The Oakland Airport

I have a 6am flight this morning. I am already at the airport, an hour early and breezed through security. It was another night of sleeping well (because I am so tired). Not a lot of tossing and turning, but it is a quick night when you get to bed at 11 and wake up at 4.

The A's ended up coming back at last nights game. They even took a lead for an inning or 2. The White Sox eventually won it on a Jermaine Dye 10th inning home run and Jenks closed the door on the A's.

It has been a long and fun mancation and as it draws to a close I can think of only one thing....where do we go next year?
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The A's Game

The mancation continues tonight at the A's game. The A's are playing the White Sox. The A's already have given up 2 runs in the top of the first. Here are the pictures I have so far.
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Pictures of San Francisco

Just got back to the hotel after a day down in San Francisco. We went to Powell street to see the Trolleys and we went to Niketown. We then went down to the Embarcadero and walked to Fishermans Wharf (Pier 39). We went to some shops, saw the seals. Dave and Owen bought more Raiders stuff. We went to Hard Rock for lunch. I had a bacon cheeseburger. Here are some pictures of todays adventure.
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In the Morning

Good morning. After a good nights rest. Slept like a baby - woke up every 2 hours crying for my mommy. Got up to a calm day in Oakland and headed over to the Dennys for breakfast. I got pics of the view from our room. You can see right into San Francisco and also the Oracle arena and baseball/football stadium. Owen got steak and eggs for breakfast. A good meal for a growing boy.
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Game Wrapup

The Raiders ended up killing the Cowboys in the game last night. The Cowboys fans were being ridiculed all night long. We saw Pin Head, Darth Raider, the Wolfman, Skull-man Raider fan, and many more. The best shirt of the night was a black t-shirt that had Clark Kent ripping open his shirt to show a Raiders uniform. The game was good. Darren McFadden was awesome. The walk back and forth between the stadium and the hotel was interesting. One tip if you come to a game: buy your stuff (from the street vendors) after the game - the prices were down to $5 for everything. Owen and Dave bought even more stuff. Here are the last picture from the evenings.
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Even More Pictures from the Game

The game has started.
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More from the Game

Still warming up. A tons of Dallas fans are here, but the Raiders fans can drown out their cheers for the Cowboys. The game is almost ready to start. Just had Raider players introductions.
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At the Stadium

Just walked to our very nice seats for the Raiders game (thanks a ton Littlkins). I am posting pictures through email. I hope it works! If not, I will update when home.
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In Oakland

Currently at the Taco Bell across the street from the Oakland Coliseum. In Oakland for the Cowboys-Raiders preseason NFL football game. Staying at the Days Inn. Having a good time so far - more good times to come. We are going to an A's game tomorrow. This is the beginning of the mancation.
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Going To Oakland

I fly to Oakland today for day 1 of the Mancation! Me and a couple friends (and one of my friends sons) is going to the Raiders game tonight, touring San Francisco tomorrow and finally an Oakland A's game Friday night. We come home early on Saturday. I have to send a thanks to Littlkins who got us the Raiders tickets. I will be blogging from my phone as I am not going to take my computer for the trip.

Keyboard Cat

The cat loves to sit on the piano bench and listen to the kids play. Here is Jordan playing with the cat.

The kids have loved having a piano, they do their 30 minutes of practice and then they play around on the piano all day long. I hear it all hours of the day. Diana says that is how they are all day while I am at work too. I am happy they like the piano. They are getting pretty good.

Diana's Bruise

At Diana's Friday doctor appointment she had to get her blood drawn. She asked that they take it from her hands because she bruises easily and her arm veins are hard to draw from. The lady asked if she could try her arms and Diana said sure, but you aren't likely to get anything. The lady tried anyways and pushed through the vein or missed completely. The nurse then needed to move the needle around in Diana's arm to find the right spot. Diana winced as the nurse asks if everything is OK. The bruise has been getting worse and worse over the past few days, here is what it looks like today. Hope it gets better soon.

At The Doctor's

Went to the doctors with Diana and Jordan yesterday (Chloe went babysitting while we were gone). It was a long visit. There was a lot of pulling and pushing and Diana even got her blood drawn (you should see the bruise today). The office was right across from university hospital and you could see the helicopter pad from the window. I got a picture of the helicopter on the pad (see below), and I told Jordan if it takes off to let me know so I could get a picture from my blog. Then, I took the picture of Diana below, and the helicopter took off. Jordan tells me and I run over, but for some reason my Blackberry takes forever to reset after taking a picture. Anyways, at least I got the really good picture of Diana below.

Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince

Went and saw the new Harry Potter last night with the family. It was an OK movie. Could be one of the best of the Harry Potter series. As of now, I still think I like Order of The Phoenix as the best movie. The thing about me and Harry Potter movies is that I hate re-watching them. They are good the first time, but once they are on DVD and the kids want to watch them over and over I think they are horrible. I am sure this one will be like that as well as there was already parts of Half-Blood Prince that I did not like the first time.

I am sure you have read the book, but I still won't give away any spoilers, this movie is a lot about hormones and a very little about action. The book was about half and half (hormones to action). I feel like they cut out action to focus on the hormones and that is not what I want in my Harry Potter movies. The action and magic should trump all. The big ending is the same, but there are different people there and the way it happens is not like how it happens in the book. There are also some other big differences from how the book does things, but the main events are still all there.

Overall, it is a good movie, but not great. I sure hope the movie makers can make great movies for the final book (which they are splitting into two movie).

Our Piano

Yesterday, we got our piano. Diana has wanted a piano for a long time, but it was never in the cards. We had been looking around at different pianos and were starting to get pretty serious about getting one. While in San Diego I got an email from Diana about a piano her Dad had found. It was an OK piano. Diana called her Dad and he said that he would get it for us (as a Christmas present). We were pretty excited but did not tell the kids. The delivery guys came yesterday morning to drop it off and the kids have not been able to keep their fingers off of it. They play all kinds of music - some of the stuff from memory, some from their books and sometimes they just sit and play around on it. Diana loves having a real piano in the house and can't wait to have the kids get even better and be able to play anything. Below you can see pictures of the kids sitting at the piano playing.

The Most Disturbing Thing I Have Ever Seen

I was watching ESPN this morning and this commercial came on. I can not believe this is an actual product, and that this is the commercial they decided to use for it.

Coldstone

Tonight Diana had me take her to Roberts. That is a local arts and craft store for scrapbookers. Diana had some hard-earned money to spend. She has been scrapbooking like crazy lately and was out of some stuff. It just so happens that the Roberts is near a Coldstone. I decided that we could not get that close to a Coldstone without getting something so I asked my lovely wife what she would like me to get her. She said, "Whatever, you pick." That is where this story starts.

I walk into a pretty busy Coldstone and look at the wall to decide what I am getting Diana. I choose the Peanut Butter Perfection. Last time I got her German Chocolate Cake and she was not that impressed so I had to go with something different for her this time. The Peanut Butter Perfection will be the perfect choice for her. I will be all good this time.

But what for me? Isn't that always the question. I ask for my usual, the Cherry Cheesecake minus the cherries plus strawberries. The girl behind the counter looks at me and says, "Oh, you mean the Strawberry Cheesecake." I look back at her and say, "I didn't see Strawberry Cheesecake on the menu." She gives me a weird look and turns around to make my shake.

Maybe it is just me, but I find that funny.

Oh, and the shake was delicious.

At Lagoon

The kids and I went to Lagoon today. It was a good time. We hit Rattlesnake Rapids and then went to get Ice Cream. I got a Strawberry Shortcake cone and Chloe got a Brownie Fudge cone. Jordan did not want anything so we just stopped at Arby's to get him a drink. Next we headed over to the Scrambler, Boomerang, and Paratrooper. We had a super good time. I let the kids do Go-Carts today, which they have wanted to do for a long time. They really, really liked it. They wanted to go again.

We then did the Tilt-A-Whirl, Jet Star 2 and the Bat (one of the worst rides ever). We then went for dinner. I had chicken strips, Chloe and Jordan had pizza. We then went on more rides, and the details get a little fuzzy here. I know we saw the Turn of the Century, Sky Ride and the Jumping Dragon (not worth hype for sure).

The kids ended up going on the Go-Carts again - but this time Chloe paid. I was not going to pay if the I am taking the kids to Harry Potter and Seven Peaks this week. I thought my July was crazy, but Diana and I went over the August calendar and it is just as crazy.

Here is the beginning of a wild month.

Sew What?

One of my many talents that I don't make a big deal about is my sewing skills. Well, that is not exactly true. I do not have much skills in the area of sewing, but I will try anything. Chloe got a small tear right on the seam of her swimming suit and we are going to Seven Peaks this weekend. Someone had to try to fix it (there is no way I am buying a suit for a couple more weeks of summer). I pulled out the needle and thread and a couple minutes later I had a fixed swimming suit. I hope it stays closed for the weekend. You all probably think I am a little cooler now, don't you?

Final Views of the Week

There really are some spectacular views of the ocean from the Hilton. It is a really good hotel. Saturday morning I sat in my room talking to Diana looking at these views. I am excited to come back to the Hilton for next year. Saturday was a big day in the ocean for all kinds of boats and other watercraft on the ocean.

I Am Home

I made it home around 7PM on Saturday. We got Five Guys for dinner and went home to eat. The kids told me all about their adventures from the past week. I told them more about my adventures at Catalyst and I explained most of the quotes to Diana. We had a good evening. The kids went to bed and Diana and I stayed up to watch the final disc of Big Love season 2. It was pretty good. I enjoyed the show and we will add season 3 to our Netflix queue. Once the disc was over Diana and I went to bed.

Saturday Morning Breakfast

During the families March visit to the Hilton, Diana saw a super-yummy sounding french toast. Even thought Diana swears it was a strawberry something-or-other I clearly remember the Banana Nut French Toast. It looks great. It tasted pretty good, not great, but I am not much of a nut person. There was also a chocolate drizzle on the french toast. Overall, it was a quality breakfast. If you head to the Hilton Bayfront I highly recommend it for you.

The Padres Game

I went to the Padres game last night. It was a good game. The Padres gave up 7 runs in the 2nd inning, but came back to win 11-7. I also had a guy fall on me, so that was exciting. No, not a baseball player, a somewhat drunk old guy trying to climb over the seats. Needless to say, it was interesting. I enjoyed the game. The Padres did a tribute to Trevor Hoffman (their old closer and current Brewer). Overall, the game was good, the food was standard baseball fare. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I can't think of a better way to finish off the Catalyst week. They also had fireworks after the game as a surprise treat for me. Here is my view of the field, as yes, that is the Hilton in the background.

The Carpets

The Carpets here at the Hilton are pretty nice. I just have one complaint. I have scuffed my toe more this week then I have my entire life. I swear. The carpet just kind of jumps up and grabs your toes and then you do that half-run, half-stumble to regain your balance. It is crazy. I was not the only one with this problem. I saw many other people with the same problem. I don't know if this had anything to do with the actual carpet or because the hotel is so new. I will have to remember this and report back next year.

Today's View

I talked to Diana from my room yesterday. I opened the curtains and just looked out while we chatted about the cat, scrapbooking, the kids, and a bunch of other stuff. It was a good time. From this view you can see Coronado, the Coronado bridge and out into the Pacific Ocean. It was a cloudy day yesterday so the view was not as blue and clear as it has been the rest of the week. Here is the view I described to Diana: