building on the site.

Before we went through the State Apartments, we had a little time to kill so we visited two smaller museums in the castle. One is a museum to Revenue Collectors, which I found to be hilarious. It included displays of contraband seized by revenue collectors, including knock-off Gucci bags and much drug paraphernalia. It also displayed a special toilet used by revenue collectors to help in the "collect evidence" from suspected drug mules. The second museum was a museum to the Irish police force, the Garda Siochana. I thought that was pretty boring, but it was in the remaining Norman Tower, the records tower, so it was worth going in to take a look at the tower itself.

We had lunch at a little restaurant called Gruel, and then headed down to Trinity College to see the Long Hall, Book of Kells and the oldest harp in Ireland, which is often connected erroneously with King Brian Boru, who died at the battle of Clontarf in 1014. However, the harp itself is "only" 500 or 600 years old, so it actually isn't Brian Boru's harp. The image of the harp is used in much of Ireland's official documents etc. and also on our currency. When we got home, my father reminded me that in the 1970s, it was stolen and held for ransom by the IRA, and that one of the ringleaders of this crime was my swimming teacher when I was a little girl!

That evening, we went to dinner at the home of some college friends of mine. They live in a lovely old late Victorian or Edwardian house on the South Circular Road. We had a nice time reminiscing about college. When we left, we had some excitement with the rental car. The clutch and transmission had apparently been treated pretty badly by renters, and it really had a hard time going into reverse. Getting out of our parking spot, we held up a couple of taxis while we got out of our parking spot!

Trip to Ireland and France - Day 11, Sunday February 22nd

We spent Sunday out in Skerries, a village on the outskirts of Dublin where my sister Orla and her family live. I think almost the whole family was there, nearly 20 people! We ate lunch at Orla's, which was great, but mostly we wanted to see her house, which had been seriously renovated since we had last been home. It's very common in Ireland for people to buy homes and then add on to them over the years. Her extension resulted in a huge kitchen, with lots of space to cook, eat and gather, as the kitchen is the main gathering spot in Irish homes.

Skerries is right on the coast, so after lunch we all went out to walk on the beach. There is a stony beach to the north and a sandy beach to the south with the old village more or less in between the two (Orla and Joe live in a newer part of Skerries). It was cold, of course, but it was a very nice walk. There are several small islands off the coast, including one that my father tells me was briefly inhabited by hippies, who left because there were too many rats. But they wanted to go back, so they released 50 cats on the island to kill the rats, but when they came back several weeks later, there were only a dozen or so cats left. Yuck!

Trip to Ireland and France - Day 10, Saturday February 21st

After the very busy week, we had a quiet day. We spent most of the day at home, although we took Aisling shopping (again) and to play football in a nearby field. That evening, Gordon and I went to the Laughter Lounge, a comedy club, with Paula, Hubert and Orla. There were four comedians plus the MC, and it was hilarious. We thought we might have to translate some jokes for Gordon, but there were just a couple of words that he wasn't familiar with. There were lots of jokes about the recession, Barack Obama (well, not so much Obama himself, more people's reactions to him), and of course, about getting drunk. After the show we went to a pub called MacTorcaills.

With our quiet day, we missed a big event in Dublin. Apparently over 100,000 people showed up for a protest march, expressing their displeasure with the current state of the economy and the government's handling of the situation, including what many people see as a fairly lax response to questionable or even likely criminal behavior by banks during the boom. The example most under discussion while we were there was Anglo Irish Bank, the details of which can be found in a Wall Street Journal article.

Trip to Ireland & France, Day 9, Friday February 20th

Friday was a travel day, going back from Carcassonne to Dublin. We sent Aisling out to the Boulangerie to buy us baguettes (she had been doing that most days) and we ate as many of our leftovers as we could. However, each of the wrinklies packed some contraband in their carryons. Nana had cheese and Nan had salmon. Not to mention the bottle of wine we packed in Nan's luggage. We headed to the airport and had an uneventful flight back to Ireland. Once there, we did a little shopping with Nana as we were pretty much out of food. Gordon always enjoys visiting supermarkets in other countries. After we had dinner that night, we went over to Harold's Cross to enjoy the greyhound racing. Aisling bet on the first race and won 20 euros, which pretty much financed her gambling for the rest of the night. My next door neighbors came, and won on every single race. I usually picked my bet by the description of the dog in the printed program. I especially enjoyed the descriptions that went "experienced bitch" or "tenacious bitch" and I always bet on them. However, I never won anything!

We took a taxi home through the city and Dublin is definitely hopping on a Friday night. It's full of people. The cab driver complained bitterly about how his business has suffered because of the recession and also because of recent deregulation, but it didn't look to me like the recession was impacting how much people were going out at night.

Trip to Ireland & France, Day 8, Thursday February 19th

Thursday was our last full day in France, so we decided to spend it down in the Ville Basse. We thought it was a little far for the wrinklies to walk, so Gordon and I walked and we sent Aisling and the wrinklies in a cab. We arranged to meet at the McDonalds, just because you sort of can't miss it, it's right across from La Gare. I got coffee in McDonalds, and it was pretty good. Also, the bathroom in McDonalds was great! We spent a long time in McDs as the grandmothers decided to go shopping before meeting us! They showed up wearing new hats and scarves to help them stay warm. We walked into the main square in Ville Basse, where there was a market, but we got there a little late, and we missed most of the market, which seems to sell mostly produce and cheese and meet. We had lunch at a little restaurant on the square and then we split up and arranged to meet at the same cafe later in the afternoon.

Aisling and I went shopping. Aisling was wearing a Barack Obama campaign button, and that really made her very popular. We went into Sephora, and they actually gave us free stuff! We also went to the Monoprix, as Aisling wanted to buy French chocolate. She also bought french makeup and went to a cheap french clothes shop and bought some french clothes! We then headed back to the cafe to meet the others. The wrinklies were late. Apparently they went to the coiffure and got their hair done. They also reported that they had gotten capuccinos, and they had never seen so much cream on a capuccino before.

We decided to buy food at the Monprix and eat at the hotel. We ate baguettes, salmon, cheese, pate, and Aisling had a steak. We also *had* to drink two bottles of wine from the winery since we couldn't take it on the plane! After dinner, Gordon and I went for a nighttime stroll to the Ville Basse. I hadn't gotten to see Cathedral St. Michel in the Ville Basse, so we walked by both cathedrals in the town and enjoyed how they looked from the outside. We also found one of the two Irish pubs (although we didn't go in). On the way back, we passed the museum which was beautifully illuminated at night. The town was pretty lively at night but we just went back to the hotel rather than go clubbing!

Trip to Ireland & France, Day 7, Wednesday February 18th

After the long day Gordon and I let Aisling and the wrinklies sleep late and we headed to return the rental car. The car rental office itself was closed, but we turned it back inside La Gare. We then headed back to the hotel and met the others to head up to La Cite for the day. It was great. We walked the shorter, but somewhat steep way. We wandered around the , the moat and battlements, enjoyed the daytime view of the Ville Basse. Once we got up to La Cite, Nan and Nana stopped for coffee and Gordon, Aisling and I went to La Maison Hantee, the Haunted House. It was very scary, but all the ghosts spoke french so I'm not really sure what I was afraid of. It was a unique experience, you wandered from room to room as the doors automatically opened for you and then people jumped out and scared you in French.

We then headed up to the castle and did the tour. We learned a lot about Carcassonne and the castle. Some highlights. The town is supposedly named after Mme. Carcass. When the town was under siege, after several months of siege she had the bright idea to have a pig killed in view of the attackers (under the command of a french king). The attackers then concluded that if they were killing pigs for no good reason, then they must have lots of food and could hold out for months, so they retreated. As they left, Mme Carcassonne had all the bells in the city rung, and one of the retreating warriors said that "Mmm Carcass sonne". Sonne means rings. The tour also explained the winds, the cold one that we experienced while we were there is called the "cers". The town was restored beginning in the 19th century. The towers on the wall are from several different time periods, including some Roman towers, which are "u" shaped. While it was in operation, the castle would have had wooden walkways built, so there were a couple of these walkways built so that we could see what they were like. They had slits in the floor, called murder holes, where the defending soldiers could throw object like stones or arrows at attackers making there way forward. Apparently, nobody ever threw boiling oil or water - this is just a myth - as oil and water were just too precious. It was an interesting tour, but walking along the top of the castle was cold!

After we were done in the castle, we also went to the the church in La Cite, formerly a cathedral, the Cathedral de St. Nazaire. It was much smaller than the cathedral in Toulouse. But it had very nice stained glass. The old part of the cathedral was freezing! The walls were several feet thick, and that seemed to hold in the cold for us. We wanted to visit the hotel de la Cite, the fancy hotel there, which we heard was beautiful. However, it was actually closed until March 6th, so we didn't get to see it.

That night, we ate dinner in a little restaurant in La Cite. It was in a most interesting building. The bathroom was very bizarre, very low ceiling and very tiny. I don't believe it would have met anyone's ADA requirements. We ordered steak, which was cooked on a wood fire in the dining room. There was live music, mostly Spanish singers and guitar players. Our waitress was a very friendly Scottish woman from Glasgow. All in all, it was one of our best meals in France.

Trip to Ireland and France, Day 6, Tuesday February 17th

Before we came on our trip, Aisling discovered that my favorite rock band, Oasis, was performing in Toulouse while we were in France. Toulouse is only about an hour from Carcassonne so we decided to buy tickets and head to the concert. Carcassonne is small, so a car is unnecessary, but for the trip to Toulouse we rented a car for the day. Gordon and I walked over the the train station (La Gare) in Ville Basse and rented a Peugeot. So after getting used to driving on the left in Ireland, Gordon had to switch to driving on the right again, although with roundabouts! The walk to La Gare was pretty fun as we got more of a sense of what the Ville Basse was like, the churches, shopping etc. We did stop in a chocolatier and buy some chocolate snacks!

We headed back to the hotel and picked up Nan, Nana and Aisling. The plan was to drive to Toulouse, do some sightseeing, drop Nan and Nana off at a restaurant while Gordon, Aisling and I headed to the concert. However, we decided to make a couple of stops on the way (okay, slightly out of the way) to Toulouse. Carcassonne is in an area of France known as "cathar country". Apparently, the Cathars were a religious group persecuted by French catholics in the 12th and 13th centuries. So all the towns have significant Cathar history, including churches, castles etc. There are so many towns to pick from and sights to see, it's hard to choose where to go! But we decided to go to a town called Lastours, which is the home to the remains for four castles, built up very high on ridges and mountains in the Black Mountains for protection. Lastours apparently welcomed the Cathars and paid for this later when the French kings destroyed the castles.

It took us a little while to get our directions straight, but once we were out of Carcassonne on the way to Lastours it was a very nice drive on older French roads, very picturesque. It didn't take long to get to Lastours, a very pretty little town. One of the ruined castles was visible from the road. We followed the road to try to get up to the castles, however, that's not possible, so we turned around and came back to the town. It's very lovely, small with a river running through it and lovely old buildings. It's in a valley with the castles looking down on it. We stopped for lunch in a friendly little restaurant with great food. By this time we've gotten totally used to "le menu" the three course meal, with a glass of wine. After lunch, we headed up to the viewpoint, or the belvedere, where there's a fabulous view of the castles. It was fabulous. So we took some photos and then headed out of Lastours, back down the French country road to the motorway.

We decided to stop on the way at a little winery, Salitis. We pulled in and it said they were "ouvert" but it seemed pretty deserted. The sign said ring the bell and we'll come out. So we did, and out came the owner of the winery, a french woman. She brought us into the tasting room, which was very informal, and she spent a great deal of time talking to Nan and Gordon about the winery. Apparently, it's been in her family for four generations, and all the owners are women. She gave us several types of wine to taste - Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, merlot and dessert wine - and even Aisling got to taste. We bought four bottles of wine, none of them over 7 euros, and headed on our way to Toulouse.

Before we left California, I had printed a google map directing us from Carcassonne to the venue of the Oasis concert, Le Zenith, in Toulouse. I had intended to buy a map of Toulouse before we headed there, but I was unable to find one in Dublin or Carcassonne. We wanted to stop at some of the sights of Toulouse and needed a map for that, but we headed toward Le Zenith and figured we'd just get one there. So off we went, and followed the google map. Unfortunately, Le Zenith is near the Toulouse airport, in a fairly industrial neighborhood so we were a little concerned about finding a place for Nan and Nana, who somehow had now given themselves the nickname "the wrinklies". So we drove around a little bit, and finally found a store. I went in and in my very bad accent asked for a map of Toulouse. The guy went behind the counter, dug in a drawer and handed me a map, which he said was a little out of date and so he gave it to me as a gift. Who says the French are unfriendly? He was delightful. I studied the map, and figured out where the big cathedral, St. Etienne, was, and we headed toward it. We headed across a lovely bridge, Pont St. Michel, along a big boulevard toward "le grande rond" (the big roundabout), which was big, and we parked near St. Etienne. This was clearly the nicer part of Toulouse - fancy shops, nice bars and restaurants, and of course the cathedral. St. Etienne is a 12th and 13th century cathedral. It's quite large, beautiful stained glass, lots of ornate side altars and a huge organ. The city of Toulouse in that area is very beautiful, very attractive architecture and cute little windy streets. We toured the cathedral, walked the area, and set the wrinklies up in a coffee shop, found a restaurant for them for dinner, and a bar for after dinner, and then we headed to the concert.

We drove over to Le Zenith and parked in the lot, which was free! We then decided to eat at a food truck, where they were grilling sausages and burgers. I ordered a "burger americain". It was a baguette, with the burger cut in half and put in there like a sandwich, with chips (french fries) on top! The burger may have seen the grill for about 30 seconds or so. It was definitely rare! We then went on into Le Zenith. It was open seating, so we found a good spot and waited for the show. The opening band, Three Piece from Liverpool, was sort of boring. But then Oasis came on, and they were fabulous. They played lots of my favorites and they were really great.

After the show, we headed back over to the center of Toulouse to meet up with the wrinklies. I was a little worried about leaving them, but I needn't have been worried. We found them in a bar. Apparently, they had had a couple of gin and tonics, a half bottle of wine with dinner and two aneracs (a type of brandy) and were having a grand old time. So we more or less poured them into the car and drove back to Carcassonne.

Trip to Ireland & France, Day 5, Monday February 16th

This was the beginning of our France trip, so the group of us - Nan, Nana, Gordon, Aisling and me - headed off early to Dublin Airport for our flight to Carcassonne on the very no-frills airline, Ryanair. We obeyed their very specific rules about the dimensions of our single carry-on bag. The flight was full but went smoothly and we arrived in Carcassonne on time. On our descent, we got a fabulous view of Carcassonne. This is the oldest medieval walled city in Europe, restored in the 19th century, and it looks magnificant from the air. When we got off the plane, I think the first thing we noticed was that it was much colder than we anticipated. I think temperature wise, it was okay, but there was an extremely cold wind. This is because Carcassonne is in a valley in between the Pyrenees and the Black Mountains and it's sort of a wind tunnel.

We took a shuttle to our hotel, the Citea Carcassonne. It's an "aparthotel" meaning the rooms are meant to be more like apartments and we were really pleased. The rooms had large living areas and very well-equipped kitchens. Carcassonne is divided into two distinct towns, the old medieval city, called La Cite, and the newer city, called Ville Basse. They're spearated by the Aude river. Our hotel was on the La Cite side of the river, just outside the walls, and close to the older bridge, Pont Vieux, which is a walking bridge only. So once we were settled we decided to head out for some lunch. We headed across the Pont Vieux to Ville Basse. The views of La Cite from Pont Vieux are fabulous, so we took lots of photos. But we really felt the wind on the bridge and we were pretty much freezing to death.

Of course, it was about two by then, and we forgot that many French establishments serve lunch, then close for a few hours before opening again for dinner. So we weren't having a lot of luck finding something, until we were directed to a restauranct called La Salle du Dome near and old dome. That restaurant is open "toute l'heures". They were only serving one dish - Cassoulet, a local speciality. It's a stew made of duck, sausage and white beans, and given how cold we were and how warm and tasty it was, it was perfect.

After lunch we headed back across the Pont Vieux to La Cite. La Cite is on the top of a hill and it's a pretty steep walk. We weren't sure that the mothers were going to make it! But somehow they did. We came in through the Norbonne gate. It is very touristy, full of little shops catering to tourists, but at this time of year, there aren't so many tourists, so it felt fine. Even with the commercialism, it is an amazing place. The city walls, the fifty plus towers on the walls, the little cobbled streets, and the quaint buildings are all very nice. We just wandered around La Cite and didn't visit the castle of the church. We stopped for coffee and crepes in one of the many little establishments before heading back to the room. We stopped on the way back at a little grocery and at a boulangerie and bought lots of food including cheese, pate, baguettes, wine, meats and coffee for the morning. We spent the evening playing cards and snacking and drinking wine. It was great!

After we were done snacking, Gordon and I went out for an evening walk. La Cite is lit up at night, and it looks beautiful. We also found an easier way into La Cite from our hotel and we walked around the wall and battlements. There is a fabulous view of the Ville Basse and the rest of Carcassonne from La Cite. Some of the restaurants were still open, we could hear the music coming from them. Other than that, it wasn't that lively, probably because of the time of year, so it was easy for Gordon and me to just wander around. It was cold, but it is definitely worth walking around La Cite at night.

Trip to Ireland & France, Day 4, Sunday February 15th

Most of Sunday was spent getting ready for our trip to Carcassonne in France, although Aisling managed to get her cousin Sarah to take her shopping to the Pennys in Swords, where she bought three pairs of shoes at three euros each. We also went to lunch at Bewley's hotel near the airport. I used to work for Bewley's cafe in the center of Dublin when I was a student, and the menu has changed a little. But as always, there is tea. Most of my family went to lunch, so we werer a group of 15 or so. After lunch Gordon and I went over to Paula and Hubert's where Gordon got to ride Hubert's honda shadow motorcycle, which apparently came from Sacramento! I think he managed to stay on the left side of the road.

Sunday evening, we played cards again and then Gordon and I went out for a little while to a local pub, the Sheaf o' Wheat. There was "live" music. Two guys with guitars and a backing track. Of course, Irish people will dance to any sort of music, so there was much dancing. Gordon got to observe the Irish phenomenen of two men dancing together. That's perfectly acceptable in a straight establishment, after all, it's only dancing. On the way home, we stopped at a local chipper so that Gordon could experience post-pub Irish cuisine. I had a spiceburger, which is a burger made primarily of breadcrumbs as far as I can tell (I'm not saying there's no meat, there just isn't much) and various spices. It's then deep-fried. I love them! Gordon had a battered sausage, which is a fully-cooked Irish pork sausage dipped in a flour batter and then deep-fried. Yum!

Trip to Ireland and France, Day 3, Saturday February 14th

Thankfully, Gordon was feeling much better on Saturday, so the four of us - me, Gordon, Aisling and Nan - headed up to a beautiful place in the Wicklow mountains, Glendalough. We met Orla, Joe and the kids, Colm and Daniel, up there.

This was Gordon's first long drive since we got to Ireland. He did well with driving on the left, and with the roundabouts. There are lots of motorways in Ireland that have been built recently, so it makes driving out of Dublin much easier. We took the M50 motorway, which is actually a toll road, into County Wicklow, and then got off onto older country roads close to Glendalough. We drove through two little towns, Lara and Roundwood. We stopped in Lara and picked up some lunch in the grocery store. Gordon and I had the Irish culinary treat, a sausage roll. Nan bought a little bottle of wine to eat with lunch, which she proceeded to open in the car, which is illegal even in Ireland. We headed up to Glendalough and parked, and waited for Orla and Joe.

Glendalough, which translated from Ireland means "glen of the two lakes" is an old monk "city" in the Wicklow mountains. It's a great spot as it is both naturally beautiful being relatively high up in the Wicklow mountains and it has the two beautiful lakes, and it is historically interesting as it has churches, cemeteries and a round tower, which date from the 11th century on. Also, there was actually snow on the mountains, which is quite unusual in Ireland, as we get very little snow, and our higher elevations aren't actually that high (under 2000 feet in the Wicklow mountains, for example). We walked along the trails, and first visited the cemetery, church and round tower. It is fascinating looking at old gravestones, and many of these dated back to the 17th and 18th centuries. Naturally, some were pretty weatherbeaten, but we could read the inscriptions on many. The Round Tower is interesting too. The door is about 15-20 feet off the ground, and that serves two purposes. First, the monks stored treasures in the Round Tower, so it was harder for local people to break in and steal things if the tower itself was pretty inaccessible. Secondly, if they were attacked by invaders, the monks would climb the ladded up to the door, then pull it up and try to wait out the invaders.

The two lakes are very lovely, and the trails around them are very nice, with some small waterfalls. There's a larger waterfall on the opposite side of the upper lake, but that's quite a hike and with all the kids, we just couldn't take it on. But we enjoyed the scenery on our walk . The river was flowing pretty fast, probably due to the snow, and Aisling enjoyed leaning over and drinking some of the very clear water from it.

When we were finished at Glendalough, we headed back to Roundwood and had lunch/dinner at the Roundwood Inn. It was very good, Gordon had venison and Aisling had duck. We didn't see Bono there, however (apparently he's a regular). We headed home, and Aisling spent the night with her cousins, while Gordon and I went to visit my sister Paula and her husband Hubert. Paula's mother-in-law, Breda, who is quite a character, was there, and regaled us with stories from her past, claiming to be related to the well-known Irish rebel, Harry Boland. (google him)

Trip to Ireland and France, Day 2, Friday February 13th

Gordon was still sick on Friday and not really able to do much. However, Nan, Aisling and I took the bus into town to wander around and go shopping. Aisling loves to go upstairs on the bus when she's in Ireland, so of course we did so. When we got into town, we were hungry so we went and had lunch at the Kylemore. As usual in Ireland, we drink tons of tea, and we continued with that tradition at the Kylemore. We shopped in Penny's, Ireland's cheap store. Aisling loves cheap stores. While we were in Penny's some local people heard Nan's accent, and stopped her to tell her how much they love Barack Obama. We also stopped at a bookstore called Eason's (the best in Dublin) and a second hand bookstore. We then walked along the river Liffey along the quays. We crossed over the river on the ha'penny bridge and went to Templebar, the area crammed with bars and restaurants. There was nothing in that area when I was young and living in Ireland and now it's a really lively area, but it's expensive. We had coffee and snacks and then headed back over to the bus stop to go home. We crossed O'Connell bridge, the busiest bridge in Dublin. Dublin has a lot of statues, and at the end of O'Connell Bridge, there is a statue of Daniel O'Connell. Daniel's head appears to be very popular with the seagulls. There was constantly a seagull on his head, which Nan really enjoyed, and photographed repeatedly. Aisling really enjoyed one of the ads on the side of the bus. It was for her favorite TV program, House, and the ad said "Meet the doctor whose a pain in the ass". She thought that was hysterical.

We just spent the night at home, playing cards, Aisling's favorite activity. We stayed up a little later, apparently getting more onto Irish time.

Trip to Ireland and France, Day 1, Weds & Thurs Feb 11 & 12

We got started on our trip by flying directly from San Francisco to Dublin. This is the first time we've done this, in the past, there wasn't a direct flight and we had to go through LA. This is so much better! One clear sign of the recession was how quiet the international terminal felt (although admittedly this was a Wednesday, probably a slower day). Another sign is that our flight was nowhere near full. We walked right up to the checkin, no line at all. We ate lunch at SFO, Aisling and Gordon played chess in the airport, and then we headed to the plane. It was an uneventful flight. The extra seats meant that Aisling could lie down and get some sleep. I didn't sleep much, instead suffered through three of the worst in-flight movies ever, Nights in Rodanthe, Igor and City of Embers.

We left on Wednesday, lost eight hours and arrived on Thursday morning. It was grey and chilly. My sister Orla met us at the airport. She took Nan an Aisling and much of the luggage to my mother's while Gordon and I went to get the rental car from Hertz. What an ordeal that was. I look at the nametag of the person who was helping us, a very nice guy, but I was a little perturbed that his name was "trainee". Slowly, he got us our car and walked us out there, when he noticed a wire hanging from underneath the car. He tried to re-connect and couldn't and got someone else to try to reconnect it also, but he couldn't. So he went in to get us a new car, which seemed to take a while. When he finally brought us our paperwork, I noticed that the price for the new car was about 1,000 euros higher than what I paid for the first one. Not okay! So we went in to get that fixed. Poor little trainee guy couldn't fix it, so he called his supervisor, who also couldn't fix it, and eventually it had to be fixed by the manager (or at least some guy in a suit). So after an hour or so, we finally got our car, a Toyota Avensia (sort of like a Camry) and headed to my mother's house. I think they thought we just got lost on the way as it took us so long.

When we got there, we met my newest nephew, Daniel, Orla's son. He was very cute and he likes the same games that my grandson Aidan likes, so he seemed to warm up to us right away. We also met my newest great-nephew, Lewie, the son of my niece Hannah. He warmed up to Aisling very fast because she plays football (or soccer for Americans). We decided to have a fairly unambitious day. Gordon and I took Aisling down to the Omniplex, where she and I skated on their indoor ice rink, quite possibly the worst ice rink I've ever been on! But it was good to get up and move around. We headed home, ordered Chinese takeout for dinner and went to bed early. Unfortunately, it was an eventful night, as the food, or maybe the travel, didn't seem to agree with Gordon and he was sick for most of the night.

My upcoming trip

Starting this week, I have a crazy travel schedule between vacation and work. Tomorrow I'll be driving from the bay area to to Sacramento, then drive back to the bay area on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we'll fly from San Francisco to Dublin, then later on we'll fly from Dublin to Carcassonne, then Carcassonne to Dublin, then Dublin to San Francisco, then I'll cross the bay and fly from Oakland to Los Angeles the same day. The following day, I'll fly back to Sacramento and the day after that, I drive back to the bay area. Then I'll probably collapse for the weekend!

So probably no blog posts while I'm gone but lots when I get back!

The Inauguration

To say that yesterday was a huge day in American history is a bit of an understatement. Obama's swearing-in is an indication of how far the country has come. Plenty of other more eloquent writers than me are talking about what this means, so I will instead just talk about how the day made me feel, and how it moved me.

If you read my blog, or know me, you know that I've just moved to a new job at Sac State. My current commute/living arrangements are that I live in a condo in Sacramento M-F and go home on weekends, so I drive up to Sacramento from the bay area, about 90 minutes, on Monday morning. This week because of the holiday - Martin Luther King's birthday - I drove up on Tuesday. Of course, celebrating Dr. King on day and President Obama the next was an incredible, almost surreal, feeling. On my drive to Sacramento, I tuned my radio to KQED and listened to the coverage. They described the scene in Washington, people arriving as early as 3 a.m. just to be there; people being in a joyous mood in spite of the bitter cold; people talking about driving over 24 hours just to get to Washington DC. The reporters interviewed many of these individuals, and the comments almost moved me to tears. The hope and joy was so apparent. For me, driving toward Sacramento, across a causeway, as the sun was coming up on a beautiful day, it was really wonderful to hear those positive thoughts.

After I arrived at work, a group of us went over to the University Union to watch the inauguration on TV. In my life, I can only remember two other times when I gathered around the TV in the workplace with my colleagues. They were for the OJ Simpson verdict and for 9/11 coverage. How different this was to either of them! The scene we watched was amazing, the sheer number of people on the mall, the wonder and amazement in their faces, the reaction to the speakers. I thought it was interesting, but not surprising, that the response to Rick Warren was so muted, especially when we was followed by the fabulous Aretha Franklin! Of course, Obama's speech was amazing - full of hope, but full of reality too! It was hard to not be moved by the moment.

I have lived in America for 25 years. I have always been careful to let people know that I am not American. That's really a typical anti-American snobbery that you see in many Europeans, somehow we think we're better that Americans. And when you look at the govenment we have had in this country recently, it's hard to argue with that sentiment. However, yesterday, and again today, I am proud to live in America. I would be proud to be an American. I never dreamed I would say that, even when Bill Clinton was president, and I have always been a supporter of Bill Clinton. But this is different. With all due respect to Clinton, Obama is more than just a politician. It's hard to remember that he is just the president, and not a messiah. The expectations are so high, but there is such a feeling of goodwill toward Obama in the country that it feels as if we are in it with him. A "new era of responsibility" resonated with us.

Some of my favorite web postings today include:

Crowds watching the inauguration on Sproul Plaza in Berkeley
The Daily Kos Inauguration Coverage
Sacramentans watch the Inauguration

Day 2 at CSU

Another incredibly warm day in Sacramento! Is the weather always like this, or did they order it just for me? After a good commute on Monday, I got lost on my way to work today - really just in getting onto the Sac State campus - and I now realize I need to carry a Sac State map in my car too! Hopefully I won't get lost going home. I am meeting more and more people here at Sac State and getting a sense of the issues I should be dealing with - performance of CMS and bringing the Data Warehouse along. I also got keys to my office today, which is good, since I got locked out of my office last night!

I checked out the 24 Hour Fitness in Citrus Heights last night. It is big and crowded!!! I am not sure how well I will like this particular gym, but I am going to give it another try tonight.

Warriors vs. Kings tomorrow. Who should I root for?

First day at CSU

Today (January 12th) was my first day at CSU Sacramento. I moved into my shared condo last night. I have made friends with the cat, and I know how to get to work. I plan to try out the gym near the condo shortly.

The highlights of the day at Sac State:
- People seem to be very nice and friendly
- I have a beautiful office
- There is traffic but it appears to move at the speed limit (unlike the bay area)
- I know where to get coffee and food
- Speaking of food, I was the judge at the chili cookoff
- I was able to get my photo id and parking pass on my first day!

More later