Halloween and stuff

Last Saturday our friend Dave took me to his company's Halloween party. He works for Industrial Light and Magic, a division of Lucas Arts. Needless to say it was a pretty elaborate costume party. And yes, I got to see George Lucas himself. But no, I didn't pitch him any of my brilliant movie ideas...


My airline pilot costume didn't quite measure up to some of the others at the party


Like this couple


Or the 'Tetris' people


Or Wall-E himself


And here were the winners of the costume contest - the circus freak show collection (click to enlarge)


On Sunday we celebrated a great weather weekend with our friends the Senns and their rooftop BBQ


BBQ, beer and Halloween candy - can't be beat


Marty displaying his grilling skills


Blair taking notes


And lastly, another good fog shot taken from our balcony earlier this week. I don't think this will ever get old...

Let's go kayaking

Last Sunday I surprised Kate with a half-day kayak trip on the Russian River. The trip was with Russian River Outfitters in Duncan's Mills, CA - about 2 hrs north of the city. It was a great time, and something that we'd both been wanting to try since we moved out here.




The mouth of the Russian River, opening to the Pacific Ocean


Overlooking the river before starting our trip


A deer up on the ridge, checking us out






Sea birds




Taking a break to walk around the shore






Seals taking it easy




Kate making friends down the river


***note the horns properly pointed down


Claiming victory over the river


Duncan's Mills, CA - Population 85, Elevation 26 ft

Texas Trip

Kate and I went to Texas last weekend for a quick vacation. Kate stayed in Dallas with her good friend Lauren Wambold, while I headed down to College Station with Keith and Jared, to watch the Aggies.
(I had the camera, so no pics of Kate and Lauren. Sorry!)


Dinner with Keith before heading down to College Station


The bar was raffling off sports collectibles - of course I had to try it on for size


Hwy 6


Stopped for some Whataburger outside of Waco - I think Sarah Palin was behind us


The pre-game tailgate out of the trunk of the rental car - sad, I know...


Heading into Kyle Field


The opposition - the K-State Wildcats




The final moments of a long, long game - Ags lose 44-30


It's a rebuilding year...again


The post-game tailgate - in the bed of a university truck


The Dry Bean Saloon


The Chicken


Needless to say, the political views in Aggieland are a bit different than out here in SF


Goodnight Aggieland

What we've been up to...

So we've been bad about updating this thing over the last couple weeks. Sorry. I know you've all been on the edge of your seats, wondering what we've been up to. So here are just a few pictures of just that...

Kate's company held a wine tasting event in Sonoma






Sadly we didn't win the competition, but we had plenty of wine


The next day we went to Sebastopol, where Kate got to visit a farmer's market. Shocking, I know...


Then we hit a couple wineries before heading home


I attempted my own harvest




Back in the city last weekend, we tried a new restaurant - Eos - in our neighborhood


Kate admiring bus stop advertising


On Saturday we went to the Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park






Despite early fog and threats of rain, it turned out to be a bright, sunshiny day


Kate taking a nap in the sun


The highlight for me was seeing Jerry Jeff Walker - bringing back memories of the college days back in Texas






And sadly, even in Golden Gate Park I couldn't escape the latest in a long line of historic collapses by the Cubbies. Oh well, there's always next year...