Over on the work blog I’ve posted about switching jobs to work at Yahoo. I’ll be starting next week so I’m spending this week clearing the decks and getting ready. Tyler’s bummed because I will not be able to walk him to school anymore and it’s been the time of day when we get to talk about things mano-a-mano. Today, I took some pictures of what we see each day during our 10 minute walk.
Category: Home
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Sack Artist
Julia has taken to wearing an eyeshade when she goes to sleep at night. We have a couple of them from trips taken on Virgin Air. This one says “cat nap” -
First Day of School
Tyler’s never been one to dread the classroom and despite having had only one month off for Summer because of his two months at Japanese public school (shhh, he still doesn’t know that the rest of his friends had three months off), he was eager to get back to see his friends and crack the books.
This year Tyler is going into the 1st Grade and knowing parents have told me that this is a big step. The first few weeks are ok as they just review what they did last year. This shouldn’t be too taxing as they spend 26 weeks covering the alphabet taking an entire week to explore and savor each letter. After the review, the whip comes down and things get serious. It gets darker in the mornings and the days seem longer – the kids get tired and they have homework that actually challenges them. All this makes them cranky and even a bit sarcastic.
We’ll see if this happens to young Tyler. I just can’t imagine a sarcastic Tyler, he’s still so wide-eyed and genuinely inquisitive. We’re going into the Labor Day Weekend and over breakfast he asked, “What does labor mean?” to which I replied that it meant “to work” and then I knew what was coming next.
Tyler at Edison Elementary “Daddy, why do you have a day off work on “to work” day?”
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Owl Hairball
Tyler brought home a small tupperware case full of damp mouse hair and small little bones "skulls too!" Izumi almost gagged but Tyler can’t wait to show his friends. It’s definitely the coolest thing he’s gotten from Science Camp which wraps up this week.
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Tintin and old friends
Yesterday I had a nice suprise. Mark Prendergast, a childhood friend from when I was in 3rd grade, sent me a note filling in some details which I had left off my biography. Mark used to come over to my house and we would read my Tintin comic books and listen to The Goon Show tapes my dad had on his old reel-to-reel tape deck.
Mark lived a culturally rich life as he was up on a hill and was able to get the NBC channel that carried the Star Trek series. I remember being left out of all the playground conversations because I didn’t know what anyone was talking about. I was down in the valley and resorted to European comics where the hero always would exclaim “Hello?” when he was shocked and offbeat British humor.
Anyway, it’s nice to see that Tintin has left a mark as he says he now reads Tintin to his daughter. My sister, when she travelled to Thailand last year, brought me back a wooden replica of Tintin which sits on my desk at work – on his way to his next adventure.
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July 4th weekend, Dancing ’til Dawn, BBQs, Parades, more BBQs and Fireworks
My sister finally fulfilled her dream and dragged me out for a night on the town. We piled into two taxi cabs and raced through the streets of San Francisco to an non-descript warehouse where DJs held fourth and mixed sonic waves of sound effects to titilate the crowd into a frenzy. I had a really good time and managed, in the course of the evening, to work out a kink in my neck that had been bothering me for the past week.
On Sunday, I went over to visit a colleague’s loft in West Oakland for some scrumptous BBQ and, while waddling back to my car, spotted a rad-looking mod car. The photo sucks (I really miss my digital camera!) but if you look closely, you might see that the whole car is covered in bones and skulls which give it a nice Mad Max effect. I’d hate to see that thing bearing down on me in my rearview mirror.
On July 4th, I hung out with neighbors in Alameda. The entire Island was decked out in red, white, and blue bunting and many of the streets were blocked off for block parties. Thompson Avenue had it’s own casual gathering and our neighbor (who is an old school longboarder) had his extended family which are all skateboarders. Everyone from the four year old up to grand-dad himself spent the afternoon listening to surf music and shredding on the street in front of our house.
A parade through town provided a break from the action and the entire town came out to see some 200 different groups parade the 5 mile loop that weaved down Park Avenue, along Shoreline Drive, up Grand Avenue, down Central and then back up Webster Street. I think the parade organizers wanted to mix things up a bit with some of the placements and put the Disabled Veterans right in front of Mother’s for Peace and the gay group Out on the Island in front of a local church group which is known to be anti-gay. The parade also requires some groups to boil their message down to the bare minimum with the Falun Gong foks passing out flyers to parade viewers while saying “It’s good exercise.”
While riding through town, I spotted a Zydeco band, a street beach volleyball tournament, and a frog jumping contest. I capped out the weekend with a view of the official (an unofficial) fireworks that were being launched all around us from when it got dark around 9:30 all the way to midnight.
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A Drinking Club with a Sailing Problem
Today Mie & Dav came over to Alameda with their bikes and we rode to several yacht clubs on the Island that opened their doors to visitors interested in becoming members. It was kind of like a pub crawl because each clubhouse has a bar and they all had food laid out for potential members. I had another meeting so joined them after they had already visited the posh Encinal Yacht Club and Oakland Yacht Club.
We met in front of the Alameda Yacht Club and immediately fell in love with it. The atmosphere was real casual and the people real friendly. Dav called it the, “working man’s yacht club” and the bartender (who we all think was sampling the inventory) went on about how they have lots of parties at this club and also give me the line that’s the title of this post. Membership is reasonable and they have an active group that goes out regularly and are always looking for extra crew. If I were to join a sailing club, this would be it.
We then went over the the Aeolian Yacht Club which I’ve been riding by each morning on my way to the ferry each morning. AYC was founded in 1905 and is the oldest club on the Island. There’s a functional clubhouse and they have a drydock and fully outfitted workshop for its members. The walls are lined with wonderful old black and white photos of old boats on that used to sail on the bay. I spotted one photo of a beautiful old catboat under full sail with the half-completed Bay Bridge in the background. Every Thursday evening, club members gather at 6:30 to row a large whaling dingy out into the bay to drink wine to the setting sun and sing sea shanties.
As Dav says, it’s good fun getting to know a new subculture.
Thanks again to Mie for the photo of the Alameda Marina. I miss my DSC-T1!
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Tyler keeps ’em busy
Today I received word of Tyler’s doings in Japan. My parents took the kids for the afternoon and reported back that he’s keeping everyone on their toes. Here’s the email I received from my father.
Dear Igor (my father’s endearing handle for me)
First we went fishing in a shallow pond. Bamboo poles, dried octopus tied at the end of a string, no hooks. Actually, lots of action. Then we strolled through the park, Tyler leading the way. He found a badly designed water fountain which when he turned it on shot water straight up 15 feet. Lots of fun, even though everyone got soaking.
Then we all went to Asahi-yu for a bath. Tyler loved the hot but failed to appreciate the cold. He was full of questions: How deep is it? Why does the water smell of tea? Why do they have a bath outside? Will you wash my hair? What is the hot room for? I pointed out to him that he was the only one talking in the bath and gave him a towel, which I had to remind him three times to keep with him but not take into the bath. He’ll get the hang of it.
After we got out of the bath and got dressed, he went exploring. He decided to take a look at what was going on in the woman’s side. Tyler, the great explorer. He’s unstoppable!
Rick
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Keen, local footwear
I’ve been seeing more and more of these funky looking mocs around town that I began to wonder if this was some kind of local favorite. Keen Footwear broke onto the scene with such subtle force that it was hard to pin where their fanbase was coming from – it just seemed to be that everyone you met at the local Edison School was sporting a pair.I saw them again on the cover of the June issue of Business 2.0 where they were featured as one of The New Instant Companies and then again, today in Alameda Magazine where the article goes on to say that they are based in Alameda where they plan to stay, no matter how big they get.
Yeah! I cool and subtle badge to promote my local homies on the Island.
